2018-06-09, 11:38
New AML release 0.9.7
The main novelty of release 0.9.7 is the massive improvement of the MAME Custom Filters. The default filter XML file that comes with AML out of the box has been improved a lot. If you want to create your custom MAME filters have a look at the documented reference filter XML. Same as Advanced Emulator Launcher, AML now informs you if a machine is in Favourites. Also, the memory consumption when creating the databases has been reduced by about 40%.
If everything is all right and nobody reports any serious issue I will include AML 0.9.7 in the official Kodi repo. The policy for new releases will be to update AML on the forum first and about a couple of weeks later update the Kodi repository if no serious bugs are found. From now on, AML will keep you Favourite machines, Recently Played and Most Played machines (no need for more database wipe outs) between upgrades.
Upgrading AML to release 0.9.7
1) Install AML 0.9.7 using the ZIP file.
2) Follow the steps of Extracting MAME XML, Build all databases and Scan everything and build plots. Extracting MAME XML resets the ROM Audit Statistics so if you use them you also need to repeat the ROM audit.
3) Open AML settings, go to the "Utilities" tab and click on "Check/Update all objects". This will bring your MAME Favourites, MAME Most Played, etc. up to date with the last version of the database.
Advanced MAME Launcher | version 0.9.7 | 09 June 2018
The main novelty of release 0.9.7 is the massive improvement of the MAME Custom Filters. The default filter XML file that comes with AML out of the box has been improved a lot. If you want to create your custom MAME filters have a look at the documented reference filter XML. Same as Advanced Emulator Launcher, AML now informs you if a machine is in Favourites. Also, the memory consumption when creating the databases has been reduced by about 40%.
If everything is all right and nobody reports any serious issue I will include AML 0.9.7 in the official Kodi repo. The policy for new releases will be to update AML on the forum first and about a couple of weeks later update the Kodi repository if no serious bugs are found. From now on, AML will keep you Favourite machines, Recently Played and Most Played machines (no need for more database wipe outs) between upgrades.
Upgrading AML to release 0.9.7
1) Install AML 0.9.7 using the ZIP file.
2) Follow the steps of Extracting MAME XML, Build all databases and Scan everything and build plots. Extracting MAME XML resets the ROM Audit Statistics so if you use them you also need to repeat the ROM audit.
3) Open AML settings, go to the "Utilities" tab and click on "Check/Update all objects". This will bring your MAME Favourites, MAME Most Played, etc. up to date with the last version of the database.
Advanced MAME Launcher | version 0.9.7 | 09 June 2018
Code:
FEATURE Implemented settings "display_rom_available" and "display_chd_available".
FEATURE [LAUNCH] Implement "Action on Kodi playing media", "After/before launch delay (ms)", and
"Suspend/resume Kodi audio engine".
See https://github.com/Wintermute0110/plugin.program.AML/issues/3
FEATURE [MAME FILTERING] Improve the Custom Filters (add more filtering options as defined
in the reference filter file `AML-MAME-filters-reference.xml`).
FEATURE [CORE] Render the `In Favourites` flag for MAME machines.
FEATURE [CORE] Optimize the rendering of ROMs in 3 steps: a) Loading, b) Processing and c) Rendering.
Processing computes all data to render ROMs and Rendering calls Kodi functions. This will
allow to measure how long does it take to call the Kodi functions for ListItem generation.
FEATURE [CORE] Reduce the memory consumption during the database generation.
By default use the options OPTION_COMPACT_JSON = True and OPTION_LOWMEM_WRITE_JSON = True
See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24239613/memoryerror-using-json-dumps
FIX Fix crash when executing "Check/Update all objects" if Favourites are empty.