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Theman8631

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Posts posted by Theman8631

  1. Then just delete the rom.  As stated.  Or give a multi optioned suggestion to delete all associated including possible saved games or just initial rom referenced in launchbox.  Theres multiple events in launchbox with warnings.  If launchbox is scared of doing this relocate to a purge folder.  The idea of this feature still seems too helpful not to find an option.

  2. I would like to make a suggestion for a feature to rename the file names of the ROMs in a category two the name of the game listed in lunchbox so that in the future if the game is scraped I don’t have to manually search for the game again because it will find it

  3.  I am wanting to have random platform videos play, however I am under the understanding that this is not a feature right now.

    So what I would like to do is have a batch file load when big box loads or better yet a batch file load when big box closes that will randomly rename a video in the platform video directory to the correct platform video name.  

    What would be a clean or cleaner way of doing this?  Is there a place to select an on-load or close batch file?

  4. Oh then there may be a typo.  It says “Launchbox will update metadata and media, but only for empty fields or missing media.”   Are you saying that it actually functions that it will “update metadata and media,  but only for empty fields and will add new media.” 

    However for something like box front, theres only one box front that I see per game when using that option and it doesn't download a new box front from what I can tell... 

  5. 1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

    Alright, so first off, people who want to update their library with newer images do not have to redownload every image for every game. That's the point of choosing to update without replacing. You get all the new images without having to re-download anything.

    I understand though that you want an option that simply clears out all existing images for a category if the checksums don't match. It's not quite that simple since there's often multiple images for each category, but I get your request.

    When you say “people can update new images without redownloading every image” I just want to end on the final point, they can’t.  You said “thats the point of downloading without replacing” but unless I’m mistaken the point of downloading without replacing is to download images for image types you dont have.  So therefore, you can’t update to the new images unless you happen to have no image of that image type without downloading and replacing all images.

  6. You could just have an option to replace the images that dont match the hash.  That isn’t an incredibly significant change.  Your already checking, and people who want to update their library with newer images redownload every image for every game.  There is an option to redownload the images I already have and it would be faster and less bandwidth om both sides for an option to redownload the images that dont match the image hash on the db.  

    If the hash is checking why does it redownload the thing you have... 

  7. 10 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

    If an image does not match a checksum, then you have absolutely no idea if it's a different image or not. What do you want to do in that scenario? Just throw out the old image and trust that the new one is better? Images on the games database aren't often deleted, anyways. Most often, new images are added in addition to the ones already there, so deleting existing images wouldn't really do much for us.

     The odds are very likely it’s a new image,  and yes,  the option that I think would be useful is to download new images from the database, if my pictures are likely different.   The images would be better because that’s what happens when images are replaced on the games database,  they are replaced with more appropriate, more accurate pictures.   The frequency that this is not the case is far more rare than when a new image is posted.   When a new image is posted it has a much higher likelihood of being inaccurate or low quality,  then times that someone replaces an image on the database,  because they are consciously doing so with the intention that they are improving upon it.  However as it is now when they do so nobody gets those images unless they choose to overwrite all of the images,  including images where it is the same image.

    Another way to think about this - why is there an option for me to override my current images with the same image?  Can we have an option in the future to overwrite the images that are different from the images on the gamesdb.

  8. 1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

    @Theman8631 We already do calculate in checksums, which by nature already handles file size and dimensions. That's already being used. If you tell it to only update and not replace, it won't download anything that matches checksums and sizes.

    Ok... but I WANT it to replace images that do not match checksums.  That’s very specifically what I am suggesting.  Currently there is no option to update images, right?  

     

  9. Simpler yet- when a file is replaced on the gamesdb timestamp the filename server side example:

    New front image accepted on 5-29-2019 12:38

    Front529191238.jpG

    That would be all the processing change needed server side - your doing some processing to save it in the db anyway - and just change the current scan to check if a filename is the same before downloading.  If its the same skip, now that should be way more efficient all around and way less bandwidth!

    As it is now replace everything even if its the same thing is a big load of unnecessary processing and bandwidth on both sides.

  10. 17 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

    Per metadata, the download is much, much smaller due to compression (30 megabytes rings a bell), so I don't think the metadata is an issue at all. One reason why we do it that way is because it saves CPU time on the server. We get a lot of traffic and if the metadata downloads started requiring CPU activity, it could bring the server to its knees.

    But for images, the problem becomes how do you tell whether an image is an updated (better) image and can replace an existing one, or if it's a separate image that should be added to your collection. The short answer is we can't. We do use checksums to determine whether images are the same, but we don't have any magic image processing code that helps us to determine similar images. We'd probably have to license the moon from Google in order to get something like that.

    Well we can get a good assumption that doesn’t take much processing by comparing an images file size and dimension.  Because these fluctuate so much on the gamesdb I will guarantee 99% of the time a change in artwork will change dimensions and size, which are both characteristics of the files properties and should be able to be referenced or logged with very little processing and could be downloaded in a similar images xml and processed client side.  

    Since it would be the preferred option to redownloading everything redundantly (which Im sure Im not the only one to want updated images) the net bandwidth it would save server side seems worth the thought for a possible bandwidth advantage  and drastically lowering individual requests per image.

  11. Just now, neil9000 said:

    Interesting idea, but i'm not sure how much something like that is needed to be honest. The entire metadata.xml file is only around 175MB and is downloaded in its entirety when you prompt to update metadata. 175 isnt a particularly large file these days with the speeds of most peoples internet, it would probably take longer to parse what is new information than it would to download the entire metadata file.

    Just my personal opinion though.

    What about the images, music and movies though?  If a box front image is set but but it sucks and has been improved I am still in the situation of wanting to update it. 

  12.  Currently there  is the option to download and replace all meta-data fields,  and there is an option to download the fields that are empty.

     It would be nice if there was an option to update fields that have been changed since last updated. I can imagine that there could be fast “is this the same?” Hash check that should be faster then blindly redownloading everything.

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