RetroHumanoid Cinematics & Refried Theme

[angelobodetti]

I am using the individual addon themes it seems as though where I use nested playlists - i will need to change the theme for every single one. Is that correct? so NES for example, i use the addon theme and the view with the static image - but for nes favorites and each genre i need to set that exact theme and view - it won't look at what the view for "all games" is. Is there a way to default the playlist view to the view of the "all games"?

[ed20910]

8 minutes ago, angelobodetti said:

I am using the individual addon themes it seems as though where I use nested playlists - i will need to change the theme for every single one. Is that correct? so NES for example, i use the addon theme and the view with the static image - but for nes favorites and each genre i need to set that exact theme and view - it won't look at what the view for "all games" is. Is there a way to default the playlist view to the view of the "all games"?

If you are using the platform category view and wanting to use the individual add ons, yeah, you literally have to go into each playlist and change the theme.  Unless someone knows of a different way.  I noticed when you try to change the theme anywhere but inside the playlist, it wants to change the global theme.  i dont think its an issue with RH's theme, i think it is how BB is displaying the nested playlists and how the theme is applied, but what do i know.  

[Jason Carr]

9 hours ago, RetroHumanoid said:

Alright...I figured out the issue,and tested Redux to have the same exact problem...so it isn't the theme. @Jason Carr I will tag you ,as I am sure you would like to hear about the issue as well,so maybe there is a fix of some kind.

This pertains to the "KnownPlatformorPlaylistTitle" command recently added.

If your Arcade Platform List looks like this:

 

Then everything works fine with the command...but,if your setup looks like this...

 

Then it does not display the designated artwork for the ones underlined in red,instead it shows the artwork from the root parent,which is "Arcade". Although it does display the artwork correctly for green,and possibly blue,but that wasn't verified.

When I change to "FilterTitle" it works perfectly across all Arcade Platforms/Playlists no matter how nested they are...but,it also borks up the rest of the systems in the theme (Consoles,Handhelds,etc)

I know this was tested before release,and I said it was good..but,I just started to deal with nested categories after someone mentioned an issue yesterday,and then after a day of tinkering,found this to be the issue. When I made changes that fixed it for them,it broke it for me...and vice versa...turns out,it's because we use different menu systems in our setup.
 

I believe this is because the KnownPlatformOrPlaylistTitle property is returning the full name instead of the nested name in that case. We could get around it immediately by just making sure that there are files named "Arcade Midway Classics" instead of or in addition to "Midway Classics". I can probably tweak the property though for future versions to make up for this regardless. Thanks Retro.

[RetroHumanoid]

6 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

I believe this is because the KnownPlatformOrPlaylistTitle property is returning the full name instead of the nested name in that case. We could get around it immediately by just making sure that there are files named "Arcade Midway Classics" instead of or in addition to "Midway Classics". I can probably tweak the property though for future versions to make up for this regardless. Thanks Retro.

Unfortunately I can verify this is not the problem...

Take "Beat Em Ups" for example... I have it under Arcade>Genres>Beat Em Ups>GamesView

I have tried naming the VideoBorder 

Arcade Beat Em Ups

Arcade Genres Beat Em Ups

Arcade Genres Arcade Beat Em Ups

Genres Beat Em Ups

Genres Arcade Beat Em Ups

And none of them showed the correct VideoBorder...it always shows the Arcade VideoBorder from the Parent

[Jason Carr]

38 minutes ago, RetroHumanoid said:

Unfortunately I can verify this is not the problem...

Take "Beat Em Ups" for example... I have it under Arcade>Genres>Beat Em Ups>GamesView

I have tried naming the VideoBorder 

Arcade Beat Em Ups

Arcade Genres Beat Em Ups

Arcade Genres Arcade Beat Em Ups

Genres Beat Em Ups

Genres Arcade Beat Em Ups

And none of them showed the correct VideoBorder...it always shows the Arcade VideoBorder from the Parent

Okay, I will test.

[angelobodetti]

@RetroHumanoid Your "Favorites" theme does the same thing. If I set that as the theme for favorites under NES for example no matter what the name or nested name is, you wont get the proper theme, just default box.

@Jason Carr But if i create a Nintendo Entertainment System Favorites playlist myself (not using the right click to auto generate feature - then this does work. So even though it is the exact same name, the theme only works if you create it manually. It's like the auto create have their own nomenclature somewhere not visible to theme.

Edited November 29, 2018 by angelobodetti

[Jason Carr]

Alright, so I am able to fix that property to solve the first problem above, where the deeply nested arcade playlists aren't showing the custom resources. Howevever, it's not so easy to fix what I think @angelobodetti is saying.

@RetroHumanoid What the KnownPlatformOrPlaylistTitle property does currently is this:

1. If you're on one of the known arcade playlists, it will return the nested name of the playlist
2. Otherwise, it will look for the parent platform and return the parent platform name and NOT the current playlist name

The issue here is supporting both the old and the new, as we don't want blank screens to show up if there's nothing available for a particular playlist. Ideally, we'd want to allow some of this logic to happen in the XAML or at least in the theme, so that it can check if the file exists and then revert it to something else if not (since Big Box is not currently aware of the theme-specific images and structure in the Unified themes). The issue is, though, I really don't know if there's any good way to do that functionality. I suppose a plugin would work for that if nothing else. Maybe @CriticalCid has an idea on this though.

But if you're creating console-specific playlist screens (such as NES favorites), it won't currently work with that KnownPlatformOrPlaylistTitle property, as it will just always return straight NES. The FilterTitle property that we were using before has not been changed, though; that will still always return the full name of whatever you're on. The issue with using that in the Unified themes is that if anything doesn't exist (such as an NES developer playlist, for example), everything will just be blank or it will revert to the main default instead of showing the defaults for the current console.

Basically, we're mainly just hitting the limits of the original image structure used by the Unified themes.

[Jason Carr]

Come to think of it, a plugin is probably the best solution we're going to find, and wouldn't really be very hard to build. I'm neck-deep in startup screen development for the moment, but I'll look to tackle that some time next week.

[RetroHumanoid]

I may be on to something though @Jason Carr

Check this out...

This is with art assets named "Arcade Beat Em Ups" in the folders...

 

I should also note,that Platform/Contains/Arcade shows the same results as the first pic (ie; incorrect artwork) ...It was only when I switched the first option to "Genre" instead of "Platform" that it worked...of course adding "Contains" as well.

Edited November 29, 2018 by RetroHumanoid

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, RetroHumanoid said:

I may be on to something though @Jason Carr

Check this out...

This is with art assets named "Arcade Beat Em Ups" in the folders...

 

Interesting. If you change the above, though, it's likely to change the games that are listed in the playlist. It also won't solve the other issue with all non-arcade playlists.

[RetroHumanoid]

14 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Interesting. If you change the above, though, it's likely to change the games that are listed in the playlist. It also won't solve the other issue with all non-arcade playlists.

It does not change the games in the playlist...checked a few genres and they all are accurate after the change (amount of games is exactly the same)

Also,I just figured out the Favorites issue @angelobodetti was having,which is the only other issue with this as of now...It was a naming issue. I changed the VideoBorder name in my favorites theme from "Nintendo Entertainment System Favorites" to "Nintendo Entertainment System" dropping the favorites tag,and it works fine...so I will have to rename all my art and re-release the Favorites theme

[Jason Carr]

34 minutes ago, RetroHumanoid said:

It does not change the games in the playlist...checked a few genres and they all are accurate after the change (amount of games is exactly the same)

What I don't understand is how the Genre field would ever have "Arcade" in it. Do the genres on your games include the word "Arcade"? I feel like I'm really missing something here because none of this is making sense to me lol.

36 minutes ago, RetroHumanoid said:

Also,I just figured out the Favorites issue @angelobodetti was having,which is the only other issue with this as of now...It was a naming issue. I changed the VideoBorder name in my favorites theme from "Nintendo Entertainment System Favorites" to "Nintendo Entertainment System" dropping the favorites tag,and it works fine...so I will have to rename all my art and re-release the Favorites theme

I'm not fully following here either, but wouldn't changing the favorites theme from "Nintendo Entertainment System Favorites" to "Nintendo Entertainment System" cause it to display the favorites theme for straight up NES?

[CDBlue]

Quick question to @RetroHumanoid about your refried theme.  Not sure if this is a bug with the theme or with BB, as I haven't tested this with other similar themes (Unified Redux etc), but I noticed if I use the Text List With Details view, and then click the game to get to the Game Details page, the theme looks correct (keeps the theme look/feel - ie. wii look, widescreen video, artwork, etc.).  However, if I'm using any of the other views for the game screen (wheel 2, 3, etc.), and click the button to get to the game details screen, it seems to switch back to the default looks/feel of the default theme instead of the addon theme I'm using for that platform.

Here's an example of what I mean for the Wii U platform.  I've got the main theme set to Unified Refried, and the Wii U platform set to use the theme Unified Refried - Nintendo Wii U.  I've got the game view set to wheel 2.

Game view:

Click to get to the game detail view:

Anyway, thought I'd bring it to you guy's attention in case it's something that's fixable at some point in the future

Edited November 29, 2018 by CDBlue

[RetroHumanoid]

16 minutes ago, CDBlue said:

Quick question to @RetroHumanoid about your refried theme.  Not sure if this is a bug with the theme or with BB, as I haven't tested this with other similar themes (Unified Redux etc), but I noticed if I use the Text List With Details view, and then click the game to get to the Game Details page, the theme looks correct (keeps the theme look/feel - ie. wii look, widescreen video, artwork, etc.).  However, if I'm using any of the other views for the game screen (wheel 2, 3, etc.), and click the button to get to the game details screen, it seems to switch back to the default looks/feel of the default theme instead of the addon theme I'm using for that platform.

Here's an example of what I mean for the Wii U platform.  I've got the main theme set to Unified Refried, and the Wii U platform set to use the theme Unified Refried - Nintendo Wii U.  I've got the game view set to wheel 2.

Game view:

Click to get to the game detail view:

Anyway, thought I'd bring it to you guy's attention in case it's something that's fixable at some point in the future

This is a limitation of the TextGamesView...nothing can be changed as of now...and it is actually working as it should be

[CDBlue]

Oh, well that's unfortunate. I guess I could just stick with either the text with details view or just turn off game details until I get to a game that I want to use the launch with options etc. that the game details view provides.  Thx for letting me know though.

[RetroHumanoid]

25 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

What I don't understand is how the Genre field would ever have "Arcade" in it. Do the genres on your games include the word "Arcade"? I feel like I'm really missing something here because none of this is making sense to me lol.

I have updated all metadata yesterday...My genres are the same as yours I promise you,lol. I am using an auto generated Beat Em Ups playlist as well. I am just showing what worked...I have no clue how either,but,it does...I am doing it to all of the Genre lists atm and they are all working.

The problem though,is that I also have a Classics sub-menu,which houses all of my Arcade Classics playlists....and nothing seems to fix those

31 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

I'm not fully following here either, but wouldn't changing the favorites theme from "Nintendo Entertainment System Favorites" to "Nintendo Entertainment System" cause it to display the favorites theme for straight up NES?

My NES theme,and Favorites Themes are 2 separate themes....so while you would use the NES theme on the Games Wheel...you could use the NES Favorites theme on the Favorites playlist. They call to different assets,in different folders...so any changes I make in the Favorites theme,don't effect the NES Addon theme

[ed20910]

34 minutes ago, CDBlue said:

Oh, well that's unfortunate. I guess I could just stick with either the text with details view or just turn off game details until I get to a game that I want to use the launch with options etc. that the game details view provides.  Thx for letting me know though.

Your could turn off the game details and set a keyboard or controller key in the BB options to go to the game details screen. I recently went this route, no longer have to click play twice to start a game and I still have access to the game details and launch with if I need them.

[Jason Carr]

19 minutes ago, RetroHumanoid said:

I have updated all metadata yesterday...My genres are the same as yours I promise you,lol. I am using an auto generated Beat Em Ups playlist as well. I am just showing what worked...I have no clue how either,but,it does...I am doing it to all of the Genre lists atm and they are all working.

The problem though,is that I also have a Classics sub-menu,which houses all of my Arcade Classics playlists....and nothing seems to fix those

My NES theme,and Favorites Themes are 2 separate themes....so while you would use the NES theme on the Games Wheel...you could use the NES Favorites theme on the Favorites playlist. They call to different assets,in different folders...so any changes I make in the Favorites theme,don't effect the NES Addon theme

I see; that makes sense per the separate themes. The issue we have right now though is that if you wanted to do it all in the same theme, you'd have no way to do it. And I guess you're seeing something similar with the arcade classics. I still don't understand what's going on with the genre thing, but meh, doesn't much matter since I'm gonna have to figure something else out anyways.

[ed20910]

Kind of off the subject but maybe not, @Jason Carr Is there a way to enable an additional place to theme change in the platform category view? Right now you can enable only a default global theme from the main category all the way to the spot where you enter the nested playlist and view the actual games in the list. Once in the list we can choose an add-on theme or even a different theme, but would have to do it for every platform and playlist.

[djsupermariooo]

First off, amazing work Retro! Really enjoying this theme, thank you so much for putting in the time and hard work to make this!

Quick question though, I have BB view set to Platform Categories and my categories so far consist of Arcade, Collections, Computers, Console, and Handhelds (using your neon platform category videos!). For the Collections category, I am unable to find a background/video border for that category. I'm just wondering if that's something that is available, or if you might have a better suggestion on how to organize these categories to use resources that might already be in the theme. I'm planning on doing Genre, Year, or Developer categories within each platform so I'm also wondering about backgrounds/video borders in that scenario as well.