Jump to content

Original GameBrowser III questions


Redshirt

Recommended Posts

So the only way i can get anything to scrape is if each game is in its own individual folder, this would take me forever to organize, can we make it a bit more flexible at all? Or does each game need its own individual folder and i will have to spend some considerable amount of time adding folders for every game?  I just never had to with xbmc so i never did it. 

 

I also want to request and will even pay for this feature or donate for it, can we have video snaps in mbt for games? I am switching from xbmc and im disappointed I cannot use any of my video snaps scrapped from emumovies, in the xbmc rom community this was very popular (some users would not update to new skins or features if this was not supported), and even in hyperspin it takes advantage of video game snaps, i really would love to donate and pay for us to be able to use video snaps for our games.  Applied to MBT I envision it being like the backdrops you can currently use for movies and tv which are incredible, except all my video snaps currently cant be used in mbt for my games.

Edited by Ghostm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also i dont know if you would consider it, but would adding a few more scraping sites be possible? The games db is missing some common games.

 

The following additional sites are good for artwork and games as well.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Redshirt

 

Also i dont know if you would consider it, but would adding a few more scraping sites be possible? The games db is missing some common games.

 

The following additional sites are good for artwork and games as well.

 

 

 

I've looked at a few of those in the past. Mobygames doesn't have an API, While other products may be willing to scrape the html directly, it goes against the sites terms of service.Likewise GiantBombs terms of service just made their api use a pain. I suspect it hasn't changed since I last looked. The videogame archive looks interesting and they have an api... but it seems they currently have some issues. I looked up Final Fantasy VII and most of the images were broken. I'll keep an eye on them though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok thanks sounds good. I just copied that from the xbmc scrapper and where it got my artwork from but since im looking to get rid of xbmc and switch to mb3 in the coming weeks and months, i figured i would mention them here since most of my game art was scraped in xbmc. 

 

One small thing i would like to ask, is it possible to display only games with artwork? Just another small thing xbmc rom addon could do i would like to see if its not possible, a  few of the rarer roms you have trouble finding artwork for, it makes my collection look less nice when you browse and no artwork is available, it would be nice if we can hide games without artwork as an option. 

 

Maybe to rescrape my games for mb3 i will pay for a limited time emumovies membership again to get the additional artwork scrapped for missing roms,, they usually have a good selection as well. Would still really love to be able to use the video game snaps though in mbt somehow, thats about my only big wish i have for mb3/mbt as i leave xbmc, the few other things xbmc has that mbt/mb3 does not at the moment is just minor.  And the video backdrops for movies/tv is so great, video snaps would be perfect for that role for games imo in mbt. 

Edited by Ghostm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Spaceboy

hi, i cannot get commodore 64 games to show up in mb3. they have extensions .prg and .tap using the ccs64 emulator. everything else works okalthough i am struggling with some switches. does the library have to be refreshed each time a change is made?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Redshirt

I'll add those extensions to the next release. The library should auto update when changes are detected.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spaceboy

ok so i seem to have the following problems:

 

espxe loads up but the rom does not. tried using -nogui -loadbin “{rom}” as found through google but no change

dolphin does not open properly, i get a message saying unexpected parameter and then shows the path to the iso. tried —exec={rom} as found through google but no change

 

both work outside of gb3. it seems both are switch problems but i cant resolve them.

 

thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Redshirt

ok so i seem to have the following problems:

 

espxe loads up but the rom does not. tried using -nogui -loadbin “{rom}” as found through google but no change

dolphin does not open properly, i get a message saying unexpected parameter and then shows the path to the iso. tried —exec={rom} as found through google but no change

 

both work outside of gb3. it seems both are switch problems but i cant resolve them.

 

thanks

 

I just tried -nogui -loadbin "{rom}" and it worked for ePSXe. It's the same arguments I use myself.

 

I also tried --exec="{rom}" and it worked. (Notice the two dashes in my example compared to yours. Different characters)

 

In my testing I also noticed that although Dolphin 4.0 says they still support the .dol extension, some of my .dol games wouldn't work (or show up in the game list) until I renamed them to the .iso extension.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spaceboy

all dolphin games are iso. i found the problem with the -- in the dolphin switch and made some progress on psxe.

 

why i'm having this trouble is that changes to the switches take a while to be reflected in requests from game browser classic. so even though i have made those changes and refreshed the library it will still take a while for the changed switches to be used.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Redshirt

you shouldn't have to fiddle with the server at all when you change the switches. The game entity on the server doesn't change as a result of MBC changes. The changes you make in MBC should be seen the next time you launch MBC. You're not editing in the configurator while MBC is open in another window are you? The GB client (and most other plugins likely) only loads it's settings when MBC is launched, any changes aren't picked up until the next launch. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spaceboy

sorry, that was lazy cutting and pasting on my behalf. it was the same problem on the psx ones some dodgy characters had sneaked in instead of ".

 

so all working now anyway, just trying to fine tune pcsx2 to see if i can get anything reasonable. thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well good news, video snaps do work from emumovies, any video works with mbt which is great.

 

If anyone has video snaps which does not seem to popular in the mb3 world oddly, and want them working in mbt, Just create a folder in the game directory titled backdrops, and name the clip theme.mp4, and your done.

 

I guess my only issue is the nfo scrapping takes up alot of space covering the video backdrop, those are some lengthy game descriptions being scrapped, almost an essays worth.

 

Otherwise it works great. 

Would still like to request the ability to hide games with no metadata though, but its just a request..

Although I have yet to setup a system and test it, hopefully it wont hog the audio when am emulator launches, and someone also mentioned in mbt that the backdrops are currently trying to play in the external player so hopefully that can be fixed as well.

Edited by Ghostm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
BATTLE DONKEY

Well good news, video snaps do work from emumovies, any video works with mbt which is great.

 

If anyone has video snaps which does not seem to popular in the mb3 world oddly, and want them working in mbt, Just create a folder in the game directory titled backdrops, and name the clip theme.mp4, and your done.

 

I guess my only issue is the nfo scrapping takes up alot of space covering the video backdrop, those are some lengthy game descriptions being scrapped, almost an essays worth.

 

Otherwise it works great.

Would still like to request the ability to hide games with no metadata though, but its just a request..

Although I have yet to setup a system and test it, hopefully it wont hog the audio when am emulator launches, and someone also mentioned in mbt that the backdrops are currently trying to play in the external player so hopefully that can be fixed as well.

Why dont u add at least a cover image folder.jpg for the games that dont have metadata? Looks better that way at least, or if u wanna help out the rest of the community create an account on gamesdb n fill in some of the missing info. That's what I do, its easy n helps out others in the same situation as u.... As for the video backgrounds, anyone know a better anywhere to get good HD quality background vids for videogames? Emumovies has lots but majority are 480p. Are there any other sites that have some good ones to test this out?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

You can remotely access the roms on your server yes, but the emulators need to be installed and set up in MBC/MBT and any machine you want to play them on. 

 

I kinda figured I was probably smoking some good shit when I came up with this cockamamy idea for what would basically be in home cloud based gaming (although that would be friggin awesome).

 

This is likely a stupid question, but as I'm not any kind of programmer....I'm assuming your saved states and traditional in game saves are stored emulator side, and not rom side, correct?  As in all saved game data from epsxe on Machine A is only available on Machine A, and the same game on Machine B would be started from scratch?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello folks.

 

I am having issues with using gamebrowser (though I'm not honestly sure if it's built for the functionality I'm looking for) and I was hoping someone might be able to help me out.

 

What I'm trying to do is host the emulators and roms on my server computer (in the dining room) and play them remotely from clients in other areas of the house (like all the other media).  I'd like to be able to play a game in the living room for a while, then save and resume it elsewhere in the house.

 

So far I have had no success.  When I configured the computer running the server, everything worked absolutely perfectly on that machine.  Then I configured the first remote client and tried to access the media on the server.  Movies and TV work perfectly, but with Games I was having the same issue tboner had earlier in the thread where he could go into each system, and into each game, but the page on each game was totally blank.  No metadata, no play button, etc.  Once I began having this issue on the remote client, it also started happening on the host machine client (odd).

 

After reading the entire thread I made sure my Games Library was set to Games and that I'm using network paths instead of mapped drives (check and check).  I also followed the advice to delete the .xml files for both the server and the clients (on both computers)(even though this is a new installation and that was for folks upgrading).  I reconfigured the server and both clients from scratch.  The host machine client is back to perfect functionality.  The remote client can now see all data for each game on each system, and the play button is right where it should be.  However, when I click play nothing happens (well, the play button itself does a twirl, but nothing substantial happens).

 

I was wondering if something is wrong with the program, or if it isn't even possible to remotely access and use the emulators from other clients in the house.  Do I need to have emulators installed on each computer and just have them share roms?  (and if I went that route would there be any way to sync saved games to multiple clients?)

 

Please let me know if I need to provide clarification on anything, and thank you in advance for whatever help you may be able to offer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

shaefurr

 

 

I was wondering if something is wrong with the program, or if it isn't even possible to remotely access and use the emulators from other clients in the house.  Do I need to have emulators installed on each computer and just have them share roms?  (and if I went that route would there be any way to sync saved games to multiple clients?)

 

You can remotely access the roms on your server yes, but the emulators need to be installed and set up in MBC/MBT and any machine you want to play them on. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BATTLE DONKEY

I kinda figured I was probably smoking some good shit when I came up with this cockamamy idea for what would basically be in home cloud based gaming (although that would be friggin awesome).

 

This is likely a stupid question, but as I'm not any kind of programmer....I'm assuming your saved states and traditional in game saves are stored emulator side, and not rom side, correct? As in all saved game data from epsxe on Machine A is only available on Machine A, and the same game on Machine B would be started from scratch?

I haven't tested emulators from a second client so I'm not 100% sure how it works, but my save states for the games I have played around with save inside the ROM folder with the game. So going by what shaefurr said about the ROMs staying on the server it sounds like ur cloud style system can in fact work because the save state file should stay in the ROMs folder on the central server.

 

Try setting up ur remote client by installing the emulators on it and configure them for the remote client and leave the ROMs on the server machine and report back please cause I'm actually curious about this myself

Edited by BATTLE DONKEY
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try setting up ur remote client by installing the emulators on it and configure them for the remote client and leave the ROMs on the server machine and report back please cause I'm actually curious about this myself

 

Good lord you're right (at least for the SNES).  I played some Super Mario on the remote client and did a save state on the middle of an elevator and loaded right there on the host machine.  Amazing!  I had just assumed the save files would be done within the emulator.  I'll update this again when I get a chance to try a disc based game (PS2).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BATTLE DONKEY

Good lord you're right (at least for the SNES). I played some Super Mario on the remote client and did a save state on the middle of an elevator and loaded right there on the host machine. Amazing! I had just assumed the save files would be done within the emulator. I'll update this again when I get a chance to try a disc based game (PS2).

Awesome, I was positive that it would work, I have concerns about about streaming games like ps2 as opposed to smaller ROMs like the NES/SNES so let me know how that works out too.

 

I just bought my first house and plan to build a nice theatre in the basement but I've also considered building a bar in the corner of basement too and building a sort of arcade built into the bar itself with the monitor on the wall behind it. Knowing that MB can run the ROMs of the server on a different machine just makes me more excited to start this project. Thanks n let me know how it works with other emulators

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What your saying should work on any emulator as long as you set each emulator on each system to look in the same place for saves.

 

As you say, by default most emulators will create a 'Saves' directory in the emulator folder however if you change this on all emulators on all machines to the folder where your roms are stored on the server then you should be able to share saves between client machines.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starkadius

I would like to weigh in a little on this "Saves" topic. I haven't had much time to configure my emulators and such since moving from MB2 to MB3 but from what little testing I did do i sorta figured it would be possible to load the save from client to client. The issue I am seeing here which I think you guys have not come across yet is I believe you are running these games under one user? For example what would happen if two users decide to play the same ROM from say SNES9X and they both decide to save the game from two different clients? I imagine one user would overwrite the quicksave/save of the other player. I believe there needs to be a feature at some point for managing saves for multiple users which would be the case in my home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BATTLE DONKEY

I would like to weigh in a little on this "Saves" topic. I haven't had much time to configure my emulators and such since moving from MB2 to MB3 but from what little testing I did do i sorta figured it would be possible to load the save from client to client. The issue I am seeing here which I think you guys have not come across yet is I believe you are running these games under one user? For example what would happen if two users decide to play the same ROM from say SNES9X and they both decide to save the game from two different clients? I imagine one user would overwrite the quicksave/save of the other player. I believe there needs to be a feature at some point for managing saves for multiple users which would be the case in my home.

I've already sort of put in a feature request for something like this. I asked about mapping the save/load states to remote control commands. Most emulators allow u to pick different slots to save/load states to so having a dedicated button on the remote control for: save (#1) load (#2) and switch to a different user/save state (#3) would really be a nice feature and something no other front end has, as far as I'm aware of.

 

Its something we will need to wait for, Redshirt has his hands full with other plugins but hopefully he will find some time to add some nice features to gamebrowser again later on

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...