Messages

1

General / Re: Roms into subfolders

« on: December 10, 2018, 12:27:49 PM »

Alright so I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and make some exceptions to my file structure. I'll make a folder with .lnk files and problem solved. It's not ideal but I don't have enough patience to go with more intricate methods that support my usual file structure. If any dev is reading this, please do support romlist search inside directories. I'm aware that EmulationStation and RetroFE both handle game-adding like this, with a setting were you choose to enable it or not for the given folder. If you think it like that, it's worth considering it on the basis that it seems to be commonplace and not just some fringe petition from an OCD guy.

Once again thanks a lot to both of you for helping me and everyone constantly, that's very kind of you and builds up an excellent archive for future google searches of other clueless folks.

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General / Re: Roms into subfolders

« on: December 09, 2018, 11:47:43 AM »

Sorry maybe I didn't explain it clearly. What I mean is that my file structure is a standard that I use for everything - music, books, etc, which is that every title goes under a folder. Even if it's a NES game - I have "Nintendo Entertainment System (folder) > Super Mario Bros. (folder) > Super Mario Bros.zip". Basically under no circumstance I'd want to have "NES > Super Mario Bros.zip" as a loose file. So I was making a comparison with music, were you normally wouldn't have the songs of an artist loosely dumped into the artist's folder, but instead would put them into their corresponding albums. It would work regardless, since the information that music players read comes not from the file structure, but from the metadata on the mp3 themselves, wherever they're placed - yet most would find it preferable to have the songs under a corresponding album folder still.

Another reason I have all systems in folders is because some platforms have games stored in folders no matter what (Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U), and it makes sense to me that if some are, all should be (so, a standard). The sole system I have with non-foldered, loose files, is arcade, because of how MAME is distributed and updated, there's no way around it - they have their own standard and I have to use it if I want to play arcade games.

So as you say, if I placed everything under "PlayStation" without folders it would read the .chd and .m3u files properly, and it would work. But I really don't want to do it like that. It's obviously a bit on an OCD thing, but I feel like I should have my file structure, and work the programs from there, rather than the other way around (after all, I went ahead with this structure also because it had been supported so far by other programs I used)

Here's my .cfg for PlayStation:

Code: [Select]

# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.4.1
#
executable           C:\Program Files\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
args                 "[romfilename]\[name].chd" -L "cores\mednafen_psx_libretro.dll"
rompath              M:\Media\Games\Platform\PlayStation
romext               <DIR>
system               Sony PlayStation
info_source          thegamesdb.net
artwork    flyer           M:\Media\Games\Metadata\PlayStation\cover
artwork    snap            M:\Media\Games\Metadata\PlayStation\video;M:\Media\Games\Metadata\PlayStation\screenshot

3

General / Re: Roms into subfolders

« on: December 08, 2018, 09:20:21 PM »

I do have them all in CHD + m3u (not the case of this game though, as it doesn't support disc-swapping), but that doesn't help because they're still inside the "Gran Turismo 2" folder, which is what it's trying to load (so for example, if I rename the folder to "Gran Turismo 2 TEST FOLDER WHATEVER" and rebuild the romlist, that's what the game selection amounts to). What I was hoping is that it would read, for example, "Final Fantasy VII (Disc 1).chd", "Final Fantasy VII (Disc 2).chd", "Final Fantasy VII (Disc 3).chd", "Final Fantasy VII (Disc 4).chd", and "Final Fantasy VII.m3u" from a "Final Fantasy VII" folder, and I'd use the filter to filter out games with "(Disc", so that I'd only have the .m3u on the romlist. But instead it adds, and tries to load, the directory itself.

To be clear - the reason I have them in folders is not because they're multi-part games, it's because it's just the way I organize files. I understand a majority don't use folders, but from my point of view (and to make a comparison) it'd be really odd to have a "Michael Jackson" folder, with 100 loose mp3 files inside. They would display just fine, as the "Album" aspect goes on the metadata of each mp3, but the literal file structure would be all over the place for my taste. So I "can" take them out and put them all under "PlayStation", but man do I not want to do that...

So where does that leave me? I feel like there's a workaround lying somewhere in splitting, or rather, merging my PlayStation display from two displays, one with disc games, one without... I'll look into it when I have time. But regardless I pray to the dev gods that recursive search is added... someday

4

General / Re: Exclude all arcade games that require a .chd

« on: December 07, 2018, 05:29:27 PM »

Thanks again guys, it worked. Here's a list of all CHD games for MAME .204 https://pastebin.com/Z1Db8WDP

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General / Exclude all arcade games that require a .chd

« on: December 07, 2018, 03:29:15 PM »

What ways are there to do this from the filter?

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General / Re: How to disable "the"-related sorting

« on: December 07, 2018, 02:12:22 PM »

Thank you! That worked.

7

General / Re: Roms into subfolders

« on: December 07, 2018, 02:06:49 PM »

I've run into another issue. Whats being read when one uses "romext               <DIR>" is literally the directory, which means multi-part games don't get read properly. For example, Gran Turismo 2 on PlayStation contains two discs, for two independently playable modes. When I use "<DIR>", the game is listed as "Gran Turismo 2", and crashes upon loading, because its trying to load the folder "Gran Turismo 2". Expected behavior should be to read the files and expand it into "Gran Turismo 2 (Disc 1)" and "Gran Turismo 2 (Disc 2)". Is there a workaround for this?

8

General / How to disable "the"-related sorting

« on: December 07, 2018, 01:04:42 PM »

I want the games to be sorted as they are literally called, no "Simpsons, The" stuff. For example, on PlayStation after "Grandia" I have "The Granstream Saga" - I'd like that to be placed on its place under T.

9

Themes / Basic questions

« on: November 21, 2018, 09:30:08 PM »

Hey guys. I'm trying to make a theme for AM. I have plenty of experience making them for various programs, but I've found it difficult on AM due to the reliance on "hardcore" programming parlance (I'm not a programmer), and the seeming lack of a standard (I looked at a bunch of themes, and they all seem to have a different structure).

I'm still on the display menu stage. Here's what I've built so far via the layout creator program: https://my.mixtape.moe/kuvwwv.png and here's what I'm trying to achieve: https://my.mixtape.moe/jrudme.png As you can see I'm far away still, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out with some of the questions that I have.

1. How do I center an object horizontally and vertically? - I need to apply this to the listbox.
2. How can I edit the selected item? - I need to increase its height so that I can fit the "X Games" info below and make it display the wheel image
3. How can I add some basic animations? - I'm looking to have some effect when scrolling through the listbox, and a fade or a slide when entering a system (like EmulationStation)

Here's the code I have (I reduced it the most I could from the output the program gave me, so that it's more readable): https://pastebin.com/kDTcYyi2

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General / Official AM icon

« on: November 06, 2018, 03:18:13 PM »

I was wondering if the AM icon bundled with the Windows build is the official one for the FE. You'd think it is, but the image of an arcade button with a person on it doesn't seem to be used anywhere else on the site or the community so maybe it's not. I ask because I use custom icons for the programs I launch from the dock, and I always base them after the official icons.

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Emulators / Re: Best Compression for Specific Emulators

« on: November 05, 2018, 08:33:34 AM »

I'm replying you here so that more people see this great post. Thank you SO much for this tip! I had no idea any type of lossless/almost lossless compression existed at such level. I've almost halved the size of my PlayStation collection, and I'm looking forward to doing the same for other systems, in a format that is also "cleaner" (at least in terms of being a single file).

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General / Re: RetroArch works but shows a black screen

« on: October 31, 2018, 05:25:57 PM »

Thanks a ton once again! it was solved by changing to d3d, which actually solved some other issues I had. I've been using open gl until now because last time RA wouldn't launch last time I tried in d3d, but it seems I installed the correct something between then and now.

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General / Re: Roms into subfolders

« on: October 29, 2018, 11:17:01 AM »

Thank you so much for the throughout explanation! I'd never been able to figure this one on my own. I do wonder though how most people do it if they don't use subfolders, specially for systems were the games are generally in multi-part formats. For example, in Saturn, one game is at least 2 files, and up to 30+

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General / Re: RetroArch works but shows a black screen

« on: October 28, 2018, 08:56:01 PM »

The Window one fixes it, but it's very undesirable because it runs windowed instead of fullscreen, I see the taskbar, and so on. Any other solution?

15

General / RetroArch works but shows a black screen

« on: October 28, 2018, 05:04:38 PM »

I'm having a really weird issue. I'm on Windows 8, and AM seems to load up games on RetroArch just fine, except all I see is a black screen. I know the game has loaded because I can hear the sounds, and I can control it with my joystick, but the thing is completely black. The only way I can see the game is if I Alt+Tab out of RA, and into it again.

It also doesn't happen if I launch them from retroarch.exe, without AM.

I have no idea what's going on. Here's my attract.cfg, and the .cfg for one the emulators: https://pastebin.com/bVM0bLSB / https://pastebin.com/K4EEWDJu