A different take on theme making

[Antny]

 

 

So here is a different approach to creating a theme.  This can't compete with 
some of the fantastic themes currently available but I made it for mself and thought 
I'd share the progress. The things in the video that were skipped were skipped on purpose
as those individual platforms are not finished.  Also much of the artwork is not mine, just things 
I found on the www.

The theme(s) need to be tweaked and will probably be a WIP forever 😕

I'm going to be forever angry at y2guru for sending me down this rabbit hole

I'm far from an expert with the CTC and have a few questions.  Anyone's help would be appreciated.

1-Is there any way to freeform images to fit an irregular shape?  If you look at the GameCube theme 
I cannot get the video to fit the large screen in the back.  I can't seem to do it with the x & y adjustments.  
There are other instances with images with the same problem.

2-I set the CTC to just show one clear logo and for whatever reason when it is published it always shows more than one.

3-I have wheel set sounds for the Atari 2600.  When I back out, those sounds continue on the main menu.

4-How do I keep Launchbox/Bigbox from renaming my media that I spend so long getting to match the rom exactly.  
Just like things tidy.  

5-Any way to have the logos go down the street in the vector playlist?  Small in the distance large up close.

Recomendations

1-I'm either going with an ethereal approach or the quintisential song remix of the particular platform/playlist. 
It currently has both.  Any suggestions? 

2-Also should the wheel up/down/enter sounds be sounds from the menu of the console as in the Dreamcast theme or 
sounds from the actual games of the console?

3-Any images for platform/playlist anyone can recommend would be helpful

Thanks in advance for any help
 

 

 

[faeran]

On 11/15/2022 at 2:37 PM, Antny said:

1-Is there any way to freeform images to fit an irregular shape?  If you look at the GameCube theme 
I cannot get the video to fit the large screen in the back.  I can't seem to do it with the x & y adjustments.  
There are other instances with images with the same problem.

You are looking for a perspective rotate on the Y axis, but in order to do that you'll need to dive into the world of WPF 3D viewports. Last I remember, I don't believe the CTC has support for them, so you'll have to do it via coding the view files directly. It might just be easier for you to get a different GameCube background that doesn't have that type of perspective.

2-I set the CTC to just show one clear logo and for whatever reason when it is published it always shows more than one.

Not sure what you mean here. Do you mean 1 logo within a wheel? If you only want to see one at a time, you can increase the spacing property so you don't see the others.

3-I have wheel set sounds for the Atari 2600.  When I back out, those sounds continue on the main menu.

From what I know, I don't believe Big Box supports different navigation sounds on a per-platform basis. If you are getting that to work, it's most likely part of a plugin, and it's hard to know how those work behind the scenes.

4-How do I keep Launchbox/Bigbox from renaming my media that I spend so long getting to match the rom exactly.  
Just like things tidy.

LaunchBox has its own naming convention + folder structure. There are reasons for this that I won't get into here, but there is compatibility for images that match the name of the ROM. The only reason LaunchBox would be changing any image file names is if you edited a game and made changes. 

5-Any way to have the logos go down the street in the vector playlist?  Small in the distance large up close.

Yes, but it would require the use of the new FlowControl wheel type, and that is currently not part of the official version of the CTC. You'd have to dive into the view file and make the code changes, but it essentially would entail switching over to the new FlowControl, and using a perspective camera on it.

Not sure how much help these are, but good luck with your theme.

[TJ_on_Launchbox]

This Theme is absolutely incredible.
You made a great Job. I will not imagine how much work you put into this.

My opinion for your questions:
1. Use the original Songs. Not Remixes.

2. Wheel should have the Console Sound

3. For Images i always looked here in the Forum or Emumovies. I remember that many Clear Logos in different Variations were posted here.