random gameplay Random gameplay videos on Big Box Platform section

[1stKaiser]

Is there a way I can make Big Box play random gameplay videos for all of my platforms when navigating the platform section? Steam is the only Platform that plays trailers/gameplay videos randomly. I haven't been able to figure out how to do it & am thinking I overlooked something. I'm currently using Miminal-AO 4.4 on Launchbox 8.1 & tried all Platform views. Thanks to those who offer to help, resolution or not.

[1stKaiser]

This is for anyone who wants to have random gameplay videos for their Big Box setup. The problem I had was a populated Video Path on my platforms. My Steam platform didn't have a video path specified like all my other platforms did. That's why random videos on Steam worked. I tried deleting the Video path for other platforms directly via Launchbox application settings. I found that can't simply delete it. It will just reappear. So I followed the steps below to achieve my results:

1.) In Launchbox, go to Tools > Manage Platforms. Select a platform you want random gameplay videos for & choose "Edit". If your video path is populated, you'll need to remove it.

2.) To begin removal, navigate to your Launchbox folder on your Windows Explorer. Select Videos > Platforms. Delete the video for the platform(s) you want random videos on Big Box for. This is to ensure Launchbox won't re-populate the Video path after doing step 3.

3.) Go back to the Launchbox application & choose Tools >  Manage Platforms again. Select the platform you want random videos for, delete it (unfortunately), & add it again.

4.) Go through the metadata process for that platform to add your games again.

5.) Go to the Big Box menu & select Options > Videos. Make sure "Use Random Game Videos for Missing Platform Videos" is checked (I noticed other people couldn't get that option to work. I believe they had the same problem as I did).

Random videos should now be playable on your preferred platforms following this method. If the devs or anyone else have a much faster way (e.g. XML settings) to accomplish the above, feel free to add it. c:

[neil9000]

Just go to the Launchbox/Videos folder and delete the Platforms folder, then in bigbox go to Options/Videos and check the box to play random videos if no platform video is found.

[1stKaiser]

Thanks for your input. I tested that method you suggested the other day & the video path field in the Launchbox application was still populated. It was only after 1.) deleting the platform video & 2.) deleting & re-adding the platform in Launchbox did the video path field clear finally. In my case, I deleted specific files instead of the entire platform folder because I wanted certain platforms to play a specific video instead of random ones.

[rockohoward]

Is there a way to make it go to the next random video instead of repeating the current video once a video ends?

[Retro808]

7 hours ago, rockohoward said:

Is there a way to make it go to the next random video instead of repeating the current video once a video ends?

Not at this time. 

[rockohoward]

Is there a way to make this work for playlists as well?

[Jeepnheel]

On 9/24/2019 at 6:32 AM, Retro808 said:

Not at this time. 

Thanks for the confirmation.   I have really enjoyed populating lots of retro commercials for each platform, and having a random one play, but would LOVE if there was a way to avoid it looping over & over.  I've thought about generating new m3u/playlists on startup, but that really cuts down the "random" nature and range of choices each boot.  Any notion if a no-repeat option is being considered?

[Retro808]

6 minutes ago, Jeepnheel said:

 Any notion if a no-repeat option is being considered?

I do not believe that has ever been brought up so I am going to say no there has not been a notion for this. 

[rockohoward]

On 12/28/2019 at 8:04 AM, Retro808 said:

I do not believe that has ever been brought up so I am going to say no there has not been a notion for this. 

Yeah it would be nice if it moved onto another random video instead of looping. I'm also curious why the random video option only works for platforms but not any other category like playlists, genres, etc.

[Melatonin]

bump, +1 for the no-repeat option, maybe even go so far as an auto-'advance to next' every x seconds.

Something like my 'Recently Played' category would really benefit from the variety.

[KRI$85]

Is there a way to get Platform Category because I can't decide which video to choose hehe ??