How can I properly display Marquee images on custom cut LCD screen?

[TVsIan13]

When marquee functionality does get expanded, a couple of things I'd really like to see would be allowing other categories as Marquees (like some of the other image types already have - so you could select banner, clear logo, Steam banner, etc as alternates if there's no marquee), the ability to pick a target size or aspect ratio and auto-select the best image among them (some games like Neo Geo have both a small vertical marquee and a horizontal marquee, and it would be nice to make sure it picks the right one without deleting the vertical ones), and auto-swapping for the current platform/playlist marquee or banner image if nothing is found.

[NightShadowPT]

Hi,

I've just bought and installed a Marquee on my Tabletop arcade, but BigBox does not seem to be doing anything with it.

I followed ETA Prime video instructions (it's not exactly rocket science anyway):

- Go to OPTIONS -> GENERAL

- Change Marquee Screen to "Screen 2"

After doing this, nothing happens on my second screen (in ETA's video, the screen went immediately Black after he selected the second screen as a Marquee Screen), meaning, I can still see the wallpaper I have in Windows.

I go back to the menus and browse my arcade game... Nothing... absolutely nothing. My background is still on screen.

 

To help troubleshoot, here are some details:

Operating System: Windows 10

Screen #1: 19" LCD Screen (1280x1024)

Sreen #2: 19" LCD Screen (1920x360)

Launchbox ver: 10.14

Second screen is working perfectly, I can set it up on Windows and change it's wallpaper without any issues. Screen is identified as Screen 2.

 

Does anyone have any idea of what's happening?

Thanks

[Retro808]

31 minutes ago, NightShadowPT said:

Does anyone have any idea of what's happening?

Thanks

Typically that is all you need to do. All BigBox themes will support marquee images as themes do not require a specific marquee view xaml. If you do not have any marquee images in the Arcade - Marquee image folders BB will display images based on your Box - Front image priorities you have set in LaunchBox.

Try swapping screens 1 and 2 with each other in BigBox and see if anything changes.

Do you have the second screen set up in Windows to Extend or Duplicate screen 1.

[Mr. RetroLust]

Please be sure that both of your monitors are set to the same dpi settings as well, that did the trick for me.

[NightShadowPT]

59 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

Try swapping screens 1 and 2 with each other in BigBox and see if anything changes.

Do you have the second screen set up in Windows to Extend or Duplicate screen 1.

My second screen is set as "Extend" not Duplicate.

Tried swaping Screen 1 with Screen 2, and nothing changed... images remained exactly on the same places they were. Its almost like Launchbox is not detecting the second screen properly.

 

55 minutes ago, Mr. RetroLust said:

Please be sure that both of your monitors are set to the same dpi settings as well, that did the trick for me.

I am not entirely sure I know how to do that in Windows 10.

I tried going to "Scale and Layout" and configured a factor of 100 for both screens.

If this is what you meant, unfortunately didn't help.

Edited May 13, 2020 by NightShadowPT

[NightShadowPT]

1 hour ago, Mr. RetroLust said:

Yeah dpi scaling to the same percentage, weird it doesn't work for you. What resolutions are the monitors at? me.

Screen #1: 19" LCD Screen (1280x1024)

Sreen #2: 19" LCD Screen (1920x360)

Photo below (it's a bit messy because the LCD is not in the right place yet)

Please note that the image you see on the Top screen is not a BigBox Marquee, it's a windows Wallpaper.

[Retro808]

5 hours ago, NightShadowPT said:

Screen #1: 19" LCD Screen (1280x1024)

Sreen #2: 19" LCD Screen (1920x360)

Photo below (it's a bit messy because the LCD is not in the right place yet)

Please note that the image you see on the Top screen is not a BigBox Marquee, it's a windows Wallpaper.

You may need to adjust a marque xaml. Can you drop this xaml in the theme's view folder. If it work the image may not be perfect, but it is just to test.

So whatever theme you are using go to that theme's folder \Launchbox\Themes\[Theme Name]\Views and drop this in there.

Note: if in that folder there is already a file by this name remove it and save it somewhere safe. That way you can put if back if this does not help.

 

[NightShadowPT]

5 hours ago, Retro808 said:

You may need to adjust a marque xaml. Can you drop this xaml in the theme's view folder. If it work the image may not be perfect, but it is just to test.

So whatever theme you are using go to that theme's folder \Launchbox\Themes\[Theme Name]\Views and drop this in there.

Note: if in that folder there is already a file by this name remove it and save it somewhere safe. That way you can put if back if this does not help.

Hi,

Tried using the file you shared and now I get an error (attached).

I guess you were trying to test if the marquee was centered? (i.e. "off the screen")?

 

I'm not entirely sure if it will help troubleshoot, but the behavior seems to be different from the one in ETA Prime's video. In the video, as soon as he selects "Screeen 2" in the Marquee Screen option, the screen goes black, as if BigBox started sending an image to that screen.

In my case nothing happens, its as if I did not change the option at all.

I'll see if I can make a video. That may help.

[Retro808]

25 minutes ago, NightShadowPT said:

Hi,

Tried using the file you shared and now I get an error (attached).

I guess you were trying to test if the marquee was centered? (i.e. "off the screen")?

 

I'm not entirely sure if it will help troubleshoot, but the behavior seems to be different from the one in ETA Prime's video. In the video, as soon as he selects "Screeen 2" in the Marquee Screen option, the screen goes black, as if BigBox started sending an image to that screen.

In my case nothing happens, its as if I did not change the option at all.

I'll see if I can make a video. That may help.

Yeah my bad, pasted the wrong file. The error was likely as the one uses a plugin to do a few things. You do not have the plugin so you got an error.

I was trying to see if the image was not on screen. Some of those LCD like you have still show as normal 1920x1080 in some programs even though Windows might see it as 1920x360 so modifying the xaml to put the image on the top 3rd of a 1080 is something needed. Even then yours should have at least shown part of the top of the image.

So when you changed Main screen to #2 and Marquee to #1 BigBox did not even show up on the #2 marquee LCD?

 

[NightShadowPT]

17 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

So when you changed Main screen to #2 and Marquee to #1 BigBox did not even show up on the #2 marquee LCD?

 

This is getting weirder.

So, I set the marquee screen to "None" and tried to change the primary screen to "Screen 2".

At first, nothing was happening, so, out of frustration I repeatedly pressed Enter (effectively switching between Screen 1 and Screen 2 options a few times) and one of the times I selected screen 2, the BigBox menu flashed for a milisecond on my second screen, and then got back to normal.

It was so quick I had to go back and shoot a video at 120 fps with my phone to be able to validate that it was really the BigBox menu that flashed.

It was almost as if BigBox changed the screen and got back immediately.

I seem to be able to reproduce it, but it is not consistent as sometimes I change it to Screen 2 and nothing happens (i.e. no flash).

I am also not sure if the other times where nothing seems to happen, it is because nothing really happens or if it is just too quick for my eyes.

(added a screenshot of the flash... it was on for just 1 frame in the video)

Edited May 13, 2020 by NightShadowPT

[NightShadowPT]

Ok... I seem to have found the issue.

As stated before, the screen resolution is 1920 x 360.

If I change the resolution to a "standard one" like 1600 x 900, BigBox starts displaying the Marquees.

The problem is that using this resolution makes things blurrier (because I'm using a non-native resolution and windows scaling sucks) and squishes my image, making all marquees a bit of a mess.

It seems obvious that BigBox needs a bugfix to accept 1920x360 resolution for the marquee. Where can I request this bugfix? (hopefully it will be easy to implement).

Additionally, and until (if) that bugfix comes, any proposals on how to fix/correct the image ratio on the screen?

Thanks in advance for all the support you're providing.

[TVsIan13]

That’s an odd LCD. Mine is the same resolution, but Windows detects it at 1920x1080 and only displays the top third, which is standard for those displays.

There shouldn’t be any scaling for it, I wonder if that display was meant for something else.

[Retro808]

1 hour ago, NightShadowPT said:

Ok... I seem to have found the issue.

As stated before, the screen resolution is 1920 x 360.

If I change the resolution to a "standard one" like 1600 x 900, BigBox starts displaying the Marquees.

The problem is that using this resolution makes things blurrier (because I'm using a non-native resolution and windows scaling sucks) and squishes my image, making all marquees a bit of a mess.

It seems obvious that BigBox needs a bugfix to accept 1920x360 resolution for the marquee. Where can I request this bugfix? (hopefully it will be easy to implement).

Additionally, and until (if) that bugfix comes, any proposals on how to fix/correct the image ratio on the screen?

Thanks in advance for all the support you're providing.

That's pretty odd as I have one of those screens with the same aspect and no issues. As mentioned in my prior post that resolution sometimes is still seen as 1920x1080 which is why I have modified the marquee xaml to get the images to look right. In this thread I think a couple others have a similar screen as well. Someone even had one with a 322 height and it had no issues displaying marquees.

[NightShadowPT]

1 hour ago, TVsIan13 said:

That’s an odd LCD. Mine is the same resolution, but Windows detects it at 1920x1080 and only displays the top third, which is standard for those displays.

There shouldn’t be any scaling for it, I wonder if that display was meant for something else.

In my case, Windows detects the screen as 1920x360 directly.

Other than BigBox, it seems to work well with windows (i can pass on the mouse as any regular second screen, I can drag windows to it, maximize windows, ect.).

And I'm assuming this is a BigBox bug because as soon as I changed the resolution, the behavior aligned immediately with what I was expecting (i.e.: as soon as you change the option, the screen becomes black), something that did not happen when using the 1920x360 resolution.

I'm guessing that your screens, despite having the same resolution as mine are announcing themselves to the OS as 1920x1080, thus BigBox does not have an issue with it because it is a standard resolution.

Now my challenge is that Windows it's doing its best (and failing miserably) to fit a 16:9 resolution into this 16:3 screen, and everything is distorted (i.e.: 1/3 of the height).

As always, any ideias how to address this new problem are more than welcome.

Cheers,

[Retro808]

6 hours ago, NightShadowPT said:

I'm guessing that your screens, despite having the same resolution as mine are announcing themselves to the OS as 1920x1080, thus BigBox does not have an issue with it because it is a standard resolution.

Now my challenge is that Windows it's doing its best (and failing miserably) to fit a 16:9 resolution into this 16:3 screen, and everything is distorted (i.e.: 1/3 of the height).

As always, any ideias how to address this new problem are more than welcome.

Cheers,

You are saying Windows is struggling to fit 16:9 resolution in 16:3 is that without you changing to 1600x900 like you said you tried?  Who manufactured the one you have?

When you click on display settings for your pc and choose that monitor and click on advance display settings what is it showing is the Active Resolution and the Refresh rate? Curious what that screen shows.

[NightShadowPT]

41 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

You are saying Windows is struggling to fit 16:9 resolution in 16:3 is that without you changing to 1600x900 like you said you tried?  Who manufactured the one you have?

When you click on display settings for your pc and choose that monitor and click on advance display settings what is it showing is the Active Resolution and the Refresh rate? Curious what that screen shows.

No, if I use the monitor's native resolution (1920x360) things show up normal,  without being "squished".

The Display settings are as follow:

If I'm using the native resolution:

• Desktop Resolution: 1920x360
• Active Signal Resolution: 1920x360
• Refresh Rate: 55Hz

When forcing 1600x900

• Desktop Resolution: 1600x900
• Active Signal Resolution: 1600x900
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz

The screen is usually used in advertisement. You can find it HERE.

Happy to provide any additional information or run some test if you like. Let me know.

 

I'm adding a photo that will give you the idea of the distortion. You will see 2 notepad windows open. They ARE THE SAME SIZE. But when I move one to the top monitor, that's how it looks like.

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by NightShadowPT

[Retro808]

It is likely that BigBox is taking issue with that 55Hz refresh rate. Change it to 60Hz.

[NightShadowPT]

16 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

It is likely that BigBox is taking issue with that 55Hz refresh rate. Change it to 60Hz.

Somehow I don't think I can...

Check out the picture below... There seems to be a mismatch between the refresh rate showed on the advanced display settings and what is available to select. (???)

[NightShadowPT]

Alright! The Marquee is fixed.

I just had to ignore the resolution, and brute force all Marquees to Stretch on the "GameMarqueeView.xaml" config file.

It's slightly less flexible because if the Marquee being shown is not close to the correct Ratio it will distort the image, but it will do for most of the files. For the other ones, I'll have to find another Marquee file.

Thank you all for your support. I'll leave you with a photo of the Marquee displaying properly.

 

[Retro808]

Glad you got it working. Yeah unfortunately that would be the nature of marquee images anyways as they are not all created to the same dimensions.