Snaps does not match the game selected

[lalandev]

Hi!

I'm a registered user of GameEx and I use GoodMerged Romsets. As you know, the files are 7zipped and doesn't "keep" the naming convention of the roms inside the 7zip.

Example:

"Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.1) [!].smc" --> "Final Fantasy III.7z"

But, my snap and title are still named "Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.1) [!].png". So, when i browse my games in GameEx the snap that I see is usually the snap of the game before it, in this case Final Fantasy II.

Do I need to rename my snaps and title and remove all goodtools info? Do I do something wrong? Is it a "normal bug" because of the old databases (I know that you guys are working hard to create new ones).

I'm clueless what to do to show the correct snap with the correct rom. Hope it is clear enough.

[bkenobi]

Hmmm, it sounds like there should probably be a new way to link snaps to goodmerged sets used. Here's one thought off the top of my head. Since the name of the goodmerge archive is (I assume) the name of the roms inside without all the detailed info (like region, version, etc.), should GameEx find the first snap, title, etc. that's base name matches the rom name? One solution would be to rename the snaps, etc. so that there's a single matching file, but that requires maintaining that new naming standard if an update is released for the set.

[greatflash]

Hmmm, it sounds like there should probably be a new way to link snaps to goodmerged sets used. Here's one thought off the top of my head. Since the name of the goodmerge archive is (I assume) the name of the roms inside without all the detailed info (like region, version, etc.), should GameEx find the first snap, title, etc. that's base name matches the rom name? One solution would be to rename the snaps, etc. so that there's a single matching file, but that requires maintaining that new naming standard if an update is released for the set.

Gameex will match mostly. It does have problems with repeated characters though. also with names like "Sonic" and "Sonic 2" as roms, It will match "Sonic 2" with "Sonic" as a video unless the video and the rom have the same name including the brackets. The problem also happens with roman numerals unless the files match exactly. so "xx I" "xx II" and "xx III" would match with "xx I" as a video.

Im not sure how the matching of filenames works in the DB's, They seem to match the info displayed correctly with the rom. Seeing as snaps use a fuzzy match and the DB's use a strict match. I do not know if tom uses (or can) the match in the DB to relate to the snap? Perhaps there is a future solution to be found there?

Failing that, you have only a handfull of options. Rename the snaps by removing the bracketed text ("better file rename" is a good option for this) if the snaps would then 100% match the 7z filenames? Or, extract your 7z archives back to individual roms.

Sorry I could not be more help (the magic wand needs new batteries )

[fRequEnCy]

Isn't this what the "Snap Best Match" option does in the Tweaks/Performance section? I thought if No was selected then it would use exact match and if Yes was selected then it would search for a match. I could be wrong as I never understood much detail about this feature.

[greatflash]

Isn't this what the "Snap Best Match" option does in the Tweaks/Performance section? I thought if No was selected then it would use exact match and if Yes was selected then it would search for a match. I could be wrong as I never understood much detail about this feature.

If off - Fuzzy search

If on - Exact match

What I was trying to illustrate was that a fuzzy search is not an exact science. There is a compromise between being to exact and missing lots of matches and to be too loose and matching too many wrongly. The problem with romsets is the amount of extra details (V1, (U), [joystick], by b. nailspoon, (JUE), (UE) etc) and there may be a middle ground for some sets, and the fuzzy search may need to be tighter for others.

So, it is a case of getting the best match between your artwork and roms, regardless of match method. There will always be some that will mis-match unless the files are exactly the same, then the match would be perfect regardless of strict or fuzzy matching.

[fRequEnCy]

If off - Fuzzy search

If on - Exact match

What I was trying to illustrate was that a fuzzy search is not an exact science. There is a compromise between being to exact and missing lots of matches and to be too loose and matching too many wrongly. The problem with romsets is the amount of extra details (V1, (U), [joystick], by b. nailspoon, (JUE), (UE) etc) and there may be a middle ground for some sets, and the fuzzy search may need to be tighter for others.

So, it is a case of getting the best match between your artwork and roms, regardless of match method. There will always be some that will mis-match unless the files are exactly the same, then the match would be perfect regardless of strict or fuzzy matching.

Ahhh. Got it!

[greatflash]

Ahhh. Got it!

oh no!!!! - Quick, try and wash it off with some Bleach!!!

[Rapid Fire]

Funny how all these issues appear at the same time in threads.

I just goodmerged all my romsets last night and now lost all the matching for snaps and videos!

I thought there was a goodtool type application for renaming the images and stuff, but I am unable to find it.

For now there is a guy who is doing it manually. He only has 2 systems done right now, but here is his site.

http://www.hfc-essentials.net/gameex/goodmergeimages.php

[bkenobi]

Yeah, I remember Adultery mention something about that (it was Adultery, wasn't it?)... Anyway, that's a major undertaking in my opinion, so I wish anyone who tries it manually much luck!

[lalandev]

Sooooooooooo guys, what are YOU doing???

No goodmerge? Your roms are just "dumped" in a folder and your snaps have the same naming convention?

I know that hard drive are cheap and that, for example: a SNES romset is not big, but I like the 7zip compression and the neat look in the folder.

Anyway, plz feel free to describe a little bit your setup, maybe it'll give others ideas!

Thx guys.

[greatflash]

Sooooooooooo guys, what are YOU doing???

No goodmerge? Your roms are just "dumped" in a folder and your snaps have the same naming convention?

I know that hard drive are cheap and that, for example: a SNES romset is not big, but I like the 7zip compression and the neat look in the folder.

Anyway, plz feel free to describe a little bit your setup, maybe it'll give others ideas!

Thx guys.

I don't have mine goodmerged! I 7zip mine idividually. You get the same space saving (for what it is worth) but all snaps still match (oh, but you loose the little flags )

[lalandev]

I don't have mine goodmerged! I 7zip mine idividually. You get the same space saving (for what it is worth) but all snaps still match (oh, but you loose the little flags )

Thx for the insight. But, have you found your romset already "ungoodmerged" or you used a regular expression tool to rename then?

[Tom Speirs]

Hi!

I'm a registered user of GameEx and I use GoodMerged Romsets. As you know, the files are 7zipped and doesn't "keep" the naming convention of the roms inside the 7zip.

Example:

"Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.1) [!].smc" --> "Final Fantasy III.7z"

But, my snap and title are still named "Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.1) [!].png". So, when i browse my games in GameEx the snap that I see is usually the snap of the game before it, in this case Final Fantasy II.

Do I need to rename my snaps and title and remove all goodtools info? Do I do something wrong? Is it a "normal bug" because of the old databases (I know that you guys are working hard to create new ones).

I'm clueless what to do to show the correct snap with the correct rom. Hope it is clear enough.

The example youve given is actually a bug and is now fixed for the next release.

[lalandev]

The example youve given is actually a bug and is now fixed for the next release.

Wow thx, it is the first time that I don't feel like posting a stupid question... hehehe

By "next version", you mean not 9.43 ?

[bkenobi]

I use nointro sets. I don't have any desire to play Super Mario with Japanese language and hacked to have Barney instead of Bowser There are a lot of people who do use goodmerge sets, so the feature to play games from a zip file has been recently added.

The alternative (which has been mentioned) would be renaming your files to exactly match the goodmerge archive name. If you want to do it that way, you can keep the same file structure you currently have and create hard links to the files (symlinks, symbolic links, etc.). This also avoids the increase in hard drive requirements.

[lalandev]

Finally, I renamed all my snaps with a RegEx application. Everything is now working perfectly. I'm still eager to try the new release that Tom is talking about. Maybe it'll save me the renaming of a future romset I may download one day.

[Rapid Fire]

Would you mind zipping those up and e-mailing them to me? Maybe we can even add them to the Emumovies ftp server. Are we allowed to do that? Also, what naming system did you use?

[lalandev]

Would you mind zipping those up and e-mailing them to me? Maybe we can even add them to the Emumovies ftp server. Are we allowed to do that? Also, what naming system did you use?

I would be delighted contributing to the community. But, is it some kind of copyright on those files I've downloaded on screenshot archive? The snaps were goodtooled, so I"ve just used a RegEx renaming tool to get rid of the (UJE), [!] stuff. After, I"ve just browsed quickly in GameEx to see if there were still problems. I've renamed manually maybe 1% of all the snaps that were not exactly the same name as my GoodMerged roms.

I've done: NES, SNES, N64, GBA, Genesis, Sega Master System.

[bkenobi]

Wouldn't it be better to provide a .dat file for the renaming process? Seems like you could get everything you need with a 5k text file rather than needing to transfer hundreds of megs of video files.

What program did you use to do the name conversion? You said a regex renamer, but I haven't been able to locate such a program yet. Please share!

[lalandev]

Wouldn't it be better to provide a .dat file for the renaming process? Seems like you could get everything you need with a 5k text file rather than needing to transfer hundreds of megs of video files.

What program did you use to do the name conversion? You said a regex renamer, but I haven't been able to locate such a program yet. Please share!

I' REALLY a noob in all the world of emulator, roms, dat files, etc. So, I don't really know the way to build a dat file for the renaming process. The way I did it is with Bulk Renaming Utility.

There's a field for RegEx and I simply used:

match:

(.*)(\(.*\))(.)

replace:

\1\3

and

match:

(.*)(\[.*\])(.)

replace:

\1\3

This way, it removed all () and []. At the end, there were still some snaps with the wrong name (ex: Final Fantasy 2.png --> Final Fantasy II.7z) For all my roms, it took me less than 2 hours, can't imagine doing it manually...

[bkenobi]

That's pretty slick. I suggest using this in combination with Beyond Compare (or something similar) to do a diff on the contents of the directories. That way, you would see what files weren't matched. I think the best way to do that would be using:

dir /b *.7z > roms.txt

and

dir /b *.png > snaps.txt

on both the snaps dir and the roms dir. Then, using whatever app you want, do a replace of '.7z' in the roms and '.png' for the snaps with '' (that's nothing, null, blank...). This will give you two text files with just the base file name that *should* match. Anyway, it might be easier to find mismatches/missing stuff that way.

[lalandev]

That's pretty slick. I suggest using this in combination with Beyond Compare (or something similar) to do a diff on the contents of the directories. That way, you would see what files weren't matched. I think the best way to do that would be using:

dir /b *.7z > roms.txt

and

dir /b *.png > snaps.txt

on both the snaps dir and the roms dir. Then, using whatever app you want, do a replace of '.7z' in the roms and '.png' for the snaps with '' (that's nothing, null, blank...). This will give you two text files with just the base file name that *should* match. Anyway, it might be easier to find mismatches/missing stuff that way.

Great tips, next romset I get, I'll try it. So, how can we help the community with our snaps/title "set"? You talked about a dat file?

[bkenobi]

A dat file contains info about the rom set and the related files. I haven't spent much time with them as most of my files are acceptable as is. If you do goodmerge sets, you end up using dat files quite a bit. Nointro sets don't seem to need them as much. It's just a preference...