JaysArcade Posted August 8, 2021 Author Share Posted August 8, 2021 I'm about ready to release the latest version of Vertical Aspirations. It has a new wheel view for vertical games along with some controller stuff that was only possible with the latest Launchbox versions and new version of the Community Theme Creator. Also have some stuff with the Marquees that I've been screwing with over the last year or so. If anyone would like to test it out before I release it, let me know via PM or comment below. 2021-08-08 15-18-10.mp4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverChin Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 i would like to try it! i am still using your vertical theme with arcade vs pinball in it as well as running a pc slot game but still not looking to wonderful the way i have it set up. I remember some time back there was a hyperspin theme called hypertate that looked pretty awesome and i will be so happy when big box is up to the bling and speed of hyperspin , if possible? thank you for making this vertical theme it is very welcome for us who enjoy vertical gaming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 3 hours ago, SilverChin said: i would like to try it! i am still using your vertical theme with arcade vs pinball in it as well as running a pc slot game but still not looking to wonderful the way i have it set up. I remember some time back there was a hyperspin theme called hypertate that looked pretty awesome and i will be so happy when big box is up to the bling and speed of hyperspin , if possible? thank you for making this vertical theme it is very welcome for us who enjoy vertical gaming! The problem is XAML is a bit harder to do the animation stuff than it was with Hyperspin. Hyperspin used flash which is pretty much obsolete nowadays due to all the security vulnerabilities it has. I'll try to share the latest with you when I get a chance. It might be a few days though because I am going to be out of town for a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jigen271 Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 On 8/10/2021 at 12:24 AM, JaysArcade said: The problem is XAML is a bit harder to do the animation stuff than it was with Hyperspin. Hyperspin used flash which is pretty much obsolete nowadays due to all the security vulnerabilities it has. I'll try to share the latest with you when I get a chance. It might be a few days though because I am going to be out of town for a bit. This is quite awesome!! I downloaded and installed in on my PC and it looks and feels great. I woudl like to install in on my Cocktail cabinet. It's 4:3 however. Any hope of 768x1024 resolution support? If your too busy maybe a short tutorial for folks to edit exisiting backgrounds to get it to work for their own resolution would be great!! Anyway great work again!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted August 18, 2021 Author Share Posted August 18, 2021 48 minutes ago, Jigen271 said: This is quite awesome!! I downloaded and installed in on my PC and it looks and feels great. I woudl like to install in on my Cocktail cabinet. It's 4:3 however. Any hope of 768x1024 resolution support? If your too busy maybe a short tutorial for folks to edit exisiting backgrounds to get it to work for their own resolution would be great!! Anyway great work again!!! Glad you like it. It wasn't really designed with 3:4 in mind so it might take some work on my part. The good news is the new version of the theme creator has built in 3:4 and 9:16 support. When I built the theme originally, it was all done in a stretched to fit ratio. I wouldn't expect it too soon but I will certainly give it a shot. It will likely not have all the custom views for each platform however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jigen271 Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 22 minutes ago, JaysArcade said: Glad you like it. It wasn't really designed with 3:4 in mind so it might take some work on my part. The good news is the new version of the theme creator has built in 3:4 and 9:16 support. When I built the theme originally, it was all done in a stretched to fit ratio. I wouldn't expect it too soon but I will certainly give it a shot. It will likely not have all the custom views for each platform however. Awesome!! Let me know if I might be of any assistance1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted August 22, 2021 Author Share Posted August 22, 2021 New pinball views coming to the theme. These views are inspired from the Coinops pinball builds. The new views have a color tint applied, like the Coinops build. There are two seperate views that are idententical except for the spacing of items on the wheel. This is to allow the use of the docklet style clear logos to space them properly in the wheel. The other view will use more traditional spacing. 2021-08-21 17-07-30.mp4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverChin Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 So I have checked out your beta and definitely like the layout! Do you have any idea when you might be releasing the next version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted August 24, 2021 Author Share Posted August 24, 2021 Hopefully within the next week or so. I just need to clean up some stuff in the media folders and go through each view one more time to make sure everything is working the way it should. I'll also be releasing a slimmed down version for 3x4 resolution displays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted September 25, 2021 Author Share Posted September 25, 2021 Version 1.3 has been released. Please report any problems you run across. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobius006 Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Super happy with this theme! Question, is there a way to show banners instead of the marquee? I have a separate screen for my marquees, so looking to disable them on the main game views of vertical 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted January 3, 2022 Author Share Posted January 3, 2022 3 hours ago, mobius006 said: Super happy with this theme! Question, is there a way to show banners instead of the marquee? I have a separate screen for my marquees, so looking to disable them on the main game views of vertical 1. I'm glad you like it! You want to be able to use the banners pulled from the \Launchbox\Images\(platform)\Banner folder instead of \Launchbox\Images\(platform)\Arcade - Marquee folder? So a banner would be at the top of the primary screen instead of the marquee when displaying games? I'm curious, how are you displaying a marquee on a second screen? I never programmed a marquee view into the the theme. OR - are you saying you want nothing at all displayed at the top of the primary screen and you don't currently have anything (marquee view) displayed on a second monitor but would like to? If this is the case, what would go at the top of the primary screen where the marquee currently is? A blank space? If we're talking about the whole screen being moved up to fill the gap left behind from the marquee no longer being at the top of the primary screen, that would require practically making a whole new theme altogether. I've been hesitant to create a dedicated (second screen) marquee view because there is no standard size marquee screen out there. In my mind, it should be a thin horizontal monitor to more closely mimic a real arcade marquee. Unfortunately these are pretty hard to come by. I'm kind of at a loss as to how to create a decent marquee view that is suitable for everyone. Luckily, the Marquee View (on a second screen) is pretty simple to do. I could create several different sizes and add them as a separate download. You pick the one you want and just drop the .xaml file into the theme and go. This would probably be pretty easy to do and I am willing to do it, but I don't want to chase my tail trying to do something custom not knowing exactly how you need it set up. Give me some more details as to what you're looking for and I'll see what I can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobius006 Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Current Set up - 2nd screen Marquee set to 'On'. Duplicate marquees are in view. One on the main screen, One on the 2nd screen - for the most part. The Marquee option for 2nd screen within Big Box is there, but images on the 2nd screen were often displaying at a small resolution and distorted. I played around with a few options I saw on updating the screen resolution inside windows but that didn't help. I copied over and edited the main marquee xaml from the default theme and set it to 'fill'. Sadly I think thats the best option anyways. Like you said, there are a few different sized screens out there for 'marquees'. I have a 1280x390. This Display seems to be pretty popular for Arcade1up mods, and it's the one I have. I think your option of a few .xaml with resolutions is a good start. I wasn't happy with a lot of the marquee download options out there, so I used the creators tool to render out a quick batch at the 2nd screens resolution. This does bring me back to current issue, as to what 'could' go in the area that you currently have filled by Arcade Marquee. Banner to me seemed liked the easiest since that image type is there, but the resolutions for those images are all over the place as well. I don't have to much of a preference if it's another default image, something a bit more custom, or a blank space. I watched a few other launch box videos last night and saw there is an option inside launch box for Marquee Priority, which peaked my interest so need to see what's there later today. When replacing some of the console marquees I scraped with my custom ones, I was able to get two different images to show up. But it was almost at random which one would be on which screen. Again really love the work, and I think this is the best vertical theme that is out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted January 3, 2022 Author Share Posted January 3, 2022 I can certainly add a custom marquee view for that resolution or whatever that screen ratio equates to. As for the banner image ratios/resolutions, that is a big problem with that image type as there is no standard size or ratio for banners. Its actually an issue for my theme as Platforms do not have Marquees so I had to use Banner Images. I had to create a bunch of suitably sized images for the platforms/playlists and include them in the theme. If there is a banner that is square shaped, depending on how the default marquee view is programmed, it will probably shrink down to fit the narrow monitor as I assume the image is not being stretched to fit (which would look weird too). Try using stretch instead of fill in the default marquee view you edited. At any rate, knowing that banners are all shaped weird, your best bet is probably to source your own banner images that are more arcade marquee shaped (or create your own like you did with the marquees). Marquee Priority is a relatively new thing that came out two or three months ago. What that does is if the theme calls for a marquee, it will look at the marquee priority and will send a marquee to the screen. If there is no marquee, the next image type in the marquee priority will be sent. I'm at work so I can't see my Launchbox to know for sure, but I think the next default is banner images - I could be wrong about that though. Previously, Marquee image type was buried in the box front image priorities. This made theming anything with a marquee difficult, as box front images would be displayed unless everything in box front priorities except for Arcade Marquee was turned off. What I foresee being a problem is marquee priorities taking over anything I try to do in regards to adding banners in a second area of the theme as marquee priorities will take over. This might require some creative stuff on my part to get it to work the way you want. From a theme development point of view, image priorities can be a major headache sometimes. With the marquees showing in two places and sometimes randomly, I'm willing to bet they were marquee images that you had a multiple quantity - like Super Mario, Super Mario-01, Super Mario-02. If you have multiple different images named the same like that, BigBox will randomly select from those and display whichever one it picks. In order for you to have a banner on the primary screen and a marquee on the second screen will require the theme to be programmed that way. I think you just got lucky with a few of those in that you had multiple different versions of that image named that way. Maybe tonight when I get home if I have some free time, I will try to bang out a version for you that uses a banner on the bottom and a marquee view for the secondary display. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobius006 Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Awesome. No Rush! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted January 5, 2022 Author Share Posted January 5, 2022 @mobius006 check your inbox for the modded theme. If anyone else wants to try it out, let me know. It uses banners where the marquees usually go on the primary screen and includes a marquee platform and games view for the secondary display if using a marquee monitor. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely new to this theme. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryy Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 I'm using your theme (great one by the way) and I would be interested in the mod also (using two monitors). I'm also wondering if you could answer a question for me. I installed your CTC files in CTC (Ver 2.2) for editing, after an edit (or no editing at all) when I publish the Theme I lose the text view in the System Option menu. It doesn't maintain the text in the graphic (girl.Gif) window and reverts to the default view (which is unreadable). I believe you wrote a special routine for the text to be place on the graphic and bypassed the default screen (or diverted the text to the graphic screen some how). So when I go to publish theme in CTC it loses this routine (my edits are fine). How would I go about correcting this if possible. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted January 17, 2022 Author Share Posted January 17, 2022 (edited) Hi @terryy Correct, I have some extra files that need to be dropped into the theme for those back end views to display correctly. Its one spot I wish the devs would fix for vertical users, as the backend is practically un-usable with the default settings. Either that or ask @y2guru to issue a module in the theme creator that addresses this. He is very busy keeping up with the other BigBox stuff so I can't fault him for not doing anything with it. Open the zip here (unblock it first) and drop the files into the root of the Vertical Aspirations theme. Keep in mind, you'll need to do this each time you publish with the theme creator as it over-writes the whole folder each time it publishes the theme. Another option is to download @C-Beats TrueVert theme and pull out the nessessary backend views from that and use those if you want something different. His looks like the default backend stuff but text is centered and fits on the screen. I'll send you a seperate note about the 2 screen mod. Vertical Aspirations - Theme Extras.zip Edited January 17, 2022 by JaysArcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryy Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 Thanks for the fast response, I thought it was a little tricky. This helps a lot, great work, and again thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysArcade Posted February 4, 2022 Author Share Posted February 4, 2022 (edited) I've Added a drop in mod to add new secondary display marquee support with animated marquees. Games View - The theme searches for a Marquee Video in ..\LaunchBox\Videos\{Platform Name}\Marquee folder. If it can't find a marquee video, it looks for an Arcade-Marquee image. If it can't find an Arcade-Marquee image, it defaults to the Platform Marquee View. Look on the forum for Video Arcade Marquee Files by philbobaggins for a good selection of Video Marquees. Platform View - The theme uses a generic background image (supplied) with a clear logo that breathes (very slight animation) and a *mascot* on each side of the logo that also move. You can replace the generic background with your own if you like. You'll find it in the ..\Vertical Aspirations\Media\Platform Marquees folder called Platform Marquee Background.png. If you want to add your own "Mascots", simply name them the same as the platform and drop them in the ..\Vertical Aspirations\Media\Platform Mascots (2) folders. https://forums.launchbox-app.com/files/file/2593-vertical-aspirations-a-vertically-oriented-cabinet-theme-marquee-mod-added/ Platform Marquee View 2022-01-08 19-01-42.mp4 Games Marquee View 2022-01-08 19-05-17.mp4 I may release this mod as an alternative to the default marquee views that any theme can use if there is any interest. There is a bit of user set up involved in doing this but nothing too difficult. This mod is only compatible with Vertical Aspirations 1.3. Edited February 4, 2022 by JaysArcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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