Any way to make the playlist select screen less drab in Big Box?

[Medullah]

I have tried changing themes and playing with options but I can't seem to figure this one out.  Once I get INTO the playlist it looks the way I want.  

I'm getting Launchbox set up in a cabinet. The goal is to have it be a fighting game cabinet primarily (Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, etc) and a beat em up (TMNT, X-Men) machine second.

I'd like to have it be as transparent to the end user as possible.

I've set up a few playlists, and have it set to launch Big Box on boot, and start at my Playlist list, but the background is just...bland.

What it looks like now - https://imgur.com/wmmBbSA

Is there any way to make it pop a bit more? Ideally have screenshots of the game front and center, and ability to move between them before choosing? Since it's primarily arcade, using "box art" instead of screenshots is less than ideal too.

[neil9000]

7 minutes ago, Medullah said:

I have tried changing themes and playing with options but I can't seem to figure this one out.  Once I get INTO the playlist it looks the way I want.  

I'm getting Launchbox set up in a cabinet. The goal is to have it be a fighting game cabinet primarily (Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, etc) and a beat em up (TMNT, X-Men) machine second.

I'd like to have it be as transparent to the end user as possible.

I've set up a few playlists, and have it set to launch Big Box on boot, and start at my Playlist list, but the background is just...bland.

What it looks like now - https://imgur.com/wmmBbSA

Is there any way to make it pop a bit more? Ideally have screenshots of the game front and center, and ability to move between them before choosing? Since it's primarily arcade, using "box art" instead of screenshots is less than ideal too.

That is down to the specific theme used and whether or not it has artwork/screens specifically for playlists. I would recommend trying one of the Unified variants as i believe they have playlist views included, as im sure others do as well. As i said though that is down to whether or not the theme developer anticipated the playlist view only being used.

[Medullah]

3 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

That is down to the specific theme used and whether or not it has artwork/screens specifically for playlists. I would recommend trying one of the Unified variants as i believe they have playlist views included, as im sure others do as well. As i said though that is down to whether or not the theme developer anticipated the playlist view only being used.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot - I guess tangent, do you know if there's a way to just boot directly to a playlist?  

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Medullah said:

Thanks, I'll give it a shot - I guess tangent, do you know if there's a way to just boot directly to a playlist?  

Options/Views/Default Startup View.

[Medullah]

6 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Options/Views/Default Startup View.

That's at least what I thought I had it set now, and it defaults to the list of playlists, but I don't see a way to have it start on a *specific* playlist.  I may be overlooking something easy, my brain was burned out working on this at 2am. 

[neil9000]

5 minutes ago, Medullah said:

That's at least what I thought I had it set now, and it defaults to the list of playlists, but I don't see a way to have it start on a *specific* playlist.  I may be overlooking something easy, my brain was burned out working on this at 2am. 

Oh i see, yeah a specific playlist isnt possible im afraid.

[Medullah]

21 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Oh i see, yeah a specific playlist isnt possible im afraid.

Bummer, but oh well, still a nearly perfect front end.   Thanks for the help.

[Medullah]

On 6/4/2019 at 9:58 AM, neil9000 said:

Oh i see, yeah a specific playlist isnt possible im afraid.

Hey I figured I'd ask you since you were so helpful rather than open a new thread.  I figured out my playlist woes (I assumed applying a theme to main theme would do everything, but it was just the main screen DOH).  Now I'm wondering if there's a way to turn off "infinite scroll" on my playlists.  As you can see in the screenshot I only have two playlists so it looks kind of stupid having them all over the screen.  

[neil9000]

4 minutes ago, Medullah said:

Hey I figured I'd ask you since you were so helpful rather than open a new thread.  I figured out my playlist woes (I assumed applying a theme to main theme would do everything, but it was just the main screen DOH).  Now I'm wondering if there's a way to turn off "infinite scroll" on my playlists.  As you can see in the screenshot I only have two playlists so it looks kind of stupid having them all over the screen.  

Unfortunately that is not possible at the moment. It has been asked for by other users though so its a possibility in the future. The only thing i could suggest is to change that view to the text view rather than the clear logo one you have in that image, i believe the text view only shows what is there with no repeating.

[Medullah]

1 minute ago, neil9000 said:

Unfortunately that is not possible at the moment. It has been asked for by other users though so its a possibility in the future. The only thing i could suggest is to change that view to the text view rather than the clear logo one you have in that image, i believe the text view only shows what is there with no repeating.

Yep, that was how it was set up before I  figured out how to add the theme.  Decisions, decisions.  I love this program. 

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, Medullah said:

Yep, that was how it was set up before I  figured out how to add the theme.  Decisions, decisions.  I love this program. 

No you should be able to switch the view using V it should look just like your image above but with a text list rather than the clear logos. What theme is that ill take a look here?

 

[Medullah]

1 hour ago, neil9000 said:

No you should be able to switch the view using V it should look just like your image above but with a text list rather than the clear logos. What theme is that ill take a look here?

 

Perfection, this worked.  V wasn't mapped initially but I changed it and now it does exactly what I want.  Again, thanks a ton.

[boslaw]

On 6/4/2019 at 9:58 AM, neil9000 said:

Oh i see, yeah a specific playlist isnt possible im afraid.

This seems to be a common (and reasonable) request.

Many users are using BigBox for arcade cabs. In an arcade, no one wants to wade through hundreds or thousands of games with a joystick to choose the one they want. They probably only want 60-100 games to be available. Requiring a player to navigate through playlists/genres, etc., is a level of complexity that seems unnecessary with a smallish list of games, but that is exactly what is required with BigBox. Launching BigBox into a list of playlists, when you only have 1 playlist, also is very strange and requires the user to understand that they will have to press some button to get to the actual list of available games. 

This may be the only front end I've used that makes it impossible to launch directly into a simplified list of games that I want to be available to users.

[Retro808]

2 hours ago, boslaw said:

This seems to be a common (and reasonable) request.

Many users are using BigBox for arcade cabs. In an arcade, no one wants to wade through hundreds or thousands of games with a joystick to choose the one they want. They probably only want 60-100 games to be available. Requiring a player to navigate through playlists/genres, etc., is a level of complexity that seems unnecessary with a smallish list of games, but that is exactly what is required with BigBox. Launching BigBox into a list of playlists, when you only have 1 playlist, also is very strange and requires the user to understand that they will have to press some button to get to the actual list of available games. 

This may be the only front end I've used that makes it impossible to launch directly into a simplified list of games that I want to be available to users.

If you have a small list of games you only want to use then just import only those games and set the startup view to "All Games". I know we have seen this requested before, it just is not a common as you think and I do not believe it was even mentioned on the last 2 feature request polls. 

[boslaw]

How do I import only a small list of games? The only option I saw was to import all mame roms. I assume you're going to tell me that I have to create a separate folder and move some roms into that separate folder? This is really inefficient because then I either have to keep duplicate copies of roms on my computer, or pull some roms out of my complete collection and then remember that those roms have been separated.

Also, assuming I create a separate smaller set of roms and import those, what do I do when I decide I want to add one more game?

Sorry if this sounds negative - I paid $50 for what seems like a nice and promising front end. I'm just frustrated that some things that seemingly should be obvious and easy are challenging or not possible.

Edited August 28, 2019 by boslaw

[neil9000]

5 minutes ago, boslaw said:

How do I import only a small list of games? The only option I saw was to import all mame roms. I assume you're going to tell me that I have to create a separate folder and move some roms into that separate folder? This is really inefficient because then I either have to keep duplicate copies of roms on my computer, or pull some roms out of my complete collection and then remember that those roms have been separated.

Also, assuming I create a separate smaller set of roms and import those, what do I do when I decide I want to add one more game?

Sorry if this sounds negative - I paid $50 for what seems like a nice and promising front end. I'm just frustrated that some things that seemingly should be obvious and easy are challenging or not possible.

The reason you only saw import all MAME roms is because you used the fullset importer, so yes that will import everything. If you only want to import a smaller collection of games use the standard importer, not the one designed specifically to import a full MAME set.

You can add as many or as few games as you like, either via tools/Import, or by just dragging and dropping files onto Launchbox to start the import wizard.

[boslaw]

Where do I find the standard importer?

Can I add one game at a time (after initial import) by dragging individual roms onto launchbox?

This would be much easier if I could simply make BigBox launch directly into a playlist (instead of a list of playlists). Adding games as you suggest (by dragging roms onto launchbox) assumes that the user knows which rom(roms, bios files) are required for each game.

[neil9000]

12 minutes ago, boslaw said:

Where do I find the standard importer?

Tools/Import/Rom Files.

 

13 minutes ago, boslaw said:

Can I add one game at a time (after initial import) by dragging individual roms onto launchbox?

Yes.

13 minutes ago, boslaw said:

Adding games as you suggest (by dragging roms onto launchbox) assumes that the user knows which rom(roms, bios files) are required for each game.

Well yes of course, unfortunately Launchbox is not going to now what specific games that you personally want to import, so of course you will have to provide the games you actually want imported yourself.

[boslaw]

15 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Well yes of course, unfortunately Launchbox is not going to now what specific games that you personally want to import, so of course you will have to provide the games you actually want imported yourself.

No - what I'm saying is, a given game may require a number of files (bios/rom, etc.). The user won't necessarily know all the dependencies of a particular game but I assume that adding a game through a front end would have those dependencies built in (maybe not, but that would be ideal).

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, boslaw said:

No - what I'm saying is, a given game may require a number of files (bios/rom, etc.). The user won't necessarily know all the dependencies of a particular game but I assume that adding a game through a front end would have those dependencies built in (maybe not, but that would be ideal).

Well thats not really the job of a frontend, to know all games and what associated files said game may need, thats more of a emulator job. As for MAME specifically if you have a Non-Merged set each zip contains all needed files, so those sets are always recommended if you want to mess around with pulling specific games from a fullset.