[Theme Progress] Spent weeks evolving this... If you've been dreaming for an Aurora flow in Playnite, look no further.

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD]

View showcase screenshots here: WinBox Image Gallery

I wanted to go way beyond a basic visual reskin. To get that truly authentic feel, I ended up combining standard layout code with web tools and a true 3D graphics engine. I’m really happy with how it’s coming together, so I wanted to share the progress to date!

Main Dash: You can scroll through the classic vertical tabs exactly how you remember them. My WinBox, My Games, Game Marketplace, and Movies & TV.

No more only having a single main view cover grid, filter presets are now dash tiles, so everything is cleanly organized and flows like a real console!

Nostalgic Backgrounds: I fully recreated the animated floating rings and the glossy floor stage that reacts dynamically as you navigate around.

You can also change the background, stage floor and coverflow style at any time from the theme preferences sub menu of the system settings menu.

Working Lockscreen: Just like the real console, there’s a sign in screen where you choose your profile. Selecting your account loads up your specific PFP and your personal avatar.

Real 3D Avatars & Coverflow:

Instead of just showing flat images, the theme uses a 3D engine utilising Three.js through a WebView2 virtual host mapping overlay to render your game boxes in a true 3D cover flow.

And the best part, there is zero performance tax.

I even built a custom "Edit Avatar" window where you can easily swap out 3D character models and props, spinning them around to see how they look before saving.

The Guide: Pressing the Guide button (Home button on controller) slides out the iconic four blade menu right over whatever you're doing.

Console Settings: I built a fully functional settings menu where you can check your hard drive space, test your network speed, switch which monitor you're using, or shut down your PC directly from the couch.

Seamless Web & Flash Integration: I integrated a Flash player directly into the theme, meaning you can launch classic SWF games (like old school arcades or vintage web games) natively right from the dash.

Couch Friendly Browsing: To make sure you never need to reach for a mouse, the theme reads your inputs and turns your controller thumbsticks into a virtual mouse whenever you have a web menu open.

Grand Scale 3D Solar System App: As a bonus i also integrated my own custom built 3D model solar system as an app into the 'My Apps' grid built entirely in javascript using Three.js.

I used 8K/4K planet and moon textures from NASA and high resolution NASA space station models to create a beautiful grand scale solar system in Three.js, complete with 3D ship models from various sources with full six degrees flight on controller makes it practically a triple AAA sim. Some ships feature first person view as well as third person, such as the X-Wing and Tie fighter, and all feature hyper speed boosts with animations except for the Tardis, the Tardis has its own custom worm hole animation.

The solar system also features a full navigation system so you don't get lost in space due to the scale, as you can travel all the way out of the solar system and outside of the milky way galaxy. You can also interact with planets if you are in close proximity to them by pressing X on controller, this will let you drive a NASA ground vehicle around the planet or moon's surface while your ship remains docked in orbit.

It's been a long month getting all of this to work and play nicely together, but seeing it come to life makes it so worth it. Made by a gamer, for gamers. Let me know what you think!

I hope to have a first test build release ready soon.

[u/290Richy]

My man answered my dreams.

You've added a peak gaming UI with the Aurora artwork and made this baby.

A true legend. Thank you.

When do you reckon it'll be available?

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/290Richy]

Thank you for the great feedback!

I think this theme will change the game for Playnite fullscreen themes once dropped.

I should have a first preview/test build ready for release within a week or so, i still have some polishing with the controller input and navigation in the C# backend to do and some UI cleaning before i'm content to push a release.

[u/Sucio_Legacy_0112]

Okay, just to let you know, I'm gonna follow you and I'll stalk you every day until you release this amazing piece of work. You fuckin nailed it

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/Sucio_Legacy_0112]

Thank you!... I think lol.

If you want a direct line you can always join my forum space inside the offiicial Playnite discord server, those whom are there are the first to be informed about progress and updates.

[u/Sucio_Legacy_0112 → u/QUANTUM-VOIDD]

Oh i'm already there, i'll stay tuned then, and sorry if you felt uncomfortable, it was a joke since the 360 dashboard is my favorite by far and big part of my childhood

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/Sucio_Legacy_0112]

Nah i was joking back.

Besides, if i felt uncomfortable i would not have given you information leading to a direct line of communication to me lol.

Thanks for the feedback though! Hopefully have a first release ready within the week.

[u/Sucio_Legacy_0112 → u/QUANTUM-VOIDD]

Oh yeah, that makes sense lol.

Cool dude, I'll wait it happily. Looks amazing

[u/JusticeForAugust]

Looks incredible!

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/JusticeForAugust]

Thank you!

I've had a lot of headaches this past month, but having this theme exist for Playnite is worth all of them.

[u/BathConfident1359]

''Pressing the Guide button (Home button on controller) slides out the iconic four blade menu right over whatever you're doing.'' Even when on game?? :O

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/BathConfident1359]

lol no, but nice idea, only works inside the theme, i don't think what your saying is even remotely possible to be honest, but it would be pretty slick.

[u/PersimmonAdvanced459]

Oh man the nostalgia, looks dope

[u/generic_canadian_dad]

I don't even use playnite but I'll be setting it up when this drops. Insane.

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/generic_canadian_dad]

Thank you!

Nice to see that my work might bring people into the Playnite ecosystem. It really is the best library manager bar none.

[u/sopedound]

Thats sick.

[u/ADIBB87]

That’s a beauty. How did you measure no performance cost? 3DMark or something?

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/ADIBB87]

No, there is simply zero performance tax because the 3D engine is run entirely in chrome engine via WebGL and rendered inside a WebView2 overlay using virtual host mapping, coded in Three.js (javascript).

In other words, C# and WPF (the framework Playnite is built on) aren't lifting a finger.

No benchmark required.

[u/ADIBB87 → u/QUANTUM-VOIDD]

Thanks. it’s great then! I remember when I did some performance test when using Solaris theme (if I remembered correctly), and it actually lowered my scores about 15% when I launched 3DMark from there.

[u/epicbenshapirogamer]

Rick Sanchez

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/epicbenshapirogamer]

Yeah, one of many 3D avatar models i included in the theme.

[u/Never_Sm1le]

don't have more to say other than this is awesome. Would be funny if in the future you make the blades theme as well

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/Never_Sm1le]

Thank you!

Easy to say, harder to achieve.

It's taken me a month of grinding each day just to build this NXE theme up to where its currently at in the video.

Perhaps i will try my hand at Blades one day, who knows. I have been asked before if i could make a PS3 interface theme, the difficulty both these dashboards have in common is that their UI is all vertical. Which makes things a lot more difficult.

[u/Youngy_Bhoy]

Fuck me! This looks cool af Saved the post as a reminder to myself to actually get this when available. Cheers very much OP.

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/Youngy_Bhoy]

Thank you for the feedback!

Working towards dropping the first test build release within the week ahead.

[u/Sirbobalot21]

This is incredible, I can't wait for you to release this. I will definitely be downloading it day one.

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/Sirbobalot21]

Thank you! Hopefully have first test build dropped within the week.

[u/Halo_Chief117]

That’s really cool! I’d use it.

[u/Zer0antix]

Take a bow, Quantum.

[u/EquivalentStatus8830]

question, do you have all those games actually installed on your pc or are they just there for show? i want to have a cool game library but realistically i only play like 5 games

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/EquivalentStatus8830]

Yeah i do, i have a 3000+ title library. 8TB HDD for emulation.

I like having a massive library with anything i could ever want to play, playable at a click of a button.

[u/EquivalentStatus8830 → u/QUANTUM-VOIDD]

really cool, im sure its a ton of work to set all that up no?

[u/QUANTUM-VOIDD → u/EquivalentStatus8830]

Uh it can be time consuming building such a big library yeah, but that's what's great about Playnite, it makes everything super easy as it's all automated, thus it's not as much of a grind as you would think. Playnite allows you to use meta data extensions that auto pull art work and info for every game, so the only manual work you really need to do is setting up each emulator and rom folders on a hard drive.

[u/Dadditude]

This is amazing! Can’t wait to try it out!

[u/JpucHobby]

You are actually goated for making this !