tSRDazz Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 (edited) Hello! I've managed to do imports for almost every console I've looked to so far, with only the exception of a couple. Those being SEGA Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation. I have come to learn that the issue is down to the format my games are stored in. While I archive all of my roms across all of my consoles, these 2 CD based games give me issues due to the way that archives are currently handled in Launchbox. I believe it looks for the first file in an archive, extracts it, and attempts to run it as a rom. When it comes to games that run on multiple files this, of course, does not work. I suppose I'm asking for 1 of 2 things here; either if it's possible to have a method of loading an archive for the PlayStation that has .cue and .bin files in, alongside the DreamCast which contains .GDI .bin and .raw files, or a method of batch converting FOLDERS of data for either console into a single file format in a batch. I think the Dreamcast has .CHD files which GDI can be converted into, but to do so requires an application which from my understanding won't be able to batch process items within folders. Any help you can supply would be greatly appreciated! Edited February 4, 2017 by tSRDazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 So, if there is a cue file inside of the archive, it should prioritize the cue first. For Dreamcast, that one is new so I don't think anywork was ever put in to that. Honestly, we don't see too often people archiving disc based systems, but I can see how that's an issue. Personally, I would suggest converting all of your PS1 games to pbp files. They're read across most emulators, and multi disc games are combined and auto-switch. For Dreamcast though, I don't know about converting them to chd's. I haven't done this. I just use the uncompressed folders and imported the gdi files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tSRDazz Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 Is there a simple way of batch converting to pbp? I saw this tutorial before and figured that was the best option, and I guess this has solidified that for me... I just don't feel like manually converting my extensive collection. It'd take a fair while... Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it. When you mention that typically the .cue sheet is sought out first, will that mean that on extracting the archive it will also extract the rest of the data too so that it can be used? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 It should extract all of it for systems that need to be loaded from a cue sheet. I've also seen users create cue sheets for their archived files and have it point to it and it work, but I don't know how well that does work. For batch converting PBP's, sadly no, I had to do it manually. However, it was well worth it. I just did a few at a time over the course of a few days. I went in alphabetical order, but if you're playing several games a lot right now, or want to check out a game, convert a few games that you're really wanting to play right now and see if the process is easy for you. If you save enough space. it loads well, and you can get the hang of it, then you could go for the rest of your collection if you feel like it. For Dreamcast games, and even PS1 games, you could use NTFS File Compression. The next tutorial on this topic will cover NTFS Compression. I wouldn't do this to your entire emulators folder, or most programs (like LB/BB for example), I would just do this to the rom folders you want to compress. It shouldn't cause any issues, but as a precaution I would only apply it to what you need compressed, like your Dreamcast games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Is it all PS1 files that are giving you an issue or just the multi-disc ones if its the latter you can just convert those to PBP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tSRDazz Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 It's all of them. The issue is that my entire collection is made up of multitrack bin and cue files. There's no simple way to convert them to a different usable format easily at all (I've been trying for hours...) I've attempted to convert some of these to .pbp, but the end result won't boot. Same with converting to ISO from what I've seen, though I got it working with the slow and arduous task of manually converting games. Very slowly. I think for now I'll just give up on PS1 emulation until the rest of my config is finished. Then I'll continue to torture myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Checking out NTFS Compression might be worth it. You wont have to deal with archives but you get some compression out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tSRDazz Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 I would like to mention that with Dreamcast GDI format, there are typically a few files stored with them. But if you can implement that previously mentioned ability for a zip to be extracted and have the emulator load the .GDI image, then that should really make it operate, right? Just figured I'd mention it in case there wasn't much thought made towards Dreamcast yet, as you said you've not really done much work on the format yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 I'm pretty sure that if your file has just one .cue file it shouldn't matter how many other files are in the archive LB should unpack it and use the .cue. I tested the archiving when it 1st came out and that was working for my games many of which are multi-filed. I think I deleted all of my archives awhile back and just have them uncompressed if I have them I'll try to test later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tSRDazz Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 I am a complete idiot and you're right, I just had my emulator configured incorrectly apparently... PSX runs fine from an archive it seems. Not sure what I had setup wrong but I fixed it somewhere down the line... Not sure about Dreamcast still, will re-examine with a bunch of games later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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