My approach on using Amiga (FS-UAE) with Launchbox

[Eirulan]

Hi all,

I think I found a very good solution for integrating Amiga games via FS-UAE in Launchbox, that I did not find mentioned here before so I wanted to share my method.

This is especially helpful if one does not want to use zipped WHDLoad files (because of the save-state problem).

For me, the big advantage of FS-UAE over WinUAE is that it comes with it's own built-in database that relies on the data of the openretro.org database. FS-UAE knows exactly which CPU to emulate, which disks have to be mounted etc. for all the variants of a game you have. And if this config-information is already there, I want to make use of it, right? ;-)

I do not want to create my custom configs for games, when this program already has all the config information set up for me once it scraped all my Amiga games. So I searched for a way to utilize this info and found it. FS-UAEs launcher can get started with the UUID of a games variant directly, e.g.: "launcher.exe 28362cf6-e280-5703-93af-65030c950d72" for the above example. You can find this ID by clicking on the pencil button:

It then takes you to the openretro.org website and there you can get the needed ID:

I then create a new folder with the name of the game, e.g. "Battle Isle" and in this empty folder I create a new empty file with the ID as name (no file extension). Doing this for each game you want to add takes some time, approximately 1 minute per game. The final explorer structure looks like this:

with files like this inside:

 

Now I have a perfectly scrapable folder structure! :-)

 

In Launchbox, my settings for the emulator are:

you then can import the whole folder, just make sure to check "use folder names instead of rom file names":

Of course this is not suitable when wanting to mass-import thousands of Amiga games, but this won't work either way, because most of them need config adjustments.

If there would be a way to scrape the existing games someone has and their UUIDs out of FS-UAEs sqlite files, then this whole process could maybe get fully automated...

 

What do you think of this method?

 

Regards

 

[Zombeaver]

I like the idea here, but honestly this just seems overly complicated to me. Literally the only reason I've started using FS-UAE is to get away from this sort of thing. WinUAE has a lot more features than FS-UAE, but FS-UAE is easier to setup - especially if you're just using WHDLoad zips. I've used WinUAE for some time now and, prior to FS-UAE, my process was to load the adf(s) into WinUAE, adding disks to the swapper if it's multi-disk, and then saving it as a single .uae configuration file (named after the game title), then importing that configuration file as the "rom" in LB with WinUAE as the emulator. That works but it can be somewhat time consuming.

There's nothing wrong with doing it like this at all, but I guess my perspective is that if I wanted to spend this much time getting things setup for each game I would just continue to use WinUAE because the only thing that I like more about FS-UAE than WinUAE is the simplicity/ease of use (which you're basically eliminating by going through all this); well, that and the interface is a bit nicer.

If there was a way to quickly automate/streamline this process I'd totally be on board - but this seems like even more work than what I was doing with WinUAE 

[Eirulan]

1 hour ago, Zombeaver said:

I like the idea here, but honestly this just seems overly complicated to me. Literally the only reason I've started using FS-UAE is to get away from this sort of thing. WinUAE has a lot more features than FS-UAE, but FS-UAE is easier to setup - especially if you're just using WHDLoad zips. I've used WinUAE for some time now and, prior to FS-UAE, my process was to load the adf(s) into WinUAE, adding disks to the swapper if it's multi-disk, and then saving it as a single .uae configuration file (named after the game title), then importing that configuration file as the "rom" in LB with WinUAE as the emulator. That works but it can be somewhat time consuming.

There's nothing wrong with doing it like this at all, but I guess my perspective is that if I wanted to spend this much time getting things setup for each game I would just continue to use WinUAE because the only thing that I like more about FS-UAE than WinUAE is the simplicity/ease of use (which you're basically eliminating by going through all this); well, that and the interface is a bit nicer.

It depends of the perspective. For me, it's much more hassle to find a working config for a specific game than rely on already tried-and-trusted config from a whole community.

But I did it with WinUAE exactly like you before :-)

 

1 hour ago, Zombeaver said:

If there was a way to quickly automate/streamline this process I'd totally be on board - but this seems like even more work than what I was doing with WinUAE 

I looked into FS-UAEs sqlite files and the info is really easy to get. In fact, it's only a matter of one simple inner join to get all UUIDs for all games that I have (file is named launcher.sqlite).

with a list of all those IDs and a little .NET it will be very easy to auto-generate everything.

I've started working on a little program that does the work and plan on sharing it here :-)

 

Regards...

Edited September 13, 2016 by Eirulan

[Zombeaver]

2 minutes ago, Eirulan said:

For me, it's much more hassle to find a working config for a specific game

Honestly, most of them work with some pretty basic base settings. You might have to switch from 1200 to 500 or vice versa but that's about it. More often than not it'll work without much fiddling at all; as long as you've got everything squared away with a solid default configuration to start with. I get what you're saying though.

2 minutes ago, Eirulan said:

with a list of all those IDs and a little .NET it will be very easy to auto-generate everything.

I've started working on a little program that does the work and plan on sharing it here :-)

Awesome, looking forward to it! 

[Eirulan]

@Zombeaver

I now hacked away a little program that does the job:

 

[flores9]

Hi @Eirulan. I tried the same configuration and use your app to scrappe.

 

But when i launch a game, LB opens the fsuae launcher, but not the game.

I scrape the killer gorilla whdload files.

Do you know what happens??. Thanks.

[Zombeaver]

@flores9 have you actually imported your games into FS-UAE? You have to do it through the file updater in FS-UAE. You also need to make sure that your FS-UAE UUID emulator entry in LB has the "don't use quotes" and "use file name only without file extension" boxes checked like Eirulan has in his screenshots above.

[Eirulan]

@Zombeaver if he got the uuid entry and the folder via running my app then his settings in FS-UAE should be correct, otherwise the folder and uuid file wouldn't have been written.

@flores9 please check your emulator settings in Launchbox according to what Zombeaver wrote and this screenshot:

 

[Zombeaver]

6 minutes ago, Eirulan said:

if he got the uuid entry and the folder via running my app then his settings in FS-UAE should be correct, otherwise the folder and uuid file wouldn't have been written.

Ah, yep good point.

[flores9]

Hi @Eirulan. Yes, the emulator settings are the same.

Opening directly fsuae I have all the data base for the whload games and I can launch the games correctly.

With your program I checked both checkbox and it generates all the directories and files, which I imported to LB.

Tomorrow I will try the same but with a adf romset.

Thanks!

[flores9]

Sorry one question. Whats the meaning of uuid???

[Eirulan]

You can also try from cmd window in the FSUAE directory with "Launcher.exe uuid" - does this work? (taking the uuid that did not work through Launchbox)

like mentioned here for example: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=77264

UUID is simply the ID in it's internal database FS-UAE gave your game...

 

Edited September 15, 2016 by Eirulan

[flores9]

Ummm... my .exw file is named fsuaelauncher.exe

It is the default .exe when i downloaded the portable version of fsuae.

I dont know if we are talking of different executables???. And the uuid??? It refers to the unique id of the rom, isnt it?. I could do something with it?

[Zombeaver]

3 minutes ago, Eirulan said:

You can also try from cmd window in the FSUAE directory with "Launcher.exe uuid" - does this work? (taking the uuid that did not work through Launchbox)

Alternately you could create a windows shortcut to Launcher.exe, right-click on it and go to properties, and in the target field just paste in the UUID string after Launcher.exe.

[Zombeaver]

3 minutes ago, flores9 said:

It is the default .exe when i downloaded the portable version of fsuae.

You need to be using the latest dev version. This one. In it, it's just called Launcher.exe. I'm using portable as well.

4 minutes ago, flores9 said:

And the uuid??? It refers to the unique id of the rom, isnt it?. I could do something with it?

It's the empty file that's generated by Eirulan's exporter. They're just a long string of letters and numbers.

[flores9]

Ok i,ll try both things tomorrow (i,m outside).

Thanks to @Zombeaver and @Eirulan

[Zombeaver]

If you're not using the development build that's more than likely the issue. I don't think WHDLoad games launch directly from LB without it. They might with UUIDs, I'm not sure, but I don't think they do with just the game zip + (non-dev) FS-UAE. At least that was my understanding when I started looking into using FS-UAE + LB.

[locvez]

How do you get your WHDLoad collection into FS-UAE so that it can index them?

[Eirulan]

@locvez

In FS-USE, you first go to "settings" -> "File database" and make sure the folder your WHDLoads are in is chosen here. After that, go to "Update file database" and click "scan".

[locvez]

@Eirulan - did the above but nothing displayed, I have files in .zip and .lha format using latest dev build 2.7.16(dev)