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Multiple Wheels per View in Big Box

📋Summary

Introduce support for displaying multiple wheels simultaneously within a single Big Box view. This would enable the creation of more dynamic, visually layered, and modern user interfaces—enhancing both usability and design flexibility for theme creators.


❗Problem

Currently, Big Box supports only one wheel per view, limiting what can be achieved in terms of UI layout and animation. This restricts creators to linear, single-axis scrolling designs and conventional transitions. More advanced effects—like parallax scrolling, layered wheels, or nested collections—are impossible without complex workarounds.


💡Proposal

  • Allow the use of multiple independent wheels in a single XAML view

  • Support a parent-child hierarchy for wheels (e.g., Platform wheel as parent, Game wheel as child)

  • Enable per-wheel customization for scale, speed, opacity, alignment, and display logic

  • Allow wheels to bind to different data types (e.g., one for platforms, another for recent games, another for favorites)

  • Ensure compatibility with existing animation logic and transitions

This would give theme developers the flexibility to build experiences with visual depth, animated layers, or context-aware navigation structures.


✅Benefits

  • Enables parallax effects and layered UI design for a modern, immersive look

  • Opens up new customization options for theme creators

  • Could improve navigation by separating functional areas (e.g., genre wheel + game wheel)

  • Makes Big Box feel more dynamic, modular, and user-personalized

  • Offers smoother alternatives to rigid keyframe animations 🧩🎨🖥️

Status: Open To Community3 comments

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Comments3

  • AstroBob changed status to Open To Community
    Team•

    Apr 30, 2025

    Pinned

    Hi there!

    Thanks so much for submitting this request and for taking the time to explain your use case — that context is always super helpful.

    I’ve gone ahead and fleshed out the main idea using the info you provided, and I’m opening it up to the community for further discussion and feedback. Please let me know if this fleshed-out version doesn’t match your original intended request.

    Feel free to let me know if you have any extra thoughts, examples, or edge cases you think might be relevant!

    Cheers,
    The LaunchBox team

  • Elhora

    •

    May 6, 2025

    i think that’s a good proposition. Theming in BigBox doesn’t give this app the look it deserves. I’ve always found that alternative like Retrobat have more dynamic and appealing theme, while BigBox looks so 2010…

    So anything that can make theming more dynamic and modern is welcome

  • le.viking

    •

    Apr 30, 2025

    BigBox : Multiple wheels per view.

    Allowing multiple wheels to be displayed in a single view would open up a lot of possibilities in terms of UI dynamics.

    I image it with a parent/child declaration system in XAML.

    In practical terms, by playing with the scales, speeds and displays of each wheel, you can create paralax effects, animation and UI dynamism, relatively easily.

    Much more modern than traditional transition effects.

    And less rigid than traditional keyframe animation.

    No idea about performance impact, though ^^'