Filter Questions...

[Crylen]

I'm having some issues trying to get filtering to work properly. Hoping someone on the forums would be kind enough to help out =)

1) Is it possible to filter files with the name "[bIOS]". I've tried using the 'exclude file' section along with wild cards but it doesn't seem to be working.

2) I currently use "*(USA*;*USA)*;*(World*;*World)*" in the Rom Filter section to remove European and Japanese game releases. It works really well until I turn on the 'Zip/7-zip/goodmerge/rar" feature, and then it stops working. Is there any way to get these two features working on sync with eachother? It'd be especially useful for the disc based systems where the feature is required.

Thanks!

[nullPointer]

Hi crylen

It might be helpful to have a look at your GameEx.ini to see the bigger picture (or you could export the config for the specific emulator(s) you're working with), To that end, have a look right here. I'll do some testing with this as well. In the mean time, do you have any driving reason to keep the Japanese and European releases in the same directory as the games you want appearing in GameEx? I ended up moving the ROMs I didn't want into a separate directory, which worked pretty well for me. Another option would be to use a map file to create a list of only the games you'd like to have appearing in your list (there are a couple of very good utilities to help you in that endeavor if that's what you choose).

So there are a couple of different options here. In the meantime I'll do some testing to see what happens if I combine those settings. Are you using GoodSets by any chance?

[Crylen]

Sure, sorry here's my GameEx.ini. I thought it wasn't relevant since its just a filtering question.

I'm using a mix of No-Intro, Redump and TOSEC.

The reason I'd like to keep them all in the same folder is because it makes it easier to update and manage sets. I really like the idea of updating No-Intro and having GameEx automatically filter through everything without the use of map files or moving directories.

Like I said, the system works well. The issue I'm having is with [bIOS] files, which I can manually exclude if need be... and with 7z support.

GameEx.ini

[nullPointer]

Hmm ... the 7z thing seems to be working for me when I plug your rom filters into my settings, but it's entirely likely that I'm not creating an exact duplicate of your scenario.

As far as the BIOS files go, it will probably be easiest to manually exclude those files from your list(s). One way that you can exclude ROMs from your game list is by pressing delete on that item within the GameEx interface. If the setup wizard is giving you issues, it might be worth while trying to remove them that way.

[Crylen]

It works? That's really strange... I've continued to tinker with it and still have the same issues.

Is there any chance you could please do me a huge favor? If possible could you export the emulator config in which you have filtering and 7z/rar/zip support enabled so I see the exact settings? It'd be really helpful in figuring out what's going on with my settings.

As for excluding BIOS files, yeah I'll just go through and delete them since there doesn't appear to be a way to include wildcards in the exclusion rules.

[nullPointer]

Hi Crylen,

Sorry it took me a day to get back to this. OK so here's how I had everything setup prior to injecting your ROM filter into my settings. Note that for the purposes of this exercise I turned on 7z support. Naturally Nestopia wouldn't normally need that feature, but I don't think it matters here one way or another. I already had Merge Sets turned on.

Settings with No Filter:

[Emulator]
ConfigFile=[Mapping Off] Exit (Process Close)
Database=[Console] Nintendo NES
RomFilter=
Command=Nestopia.exe "[ROMPATH]\[ROMFILE]"
StartPageLogo=Nintendo NES
StartPageName=[Console] Nintendo NES
TitleText=Nintendo NES
Info=Nintendo NES 8bit emulator
Website=http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
RequiredFiles=
DownloadUrl=http://www.gamesdbase.com/setupwizard/emulators/download/Nestopia.7z
Rating=8.6
Version=1.41
Emulator=Nestopia
Category=Console
System=Nintendo NES
Enabled=True
MapFile=
RomPath=E:\Emulation\Roms\Nintendo_NES[NI]
SnapPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Snap
TitlePath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Title
BoxPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Box
CartPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Cart
ManualPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Manual
ControlPanelPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Controls\Console_Nintendo_NES.png
WorkingPath=E:\Emulation\Emulators\Nestopia v1.40
MapKeys=True
WaitBeforeKeys=
SendKeys=
ReplaceDash=False
ReplaceUnder=True
Capitals=False
RemoveBrackets=True
ShowDesktop=True
Debug=False
AlsoLaunch=
OLDatZip=
LaunchBefore=start "" "E:\Emulation\Emulators\Nestopia v1.40\batch\NestopiaStartup.lnk" "[ROM]"
LaunchAfter=start "" "E:\Emulation\Emulators\Nestopia v1.40\batch\NestopiaExit.lnk"
excludedfiles=
CustomBackground=
PlayMusic=False
DontShowInfo=False
PlaySelectionMusic=False
SelectionMusicFolder=
PCGame=False
GamesIn7Zips=True
PlayInScreenSaver=True
ShowMostPlayed=True
RandomMostPlayed=True
CDCheck=False
CDCheckFile=
MusicPath=F:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Music
TVAdPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Video_Advert_MP4
CustomArtPath1=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Advert
MergeSets=True
CustomArtName1=Print Advert
imagenotfound=E:\Emulation\Assets\no_img.png
UseDbName=True
lastgame=
VideoSnapPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Video_MP4

Those settings yielded the following results:

So then I added your filter to my settings. I adjusted the filter slightly to eliminate redundancy, so I ended up using this:

*(*USA*)*;*(*World*)*

Settings with Filter:

[Emulator]
ConfigFile=[Mapping Off] Exit (Process Close)
Database=[Console] Nintendo NES
RomFilter=*(*USA*)*;*(*World*)*
Command=Nestopia.exe "[ROMPATH]\[ROMFILE]"
StartPageLogo=Nintendo NES
StartPageName=[Console] Nintendo NES
TitleText=Nintendo NES
Info=Nintendo NES 8bit emulator
Website=http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
RequiredFiles=
DownloadUrl=http://www.gamesdbase.com/setupwizard/emulators/download/Nestopia.7z
Rating=8.6
Version=1.41
Emulator=Nestopia
Category=Console
System=Nintendo NES
Enabled=True
MapFile=
RomPath=E:\Emulation\Roms\Nintendo_NES[NI]
SnapPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Snap
TitlePath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Title
BoxPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Box
CartPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Cart
ManualPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Manual
ControlPanelPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Controls\Console_Nintendo_NES.png
WorkingPath=E:\Emulation\Emulators\Nestopia v1.40
MapKeys=True
WaitBeforeKeys=
SendKeys=
ReplaceDash=False
ReplaceUnder=True
Capitals=False
RemoveBrackets=True
ShowDesktop=True
Debug=False
AlsoLaunch=
OLDatZip=
LaunchBefore=start "" "E:\Emulation\Emulators\Nestopia v1.40\batch\NestopiaStartup.lnk" "[ROM]"
LaunchAfter=start "" "E:\Emulation\Emulators\Nestopia v1.40\batch\NestopiaExit.lnk"
excludedfiles=
CustomBackground=
PlayMusic=False
DontShowInfo=False
PlaySelectionMusic=False
SelectionMusicFolder=
PCGame=False
GamesIn7Zips=True
PlayInScreenSaver=True
ShowMostPlayed=True
RandomMostPlayed=True
CDCheck=False
CDCheckFile=
MusicPath=F:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Music
TVAdPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Video_Advert_MP4
CustomArtPath1=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Advert
MergeSets=True
CustomArtName1=Print Advert
imagenotfound=E:\Emulation\Assets\no_img.png
UseDbName=True
lastgame=
VideoSnapPath=E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Video_MP4

So those settings yielded the following results:

The one item of note here is that I'm using a No-Intro set in this example, so each zip contains only one ROM.

[Crylen]

Thanks nullPointer, appreciate you getting back to me.

I setup a temporary NES emulator using the exact settings you provided. I think I realize why I thought it wasn't working. It filters through everything properly at a game level but not at a system level. Hopefully this isn't something just on my end again.

Here's some screens to better explain.

At a game level I only see the USA versions of Super Mario 3 - works as intended.

At the system level I still see plenty of European/Japanese games. (Super Mario + Tetris, Super Mario USA, Super Mogura, Super Momotaru, Super Pang, etc)

*EDIT*

Whoops, forgot to post this. Here it is with 7z disabled. You can see the European/Japanese titles mentioned above are filtered from the list.

Perhaps what I'm seeking to do with filters isn't possible? I guess I could always just create a run before script to do the same thing as the 7z feature. It's a little dirtier but it should work.

[nullPointer]

Whoa! Yes I can duplicate the behavior you describe here. What's funny is that if you open up one of the European or Japanese games from the main list there are no playable games listed within the merged set (where the set consists of only that one game). Seems to me like you've uncovered a minor bug in the system. It would probably be worth elevating this to Tom's attention, or at least documenting it as a feature request.

[Crylen]

Hurray! It isn't my setup!

I'll post a feature request regarding the issue. I'm tepid to PM him since I know he's probably busy with more pressing GameEx issues. Not to mention no one else has brought this up in the 5+ years that GameEx has been around, so its likely only relevant to my oddball setup.

[Tempest]

Since Nullpointer verified it, I would say that you have indeed uncovered a bug. I'll send Tom an E-mail and let him know.

[Tom Speirs]

I will try to address this in a future release. Right now its kind of design as it fixes the filter to 7z etc if the 7zip setting is turned on. The idea is to make it easier for folks and avoid user error but obviously has this problem. A wild card on excluded files would be a good idea.

[Tempest]

Thanks Tom!

[Crylen]

Thanks, really appreciate you looking into this =)