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RedSnake

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Hi, your theme is very very cool, I love it. 

But I have a question : all my fanart are in 1920x1080 for the other theme I use. And I want to keep them. Is it possible to put another directory instead of fanart background ? Or modify the xaml to make background fit the full screen behind the overlay ? If so, What do I have to change in the xaml ?

Thank you. 

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Hi @gaialily,

Not sure if there is a xaml option that can make 1920*1080 fill a 1120x1080 space in a centered way. I will check it, but anyway you can't change it yourself as I have handle backgrounds display in a custom plugin (its a dll that cannot be edited except by myself).

However, some fanarts may be weirdly displayed if for example main focus is on the right or the left of the fanart  (and not in the center).

 

Concerning the background folder, it is not really possible unless you consider them as something else than fanart and that you don't already use in another theme - for example banner or anything else .

The views to edit are WheelGamesView.xaml (line74) and TextGamesView.xaml and you would have to change                 

           <Binding Path="SelectedGame.BackgroundImagePath"/>

to       <Binding Path="SelectedGame.xxx"/>

I am not even sure that the xxx has a value for all available metadata type.

 

Also keep in mind that if you edit these files, it will be overwritten by the next theme updates, and you will need to edit the files again

Edited by RedSnake
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1 hour ago, zombiesruuun said:

Thanks for your quick reply! TL;DR version is... you fixed my problem!

...

But don't let that dissuade you from adding more please!!! Thanks again mate! :D

Good! Glad I could help.

I intend to release an update as soon as current beta is over.

I have 4 more console systems covered, and a have added some candy cabs to cover most famous arcade playlist (plus now the default display for arcade will be a mame arcade cabinet and not a tv screen anymore) like atomiswave, naomi, vewlix, egret and windy ...

I also have managed (via my plugin) to use the CRT-Geom shader for gameplay video, and therefore got rid of the overlayed scanlines.

So next update will come soon

Edited by RedSnake
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Thank you! I will try and I stay tuned for the update.

If not possible I'll make a backup of my fanarts and change them when I use your theme. Not a big deal ?

 

Edit : It works with the "banner" path. I think I don't use it at all for another theme, so I will put the 1120x1080 fanart here.

Thank you very much.

Edited by gaialily
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9 hours ago, RedSnake said:

Good! Glad I could help.

I intend to release an update as soon as current beta is over.

I have 4 more console systems covered, and a have added some candy cabs to cover most famous arcade playlist (plus now the default display for arcade will be a mame arcade cabinet and not a tv screen anymore) like atomiswave, naomi, vewlix, egret and windy ...

I also have managed (via my plugin) to use the CRT-Geom shader for gameplay video, and therefore got rid of the overlayed scanlines.

So next update will come soon

Sounds great, the Namco one is really good so looking forward to seeing the generic mame.

CRT-geom will be good to see too.

Just another small thought regarding the platform view - are you looking to implement fanart backgrounds for all your LB platforms eventually? And how far down the queue of "things to do" that comes?

Just thought as you only need one for each platform it may be be relatively quick for you to do compared to the game view - I may be wrong though!

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10 hours ago, zombiesruuun said:

Sounds great, the Namco one is really good so looking forward to seeing the generic mame.

The Namco one was a failure and horrible. The screen is too big compared to the cabinet, and the cabinet itself is too much flattened. I have reworked it (as well as the Neo Geo one) and now it looks much more like the true one, proportion wise.

From that:

446251228_NamcoClassics.thumb.jpg.378bc59b943b908206d4f1de243043fd.jpg

to this:

Namco.thumb.jpg.15e3e72a29ca06f46a310ce9f271642b.jpg

The default Mame one:

Mame.thumb.png.ff47198dc4a49db475d9e482cfec71b2.png

Other candy cabs:

TaitoClassics.thumb.jpg.21ea267c8d0d81b85dda46ac7eb235e6.jpgnesicaxlive.thumb.png.90aa1ab701eeb995d6068b01d1dcf4d7.pngNaomi.thumb.jpg.42d98b330946d028bef40ee4d1b31c2b.jpgKonami.thumb.jpg.f2f128738fa20b10e86279ce5bcb3b8b.jpgCentipede.thumb.png.7d75070e0721e51521722aeb0c5b6b03.pngAtomiswave.thumb.jpg.5f61e7b0633f3120d148be8c9d3fc586.jpgttx2.thumb.jpg.2996d90654391e45f8a491d32955ea1f.jpg

10 hours ago, zombiesruuun said:

Just another small thought regarding the platform view - are you looking to implement fanart backgrounds for all your LB platforms eventually? And how far down the queue of "things to do" that comes?

Except for old computers, I think I have fanarts for all systems THAT I HAVE in LB (so a few are missing like PS3, XBox360, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo WiiU). I do however have some games for these systems, so at some points I will integrate them in LB and support them in my theme, but that is not my priority. Are there specific systems that I am missing? Also, as a reminder, if the platform view is missing a global fanart for a given system, you can add (or change - but it will be replaced on every theme update) it in the theme

As for how far down the queue of things to do, here are a few things in order of priority:

- finish home consoles that I have in LB (16 remaining - only need to add the posters and figures) + add the missing one (I think the 4 mentioned previously are all that I am missing)

- cover all mame "classics" playlist with candy cabs and other arcade category (technoparrot stuff for the most) with their dedicated cab (Taito type X and Nesicaxlive are done and will be in the next release - I still need to cover more like lindbergh and others)

- start handhelds categories

- start old computers categories (this one will be really annoying cause it has the more equipment to "design", like specific monitor, specific keyboard, specific everything ...)

- pinball FX 2

- add arcade game specific cabinet (Already started as a test to see if I could tilt the videos, and yes I can: DigDug, Kangaroo and Centipede are done - they use the same US cabinet model), starting by most "famous" one, like galaga, donkey kong, etc ...

- at some points I would like to replace the BB wheel by a custom wheel that bypasses the "from WheelGameView to TextGameView" transition. I don't think Jason had any plan to change this behavior although I can be mistaken here. If I succeed, that also means I will be able to add a view "à la" COINOPS Diamonds, which will probably be the final step of this theme. I want to wait for end of current beta because from what I understood, wheel management has changed and now it will be possible to define a view as a wheel item "template", so maybe I can use it but we will see ...

- after that I will finally play, play and play even more :)

Edited by RedSnake
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7 hours ago, RedSnake said:

...

Except for old computers, I think I have fanarts for all systems THAT I HAVE in LB (so a few are missing like PS3, XBox360, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo WiiU). I do however have some games for these systems, so at some points I will integrate them in LB and support them in my theme, but that is not my priority. Are there specific systems that I am missing? Also, as a reminder, if the platform view is missing a global fanart for a given system, you can add (or change - but it will be replaced on every theme update) it in the theme

As for how far down the queue of things to do, here are a few things in order of priority:

- finish home consoles that I have in LB (16 remaining - only need to add the posters and figures) + add the missing one (I think the 4 mentioned previously are all that I am missing)

- cover all mame "classics" playlist with candy cabs and other arcade category (technoparrot stuff for the most) with their dedicated cab (Taito type X and Nesicaxlive are done and will be in the next release - I still need to cover more like lindbergh and others)

- start handhelds categories

- start old computers categories (this one will be really annoying cause it has the more equipment to "design", like specific monitor, specific keyboard, specific everything ...)

- pinball FX 2

- add arcade game specific cabinet (Already started as a test to see if I could tilt the videos, and yes I can: DigDug, Kangaroo and Centipede are done - they use the same US cabinet model), starting by most "famous" one, like galaga, donkey kong, etc ...

- at some points I would like to replace the BB wheel by a custom wheel that bypasses the "from WheelGameView to TextGameView" transition. I don't think Jason had any plan to change this behavior although I can be mistaken here. If I succeed, that also means I will be able to add a view "à la" COINOPS Diamonds, which will probably be the final step of this theme. I want to wait for end of current beta because from what I understood, wheel management has changed and now it will be possible to define a view as a wheel item "template", so maybe I can use it but we will see ...

- after that I will finally play, play and play even more :)

The cabs look very nice, thanks for uploading the pics.

 

Fair enough that you're only adding systems that you actually have or use.  Regarding platform view art - you're not missing many - from my collection anyway! I would personally (and selfishly xD) benefit from:

Consoles: Panasonic 3DO, NEC SuperGrafx, Philips Videopac+, Neo Geo AES (console not arcade) and Sega CD 32x (only 5 or so games).  Maybe you're already working on some of these.

Handhelds for when you get around to them: Nintendo Game&Watch, Sony PSP Minis and Bandai Wonderswan and Wonderswan Colour.

 

That computers one sounds like hard work!  Most of them are so obscure too, must be tricky even finding good pics to reproduce them!  Good luck with all of it especially the play, play, play part! :D

Edited by zombiesruuun
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1 hour ago, zombiesruuun said:

Consoles: Panasonic 3DO, NEC SuperGrafx, Philips Videopac+, Neo Geo AES (console not arcade) and Sega CD 32x (only 5 or so games).  Maybe you're already working on some of these.

Panasonic 3do, Nec Supergrafx and Philips VideoPac+ (aka Magnavox Odyssey 3 or Videopac G7400) are already done (although only 3do has its gameview complete):

848699124_videopac.thumb.jpg.b1a1ab650adb1bb93399f819bae58147.jpgsupergrafx.thumb.png.f710312572c1e08a690a5d7d552ca475.png3do.thumb.jpg.b30a5f3d45c196959559578127076b8d.jpg

I think I rename the Philips VideoPac+ to Philips VideoPac because the "+" was giving me trouble.

You can add this file to "Themes\DarkRoom\Views\Configurations" folder to fix this (at least it should) 

Philips Videopac+.xaml

NEC SuperGrafx: if you really named it like that, should be available. Same thing for Panasonic 3DO.

Neo Geo AES: well, let's say, if I do it, it will probably be among the last things I do, because they are the exact same games as the arcade version (as far as I know the rom are the exact same ones).

Sega CD 32X: didn't know Sega 32X and Sega CD had a child ... someday maybe :) 

1 hour ago, zombiesruuun said:

Handhelds for when you get around to them: Nintendo Game&Watch, Sony PSP Minis and Bandai Wonderswan and Wonderswan Colour.

Nintendo Game&Watch I had it, but recently Mame brough support to the real Nintendo game&watch games (not the .mgw ones). I have them but not integrated yet. I have to sort them out correctly

Sony PSP mini: maybe. Not to sure about this one. Definitly on bottom of the list as well.

Bandai WonderSwan and Bandai WonderSwan Color are present as well (although under construction):

wonder.thumb.jpg.5f50db05f49681b55f2c78e377478910.jpgwondercolor.thumb.jpg.7b34584ef208b0d76d00ae2822af6d1d.jpg

You can check content of folder \Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platforms\Fanart\Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Playlists\Fanart and \Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platform Categories\Fanart to ensure a fanart you are looking for is here but maybe with an un-matching name. Also note that if fanart renaming is needed, you will probably need to rename the logo as well

Edited by RedSnake
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Thanks for the pics, I really like the cabinets.

Small question, I have a unique categories for my arcade games, called "Arcade", and the folder for the images is called "Arcade" too. Does the mame cabinet will work on ? Because I noticed that the images of the platform and system "device"  don't work when giving the name of my consoles folder. For example, I have the "Sega Megadrive" folder in my launchbox images folder, not "Sega Genesis". And if I rename your "Sega Genesis" device image to "Sega Megadrive", It won't display at all. So I let it (but I wonder why the name "sega genesis" works, is it link with a dll plugin ?).

Edited by gaialily
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1 hour ago, gaialily said:

but I wonder why the name "sega genesis" works, is it link with a dll plugin ?

Kind of.

Everytime something is changed in BB via user selection (be it a platform, playlist, category or a game), the plugin will evaluate (depending on parents/ alias (aka scrapeas property)) the correct configuration file to use.

They are defined in \Themes\DarkRoom\Views\Configurations.

You can see that there is a Sega Genesis.xaml file here that holds properties to apply to the theme (among them the device file to use), if your platform:

- is the Sega Genesis ==> this is not your case

- has its parent (or parent of parent of ... etc) as Sega Genesis ==> this is not your case, however it is useful when you have created sub-playlists or sub-categories like Sega Genesis Genre, Sega Genesis Regions, Sega Genesis Favorites, etc ...

- has been scraped as Sega Genesis ==> I guess this is your case and that explains why it works

 

If nothing is found, it will use the _Default.xaml configuration file ("under construction"), as it is the case (for now) for Arcade.

However in the next release, I have added a Arcade.xaml file that points to the default Mame arcade cabinet.

So all arcade systems will use it in case no specific (like neo geo and namco classics in the current release) configuration file has been defined for them.

 

Also, for various reasons (among them the fact that my mame playlists may not match other users playlists), all games that use a given candy cab or us cab will be linked to that cab, whatever they are associated with.

So for example, Samurai Shodown Neo Geo game uses the Neo Geo arcade cabinet if the game is in:

- the Arcade SNK Neo Geo MVS playlist

- or the Arcade SNK Classics playlist

- or in the VS Fight (or whatever it is called) genre playlist

- ... or wherever you want, because it has a GAME SPECIFIC configuration file linked to its LB Database ID (shared among users) ==> this also means that for a specific cab to be applied to a game, this game needs to be in the LB database and correctly recognized in your LB setup.

That is what allows the theme to display vertical/horizontal games within either a vertical or horizontal version of the cabinet (you can see it for Ikaruga on Sega Naomi screen that I posted ealier)

Only in next release however :)

 

Also please note that renaming anything in the Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Theme folder will not work.

Edited by RedSnake
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On 3/18/2021 at 10:01 PM, RedSnake said:

Panasonic 3do, Nec Supergrafx and Philips VideoPac+ (aka Magnavox Odyssey 3 or Videopac G7400) are already done (although only 3do has its gameview complete):

Think I rename the Philips VideoPac+ to Philips VideoPac because the "+" was giving me trouble.

You can add this file to "Themes\DarkRoom\Views\Configurations" folder to fix this (at least it should) 

Philips Videopac+.xaml 404 B · 5 downloads

NEC SuperGrafx: if you really named it like that, should be available. Same thing for Panasonic 3DO.

Neo Geo AES: well, let's say, if I do it, it will probably be among the last things I do, because they are the exact same games as the arcade version (as far as I know the rom are the exact same ones).

Sega CD 32X: didn't know Sega 32X and Sega CD had a child ... someday maybe :) 

Nintendo Game&Watch I had it, but recently Mame brough support to the real Nintendo game&watch games (not the .mgw ones). I have them but not integrated yet. I have to sort them out correctly

Sony PSP mini: maybe. Not to sure about this one. Definitly on bottom of the list as well.

Bandai WonderSwan and Bandai WonderSwan Color are present as well (although under construction):

 

You can check content of folder \Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platforms\Fanart\Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Playlists\Fanart and \Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platform Categories\Fanart to ensure a fanart you are looking for is here but maybe with an un-matching name. Also note that if fanart renaming is needed, you will probably need to rename the logo as well

Thanks for the detailed info there and for providing the Philips Videopac file - it did fix the problem.

 

As per your advice I checked the \Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platforms\Fanart folder, and the NEC SuperGrafx, Panasonic 3DO and Bandai WonderSwan and Colour were indeed there.

For some reason those platforms are named "PC Engine SuperGrafx", "3DO Interactive Multiplayer", "WonderSwan" and "WonderSwan Colour" on my build which is why they don't work.

 

Think I'll either change my platform names, or have a play around with the .xaml file you provided to try to create some working new ones for my particular system names.

 

Thanks again!

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On 3/20/2021 at 12:22 PM, zombiesruuun said:

Think I'll either change my platform names, or have a play around with the .xaml file you provided to try to create some working new ones for my particular system names.

For Wonderswan and WonderSwan Color,  PC Engine SuperGrafx, and Panasonic 3do, just rename fanart and clear logo files (\Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platforms\Fanart and \Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platforms\Clear Logo), as well as the Nec Supergrafx.xaml to PC Engine SuperGrafx.xaml, and Panasonic 3do.xaml to 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.xaml

Wonderswan systems don't have configuration file yet, but when I create them I will take care naming them correctly ^^

This issue comes from me renaming systems so that they match RocketLauncher AHK scripts, but never mind that :)

That should fix all your remaining pb

Edited by RedSnake
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10 hours ago, RedSnake said:

For Wonderswan and WonderSwan Color,  PC Engine SuperGrafx, and Panasonic 3do, just rename fanart and clear logo files (\Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platforms\Fanart and \Themes\DarkRoom\Images\Platforms\Clear Logo), as well as the Nec Supergrafx.xaml to PC Engine SuperGrafx.xaml, and Panasonic 3do.xaml to 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.xaml

Wonderswan systems don't have configuration file yet, but when I create them I will take care naming them correctly ^^

This issue comes from me renaming systems so that they match RocketLauncher AHK scripts, bever never mind that :)

That should fix all your remaining pb

Superb, that was easier than anticipated. Just tried that and yep, that's fixed me. Didn't expect so much help, huge thanks for that.

Oh right, yes rocket launcher must chuck another spanner into the works! Everyone seems to have different platform names so it must be a bit of a minefield! Can't help that Launchbox randomly misses out the manufacturer name at the front of some of the default platform names... But not all... Very odd. ?

Anyway thanks again and like everyone else I look forward to your future updates! Cheers ??

 

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8 hours ago, gaialily said:

Hi @RedSnake

I have a small question, the mini slide on backgrounds when changing games (or platform), you do that only with xaml code ? Or with a plugin ?

Thanks.

Indeed it is the plugin. I didn't find any way to do it in xaml (I mean the slide in the sens of the browsing)

However it is possible to do it in xaml if you only care about the slide (only one direction though). CMOSS did it in its CoinOps Redux theme.

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Thank you. Although I already tried with the coinops xaml, but it's a theme made with community theme creator, and the code seem to not be very compatible with the other theme. But I will try again, maybe it's me who don't do it properly.

Thank you anyway. 

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2 hours ago, gaialily said:

Hi again @RedSnake

I just notice it now, but when I launch a game with your theme, the video of the game in the wheelview continue to play, so I have the sound behind while playing. Not in the other themes, bigobox is on "pause".

It's only me ?

Hi,

 

I checked it and yes I have the same problem.

It also happens when you 'alt tab' to another application, and Big Box videos continue playing with my Theme, but not with others.

Probably something to deal with window focus management or foreground state.

 

I will work on it, and try to fix this before next BB version update.

 

Thanx for the feedback.

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