[trihy]

Hi there
Trying to set up simple launching of PC standalone games on my Windows based Kodi install.
Have set up a folder of shortcuts, set the platform as Windows and set the path and the file mask as *.lnk
The games are imported ok but when I go to launch them nothing happens. Am I missing a command or additional config?
...
Any clues?
Thanks in advance!

I tested this feature with the current code base and it still works. The part of the log that you posted does not contain any info about launching the game. Can you upload the complete log file somewhere and post the link here?          

Hi @malte I can confirm that too. PC games launch fine.

BTW today I´d tried a clean kodi leia and rcb add on.

Tried new mame 0.220 and still no luck.

I selected mame 0.220 history.dat and on scrapers, selected mame.

But results are this:

 
There is a temporary fix for this? To at least have mame working on rcb? Just a few are correctly displayed.

Also noticed it creates a nfo file per every game. This doesnt happen with the old method, and think is not necessary since history.dat contains all game info. Maybe they could go to a simple file. Otherwise it will create more than 30.000 additional nfo files.

The old method wasnt that bad using a mame txt file, but is not supported anymore by rcb.

I got history dat from here https://insertmorecoins.es/mame-history-dat-2-20/ I opened with a text editor, and Im not pretty sure if real names are there. Maybe you can check.
Also used mame form mamedev.

Thanks.

[trihy]

If someone could share a newer Synopsis for ROM Collection Parser (It´s a MAME.TXT file) I just could go back to RCB 2.1.3 scrap mame and then go back to newer version.

That was the latest one MAME synopsis RCB 201202.zip

Antoher good thing about that file was that only contain main games. Not all the clones, region, hacks and other stuff. So the list will be clean and easy to find games. 

Or at least a little help on how to make one.

Thanks.

[malte]

Tried new mame 0.220 and still no luck.

I selected mame 0.220 history.dat and on scrapers, selected mame.

There is a temporary fix for this? To at least have mame working on rcb? Just a few are correctly displayed.

Thanks.

I think your issue is not related to the current version of the file. I guess it will happen with old files too.

I could reproduce your issue that RCB does not scrape the roms 20pacgalr0, 20pacgalr1 etc. This is because RCB only checks the first entry in the $info line. In this case it is "20pacgal", all other entries are ignored.

I could try to fix this but this will lead to many games with the same names as the following entries are just clones of the initial rom. Maybe I could try to detect if a rom is a clone of an already imported rom. But I am afraid that will need some time until I can add this. Atm I am working on the launching part and have some other bug fixes on my list.

As a temporary fix you could remove the clones from your collection or use RCBs missing info filter to hide games without info.

If you have missing roms that are no clones please give me some example names that I can check. In my test setup RCB successfully grabs 392 of 394 files with history.dat 220.

I got history dat from here https://insertmorecoins.es/mame-history-dat-2-20/ I opened with a text editor, and Im not pretty sure if real names are there. Maybe you can check.
Also used mame form mamedev.

I use the history.dat from https://www.arcade-history.com/index.php...istory.com

Also noticed it creates a nfo file per every game. This doesnt happen with the old method, and think is not necessary since history.dat contains all game info. Maybe they could go to a simple file. Otherwise it will create more than 30.000 additional nfo files.

The old method wasnt that bad using a mame txt file, but is not supported anymore by rcb.

Atm there is no option to suppress nfo creation. Could be an option for the future but atm it is not on my list.

The old method was very time consuming as there have been lots of issues with different parsers. Also the MAME file needed to be updated regularly. This was done by users and not by me. As you said, this has not happened anymore since 2012.

[trihy]

Hi @malte Thanks

I was thinking about filters the other day. But no luck, tried to filter by many filters, since clone games doesnt have any data at all. But all the filters applied hide the correctly named roms and not the bad one. Even tried to change filter rules, using the first option, but always get the correctly named hiddens.

Do you know the correct filter to hide this games? And filter will only affect mame?

Maybe the mame scraper could ignore this games when scanning? That could be a partial fix too. If there is no 100% file match, just ignore it and dont put it on the list.

[Wintermute0110]

@malte @trihy With AML is very easy to export MAME data in the format you want, into XML or JSON or whatever. Please tell me what you need and I can add an utility to export a database that RCB can use. This way, users can generate the RCB offline scrapers in a convenient way.

[malte]

Hi @malte Thanks

I was thinking about filters the other day. But no luck, tried to filter by many filters, since clone games doesnt have any data at all. But all the filters applied hide the correctly named roms and not the bad one. Even tried to change filter rules, using the first option, but always get the correctly named hiddens.

Do you know the correct filter to hide this games? And filter will only affect mame?

Maybe the mame scraper could ignore this games when scanning? That could be a partial fix too. If there is no 100% file match, just ignore it and dont put it on the list.

Just tested it and it works for me.

In "Filter missing infos" dialog set Filter mode to "Hide games with missing items". In section "Filter games with missing info/ONE of these items missing" select "Add item" and select "Description" for example. Then "Save Config" and you should only see games that have a description.

@malte @trihy With AML is very easy to export MAME data in the format you want, into XML or JSON or whatever. Please tell me what you need and I can add an utility to export a database that RCB can use. This way, users can generate the RCB offline scrapers in a convenient way.

That would be nice. With old Advanced Launcher we used the "nfo" file format to exchange game info between RCB and AL databases. RCB can import and export nfo files and so could AL. This is a simple xml file looking quite similar to Kodis nfo files that are used for movies and other items. As stated above there is no option to import or export one big file for all games, only one file per game. But this could be an option for the future if it would be easier for you to handle.

Here is an example file:

Code:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<game>
<title>Metal Head</title>
<originalTitle />
<alternateTitle />
<platform>SEGA 32X</platform>
<plot>It has been five years after the formation of the Worldwide Federation. Although war has been averted, terrorist cells around the world threaten the stability of the federation. To combat this menace, the Federation has created a bi-pedal armored tank known as the Metal Head. You are a Metal Head pilot, and you have to use all the weapons at your disposal to take out the terrorists.

Metal Head is a bit of a variation on the usual giant robot combat game. The game's mission areas bear more resemblance to a first-person shooter than a simulation. The graphics are all rendered in texture mapped polygons, which is unusual for a 32X game.</plot>
<publisher>SEGA of America, Inc.</publisher>
<developer>SEGA Enterprises Ltd.</developer>
<year>1994</year>
<detailUrl />
<maxPlayer>1 Player</maxPlayer>
<region />
<media />
<perspective />
<controller>6-button Controller</controller>
<version />
<rating />
<votes />
<isFavorite />
<launchCount />
<genre>Action</genre>
<genre>Simulation</genre>
</game>

A second option would be billyc999s xml format. But RCB can only import this format and not export. And these files haven't changed for 4 years so I think this project is dead.

[trihy]

I have both rcb and AML installed. In case you need to test something. 

Also tried billyc999s xml, more games are correctly displayed, but not so different to history.dat.

[Wintermute0110]

@malte AEL is capable of exporting/importing NFO files. AML does not use NFO files at all because all the metadata is extracted from MAME itself and the MAME DAT/INI files. I changed the AL format because it was too complex and now AEL NFO files are incompatible with RCB. I think we should wait until the Kodi games DB gets developed in order to unify the NFO file format for games.

Regarding the billyc999s info files in XML, AEL Offline Scraper still heavily relays on those. Project is dead upstream yes, I have a fork in one of my repositories and I am in the process of cleaning and updating them (but progress is slow... it is a huge amount of work).

What I was thinking was on coding an utility to generate a MAME XML file with the information like in a billy999s XMLs. That will be relatively easy codewise and users can use any version of MAME and the DAT/INI files they want to regenerate their offline RCB MAME XML database. So if I output the information with billyc999s format in XML is OK for RCB to use?

[trihy]

@malte I made a partial scanning using billyc and applied filters, this is what happened.

http://www.filehost.pt/ohhT

They are in order so you can check better. Not sure if Im doing something wrong.

With description filter all games are gone. With publisher it only show the incorrect ones. As you can see in the pictures, correct displayed games have description and publisher info, incorrect ones doesnt. Tried to change only hide games with missing info to only show games with missing items in case the options were backwards, but same result.

Im using rcb leia build from git.

[malte]

So if I output the information with billyc999s format in XML is OK for RCB to use?

Yes, this should work. RCB can import these files but not export them. But right now this should be ok. As you said we can see later if we find a file format that is exchangable between all available Kodi game addons.

@malte I made a partial scanning using billyc and applied filters, this is what happened.

http://www.filehost.pt/ohhT

They are in order so you can check better. Not sure if Im doing something wrong.

Sorry, I can't download the file. It gives me an error and I have to wait 60 seconds. Then I get the next error.

[trihy]

So if I output the information with billyc999s format in XML is OK for RCB to use?

Yes, this should work. RCB can import these files but not export them. But right now this should be ok. As you said we can see later if we find a file format that is exchangable between all available Kodi game addons.

@malte I made a partial scanning using billyc and applied filters, this is what happened.

http://www.filehost.pt/ohhT

They are in order so you can check better. Not sure if Im doing something wrong.

Sorry, I can't download the file. It gives me an error and I have to wait 60 seconds. Then I get the next error. 

Sorry @malte


There you go https://www.mediafire.com/file/hvw2hzjntd81aj6

[malte]

@malte AEL is capable of exporting/importing NFO files. AML does not use NFO files at all because all the metadata is extracted from MAME itself and the MAME DAT/INI files. I changed the AL format because it was too complex and now AEL NFO files are incompatible with RCB. I think we should wait until the Kodi games DB gets developed in order to unify the NFO file format for games.

Regarding the billyc999s info files in XML, AEL Offline Scraper still heavily relays on those. Project is dead upstream yes, I have a fork in one of my repositories and I am in the process of cleaning and updating them (but progress is slow... it is a huge amount of work).

What I was thinking was on coding an utility to generate a MAME XML file with the information like in a billy999s XMLs. That will be relatively easy codewise and users can use any version of MAME and the DAT/INI files they want to regenerate their offline RCB MAME XML database. So if I output the information with billyc999s format in XML is OK for RCB to use?

Before you put any effort into this, maybe we should wait if this would really solve the issue (unless you plan to add something like this anyway).

I think that this issue may be just an error or misbehaviour in RCB that does not deal correctly with MAME clones. If I understand this issue correctly, RCB will need a little bit more intelligence to handle this. RCB can already parse the MAME history.dat file, so most information is already available. Problem is that RCB can't handle clones and I think this will not change if the data is available as xml file. Atm RCB ignores clones completely. When I fix this the easy way, RCB would import all clones with the same game name as the "original" rom. Additionally it would not find any artwork as the artwork files are usually named like the original rom.

So I guess I need to detect clones and add some extra logic to handle them correctly.

[trihy]

But name for clones are on the history.dat file? If names are there could rcb use the names there?

Or maybe an extended dat or xml pointing full names for clones.

Another fix in the meantime could be making rcb not showing them, if skip the clones, could just dont put them in the list?

I think is a good idea having a way to make custom xml files. In case rcb parse the names right, we will still have the problem of a 40.000 game list. Maybe unable to navigate. So allowing to make custom xml with main, parent, clones or whatever you want will be handy.

[malte]

But name for clones are on the history.dat file? If names are there could rcb use the names there?

Or maybe an extended dat or xml pointing full names for clones.

Yes, but the names are just the rom names.

Another fix in the meantime could be making rcb not showing them, if skip the clones, could just dont put them in the list?

There is already a setting "Don't import games without description". This will do the same.

Additionally that is what the missing info filter is made for. I have to check why this does not work in your setup. On my system it works as expected.

I think is a good idea having a way to make custom xml files. In case rcb parse the names right, we will still have the problem of a 40.000 game list. Maybe unable to navigate. So allowing to make custom xml with main, parent, clones or whatever you want will be handy.

You have 40000 games in the database. You don't need to show all of them at once. You can filter by year, publisher, etc. and you can make favorite lists.

[trihy]

@malte, but filters can be applied per system or will affect the entire RCB collection?

Will try to scrape mame again checking the option to not import missing nfo games to see how it goes.