Lightspeed: Ultra-Fast Mame Importer Tool

[Antropus]

I delayed the release because I got carried away by a little project, which is the reporting of missing Artwork/CHD/ROMS. I added a new tool which is now reporting anything missing and exporting as lists for now, but the intention is to add many new tools to it, like removal of orphan artwork, renaming of artwork from description (with tags or not) to rom name and vice versa, creation of clone artwork from parents and even a mini-scraper to get missing artwork from emumovies from that very same little interface. I am planning to make those missing lists exportable to launchbox as well, so you will be able to, for example, export all games missing snaps to launchbox and use it to scrape only what's missing, if you prefer LaunchBox's more robust scraper. I am also planning to add a function to move/copy all related artwork when you copy/move ROMS, but this will come a little later.

Some tools might seem redundant with what Launchbox already does, but this program is targeted to users of other front-ends as well.

-Kris

[Pacman56]

2 minutes ago, Antropus said:

 

I delayed the release because I got carried away by a little project, which is the reporting of missing Artwork/CHD/ROMS. I added a new tool which is now reporting anything missing and exporting as lists for now, but the intention is to add many new tools to it, like removal of orphan artwork, renaming of artwork from description (with tags or not) to rom name and vice versa, creation of clone artwork from parents and even a mini-scraper to get missing artwork from emumovies from that very same little interface. I am planning to make those missing lists exportable to launchbox as well, so you will be able to, for example, export all games missing snaps to launchbox and use it to scrape only what's missing, if you prefer LaunchBox's more robust scraper. I am also planning to add a function to move/copy all related artwork when you copy/move ROMS, but this will come a little later.

 

That really awesome @Antropus

This new tool will be a very nice addition to LightSpeed. This will bring more functionality than I could have ever hoped for.

[Manuel Leiria]

I don't seem to be doing something right, because I can't seem to be able to import anything from my MAME folder. It doesn't generate my -listxml, for some reason, or it's not detecting my mame.exe. I really don't understand what's going on...

[nivam]

Dear Antropus,

Thank you for your great utility, the most usefull as fa as I am concerned. Just one question though since Im having an issue.

Every time I change an option in Filters (AB) tabs I need to restart the utility in order to Filter the selection in Export Tab. If I dont restart the filtering doesnt work and the list is filled with the previous selection. Is that supposed to happen or Im doing something wrong.

 

Please advise

Thank you

Nikos

Edited January 19, 2017 by nivam
Typos

[evil4blue]

I know this is a bit off topic, but is there anyway to get Lightspeed to work with a Final Burn Alpha romset and emulator?  I think I know the current answer, but maybe it could be intergrated down the line. 

Thanks again for all the hard work. 

[Neofuuma]

Thanks @Antropus for making such a great tool! Ever since I discovered LB, I have been a bit wary of trying to import my MAME set into it, but finding this made me decide to give it a go.

[SpaceMidget75]

On 1/14/2017 at 7:58 PM, wirtual82 said:

Yeah, I would be interested, even if it  works only with LB. 

Hi. I've finished the Copy tool and created a post for it here: http://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/35254-copymameextras-extras-roms-parents-transfer-utility/

This should allow people to create a subset of their full MAME set by copying the ROMS and Extras to the folders of your choice. (Until @Antropus adds it to Lightspeed  )

[Pacman56]

Good afternoon @Antropus

Today, I’ve been performing a battery of tests revolving around the resulting game count with different options and noticed some discrepancies.

A total of 5 tests were performed using LightSpeed (0.181a_RC3) and LaunchBox 7.5-beta-9 as seen on the attached screenshot.
If you look at the “Total Games in LaunchBox” (column K on the screenshot), you will notice that the count does not match the “Games Exported in LightSpeed” (column J).
The common LightSpeed setting between these failing tests (Test 1, 2 and 4) is the fact that the defaulted 32 Arcade platforms were checked as opposed to only checking the Arcade (top left) platform.
Am I correct into assuming that the “Games Exported in LightSpeed” should always match the “Total games in LaunchBox” despite the options that are chosen?

Please note that all options were at default except for those indicated in column B, C and D in the screenshot.
All tests were performed using the following procedure:

• Restore a clean copy of LaunchBox and delete the following files “Data\Emulators.xml” and “Data\Platforms.xml” and the folder “Data\Platforms\” prior to running LightSpeed.

• Start LightSpeed, set desired options, select “Reload All” from the “Updater” menu.

• Click “Filter”, then “Output” then “Add All”, then Export.

[bigmike2238]

HI Guys,

Before I start, I'd like to thank the creator of this app, the utility is really great! But, I am having a problem with importing emulator settings to LaunchBox. In other words, when importing a game the emulator settings are left blank. As you can see in the screenshot attached, the path to the emulator in lightspeed is fine. Once imported, LaunchBox does define the path of the ROM, but the emulator field is left blank (shown in the second screenshot). I get an error saying that the emulator associated with the rom no longer exists. Can someone help me with this?

Mike

[DOS76]

You can use ctrl+a to highlight all games and then ctrl+e to open the bulk edit wizard and assign an emulator to all games in the platform for a quick fix but something the dev will have to look

[bigmike2238]

Hi DOS76,

Thank you for the info, I will give this method a try. Here's hoping this is a quick fix.

[Porl Hendy]

So is it possible to have MAME split up using this app? Like Sega Classics, Atari Classics ect ect like on hyperspin?

[Pacman56]

1 hour ago, Porl Hendy said:

So is it possible to have MAME split up using this app? Like Sega Classics, Atari Classics ect ect like on hyperspin?

@Porl Hendy

Yes it is. You have a choice to split it across 38 different Arcade platforms. Please see attachment below.

 

[The_Keeper86]

Is RC3 working for anyone? It just stays on "injecting notes! Please wait" forever then I have to end task to get it to close.

[Antropus]

So sorry for all the issues guys!

As I said, this was almost a complete redo after all.

Please wait a few days and I will have a new version up. I've read all comments and test results (thank you SO MUCH for the feedback and for testing it!!!) and I've got all those issues sorted already.

I decided to change a core area of the code because I wanted people to be able preserve their current library entries to make Lightspeed add games to existent libraries created by Launchbox, making the merging of data more previse than currently, which works better as a clean import.

So I am writing a little parser module to collect the info from all current platforms and emulators and if a game of the same ID is found, that game/plat/emulator will not be created again, unless an override is used (useful if you want to change paths, for example).

This way you will be able to freely add/remove stuff from either Launchbox or Lightspeed and both should be able to pickup the changes, at least that's the hope. 

So please hang in there, because I am working on it!

-Kris

[Neofuuma]

1 hour ago, The_Keeper86 said:

Is RC3 working for anyone? It just stays on "injecting notes! Please wait" forever then I have to end task to get it to close.

@The_Keeper86 it did the same to me when I had it set to include all clones, and to give it the full history info for each entry. Not sure if that was the reason, but when I went with just parent sets, it was a lot quicker.

[JCSRT05]

First, what a great program with huge potential. Thank you for contributing as I feel this is likely the easiest method for creating your own game lists.

Out of curiosity though, is anyone else experiencing extremely slow responses within LB once you export a list from mamelister into LB? I started today by exporting just a Cave list. Pretty straight forward, unlicked everything within the arcade tab except Cave, went to export, filter, output ("all"), then output to LB. Total list was maybe 81 games I believe (some duplicates) and noticed an immediate performance hit within LB when I tried to view the contents of "Cave". When I switch from one game to another, it would take around 15 seconds to fully load everything within the detail pane (video, details, etc.), yet every other category/system loaded as typical (<1 sec).

I tried various combinations within mamelister (un-clicking all notes options, shrinking my games list) and after a number of exports, I observed the same thing. Now during this entire time, my existing arcade list (which was imported via the LB import tool), worked as expected with no issues. I decided to delete the collection and import via the mamelister and as suspected, same results as previous mamelist exports, if not worse. Its almost as if the data being imported is crippling LB and really, making it unplayable. In Big Box the same results can be observed and appears to be the result of data imported though the mamelister.

Doesn't seem like anyone else has had this issue so what exactly am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?

I am using the latest release of mamelister (RC3). Appreciate any suggestions.

[MusicLovr]

 

On 7/1/2016 at 4:45 PM, Antropus said:

knewlife said 2) Can this app use the zipped MAME extras that is used in the lastest mame version to populate Launchbox?

It can use any local artwork you might have, but they have to be unzipped first. After unzipping them to their respective folders, simply point Lightspeed to those folders and all images should be imported into Launchbox.

If the app can do both of this actions and also do his own job (import the games I want to Launchbox) that will be perfect

Hi,  I was wondering if you had plans, for the future, to support MAME EXTRAs artwork classes, in their current zipped format.  It's rather a pain to unzip them, each month, to update Launchbox, when MAME uses them in the zipped format.

Thanks for considering this...

[Malhavoc]

Wondeful application, really useful to filter the huge MAME rom collection!

However, I'm having a strange issue.. it fails to detect the "Favorite" games in Launchbox (and also the ratings, but this is a lesser problem). Am I wrong, or it should read into the launchbox files and detect which games were marked as favorites, so when I create a new list and overwrite the old one, I don't lose the "Favorite" marks I've set?

Lightspeed just fails to read that flag (or the whole Launchbox configuration?) and filtering for "Favorite" just returns zero rows.

My launchbox is in C:\Users\[USERNAME]\LaunchBox , and I'm running Lightspeed as Admin just to be safe, bust still nothing..

 

EDIT: another issue, which may be a bug.. lightspeed can't detect the videos for these 3 games, even if the correctly named mp4 files are where they should (it works for every other video): 

- rmpgwt (Rampage: Wourld Tour)

- ddpdfk (DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu)

- compgolf (Competition Golf Final Round)

 

EDIT2: once I export the games, Launchbox keeps the Favourite list, and those 3 videos display correctly. Is it just a merit of Launchbox doing things on its own, or Lightspeed export things correctly, and just bugs at displaying those values in the filtered grid?

Edited January 25, 2017 by Malhavoc

[Malhavoc]

One thing I did not understand: the ROM list for the mame version I use are taken from the mame.exe I configure the path of, or are taken from internal files? I've noticed i can "update" some files from the menu, but nothing updates actually. Does that mean that I just need to wait for the next mamlister version before importing the roms for Mame 0.182 ?

Edited January 27, 2017 by Malhavoc