Dont understand how the custom background images work

[marmono]

I have been trying to change the background image of my game select screen but it doesnt ever show up. (Not the platform select screen, the one that displays all my games after I have chosen a platform in bigbox) at first it was the clear logos and they looked blown up and crappy, so i found the background settings in launchbox and unchecked clear logos and everything else so now its just black. I also changed the path under use custom image to the image i wanted but it doesnt show up, after i launch into bigbox. In the bigbox settings options i dont see anything about custom images, and have everything unchecked currently but have tried every option to no avail. How do i change this?

[Zombeaver]

You have to choose a background image priority - the same screen where you disable clear logos for them is where you choose other options, like Fanart. You have to check an image type and then place an image in the appropriate folder. To use fanart as an example, if you want to use an image as the base background (non game-specific) you can put an image in Images -> Platforms -> [platform name] -> Fanart; specific game fanart can be placed in the appropriate fanart folder (Images -> [platform name] -> Fanart) and named after the game title (just like box art or anything else).

[marmono]

I see what you are saying, it pulls the image from the folder i check, it will pull the image of a specific game, if its named accordingly. So what if I just want a straight static image for everything? I would put the image in fan art, then check fan art? What do I name it so that it know I want to use that image only? In other words how does it know I want to use that particular image if all i have to do is tick fan art as priority?

[Zombeaver]

I use base fanart that I make for the different platforms, place them in Images -> Platforms -> [platform name] -> Fanart and then don't download any game-specific fanart - this makes it so that any games I select within a platform will always show that platform's fanart as the background, and nothing game-specific. If you have multiple images in the platform's fanart folder it will cycle between them randomly from one game to the next.

If you wanted to do a single image across all platforms, you could repeat this for multiple platforms just copying the image between their fanart folders. There might be an easier way to do that, I'm not sure. I don't use a single image across the board, just specific images for everything within a given platform.

[marmono]

Thats basically exactly what I want to do, just use a base image for each platform game select (just a different image for nes, sega, mame, etc.) I will try that when i get home and report back, thank you

[Zombeaver]

Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

You'll have to delete any existing game fanart if you have them though, otherwise they'll override your base image. I found most of the fanart for games to be pretty questionable at best, which is why I went this route in the first place.

[marmono]

Awesome, Thank you! its working now. It was not working before because I was dropping the images in the wrong fan art folder, was able to figure out the issue b/c you posted the full path.