ThirdScreen Plugin for Platform Video Marquees, 3+ Screen Support, and more

[superrob3000]

ThirdScreen Plugin for Platform Video Marquees, 3+ Screen Support, and more

View File

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This plugin adds enhanced Marquee capabilities plus support for unlimited screens.

- Enhanced Marquee Capabilities:

• Adds support for Platform Video Marquees, Playlist Video Marquees, and Platform Category Video Marquees.
• Adds support for Marquee Startup Videos.
• Adds support for animated gif files.
• Fixes marquee shift issue for TeknoParrot games.
• Marquee(s) will work in LaunchBox, not just in BigBox.
• Adds optional blur-fill background effect when media is not stretched to fit the entire screen (as of v2.0.10).

- Support for a 3rd screen or unlimited additional screens each displaying their own priority based list of media.

- Each screen has access to ALL media that has been imported to LaunchBox (all images, all videos, plus rotating 3D box models!)

- Graphical user interface for setting up screens. Your theme files do not get modified.

- Ability to stretch or not stretch based on the media type being shown on each screen.

- Screens are tracked by GPU port stable IDs, so nothing will ever break due to Windows re-ordering display  numbers.

 

Demo Videos:

 

 

 

Installation:

1. *** Before installing, please make sure you are using the latest version of LaunchBox. Version 13.0 or higher is required. ***
2. Download ThirdScreen.zip to your PC. Right click on the zip file and extract all files.
3. Close LaunchBox/BigBox and copy the Plugins and ThirdParty folders to your LaunchBox directory.

 

Adding a new screen:

1. If you are setting up your main Marquee screen, you'll first need to disable the Marquee in BigBox settings in order to transfer control of it over to ThirdScreen.  Open BigBox. Hit escape to go to BigBox settings. Go to Options->General->Marquee Screen and set it to "None".

 

2. Select ThirdScreen Settings either from the Tools dropdown in LaunchBox or the settings screen in BigBox.

3. In the ThirdScreen Settings app choose "Add Screen" in the upper left.

4. Give this screen a name. If this is your main marquee, make sure "Start with typical marquee media" is checked - this will start you off with the typical expected media for a main marque (e.g. marquee videos, marquee images, banner images, clear logos, etc...). Then hit Continue.

5. Click "Identify Displays" and take note of the name displayed on the desired display. Then choose
the corresponding display name from the "Choose Display" drop down menu.

 

 

Choosing which media shows on each screen:

1. Select a screen from your list of existing screens.

2. Add desired media to both the game and platform views for this screen. (Tip: You can hover over most drop down boxes and controls to get a more detailed description of what each one does).

3. Adjust the priority of each media item up or down (items higher on the list have higher priority). ThirdScreen will search the selected game or platform's media starting from the top of the list and working its way down until it finds something to display.

4. For each media item in your views you can choose whether or not to stretch fill the screen. If set to No, then the item will be uniformly stretched (aspect ratio will be preserved). If set  to Yes, the media will be stretched to fill the entire screen (aspect ratio will not be preserved).  (Your choice will depend on the type of media and the screen dimensions. For example, Marquee videos/images will look best stretch filled on a bar type display but not on a 16:9 aspect ratio display. Video snaps will look best stretch filled on a 16:9 aspect ratio display, but not on a bar type display.)

 

 

Adding startup videos or images for each screen:

 

1. Select a screen from your list of existing screens.

2. Click "Startup Video Folder" to open the startup folder for this screen. Copy any media you want to be displayed at startup for this screen into this folder. Video files and static images are supported. If there is more than one item in the folder, ThirdScreen will choose one of them randomly to display at startup.

 

 

Adding Platform Marquee Videos, Playlist Marquee Videos, and Platform Category Marquee Videos:

1. In LaunchBox select Tools->"Manage Platform/Playlist Video Marquees"

2. From here you can add and manage video marquee files for Platforms, Playlists, and Platform Categories. Once added, they will be available for display using the ThirdScreen Plugin.

 

 

FAQs:

Q. How many screens are supported?

  A. As many as you want. The only limit is the number of hdmi or display ports on your PC.

Q. Can I use this Plugin if I only have a single marquee screen?

  A. Yes, if you don't have a third screen you can still use this for your main marquee. That will get you the added benefits of platform marquee videos, animated gif support, marquee startup videos, etc.

Q. If I choose to display 3D box models, how can I rotate them?

  A. The 3D box models will be self-rotating. They will continuously spin while being displayed (no need for any user input).

Q. In Game View, what's the difference between "Add Game's Parent Platform Media" and "Add Current Platform/Playlist Media"? Which one should I choose?

  A. It just depends on your preference when viewing Playlists. When scrolling games in a platform wheel, it will not make any difference which of the two dropdown lists you chose from. When scrolling games in a playlist wheel choose "Add Game's Parent Platform Media" if you want the media to change depending on the type of game (for example, the playlist might be a mix of NES, Wii, and Arcade games). Choose "Add Current Platform/Playlist Media" if you instead want to always display the Playlist's media (for example the marquee or theme video from your Favorites playlist).

Q. Will my Theme xaml files get modified?

  A. No, the plugin never touches your theme files. You are free to switch and add new themes whenever you want.

Q. How can I delete/modify media in LaunchBox if it is currently being displayed by ThirdScreen?

  A. You might sometimes run into a situation where you want to delete or modify a game's media files, but LaunchBox gives you an error because the media is in use. No problem, just temporarily disable ThirdScreen when in LaunchBox. Open the ThirdScreen settings app, click the gear icon in the upper right, and choose "Disabled when in LaunchBox".

Q. Why doesn't Platform view work for my marquee(s) when in LaunchBox?

  A. This has been fixed with version 2.0.6 of this plugin as long as you are on LaunchBox version 13.1-beta-6 or higher..

 

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Make sure you are using the latest version of this plugin.

2. If this is your main marquee screen, please first double-check that you have disabled your marquee in BigBox settings. The ThirdScreen plugin will not attempt to use your marquee display if BigBox is using it.

3. If some image or video you've added isn't showing up when you expect it to, double-check that it is categorized correctly in LaunchBox. It's very easy to add media in LaunchBox and then forget to change its image or video type (I do that all the time).

4. If you are having an issue, please enable logging for both the ThirdScreen plugin and LaunchBox/BigBox, and then send me the log files after you try the thing that isn't working. The log files will be in the LaunchBox/Logs folder. To enable logging do the following:

• For ThirdScreen: Tools->ThirdScreen Settings, click the gear icon in the upper right and choose "Debug Log File Enabled".
• For LaunchBox/BigBox: Tools->Options->General->Debugging, check "Enable Debug Logs".

5. If LaunhBox/BigBox will not start at all after installing the dll files, make sure you are on version 13.0 or higher of LaunchBox and also try disabling any Pen or TouchScreen devices listed in Device Manager (there is currently a known conflict with the Windows Pen driver which is affecting some users). (Edit: This has been resolved in v2.0.13) 

6. If animated gif files aren't displaying for you, try running LaunchBox/BigBox with admin privileges. (Edit: This has been resolved in v2.0.11) 

7. If you are having issues with the ThirdScreen settings app reporting an incorrect resolution and/or your marquees being incorrectly sized, clipped, or off-center then it is most likely caused by dpi scaling. I recommend trying the following steps:
       Windows 10:

• Disable "Fix scaling for apps->Let Windows try to fix apps so they're not blurry" under "Advanced scaling settings" in Windows Display Settings. Also make sure all boxes are unchecked in Properties->Compatability->Change High DPI settings when you right click on the launchbox and bigbox executables and any shortcuts to them.
• If above steps didn't work then try disabling all settings above and then go to Windows Display settings and make sure the values of "Change the size of text, apps, and other items" matches between your main monitor and all of your additional monitors.

       Windows 11:

• Windows 11 removed "Advanced scaling settings". I'm currently investigating whether any special handling is required for Windows 11 regarding DPI scaling.

       (Edit: v2.0.14 should fix most scaling issues in both Win10 and Win11) 

8. This plugin tries to fix any marquee-shift issues when a game changes the main screen resolution. As of version 4.0.0 you can select between medium mode, aggressive mode, or disabled. Medium is the default mode and is recommended. If a game changes the screen resolution, medium mode will reposition all marquees to their correct locations. Aggressive mode also hides the BigBox window to ensure it does not end up covering one of the marquee screens. While aggressive mode works perfectly on mine and many other setups, some people have reported that it can interfere with game loading or exiting (including BigBox remaining hidden after exiting a game). If you run into those types of issues you should set the option back to medium mode or disabled. In LaunchBox, go to Tools->ThirdScreen Settings. Then click the gear icon in upper right and select "Medium Shift Handling".

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Enjoy, and please follow the file to be notified of updates.

 

 

 

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• Submitter
  superrob3000
• Submitted
  12/27/2022
• Category
  Third-party Apps and Plugins

 

[garrett521]

Thanks for this!  Have not had time to try it yet, but am wondering if it is possible to have a short marquee video play once through, then automatically switch to a static game marquee (similar to the Pixelcade LCD; example at 0:50).  Is this something that is already available with this plugin, or possibly in a future version?

[superrob3000]

1 hour ago, garrett521 said:

Thanks for this!  Have not had time to try it yet, but am wondering if it is possible to have a short marquee video play once through, then automatically switch to a static game marquee (similar to the Pixelcade LCD; example at 0:50).  Is this something that is already available with this plugin, or possibly in a future version?

It's not currently an option (all video files will loop), but I do kind of like how pixelcade is doing it. I think I'll add it as an available media item (Videosnap followed by Marquee image) for both platforms and games.

[garrett521]

That would be awesome.  Thanks!

[Morris Schaffer]

Hi thanks so much for making this plugin available.  i was particularly interested in the 'Fixes marquee shift issue for TeknoParrot games' part.  So I followed your instructions and I got marquees to work, marquee startup vid as well, but TP remains an issue with some games. My marquees look like shifting, or blowing up in resolution or whatever, then when I hit escape, my bigbox has shifted wholesale to the marquee screen as well.  Happens with Rambo for instance but not Outrun 2 and Aliens Extermination for example.  This behavior was already like that before I used this plugin, but was hoping this would have been solved now.   I tried to capture this in a vid, please check.

For the record, marquee screen is set to 'none' in bigbox settings.  

Is there a specific step I need to be mindful of for the teknoparrot topic?  Thanks

[superrob3000]

@Morris Schaffer Thanks for the video, that is helpful. So the part about BigBox shifting to the marquee screen after closing the game also happens without the plugin, correct? I've found that the plugin fixes the marquee shifting issue for most games. But there are still some games where even though the marquees remain in the correct locations they get covered up by other apps (including BigBox) that get shifted onto the marquee screen. I'm working on an update to get it working in all cases.

[Morris Schaffer]

4 hours ago, superrob3000 said:

@Morris Schaffer Thanks for the video, that is helpful. So the part about BigBox shifting to the marquee screen after closing the game also happens without the plugin, correct? I've found that the plugin fixes the marquee shifting issue for most games. But there are still some games where even though the marquees remain in the correct locations they get covered up by other apps (including BigBox) that get shifted onto the marquee screen. I'm working on an update to get it working in all cases.

Hi dude, no problem.  Yes, bigbox shifting to marquee screen also happened before I used your plugin.  That said, I'm not sure it happens after I close the game, it might well happen during the startup process of the game (in fact I think it does), but it only becomes noticeable once I exit the game.  Just did some more tests:

Transformers Human Alliance: Game seems to start fine, marquee is shown fine while game loads, but then there's a slight flicker and you briefly already see the futuristic wallpaper of my main non marquee screen on my marquee screen (at 0:15) and then the actual game marquee comes back so all seems well, but when I exit, bigbox is on my marquee screen, and in fact my launchbox webpage, this exact one where I typed this message has also shifted to my marquee screen.  So it definitely seems like something suspicious is already happening while the game loads as my wallpaper of my main non marquee screen is briefly shown on my marquee screen which is odd since my wallpaper on my marquee screen is a Zelda wallpaper. When I exit Bigbox completely the correct zelda wallpaper is shown on my marquee screen though.  I don't have these phenomena with any retroarch cores or standalone emu's, only TP.

 

I want to add that when my wallpaper from my main screen is briefly seen at 0:15 on the marquee screen, at this exact moment my main screen seems to darken, like some program has kicked in.  It's clearly visible, maybe hints.   Main screen is 4K native, marquee is 2560 x 1080

Edited January 2, 2023 by Morris Schaffer

[superrob3000]

@Morris Schaffer Could you please give version 2.0.4 a try and see if it fixes the Teknoparrot issues you were seeing?

[Morris Schaffer]

On 1/4/2023 at 12:50 AM, superrob3000 said:

@Morris Schaffer Could you please give version 2.0.4 a try and see if it fixes the Teknoparrot issues you were seeing?

Looks like the marquees stay now which is real progress, so thanks.  Except when I exit some Teknoparrot games, the game window will remain open in the background and can take precedence over my big box window.  Even though I have this script (see below) set in Launchbox under 'running script' and it works for other emu's, for TP clicking esc on keyboard doesn't quite shutdown the TP exe it seems.  Maybe this issue is a different issue.  Could it be the same that Monsterclip has noticed and for which you helped him?  I'm not sure as I've been chatting with him back and forth/

$Esc::
{
    Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}}
} 

 

By the way, using your plugin would it still matter where in display settings I have placed my marquee screen?  So I mean top, right or left of the primary screen.

 

Thanks for the progress on this, the marquees are definitely staying it seems.  I also have some more videos attached.  In one you can see that even though I closed Time Crisis 5, the windows remain open.  In another transformers is now minimized top left corner and finally even though Rambo works really well (it was wonky before), there is a brief nanosecond where my fixed marquee screen wallpaper is visible before it goes back to Rambo (at 6 seconds in the vid).  No biggie obviously but I'd like to be thorough in my reporting.

 

[superrob3000]

56 minutes ago, Morris Schaffer said:

Looks like the marquees stay now which is real progress, so thanks.  Except when I exit some Teknoparrot games, the game window will remain open in the background and can take precedence over my big box window.  Even though I have this script (see below) set in Launchbox under 'running script' and it works for other emu's, for TP clicking esc on keyboard doesn't quite shutdown the TP exe it seems.  Maybe this issue is a different issue.  Could it be the same that Monsterclip has noticed and for which you helped him?  I'm not sure as I've been chatting with him back and forth/

$Esc::
{
    Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}}
} 

In your TeknoParrot UI settings under Global Hotkeys, do you have Exit Game Key set to 0x1B (Escape)?

 

58 minutes ago, Morris Schaffer said:

By the way, using your plugin would it still matter where in display settings I have placed my marquee screen?  So I mean top, right or left of the primary screen.

No, if you are using the plugin then it won't matter where your displays are positioned in Display Settings.

 

59 minutes ago, Morris Schaffer said:

...and finally even though Rambo works really well (it was wonky before), there is a brief nanosecond where my fixed marquee screen wallpaper is visible before it goes back to Rambo (at 6 seconds in the vid).  No biggie obviously but I'd like to be thorough in my reporting.

Yeah that's expected. That is when Teknoparrot changes the main screen resolution which screws up the other screen(s), then the plugin detects it and puts everything back together again in the right locations.

[Morris Schaffer]

3 hours ago, superrob3000 said:

In your TeknoParrot UI settings under Global Hotkeys, do you have Exit Game Key set to 0x1B (Escape)?

yeah I just checked it says 0x1B.  So just to be sure, it should say that or I should change it to 0x1B (Escape)?

 

or should I check 'Hide console windows?'  it is now unchecked.  Confirmation prompt on exit is checked tho.  Maybe I should uncheck it?

Edited January 5, 2023 by Morris Schaffer

[superrob3000]

6 hours ago, Morris Schaffer said:

yeah I just checked it says 0x1B.  So just to be sure, it should say that or I should change it to 0x1B (Escape)?

0x1B is correct.

 

6 hours ago, Morris Schaffer said:

or should I check 'Hide console windows?'  it is now unchecked.  Confirmation prompt on exit is checked tho.  Maybe I should uncheck it?

You should definitely uncheck "Confirmation prompt on exit". If you are still seeing the issue after that you might try removing the Esc handling from the script you have set in Launchbox for the Teknoparrot emulator. The exit game global hotkey in TP UI settings should be enough to close the games.

[Morris Schaffer]

On 1/6/2023 at 1:57 AM, superrob3000 said:

0x1B is correct.

 

You should definitely uncheck "Confirmation prompt on exit". If you are still seeing the issue after that you might try removing the Esc handling from the script you have set in Launchbox for the Teknoparrot emulator. The exit game global hotkey in TP UI settings should be enough to close the games.

Hi just wanted to say it is much improved, for pretty much all games I tried the marquee behavior is as intended so thanks.

[RVS67]

Hi, thank you for this amazing plugin. My only problem is that it identifies my marquee screen as 1850x400, while its real resolution is 1480x320. How do I fix that?

[superrob3000]

3 hours ago, RVS67 said:

Hi, thank you for this amazing plugin. My only problem is that it identifies my marquee screen as 1850x400, while its real resolution is 1480x320. How do I fix that?

Make sure scaling is set to 100% for that monitor in Windows display settings.

[RVS67]

27 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

Make sure scaling is set to 100% for that monitor in Windows display settings.

I just checked. I can confirm that scaling is at 100% (this monitor doesn't allow otherwise).

[superrob3000]

1 minute ago, RVS67 said:

I just checked. I can confirm that scaling is at 100% (this monitor doesn't allow otherwise).

Check in your Nvidia settings also. Other than that I'm at a loss as to why it would detect an incorrect resolution.

[RVS67]

6 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

Check in your Nvidia settings also. Other than that I'm at a loss as to why it would detect an incorrect resolution.

I don't use Nvidia on this machine. Please take a look at the screenshots attached.

[Krakerman]

Works great, thanks btw!

One thing I noticed was when I launch LB will not open corectly and needed to change  the LB DPI compatibility settings override to Application then LB open correctly as that display is 55" 4K 225% dpi and my monitor using marquee is 1920x1080 100% dpi and displays just fine was just when I open LB so had to change that setting. Other thing I noticed if I try to manage/configure the video files the buttons on that window on right side are shrunk and can barely see and partially cut off.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Krakerman

[superrob3000]

6 minutes ago, Krakerman said:

Works great, thanks btw!

One thing I noticed was when I launch LB will not open corectly and needed to change  the LB DPI compatibility settings override to Application then LB open correctly as that display is 55" 4K 225% dpi and my monitor using marquee is 1920x1080 100% dpi and displays just fine was just when I open LB so had to change that setting. Other thing I noticed if I try to manage/configure the video files the buttons on that window on right side are shrunk and can barely see and partially cut off.

Thanks for the feedback. Development was all done assuming 100% dpi. When I have time I'll add dpi scaling support.