[Wintermute0110]

Hi I just installed Advanced Emulator Launcher since my old AL stopped working with Krypton but i'm having a problem scraping. Can someone please help? This is the error i'm getting. 

...

I think that bug is solved in release-0.9.8 branch. Click into this link to release-0.9.8 branch in Github and follow the instructions there for installation. Report back if problem persists.

[sagrath]

Hi @Wintermute0110 

So, in AEL we have some default itens on addon root: 

(Browse AEL Offline Scraper)
(Browse By...)
(Browse LaunchBox Offline Scraper)
(Most Played Roms)
(Recently Played Roms)
{Rom Collections}
<Favourites>

and of course, some categories/launcher that we created.

The only problem, is that default itens, doesn't have any images to display, like folders, icons and fanarts. And when we browse the lists, this give to us an empty view. 
So, this way, wanna to suggest an feature:

The possibility to set an extra folder on the same place where we set the folders to category, launchers, favourites and collections named something like "default asset directory" here:



So, this way, we can put some posters/icons and fanarts images on this foldes matching with that names of this defaults itens like:

Browse AEL Offline Scraper-poster.jpg/png
Browse AEL Offline Scraper-fanart.jpg
Browse AEL Offline Scraper-banner.jpg

And AEL will display this images when browsing.

An example is I have a lot of custom images to my launchers and categories:

https://imgur.com/a/hXtfR

And this way I can create some posters and fanarts that match to my others arts.

It's possible to create an feature like this? (if it's not too hard of course)

Thanks in advanced.

[Wintermute0110]

Hi @Wintermute0110 

So, in AEL we have some default itens on addon root: 

(Browse AEL Offline Scraper)
(Browse By...)
(Browse LaunchBox Offline Scraper)
(Most Played Roms)
(Recently Played Roms)
{Rom Collections}
<Favourites>

and of course, some categories/launcher that we created.

The only problem, is that default itens, doesn't have any images to display, like folders, icons and fanarts. And when we browse the lists, this give to us an empty view. 
So, this way, wanna to suggest an feature:

The possibility to set an extra folder on the same place where we set the folders to category, launchers, favourites and collections named something like "default asset directory" here:



So, this way, we can put some posters/icons and fanarts images on this foldes matching with that names of this defaults itens like:

Browse AEL Offline Scraper-poster.jpg/png
Browse AEL Offline Scraper-fanart.jpg
Browse AEL Offline Scraper-banner.jpg

And AEL will display this images when browsing.

An example is I have a lot of custom images to my launchers and categories:

https://imgur.com/a/hXtfR

And this way I can create some posters and fanarts that match to my others arts.

It's possible to create an feature like this? (if it's not too hard of course)

Thanks in advanced.

Hi sagrath,

It is possible and I would like to do it. Main issue here is that although I have some knowledge about how to use The Gimp I'm a terribly bad artist and currently the artwork is missing, so AEL renders nothing.

In AEL the following pieces of artwork are missing

Code:

Favourites_fanart.png
Favourites_icon.png
Favourites_poster.png
ROM_Collections_by_fanart.png
ROM_Collections_by_icon.png
ROM_Collections_by_poster.png
Browse_by_fanart.png
Browse_by_icon.png
Browse_by_poster.png
Browse_by_Title_fanart.png
Browse_by_Title_icon.png
Browse_by_Title_poster.png
Browse_by_Year_fanart.png
Browse_by_Year_icon.png
Browse_by_Year_poster.png
Browse_by_Genre_fanart.png
Browse_by_Genre_icon.png
Browse_by_Genre_poster.png
... and also Developer, NPlayers, ESRB, User rating, Category ...
Browse_AEL_Offline_fanart.png
Browse_AEL_Offline_icon.png
Browse_AEL_Offline_poster.png
Browse_LaunchBox_Offline_fanart.png
Browse_LaunchBox_Offline_icon.png
Browse_LaunchBox_Offline_poster.png
Recently_played_fanart.png
Recently_played_icon.png
Recently_played_poster.png
Most_played_fanart.png
Most_played_icon.png
Most_played_poster.png

It seems you have knowledge about artwork creation and good taste If you want to contribute all these artwork pieces I will include in the next AEL version and will become the default AEL Theme. I can also implement your idea: the user can configure a directory to place custom AEL Themes to match the colours of the used skin, for example.

Also ... Advanced MAME Launcher also needs artwork: for the Main filters, Binary filters, Catalog filters, ...

Please let me know if interested!

[sagrath]

@Wintermute0110 

Sure I'm interested!!

I will work on some arts following the style of these ones that I've already done.

Do you wanna square icons?

Please, send me a list of arts needed on AML.

I can also implement your idea: the user can configure a directory to place custom AEL Themes to match the colours of the used skin, for example.

Yes! This is awesome! 

Thanks!

[billyc666]

this looks like a cool feature

[Wintermute0110]

@Wintermute0110 

Sure I'm interested!!

I will work on some arts following the style of these ones that I've already done.

Do you wanna square icons?

If possible Icons and Posters. Yes, Icons must be square with a size of 512x512. Poster must have a size of 1000x1500 and Fanarts 1280x720 or 1920x1080. Have a look here for the artwork sizes recommended in Kodi. Please send me the images in PNG format.

Please, send me a list of arts needed on AML.

Give me some time. Currently I'm busy with next AML release and maybe I will add some more filters that require artwork. Let's finish AEL first and then focus on AML.

[Wintermute0110]

@sagrath Just a question, out of curiosity. I found today by chance that Aeon MQ8 will have AEL support and the artwork show in the screenshots is coincidentally very similar to yours. Are you the guy developing AEL support in the MQ8 team?

[sagrath]

@sagrath Just a question, out of curiosity. I found today by chance that Aeon MQ8 will have AEL support and the artwork show in the screenshots is coincidentally very similar to yours. Are you the guy developing AEL support in the MQ8 team?

I made some simple modifications and suggested for Marcos to include in the skin, and he accepted. As my knowledge with skin and addons is very limited, I could not go very far.

The skin did not have all the images and metadata that the AEL supports, so I tried to present it, since I have been using the Skin Aeon Mq for a few years.

I hope this is not a problem for you.

[Wintermute0110]

I made some simple modifications and suggested for Marcos to include in the skin, and he accepted. As my knowledge with skin and addons is very limited, I could not go very far.

The skin did not have all the images and metadata that the AEL supports, so I tried to present it, since I have been using the Skin Aeon Mq for a few years.

I hope this is not a problem for you.

On the contrary man! I am glad Aeon MQ will get AEL support! MQ is a top-of-the-class and fine skin. The more skins that support AEL, the better for the plugin and retrogame lovers.

Also, Kodi Leia will have the Games section (like Movies, Music, etc.) but no games database. It is not clear at this stage, but probably AEL will migrate from a progam addon to a games addon. Once Kodi get the games DB, presumably for Kodi M***, then Aeon MQ will be prepared because the views for AEL will be exactly the views required by the Games section once the Games DB is working.

At the moment I did not any changes in AEL for Leia, but I will once the first beta is released. Currently if you install the development version you have to dowload the game addons separately, introduce the Konami code, etc., too complicated.I think it's easier to configure Retroarch as an external emulator, but hopefully that will change once Leia Beta 1 is released.

[sagrath]

On the contrary man! I am glad Aeon MQ will get AEL support! MQ is a top-of-the-class and fine skin. The more skins that support AEL, the better for the plugin and retrogame lovers.

Also, Kodi Leia will have the Games section (like Movies, Music, etc.) but no games database. It is not clear at this stage, but probably AEL will migrate from a progam addon to a games addon. Once Kodi get the games DB, presumably for Kodi M***, then Aeon MQ will be prepared because the views for AEL will be exactly the views required by the Games section once the Games DB is working.

At the moment I did not any changes in AEL for Leia, but I will once the first beta is released. Currently if you install the development version you have to dowload the game addons separately, introduce the Konami code, etc., too complicated.I think it's easier to configure Retroarch as an external emulator, but hopefully that will change once Leia Beta 1 is released. 

  
This is a awesome news!

I've been trying to make things works with AEL and MQ skin. So far I've got the skin to display beyond the poster and fanart, logos and screenshots for categories, launchers and games. For metadata, so far all metadata are displayed, including logo of the study of the game in the footer of the skin. I also had success with widgets in the home skin, where it shows rece games played, games more played and favorites.

And taking advantage of the topic, I would suggest a change if possible:

When we are going to manually enter metadata for some category / launcher / game we perform the steps:
1- Open the context menu
2- Select "Edit category / launcher / game"
3- Select "Edit matadata / Assets Artwork"
4- Select some item
5 - We change and save
6- All it's close, and to change another metadata, we have to repeat steps 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Is it possible to change this behavior so that when we change and save the item, the selection list returns to the last selected menu and we can select another item to change?

And I'm working on the arts. It will take a little longer than I expected, the reason is that the images I had previously made are out of the standard size of 1000x1500 (currently they are with 422x645). I particularly find a little overkill 1000x1500 hahahaha, but I'm redoing it.

I hope I can contribute even more with the addon to make it the best possible for everyone.

Cheers

[Wintermute0110]

And taking advantage of the topic, I would suggest a change if possible:

When we are going to manually enter metadata for some category / launcher / game we perform the steps:
1- Open the context menu
2- Select "Edit category / launcher / game"
3- Select "Edit matadata / Assets Artwork"
4- Select some item
5 - We change and save
6- All it's close, and to change another metadata, we have to repeat steps 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Is it possible to change this behavior so that when we change and save the item, the selection list returns to the last selected menu and we can select another item to change?

I already though about that some time ago. In theory it is possible but will require significant changes in AEL's Python code and careful programming of the menu code. Maybe I will start doing a prototype context menu for the categories for 0.9.9 and if it works well extend to all context menus. The categories context menu is the most simple (less Python code) and should be the easiest to adapt.
 

And I'm working on the arts. It will take a little longer than I expected, the reason is that the images I had previously made are out of the standard size of 1000x1500 (currently they are with 422x645). I particularly find a little overkill 1000x1500 hahahaha, but I'm redoing it.

I hope I can contribute even more with the addon to make it the best possible for everyone.

Please take your time and thanks a lot for your help.

[sagrath]

@Wintermute0110 

Do you have the .psd file of your AEL fanart artwork? If yes, can you share with me? I'm having some ideias to fanarts and your art ir very very beautiful. I believe that I can use, this way I can keep some pattern with the main fanart.

Thanks in advanced.

[jaydash]

Thank you for this add-on!!!  I finally got around to giving AEL a try.  I got my Steam games working with a LNK launcher -so cool!!!

But I've got a question too... I am having trouble with RetroArch for the ROM launcher... I'm new to RetroArch, but I have it up and running independently outside of Kodi (it's really cool too!), but with AEL it just doesn't do anything... an AEL window pops up saying that it's launching, but it doesn't get any further.

It's a 17.6 install on Windows 10.  The pastebin link below is a part of the Kodi log with all the "ERROR: AEL INFO" lines.  If a whole log is more useful, I can get one posted later.

I'm probably missing something simple -I hope it's something simple... I've tried tweaking the arguments, but I have no idea.  I've been through the documentation on the fist page of the post and Github, I've Googled... just stumped.  Thanks for your time... Any help would be most appreciated! 

https://pastebin.com/FKBHsHvP

[Wintermute0110]

Thank you for this add-on!!!  I finally got around to giving AEL a try.  I got my Steam games working with a LNK launcher -so cool!!!

But I've got a question too... I am having trouble with RetroArch for the ROM launcher... I'm new to RetroArch, but I have it up and running independently outside of Kodi (it's really cool too!), but with AEL it just doesn't do anything... an AEL window pops up saying that it's launching, but it doesn't get any further.

It's a 17.6 install on Windows 10.  The pastebin link below is a part of the Kodi log with all the "ERROR: AEL INFO" lines.  If a whole log is more useful, I can get one posted later.

I'm probably missing something simple -I hope it's something simple... I've tried tweaking the arguments, but I have no idea.  I've been through the documentation on the fist page of the post and Github, I've Googled... just stumped.  Thanks for your time... Any help would be most appreciated! 

https://pastebin.com/FKBHsHvP

You are welcomed. I hope you will like AEL!

The chunk of log you pasted is OK. Put quotes around paths. Your arguments must be:

Code:

-L "C:\Games\RetroArch\cores\snes9x_libreto.dll" -f "$rom$"

Please try and report back if you have any trouble.

[Wintermute0110]

@Wintermute0110 

Do you have the .psd file of your AEL fanart artwork? If yes, can you share with me? I'm having some ideias to fanarts and your art ir very very beautiful. I believe that I can use, this way I can keep some pattern with the main fanart.

Thanks in advanced.

Unfortunately I don't. Rufoo did AEL's Icon and Fanart, please sent him a PM. In the future, I will place all artwork PSDs in a Github repo to avoid this problem.