About This File
FIL (Flashpoint Importer for Launchers)
FIL is an importer tool for several launchers/frontends that allows one to add platforms and playlists from BlueMaxima's Flashpoint project to their collection. It is fully automated and only requires the user to provide the paths to their launcher and Flashpoint installs, choose which Platforms/Playlists they wish to import, and select between a few import mode options. Once the import is started the current progress is displayed and any errors that occur are shown to the user, with resolvable errors including a prompt for what the user would like to do. After the process has completed, the specified launcher can be started and the games from Flashpoint can be played like those from any other Platform.
For Platforms, the importer is capable of importing each game/animation along with any additional apps, images, and most of the metadata fields (i.e. Title, Description, etc, see below).
Function
This utility makes use of its sister project CLIFp (Command-line Interface for Flashpoint) to allow launchers to actually start and exit the games correctly. It is automatically deployed into your Flashpoint installation (updated if necessary) at the end of a successful import and the latest version of CLIFp will be included in each release of this utility so it is not generally something the end-user needs to concern themselves with.
Before making any changes to your collection, any datafiles that will be altered are automatically backed up (only one backup is maintained at once so any previous backup will be overwritten) and if any unrecoverable errors occur during the import any partial changes are reverted and the backups are restored; however, it is strongly suggested that you consider making a manual backup of your launcher's configuration to be safe. No responsibility is held for the loss of data due to use of this tool.
FIL can safely be used multiple times on the same collection to update the selected Platforms and Playlists if that have already been imported previously. The method with which to handle existing entries is selected within the program before each import.
The import time will vary, correlated with how many Platforms/Playlists you have selected, but more significantly the image mode you choose, which is expanded on later. Importing the entire collection usually takes 5-10 minutes with the recommended settings but can take longer with a more basic PC. The vast majority of the processing time is due to the plethora of images that have to be copied/symlinked when games processed so the speed of your storage device is the most significant factor. Running the importer for updates should be significantly faster it first checks to see if the source image from the new import source is actually different than your current one before copying/linking it.
You will still be able to use the standard Flashpoint launcher as normal after completing an import.
Compatability
Flashpoint Infinity/Flashpoint Ultimate
This tool was made with the express purpose of using it with Flashpoint Ultimate (i.e. all games/animations pre-downloaded), but since the 0.2 rewrite of CLIFp it should work with Infinity as well. Just note that use with Infinity is not tested as rigorously.
General
While testing for 100% compatibility is infeasible given the size of Flashpoint, OFILb was designed with full compatibility in mind.
The ":message:" feature of Flashpoint, commonly used to automatically show usage instructions for some games before they are started, is supported. The entries that use it are added as additional-apps to their respective games as they once were when Flashpoint came packaged with LaunchBox. All messages are displayed in a pop-up dialog via CLIFp.
Viewing extras (which are simply a folder) is also supported and the corresponding additional apps that open these folders will be added when importing a platform.
Since Flashpoint originally used LaunchBox as its launcher, most fields within Flashpoint have a one-to-one equivalent (or close enough equivalent) LaunchBox field. That being said there are a few fields that are unique to Flashpoint that do not have matching field and so they are simply excluded during the import, resulting in a relatively minor loss of information for each game in your collection.
Version Matching
Supported Launchers
- LaunchBox
- AttractMode
Flashpoint
While testing for 100% compatibility is infeasible given the size of Flashpoint, FIL was designed with full compatibility in mind.
The ":message:" feature of Flashpoint, commonly used to automatically show usage instructions for some games before they are started, is supported. The entries that use it are added as additional-apps to their respective games as they once were when Flashpoint came packaged with LaunchBox. All messages are displayed in a pop-up dialog via CLIFp.
Viewing extras (which are simply a folder) is also supported and the corresponding additional apps that open these folders will be added when importing a platform.
Each metadata field (i.e. Title, Author, etc.) is matched to the closest equivalent of a given launcher, or a custom field if there is no near equivalent and the launcher supports them; otherwise, the field will be omitted.
Both Flashpoint Ultimate and Flashpoint Infinity are supported.
Version Matching
Each release of this application targets a specific version series of BlueMaxima's Flashpoint, which are composed of a major and minor version number, and are designed to work with all Flashpoint updates within that series. For example, a FIL release that targets Flashpoint 10.1 is intended to be used with any version of flashpoint that fits the scheme 10.1.x.x, such as 10.1, 10.1.0.3, 10.1.2, etc, but not 10.2.
Using a version of FIL that does not target the version of Flashpoint you wish to use it with is highly discouraged as some features may not work correctly or at all and in some cases the utility may fail to function entirely or even damage the Flashpoint install it is used with.
Please see the project's releases page on GitHub to check which tool version targets which Flashpoint version.
Metadata Fields
Currently the following fields in LaunchBox will be populated for each game, which is limited by what is available within Flashpoint:
- Title
- Series
- Developer
- Publisher
- Platform
- Sort Title
- Date Added
- Date Modified
- Broken Flag
- Play Mode
- Status
- Notes
- Source
- Release Date
- Version
- Library
- Language (as a Custom Field)
Usage
Please check the usage section for the tool on its GitHub page. It's easier to keep the instructions up to date when they are in one location.
If you have a bug or feature request I ask that you submit an issue on the GitHub page for this tool, but if you just want to ask a question, discuss the tool in general, or are having issues getting it working for reasons you don't think are due to a bug then please just make a post here. Since sometimes the line between the two can be blurry don't feel afraid to use the wrong system, it isn't a huge deal.
GitHub
Edited by oblivioncth
Update for rebrand
What's New in Version 0.3 See changelog
Released
OFILb 0.3 - Major Feature Update (Targets FP 9.0)
This release adds many features, performance, and quality-of-life improvements:
Features:
- The 'Release Type' field in LaunchBox is now populated to specify if the title is a game or animation, which means that if you sort by said field you can easily separate games/animations from each other
- The Flashpoint Link image mode has been removed as it was cumbersome to maintain and likely was almost never used
- A new image mode 'Reference' has been added. This sets LaunchBox's "Platforms.xml" to directly reference the title images within Flashpoint so that the media scanner picks them up when caching images. Given Flashpoint's complex image folder hierarchy, using this option causes the image cache build to be slow enough within LaunchBox that the 'Symlink' option is still recommended overall; however, this mode is the fastest to import by far and causes the least I/O overhead (though only slightly better than the 'Symlink' option in the latter regard) after the cache has been built, so this is technically the best option if you have Flashpoint on an SSD, are performing a small import, or are simply patient enough
- A new option called 'Playlist Games Mode' has been added, which lets you select between 'Selected Platforms Only' and 'Force All'. The former replicates previous behavior in that games in Playlists will only be included if you also selected the Platform that contains them, while the latter will partially import unselected Playlists as required. This will also allow you to perform an entire import based only on Playlists
- Animations can now be imported by checking the corresponding option in the Tools menu
QoL:
- The 18+ icon for the "Include Extreme" option has been removed so it is now much clearer if the option is checked or not
- The 'Include Extreme' option is now unchecked by default to match Flashpoint's handling of the category
- Main icon style changed to go along with the update to the Flashpoint icon
-
The existing image modes have been simplified given the removal of 'Flashpoint Link':
- LaunchBox Copy -> Copy
- LaunchBox Link -> Symlink
- General improvements to Help dialog clarity, including the average affect on import speed they each have
- Output XMLs now more strictly conform to LaunchBox's format
- Paths to executables in XML now use the Windows backslash for consistency instead of the Unix forward-slash (no functional change)
- The user is now reminded that "Run as Administrator" or Windows 10's Developer mode is required to use the 'Symlink' image mode option
Bug-Fixes:
- Fixed a bug that required OFILb to be restarted if an import failed while editing an XML before the import could be attempted again
- Several potential causes for bugs were remedied
- The 'Update Mode' option can now be changed when only Playlists are selected. It was previously thought to be irrelevant but the 'Remove Obsolete' option does determine if games within the Playlist are removed or not during an update. The option is also now relevant when using 'Force All'
- Playlist games are now given a partially unique ID instead of -1, though this value doesn't seem to be actually used
Performance:
- When the 'Copy' image mode is selected the importer now checks if new images are actually different from your existing ones in the case of an update before performing a copy, which generally improves import speed
- When the 'Symlink' image mode is selected the importer now checks if the symlink already exists case of an update as to not unnecessarily create it again, which generally improves import speed
- Overall lower RAM usage
- Slight improvement in loop efficiency during some import stages
