Bulk Convert .cue/.bin (or files other than .bin) to .chd 1.02

This is a great plugin idea, in fact it is such a great idea that it has reminded me that i still need to convert the bin and cues for 3 more platforms.  This plugin will make that process much easier!

I have failed to do my homework and went straight to work with this plugin and It worked just as stated and completed my sega cd set of 136 games in about 3 hours with a somewhat elderly and low end when new 2013 cpu (amd fx-6350) but i failed to check chd compatibility with either emulator i use ( kega fusion or retroarch with genesis plus gx core) so i i have screwed up. The question for the moment is, Is there away to return the game application path back to the original cue files or should i just delete from launchbox and reimport? NEXT TIME, i will look both ways before crossing the street lol

btw 63.5GB down to 31.1GB

edit...I had no bios setup for retroarch genesis plus gx core ..this core is compatible with chd.   my error.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Mainiack

26 minutes ago, Mainiack said:

I have failed to do my homework and went straight to work with this plugin and It worked just as stated and completed my sega cd set of 136 games in about 3 hours with a somewhat elderly and low end when new 2013 cpu (amd fx-6350) but i failed to check chd compatibility with either emulator i use ( kega fusion or retroarch with genesis plus gx core) so i i have screwed up. The question for the moment is, Is there away to return the game application path back to the original cue files or should i just delete from launchbox and reimport? NEXT TIME, i will look both ways before crossing the street lol

btw 63.5GB down to 31.1GB

edit...I had no bios setup for retroarch genesis plus gx core ..this core is compatible with chd.   my error.

Edit- I see you just edited your post 👍

Edited April 3, 2022 by Rlad

I really could have used this a month ago. Thanks for making this! Great idea!

Edited April 3, 2022 by Dan Patrick

2 hours ago, Mainiack said:

btw 63.5GB down to 31.1GB

That's what we like to see! 

@JoeViking245 Hey Joe, You do some awesome stuff for LB, thank you. I got a couple questions for ya.

1. Are there any issues that you have found after converting when using the bezel project? 

2. Do things work well if the roms are stored on NAS (using mapped drives)? I know LB will NOT move files when using the Cleanup tool

3. Will is rename the chd file after the cue file or the iso file? (I got some messed up 3DO roms where cue files are named correctly, but calling iso files from within the cue, without countries suffix)

Edited April 4, 2022 by The Papaw

Thank you!  I try.

26 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

1. Are there any issues that you have found after converting when using the bezel project?

I've only used the Bezel Project for MAME Arcade Machines.  But for this (and I assume others) the bezels are loaded per the launched rom (.cue) filename.  (Similar to question #3)

 

32 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

2. Do things work well if the roms are stored on NAS (using mapped drives)? I know LB will NOT move files when using the Cleanup tool

Good question.  I have no idea [how NAS using mapped drives work].  If it helps answer any, the plugin gets the games Application Path (the path pointing to the .cue file) and then converts it (if it's a relative path) to an absolute path.  Then, after successful converting, the games Application Path gets changed (updated) to the full (absolute) path of the [new] .chd file.  So if the App Path was "Games\3DO\theGame\theGame.cue", it will now be "D:\LaunchBox\Games\3DO\theGame\theGame.chd".

 

47 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

3. Will is rename the chd file after the cue file or the iso file?

Definitely after the .cue filename.  That's the name the emulator is looking for and had [presumably] worked.

7 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Thank you!  I try. I've only used the Bezel Project for MAME Arcade Machines.  But for this (and I assume others) the bezels are loaded per the launched rom (.cue) filename.  (Similar to question #3)

Good question.  I have no idea [how NAS using mapped drives work].  If it helps answer any, the plugin gets the games Application Path (the path pointing to the .cue file) and then converts it (if it's a relative path) to an absolute path.  Then, after successful converting, the games Application Path gets changed (updated) to the full (absolute) path of the [new] .chd file.  So if the App Path was "Games\3DO\theGame\theGame.cue", it will now be "D:\LaunchBox\Games\3DO\theGame\theGame.chd".

 

Definitely after the .cue filename.  That's the name the emulator is looking for and had [presumably] worked.

I'm going through my messed up 3D files and fixing them now. After that, I will see what happens with a copy of that and report back to ya concerning the bezels and the NAS. Keep your toes crossed 

2 hours ago, The Papaw said:

I'm going through my messed up 3D files and fixing them now

If the .cue's are named correctly, the plugin should just work.  Regardless of the .iso filenames.  The plugin parses the .cue file for the associated files for that game, no matter how they're named.  

So if you had "my-properly-named-file.cue" and "messed-up-name.iso", as long as the .cue includes "messed-up-name.iso" inside of it, you'll end up with "my-properly-named-file.chd".

But yes!  Keep me posted.  Toes crossed.

Just now, JoeViking245 said:

If the .cue's are named correctly, the plugin should just work.  Regardless of the .iso filenames.  The plugin parses the .cue file for the associated files for that game, no matter how they're named.  

So if you had "my-properly-named-file.cue" and "messed-up-name.iso", as long as the .cue includes "messed-up-name.iso" inside of it, you'll end up with "my-properly-named-file.chd".

But yes!  Keep me posted.  Toes crossed.

I had just finished all the fixes and just now started the conversion process. I can confirm the utility is moving files from a NAS folder to a different NAS folder 

One thing, not sure if you can do anything about it, but as I am trying to type this, each time a new game starts converting, it take the attention away from here and I have to keep clicking back on the forums to type again.

I will let you know how it does with the bezels after they are finished.

12 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

One thing, not sure if you can do anything about it, but as I am trying to type this, each time a new game starts converting, it take the attention away from here and I have to keep clicking back on the forums to type again.

I probably could set it to run in the background.  But it's a process that does take time and CPU.  Umm... mainly the Converting. Not as much the programming.  

For me, typically with something CPU intensive, I like to keep that part in the forefront (vs 'hiding' the process) when I write my apps. 

But ya, this is probably something worth looking into for 2.0.  Until then, a quick pressing of Alt+Tab will get you back to where you need to be. 

Great NEWS! I converted about 200 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games, the pluggin worked great, moved files fine and bezels are working as expected. Concerning changing it to run in background?  I agree with ya, maybe you can add a option for the user or something, doesn't make much difference really.

Added note: My 3DO Interactive Multiplayer rom folder went from 114GB to 79GB. Awesome HDD space saving!!!

Thanks for creating it.

Edited April 4, 2022 by The Papaw

53 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

maybe you can add a option for the user

No.  It's all or nothing.  But I'm thinking about it (which is a good sign).  

Awesome to hear that it worked great!!!  I like seeing those excellent space savings too!

@JoeViking245 Hey Joe, how does it handle games with multiple discs? Does it put them each into a chd (disc 1, disc 2, disc 3, etc.) or combine them all together in a single chd.

I suppose same question about multiple versions as well (USA, Japan, Europe or Rev 1, Rev 2)

I am just now getting back on PC and looking more into things and noticed I still have a few that didn't seem to convert.

Edited April 4, 2022 by The Papaw

10 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

@JoeViking245 Hey Joe, how does it handle games with multiple discs? Does it put them each into a chd (disc 1, disc 2, disc 3, etc.) or combine them all together in a single chd.

I suppose same question about multiple versions as well (USA, Japan, Europe or Rev 1, Rev 2)

I am just now getting back on PC and looking more into things and noticed I still have a few that didn't seem to convert.

Why convert? Because "You end up with just a single file per game".

If all converts well, you will end up with the same number of .chd files as you have .cue files.  (assuming all your cue files are referenced as games in LaunchBox.)

If you open a .cue file with any text editor, you can see all the associated files that correspond to that game.  That game, being the filename of the .cue file.

MYgame.cue + MYgame_Disk1.bin + MYgame_Disk2.bin + MYgame_Disk3.bin  =  one game ("MYgame")

MYgame.chd  =  one game ("MYgame")

 

Same goes for multiple versions.  If they have their own .cue, they'll get their own .chd.  Unless they're Additional Apps.  This plugin doesn't scan the Additional Apps.

@JoeViking245 Hey there Mr. Joe: Have you tried your plugin on PS1 games? I was thinking about making a copy of my PS1 rom folder (up close to a TB though) and giving it a whirl.

From what I am reading, using RetroArch and the Duckstation core, I think the core supports chd's. Couldn't find docs on the core in RA docs, but found some reddit posts that said it supported chd's

Any thoughts, opinions? I would love to know how much hdd space it might save.

Edited April 5, 2022 by The Papaw

46 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

Have you tried your plugin on PS1 games

Yes.  In fact that's what I was using to test it with.  Though I had to convert them back from chd to bin/cue.  And of course it worked great for both of the games I have.  It went from 0.99Gig to 499MB (for the 2 games).

I've never tried DuckStation in RA. Just the standalone.

Just now, JoeViking245 said:

Yes.  In fact that's what I was using to test it with.  Though I had to convert them back from chd to bin/cue.  And of course it worked great for both of the games I have.  It went from 0.99Gig to 499MB (for the 2 games).

I've never tried DuckStation in RA. Just the standalone.

Ya mind me asking why ya had to convert them back?

1 hour ago, The Papaw said:

why ya had to convert them back?

I have zero cue/bin/whatever files on my cab.  Everything was converted to chd several years ago.  I figured since I was writing this plugin, I probably should at least test it.  So I took the 2 smallest chds I have (for 'faster' testing) and converted them [back] to cue/bin. Then ran my tests [converting them to .chd]. 

 

6 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

I have zero cue/bin/whatever files on my cab.  Everything was converted to chd several years ago.  I figured since I was writing this plugin, I probably should at least test it.  So I took the 2 smallest chds I have (for 'faster' testing) and converted them [back] to cue/bin. Then ran my tests [converting them to .chd]. 

 

Gotcha, just wanted to make sure there wasn't an issue. Thanks for all your help Joe, much appreciated.

@JoeViking245 Hey Joe, I had a few issues converting all my PS1 roms (I think it was more of how LB had things scanned in) with multiple discs and versions, but I got it all cleaned up and finished. The plugin is AMAZING!!! It reduced the folder by over 350GB!! That is a huge recovery!

Thanks again for sharing it!

5 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

I had a few issues converting all my PS1 roms (I think it was more of how LB had things scanned in) with multiple discs and versions

Do you think it's an issue that others will have too?  What's the scenario?  Multiple disks shouldn't be an issue. Assuming they're all listed in the .cue file and your setup pointed to the cue file (rather than pointing to disk 1, disk 2, etc., separately).  If you had multiple versions listed as Additional Apps, I posted an update yesterday that will account for those.

If the multiple versions share .bin (or whatever) files, that would be an issue.  If that's the case, that can be fixed in the plugin.

N

6 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Do you think it's an issue that others will have too?  What's the scenario?  Multiple disks shouldn't be an issue. Assuming they're all listed in the .cue file and your setup pointed to the cue file (rather than pointing to disk 1, disk 2, etc., separately).  If you had multiple versions listed as Additional Apps, I posted an update yesterday that will account for those.

If the multiple versions share .bin (or whatever) files, that would be an issue.  If that's the case, that can be fixed in the plugin.

Not entirely sure what happened to be honest. I had some games that had like 3 or 3 discs. It might have converted 1 & 2 but not 2 and 4. Sometimes it might only get 1 disc. Some games that had multiple versions that were names  like "Tomb Raider (USA) (v1.0)", "Tomb Raider (USA) (v1.1)", "Tomb Raider (USA) (v1.2)". would only convert the version that LB was pointing too.

Problem is, these roms were scanned in a few yrs back so the xml file could have been screwy, ya know?

Edited April 8, 2022 by The Papaw

18 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

would only convert the version that LB was pointing too.

Ya, it will only convert the games that you have imported into LaunchBox.  And from there, it only looks for game application paths that point to a .cue file.  If it points to a file with any other extension, it skips to the next game.

I wouldn't put much into it and see if other folks report anything back. I think most of my issues were related more to the xml.