Bounty: BigBox full console-like theme

[alfredolvera]

Thanks, @Lordmonkus. I try to follow LB's development closely and I did vote on the last feature poll. I'm also very aware that this is mainly a one-man project and I try to keep my expectations realistic, when development time comes into consideration. I can only guess that nested categories were also a huge task to complete since I do know a little bit of database management, but as I said that wasn't a feature that I was looking forward to, but as the poll results showed there were lots of people that wanted it, so kudos to them and to Jason for being able to do this!!!

Again, this thread isn't a "OMG JASON YOU SUCKZ DEVELOP FASTER!111!!" one. It's just a reminder that there are people like me who would love more work on BB's grid view, and to offer any theme developer a little bounty if someone would like to tackle a theme like the one discussed.

Cheers!

[PlayingKarrde]

The launcher I made the theme for is still very much in alpha but even so it was clear to me it was exactly what I was looking for from a theme development point of view. It was written in a language that was already very familiar to me and has lots of resources for help, plus it's extremely powerful (I can pretty much do WHATEVER I want) and is still lightweight.

It's not ready for primetime yet though but it's getting there. LB is still a lot easier to set up and continue to keep adding to.

Anyway I didn't post the theme to try and cast shade on LB. I still think it's great - it just became a bit too heavy for my liking (and it's only on a single platform. Pegasus thankfully is is cross platform so my theme works on Windows, Mac, Linux, android (phone or a TV box like a Shield) or a Raspberry Pi. 

Regardless, once Pegasus is ready for showtime I do recommend checking it out. I think you'll like it and I'm trying to get them to add LB support so if you have a launchbox build already you should be able to check it out fairly hassle free.

[Lordmonkus]

18 minutes ago, alfredolvera said:

Again, this thread isn't a "OMG JASON YOU SUCKZ DEVELOP FASTER!111!!" one.

No one is taking it as such, i'm just offering up some explanations and reasons why it isn't top priority and other things have to be higher on the priority list.

19 minutes ago, alfredolvera said:

It's just a reminder that there are people like me who would love more work on BB's grid view, and to offer any theme developer a little bounty if someone would like to tackle a theme like the one discussed.

Both Grila and Critical Cid need some more development on the wall view to implement their visions of a wall view theme and it is something that will be looked at when time allows it.

20 minutes ago, alfredolvera said:

but as I said that wasn't a feature that I was looking forward to, but as the poll results showed there were lots of people that wanted it

There's lots of stuff on the poll I don't care about at all and there was stuff I really wanted to see implemented but got very few votes, oh well.

[alfredolvera]

6 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

There's lots of stuff on the poll I don't care about at all and there was stuff I really wanted to see implemented but got very few votes, oh well.

Democracy SUCKZ!!!11! We should be able to vote with $$$. LOL JK! ?

[alec100_94]

I agree with the above. BigBox doesn't feel like the premium product it should be, and I much prefer LaunchBox's desktop interface. I think steam big picture or Kodi are much nicer 10-foot interfaces, but LB provides much more than just launching games, in the way of other features (namely plugin's). So just circumventing LB completely doesn't feel right. Though I feel a command line interface for LaunchBox would be pretty cool, easy to implement, and partially circumvent this problem, and allow games to be launched through LB from some other frontend.

As for my venture into LB theme develop I kind of gave up. I got something that looked pretty decent, but a bunch of relatively minor things still stopped it from feeling really good, and it still very much felt like BigBox, with everything that goes with that.

I also found working with the XAML views absolutely horrendous and really unitive for editing (especially if you are aiming for perfection), and this is coming from someone with 8 years of programming experience, and lots of time spent with really finicky stuff like this. BigBox still has a long way to go.

[Jason Carr]

[alfredolvera]

37 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

As for my venture into LB theme develop I kind of gave up. I got something that looked pretty decent, but a bunch of relatively minor things still stopped it from feeling really good, and it still very much felt like BigBox, with everything that goes with that.

That's extremely sad to hear, @alec100_94. I don't have lots of experience with programming but reading your frustration was heartbreaking to read. Care to enlist the limitations that you encountered with XAML, so maybe Jason can comment on them?

19 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

 

You can't just swing by with a purrrfect video and leave!  JK. Hey Jason, care to comment something on the sentiments that me and others left on this thread? It would be great to know if the wall view isn't a priority now, or if it will be developed more when time permits. 

Thanks!

[Jason Carr]

4 minutes ago, alfredolvera said:

That's extremely sad to hear, @alec100_94. I don't have lots of experience with programming but reading your frustration was heartbreaking to read. Care to enlist the limitations that you encountered with XAML, so maybe Jason can comment on them?

You can't just swing by with a purrrfect video and leave!  JK. Hey Jason, care to comment something on the sentiments that me and others left on this thread? It would be great to know if the wall view isn't a priority now, or if it will be developed more when time permits. 

Thanks!

I have been following this thread and discussing a bit behind the scenes. I will bump up improving the wall view on my list a bit. However, just because there's a few vocal users who care about the wall view, honestly, it doesn't compare to most of the other outstanding feature requests as far as popularity, at least as I'm hearing it. That said, seeing that both @CriticalCid and @Grila are hoping to work more with it is enough to light a fire under me, so I will certainly bump it up on my list.

That said, I will admit that I haven't enjoyed reading this thread. For me, it's just not constructive to read a bunch of passive-aggressive remarks, especially when they're exaggerated and somewhat misplaced. Saying that "it's a little bit disappointing that we are still tackling issues from a feature poll that was made at the beginning of the year" is honestly pretty far off when we're currently the fastest-developed frontend. I just really don't enjoy reading discouraging stuff like that when it's not even relevant or appropriate. All this while claiming that you paid twice the full price, which also isn't true, because $20 for the original purchase plus $10 for the renewal plus $30 for the upgrade is only $60; that's $10 more than the forever license. I really do appreciate your purchases, but the negativity and exaggeration is getting to me. Forgive me for that.

@alec100_94 Honestly I'm feeling the same vibes there. I originally responded with the video because I didn't feel like clarifying anything would help much, and I didn't want to cause drama. But claims like "Big Box doesn't feel like a premium product" don't help me to improve it, and as many complaints as we could have about XAML, it's literally the best option out there for what we need, and the flexibility of it is amazing. So guys, I'm sorry for being salty. I'm listening, but honestly this isn't a good way to affect any kind of positive change.

[alfredolvera]

15 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

For me, it's just not constructive to read a bunch of passive-aggressive remarks, especially when they're exaggerated and somewhat misplaced.

Hey Jason. Thanks for your reply. I’m so sorry to hear that my comments sounded passive-aggressive. English isn’t my first language and I guess my point was lost a little in translation.  The thing that I wanted to express is that for me, I felt that this years development felt a bit slow, seeing that most of the features that I wanted weren’t a priority. It’s the same for other that also wanted other features developed, but I also understand that most of the prople are happy with all the new improvements. I saw that there were lots of people happy with BB controllers perfomance, but i have a somewhat beffy PC and I personally didn’t noticed them  I also saw that most were happy with nested options, but I personally don’t use them . I did use the new MAME importer for cleaning the arcade section of my games ,  so I was pretty happy with that ☺️

Its great to hear that the wall view will be developed further.  Thanks for that!!!

And sometime ago I learned that you should put your money where your mouth is, so here’s the latest payment for my lifetime subscription: 

P01-3869046-9772617

I would copy here the other payments but I’m on my phone ? not the best way to search for old emails  

So, again: thanks for the support Jason. I’m looking forward to development in 2019. 

BTW that feature from the poll for downloading themes from BB its going to rock! And also incentivize more people to develop themes, I imagine.

 

cheers!!! ???

 

[Jason Carr]

1 minute ago, alfredolvera said:

Hey Jason. Thanks for your reply. I’m so sorry to hear that my comments sounded passive-aggressive. English isn’t my first language and I guess my point was lost a little in translation.  The thing that I wanted to express is that for me, I felt that this years development felt a bit slow, seeing that most of the features that I wanted weren’t a priority. It’s the same for other that also wanted other features developed, but I also understand that most of the prople are happy with all the new improvements. I saw that there were lots of people happy with BB controllers perfomance, but i have a somewhat beffy PC and I personally didn’t noticed them  I also saw that most were happy with nested options, but I personally don’t use them . I did use the new MAME importer for cleaning the arcade section of my games ,  so I was pretty happy with that ☺️

Its great to hear that the wall view will be developed further.  Thanks for that!!!

And sometime ago I learned that you should put your money where your mouth is, so here’s the latest payment for my lifetime subscription: 

P01-3869046-9772617

I would copy here the other payments but I’m on my phone ? not the best way to search for old emails  

So, again: thanks for the support Jason. I’m looking forward to development in 2019. 

BTW that feature from the poll for downloading themes from BB its going to rock! And also incentivize more people to develop themes, I imagine.

 

cheers!!! ???

 

I appreciate that brother. I can promise that Big Box will be a greater priority for the coming year, especially since we completed the LaunchBox revamp. Looking forward to that.

[Lordmonkus]

5 minutes ago, alfredolvera said:

The thing that I wanted to express is that for me, I felt that this years development felt a bit slow

I know things felt slow to people and in previous months and years it does appear to have slowed on the surface but that is because there was a bunch of time spent on the LB Next rewrite and the recent bug fix / optimization pass. Also the nested folders took some time to implement and there were some pretty big problems with that which had to be addressed. The good news now though is that is all behind now.

I know things like the LB Next and bug fix / optimization stuff isn't sexy or up in your face like new graphical features but they are required for things to work and work smoothly.

[alec100_94]

@Jason Carr Didn't mean for my comment to come across as salty, so i'll expand on it a little more. I guess the real point I was trying to make was just that LaunchBox (in it's latest incarnation, especially with the LB.Next rewrite) feels like a much more premium and polished product than BigBox does at this point. And I feel BigBox falls a little short in terms of ease of use compared other free alternatives. Though don't get me wrong I still think it is pretty cool.

Also I just don't really like XAML, it may be more an issue with me than XAML itself, I feel similar frustration's when working with Xamarin apps at work (though what I am doing there is much simpler). I might try a different editor (like Blend) and see if that makes it a little easier to work with.

[Lordmonkus]

20 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

And I feel BigBox falls a little short in terms of ease of use compared other free alternatives

Perhaps you would like to explain this is detail because it makes no sense. BigBox without Launchbox itself is useless, Launchbox is where you do all the management and that is where the ease of use comes in while other frontends require you use complicated back end software such as RocketLauncher (HyperSpin)  or have your rom set set in stone (AttractMode).

So explain to me how BigBox "falls short in terms of ease of use" because at the end of the day you navigate your games and load your games the same way in BigBox, HyperSpin and AttractMode. It's the backend where Launchbox shines and the ease of use comes in, not navigating the frontend.

[Jason Carr]

Honestly, it's probably best not to argue wishy washy stuff; the only thing that will benefit any of us is if we can come up with specific things that can be improved.

[alec100_94]

@Lordmonkus Ok first of all I don't think HyperSpin (never even heard of AttractMode) is much better. Now compare it to something like Steam Big picture with it's super smooth interface combined with it's modern look and feel, and better control options (including mouse support). The interface is just way less clunky and it's much easier to navigate around, feeling way more intuitive. Sure it may be a little bit of an unfair comparison, but it is certainly a valid one as Steam is on basically every PC already. I really don't want to get into a big argument over this, As I believe we are all on the same side, which was the main reason I kept my response short, and it is only my opinion. 

Edited November 20, 2018 by alec100_94

[Lordmonkus]

4 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Honestly, it's probably best not to argue wishy washy stuff; the only thing that will benefit any of us is if we can come up with specific things that can be improved.

That's why I asked for an explanation, simply making a statement without backing it up with details is pointless. Can't make improvements without details on what is wrong in the first place.

5 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

Now compare it to something like Steam Big picture with it's super smooth interface combined with it's modern look and feel

Is Steam Big Picture customizable with themes ?

5 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

better control options (including mouse support)

You can use a mouse in BigBox

5 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

The interface is just way less clunky and it's much easier to navigate around

Yeah for a relatively small library of games, come back and say that when you have thousands of games separated by platform.

6 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

Sure it may be a little bit of an unfair comparison, but it is certainly a valid one as Steam is on basically every PC already

And yet people still want to use a frontend like LB, HS or AM over Steam for launching their roms when they have more than a small handful of roms. I have read the nightmare stories that people have using ICE.

7 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

I really don't want to get into a big argument over this

No, you just want to make a blanket statement with nothing to back it up.

 

Anyways i'm done here.

[alec100_94]

@Lordmonkus You know what your probably right, maybe I am just full of BS, I just think there is something a whole lot smoother about the way steam handles things vs the way BigBox does and it's hard to pinpoint what it is exactly that sets them apart. I am not trying to suggest steam as a valid alternative for big collections, just that is the sort of level that we should be aiming for, without compromising what makes LB/BB good. I think the most sensible thing to try and resolve this is for me to go back to BigBox theme development, have another shot at attempting  to customise BigBox to my liking's and then highlight what I think still feels wrong in BigBox. Also never realised you could use a mouse in big box thanks for the tip.

Edited November 20, 2018 by alec100_94

[ghostlost]

On 9/24/2018 at 2:14 PM, CriticalCid said:

Hey alfredolvera,

 

I noticed that you have tagged every person from the Unified credits in your first post. I think I should point out that Viking, RetroHumanoid and I are the only Big Box theme developers in this list, so the others can't really help you with your request.

 

It's not at all complicated to create a LaunchBox theme!
I just do not do it because I prefer Hyperspin as the main frontend!
By the way, I still hope the credits of my Themes that you asked me for private message to convert to the LaunchBox. ?

 

[Lordmonkus]

16 minutes ago, ghostlost said:

It's not at all complicated to create a LaunchBox theme!
I just do not do it because I prefer Hyperspin as the main frontend!
By the way, I still hope the credits of my Themes that you asked me for private message to convert to the LaunchBox. ?

 

Did you not thank Cid for credit in your one and only other post on the forums ?

[ghostlost]

15 hours ago, Lordmonkus said:

Did you not thank Cid for credit in your one and only other post on the forums ? 

In my humble opinion, the right thing is to put credit on ALL topics where he uses my creations and not just on a single topic.
This is what I would do in his place, but that is only my opinion!