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How to properly set up unified theme...


Dabil

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I am brand new to Big Box and have been using Hyperspin for yeas. Trying to switch to Big Box for my cabinet since Hyperspin seems to be dead.

I am following this beginners guide to set up LaunchBox and Big Box, however my results were not nearly as nice.

I turned on the Unified theme in Big Box, just like in the video, however mine looks very different. I just have one big wheel with every game on my system in it. I don't have the console selection wheel where you can choose Genesis or NES. Just one big wheel with every game on it. Also the game name art is missing. The art for the game on the wheel is just the system name. So I have no idea where I am at on the wheel. Does it go alphabetic like Hyperspin?

I will attach an image of what my Big Box looks like in a little bit if you need to see it to understand what I mean. I am currently importing a new ROM set so I can't go to Big Box.

 

Also, is there a particular beginner tutorial on YouTube that is really good? Most of the tutorials I see are very narrowly focused to the point where they aren't much use for someone who is at the very beginning like I am.

 

Thanks in advance for you help.

 

Cheers.

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Welcome to LaunchBox. Sounds like you are in the All Games filter. Back out into the Options menu and switch over to the Platform filter, or Platform Categories filter (You'll also notice a bunch of other filters you can go into and check out what they do).

You can set your startup filter by going into Options > View > Default Startup View.

You can also set your default Platform and Games views there as well once you get the hang of all the different views a custom them can have.

Would also be beneficial, while you are in the Options menu, to set yourself up some keyboard or controller mappings. You'll most definitely want to set one for Switch View and Switch Theme.

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I went to Options > View > Default Startup View which was set to Platforms. What should it be set to get the look I want? I attached an image of my view options as they are now and an image of the result.

ViewOptions.jpg

BigBox Image.jpg

Edited by Dabil
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Your screenshot is showing a wheel with your platforms, so based on the screenshot it looks like you are on the platform filter view. Are you wanting to see different items within the wheel?

I would explore the system menu. You will find all the different filter views, you can switch between them so you get a basic idea of what each does.

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I just want it to look and behave like the set up in the tutorial video I listed.

 

I see what you are saying after further experimentation. I am seeing platform wheels. But the problem is, when I go to that platform wheel, I want to then see an image of the console, information about it, a video sample of different games on the console. And what i am getting instead is a random game them.

The whole point of the unified theme is to make Big Box look and act like Hyperspin, which is why I selected it. But it's not working right now. Oh and once I go into a console I just get a big grid of games. Not what I want at all. I attached an image of this.

game theme.jpg

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Attached are two images from my hyperspin cabinet. The first one where you can see the image of the gamecube, is the Platform theme, and the 2nd image of Super Mario Strikers is the Game theme. Every game has the same theme, just different artwork. I am trying to get Big Box to look like this, and in the tutorial I was following, this is exactly what the guy got. But for some reason, the sames steps performed when I did, yielded a different result.

Console Wheel.jpg

Game Wheel.jpg

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So when I change the theme CriticalZoneV2 theme, I get the expected results (see pictures attached). Albeit not nearly as attractive, but at least the relevant and expected results. But when I switch back to the Unified things go wacko again. Things also go wacko when I try the Unified Redux theme. Are these Unified themes broken with the latest version of Big Box?

NewTheme.jpg

AltThemeCart.jpg

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I think I found the problem. I must be missing the platform videos for this theme. When I go to Theme-Specific Options I can see that Use random game videos for missing Platform videos is checked. When I uncheck this, the console wheel is just black then. So how do I get the platform videos? Shouldn't they have downloaded with the theme?

 

 

29790891_PlatformVideos.thumb.jpg.52049f634cf077c11f2a6994fdcf3e2a.jpg

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1 hour ago, Dabil said:

I just want it to look and behave like the set up in the tutorial video I listed.

 

I see what you are saying after further experimentation. I am seeing platform wheels. But the problem is, when I go to that platform wheel, I want to then see an image of the console, information about it, a video sample of different games on the console. And what i am getting instead is a random game them.

The whole point of the unified theme is to make Big Box look and act like Hyperspin, which is why I selected it. But it's not working right now. Oh and once I go into a console I just get a big grid of games. Not what I want at all. I attached an image of this.

game theme.jpg

Couple things based on what you are explaining:

  • Big Box is separated into Platform views and Games Views. There are many different types of views that you can choose as a user. Hopefully you have set up your Switch View mapping, then when you see that "Wall View" you can hit your hotkey and you will be presented with a list of views that you can pick from. Press the hotkey on a platform view and you will be presented with available platform views, press it on a game view and you will be presented with available game views (each theme creator can use as many, or leave out as many, views as they want).
  • Custom Themes can be created any way the author of the theme wants. They can add, or omit, any information they want. This is why you see different information in different themes.
  • In LaunchBox, you can go to Tools > Download > Platform/Playlist/Category theme videos. There you can download theme videos that some themes (like Unified) will use. If you don't have a theme video, the fallback is to play a random game video.

Hopefully that can get you started.

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4 minutes ago, Dabil said:

I think I found the problem. I must be missing the platform videos for this theme. When I go to Theme-Specific Options I can see that Use random game videos for missing Platform videos is checked. When I uncheck this, the console wheel is just black then. So how do I get the platform videos? Shouldn't they have downloaded with the theme?

 

 

29790891_PlatformVideos.thumb.jpg.52049f634cf077c11f2a6994fdcf3e2a.jpg

Just to clarify about this a little more. I mentioned that, as a user, you can download your own theme videos. However, theme creators could also package videos in with their themes if they want, which would bypass a user's theme videos and use those instead. Users could also use this to their advantage, if they are wanting certain theme videos to only play when using a specific custom theme.

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Okay now we are getting somewhere. Thank you so much. I went to Launchbox and downloaded the Unified Platform videos, then set up the switch view mapping, changed the wall view to vertical wheel 2, and BAM!!! Exactly what I wanted. I think I have enough working knowledge now to get a basic set-up. Now hopefully Retro-arch can be used for all my emulation needs. Otherwise, I'll have to figure out how to install alternate emulators. lol

 

Thanks again.

Edited by Dabil
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