Emulators 2 - BETA - 19/08/12 (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter Brownard
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jimmy: i think the problem is, that the plugin adds the rom filepath automatically after the arguments you enter. i had the same problem with the dolphin emulator... /e %rom% doesnt work but /e is fine.
jdoo: you have to select "Display XML Filenames" under the listview and then choose the "emulators2".
jdoo: you have to select "Display XML Filenames" under the listview and then choose the "emulators2".
- October 14, 2005
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Just installed this and tried adding a few games/emulators. Looks really good so far 
Games are updated via DB, but the console information isn't; would it be possible to scrape this info from somewhere? Logos, year, manufacturer, history etc?
If a game is renamed to scrape more accurately after finding no results, or deleted, some are still left in the db. Could the dead paths/deleted games be automatically removed on startup/periodically?
Other than the aforementioned limiting games to specific systems (which would help greatly in some cases) and more cases where the emulator is automatically configured (which I presume will come in time) this looks to be coming along nicely.
Games are updated via DB, but the console information isn't; would it be possible to scrape this info from somewhere? Logos, year, manufacturer, history etc?
If a game is renamed to scrape more accurately after finding no results, or deleted, some are still left in the db. Could the dead paths/deleted games be automatically removed on startup/periodically?
Other than the aforementioned limiting games to specific systems (which would help greatly in some cases) and more cases where the emulator is automatically configured (which I presume will come in time) this looks to be coming along nicely.
- March 21, 2007
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Thanks for the feedback.
I've spotted the problem with the arguments so will fix that and I'll add an option to limit the results to the specified system.
I'll also add an option to remove games that no longer exist from the database - you can manually rename and delete games in the database using the config though, the plugin keeps a list of any games the user has removed and will ignore them when importing, you can also manually specify a search term when importing if the filename isn't close enough - in the importer tab highlight the specified game and press the binoculars
I'm already working on a method for getting console info, thegamesdb.net provides good info and artwork for a lot of them.
I've spotted the problem with the arguments so will fix that and I'll add an option to limit the results to the specified system.
I'll also add an option to remove games that no longer exist from the database - you can manually rename and delete games in the database using the config though, the plugin keeps a list of any games the user has removed and will ignore them when importing, you can also manually specify a search term when importing if the filename isn't close enough - in the importer tab highlight the specified game and press the binoculars
I'm already working on a method for getting console info
, thegamesdb.net provides good info and artwork for a lot of them.I spent some time with Emulators2 this weekend. Overall it is a pretty good improvement from the previous version, so thanks for that.
A few areas which could be improved:
1 - Finer grain control of scrapers and where they fill in. I noticed that thegamesdb often has nice fanart, but their game descriptions and screenshots are often lacking compared to that which is available on mobygames. It would be great if I could tell the importer to grab fanart from thegamesdb, covers from mobygames, and descriptions from wherever.
2 - When editing boxart, screenshots, fanart, etc, it would be really useful if we could drag image files from windows explorer onto the emulators2 window and have it set the art that way. currently i am forced to right click the area in emulators2 config, select "show in explorer" and then drag into the folder and rename the jpg accordingly by hand.
3 - In the importer where you have the popup menu that lets you choose the game and import source it would be really helpful to restrict that list to only the system which that game is being imported into. So if I am importing a set of SNES roms, that popup list would only show matches of SNES versions of multiplatform games.
4 - In addition to the above, the popup menu should be dynamically sized. Some games with long titles run off the side of the popup and I cannot see which platform or source website I am selecting.
5 - I don't know if this is possible, but it would be extremely useful if there were a way to match games with a better hit rate based on md5 hashes or filenames if your romset has been renamed with e.g. GOODNES. I have had some weird matching errors with properly goodrenamed files, such as Blades of Steel on NES matching as "blades of exile". I understand if this isn't possible but it sure would be nice.
Many thanks to Brownard and others for the continued work on this plugin, I really like the direction you are headed!
A few areas which could be improved:
1 - Finer grain control of scrapers and where they fill in. I noticed that thegamesdb often has nice fanart, but their game descriptions and screenshots are often lacking compared to that which is available on mobygames. It would be great if I could tell the importer to grab fanart from thegamesdb, covers from mobygames, and descriptions from wherever.
2 - When editing boxart, screenshots, fanart, etc, it would be really useful if we could drag image files from windows explorer onto the emulators2 window and have it set the art that way. currently i am forced to right click the area in emulators2 config, select "show in explorer" and then drag into the folder and rename the jpg accordingly by hand.
3 - In the importer where you have the popup menu that lets you choose the game and import source it would be really helpful to restrict that list to only the system which that game is being imported into. So if I am importing a set of SNES roms, that popup list would only show matches of SNES versions of multiplatform games.
4 - In addition to the above, the popup menu should be dynamically sized. Some games with long titles run off the side of the popup and I cannot see which platform or source website I am selecting.
5 - I don't know if this is possible, but it would be extremely useful if there were a way to match games with a better hit rate based on md5 hashes or filenames if your romset has been renamed with e.g. GOODNES. I have had some weird matching errors with properly goodrenamed files, such as Blades of Steel on NES matching as "blades of exile". I understand if this isn't possible but it sure would be nice.
Many thanks to Brownard and others for the continued work on this plugin, I really like the direction you are headed!
jdoo
you can use images and descriptions from different sites...if you got your Game imported just click on "games->yourgame". Select the thumbview and click at "update game artwork" (right button above the thumbs). now you can search the different sites and add the thumbs you want to use by drag$drop them into the "thumb view" of the game.
So maybe its the best for your needs if you search within the importer the best description and then add the best images with the thump downloader.
i can drag&drop images from the explorer into the emulator2 config (thumbview in the gameslist) window
3/4 i agree with you
you can use images and descriptions from different sites...if you got your Game imported just click on "games->yourgame". Select the thumbview and click at "update game artwork" (right button above the thumbs). now you can search the different sites and add the thumbs you want to use by drag$drop them into the "thumb view" of the game.
So maybe its the best for your needs if you search within the importer the best description and then add the best images with the thump downloader.
i can drag&drop images from the explorer into the emulator2 config (thumbview in the gameslist) window
3/4 i agree with you
legnod - Thanks for the reply. On 1, your scenario involves going into each individual game one by one after they have been imported, which is very time consuming. It would be great to be able to match up suggested sources with types of information before a batch import as a time saving measure. For example, Advanced Program Launcher (or maybe it was Rom Collection Browser) on xbmc does this.
On 2, that is very curious. I get a circle with a slash through it when i drag a jpg from explorer onto the thumbview in gameslist window...
On 2, that is very curious. I get a circle with a slash through it when i drag a jpg from explorer onto the thumbview in gameslist window...
you are right that its a bit time consuming but for me its ok because i dont have many games....16 at the moment on different platforms. so you want this feature directly in the importer? that definatly would save some time.
i tried drag&drop only within the thumbview...dont know if its working within the importer window
i tried drag&drop only within the thumbview...dont know if its working within the importer window
One more feature request which would be awesome.
Please add support for multi-CD games. So for example, Final Fantasy 7 is 3 iso images. It would be great to be able to merge them into a single record, and then when you launch the game from within mediaportal, a dialogue could pop up and ask you which disc image you wanted to use as the %ROM% argument.
Please add support for multi-CD games. So for example, Final Fantasy 7 is 3 iso images. It would be great to be able to merge them into a single record, and then when you launch the game from within mediaportal, a dialogue could pop up and ask you which disc image you wanted to use as the %ROM% argument.
- March 21, 2007
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Keep the ideas coming
I will look into having better control over scraper info - it would be fairly difficult to implement though (it's hard enough getting accurate matches for 1 scraper let alone multiple scrapers lol) - I'm currently using the (admittedly time consuming) method described by legnod too. I'm hoping that as thegamesdb matures this will become less of a problem.
You 'should' be able to just drag n drop images onto the panels (I can even just drag images straight from web pages my end), does it just not work with jpgs or with all image files??
You can manually resize the matches column in the importer so you can see the full result, this is a problem in the Thumb Downloader though as its not resizable - I'm already working on this
We have the basis for running our own server linked to the plugin - this will eventually allow us to create an online DB with file hashes and the most popular user selected matches for that file - making subsequent users matches much more accurate. craige1 has been developing this side of the plugin however he's been busy recently so development is on hold at the mo.
I'll definitely add multiple disk support - how do you see it working?
I'm thinking we add a the ability to merge files in the importer, similar to how movingpics merges multiple files.
The plugin should then just remember the last disc used but also provide a method for viewing/selecting alternate discs from the GUI.
I will look into having better control over scraper info - it would be fairly difficult to implement though (it's hard enough getting accurate matches for 1 scraper let alone multiple scrapers lol) - I'm currently using the (admittedly time consuming) method described by legnod too
. I'm hoping that as thegamesdb matures this will become less of a problem.You 'should' be able to just drag n drop images onto the panels (I can even just drag images straight from web pages my end), does it just not work with jpgs or with all image files??
You can manually resize the matches column in the importer so you can see the full result, this is a problem in the Thumb Downloader though as its not resizable - I'm already working on this
We have the basis for running our own server linked to the plugin - this will eventually allow us to create an online DB with file hashes and the most popular user selected matches for that file - making subsequent users matches much more accurate. craige1 has been developing this side of the plugin however he's been busy recently so development is on hold at the mo.
I'll definitely add multiple disk support - how do you see it working?
I'm thinking we add a the ability to merge files in the importer, similar to how movingpics merges multiple files.
The plugin should then just remember the last disc used but also provide a method for viewing/selecting alternate discs from the GUI.
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