[RELEASE] Rom Collection Browser - Browse and launch emulator game ROMs

malte Wrote:New test version available: 0.9.9

This version just contains some small bug fixes and refactorings that are required for Eden repo or future development. Note: As Eden is close to be released as stable version (so I guess) I removed all code that was used to keep Camelot (not Dharma!) compatibility. So if anyone is still using this old XBMC release, please update. Its time

List of changes:

General:

• refactoring: move config wizard to separate module
• refactoring: remove Camelot compatibility code
• bugfix: remove and add Rom Collection in one turn caused errors
  

Import Games:

• bugfix: import dialog is empty after "Edit offline scraper"
  

Launch Games:

• bugfix: don't launch emulator if 7z file could not be extracted
  

Previous version: 0.9.8

Thanks Malte. I'll update asap.

Hello Malte,

I've been doing some more testing with RCB and I currently feel very confused

I'm still playing around with the genesis rom collection I have but just can't seem to get what I want. My rom collection contains exactly 781 games (the hyperspin collection). After several tries of importing using different techniques (accurate, gues match ...) and using different scrapers, I was able to create 781 nfo files, one for each game. Fantastic. However, not all 781 entries were imported in XBMC. So I deleted the games from the collection, did a clean of the database and tried using the local scraper. Each time again I get 776 games in the DB, not 781. Really weird as I clearly have 781 nfo files. So I tested some more, but it didn't work. I switched of all options like 'don't import games without art' ... but always 776. I tried a new import using a 'select match' option, but this also did not work.

But now this ... I completely removed the collection and it's games and I recreated it using local nfo and art. After the import all 781 games were there, but without any description or nfo. Now I was completely confused. I removed all games again and I did a re-import using the local scraper and behold ... the descriptions and all info was back, but again, only 776 entries

Malte, the scraping mechanism of RCB is still so confusing to me. The fact that you have import features on the RCB tool level, and import features on the rom collection level. You can set a link to your nfo files in a collection, but when importing with the local scraper, the nfo files should be placed in the game dir or it won't work, the parser itself ... all of this is too complex ...

I have currently absolutely no clue why the game descriptions and other info is not loaded when creating a completele new collection using local info. I should test some more, because I had it working in the past.

Again, this is no criticism, I'm a NOOB.

I love RCB, don't get me wrong, but the scraper and import functions I don't seem to get.

I will test more and let you know ...

Thanks for reading,
Grave

This is just too weird. So after writing all of this above, I gave it a final go. I did a new import this time using the "genesis" scraper and it worked. I have now 781 games in the collection, with descriptions.

So now I don't know anymore how I pulled it of, but it looks cool ...

Thanks for the feedback. I will rework the import mechanism with the next releases, maybe it becomes more clear/stable.

But I did not plan to rework the mechanism in general, I think it is quite easy to understand. Of course there are a lot of methods (online, local, nfo), modes (accurate, interactive, ...) and options (addon settings or rom collection configuration). But I needed all these features myself or they have been requested by users.

If you missed these five games several times maybe there have been some options that prevented RCB from importing them. If you want to find out whats going on just try to import these five games and check why they failed. RCB is writing much to the xbmc.log so it should be possible to find out whats missing. You could also just leave it as it is because it is working now

Lets see how it feels when I have done the changes. General plan: Atm RCB skips games if it does not find enough information or artwork. In next releases I want RCB to always import all games and add more options to decide which games you want to see while browsing the list instead. With this mechanism it will be easier to implement rescrape mechanisms and to see the current state of your Rom Collection (how many games are available, how many info is missing, ...).

malte Wrote:Thanks for the feedback. I will rework the import mechanism with the next releases, maybe it becomes more clear/stable.

But I did not plan to rework the mechanism in general, I think it is quite easy to understand. Of course there are a lot of methods (online, local, nfo), modes (accurate, interactive, ...) and options (addon settings or rom collection configuration). But I needed all these features myself or they have been requested by users.

If you missed these five games several times maybe there have been some options that prevented RCB from importing them. If you want to find out whats going on just try to import these five games and check why they failed. RCB is writing much to the xbmc.log so it should be possible to find out whats missing. You could also just leave it as it is because it is working now

Lets see how it feels when I have done the changes. General plan: Atm RCB skips games if it does not find enough information or artwork. In next releases I want RCB to always import all games and add more options to decide which games you want to see while browsing the list instead. With this mechanism it will be easier to implement rescrape mechanisms and to see the current state of your Rom Collection (how many games are available, how many info is missing, ...).

Thanks for listening to my moaning :-)

Regarding the 5 games, I don't know which ones they were. Don't know how to find this out in such a big list.

About the scraping ... I think you are right Malte, I just need more practice. RCB seems like a very powerfull tool ...

Anyway, like you said I will not remove this collection now.

What I plan to do is now try to implement the game movies I have from emumovies. Than I will check all the scraped data. Once everything is complete in XBMC for this collection, I will copy the setup.xml (forgot the name now, but I mean the xml with all the selections you have made in RCB) and then I will remove the complete collection.
Than I want to re-install this collection again using the saved xml. It might sound weird to you, but I just want to have all my game data stored on my HD and I want to see if I'm able to install a collection again in a matter of minutes once they are completed, just like with the movies or tv shows. In case I have a system crash or whatever. That would be my main goal.

I'll test more and keep you'll informed.

Thanks again,
Grave

Hello Malte;

I'm now playing with gameplay video in rcb but it won't work in MQ3. Does MQ3 support this? I've setup the gameplay tag in the config xml correctly. This is what I see in the log :

Quote:19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening:
19:15:34 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:15:34 T:3240 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
19:15:34 T:3240 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening []
19:15:34 T:3240 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
19:15:34 T:3240 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
19:15:34 T:3276 ERROR: XBMC.PlayMedia could not play media:
19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
19:15:34 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening:
19:15:34 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:15:34 T:1704 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
19:15:34 T:1704 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening []
19:15:34 T:1704 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
19:15:34 T:1704 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
19:15:34 T:3276 ERROR: XBMC.PlayMedia could not play media:
19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
19:15:34 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
19:15:34 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
19:15:35 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening:
19:15:35 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:15:35 T:3608 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
19:15:35 T:3608 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening []
19:15:35 T:3608 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()

Does this mean anything to you?

Thanks

Some more :

Quote:19:12:27 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Scraper descFilePerGame: True
19:12:27 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Scraper Site: giantbomb.com
19:12:27 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Scraper descFilePerGame: True
19:12:27 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onAction: ACTION_CONTEXT
19:12:27 T:3276 ERROR: CLocalizeStrings::ClearBlock: Trying to clear non existent block C:\Users\Twin Digits\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\addons\script.games.rom.collection.browser
19:12:28 T:3756 ERROR: Previous line repeats 2 times.
19:12:28 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onAction: 1
19:12:29 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onAction: 2
19:12:29 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Begin showGameInfo
19:12:29 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: End showGameInfo
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening:
19:12:30 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:12:30 T:2064 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
19:12:30 T:2064 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening []
19:12:30 T:2064 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
19:12:30 T:2064 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
19:12:30 T:3276 ERROR: XBMC.PlayMedia could not play media:
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
19:12:30 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening:
19:12:30 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:12:30 T:3716 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
19:12:30 T:3716 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening []
19:12:30 T:3716 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
19:12:30 T:3716 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
19:12:30 T:3276 ERROR: XBMC.PlayMedia could not play media:
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
19:12:30 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
19:12:30 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
19:12:31 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onAction: 117
19:12:31 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: init ContextMenu
19:12:31 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onInit ContextMenu
19:12:38 T:3756 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onAction: ACTION_CONTEXT
19:12:38 T:3276 ERROR: CLocalizeStrings::ClearBlock: Trying to clear non existent block C:\Users\Twin Digits\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\addons\script.games.rom.collection.browser
19:12:39 T:3276 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening:
19:12:39 T:3276 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
19:12:39 T:2824 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
19:12:39 T:2824 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening []

st graveyard Wrote:Than I want to re-install this collection again using the saved xml. It might sound weird to you, but I just want to have all my game data stored on my HD and I want to see if I'm able to install a collection again in a matter of minutes once they are completed, just like with the movies or tv shows. In case I have a system crash or whatever. That would be my main goal.

Easiest way will be to backup config.xml and MyGames.db. If you have your rom files and artwork at the same places as before the crash this will restore RCB without any reimporting.

' Wrote:I'm now playing with gameplay video in rcb but it won't work in MQ3. Does MQ3 support this? I've setup the gameplay tag in the config xml correctly. This is what I see in the log :

Yes, Aeon MQ3 supports it. I am using it myself here. From your logs it looks like RCB can't find any movies and tries to start the player anyway. Did you import the movies already?

If you are going back to work with the importer i just wanted to add what i think would be a really nice feature is to work with the found files in the directory and tell rcb what it is manually. I know the semi auto import does this to some extent, but i feel like it still misses files or outright finds the wrong ones if the roms filename is too off.

So really just something like a file view, then you can select it and manually scrape by putting in an id or url from one of the scraper sites. I am thinking along the lines of myself not being able to get donkey kong country 2 to show up in the snes titles. I tried to rename it exactly like it is on scraper sites, and i even hand downloaded the artwork and settung up the nfo file, and still cant get it in. My next step is to look at the log after an import to see where it might be going wrong, but i have a nagging feeling it would be nice to just select that file and say "hey, this is dk2, go set it up with its artwok and nfo and lets be done with it".

I think its like that 90% problem where most of it is right, you just want to brute force the last few roms and put the scrapping process to bed. Also the other thing is on the htpc it is always more of a hassle to get the keyboard and mouse out, which drives us lazy users to have those costly gui options for things that should normally be easier to accomplish without a remote.

Ive also been having some random issues with launching mame games in that when i return to xbmc the game filter no longer updates and i have to restart rcb...but i need to update to eden 3 and am still 2 versions behind on rcb, if things still keep up in the future ill try to get a log up.

Also again this add on is great, totally see how all the options and features are those pesky post launch things that you always have to account for but never seem to be able to plan for its a great app that more than gets the job done.

malte Wrote:Easiest way will be to backup config.xml and MyGames.db. If you have your rom files and artwork at the same places as before the crash this will restore RCB without any reimporting.



Yes, Aeon MQ3 supports it. I am using it myself here. From your logs it looks like RCB can't find any movies and tries to start the player anyway. Did you import the movies already?

Thanks for the tip Malte!

I did a import of the movie files using the 'local artwork' scraper as explained in the wiki. However, I will try some more (I'm not the smartest scraper user out there ). Maybe I'll have to delete the collection and do a complete new creation (local import) with the movie files from the start. Who knows, than I will immediately see if I can get the 781 entries again in the collection with a fresh scrape ...

I'll try this today.

Cheers,
Grave