[Comparison Analysis] BigBox versus PinUp Popper FrontEnd

[dsync89]

Hey guys, sharing my experience of using PinUp Popper for nearly three weeks in comparison to BigBox. Overall, PinUp Popper smokes Launchbox in every way possible when it comes to speed and consistency. Otherwise BigBox is still the king in terms of theme customization.

PinUp Popper is a frontend for Virtual Pinball, but it can be used to add other systems as well. I first tried it out on pinball tables, but soon I also migrated all platforms from my Launchbox XMLs to it just to see how well it perform when the library is > 65k.

For these reason, I'm still switching back and forth between them whenever I feel like it.

Feature	BigBox	Score	PinUp Popper	Score
Frontend Startup Time	Slow		Very Fast	O
Memory consumption	Very High		Low/Normal	O
Media arts display support on multi monitor	Superb with fallback/priority for different media types if one is not found thanks to third party plugin like [Third Screen]	O	Normal. No media art fallback. So if a media art is not found, then it will show nothing
Theme support	Very rich, with global or per platform theme view support. Example are grid view, list view, text view, etc.	O	Only wheel view is supported
Detached wheel support	No		Wheel can be displayed in separate screen to make the primary screen cleaner	O
Learning curve to add a rom	Very low	O	Very high
Wheel scrolling speed	Fast		Very fast, with inertia	O
Attract Mode Controls	Rich. Wheel spins when randomizing a game. Support random to a game in a platform, or across different platform.	O	Normal. There is no fancy transition or wheel scrolling animation. Just instant switch to another game. No control whether attract mode stays in a platform or across another platform.
Wheel scrolling consistency	Normal. Sometimes wheel scrolling is jerky		Very Fast	O
Video load time	Not consistent and jitter. Sometimes a video load instantly, sometimes not.		Very Fast. All video load almost instantly.	O
Auto-playlist population speed	It will take a while to load a dynamic playlist, especially when there is more than 500 games		Very fast. The amount of games in an active SQL playlist does not affect the loading speed at all	O

[g0badgers]

Is there a theme for big box that approximates popper in vertical view with a wheel?

[sundogak]

4 hours ago, g0badgers said:

Is there a theme for big box that approximates popper in vertical view with a wheel?

Nothing with the wheel style of PinupPopper.  However there is a vertical theme here:

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/files/file/3925-vertical-vision/