2016-12-13, 15:22
New AEL release 0.9.5-beta1
Release notes
Compared to previous releases, 0.9.5 contains a lot of new features, changes and bugfixes. The main highlights are:
And many more...
Why a beta1 release?
The new feature of having assets on networks paths has introduced a lot of changes in the code of AEL. Although the plugin is reasonable stable now, there could be still minor bugs (bugs that can be solved changing one or two lines of code) and I don't have time to test every possible combination of settings in order to discover these minor bugs. I think is better to release a series of beta version so you can test the new AEL a bit and report any issues you may find. AEL is in feature-freeze until 0.9.5 is released and I plan to release more betas quickly to solve any issues that may show up.
Where are my ROM Collections?
Don't panic! ROM Collections now have the same metadata as Categories/Launchers. Unfortunately, during the automatic upgrade process the collection name will be lost and your current ROM Collections will show as empty list items. In order to restore the collection names, simply open the context menu, "Edit collection", "Edit metadata" and change the title of the collection.
Advanced Emulator Launcher | version 0.9.5~beta1 | 13 December 2016
FEATURE New Arcade Database online metadata/asset scraper for MAME ROMs.
FEATURE Support for several arguments in launcher. This will be useful when using MAME for console emulation (MAME consoles from a different region have different names, and an European console will typically refuse to run a Japanese game). Survey about this: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2467547
FEATURE New command SHOW_ALL_ROMS to render all ROMs in all launchers. Will be used by skins.
FEATURE Supend/resume Kodi audio engine at launching. This will prevent sound problems in Linux. Include a setting for this in addons "Settings" --> "Advanced".
FEATURE Export/Import assets/artwork in ROM Collections. Encode binary files in base64 and put in an auxiliar JSON files. Exporting assets should be optional, not mandatory.
FEATURE Extranafart for ROM Collections.
FEATURE All requests are cached in TheGamesDB scraper.
FEATURE All requests are cached in GameFAQs scraper.
FEATURE All requests are cached in MobyGames scraper.
FEATURE Resolve image URL for online asset scrapers. This will increase scraping speed a lot. Requires a change in the scraping API.
FEATURE TheGamesDB scraper now returns Titles and Snaps. However, since there is no difference between Titles, Snaps and shots in TheGamesDB this only is useful when doing manual scraping.
FEATURE Improve message reporting in Kodi GUI when scanning ROMs.
FEATURE Improve launcher report and include is a No-Intro audit information.
FEATURE Remove ROM tags (for example, (Europe), [Rev A]) from parent ROM names when showing parent ROMs in a PClone launcher.
FEATURE New No-Intro status 'Added'.
FEATURE Browse by Category Virtual Launcher. http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2458080
FEATURE Deal with Kodi virtual filesystem smb:// paths. Merged a massive patch by Chrisism.
FEATURE New platform "Microsoft Windows"
FEATURE Add genre, plot and rating to ROM collections. Unify ROM Collections and Cateogories metadata. During the migration current collections names will be lost and user has to edit every ROM Collection and set a new name.
FEATURE Request monospaced font on text viewer dialog (window 10147).
FIX Fixed searches in launchers.
FIX Fixed artwork display in ROM Collections (Icon/Fanart/Banner/Poster).
FIX Fix "launching app not found lnk_launcher_app" error in Windows LNK launchers.
FIX Remove setContent() old code.
FIX Fixed the case of removing all categories and having just Standalone/ROM launchers on addon root.
FIX Fix offline scraper search when there are hypens in filename. http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2461203
Release notes
Compared to previous releases, 0.9.5 contains a lot of new features, changes and bugfixes. The main highlights are:
- New Arcade Database scraper. Only for MAME ROMs.
- Launcher extra arguments.
- Suspend/resume Kodi audio engine.
- Import/Export assets in ROM Collections.
- Improved all scrapers speed (using caches).
- New "Browse by Category" virtual launcher.
- AEL now supports assets in networks paths (smb://server/file).
- ROM Collections have same metadata as categories.
And many more...
Why a beta1 release?
The new feature of having assets on networks paths has introduced a lot of changes in the code of AEL. Although the plugin is reasonable stable now, there could be still minor bugs (bugs that can be solved changing one or two lines of code) and I don't have time to test every possible combination of settings in order to discover these minor bugs. I think is better to release a series of beta version so you can test the new AEL a bit and report any issues you may find. AEL is in feature-freeze until 0.9.5 is released and I plan to release more betas quickly to solve any issues that may show up.
Where are my ROM Collections?
Don't panic! ROM Collections now have the same metadata as Categories/Launchers. Unfortunately, during the automatic upgrade process the collection name will be lost and your current ROM Collections will show as empty list items. In order to restore the collection names, simply open the context menu, "Edit collection", "Edit metadata" and change the title of the collection.
Advanced Emulator Launcher | version 0.9.5~beta1 | 13 December 2016
FEATURE New Arcade Database online metadata/asset scraper for MAME ROMs.
FEATURE Support for several arguments in launcher. This will be useful when using MAME for console emulation (MAME consoles from a different region have different names, and an European console will typically refuse to run a Japanese game). Survey about this: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2467547
FEATURE New command SHOW_ALL_ROMS to render all ROMs in all launchers. Will be used by skins.
FEATURE Supend/resume Kodi audio engine at launching. This will prevent sound problems in Linux. Include a setting for this in addons "Settings" --> "Advanced".
FEATURE Export/Import assets/artwork in ROM Collections. Encode binary files in base64 and put in an auxiliar JSON files. Exporting assets should be optional, not mandatory.
FEATURE Extranafart for ROM Collections.
FEATURE All requests are cached in TheGamesDB scraper.
FEATURE All requests are cached in GameFAQs scraper.
FEATURE All requests are cached in MobyGames scraper.
FEATURE Resolve image URL for online asset scrapers. This will increase scraping speed a lot. Requires a change in the scraping API.
FEATURE TheGamesDB scraper now returns Titles and Snaps. However, since there is no difference between Titles, Snaps and shots in TheGamesDB this only is useful when doing manual scraping.
FEATURE Improve message reporting in Kodi GUI when scanning ROMs.
FEATURE Improve launcher report and include is a No-Intro audit information.
FEATURE Remove ROM tags (for example, (Europe), [Rev A]) from parent ROM names when showing parent ROMs in a PClone launcher.
FEATURE New No-Intro status 'Added'.
FEATURE Browse by Category Virtual Launcher. http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2458080
FEATURE Deal with Kodi virtual filesystem smb:// paths. Merged a massive patch by Chrisism.
FEATURE New platform "Microsoft Windows"
FEATURE Add genre, plot and rating to ROM collections. Unify ROM Collections and Cateogories metadata. During the migration current collections names will be lost and user has to edit every ROM Collection and set a new name.
FEATURE Request monospaced font on text viewer dialog (window 10147).
FIX Fixed searches in launchers.
FIX Fixed artwork display in ROM Collections (Icon/Fanart/Banner/Poster).
FIX Fix "launching app not found lnk_launcher_app" error in Windows LNK launchers.
FIX Remove setContent() old code.
FIX Fixed the case of removing all categories and having just Standalone/ROM launchers on addon root.
FIX Fix offline scraper search when there are hypens in filename. http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2461203
