theme COLORFUL bigbox theme

[marph]

2 hours ago, viking said:

So there are two things here: 

You can have 2 types of videos at the same time in LaunchBox.
"simple gameplay video" or "theme video".
In the settings I suggest, you can choose the priority order to display, in case a game has several videos. Apart disk space, this has no other impact.
If you want to use the Colorful theme, I suggest you use the "simple gameplay videos". It'll be much more elegant.
Some other themes work better with "Theme Video".

Technically, in the Colorful theme, the gray band on the left of the screen passes over the video. The video is not cropped, but masked.
To see more of your video, you need to reduce this band.
This will force you to replace all the UI elements and recenter the video.
If you wish, you can try to modify this with the Community Theme Creator. Colorful Theme Source Code available in the download page 

Thanks again for your quick answer.

I am not sure if I understand you correctly. So "simple gamplay video" is the same as "video snap"? And depending on which kind of videos actually exist and which priority I've chosen in the settings, Bigbox will show a different video? 

So could I modify your theme to reduce this band only on certain playlists? Because I would very much like to keep it the way it is for the platforms to show your awsome platform videos.

Currently I show my custom playlists (like the "Racing" example from the picture above) together with the platform-playlist in Bigbox (using the checkbox option from the playlist settings). I think it would be a smoother presentation if I could start in a top section that constis of let's say, "Computers", "Consoles", "Handhelds" and "Playlists". Then I could maybe modify your theme to only use the band for computers consoles and  handhelds (so basically where there is an awsome Colorful video). The only problem is I don't know how to configure Bigbox that way. I know that you can set it to "Platform categories" and to "Playlists" but I don't know of a method to combine them. 

[viking]

32 minutes ago, marph said:

Thanks again for your quick answer.

I am not sure if I understand you correctly. So "simple gamplay video" is the same as "video snap"? And depending on which kind of videos actually exist and which priority I've chosen in the settings, Bigbox will show a different video?

You're right, I'm talking about "video snap". Sorry, I'm tired ^^
Yes, LaunchBox makes the difference, as long as the files are properly organized/tagged.
 - If you're using Colorful, setup Video Snap first.
 - If you're using other theme, setup Theme Video first.
No need to download files again.

I couldn't make a custom version of my theme just for you.
@faeran (who developed the theme) won't do it either (?)

You can download and install the Comunity Theme Creator. Then download the theme source files. Then try adapting it to your needs.
Personally, I know too little about CTC. I won't be able to help you any further on this subject. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by viking

[marph]

On 10/5/2023 at 5:44 PM, viking said:

You're right, I'm talking about "video snap". Sorry, I'm tired ^^
Yes, LaunchBox makes the difference, as long as the files are properly organized/tagged.
 - If you're using Colorful, setup Video Snap first.
 - If you're using other theme, setup Theme Video first.
No need to download files again.

I couldn't make a custom version of my theme just for you.
@faeran (who developed the theme) won't do it either (?)

You can download and install the Comunity Theme Creator. Then download the theme source files. Then try adapting it to your needs.
Personally, I know too little about CTC. I won't be able to help you any further on this subject. 

Thanks for the information. Of course I do understand that you won't modify your theme just for this.

In theory I've figured out a way that should more ore less achieve what I am looking for. It should work like this:

1. Create a new category in LaunchBox called "Playlists"

2. Set this new category as parent in all of my favorite playlists

3. Change the following options in BigBox: Set "Default startup view" to "Platform Categories"; Enable the option "Remember seperate View for each Platform"

4. Setup hotkeys for changing view and theme in BigBox

5. Go to newly created category "Playlists" and change the theme to a theme which shows the assigned playlist video in full width

But I've found out that BigBox only supports individual themes and views for platforms but NOT for platform categories. So yeah. I am kinda stuck again. I will see. maybe I will post a feature request for this? And if I find the time I can maybe modify your theme to achieve this. We will see...

[marph]

@viking: Another thing: While looking for a solution for my afore mentioned problem, I've discovered some images that are missing in your theme (Media\Hardware Set):

- Categories: Computers.png, Consoles.png and Handhelds.png - and the Arcade.png does not match your video (Arcade.mp4)

- Platforms: NEC SuperGrafx.png and Windows 98.png

Would be great if you could add these as well🙂

[viking]

On 10/7/2023 at 12:02 AM, marph said:

@viking: Another thing: While looking for a solution for my afore mentioned problem, I've discovered some images that are missing in your theme (Media\Hardware Set):

- Categories: Computers.png, Consoles.png and Handhelds.png - and the Arcade.png does not match your video (Arcade.mp4)

- Platforms: NEC SuperGrafx.png and Windows 98.png

Would be great if you could add these as well🙂

These images are already in place, but it's possible that you're not using the same names.
PNG files must be named exactly like your platform/playlist/category.

Computers.png  >> Are named as >> Category Computers.png
Consoles.png >> Are named as >> Category Consoles.png
Handhelds.png >> Are named as >> Category Handhelds.png
Arcade.png >> Are named as >> Category Arcade.png   (The problem here is that the category has exactly the same name as the platform. So LaunchBox makes a mistake and always uses the platform first)
NEC SuperGrafx.png >> Are named as >> PC Engine SuperGrafx.png
Windows 98.png ... Is correctly named. Did you download the latest set on the dedicated page?

Just rename the PNG files as you named your platforms and it should work =)

[skizzosjt]

This is aimed at any user who may have utilized CTC with the Colorful CTC files

Things worked well for me when using up to CTC version 2.5.5. If you're using 2.5.5 or earlier you will not experience this issue. I eventually got 3.1.3 and noticed some major weirdness going on with what initially looked like opacity and animations.

So when CTC 3.1.4 and 3.1.5 came out I tried those and same issue....so now I'm under the impression something changed with how CTC works. And I finally figured out the root cause this weekend

To the best of my knowledge, in CTC versions prior to 3.X.X, all animations started at the same time regardless of whether the element with the animation used "update once selected" or "update during selection" radio bubble for when to update. Meaning, if element A and element B both had a position animation to move off the left screen after waiting 1 second and the duration of the movement was 1 sec, they would move at the exact same time and over the same exact duration. They would work like this even if element A had "update once selected" and element B had "update during selection"

However, this doesn't seem to be the case anymore. The radio bubbles will impact when the animations start, with "update during selection" obviously occurring prior to making a selection. This means elements that do use "update during selection" that they do their thing too early now. Once I figured this out, I had to figure out how to work around it since it wasn't as easy as changing the radio bubble

In the end, I determined if an element needed to be updated during selection it needed to stay as such, in particular the hardware overlay needed this and any color condition element. The issue here was the animations need to be update once selected in order to match up with everything else....but those elements couldn't use update once selected due to colors would pop in late when changing views/themes and the hardware overlay wouldn't be updating during selection like it was intended to do, etc type of new problems would occur.

So here is the solution. You need to leave those elements with update during selection radio bubble as is with that setting. You need to create some sort of parent element like a grid or dock, etc, that will contain the update during selection elements (such as hardware overlay and the colored rectangles). Then the parent element needs to use update once selected and you can apply the animations to this parent element.  Remove the animations from the child elements (such as the hardware overlay and colored rectangles). This is why this plan works. The child elements continue to get updated during selection as originally intended, but due to the parent element having the animations and using update once selected, NOW all the animations will line up exact with each other as originally intended.

 

A pic is worth 1000 words...to visually show what I mean about needing a parent element using "update once selected" to do the animations and the child elements can stay using "update during selection"

[marph]

On 10/9/2023 at 10:37 AM, viking said:

These images are already in place, but it's possible that you're not using the same names.
PNG files must be named exactly like your platform/playlist/category.

Computers.png  >> Are named as >> Category Computers.png
Consoles.png >> Are named as >> Category Consoles.png
Handhelds.png >> Are named as >> Category Handhelds.png
Arcade.png >> Are named as >> Category Arcade.png   (The problem here is that the category has exactly the same name as the platform. So LaunchBox makes a mistake and always uses the platform first)
NEC SuperGrafx.png >> Are named as >> PC Engine SuperGrafx.png
Windows 98.png ... Is correctly named. Did you download the latest set on the dedicated page?

Just rename the PNG files as you named your platforms and it should work 😃

Thanks! Renaming the PNG (or the platforms or playlists) did the trick. It works neatly now🙂 

One more thing: How do I display the 3D boxes of the games? BigBox has the Option "Images->Game Image Type" which I've set to "3D Boxes", but it doesn't change anything. Is there another way to achieve this?

[skizzosjt]

On 11/4/2023 at 8:56 AM, marph said:

One more thing: How do I display the 3D boxes of the games? BigBox has the Option "Images->Game Image Type" which I've set to "3D Boxes", but it doesn't change anything. Is there another way to achieve this?

I actually have no idea wtf that parameter does, but that doesn't seem to be the proper parameter to use for this

I'd think you would need to edit the theme, or a simpler approach is change your image priorities by setting 3D boxes higher up in "Box Front Priorities"

Tools > Options > Media > Box Front priorities

this method will however impact things on a global scale, meaning both LaunchBox and other Big Box themes

 

image for reference, note 3D boxes at the top. technically, it just needs to be above "Box - Front" since that is the specific image type used in the theme for platform views

[Nixx]

It's really a great theme. I love it.
I'm making some adjustments because i want more items in the wheel, more speed and i don't want to wait few seconds before having the game info.

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Nixx

[sevenalive]

@viking any plans for some more game views?

 

[viking]

2 hours ago, sevenalive said:

@viking any plans for some more game views?

 

Faeran and I are working on v3, which will be a total overhaul.
Please be patient, we're doing the best we can!  =)

[MINI]

Are there any future plans for a CRT resolution of the COLORFUL theme?

I would love to be able to hook up a Big Box machine to a real CRT and use the COLORFUL theme on there. 

[marph]

On 11/10/2023 at 12:30 AM, skizzosjt said:

I actually have no idea wtf that parameter does, but that doesn't seem to be the proper parameter to use for this

I'd think you would need to edit the theme, or a simpler approach is change your image priorities by setting 3D boxes higher up in "Box Front Priorities"

Tools > Options > Media > Box Front priorities

this method will however impact things on a global scale, meaning both LaunchBox and other Big Box themes

 

image for reference, note 3D boxes at the top. technically, it just needs to be above "Box - Front" since that is the specific image type used in the theme for platform views

Thanks for the help. I've tried this. At first it seemed to work perfectly. But then I've noticed a side effect with the 3D box models.

[skizzosjt]

16 hours ago, marph said:

Thanks for the help. I've tried this. At first it seemed to work perfectly. But then I've noticed a side effect with the 3D box models.

the 3D models are built by combining 3 images. box front, spine, and back. since you changed box front priority this is to be expected. It's going to use the 3D box image in place of box front image, hence the funny look. Like I said, this change would impact things on a global scale and this is part of that. If this is something you don't want to see you would have to return the box front priority setting to an appropriate sequence (3D box must be below box front) and edit the theme to use 3D boxes instead of box front where ever you wanted them.

[zeriah]

Hi all I'm having some trouble installing this theme. I downloaded the zip for the colorful dark theme, extracted the zip in the launchbox>themes folder

but when I open up both the theme manager or options>visuals>main launch box theme Colorful dark is missing.

I also tried unzipping it inside the LBThemes folder. When doing that launchbox could detect the theme but if I install it from there Launchbox just looked the same as it does with the default theme except all meta data and images are completely broken.

 

I'm new to launchbox so forgive me if I missed some obvious steps but any help would be appreciated.

Edited December 13, 2023 by zeriah

[Kefka2b]

5 hours ago, zeriah said:

Hi all I'm having some trouble installing this theme. I downloaded the zip for the colorful dark theme, extracted the zip in the launchbox>themes folder

but when I open up both the theme manager or options>visuals>main launch box theme Colorful dark is missing.

I also tried unzipping it inside the LBThemes folder. When doing that launchbox could detect the theme but if I install it from there Launchbox just looked the same as it does with the default theme except all meta data and images are completely broken.

 

I'm new to launchbox so forgive me if I missed some obvious steps but any help would be appreciated.

This a Bigbox theme and isn't applicable to Launchbox. If you have the paid version you can use Bigbox and in the options install the theme.

[zeriah]

Haha I knew i was missing something incredibly obvious and stupid.

[uchuskies921]

On 12/8/2023 at 5:04 AM, viking said:

Faeran and I are working on v3, which will be a total overhaul.
Please be patient, we're doing the best we can! 😃

Hey @viking just out of curiosity - you guys going to incorporate the new discovery center?

Can't wait to see what you guys come up with, Colorful is by far the best theme for Launchbox, been using it for a couple years now.

[viking]

14 hours ago, uchuskies921 said:

Hey @viking just out of curiosity - you guys going to incorporate the new discovery center?

Can't wait to see what you guys come up with, Colorful is by far the best theme for Launchbox, been using it for a couple years now.

Yes, we working on it  =)

[uchuskies921]

On 1/3/2024 at 3:54 AM, viking said:

Yes, we working on it  =)

Very cool!