[tekn0]

Sorry for not having yet written the docs of AEL and AML. Still in development so I will do it once 1.0 is released. For AL Google a bit. There's lots of tutorials about how to setup Advanced Launcher. They're old but work. Also, you may want to try Advanced Emulator Launcher. Is 95% compatible with vanilla Advanced Launcher so anything you find for AL will work with AEL.

Sent from my SC-02G

No worries about the docs. I was actually thinking I should try your version reading previous comments about handling larger rom sets. I'm only looking for emulation so I would hope your version would fit my needs much better.

I'm trying to get my head around all this on windows first (coming from a hyperspin/rlauncher/retroarch background) then move it into the Raspberrypi/odroid world. I did not want to make this a support post so I will do some more googling to figure out how to get my preview movies and box art to show up on a bulk system level. As it stands I have to do each rom individually. I am unable to get bulk art scanning to happen. I am sure I'm missing something. Thanks again for your hard work on this project.

Edit: I figured out my issue. Advanced launcher was adding a capital .PNG extension in the xml file. I replaced all with lowercase .png and that solved the issue.

[tekn0]

Just a word of warning... Advanced Emulator Launcher is still in beta and currently undergoing some changes in the data model. Install it, play with it, but do not do "anything serious" (spending a lot of time configuring metadata, for example). If I have to change the data model you will have to reimport/recreate launchers.

Not sure if it applies to what you are doing with meta data but I have been following this project here: https://github.com/billyc999/Game-database-info

CSV files with metadata for a majority of systems.

Would it be possible to do an offline scrape solution based on file hashes? like the no intro sets in retroarch's "lakka" distro or "Steven Selph's Scraper" for emulation station?

[rdyott]

billyc999 doing great things for hyperspin community

[Wintermute0110]

@tekn0, @rdyott AEL *already* incorporates billyc999 metadata information. Sadly, billic999 chose CVS as the main format to store information and AEL needs XML. Because of this conversion it is not straightforward to update AEL database (although certainly not so difficult with the provided Python utilities). Also, AEL incorporates a custom MAME 0.173 offline scraper with all correct metadata expect plot.

AEL offline scraper will never support scraping by MD5/SHA1 hash. Reason is that this will make code more complex and SLOW. Offline scraper will always work OK if you correctly choose the platform and your ROMs have the correct No-Intro name. No-Intro names are unique for each ROM on each system. There is no need to use MD5/SHA1.

I respect billyc999's work and I will keeping using it for a time, but I am thinking on changing Game-database-info as the main source of metadata in favor of the Retroarch database. First reason is that billyc999 is based on Hyperspin, and Hyperspin is focused on USA ROMs only (custom truncated No-Intro lists) so you are missing a lot of ROMs, specially if you love Japanese ROMs or prefer Europe non-english version of games. Second reason is that CSV files are difficult to maintain and billyc999 has not yet given a proper solution for updates. For example, what will happen when a new No-Intro DAT is released? How you will avoid overwriting manually edited information with scraped one?

I think Rufoo do not mind this thread for small discussions about design issues of both AEL/AML. This will have impact on the required metadata/artwork that the skin should display. Feel free to discuss things like "I think AEL should have this feature" or "This feature can be improved if..." However, this thread will not be a supporting thread for questions like "How do I set emulator X on platform Y". Once AEL/AML are close to 1.0.0 release then I will open both help/support threads on Program Addons subforum.

[Rufoo]

I think Rufoo do not mind this thread for small discussions about design issues of both AEL/AML. This will have impact on the required metadata/artwork that the skin should display. Feel free to discuss things like "I think AEL should have this feature" or "This feature can be improved if..." However, this thread will not be a supporting thread for questions like "How do I set emulator X on platform Y". Once AEL/AML are close to 1.0.0 release then I will open both help/support threads on Program Addons subforum.

Pretty much my sentiment exact.

Feel free to discuss anything regarding development of AEL / AML and SexyCirrus, especially while this is AEL / AMLs home before it leaves the nest, excuse the poor analogy as I have nothing to do with mothering it or raising it.

[tekn0]

@tekn0, @rdyott AEL *already* incorporates billyc999 metadata information. Sadly, billic999 chose CVS as the main format to store information and AEL needs XML. Because of this conversion it is not straightforward to update AEL database (although certainly not so difficult with the provided Python utilities). Also, AEL incorporates a custom MAME 0.173 offline scraper with all correct metadata expect plot.

AEL offline scraper will never support scraping by MD5/SHA1 hash. Reason is that this will make code more complex and SLOW. Offline scraper will always work OK if you correctly choose the platform and your ROMs have the correct No-Intro name. No-Intro names are unique for each ROM on each system. There is no need to use MD5/SHA1.

I respect billyc999's work and I will keeping using it for a time, but I am thinking on changing Game-database-info as the main source of metadata in favor of the Retroarch database. First reason is that billyc999 is based on Hyperspin, and Hyperspin is focused on USA ROMs only (custom truncated No-Intro lists) so you are missing a lot of ROMs, specially if you love Japanese ROMs or prefer Europe non-english version of games. Second reason is that CSV files are difficult to maintain and billyc999 has not yet given a proper solution for updates. For example, what will happen when a new No-Intro DAT is released? How you will avoid overwriting manually edited information with scraped one?

I think Rufoo do not mind this thread for small discussions about design issues of both AEL/AML. This will have impact on the required metadata/artwork that the skin should display. Feel free to discuss things like "I think AEL should have this feature" or "This feature can be improved if..." However, this thread will not be a supporting thread for questions like "How do I set emulator X on platform Y". Once AEL/AML are close to 1.0.0 release then I will open both help/support threads on Program Addons subforum.

Thanks for the information on AEL. I am very excited to follow further developments on this plugin. As it seems AEL and Sexycirrus will be the ultimate combo.

[tekn0]

I think Rufoo do not mind this thread for small discussions about design issues of both AEL/AML. This will have impact on the required metadata/artwork that the skin should display. Feel free to discuss things like "I think AEL should have this feature" or "This feature can be improved if..." However, this thread will not be a supporting thread for questions like "How do I set emulator X on platform Y". Once AEL/AML are close to 1.0.0 release then I will open both help/support threads on Program Addons subforum.

Pretty much my sentiment exact.

Feel free to discuss anything regarding development of AEL / AML and SexyCirrus, especially while this is AEL / AMLs home before it leaves the nest, excuse the poor analogy as I have nothing to do with mothering it or raising it.

On the SexyCirrus topic.. Is there any chance you could supply links to some of the background fire particle or space artwork you have been using in your screenshots for Tiles? I would love to add them into my test builds. Maybe like a little SexyCirrus Starter pack with some basic art for the titan systems menu as well would be a nice jump off point. Or a link to some good resources.

[rdyott]

Thanks for the information on AEL. I am very excited to follow further developments on this plugin. As it seems AEL and Sexycirrus will be the ultimate combo.

While AL has its issues. I tried AEL for a little bit. But i went back to AL. I had issues with AEL. The offline scrappers didnt want to play nice. I couldn't import thumbs/trailers ect ect. Maybe its just me, But AEL was difficult for me to use.

(sorry for thread Hijack Rufoo)

[tekn0]

Bug submission. Brighten Thumbs is not working for the "Tiles Poster".

[tekn0]

I know more work on fanart support is coming, but is it possible to have a "default" fanart as background for all games and the specific one in the small window beside the game's info? I'm using Advance Poster view and it would be fantastic if you could have a default fanart for the system and then the game-specific fanart in the small windows.

Way ahead of you. This feature already exists in SexyCirrus. It's called 'Persistent Backdrops'. I created it when I only wanted the one BG to repeat on certain views.

Go to the SexyCirrus system menu and configure it from there. Place JPGs in the nominated persistent backdrops directory that have either the name of the platform as Advanced Launcher calls it (eg: for SNES this AL calls it 'Super Nintendo Entertainment System' so a JPG would be called Super Nintendo Entertainment System.jpg) or you can have an image called user.jpg as a custom one.

Once setup, go back to your games library, and the Persistent Backdrops will now be available in the side menu for you to enable on the views of your choosing.

Edit: I was able to get these both working. Needed to restart kodi. Just bright issue remains in Tiles Poster.

[Rufoo]

On the SexyCirrus topic.. Is there any chance you could supply links to some of the background fire particle or space artwork you have been using in your screenshots for Tiles? I would love to add them into my test builds. Maybe like a little SexyCirrus Starter pack with some basic art for the titan systems menu as well would be a nice jump off point. Or a link to some good resources.

The backgrounds used I ripped straight out of an Xperia. I upped them to my drive for ya...

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0...sp=sharing

Enjoy.

(sorry for thread Hijack Rufoo)

All good, bud. Your feedback helps out Wintermute0110. Keep doing so.

Bug submission. Brighten Thumbs is not working for the "Tiles Poster".

Noted, will get that fixed.

[Wintermute0110]

Thanks for the information on AEL. I am very excited to follow further developments on this plugin. As it seems AEL and Sexycirrus will be the ultimate combo.

While AL has its issues. I tried AEL for a little bit. But i went back to AL. I had issues with AEL. The offline scrappers didnt want to play nice. I couldn't import thumbs/trailers ect ect. Maybe its just me, But AEL was difficult for me to use.

(sorry for thread Hijack Rufoo)

Thanks for trying AEL. For your info, AEL supports importing AL launchers.xml (Settings --> Advanced --> Import AL launcher.xml. You can have both of them installed to compare.

For clarification: offline scrapers are only for metadata. Also, currently AEL only support thumb/fanarts importing when scanning for ROMs. If you want to add a trailer you have to manually edit the ROM at the moment. This is going to change in the very near future, tough.

If you find specific bugs of issues please open a bug report in Github and we will discuss it there. If you have more comments about design or feature requests please write them here.

[rdyott]

For clarification: offline scrapers are only for metadata. Also, currently AEL only support thumb/fanarts importing when scanning for ROMs. If you want to add a trailer you have to manually edit the ROM at the moment. This is going to change in the very near future, tough.

So do all my thumbs & fan art locally. As with trailers. You said edit the rom for trailors? How so. I get errors when I try to.
Thanks. [/b]

[Wintermute0110]

For clarification: offline scrapers are only for metadata. Also, currently AEL only support thumb/fanarts importing when scanning for ROMs. If you want to add a trailer you have to manually edit the ROM at the moment. This is going to change in the very near future, tough.

So do all my thumbs & fan art locally. As with trailers. You said edit the rom for trailors? How so. I get errors when I try to.
Thanks. [/b]

Please open a bug report in Github. Let's discuss this matter there. I will tell you in Github how to make a Kodi log so I can track the problem. When doing the report please be descriptive: Kodi version you have, when the error happpens, what it the exact error you get (Is is a AEL Window or kodi says plugin error, etc.?)

[tekn0]

The backgrounds used I ripped straight out of an Xperia. I upped them to my drive for ya...

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0...sp=sharing

Enjoy.

Thank you for that

Also as a feature request in wave 2 I would love to see the double (title/snap) come back to tiles like you previously had here:http://members.iinet.net.au/~rufoo/scex_current/images/scextilesslimbeta2.jpg

With the snap in the bottom right and the title in the bottom left.