Desktop Mode Menu's "Question" diaglouge window: Make clear that F1 opens the Quick Menu, and clarify "Big Picture menu"

[davidhedlund]

Is there an existing issue for this?

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

Description

The Dialog shown from RetroArch’s Main Menu (via “Show Desktop Menu”) contains a Desktop Menu dialog with the title “Question.”

Issue 1: The term "Quick Menu" is not referenced

Change 1

The current text is:

Some useful hotkeys for interacting with the Big Picture menu include:
F1 - Bring up the Big Picture menu

It does not make sense to bring up the Big Picture menu from the Big Picture menu. So the text

F1 - Bring up the Big Picture menu

should be changed to

F1 - Bring up the Quick Menu, which effectively functions as RetroArch's pause menu.

Issue 2: “Big Picture menu” may be confused with Steam’s Big Picture mode

The text within mentions “Big Picture” three times. This may cause confusion with Steam’s Big Picture mode (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(service)#Big_Picture), which may be associated with the Steam release of RetroArch.

Change 2

Extend:

Many settings and actions are currently only available in the familiar Big Picture menu,

To_

Many settings and actions are currently only available in the familiar Big Picture menu (not to be confused with Steam's Big Picture mode),

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. In any RetroArch release, select Main Menu > Show Desktop Menu.
2. A dialog window titled “Question” appears in front of the Desktop Menu:

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]

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

• (Menu) WIMP GUI Recommendations #6734

[hizzlekizzle]

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

[davidhedlund]

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

Just to confirm, did you mean this window?:

Please have some patience with me, I'm still confused. The dialogue window (see screenshot above), which is part of Desktop Mode Menu, says "F1 - Bring up the Big Picture menu," but the startup window (the screenshot in this comment) was already opened to access (Main Menu -> Desktop Mode Menu). So, in which window is the F1 key supposed to be pressed?

[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.

[davidhedlund]

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.

Thank you for your patience.

Currently, pressing F1 in the Desktop Menu does nothing, and it's not needed; You just Alt+Tab switch to the Big Picture. Additionally, if you close Big Picture mode while the Desktop Menu is open, both menus close together.

Just to confirm—F1 is intended to open the Quick Menu when using the Big Picture menu, correct?

If so, the current description:

"F1 - Bring up the Big Picture menu"

should be updated to:

"F1 (in the game window) – Open the Quick Menu from the Big Picture menu"

Does this match your understanding?

[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?

[davidhedlund]

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

I see. Here's a final improvement:

Current text

Some useful hotkeys for interacting with the Big Picture menu include:
F1 - Bring up the Big Picture menu

Proposed text

Some useful hotkeys for interacting with the Big Picture menu include:
F1 - Bring up the Quick Menu

[davidhedlund]

I’ve updated the main post to improve clarity. Thank you for the time you’ve invested in refining it. @hizzlekizzle Even though it might seem like a simple issue, I find it important to ensure everything is clearly defined.