BigBox Random Game Selector

[Grila]

BigBox Random Game Selector

View File

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This plugin will allow you to select a random game from your platforms/playlists/entire library in BigBox. It was written mainly for the platform views, but it does work in game views as well with a small caveat that will hopefully be fixed soon. Since this plugin utilizes a custom menu, you cannot just drop it in the LaunchBox\Plugins folder. There are additional steps that must be taken that involve editing your theme files, all outlined with step-by-step pictures, in the documentation.

Please, READ THE DOC before you post that it doesn't work (because I have thoroughly tested it and it does).

In the download I have included a sample theme which has the plugin implemented in the PlatformWheel1 view as well as some individual xaml files in another directory that have the plugin implemented. Please look at these files if you are having trouble adding this to the theme you use, it will help you see what needs to go where. There's only two things that need added to make this work, so it's not difficult.

Usage

After following the install instructions, start up BigBox. Once you are in the view(s) you configured the plugin for:

• hold right to bring up the random game selector for the currently selected platform/playlist
• hold left to bring up the random game selector for your entire library
• hold right to call the plugin (the menus have been combined)

Updates

From this point moving forward (June 28th, 2018) updates will only be posted on GitHub. It's way easier than zipping the project up, uploading it to this site, editing the description/change-log, etc. You can find the most current release at https://github.com/G-rila/BigBoxRGS/releases.

Thanks to all in the thread (https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/43251-bigbox-select-random-game-feature-fixed-by-wheel-spin/) who suggested this. Hopefully the changes implemented in this version will make it a bit more user friendly.

A very special thanks to @MayorQwert for being the guinea pig on this plugin.

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• Submitter
  Grila
• Submitted
  05/23/2018
• Category
  Third-party Apps and Plugins

 

[musera]

This is awesome and exactly what I was looking for. Had to do a couple of minor edits in the source code to edit the main menu, I wanted the two options to swap positions and I ended up adding a third option which instantly chose a random game from the current collection without needing to select an option.

 

Thanks a lot for making this. You've made my next games night with mates much better. Cheers

[mlsaunders1985]

Just wanted to say, I've been using this for a while, and it's great! It's pretty much exactly what I've been looking for (can't believe there's still no 'random game' function already in Big Box). Just wondered if there was any way I could customise the plugin, to allow me to just go straight to the game details page when holding right (skipping both the 'play mode selection' and the 'play/choose another' screens). Or if not, perhaps instead of the box art, could the game video be displayed when deciding whether to 'play this game or choose another'? Thanks again for your great work on this!

[Grila]

On 7/27/2018 at 5:42 AM, mlsaunders1985 said:

Just wanted to say, I've been using this for a while, and it's great! It's pretty much exactly what I've been looking for (can't believe there's still no 'random game' function already in Big Box). Just wondered if there was any way I could customise the plugin, to allow me to just go straight to the game details page when holding right (skipping both the 'play mode selection' and the 'play/choose another' screens). Or if not, perhaps instead of the box art, could the game video be displayed when deciding whether to 'play this game or choose another'? Thanks again for your great work on this!

The source is available on GitHub...customize it however you would like.

[zorkiii]

I have a question that I couldn't seem to find an answer for. Is this possible using the Default theme? For some reason when I edit the View and add the necessary edits and save, then launch BigBox, it clears the edits and reverts to its original state. Not quite sure if it's my settings, or just the fact that it isn't possible with the default theme.

[Grila]

4 minutes ago, zorkiii said:

I have a question that I couldn't seem to find an answer for. Is this possible using the Default theme? For some reason when I edit the View and add the necessary edits and save, then launch BigBox, it clears the edits and reverts to its original state. Not quite sure if it's my settings, or just the fact that it isn't possible with the default theme.

You can't edit the default theme, it gets rewritten on each launch. You have to make a copy of it, rename it, and edit that one. Then, set that as your theme in BigBox. 

[Grila]

Also, be sure to grab the newest version off GitHub. 

[chinagreenelvis]

Does anyone know how to properly add this to a theme made in the Community Theme Editor?

Edit: Nevermind, of course the moment right after I post this I got it working.

For anyone interested, change the grid code to:

<Grid x:Name="RGSGrid" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top"   Width="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualWidth}" Height="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualHeight}" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" Panel.ZIndex="1000"  >
	<bbrgs:RGSv2_0 HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" ShowGameDetails="False" ShowGameNotes="False" CheckForUpdates="True"/>
</Grid>

Make sure the Z-Index is higher than any others.

Edited March 23, 2022 by chinagreenelvis

[Zkyo]

@Grila Could I possibly get some advice on how to modify this plugin? I'd just like to change the key used to activate the plugin to anything other than a direction, because I use all 4 directions in other menus. Preferably a xbox controller button, but that's probably not that simple. I can use Steam to rebind a controller button to a key.

The problem is that I have virtually no experience with coding. I cloned the repo and imported it into Visual Studio, and I think I can do what I'd like by changing a couple lines in RGSv2_0.xaml.cs. Swapping "public bool OnRight()" and "public bool OnPageDown()". I'm not sure how to rebuild the plugin from that point. If I try to build a solution, it fails with 14 errors about missing namespace names.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Zkyo

[Grila]

2 hours ago, Zkyo said:

@Grila Could I possibly get some advice on how to modify this plugin? I'd just like to change the key used to activate the plugin to anything other than a direction, because I use all 4 directions in other menus. Preferably a xbox controller button, but that's probably not that simple. I can use Steam to rebind a controller button to a key.

The problem is that I have virtually no experience with coding. I cloned the repo and imported it into Visual Studio, and I think I can do what I'd like by changing a couple lines in RGSv2_0.xaml.cs. Swapping "public bool OnRight()" and "public bool OnPageDown()". I'm not sure how to rebuild the plugin from that point. If I try to build a solution, it fails with 14 errors about missing namespace names.

I could never get it to work with a custom button press, that's why I had to resort to what was available in the plugin API. Here's the API page:

http://pluginapi.launchbox-app.com/html/921cbe56-8200-e3cf-b8f4-2af213ae728a.htm

I always wanted to be able to tie this to a custom, user select-able button or key but no options were ever added to the API to allow that as far as I can remember. This was also quite some time ago, so maybe things have changed since then? Sorry I can't help you out any further!

[dasd]

Trying to get this to build locally and only seeing this:

 

I have pointed the solution at the proper LB folder but it doesnt seem to know what InitizalizeComponent() is.  I'm assuming this reference comes from the Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins.dll  in the Core folder, right?