Question regarding built-in PDF viewer

[CTRL-ALT-DEFEAT]

Anyone know what LB/BB is using as its built-in PDF viewer? I had assumed it was Sumatra, but the interface doesn't look like it.

I am wanting to be able to have Manuals/Strategy Guides open with bookmarks and also remember the last location it was opened from instead from the very beginning of the document.

I have Sumatra sets as the default in Windows for PDFs and if I open up these PDFs it works as expected since I made all of the necessary adjustments. However, in BigBox (even though I chose to disable using the built-in PDF viewer in Options), PDFs continue to open using whatever this built-in app is whenever I am in-game and open the Pause Menu and choose to either open the Manual or Strategy Guide and it will reset back to the beginning. If I leave it off for both Manuals and Additional PDFs and open either one from Game Details screen, they both open in Sumatra using the setting that I specified for it.

Can't figure it out. I like being able to use a controller to scroll up/down and exit from a document with the built-in app, but I also want to have the bookmarks on the side to have a jump list and also have the pages in a book view and have it remember where I last left off.

Hopefully someone knows how to get this working correctly from the in-game Pause Menu.

 

I made a short video that might detail the issue better

It seems while in-game it is using a browser as you will briefly see the icons to print or download the document. Hoping there is a way to get manuals/guides/etc to open up in Sumatra while in-game as this would be a great feature to have to not need to start from the beginning of the document each time its opened up.

Edited January 22, 2023 by CTRL-ALT-DEFEAT

[CuzzinChizzy]

I've been trying to figure this out myself. 

Would definitely be nice to be able to keep your place when using a manual or strat guide pdf.   Especially when using a strat guide.
   
Was just recently playing a game where a map for an area I was in was about 75% of the way through a guide. It was a map showing all the collectibles in the area. 
After each collectible I'd get, I'd open the strat guide and it would start at the beginning again. I'd have to scroll all the way back through the pdf and find the page i was on with the map.  Made using it pretty tedious.
So I just ended up mostly looking things up on my phone which kind of defeated the purpose and was a bummer. 

Seems like having a way to keep your place would have kept me more engaged in the whole experience of using Launchbox.  Never having to look at another screen to find the info I needed. 

 

[C-Beats]

Inside of Big Box manuals are rendered inside of a Chromium window. At the moment I'm not sure we have a way to open them up to a certain position like you're requesting.

[DerSchlachter]

I'm also here to make the best use of the pause screen. I have also added strategy guides and world maps to this as an additional application. Both are PDF files. Even if I select the standard emulator set up for my magazine category, the internal PDF reader is always selected. The assignment to the emulator to be used is completely ignored. Is there a workaround now?

 

[Tsik]

I personaly use batch files to retrieve the manuals (pdf, txt, png, jpeg and html file types) which by the way are stored in seperate drive, sometimes all together using SumatraPDF viewer (portable version). This way i open all my files at once no mater what the file type is, without loosing the manual icon (badge) showing in LaunchBox under the game box.😁

The only downside of this is while this is perfectly working when viewing the manuals via the dropdown menu (Media > View Manual) in LaunchBox and BigBox (Game Details View) when i try to open the files via the Pause Menu i only get the batch file as text showing via Chromium...☹️ (Wish this will change someday)...😏

[Undertherainbow]

LB/BB manual viewer could definitely use and overhaul. Tried using manual from pause theme and ..yeah it was less then acceptable. 

 

Archive org has absolutely fabulous viewer for game manuals. It looks like a book , its simply perfect.

Grab idea for LB/BB?

 

example:

https://archive.org/details/kirklands_manual_labor_-_super_nintendo_-_usa_-_2k_version/Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals (USA)/page/n11/mode/2up

 

 

Edited February 3, 2024 by Undertherainbow

[GarridiN]

On 2/3/2024 at 9:28 PM, Undertherainbow said:

LB/BB manual viewer could definitely use and overhaul. Tried using manual from pause theme and ..yeah it was less then acceptable. 

 

Archive org has absolutely fabulous viewer for game manuals. It looks like a book , its simply perfect.

Grab idea for LB/BB?

 

example:

https://archive.org/details/kirklands_manual_labor_-_super_nintendo_-_usa_-_2k_version/Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals (USA)/page/n11/mode/2up

 

 

I tried this, using the URL, and it shows perferct and in fullscreen, but you can't navigate trough pages, like the keyboard isn't working. In the web you can use the keys to navigate but inside the pause menu viewer, you can't use them, but for example, the zoom keys work. Controller didn't work neither. 

[Undertherainbow]

1 hour ago, GarridiN said:

I tried this, using the URL, and it shows perferct and in fullscreen, but you can't navigate trough pages, like the keyboard isn't working. In the web you can use the keys to navigate but inside the pause menu viewer, you can't use them, but for example, the zoom keys work. Controller didn't work neither. 

 

Scrolling does work. But depends on what you assigned on gamepad for Page UP / Page Down

Linking every game one by one like that is too much tho. Maybe @faeran can find a better way to integrate read game name and load appropriate file pdf from link? That would be awesome

Edited March 17 by Undertherainbow

[GarridiN]

2 minutes ago, Undertherainbow said:

 

Scrolling does work. But depends on what you asigned on gamepad for Page UP / Page Down

Yep, up and down works, but left and right no, what is needed for archive.org pdf viewer navigation

[Undertherainbow]

On 3/17/2025 at 2:49 AM, GarridiN said:

Yep, up and down works, but left and right no, what is needed for archive.org pdf viewer navigation

Pages are going left and right for me. Like scrolling a book. I just use Gamepad->Page Up L1 and Page Down R1

That is actual option in gamepad setup in BigBox. 

 

You also need mode/2up?view=theater at the end of the link for fullscreen

 

 

P.S

if u load link without actual direct pdf file it will load 1st pdf on page.Example:

https://archive.org/details/kirklands_manual_labor_-_super_nintendo_-_usa_-_2k_version/mode/2up?view=theater

Then its tricky to load file that you need. But if u load direct pdf for the game , then it works page up/down (gamepad)

https://archive.org/details/kirklands_manual_labor_-_super_nintendo_-_usa_-_2k_version/Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals (USA)/mode/2up?view=theater

Its not really good solution , because archive is terribly slow

https://youtu.be/8y31Nrrt8gU

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:23 AM by Undertherainbow

[GarridiN]

19 hours ago, Undertherainbow said:

Pages are going left and right for me. Like scrolling a book. I just use Gamepad->Page Up L1 and Page Down R1

That is actual option in gamepad setup in BigBox. 

 

You also need mode/2up?view=theater at the end of the link for fullscreen

 

 

P.S

if u load link without actual direct pdf file it will load 1st pdf on page.Example:

https://archive.org/details/kirklands_manual_labor_-_super_nintendo_-_usa_-_2k_version/mode/2up?view=theater

Then its tricky to load file that you need. But if u load direct pdf for the game , then it works page up/down (gamepad)

https://archive.org/details/kirklands_manual_labor_-_super_nintendo_-_usa_-_2k_version/Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals (USA)/mode/2up?view=theater

Its not really good solution , because archive is terribly slow

 

 

Yihaaa, working fine now, your video saved me, I was at just a black screen but with your video I saw this "Loading data..."(mine is only full black screen) and waited for mine and it worked perfectly. Also I tried with the direct link with only the game manual, not the whole list and works perfectly too (and loads much faster!). THANK YOU!

[Undertherainbow]

1 hour ago, GarridiN said:

Yihaaa, working fine now, your video saved me, I was at just a black screen but with your video I saw this "Loading data..."(mine is only full black screen) and waited for mine and it worked perfectly. Also I tried with the direct link with only the game manual, not the whole list and works perfectly too (and loads much faster!). THANK YOU!

Hey , yeah very good!

I noticed that it can work faster if there is less files to load. Snes US has massive amount of files 😕