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Disable rom checking in v7.8 ?


Crush

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" - In order to better support some MAME games that don't have an associated zip file, LaunchBox will no longer complain that the ROM file does not exist if the emulator's "use file name only without file extension or path" box is checked"

I tried entering a rom name in MAME but Launchbox 7.8 still complains that a rom is missing. Am i missing something? Where's the "use file name only without file extension or path" option?

 

 

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Having the use file names only without file extensions or path option checked breaks MAME from being able to use the software lists unless they are the official software list games which are impossible to name correctly so while this fixes a few tll or chd games that don't have ROMs associated with it it breaks many more by disabling the ability to use MAME for console systems.

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If you mean the "use file names only without file extensions or path" in the Manage Emulators section, that certainly breaks all consoles configured with MAME. I though that a new option would be available ONLY for arcade MAME roms.

 

Edited by Crush
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@Crushthat setting is global for the emulator so if you need to check it will effect everything in MAME. One solution would be if @Jason Carrwould make some changes to the manage emulators forms and add those three checkboxes to the associated platforms tab and then you could use them only for the platform that may need them. There are instances in Demul where this would come in handy too.

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17 hours ago, Crush said:

" - In order to better support some MAME games that don't have an associated zip file, LaunchBox will no longer complain that the ROM file does not exist if the emulator's "use file name only without file extension or path" box is checked"

I tried entering a rom name in MAME but Launchbox 7.8 still complains that a rom is missing. Am i missing something? Where's the "use file name only without file extension or path" option?

@Crush This feature was recently implemented by Jason and should also be part of the 7.8 official release.
I just re-tested with 7.8 official release and it's still working as expected.

In order to better help you, let's check the following:

  1. Let's focus on MAME Arcade and leave Software Lists (MESS) aside for now.
  2. Make sure your MAME Arcade rom sets are complete and that you are using a Split set or non-merged set. I prefer to use a split set myself to save disk space.
  3. To check for completeness, start ClrMamePro, and scan your roms folder. I personally prefer to put my CHDs in the same folder as the roms. These way, ClrMamePro will confirm if I have anything missing or not (roms files and CHDs). Note: I used the dat file generated by mame64.exe. If your set is complete, you will see 0 missing sets, 0 missing roms and 0 missing CHDs as illustrated below.1.thumb.png.03a8660e8a94d60799271fbfd3ed7e83.png
  4. Now, I will use breakout to test one of those rom that does not have a rom file. Start a command prompt from your mame base folder and try to start breakout. The game should start without error as it did for me. Couldn't a screenshot of the the game but you can see that MAME did not error out in the screenshot below. 
  5. 2.thumb.png.60f0441563a2e2082167ebaa077caa48.pngNow if I you look at my rom folder below, you will see that I don't have a "breakout" rom file which means that breakout is part of MAME64.exe  which is what we want to test here.3.thumb.png.b3615c7964461587b193c0679202ee7e.png
  6. Now, to test that the new feature Jason has implemented is working, I created an game entry in "Arcade" for breakout as depicted below.4.thumb.png.5267561f09b566c61f6094dfde221ba4.png5.thumb.png.ab193aef455fb8ae2321ad62d3c3a7ca.png
  7. If the "skip file check" is working (because we know "breakout.zip" does not exist on the file system), LaunchBox should still launch the game rather than give an error saying "File does not exist or something". So I double-clicked on that game and it launched as I had hoped.
  8. This tells me that LB 7.8 feature Jason has implemented is working.
  9. LB is now essentially sending the same command I sent using the command line interface which is what we want.

I hope this is helping with your question.

 

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10 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

curious when you put the path in do you even have to put the .zip part in since it doesn't exist anyway or will simply having roms\breakout work

Good question @DOS76 

I just tested by removing the file extension and I'm happy to say that LaunchBox's code will also launch the game in that scenario.

I also just notices that Lightspeed Beta 10 is no longer adding a file extension where as Beta 9 did.

1.thumb.png.c0e4a64b8f7c5d73179f920c073f2b3b.png 

Edited by Pacman56
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I have the full merged 0.183 set (including CHDs) verified with latest CLRMame, so i am not missing any roms, devices, e.t.c

No problem if you are using MAME Arcade. But i use the full MAME version and i also emulate other consoles with it (Colecovison, Spectrum, Intellivision,...).

If i check "Use file only..." it works for MAME, but the other consoles no longer work as MAME can't find the path to rom.

One solution is to define the same MAME emulator twice (for example as MameARCADE and MameOTHER) and use one for Arcade roms with the "Use file only..." checked and the other for all other consoles with this option unchecked.

 

Edited by Crush
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3 hours ago, Crush said:

No problem if you are using MAME Arcade. But i use the full MAME version and i also emulate other consoles with it (Colecovison, Spectrum, Intellivision,...).

If i check "Use file only..." it works for MAME, but the other consoles no longer work as MAME can't find the path to rom.

One solution is to define the same MAME emulator twice (for example as MameARCADE and MameOTHER) and use one for Arcade roms with the "Use file only..." checked and the other for all other consoles with this option unchecked.

 

@Crush

You could create 2 platforms (one for MAME Arcade and one for the Software List or MESS) but enabling the "Use file name..." option works in both cases.

Let's take Colecovision for example. You can start the game "2010" using the following commands "mame64.exe coleco 2010".1.thumb.png.077b5eb6ba95b207829fd309e05f2d72.png

Knowing this, if you set the LB emulator with "Use file name..." enabled. Set the Associated Platforms tab to pass "coleco" as a parameter for that console, your coleco games will start successfully. see screenshots below.

Enabling the "Use file name..." option for MAME Software Lists (MESS) will give you the added benefit to launch games that don't have accompanying roms. The Sega CD console for example which only has CHDs.

2.thumb.png.c275d85636868d5070392b46783987bf.png

3.thumb.png.937463ee678146ea73430a0f50306cb2.png

4.thumb.png.c7ddf6e2a4fa885d74bd18910dd8d882.png

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@Pacman56 I created two emus based on MAME (MameArcade & MameConsoles). I use the first for arcade games with "Use file name..." checked and the second for other consoles with "Use file name..." unchecked. All work ok. Also i don't use Software Lists so your method for consoles doesn't work for me because MAME then needs to know the path to rom.

Edited by Crush
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36 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

So you are saying that you can take off the -cart tag and it will just load coleco because you are using the checkbox @Pacman56

I just tested it not working for me.

That is correct @DOS76 

Make sure you do your tests from the command prompt first. If it does not work from command prompt, it will certainly won't work from LB.
Once you know things are working from command prompt then you proceed to LB config.

You can see in my prior post that I was able to launch a game for the coleco using the "mame64.exe coleco 2010" command.
This is true for all Software List consoles or devices.
If it's not working for you, your coleco roms may not be named correctly or your mame.ini may not point to your software list roms.
I personally keep my roms in a "roms" folder and Software Lists in a "roms_SL" folder.
Therefore my rompath entry in mame.ini is set to roms;roms_SL

You can check that your software lists roms are complete sets using CMPRO using the xml from the mame hash folder as dat files. I suggest you use the CMPRO batch mode to do that. Note that Missing Sets, Missing Roms are all showing that nothing is missing. That also tells me that the rom names are correct. 1.thumb.png.a7fe686183aee54bcb66c1fc1ad12f4c.png
 Cheers,

:)

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Okay I see the problem I don't actually use the software list games in MAME I use other ROMs they just work in MAME but only if you don't have that checked and you feed it the -cart parameter. I'm guessing you used Lightspeed in order to get  your software list roms names correctly.

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3 hours ago, DOS76 said:

Okay I see the problem I don't actually use the software list games in MAME I use other ROMs they just work in MAME but only if you don't have that checked and you feed it the -cart parameter.

Yep. That is exactly why you have to use the -cart parameter and point to an actual rom path for it to work.

3 hours ago, DOS76 said:

I'm guessing you used Lightspeed in order to get  your software list roms names correctly.

Not exactly. I use use CMPRO to name those roms correctly in addition to create the folder structure you need if you wish to avoid using the media parameter (e.g. -cart).

I use LightSpeed because it supports the above perfectly. ;)

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7 hours ago, DOS76 said:

hmmm the folder structure is just a folder in your ROMs folder named after the list with roms whose names match the systems xml file that is in the MAME folder correct

@DOS76

I believe that is correct but I'm hesitant between the filename of the xml file (in the hash folder) or the name attribute in the softwarelist tag or element in the xml file itself.
Both these values appear to be the same for most if not all systems but I'm not entirely sure of that.

e.g. Below is the content of .../mame_root_folder/hash/coleco.xml

1.png

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