bd00 Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 I updated LB to 4.8 yesterday, only to discover that you have removed the ability to import Steam games using the old method. (Scanning the SteamApps directory) This is very disappointing. Both mine and my sons Steam profiles are private and this seems to leave us no way to update our Steam libraries in LB. If my hand was forced I would consider making my profile public, but under no circumstances would I make my 6 year old's profile public. He is just to young right now. (Note: I am sure a lot of you disagree and don't see any harm in making his profile public, but I have heard all the arguments before and my mind will not be swayed. I have no desire to get into this debate here.) I am unsure if this was a concious design decision or if you just didn't consider all the angles, but I would like to make a request to bring back an option to import only installed Steam games. (from the SteamApps directory) Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Hi bd, okay, I'll bring the old importer back as well (didn't realize there were compelling reasons to keep it around). Hopefully I can have a beta out soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveBarker Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 I don't know if I am correct, but I am pretty sure that you only need to make your profile public DURING the import process, you can go back to private afterwards and the problem is solved in my opinion. Of course, having the old method maybe will help some people too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 CliveBarker said I don't know if I am correct, but I am pretty sure that you only need to make your profile public DURING the import process, you can go back to private afterwards and the problem is solved in my opinion. Of course, having the old method maybe will help some people too. The only problem was that the old method was a tad flawed... hence why LB went with the new method. But yea, a private profile is something some people can't change. I would agree with Clive though, try setting it public while it scans your profile. Once it is done and downloading metadata try setting it back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Of course, I didn't think of that, so simple. But what if I don't want all my Steam games, but only installed ones? Actually how does it work? If I try to run a game that is not installed does it open Steam with the download dialogue? Or does it do nothing? And how does one differentiate between installed games and non-installed games. I was unaware that the old method was flawed, unless you are referring to it only picking up installed games. I never had any problems with it and as of late, was probably my most used feature. I really think the option to import only installed games should be available, surely some people out there would prefer that. Thinking about it, I would probably separate installed games from the rest, using the platform field: Steam (Installed) or something like that. Having the option to import using both methods would make it easier to set up and manage. Note: I use a seperate instance of LB for PC games and I use Steam, Origin, Uplay, ISO, etc. as platform names. This is because PC games are not portable like the others, which are synced across my network. Each computer has its own individual instance of LB for PC games, reflecting what is installed on that system. So importing only installed games (excluding those that already exist). This would import them with PC as the platform and I could bulk edit and change platform to "Steam (Installed)". Then import via profile link (excluding those that already exist). This would import them with PC as the platform and I could bulk edit and change platform to "Steam (All)". Easy. Saves sifting through all the games to manually find the installed ones. Am I the only one here who has a set-up like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 It was flawed in the sense of it wasn't too accurate. It couldn't pick up everything like it can now. If you uninstalled a game and tried to run it through the old method it would fail. It could also pick up a game if you previously uninstalled it but there were files left over. This way, if a game is uninstalled it will prompt you if you would like to install a game and where like normal. It is also more accurate in pulling images and metadata. It is 100%. Unless its a game that later gets removed (which can happen) it will find everything on your account. As far as setups go, I do prefer DOS, GOG, Origin and Steam games to be seperate and anything else left as PC generalized. It not too hard to do if you do it at the right time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Sure, yup. Steam simply prompts you to install the game if you don't have it installed, when you try and start it through LaunchBox. Still, I don't see any issue with re-enabling the old importer. I'd just put a little tiny link on the wizard to take you there if you'd prefer (though I don't see putting any more work into it, so it won't support any of the new features). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 SentaiBrad said It was flawed in the sense of it wasn't too accurate. It couldn't pick up everything like it can now. If you uninstalled a game and tried to run it through the old method it would fail. It could also pick up a game if you previously uninstalled it but there were files left over. This way, if a game is uninstalled it will prompt you if you would like to install a game and where like normal. It is also more accurate in pulling images and metadata. It is 100%. Unless its a game that later gets removed (which can happen) it will find everything on your account. I never knew that, but I don't have any uninstalled games. It never missed any games for me either, but I imagine it could. As far as setups go, I do prefer DOS, GOG, Origin and Steam games to be seperate and anything else left as PC generalized. It not too hard to do if you do it at the right time. Agreed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Jason Carr said Sure, yup. Steam simply prompts you to install the game if you don't have it installed, when you try and start it through LaunchBox. Still, I don't see any issue with re-enabling the old importer. I'd just put a little tiny link on the wizard to take you there if you'd prefer (though I don't see putting any more work into it, so it won't support any of the new features). Thanks, that would be great. What new features are you talking about? Also, do you have any plans to differentiate between installed and not-installed games? That reminds me, the keyboard shortcut to navigate to a letter has been gone a while now and Ctrl+F for search doesn't work in fullscreen, are either of these in the pipeline? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Yup, I do have both of those on my list. I hadn't planned on the Steam import identifying installed and not-installed games, mostly because I don't have a good and proper way of determining it. As Brad stated, the old method is too flawed to be used effectively for that, unfortunately, especially in the case of uninstalling games. New features for the Steam import are things like importing in the background, choosing which images you want, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 OK. Thanks. I will just use the profile method. I already have my Installed games imported, so all I will be importing is non-installed anyway. After that even with a big bundle of new games, it would be easy to pull out the installed ones manually. I was just imagining if I was setting it up for the first time. I'm not crazy, I was thinking of new users. Just leave it as is, don't add it on my account as I doubt many people will separate installed and non-installed like I plan to. Especially if it is has bugs and no further support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Okay, cool. That's good, because I was looking into it and it wasn't turning out to be as easy as I had thought, anyways. I did a lot of code restructuring to fix things up that I would have to undo, as it turns out. So that's a relief. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Out of curiosity, did you use the appmanifest files with the old method? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 bd000 said Out of curiosity, did you use the appmanifest files with the old method? If I recall, yes. This is why it could be inaccurate and have less power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 So am I right to assuming when a game is uninstalled, Steam leaves behind the appmanifest file? This is what causes the issues? So you got the appid from the appmanifest files, then used the Store API to pull the rest of the information you need, or SteamKit or something like that? Sorry to keep pressing on this, but I am considering creating my own solution so I can import installed Steam games and it would help if I knew what problems you faced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 bd000 said So am I right to assuming when a game is uninstalled, Steam leaves behind the appmanifest file? This is what causes the issues? So you got the appid from the appmanifest files, then used the Store API to pull the rest of the information you need, or SteamKit or something like that? Sorry to keep pressing on this, but I am considering creating my own solution so I can import installed Steam games and it would help if I knew what problems you faced. It shouldn't leave behind anything. Sometimes if the uninstall fails or gets uninstalled some other way... well its a PC. Anything can happen. :P I know I had a lot of files that were invalid and it found a lot of games that were not installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Lol yeah. Considering computers do exactly what you say, they still leave you wondering "what the heck is it doing?" I suppose the problem is they only do exactly as you say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Lol, yeah, it did use the app manifest files. I'm not exactly sure how Steam handles it all, but I do know that I've seen app manifest files that exist when the game has never been installed, and also app manifest files for games that have been removed. I'm guessing certain things trigger the file to be created, and it's not just having the game installed. I'm not 100% sure on whether the files are ever removed if the game is uninstalled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddoc1007 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Hi Jason maybe its picking up game files that were uninstalled because reminants of them are left in the hidden Progam Data folder in Cdrive. To show this folder go to Control Panel, then click on Folder Options, then click on View Tab and scroll to Folder and check the Show Hidden Files and Folders. When you now open you C Drive you will see a faint folder called Program Data, inside this folder there can be remenants of games and software that was previously uninstalled could be in a few different places like Package Cache or some of the folders with numbers and letters. The reason i say this when i installed old windows games and software and couldnt get them to work or no longer needed them i have a habit of putting in the name of the game or software in windows search to see if any files show up and sometimes they do and when you right click on the entry even though you have administrator privilages on your computer, windows sometimes wont let you delete the entry. That is when i use view hidden files and folders in Folder Options and then windows allows me to delete the entries. I did this for one of the emulators i had think it was snes9x (not 100% if it was that emulator) and deleted an entry it had placed there with no ill effect i might add to what ever emulator it was . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Thanks Martin, yeah, Windows apps leave crap all over the place. The old Steam import only looks specifically at a series of app manifest files in the SteamApps folder, though, so that's unrelated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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