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5 hours ago, fraganator said:

Version 2.0.2 is out now. New feature: Select and launch individual ROMs / files from a merged archive! Handy for merged archives which include multiple language, region, hack, betas, or multiple disc images in a single archive.

Right-click on a game and choose Select ROM In Archive... A window will popup with a full listing of the archive contents. Select the desired ROM file, then click Play. That ROM will now launch with the configured emulator.

(Thanks to @NahuelDS for the suggestion)

Wow... this is exactly what I needed! Great feature. I will test it right away. Thank you soo much!!!

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Version 2.0.3 has been released. Mostly bug fixes this time around:

  • Aborting game startup process (Esc on Startup Screen) now terminates extract operation
  • Cleanup partially extracted archive from cache on 7z error, or previous startup process abort
  • Fix archive list error when selecting individual ROM after a previous game launch failure
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Hi everyone,

Version 2.0.4 is now available for download. This version adds a new 'Keep' feature, which is handy for less frequently played games but ones which you want to keep cached and ready for quick loading. Games can be marked Keep in the Archive Cache Manager config window, which has also been given an overhaul:

config-screen.thumb.png.78e62e90c1d5dbc3a4fed7d4d35ef17e.png

  • New feature - 'Keep'
    • Keep your favourite games cached and ready to play
    • Games marked 'Keep' will not be removed from the cache, and do not contribute to the used cache size
  • Configuration window updates
    • Cache info summary
    • View cached games, toggle the 'Keep' option
    • Manually remove games from the cache or clear it entirely
  • Events and errors now logged to LaunchBox\Plugins\ArchiveCacheManager\Logs
  • Minor bug fixes
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Version 2.0.6 has been released. If you downloaded a previous release, I strongly recommend updating to this version as it's much more selective in what is automatically deleted from the cache, and what is an allowed cache path.

  • Only remove items from cache path originally extracted by plugin
  • Additional checks for invalid cache paths

cc @bbneo @zugswang @NahuelDS @Jerre @otavioraposojr

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@fraganator

Thanks for the update, just tried it and works like a charm!

I initially had to rearrange my configuration a bit though.

I configured most of my platforms under the retroarch emulator, if you then select the extract function some platforms won't work anymore after extracting (like mame, cps, lynx, neo geo)

So I solved it by using 2 retroarch emulator paths, 1 with extract and 1 without.

 

The rom selecting function is also amazing, any future plans to integrate this in BB?

Edited by Jerre
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Hi @Jerre, thanks for the comments and feedback. Good that you found a workaround for those roms which don't need extracting. It may be possible to add a 'skip extraction' feature for emulator and platform combinations, such as RA + MAME. Off the top of my head there are a few ways of doing it. I'll have a think about the best approach to take.

I do plan on adding the rom selection to BB, but I need to brush up on WPF a bit first. I was also thinking of adding a feature where after a rom has been selected, the next time you launch the game via the normal Play option, it will automatically load that rom from the zip.

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1 minute ago, fraganator said:

I do plan on adding the rom selection to BB, but I need to brush up on WPF a bit first. I was also thinking of adding a feature where after a rom has been selected, the next time you launch the game via the normal Play option, it will automatically load that rom from the zip.

That would be an amazing feature, I already had it in mind but didn't dare to ask for it ?

Imho the best approach for configuring your emulators is to create a new one for each platform instead of using 1 emulator and adding all the platforms in there. I will also configure mine like that in future builds, plus it makes troubleshooting easier.

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Hi everyone,

Version 2.0.7 is ready for download. This version includes a couple of new features:

  • Badge for cached games. Also includes Simple White and Neon style badges to match your theme. Enable it under the Badges->Enable Archive Cached menu.
    • badges.png.0189bfe1fcf20c3a0caf71cb2b4e66dc.png
  • The ROM file selected using the "Select ROM In Archive..." menu is automatically loaded the next time that game is played (thanks @Jerre for not asking :P)
Edited by fraganator
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On 4/1/2021 at 4:20 AM, fraganator said:

Hi everyone,

Version 2.0.7 is ready for download. This version includes a couple of new features:

  • Badge for cached games. Also includes Simple White and Neon style badges to match your theme. Enable it under the Badges->Enable Archive Cached menu.
    • badges.png.0189bfe1fcf20c3a0caf71cb2b4e66dc.png
  • The ROM file selected using the "Select ROM In Archive..." menu is automatically loaded the next time that game is played (thanks @Jerre for not asking :P)

Hey, good idea to add badges for "cached" games. These turned out nicely!

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for the plugin! It works great :) I have a lot of old "GoodRoms" sets that contain a BUNCH of versions of the same game (USA, Europe, Japan versions as well as betas, weird ROM hacks, etc) and the "Select ROM in Archive" feature has been very useful to deal with these.

Sorry if this has already been asked, but is there a way to make the regular "Play" option pop up the "Select ROM in Archive" dialog if a ROM has not previously been selected? Maybe it could also have logic to pre-select the "best" ROM in the archive, for example a verified good dump often has "[!]" or "(!)" in the file name. I'm a C# developer myself so I could try look into it if I get some free time.

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22 hours ago, Daniel15 said:

Thanks for the plugin! It works great :) I have a lot of old "GoodRoms" sets that contain a BUNCH of versions of the same game (USA, Europe, Japan versions as well as betas, weird ROM hacks, etc) and the "Select ROM in Archive" feature has been very useful to deal with these.

Sorry if this has already been asked, but is there a way to make the regular "Play" option pop up the "Select ROM in Archive" dialog if a ROM has not previously been selected? Maybe it could also have logic to pre-select the "best" ROM in the archive, for example a verified good dump often has "[!]" or "(!)" in the file name. I'm a C# developer myself so I could try look into it if I get some free time.

Thanks for the feedback, glad to know that feature has proven useful :)

Auto selecting a know good dump (via a regex or something), perhaps combined with LaunchBox's region priority, should be easy enough to add and shouldn't affect non-GoodTools sets.

The idea of popping up the rom selection window when selecting the normal Play option is a good one. Choosing when to popup the rom selection window might need a few more checks. Probably a combination a configuration option to enable or disable the popup window, whether a rom has been selected before, and if the file names inside the zip are in the GoodTools style. The last check would hopefully prevent the window popping up for non-GoodTools sets (Redump, No-Intro, etc).

I'll add the auto selection as a first step and go from there.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Hi all,

It's been a while between updates, but version 2.0.8 has just been released. This version includes:

  • Wildcard based filename matching for file priorities in archive
    • Prioritize a file extension, filename, or combination
    • Create priorities to automatically play preferred ROM region from GoodMerged archives
  • Performance improvements, especially for archives with many hundreds or thousands files
  • [BigBox] "Select ROM In Archive" menu option (accepts keyboard input only)

The filename priority selection extends the previous versions' file extension priority, but also includes matching full or partial filenames using wildcards. In the case of @Daniel15's suggestion for automatically picking the 'best' rom from a GoodMerged archive, a filename priority such as this could be used:

*(*E*)*[!].*, *(*U*)*[!].*, *[!].*

This would prioritize European good dumps, USA good dumps, then any region's good dump.

I've added a rudimentary ROM selection dialog to BigBox, but it currently only supports keyboard input (not joystick). It's not a true WPF / BigBox based themed dialog, which would require edits to the end user's own themes which I did not want to impose.

select-file-window-bigbox.thumb.png.4bd9cf42f6d404fca98b613de578b5b9.png

Edited by fraganator
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  • 3 weeks later...

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