9.6-beta-1 Released

[Jason Carr]

Hello all, 9.6-beta-1 has been released with the significant new feature being a brand new themes manager and downloader inside of Big Box. You can get to it by navigating to the System menu and choosing Manage Themes:

This has been a very large undertaking, and there's still quite a bit to do yet, but it should be mostly functional. The plan for this system is to allow theme developers to use a separate web form to upload their themes for approval, and then use a manual approval process to allow them in the app. This is to help stability and ensure that only fully-working themes are available in the interface. I've been working hard on the web interface for uploading themes as well, but it's not quite ready yet. In the mean time, I'll be uploading some of the more popular themes so that things can be tested in the betas. Currently there's three themes available, but I'll be adding more later today.

Features that have already been implemented:

• Trailer video and screenshots
• Installing and uninstalling themes
• Repairing themes (delete and re-install)
• Applying themes as the main theme
• Support links
• Details on the developer, aspect ratio, current version, and latest version
• Description, Credits, and Changes
• List of installed themes with updates available
• List of recently updated themes
• List of newly available themes
• Support for Startup Themes

Features that are planned:

• Like/unlike themes
• Apply a particular view of a theme to a particular platform
• View screenshots of every single view available in the theme (Views tab)
• Probably more, but that's all I think of

Let me know how it all works for you guys.

[Charco]

Great work Jason! Looking forward to trying this out!

[kmoney]

Looking good!

[Napalm2016]

Thanks Jason for bringing such cool features and working hard on it cant wait to try it :)

[ea4492]

I just tried the new theme Manager, and i like it so far, but if you have many themes like i do and you scroll down the list, the text doesn't scroll, only the selection box moves. Thanks again @Jason Carr for all your hard work?

-Edit-

It would be a nice feature when in the theme Manager, when in the details tab you can click on an image and view it in full screen or if there is a video trailer of a theme.

And i can see a manager for startup videos, where you can download startup videos and choose the default video, and have an option to have it play a random video when you start bigbox.

Edited March 1, 2019 by ea4492

[RULLUR]

I usually keep mine Default so that nothing gets buggy and I can work around creatively within the Default Theme, but like the idea you can easily download within the App other Themes which gives me the thought that things with each other Theme will be stable as we get new Updates without the worry one of the Themes might get messed up. I'm Installing the Latest Beta as I type this and look forward to seeing what improves

Edited March 1, 2019 by RULLUR

[Nyny77]

error for me ? :

 

Le format de la chaîne d'entrée est incorrect.

App:     Big Box
Version: 9.6-beta-1
Type:    System.FormatException
Site:    Single ParseSingle(System.String, System.Globalization.NumberStyles, System.Globalization.NumberFormatInfo)
Source:  mscorlib

   at System.Number.ParseSingle(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
   at ()
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Themes.Theme.GetAllThemes()
   at ()
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Themes.ThemesManager.GetAllBigBoxThemes()
   at (<>c__DisplayClass240_0 , Object )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Wpf.BigBox.ViewModels.MainViewModel.<>c__DisplayClass240_0.<ShowManageThemes>b__0(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.System.Threading.IThreadPoolWorkItem.ExecuteWorkItem()
   at System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch()

Recent Log:

   07:26:06 Music.Resume Start
   07:26:06 Music.Pause Start
   07:26:06 Music.Resume Start
   07:26:09 Music.StopAndResumeBackground Start
   07:26:11 Music.Initialize Start
   07:26:11 Music.Kill Start
   07:26:11 Music.Kill Finished
   07:26:13 Exception

 

[e2zippo]

Sweet, will try it out now, great work Jason, this in an awesome feature to have, to be able to see when a theme is updated has been quite cumbersome in the past, now (soon) we can update with the push of a button, from within the interface, yay! 

[TheNewClassics]

I am having the same issue that ea4492 described above; the first theme in each list in the manager displays properly, but the ones under do not show up, even when I scroll down. I've also had a couple hangs that only seem to happen in the Theme Manager 

[Jason Carr]

Thank you guys; planning on fixing the above issues either over the weekend or early next week, so a new beta will be out soon. It looks like there's just a translation/culture error and the non-scrolling issue, which should both be easy to fix.

[e2zippo]

Jason: One thing I think would be pretty neat is to see which theme is applied to which platform.

Something like this.

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by e2zippo

[Kondorito]

Nice @Jason Carr!

Would it be possible to have the option to apply to the Platforms list or Category list as well? (so you can have the options to apply to plats category/list only, apply to specific plats, or apply to all). 

[PanteraZombie]

This is one of my more anticipated features, awesome to see it's being implemented! I think this screen might be a good place to also manage startup videos with the option to randomize.

[PattersonCZ]

@Jason Carr When install new beta 9.6 beta 1 Bitdefender block BigBox.exe file. I am sure this is false positive but report it in just to be sure.

[ALIE]

Very Cool Very Cool Indeed. 

seems like everything i can think about is already on the todo list. maybe complete or almost complete clear logo packs could be downloaded and applyed to a theme like @viking huge SilverRing project.  

[Jason Carr]

On 3/2/2019 at 1:07 AM, e2zippo said:

Jason: One thing I think would be pretty neat is to see which theme is applied to which platform.

Something like this.

 

That is a good idea; I had considered it but I think we also need to somehow include what view is being used as well. I might work it into Views screen somehow.

On 3/2/2019 at 3:35 AM, Kondorito said:

Nice @Jason Carr!

Would it be possible to have the option to apply to the Platforms list or Category list as well? (so you can have the options to apply to plats category/list only, apply to specific plats, or apply to all). 

I'll have to look into this; I'm not sure if there's currently a way to apply different themes to platform categories vs. platforms lists.

On 3/2/2019 at 2:01 PM, PanteraZombie said:

This is one of my more anticipated features, awesome to see it's being implemented! I think this screen might be a good place to also manage startup videos with the option to randomize.

You can already randomize startup videos by manually creating a LaunchBox\Videos\Startup folder and just throwing your videos in there. I think a Manage Startup Videos feature would be great, but it probably won't make it into this release.

On 3/2/2019 at 4:45 PM, PattersonCZ said:

@Jason Carr When install new beta 9.6 beta 1 Bitdefender block BigBox.exe file. I am sure this is false positive but report it in just to be sure.

Bitdefender has made it onto my crap list for anti-virus products that I consider to be garbage due to inaccuracy. I still recommend uninstalling all third-party anti-virus and just using the tried and true built-in Windows Defender. It just works.

8 hours ago, ALIE said:

Very Cool Very Cool Indeed. 

seems like everything i can think about is already on the todo list. maybe complete or almost complete clear logo packs could be downloaded and applyed to a theme like @viking huge SilverRing project.  

Logo packs would be cool as well, but that also probably won't make it into this release.

[Kondorito]

4 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

I'll have to look into this; I'm not sure if there's currently a way to apply different themes to platform categories vs. platforms lists. 

I meant both of them together, so I can apply a theme to them, but not globally (so it only changes at a category/list level, but not globally nor inside on all platforms).

 

[Jason Carr]

Beta 2 is out now with fixes for all of the above issues, at least as far as I can tell.

Let me know if anyone runs into any further bugs with the theme manager.

[nosh]

Hey @Jason Carr been working on a lot of playlist media recently it would be awesome if we had the option to add/use "default" images for any image using the naming convention [Platform Name] [Playlist].png ie. Sega Genesis All Games.png or Sega Genesis Action.png. I am thinking a default folder under Platform Categories and Playlists folders for each of the image types Devices, Banners, Clear Logos where you can place these fallback images. In my case, I want all my systems to use the same images for all the platform categories like favorites and regions as well as all the genres like singleplayer and adventure. 

Edited March 4, 2019 by nosh

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, Kondorito said:

I meant both of them together, so I can apply a theme to them, but not globally (so it only changes at a category/list level, but not globally nor inside on all platforms).

Assuming I'm understanding correctly, this should already be possible. Just choose "Apply as Main Theme" and then press No when prompted to replace the theme for platforms and playlists.