I have several ROM collections I'm trying to set up, which I was hoping to include media for. Each ROM set consist of about 700+ each. I downloaded the thumbnail/fan art/screenshot packs from EmuMovies and point my add-on settings to these directories. The problem is, only about 60% will find the images they need. There are hundreds of games (across all the different systems) that for some reason won't find the proper screenshot or cover. This is based on the zip file name that contains the ROM. Since there is so many, it'll be impossible to go through each one and rename one at a time.
Any suggestions on why me media is not syncing up and how to fix that (or a new source I could download from). Scrapping them in the add-on itself is also very spotty and only gets a small percentage right (and much of that is very low quality or incorrect). What am I doing wrong with getting the media packs I download from Emumovies to sync up with my ROM set (I'm using no-intro as opposed to goodset).
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coverflow_rider By "Advanced Launcher" you mean the old plugin or Advanced Emulator Launcher?
In AEL you can see for each Launcher an asset report that will help you identify all the artwork you have and the artwork you miss.
EmuMovies focus on the HyperSpin frontend which uses custom XML lists. Each XML list is a subset of NoIntro or MAME ROMs/machines. HyperSpin is biased towars american users. This means that the artwork in Emumovies will only be present for american ROMs and not for Europe or Japanese ROMs. In some occasions, the HyperSpin XML name is different from the NoIntro name and so AEL won't pick the artwork file.
In spite of this, many artwork collections are incomplete. Keep in mind that having a full artwork collection for Titles, Snaps and Boxfronts, for example for SNES, implies to have about 6000 artwork files for the about 2000 ROMs SNES has. Another example of this: the must complete and up-to-date MAME asset collection is ProgrettoSnaps. Titles and Snaps are complete for all the 40.000 MAME machines. However, the collection includes "only" about 7000 Cabinets.
AEL has a feature that allows you to use Parent artwork into clone ROMs and clone artwork in the parent ROM. Also, most games do not have Fanart, only the most well known have. AEL will include a feature soon to create a default Fanart from other pieces of artwork using a user-defined XML template.
Also, you inspired a new idea. I think it would be a good idea to create a default artwork set to display when the artwork does not exists!
Topic is complex and with many details and nuances. Having a full NoIntro + MAME collection (we are talking about 150.000 ROMs/games) with fully loaded artwork is something that will take time and dedication (is your hobby!). By "fully loaded artwork" collection I mean having 80%/90% assets.
Is the artwork missing in the downloaded packs or is it available and does not show up in RCB/AEL? If it is the second option (what I suspect) then there is an issue with the artwork file names not matching your rom file names. You could use the emumovies
sync tool to download the artwork. This will rename the downloaded artwork files based on your rom files. It also creates have/missing files to check the status of your collection.
(2018-06-07, 13:10)malte Wrote: [ -> ]Is the artwork missing in the downloaded packs or is it available and does not show up in RCB/AEL? If it is the second option (what I suspect) then there is an issue with the artwork file names not matching your rom file names. You could use the emumovies sync tool to download the artwork. This will rename the downloaded artwork files based on your rom files. It also creates have/missing files to check the status of your collection.
Thanks for following up. Just a couple questions about some things I'm still a little confused on. First, I thought the naming conventions used for ROMs was uniformed across all sets? For instance, I'm pulling my collection from a No-intro set. But shouldn't those be the same as what's found in a Goodset or the image packs that I would download from EmuMovies? I find that in some cases, the only reason Rom Collection Browser won't find the correct thumbnail, is because the image in the folder has a comma or a punctuation in the wrong place (NHL '95 Hockey vs. NHL 95 Hockey for instance). Why is that happening, and is there a way to get a more uniformed set so everything syncs up properly?
Also,
thank you so much for referring the sync tool! That's perfect for what I need. If it matches the files to my ROM set naming as it brings it in, then theoretically it should sync perfectly. The problem I'm running into is that it's dropping about 50 games per set and not finding all the images. Any idea why that might be happening?
(2018-06-11, 03:14)coverflow_rider Wrote: [ -> ]I find that in some cases, the only reason Rom Collection Browser won't find the correct thumbnail, is because the image in the folder has a comma or a punctuation in the wrong place (NHL '95 Hockey vs. NHL 95 Hockey for instance). Why is that happening, and is there a way to get a more uniformed set so everything syncs up properly?
Atm, RCB does no matching of rom names and artwork names. It expects the artwork name to be 100% the rom name (just with a different extension). Only exception are games with multiple discs. In this case RCB tries to ignore the disk name from rom and artwork name.
But this is something I have to think about for the future. I should add some matching logic to better support downloaded artwork packs.
(2018-06-11, 03:14)coverflow_rider Wrote: [ -> ]Also, thank you so much for referring the sync tool! That's perfect for what I need. If it matches the files to my ROM set naming as it brings it in, then theoretically it should sync perfectly. The problem I'm running into is that it's dropping about 50 games per set and not finding all the images. Any idea why that might be happening?
Hard to say. There are four possible options that I could think of:
1. The artwork is just not available at emumovies.
2. The tool also struggles to match the names of your roms.
3. If you download to the same folders where you already have your previously downloaded artwork, maybe the tool notices the available artwork and does not download it again.
4. You hit the download limit of 250MB/day. You could try it another day or get a paid subscription.