Retro Pimpz Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Just found LaunchBox after deciding to bin the nightmare that is XBMC/Kodi. I watched a few vids and then purchased Premium immediately, it's exactly what I was looking for! So, having already had XBMC setup running RetroArch I have all my various sytems, loads of roms and all my boxart, screenshots & fanarts already.... I don't really want to scrape online for it and I don't want to do each game individually (It would take years!) What's the best/is there a... way to import a full rom collection including all my local artwork? Cheers Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Pimpz Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Can anyone help with this please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 Sorry, there is no local scraper so no way to import your current artwork. @optimus0 may be working on a work-around. See HERE. It would involve setting up the correct directory structure and naming convention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Pimpz Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 Thanks bd000 I didn't think this feature was available. I hope it's in the pipeline!?? I have thousands of beautiful boxes and screenshots for my collections that took ages to download and rename using FuzzyRename. It would be awesome if I could just drag and drop them all into folders for LaunchBox or just select a 'Boxfront' folder when importing a system. Do you think this feature will happen anytime soon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Retro Pimpz said Thanks bd000 I didn't think this feature was available. I hope it's in the pipeline!?? I have thousands of beautiful boxes and screenshots for my collections that took ages to download and rename using FuzzyRename. It would be awesome if I could just drag and drop them all into folders for LaunchBox or just select a 'Boxfront' folder when importing a system. Do you think this feature will happen anytime soon? As far as I was told, yes and no? At one point I believe it was, but a proper Database contributed by Jason, myself and a few others will get a majority of what we need and may potentially make the need for a local scraper pointless. The only reason I could see this being kept in, or included at all after our own database, would be for someone with Bandwidth concerns. Otherwise you're more than welcome to use your own art, it would just have to be done manually at this juncture. Personally, I just fill in the gaps that Wikipedia and GamesDB can't fill in. Once I have images and a Genre filled in, I am generally at peace. I have a lot filled in though so I will be happy once the database is running so I can export and upload everything to the server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I don't believe the need for a local scraper will ever be pointless. Even if you and Jason add all the artwork that you need to a DB, your never going to be able to cover everyone's preferences. The lack of a local scraper has always being LB's biggest "con". It is a shame because it is a fundamental feature in the majority of similar applications. Every app I have used previously had this feature and it made migrating between then much less painful, until LB. I would never do it again if I had too, I would just stick with what I was using or find something else that required less effort. It has probably put quite a few people off LB already and will continue to until the feature is available. Saying the only reason people would need a local scraper is if they have "bandwidth concerns" is short sighted in my opinion. I have fast unlimited broadband and I would still kill for a local scraper, even more so back when I first started using LB. It was one of the first features I requested and have brought up again several times. Also, does everyone just have to use the artwork you choose to put in this new DB, or spend countless hours/days/weeks adding all there own artwork that they have collected/created/scanned/etc. over the years, manually, one-by-one? What about people from different countries where artwork differs from the US? Are you going to cater for all those? SentaiBrad said Personally, I just fill in the gaps that Wikipedia and GamesDB can't fill in. Once I have images and a Genre filled in, I am generally at peace. Is everyone else just expected to be at peace? Are you working off the assumption that everyone will be happy if you are? I'm sorry Brad, I truly am, but the lack of a local scraper has been a major thorn in my side since the start and I was under the impression that a local scraper was finally coming with the LBDB, to help you source all the content you will need. To find out that is not the case is saddening after being patient for so long and I felt I needed to pipe up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 First of all, don't attack me for my personal views. What I stated was my opinion. No, not everyone is like me. Which is why it's still there to be worked on. Not to mention, when the LB Database is up and running, everyone is more than welcome to upload their own data. At first however, before it officially launches there needs to be something put up. regardless of what ends up staying as the default download. The need for the scraper, that was one reason I thought up in a few seconds, it is by no means the only reason. What else gets added to the database afterwards is up to what the community wants. That's how its always been. I offered up my personal views on it. I will not let you be a jerk over a stupid line about a local scraper. What I use LaunchBox for and what I like is completely different than what other people like. For example, I won't be touching Big Box Mode because I don't need it. I didn't start telling people how dumb it was, or there are no reasons for it. Actually, I was a big proponent of it well before the voting took place on it. I was offering opinions and trying to tell someone that it was still planned from the last time I had heard about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 First off, I wasn't attacking you, I was airing my opinion for both you and Jason. You just called me a jerk. Secondly, you and Jason work together on LB so we all take what you say as how it is going to be, so why give us the impression of something you haven't yet decided or don't even know? It is confusing. You are a spokesperson for LB, that is how we see you, you have to remember that. Thirdly, I was not flaming the LBDB and I was not insinuating that it was dumb or that there was no need for it. On the contrary, I think it is an excellent idea and I back it 100%. However, I don't believe that it should be the only option. I was saddened by the fact that a local scraper may never come to LB and wanted to give my opinion on the subject. In my opinion, the lack of local scraper is LB's biggest "con" period. You can say I am telling people how dumb LB is if you want, but that is just absurd, if anything it is just a personal attack on me. If I felt like that, I wouldn't have put in all the hours I have, helping you and Jason. Maybe if you take into consideration what I saying about the benefits of a local scraper, rather that assuming I am attacking you and going on the defensive, you might see some logic to my points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 bd000 said First off, I wasn't attacking you, I was airing my opinion for both you and Jason. You just called me a jerk. Secondly, you and Jason work together on LB so we all take what you say as how it is going to be, so why give us the impression of something you haven't yet decided or don't even know? It is confusing. You are a spokesperson for LB, that is how we see you, you have to remember that. Thirdly, I was not flaming the LBDB and I was not insinuating that it was dumb or that there was no need for it. On the contrary, I think it is an excellent idea and I back it 100%. However, I don't believe that it should be the only option. I was saddened by the fact that a local scraper may never come to LB and wanted to give my opinion on the subject. In my opinion, the lack of local scraper is LB's biggest "con" period. You can say I am telling people how dumb LB is if you want, but that is just absurd, if anything it is just a personal attack on me. If I felt like that, I wouldn't have put in all the hours I have, helping you and Jason. Maybe if you take into consideration what I saying about the benefits of a local scraper, rather that assuming I am attacking you and going on the defensive, you might see some logic to my points. No, you're not saying anything bad about LB, that isn't what I meant to say. All it looked like was my opinions were wrong and here is why. The last I had heard on a Local Scraper was that it was planned. A LaunchBox Database however was taking precedent. Not that it is meant to replace it, but it is supposed to be designed to fix a lot of the other issues we are facing along with maybe the need for other features because of how feature rich it can be. A Local Scraper could be needless if the community prefers our Database over what is offered. I wasn't trying to be defensive, it just felt like an attack on an opinion when all I try to do is help people. There was this same issue a while ago with someone random who made a thread, I helped and my opinion was wrong to him to. All of this, from everyone including Jason is all opinion. What one person likes another person may not like. That's all reasonable. Sorry for calling you a jerk, but that is how it came off. I apologize. I see and know of the benefits to a local scraper, the bandwidth concerns was just a quick off the top of my head reason as to why it would be a good idea. I think it is one of the most important aspects because not everyone can afford fast speed internet, nor do they have unlimited amounts of data. Saddly (stupid ISP 'monopolies'). Maybe this was an issue I think I saw in my head, but I never meant to say you were doing or insinuating anything other than being a jerk to my opinions. Again, I am sorry. There are plenty of good reasons a Local Scraper is needed, my personal thoughts on me filling in the gaps that our current scrapers can't fill and being content with it is not what others think. However, I will offer up the data I do have to fill in some of the gaps that I think are permanent and if anyone else wants to fill in the ones I don't they are more than welcome to. There will need to be a lot of manual modding and monitoring when the Database does go live and when we do offer the ability to upload your information to our collective database. Jason, myself and even you db will upload everything we have, primp and make it look good for launch and when that happens it will more than likely be surpassed by the mass amounts of people. For example, I have a lot of images for a lot of Japanese games because I love my JRPG's for several consoles. But I don't touch say, Atari 2600, so someone else will probably fill in those spaces far better than I could. It's a community effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Pimpz Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 Sorry guys, didn't mean to 'open a can of worms!' I am new to LB and it only took watching a couple of the vids to make me download and buy the Premium Licence immediately. I love it's simplicity and the fact that it's dedicated to games. You guys have done a fantastic job with it. Having moved my gaming pc (I still have a full HTPC downstairs) over to LB from XBMC/Kodi and Rom Collection Browser, there is only one thing I miss and that is the Local Scraper. The database sounds great guys, it really does, however what if I still prefer all the artwork I have tirelessly downloaded and renamed to match my roms? What if some people prefer PAL boxart over NTSC counterparts? What if people have saved their own Screenshots? Some of the artwork that is scraped online is awful quality and sometimes doesn't even match or is used for various games. For me, a database would have to be FULL of top quality, multiple variants for each system all of the same quality or I wouldn't want to use it. I'm not that great when it comes to programming etc. Which would be the harder task, creating a local scraper or a database good enough to meet the varying requirements of each user? My personal opinion: 1. A Local Scraper would make LB perfect for my needs. 2. I have all my artwork already, I wouldn't require a database. 3. To please everyone, I would go with both. The users that don't already have artwork may find a database useful. Just my thoughts guys, go easy on me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I am sorry too, if I made you feel I was attacking you, I wasn't. I just had a different opinion and I shared it, I am not saying you are wrong and I am right. Also, thank you for clearing that up and I agree with a lot of what you just said. @retro pimpz You are in the exact same boat I was in when I first started using LB and what you said is exactly my point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Don't worry at all Retro, just bd and myself misunderstanding each other. Yea, the reasons you specified for wanting a local scraper is also why we want to create our own database. We don't want to fill it with just whatever, we want it to be quality. That's why when its implemented if you download data for games and you notice that you have higher res box art, you'll be more than welcome to upload it to the DB directly in LB. Not that the DB will fulfill everyone's needs, but it will be a giant step up. If a game gets uploaded for SNES, it will have the proper SNES art. If that same game is uploaded for Genesis, it will have the proper Genesis variants. It will be a long process for myself because I will mod that database to hell and back. ;) Starting off it may not be complete, and a lot of what will get put in will be straight from GamesDB on top of what I and a few early adopters have added in manually; but over time I hope it will become fantastic and users wont have to spend all of their time looking for the best images for all of their games and instead just play and enjoy their games. Most of their needs will hopefully be satisfied with this and if they want to replace an image with a better one, or add personal screenshots for example anyone is more than welcome to. So /hopefully/ instead of creating an awesome collection of images just on their PC, they can help contribute to the database so everyone has awesome and beautiful images to go along with it as well. After downloading as well, just transferring the XML and images folder should also migrate your collection. The only problem still needing to be worked out on that end would be the location of the roms, though this can be achieved while editing the XML. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 +1 Also, will there be options with the LBDB? If you have ever used media management apps, like MediaElch, EmberMM, etc. When getting the artwork they allow you to either download all automatically or choose from a selection of artwork to find the one you prefer. This allows multiple covers for a single game, then the user has the option to download the defaults, or pick from a selection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 bd000 said +1 Also, will there be options with the LBDB? If you have ever used media management apps, like MediaElch, EmberMM, etc. When getting the artwork they allow you to either download all automatically or choose from a selection of artwork to find the one you prefer. This allows multiple covers for a single game, then the user has the option to download the defaults, or pick from a selection. That'll have to be a Jason answer. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I'm glad to see that you guys kissed and made up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 lol. If your reading this Jason, don't respond. Enjoy your holiday. @DOS76 lol. I love kissing and making up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ps4isthefuture Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 I am only going to say one thing about the current scrapper, it's slow. I know I don't have the internet speeds that they have in the States but I think 50Mbps is fine enough. When I added 1500 N64 games the art work took 4 hours, I only select front, back, and fan art. Sorry a little off topic. Just saying it's slow and we need an alternative....replacement is better. I think Jason has plans for a scraper that will be for LB...I'll look for that forum so I can find out the details exactly he needs for an accurate database and accurate artwork, I always love it when some random snes game uses a sega genesis photo, lol. A local scraper would had been nice because I also run Hyperspin, but I very rarely use it. It's more of a hobby to take up a lot of time....LB is what I play my games through, it's a hobby too just it takes a bit less work to put a collection together than HS. Sorry I'm babaling now, cheers guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 ps4isthefuture said I am only going to say one thing about the current scrapper, it's slow. I know I don't have the internet speeds that they have in the States but I think 50Mbps is fine enough. When I added 1500 N64 games the art work took 4 hours, I only select front, back, and fan art. Sorry a little off topic. Just saying it's slow and we need an alternative....replacement is better. I think Jason has plans for a scraper that will be for LB...I'll look for that forum so I can find out the details exactly he needs for an accurate database and accurate artwork, I always love it when some random snes game uses a sega genesis photo, lol. A local scraper would had been nice because I also run Hyperspin, but I very rarely use it. It's more of a hobby to take up a lot of time....LB is what I play my games through, it's a hobby too just it takes a bit less work to put a collection together than HS. Sorry I'm babaling now, cheers guys! It doesn't take me that long? 50mbps is more than enough. My speedtest as of a few days ago: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4430632451 Also note my SpeedTest is in MB/sec not mbps. I know TheGamesDB has been having a lot of issues so my next question is where are you located in the world? How far away are you from their servers? Jason IS planning a LaunchBox Database, its just hard to get running. My fear though is even a dedicated scraper wont solve your current problem. I am wondering if its ping and distance more so than raw speed. Even my biggest sections took 30-40min or less. Granted not all the artwork was found, is ever found, but that is very odd the time its taking. Curiously, are you saving all of these images to an internal drive? OS Drive? External Drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ps4isthefuture Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Well mbps and MB/sec is a big difference, lol, MB/sec I'm at 6.2 tops but normally see 3 - 4. Also I am in SE Asia so that may be a ping issue, probably a few hops....why do they not show the number of hops anymore with a ping time?? And I'm not in Japan or Korea or I would never complain of the internet speed, lol. Just tested my ping to them and getting 234ms average and 13ms ping to my ISP. I save to the default location Documents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 ps4isthefuture said Well mbps and MB/sec is a big difference, lol, MB/sec I'm at 6.2 tops but normally see 3 - 4. Also I am in SE Asia so that may be a ping issue, probably a few hops....why do they not show the number of hops anymore with a ping time?? And I'm not in Japan or Korea or I would never complain of the internet speed, lol. Just tested my ping to them and getting 234ms average and 13ms ping to my ISP. I save to the default location Documents. Yea, I ignore mbps, its a BS method of measuring speeds. At least with kb/s and mb/s you can quantify it to most people. As for the ping... that is most likely the culprit. The GamesDB gives even us in the states issues... a lot of issues, so I can only imagine what you gotta go through. It may not lower the time by a lot, but try saving the images to a different location. Try preferably an internal non-OS drive. If you don't have one, a partition of your OS drive... is technically still your OS drive but can be better than your direct C drive. Past that... a USB3 drive wouldn't be so bad, a USB2 drive though... would be a last ditch effort. So for anyone who notices me bring this up quite often. There is a massive speed drop when you try to access your OS drive and write a lot of data to it at the same time. My experience comes from writing uncompressed video, but the same principals apply. It actually gets worse when you need to write a ton of smaller files as well. A 100mb single video file vs 100mb of 100 1mb files is very different. Depending on the drive, the 100 1mb files will be significantly slower; usually. Just a point of reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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