Show Sort Groupings in Big Box Views

πŸ“‹ Summary

In LaunchBox, when a playlist is sorted by fields like Progress, Rating, or Completion Status, games are displayed alphabetically within clear sub-groupings for each value. However, when viewing the same playlist in Big Box, these sub-groupings are lost and everything is shown as a single flat alphabetical list.

This request proposes extending LaunchBox-style sort groupings to all Big Box views, not just wheel-based layouts, so users retain the same contextual structure when browsing in Big Box.


❗ Problem

  • Big Box currently flattens sorted playlists into a single alphabetical list.

  • Important contextual groupings (e.g. In Progress, Beaten, Completed) are no longer visible.

  • This makes it harder to understand why games are ordered the way they are.

  • The experience feels inconsistent between LaunchBox and Big Box.


πŸ’‘ Proposal

When a playlist in Big Box is sorted by a field that supports grouping (e.g. Progress, Rating, Status, Source):

  • Display visual group headers for each sort value.

  • Maintain alphabetical ordering within each group, just like LaunchBox.

  • Apply this behavior to all Big Box views, including:

    • Text lists

    • Grid / wall views

    • Coverflow-style views

    • Horizontal and vertical wheel themes

Group headers could be:

  • Text labels

  • Section dividers

  • Stylable theme elements (for theme authors)


🧩 Example Use Cases

  • A playlist sorted by Progress shows:

    • In Progress

    • Beaten

    • Completed

    • Mastered

  • A playlist sorted by My Star Rating shows:

    • β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

    • β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†

    • β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†

  • A playlist sorted by Release Year shows:

    • 1990

    • 1991

    • 1992

Instead of one long alphabetical list, users immediately understand the structure of their library.


πŸ“¦ Benefits

  • Restores feature parity between LaunchBox and Big Box.

  • Makes Big Box playlists easier to understand at a glance.

  • Improves navigation for large libraries.

  • Enhances the usefulness of Progress Tracking, Ratings, and custom fields.

  • Gives theme creators more tools to visually communicate structure.


πŸ’‘ Notes

  • Group headers should be optional and toggleable in Big Box settings.

  • Theme authors could optionally style or suppress group headers per view.

  • This would significantly improve Big Box usability without changing existing sorting logic.

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Upvoters
Status

Open To Community

Board
Custom icon

LaunchBox for Windows

Date

10 months ago

Author

VodkaParalyzer

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