What do we want? (Stuff!) When do we want it? (Sometime soon..ish?)

[Vlansix]

Hi all,

I've been thinking of making a quick extension to allow us to collaborate more (in real-time) when moderating the games DB. (Think something along the lines of reddit enhancement suite, with access to a shared database and an IRC server.)

I'm looking for ideas as to what we would want (within the realm of possibility). (Think of: Mod chat, approval/refusal database accessible to all mods and users who use the extension, guidelines popping up from question mark icons next to fields that can be edited from a central page, notes left by mods on requests, etc)

I've spoken with Jason about it and he's okay with the idea, I'm just looking for some inspiration from you guys.

So, what do we want?

[CliveBarker]

...I mean every thing you listed sounds incredibly useful! If they are all possible to implement via extension, that would be the ultimate way to moderate and contribute to the database.

No matter what comes out of this or the end result, you have my thanks for stepping in and invest your time to contribute.

 

[Vlansix]

@CliveBarker Aye, should be all possible. The only problem is that I won't have access to the actual games database, so I'd have to basically create a temporary changes database offsite so we can look back / read notes / etc, same for a popup IRC client, but it's not much of an issue. I've got a few domains lying around gathering dust and lots of spare bandwith.

[Beatlemaniac19]

@Vlansix First of all, I want to welcome you to the LB community and thank you for serving us as the developer of the LB GDB. This aspect of LB sorely needed development and we appreciate you for taking your time to serve the community.

I can be a little crazy with my ideas, but since you're now working on development for the LB GDB, maybe this idea is more feasible now. I requested a while ago (like a year ago) the possibility of adding shareable save files for games hosted through the Games DB, but there wasn't enough attention focused on the Games DB from Jason at the time for anything feasible to happen.

As great as emulation is, one problem is that (with modern games) when you play any games you beat as a kid, you don't have any of the saved progress from playing that game when you emulate it. Sure, you can beat the game, if you have the time now, but that's very inconvenient. Us adults don't have all day now, do we? Plus, there currently is no way to back up these save files or easily share them with the community for all users to enjoy.

Enter a new feature for the Games DB, "Save Files". Here, anyone can upload their save files to the LB GDB, can insert comments on the save file (i.e. 100% completed game save file. All missions complete etc.) and once that save file is submitted, other users can download the save file directly from the database and insert it into their emulator save directory folder (that takes some user end knowledge, I confess) and can play the game with everything unlocked before ever booting the game!

I admit, one issue right now is that there are so many save file extensions that it would confuse users on which save files are compatible with which emulators. There's two solutions for that IMO:

     1) Allow only .srm save files for the time being, because .srm save files are the universal standard for RetroArch and can be used as the standard for the Games DB for the time being, if this request isn't too nutty. Since most platforms are currently emulated in RetroArch, and it's probably the most popular emulator available, this may be a good starting point.

     2) Have another field upon uploading of the database that allows check boxes or a quick single line entry of which emulator this file is compatible with. I admit, this option is probably much more work, but it could be a better long-term solution. You'd also have to allow all extensions to be upload-able, not just .srm extensions.

Any feedback on this idea would be appreciated. I already have save files ready to be uploaded (in .srm format) that I want to both back up and share with the community. If you feel that this idea may be too complicated for the end user, then I can make a tutorial video on how to do it properly with RetroArch. The video may not be the most professional, but I'll do my best

[Vlansix]

Hiya Beatlemaniac,

Thanks for the idea! It's not that nutty of an idea :).

Currently, I've got a lot of stuff on my plate, but we could potentially do something like that eventually. I'll need to run it by Jason, and it should probably go on the issue tracker for the rrst of the community to vote on, but yeah. It wouldn't be that difficult to do. It'd just take a while to get a list of all extension types (as I can't open up the site to all filetypes), and then we'd need to check out bandwith and filesizes and etc, but it's not impossible. Please add this to the DB issue tracker, ill update it there :).

[JaysArcade]

Thats a great idea!

[Charco]

Definitely a good idea, however, you have to take into account that people will need to be using the same emulator/core and the fact that changes between versions of emulators/cores could break the save files/states.

[Beatlemaniac19]

@Charco I have considered that changing emulators can break it. I noted that in my post. However, if using Retroarch .srm save files are the universal save file and work across all cores to my knowledge as long as you're using the same console (that's just an assumption, but I can test it if needed). Since RetroArch is such a popular and widely used emulator and is used by most Launchbox users, this would be a good starting point.

For example, in RetroArch, if playing Super Mario World on SNES, the save file should be compatible on the Snes9x and bsnes cores if done correctly. You'd just have to point the core to the proper folder that contains those save files and name the save file to match the name of the rom exactly, minus the extension. For example is if you download the save file and it's titled "Super Mario World (USA).srm" and your rom that you're using to play the game is titled "Super Mario World.smc", you'd need to change the save file to "Super Mario World.srm", removing the "(USA)" in the title so that the names match exactly. I recommend just copying the rom name and pasting it over the save file so that it matches and never breaks.

When it comes to other emulators, then yes, that is a big undertaking to know what save files are supported and make sure they are upload-able for the Games Database and also compatible with the proposed emulators at the same time. In my opinion, this should be a long-term solution and supporting .srm saves through RetroArch should be the short-term solution, but that's just me. Thanks for pointing this out. It's definitely a point that needs to be thought about.

Since we're on the topic, if we make save files uploadable, then that can just be the gateway. In the long-term, we could potentially upload save states, emulator configs (w/out the copyrighted material like bios included of course), controller configs and more. There's a lot of potential for this concept.

If you guys like this idea then vote for it on Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/1933/add-save-game-files-for-sharing-w-other

The more votes the more likely it gets implemented so I'd appreciate your up vote if it interests you. Thanks again for the positive feedback guys.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Beatlemaniac19

[JaysArcade]

Voted.

[Charco]

You've got my vote for sure, there is great potential here!

[Beatlemaniac19]

Thanks for the votes guys. It's much appreciated. If you are subscribed to other threads feel free to share a link to my Bitbucket ticket. I don't want to impose, but the more votes we get, the sooner this can happen!