Amiga Emulation / FS-UAE: A Comprehensive Tutorial + Launchbox Integration

[Zombeaver]

20 hours ago, TheCodeMan said:

I've been playing with the exporter and I have run into some issues. I notice that not all of my games that have custom configs are exported and I am unable to determine why.  I also have been unable to get the games once imported into Launchbox, to run with FS-UAE UUID emulator that I created based on the video

Then you didn't follow the video. The entire point of having two entries is to have one for UUIDs and one for the custom configs. The exporter has nothing to do with custom configs, they're completely separate. None of them are exported through the exporter at all (because they don't need to be, they're already saved separately in the config folder). The custom configs are imported through a completely separate process. You need to rewatch from 52:27 in the video.

The reason they're separate is because the checkboxes that are needed for the two emulator entries are different depending on whether you're starting a UUID or custom config. Your UUIDs need to be directed to the UUID entry and your custom configs to the other. You can import each in bulk but they have to be done separately.

[TheCodeMan]

I went back and reviewed the video again. At the 41:32 mark is where I guess I got confused. It says games with the default config must be used with the FS-UAE emulator and games with the custom config must be used with the FS-UAE UUID emulator. This threw me off as I wanted to tie the exporter to custom config games for some reason. 

So just to clarify for me, the UUID is specifically used where you have multiple versions of the same game name and you want to launch a specific version, is that correct?

For my purpose, I don't have any game version duplicates, and I am not using FS-UAE UUID emulator entry, yet I am able to launch my custom config games using the FS-UAE emulator with no issues. According to the video, this shouldn't be the case. I'm just trying to figure it out for myself. The video is very thorough and quite long. I'm sure I'm just missing a few pieces of the puzzle.

[Zombeaver]

6 minutes ago, TheCodeMan said:

It says games with the default config must be used with the FS-UAE emulator and games with the custom config must be used with the FS-UAE UUID emulator

I'm not sure where you're getting this because that's not what it says at all.

I'll quote it, verbatim:

"The first thing we need to do is to create two emulator entries for FS in Launchbox, one that we're going to simply call 'FS-UAE' and the other we're going to call 'FS-UAE UUID'. The reason for this is because we'll be using one of these for games where we're using the built-in config in FS and one for the games that we've created custom configs for. The way that these have to be setup in Launchbox is such that they're mutually exclusive from one another in their usage - in other words, all of the games where we're using the built-in config can only be used with the FS-UAE UUID emulator entry and all of the games where we'll be using our own configs can only be used with the FS-UAE emulator entry - they won't work if you try to reverse those."

11 minutes ago, TheCodeMan said:

So just to clarify for me, the UUID is specifically used where you have multiple versions of the same game name and you want to launch a specific version, is that correct?

No. Whether you have multiple versions or not it doesn't make any difference (all of the UUIDs will be exported for games where you have multiple versions unless you tell the exporter to do otherwise, but that doesn't matter in this case). The only thing that matters is whether you are using one of FS-UAE's configs from its database or you're using a config that you've created. If you're using a config from the database - i.e. you've scanned a game into your FS-UAE library and are using the config from that - then you need to be using a UUID, which you export through the exporter and then direct to the FS-UAE UUID emulator in LB. If you're using a custom config that you create in FS-UAE, like those shown at 16:25 in the video, then you need to import those configs separately from UUIDs, as shown in 52:27 in the video, and direct them to the regular FS-UAE emulator in LB.

19 minutes ago, TheCodeMan said:

I am not using FS-UAE UUID emulator entry, yet I am able to launch my custom config games using the FS-UAE emulator with no issues

Yes, which is exactly what the video tells you to do. The UUID emulator entry is for UUIDs not custom configs.

UUIDs go to the FS-UAE UUID entry

Custom configs go to FS-UAE entry

Unless literally every single game in your library are ones that you have made your own configs for by hand, you'll need to use both. UUIDs are for games that you've imported into FS-UAE. When you hook FS-UAE up to its database and scan games into it, it downloads configs for those games, some (most) of those will be good to go already, some won't. In order to tell Launchbox which of those configs (not custom ones that you've made) you want to tell FS-UAE to use, you need to export them as UUIDs. That's what the exporter is for. If you want to use your own configs that you've made, you do that separately, as shown at 52:27.

[TheCodeMan]

My mistake, I reversed the two, your explanation is spot on and very helpful. 

So I initially scanned my game folder into the FS-UAE database. Out of almost 300 games, 10 or so required custom configs. I configured them and they launch fine using LB after importing the custom config directly into it as the video instructed. The other 290 or so games I just imported straight into LB, not using UUIDs so does that mean they are not using the custom FS-UAE config from the database?

They all seem to work fine.

[Zombeaver]

2 minutes ago, TheCodeMan said:

The other 290 or so games I just imported straight into LB, not using UUIDs so does that mean they are not using the custom FS-UAE config from the database?

That depends on the version of FS-UAE that you're using. Newer versions will now use the corresponding database config, older versions don't. The problem there is that if you're importing the games directly you're going to be dealing with filenames like Agony_v1.3_0960 which LB doesn't know what to do with and won't scrape correctly. Exporting/Importing UUIDs as shown in the video has the benefit of using the correct database config while simultaneously giving you easily scrapable data for LB (in the form of folder names).

[TheCodeMan]

Ok I really appreciate your quick responses. I think I'm getting it now. My naming conventions are fine as I renamed all my game roms directly - it's a fairly small set. That's why I'm not having any issues with the scraper in LB. 

I'm using FS-UAE version 3.0.5 which I believe is the latest. That may explain why I'm not having to use the UUIDs but I do see exactly why they are needed now, especially when scanning a very large set of roms such as TOSEC or the like, with naming conventions such as what you mentioned. 

Is there anyway to confirm that FS-UAE is using the correct config from its database, short of exporting the UUIDs? 

Edited February 23, 2021 by TheCodeMan
Further clarification

[Zombeaver]

1 hour ago, Pixelpiper said:

This is precisely why I used exported UUID.

But I'd really love to have the source code for the exporter to make a new applet that stores the LHA inside its correctly named folder - then stop using the UUID files.

 

 @Eirulan actually released the source code for it when he made it. I believe it's in the thread he made for it (and probably in this one somewhere). I can take a look later and see if I can find it but he definitely did release that here.

[Zombeaver]

Here you go, it's in this post.

[TheCodeMan]

Off topic but somewhat related. Does anyone have a working portable version of FS-UAE?

I see that it can use relative paths and I have the portable.ini file set in my root directory, but for the life of me, I can't break out of absolute paths. There seems to be a little documentation on it but its not clear to me. If anyone has working relative paths, I would love to see some examples. 

[Zombeaver]

54 minutes ago, TheCodeMan said:

Off topic but somewhat related. Does anyone have a working portable version of FS-UAE?

I see that it can use relative paths and I have the portable.ini file set in my root directory, but for the life of me, I can't break out of absolute paths. There seems to be a little documentation on it but its not clear to me. If anyone has working relative paths, I would love to see some examples. 

I have a couple installers for some Amiga games on my site that are using an (at this point) older version of FS-UAE but they're completely portable/using relative paths. You might want to take a look at those. The only thing the installer is doing is creating desktop/start menu shortcuts.

Shadow of the Beast Collection

Elvira Collection

Perihelion: The Prophecy

[Centimetro]

Hello, thanks for the guide, very clear explanations up until the end -- which I figured out the source of my confusion.  The file "Launcher.sqlite" is no longer used in current build of FS-UAE, so I cannot figure out how to setup the UUID Explorter program

[Zombeaver]

25 minutes ago, Centimetro said:

Hello, thanks for the guide, very clear explanations up until the end -- which I figured out the source of my confusion.  The file "Launcher.sqlite" is no longer used in current build of FS-UAE, so I cannot figure out how to setup the UUID Explorter program

It still uses it, but now you have to go into the extras folder and move the Portable.ini into main folder (next to Launcher.exe). This will make it portable and put all the files into the folder (including Launcher.sqlite). By default it puts that stuff in an external folder now. You'll have to re-do your setup / re-import your games in FS-UAE afterwards, but then you'll be good to go.

[Centimetro]

23 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

It still uses it, but now you have to go into the extras folder and move the Portable.ini into main folder (next to Launcher.exe). This will make it portable and put all the files into the folder (including Launcher.sqlite). By default it puts that stuff in an external folder now. You'll have to re-do your setup / re-import your games in FS-UAE afterwards, but then you'll be good to go.

Thanks, I got that sorted out and have now completed the steps in your guide!  The only other thing I had to adjust for the newer version was the location of the .prefs file.

After getting LaunchBox setup, the only issue I now have is that SOME of my games (lets say about 10%) are not loading via Launchbox, even they work fine in FS-UAE standalone.  They are UHDLoads, .lha file.  Here is an example error message if I try to load them with Launchbox:

They are all similar errors (just substituting their respective filenames).  Any idea what I should look at?  It says to check WHDLoad arguments, where I am just using the defaults from the database, and I don't see anything out of the ordinary

I must say, Launchbox + FS-UAE has revived the Amiga for me by bypassing the tedious front end of WinUAE.  I also didn't know about UHDLoads until I saw your guide, so that's new and exciting as well. Can't wait till I get it all working!

Edited March 8, 2021 by Centimetro

[Zombeaver]

If they're not loading through LB but are in the emulator by themselves there's probably something wrong with what you have in LB. Edit one of them in LB and show me the Launching section, the Emulation section, and the Emulator entry.

As an example:

And if you could provide the names of some specific games where you're seeing it, that could help as well.

[Centimetro]

Hey, I'd love to have provided more info in case it helps anyone else out in the future, but now before you replied what I did was I just redid my Launchbox implementation -- so I delted all the games, and set them up using FS UAE UUID again.  It works now, so I can no longer figure out exactly what caused my issue.  Weird though, because I had treated all games the same, and I couldn't find any common ground between the ones that weren't working and the ones that were (vast majority were working)

I'm guessing you're right and there was some sort of problem with my Launchbox settings, and if I had to guess it probably had something to do with the fact that I didn't complete the setup of the FS UAE UUID on the first pass.  I went back and did that after you helped me with it, and I might have overlooked something that was hard for me to detect in the process.  But just starting fresh seems to have worked. Exciting

Edited March 8, 2021 by Centimetro

[Zombeaver]

Well that works. Glad it's sorted

[wezzybee2018]

Hi guys,

Firstly of course, thankyou Zombiebeaver for your amazing tutorial.
I have read this entire post, apologies if I have missed something.
My launchbox build is coming on amazingly, very pleased 

In a nut shell in regard to FS-UAE Config Files.

I have Total Recall which runs perfect on the A1200 - 3.1 Kickstart.
I have Leander which tries to run from A600 Kickstart taking the details from the WHD Load info file, and fails.
Switch it to A1200 - 3.1 Kickstart and works perfectly.

Is it not possible in FS-UAE to OVERWRITE CONFIG FILE ? 

I have tried to Create a New Config File and that fails also.

---------------------------------------------

Once I have a Config File that works, how do you link that to Launchbox so it Starts the Emulator with the CONFIG file ? 

[Zombeaver]

28 minutes ago, wezzybee2018 said:

Is it not possible in FS-UAE to OVERWRITE CONFIG FILE ?

No. Not unless it's one you've created yourself.

28 minutes ago, wezzybee2018 said:

Once I have a Config File that works, how do you link that to Launchbox so it Starts the Emulator with the CONFIG file ? 

 

This is covered in the video.

[Morris Schaffer]

Hello Zombeaver, for some reason I'm still struggling to grasp this.  So I wanna play Super Stardust via Launchbox and FS-UAE as the emulator.  The game has 6 disks.  When I boot up the game via FS-UAE directly and add all the disks, like in your video, the game works.  And I can swap disks. But when I try to open the game directly in launchbox, I can get to the first screen where the hacker info is shown, but when I click the mouse to skip that, it sort of crashes, with these flickering rainbow-like lines that are permanent.  As if Launchbox is not grabbing the correct version of the game off of FS-UAE.  I tried to create a separate configuration and that works via FS-UAE directly, but how do I tell Launchbox to grab that exact configuration?  Is that where WHQ load comes in?  Woud  be great if you could point me in the right direction.  Thanks.  I did watch the video, but it's not clicking in ,y head. 

[Morris Schaffer]

Hello again, with renewed vigor I looked at your video again using the link a few posts above.  I felt that everything went well, but when I clicked the game Super Stardust in Launchbox this error message pops up.

 

I created a specific folder for the UUID games, like in your video.  Here in is a folder called 'Super Stardust [ADF, AGA, cr PSG]' and in there is a file called 'b8b1232f-d6bb-5935-a827-8d63bd97d6ba' which is 0 kb.

Is that what I need to import into Launchbox as a so-called rom?  because I did that and the Super Stardust image is added to Launchbox but clicking it gives me this error.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Morris Schaffer