No database data

[shroud]

I have all my emulators in GameEx set in the configuration Wizard to use databases, but for some of them I am not getting the game description and various metadata (so I cannot sort games of those systems by year, genre, manufacturer...). In the GameEx log those emulators constantly show "No database data" (see emus 5, 10 and 14 in the attached log).

I have noticed that those failing systems are missing all the necessary "dbcache" files in the DATA folder. I think these files are autogenerated, right? What can I do to trigger the autogeneration? Clicking "update list" in GameEx merely updates the EMU_n.map files, but not the .dbcache files.

Thanks!

log.txt

[Draco1962]

Please provide your gameex.ini file as well. You may want to try deleting any of the files with cache in the file extension.

[shroud]

GameEx.ini

[Adultery]

Do you have the database files? You can download them using the asset manager in the GameEx start menu folder.

[shroud]

1 hour ago, Adultery said:

Do you have the database files? You can download them using the asset manager in the GameEx start menu folder.

Do you mean the db3 files? The GameEx\DATA\EMULATORS folder is full of them already, and I downloaded some more recent versions from this website just in case.

[DazzleHP]

Someone will need to take a look at your .ini coz this is not normally a problem. Either you installed to a non default directory, or you do not have permissions in the default directory.

 

[greatflash]

Looking at your ini I cannot see that any emulator is set to "use database names". I see that you have colecovision set up, and this has an extensive database, so it's certainly not because there is an incomplete database. 

[shroud]

6 minutes ago, greatflash said:

Looking at your ini I cannot see that any emulator is set to "use database names". I see that you have colecovision set up, and this has an extensive database, so it's certainly not because there is an incomplete database. 

In the Setup Wizard I do have actually set all emulators to "Use Database Names" except for two of them: Spectrum (because there were errors in the official database resulting in some games being shown as others) and ScummVM (because I have games in different languages, so it seemed better to just use the emulator's naming).

 

I have for example downloaded the NES database again, to make sure I didn't have a wrong one. The other two which are failing are DOS and C64, which might be very much incomplete databases given the sheer amount of existing games, but still this doesn't explain the complete failure (at least I'd expect that SOME games would be found, or that even if none are found then empty dbcache files would be created).

[greatflash]

Taking your colecovision collection as an example, what rom set are you using?

i know this is a well filled database for all standard sets so would certainly expect hits. 

It could be me, but in your ini file I could not spot the key to state use database names? Perhaps I missed it. 

[greatflash]

And yes, you are correct that DOS and C64 are not overly populated due to their enormous size, though there are certainly entries in them that should match. 

[shroud]

2 hours ago, greatflash said:

Taking your colecovision collection as an example, what rom set are you using?

i know this is a well filled database for all standard sets so would certainly expect hits. 

It could be me, but in your ini file I could not spot the key to state use database names? Perhaps I missed it. 

I am not really aware of what "rom set" I am using. The Coleco games are however working fine with relation to database naming (in my INI file you can check the Coleco being setup as emulator #3). For 12 out of 15 systems there is no problem. It fails with NES, C64 and DOS games.

 

I can actually imagine that there might be problems with DOS games because there is an extra layer between GameEx and the emulator, the DBGL launcher, but even with this extra layer I am for example capable of mapping video snaps and other artwork correctly.

 

C64 games might have naming problems, as this is by far my oldest set of games, dating back almost 20 years. Files were often renamed, and if GameEx requires exact naming conventions (which ones?) to match the games with database information, then most of the games will be a miss. Anyway, I have just downloaded a new GameEx database for the C64, and now for the first time GameEx actually showed all the menus (genre, year...) for the C64 as well! So something's definitely improving a bit*, even tho only a few games apparently are recognized. So which file naming convention should be used for GameEx to be able to match files with games in the database?

 

*Although it actually has screwed up the list... all those (few) games that were "recognized" (and so they were given a year, publisher and other metadata) are actually recognized wrong. They are all displayed with another game's title, so for example now I have two "Ghostbusters" in the game list, but the second is actually "The Goonies", and this is the one which is shown also under the lists by year or publisher. In addition, the UI now behaves erratically, if I minimize the window (starting from windowed mode) and then restore it, it now has a totally fucked up appearance (wrong aspect ratio, UI not filling the whole window).

 

For the NES games on the other hand I have no idea why the database match is failing.

[shroud]

20 minutes ago, shroud said:

*Although it actually has screwed up the list... all those (few) games that were "recognized" (and so they were given a year, publisher and other metadata) are actually recognized wrong. They are all displayed with another game's title, so for example now I have two "Ghostbusters" in the game list, but the second is actually "The Goonies", and this is the one which is shown also under the lists by year or publisher. In addition, the UI now behaves erratically, if I minimize the window (starting from windowed mode) and then restore it, it now has a totally fucked up appearance (wrong aspect ratio, UI not filling the whole window).

This seems to be definitely caused by using database names. If I turn the feature off, I get no wrong/duplicate games.

[greatflash]

DOS is a very limited database, and all databases generally require a romset with a certain degree of naming convention. For NES, I would certainly expect a degree of matching, using Good set, nointro, tosec, hyperlist, etc. If the name does not match, GX does a fuzzy match (and does the same with artwork) and this can result in invalid matches.

[shroud]

41 minutes ago, greatflash said:

DOS is a very limited database, and all databases generally require a romset with a certain degree of naming convention. For NES, I would certainly expect a degree of matching, using Good set, nointro, tosec, hyperlist, etc. If the name does not match, GX does a fuzzy match (and does the same with artwork) and this can result in invalid matches.

So do you suggest that for example I rename all my C64 files according to the names found here? https://archive.org/download/Commodore_C64_TOSEC_2012_04_23

[greatflash]

personally, I wouldn't worry too much about C64 and using the database, there is a lot of work to do on that one and perhaps it is better to just turn off the database for that system, but.. using a naming convention like tosec is always the preferred.

[shroud]

Ok, so let's give up on C64 and DOS.

 

At least the NES set however should be easy to make it work, but I don't know how to continue with that.

[DazzleHP]

Thanks for reporting in so much detail!

We don't get many like you - it's much appreciated

As greatflash is trying to explain, these DB's are grueling, and basically done by one person...

This guy needs our support. Please give it

[greatflash]

Well, the NES database is an incomplete database. But as I have said, it is always best to use a know naming convention. These are NoIntro, Tosec, Goodtool, and GameBase currently (on the NES database at least).

I have just checked it and 0-B is as far as it is populated, not great I know. But it is coming of course.

[stigzler]

I look forward to the day that someone elects to help Flash out with the databases - it's such a huge and demanding task. Of course "well crack on then!" you may say to me, but unfortunately I'm busy with producing other stuff to conrtibute to the scene beyond setup. Maybe one day - but bagsy not  Commodore 64.

[shroud]

7 hours ago, greatflash said:

Well, the NES database is an incomplete database. But as I have said, it is always best to use a know naming convention. These are NoIntro, Tosec, Goodtool, and GameBase currently (on the NES database at least).

I have just checked it and 0-B is as far as it is populated, not great I know. But it is coming of course.

Ok, good to know! I have only 3 NES games with names starting with A or B. I looked into the database file (with Notepad...) and I actually found those games... so it's either wrong naming of my files, or some other config problem.

 

So a couple of questions now:

1- If GameEx is correctly set to use the NES database, should the menus "Categories"/"Year"/"Manufacturer"/etc. show up in the UI even if NONE of my games is found in the database? Because I don't see those menus at all, and that's why I was thinking the problem is rather in the config than in not matching the files correctly.

2- For the purpose of renaming my files, when you say to use e.g. the NoIntro naming convention, do you mean simply to go to http://datomatic.no-intro.org/, find my games and use their names for them? (I know, supern00b question...)