Default Game Clear Logo

[FuriousPig]

I am almost embarrassed to ask this & I have searched the forums for an answer but....

Is there a way to set a default clear logo for game roms that don't have one?  It probably seems trivial but I display Big Box on a 4K TV & the games without a logo are left showing a few letters from their name due to the font size zoom I have to use to read what's going on in the rest of the system.  It's not a pretty sight.

[fromlostdays]

... in a way there is. 

You obviously can't have a single default logo that would cover all games in the system as the games have different names but you can always find/download/create a logo for each game, name them after the game and put them in images/[system]/clear logos folder. 

[FuriousPig]

1 minute ago, fromlostdays said:

... in a way there is. 

You obviously can't have a single default logo that would cover all games in the system as the games have different names but you can always find/download/create a logo for each game, name them after the game and put them in images/[system]/clear logos folder. 

Thanks for the response @fromlostdays I have been doing that up to now, but MAME is a daunting prospect.  But you wouldn't actually need a logo for every ROM, Big Box would just need to detect the absence of a clear logo & use the same placeholder (ideally set per platform).

I did note someone asked the same question in 2016 (no responses) so there is probably a technical reason for it.

[Retro808]

11 minutes ago, FuriousPig said:

Thanks for the response @fromlostdays I have been doing that up to now, but MAME is a daunting prospect.  But you wouldn't actually need a logo for every ROM, Big Box would just need to detect the absence of a clear logo & use the same placeholder (ideally set per platform).

I did note someone asked the same question in 2016 (no responses) so there is probably a technical reason for it.

The clear logo used by games contains reference to the games name (typically the game's name is made into a graphical logo). If you had 100 games without a clear logo and they all used the same default logo how would you know the game's name? You still need some form of text reference.

[FuriousPig]

4 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

The clear logo used by games contains reference to the games name (typically the game's name is made into a graphical logo). If you had 100 games without a clear logo and they all used the same default logo how would you know the game's name?

Thanks for the response; until you said it I had not realised the systems attempt at turning the ROM title into a logo.  Obvious now you say it.

As for how you know the games name when using a default logo (which I do), it says it in the main window ?

[fromlostdays]

MAME is a popular system. I admit I haven't really checked as I've been handpicking games, but there should be plenty of logos. But lets talk about some other things you can do:

• Select all your Mame games, and Go to Tools/Download Media and Metadata. Tell it not to override existing Metadata. Wait. (New things get added to the LB database all the time, you may be able to pickup some missing artwork this way.
• Hit the web and look for MAME logo packs. Just in case some of the logos exist but aren't in the LB database yet.
• Use something like Flamingtext (website) to pump out logos that are missing. Won't be true game logos but you can control the size etc.
• Use the Audit feature to hide games with missing logos.
• *Recommended: if I have a system with too many missing logos, I'll use a Bigbox theme that supports a text view. I think many/most do, but I am partial to the Switch theme. This view doesn't use logos at all and standardizes (is that a word!?) the game names into a text list that looks even and is sized correctly.
• Find a theme/change view that displays not logos but boxes or something else which you might potentially have more of.

Thats about the sum of your options. If its a particular game that is really good and you just really want the logo and to have it in your collection, user seaview has a thread on this forum where if you provide him with a good picture of the logo, he'll cut it out and make it transparent for you.

Goodluck!

EDIT: When you say logo, we think of clear logo which would have to be game specific. I think what you're really asking is: is there any way to change the TEXT display for games without logos font size etc. I'm actually not sure, but I'd bet you'd have to edit the theme. OR, see recommended on the list above. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by fromlostdays

[FuriousPig]

That's a very comprehensive response @fromlostdays & very much appreciated.  Thanks!

 

[Retro808]

20 minutes ago, FuriousPig said:

Thanks for the response; until you said it I had not realised the systems attempt at turning the ROM title into a logo.  Obvious now you say it.

As for how you know the games name when using a default logo (which I do), it says it in the main window ?

My question of how would you know the name is related to any theme when you are in a wheel view. Such as the image you posted or the one below. In that image if you replaced all those games with just text names with a default logo image the text name of the game is gone and all you would see is the logo since the game names are not referenced anywhere else. Many themes that use a wheel view may not have the game name referenced anywhere else as it is the wheel that displays the game name in either a clear logo or text. Not saying having a default image is a bad idea, it would just need to be done in a way that maybe it could use a default image as a background and then upscale the game name text over top of it so it is readable on 4k set-ups.

[FuriousPig]

Yes sorry @Retro808, I realised after I posted that not everyone is going to be looking at the same view or theme that I do & thus your statement made sense.

I really should look into to some form of macro that reduces font scaling back to 100% (currently on 300% recommended) because it also effects some DMD displays & menus on Visual Pinball. 

As more folks move towards 4k & even 8k TVs (even us Retro folks) someone cleverer than I will come up with a solution.

Thanks again.

[Retro808]

2 minutes ago, FuriousPig said:

Yes sorry @Retro808, I realised after I posted that not everyone is going to be looking at the same view or theme that I do & thus your statement made sense.

I really should look into to some form of macro that reduces font scaling back to 100% (currently on 300% recommended) because it also effects some DMD displays & menus on Visual Pinball. 

As more folks move towards 4k & even 8k TVs (even us Retro folks) someone cleverer than I will come up with a solution.

Thanks again.

Nah no apologies needed. 

[fromlostdays]

65 inch 4k tv basically only controller here. I feel your pain haha.

I can't recommend this enough: if like me you take a gotta have it all approach to retrogaming, I recommend having 2 Launchbox/Bigbox setups. The first is for everything (and with the expectation that not everything is going to look good, be smooth or even work). The second is a much smaller handpicked assortment of systems and games where you can control and really put time into the details and creating a flawless experience. Use the second one for common use and work on both at your leisure.    

Edited July 11, 2020 by fromlostdays