[braz]

Hi Wintermute! I was just looking at my AEL setup and noticed that ListItem.Genre is filled with "Genre text" when there isn't an actual genre. Would it be possible for ListItem.Genre to just return nothing if it doesn't contain a value?

Thanks and I look forward to testing a ROM collection when you get a chance...

[Wintermute0110]

Hi Wintermute! I was just looking at my AEL setup and noticed that ListItem.Genre is filled with "Genre text" when there isn't an actual genre. Would it be possible for ListItem.Genre to just return nothing if it doesn't contain a value?

Thanks and I look forward to testing a ROM collection when you get a chance...

Hi Braz. ListItem.Genre should have a correct value for Categories/Launcher/ROMs, where user can edit it. For special categories/launchers (Favourites/ROM Collections/Browse by...) the "Genre text" is just a placeholder. Since AEL is still in development and mutating all those small details are not fully completed yet. Also, Favourites/ROM Collections/Browse by... currently don't have any artwork nor placeholder graphics. However, normal categories/launchers/ROMs should be OK now. Please have a look here for a reference of all metadata/asset that curently AEL uses. Of course, this list is not fixed and it is open to discussion, but should be pretty much complete by now.

Please wait until 0.9.5 is released (presumably this or next weekend) and I will publish a couple of collections with full metadata/artwork so everybody can test the new Import ROM Collection feature. 0.9.5 includes a ton of new features and the support for assets in smb:// networks paths is blocking the release a bit.

[braz]

Hi Wintermute! I was just looking at my AEL setup and noticed that ListItem.Genre is filled with "Genre text" when there isn't an actual genre. Would it be possible for ListItem.Genre to just return nothing if it doesn't contain a value?

Thanks and I look forward to testing a ROM collection when you get a chance...

Hi Braz. ListItem.Genre should have a correct value for Categories/Launcher/ROMs, where user can edit it. For special categories/launchers (Favourites/ROM Collections/Browse by...) the "Genre text" is just a placeholder. Since AEL is still in development and mutating all those small details are not fully completed yet. Also, Favourites/ROM Collections/Browse by... currently don't have any artwork nor placeholder graphics. However, normal categories/launchers/ROMs should be OK now. Please have a look here for a reference of all metadata/asset that curently AEL uses. Of course, this list is not fixed and it is open to discussion, but should be pretty much complete by now.

Please wait until 0.9.5 is released (presumably this or next weekend) and I will publish a couple of collections with full metadata/artwork so everybody can test the new Import ROM Collection feature. 0.9.5 includes a ton of new features and the support for assets in smb:// networks paths is blocking the release a bit.

Sounds good. Not a problem about the genre infolabel, I can wait until 1.0 for the placeholders to be removed.

Thanks again!

[axlt2002]

I'm looking forward for the new version too!

Wintermute0110, just for my curiosity, are you planning to provide a repository or AEL will be available on the official Kodi one?

Thanks for your effort!

[Wintermute0110]

I'm looking forward for the new version too!

Wintermute0110, just for my curiosity, are you planning to provide a repository or AEL will be available on the official Kodi one?

Thanks for your effort!

You are welcomed. There should be no problem to include AEL in the official Kodi repo. However, AEL is still Beta and so is Krypton. Once both get released I will ask to Kodi repo maintainers to include AEL. For now I prefer that users do a manual upgrade because there could be some breakage between versions and automatic updates may screw things.

[Wintermute0110]

Survey to AEL users

Current AEL 0.9.4 includes 2 metadata fields for every ROM named "Alternative application" and "Alternative arguments". You can access these in "Edit ROM" context menu -> "Advanced Modifications" -> "Alternative application" or "Alternative arguments". This 2 fields were inherited from good old Advanced Launcher.

I am considering removing these 2 fields because I think they are unnecessary and consume space on the database (and a bigger database means higher loading times). I plan to replace them by having alternative arguments in Launcher. I want to check with current AEL users: Is anybody using "Alternative application" and "Alternative arguments"? Will anybody miss them if they are removed?

How alternative arguments in Launcher will work

In a typical Launcher, for example with Genesis ROMs, you typically have ROMs belonging to different regions: Europe, USA or Japan. Most emulators will autodetect the ROM region and change the emulator settings on the fly, so you can play the ROM. MAME, however, is very picky about what emulates (well... MAME is very picky about everything, really). If you tell MAME to emulate an European MegaDrive the emulated machine will refuse to run a Japanese ROM.

To solve this problem, I plan to add a new feature to AEL: you can configure extra arguments for a ROM Launcher. For example:

Code:

Application: /home/kodi/MAME/mame
Default arguments: genesis -cart "%rom%"
Extra arguments 1: megadriv -cart "%rom%"
Extra arguments 2: megadrij -cart "%rom%"

With default arguments MAME will emulate a USA Genesis. With extra args 1 MAME will emulate an European MegaDrive and with extra args 2 MAME will emulate a Japanese MegaDrive. When you launch a ROM in a launcher having extra arguments, AEL will show you a select box where you can choose the arguments you want to launch that ROM.

I recommend you play with this. Usually when you try to play a ROM not belonging to the correct region a funny message is displayed Also, do not subestimate MAME as a console emulator: for Sega Master System MAME is more accurate that all Retroarch cores available (in terms of less emulation glitches, etc.).

[axlt2002]

Wintermute0110, your attention to the gamers community using Kodi is really appreciated.

Being myself only a Windows Game player, I have no issues in removing the fields your are proposing. To me it sounds just good that the database management will be more efficient.

[RazorFR]

Not using alternative launcher. I see why the option is there. But I stick to only one program per platform

Alternative arguments yes, but only for the PS2 launcher
Emulator (PCSX2) requires video settings to be tuned for each game (not really but almost). Workaround is to have a config folder per game and set the config path for each sku precisely with the alternative argument option.

[zetallica]

Thanks for all your hard work Wintermute. I actually use "Alternative application" for roms that need different versions of emulator or "cores" for retroarch to work, though only a handful of my games use this.

[axlt2002]

Hi Wintermute0110! First of all thanks a lot for your great and appreciated effort!

I have one question related to the internal Favourites of the add-on. I have actually created a launcher for a Windows game under the Emulators category. How is possible to add that launcher in the Favourites? To me it seems that only ROMs can be added...I'm asking this because the Mimic skin is actually having an "initial support" of your add-on now and the developer managed to add Windows games to the Favourites Take a look to this post and the fourth previous ones.

In addition to this, the .nfo has all the fields filled (year, genre, plot, vote, etc.), but is not possible to browse any of the categories you are providing. Again, do they work only for ROMs and not for .exe files (i.e. launchers)?

Looking forward for your clarification. Thanks!

Yes, for technical reasons Favourites, ROM Collections, Virtual Launcher, etc. are only for ROMs. Also, ROMs have more assets and metadata than Standalone Launchers. If you have a collection of games, then you can create a ROM LNK launcher, which is what Braz (Mimic skinner) does.

You create a LNK launcher. You create a couple of directores, for example e:/LNK-roms and e:/LNK-assets. In the former directory, you place a LNK file pointing to the executable of your game. To create the LNK file, navigate to the game EXE, then drag and drop, click on "Create shortcut". You create one LNK per game. Then, in AEL you create a new Launcher, select LNK launcher, as the ROMs folder point to e:/LNK-roms and as the asset folder point to e:/LNK-assets.

Also, thanks for the link about Mimic skin Adding a menu entry and a widget for AEL is a first step. I hope Braz will make some views for AEL to display metadata and more artwork and top of icon and fanart.

EDIT: forgot to say... scrapers are fully available for "LNK ROMs". As platform, you can select "Microsoft Windows" or "Microsoft MS-DOS". It is important to choose the correct plaform when using the scrapers or otherwise wrong results will be returned by the searches (actually, the platform is exclusively used by the scrapers, both metadata offline and metadata/asset online). Scrapers should also work well for launchers, if there is any problem with the scrapers just tell me and I will have a look.

Thanks a lot for your prompt feedback! I will made this "exercise" then...

I think you can have a great collaboration with braz, the author of Mimic skin. I would be happy to help you in case providing usage feedbacks, etc. (sorry, but I'm not able to code anything!)

One suggestion: I would change a little the colour of the add-on icon from pink to a more warm red...

Hi Wintermute0110, one stupid question on my side: when creating the LNK ROMs Launcher, in the platform selection I can find "Microsoft MS-DOS" but not "Microsoft Windows"...where is my fault?

[Wintermute0110]

Yes, for technical reasons Favourites, ROM Collections, Virtual Launcher, etc. are only for ROMs. Also, ROMs have more assets and metadata than Standalone Launchers. If you have a collection of games, then you can create a ROM LNK launcher, which is what Braz (Mimic skinner) does.

You create a LNK launcher. You create a couple of directores, for example e:/LNK-roms and e:/LNK-assets. In the former directory, you place a LNK file pointing to the executable of your game. To create the LNK file, navigate to the game EXE, then drag and drop, click on "Create shortcut". You create one LNK per game. Then, in AEL you create a new Launcher, select LNK launcher, as the ROMs folder point to e:/LNK-roms and as the asset folder point to e:/LNK-assets.

Also, thanks for the link about Mimic skin Adding a menu entry and a widget for AEL is a first step. I hope Braz will make some views for AEL to display metadata and more artwork and top of icon and fanart.

EDIT: forgot to say... scrapers are fully available for "LNK ROMs". As platform, you can select "Microsoft Windows" or "Microsoft MS-DOS". It is important to choose the correct plaform when using the scrapers or otherwise wrong results will be returned by the searches (actually, the platform is exclusively used by the scrapers, both metadata offline and metadata/asset online). Scrapers should also work well for launchers, if there is any problem with the scrapers just tell me and I will have a look.

Thanks a lot for your prompt feedback! I will made this "exercise" then...

I think you can have a great collaboration with braz, the author of Mimic skin. I would be happy to help you in case providing usage feedbacks, etc. (sorry, but I'm not able to code anything!)

One suggestion: I would change a little the colour of the add-on icon from pink to a more warm red...

Hi Wintermute0110, one stupid question on my side: when creating the LNK ROMs Launcher, in the platform selection I can find "Microsoft MS-DOS" but not "Microsoft Windows"...where is my fault?

It's has been added in 0.9.5, which is unreleased yet. Use "Microsoft msdos " or Unknown. Unknown will search all platforms.

[atsumori]

Hi Wintermute, thanks for checking. I do use these fields as sometimes the default application can't run a ROM so an alternative is required. Removing these fields may also cause issues with portability from Advanced Launcher.

That said, you could probably combine them into one field for storage in the DB if that makes things quicker.

[Rufoo]

Alternate Application can be useful for people, for example, who file all their arcade games under a single category (ie: Arcade) with MAME as the primary app and then alternates like M2emulator and Supermodel for other specific boards.

[kiaenigma27]

So I sort of sorted my Artwork problem and storing on a network drive

As i already have the artwork downloaded I simply created a dummy folder on my device and set each launcher up then once thats done I edit the launcher and point to my NAS artwork folder and they now work fine.

quick questions..

are there any plans to have AEL auto fill in the Arguments for each emulator / launcher? Rom Collection Browser allows you to choose the emulator you have installed which makes life a lot easier.. especially running on Andorid and Retroarch as the argument is pretty long to type out each time.

[chrisism]

So I sort of sorted my Artwork problem and storing on a network drive

As i already have the artwork downloaded I simply created a dummy folder on my device and set each launcher up then once thats done I edit the launcher and point to my NAS artwork folder and they now work fine.

quick questions..

are there any plans to have AEL auto fill in the Arguments for each emulator / launcher? Rom Collection Browser allows you to choose the emulator you have installed which makes life a lot easier.. especially running on Andorid and Retroarch as the argument is pretty long to type out each time.

That is a big wish because of all the different emulators and different os types. But I am busy at the moment with a nice addition to have partially preconfigured and exportable launchers. The idea is that everybody can exhange launcher configurations etc. But Wintermute is already quite busy doing all the good work and getting a next release ready, so it will take some time before I can mess it up