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Desktop Mode Menu's "Question" diaglouge window: Add "Qt-based WIMP", replace "Big Picture" with "main interface window", and update F1 hotkey description

Open davidhedlund opened this issue 1 month ago • 5 comments

Note: This issue has been completely rewritten to match the concensus that took place in the PR Conversation: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/pull/18428

Is there an existing issue for this?

  • [x] This is a bug in RetroArch frontend
  • [x] I have searched the existing issues

Description

Current text

Image

Proposed changes

  • Replace "Big Picture" with "main interface window"
    • The Main window must remain open for the Desktop Menu window to function; closing the Main window will also close the Desktop Menu window. So perhaps its better to include the term 'window' for clarity when distinguishing between the two open windows: the Desktop menu window and the Main interface window.
    • The term "Big Picture" is confusing because
    • It can be confused with Steam's Big Picture mode which may confuse people to think that it is just available for the Steam release of RetroArch.
    • The term is not used in the main interface window or in the WIMP.
    • The term is not mentioned in the RetroArch documentation.
  • Add "Qt-based WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer)"
    • "Qt-based": RetroArch generates retroarch_qt.cfg for Desktop Mode and retroarch.cfg for the main interface window. This provides users a clear way to distinguish Desktop Mode—in addition to WIMP terminology.
    • "WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer)": to make it consistent with the Settings -> Input -> Hotkeys -> F5 sub-label found in the main interface window
  • Update F1 hotkey description: Replace "Bring up the Big Picture menu" with "Switches the current display between menu and content" to make it consistent with Settings -> Input -> Hotkeys -> F1 sub-label found in the main interface window

Version/Commit

1.22.1 Flathub

Bisect Results

No response

Present in the nightly version

I don't know

Platform & operating system

GNU/Linux

Affected Cores

No response

Environment information

  • Installed through Flatpak

davidhedlund avatar Nov 17 '25 09:11 davidhedlund

Same issue but for Windows, "Big Picture menu" does not open:

  • https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/6734

davidhedlund avatar Nov 17 '25 10:11 davidhedlund

The "Big Picture" menu is the normal, non-WIMP RetroArch interface.

hizzlekizzle avatar Nov 17 '25 14:11 hizzlekizzle

I think it's possible to start with the "big picture" menu minimized...? Either way, I believe it's just providing a reference for once you start playing a game, since you can't really get back to the desktop menu easily from there.

hizzlekizzle avatar Nov 17 '25 23:11 hizzlekizzle

Yeah, that seems a little wordy to me, though.

After re-reading that dialog, it says "some useful hotkeys for interacting with the Big Picture menu", so that actually has nothing to do with the Desktop Menu at all, and it's not a surprise (at least to me) that those hotkeys don't do anything in the Desktop Menu. I guess whoever wrote it (probably bparker?) just thought it would be helpful to remind people how to use the normal/Big Picture menu. Maybe he was anticipating a hypothetical time when the Desktop Menu would be the default, first thing users see/interact with?

hizzlekizzle avatar Nov 18 '25 14:11 hizzlekizzle

For readers that did not participate in this issue: For the final decisions on the terminology now listed in the main post, see the discussion at:

  • https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/pull/18428

davidhedlund avatar Dec 10 '25 09:12 davidhedlund