MAME: how to update it in LaunchBox?

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, legolas119 said:

yes I'm agree, it could be very useful to know which is the current MAME version supported in LB: in this way we can know when we can update the romset in LB

Do you confirm that the current supported version is 0.224?

thanks

Yes, we'll add something like that when we do the MAME updates I referred to above.

I just updated to version 0.226 for the MAME metadata. You'll need to go to Help > Force Update Games Database Metadata in order to pull it down.

[legolas119]

thank you, it could be really useful

I updated the database. In order to update MAME fulset in LB, i could follow 2 different ways:

1) delete MAME platform and of course all its games (The playlist will not be removed automatically, I do't know why, but i can delete manually them from this path: LaunchBox\Data\Playlists). Then full import and then I have to modify all the playlist, adding them under MAME parent. In the end I select all the imported and Tools --> Download Metadata and MEdia (choosing the recommended option). 

or

2) Simply re-import the fullset, without importing metadata and media (I will download the missing files as described above, I mean --> select all games -> Tools --> download metadata and media --> recommended option)-

I think that following the 1st way, I'm sure that I will import the complete romset without the obsolete roms.  The 2nd way is for sure easier and better, but it seems that LB doesn't delete the obsolete roms...

What do you suggest?

thanks!

[Jason Carr]

On 11/12/2020 at 3:54 AM, legolas119 said:

thank you, it could be really useful

I updated the database. In order to update MAME fulset in LB, i could follow 2 different ways:

1) delete MAME platform and of course all its games (The playlist will not be removed automatically, I do't know why, but i can delete manually them from this path: LaunchBox\Data\Playlists). Then full import and then I have to modify all the playlist, adding them under MAME parent. In the end I select all the imported and Tools --> Download Metadata and MEdia (choosing the recommended option). 

or

2) Simply re-import the fullset, without importing metadata and media (I will download the missing files as described above, I mean --> select all games -> Tools --> download metadata and media --> recommended option)-

I think that following the 1st way, I'm sure that I will import the complete romset without the obsolete roms.  The 2nd way is for sure easier and better, but it seems that LB doesn't delete the obsolete roms...

What do you suggest?

thanks!

That's correct; LaunchBox will not delete obsolete ROMs when running the process again for new MAME versions. If this is a problem for you, the recommended way would be to delete the playlists, platform, and games, but keep the media, and then re-import. It will then create all the playlists again as well.

[legolas119]

perfect, I will follow the 1st way. I will delete the Platform (right click on MAME and delete) and in this way LB will delete automatically all the games. But it doesn't delete the playlist. In order to delete them, it is better do delete them manually in this path:LaunchBox\Data\Playlists. Then full import again.  Unfortunately, I see that LB creates all the playlist again but not under MAME platform as Parent: I have every time to open every playlist and modify the parent... do you know if it is possible to avoid this process or if there is a quick way to do that?

 

thank you!

[Jason Carr]

On 11/14/2020 at 5:29 AM, legolas119 said:

perfect, I will follow the 1st way. I will delete the Platform (right click on MAME and delete) and in this way LB will delete automatically all the games. But it doesn't delete the playlist. In order to delete them, it is better do delete them manually in this path:LaunchBox\Data\Playlists. Then full import again.  Unfortunately, I see that LB creates all the playlist again but not under MAME platform as Parent: I have every time to open every playlist and modify the parent... do you know if it is possible to avoid this process or if there is a quick way to do that?

 

thank you!

LaunchBox creates the playlists under the Arcade platform category, so yeah, if you re-create them you'll need to manually modify them to put them under MAME if that's where you want them. Otherwise, you could just leave them in place and delete all the games instead of deleting the platform. That should keep everything in tact.

[legolas119]

ok thanks, I will try. 

[wallmachine]

Is the MAME database up to date with 0.227?

[DOS76]

Most likely not.

[wallmachine]

On 1/6/2021 at 1:19 PM, DOS76 said:

Most likely not.

any update?

[Jason Carr]

The latest beta has been modified to no longer require specific MAME version updates on the server, and the full set importer now works well with any modern version of MAME. These features will be out shortly in an official release.

There are also four new files under LaunchBox\ThirdParty\MAME; these files can be manually updated to match a particular MAME version if necessary. They are all used (along with a MAME.xml output from MAME itself) to build the necessary metadata for the importer and the games.

[legolas119]

thanks!  I usually update the regular MAME UI fullset, i don't use any particular MAME version. So, with the new official LB release, it will be possibile to understand when LB would be ready to import the new official MAME UI version?

thanks

[Jason Carr]

3 minutes ago, legolas119 said:

thanks!  I usually update the regular MAME UI fullset, i don't use any particular MAME version. So, with the new official LB release, it will be possibile to understand when LB would be ready to import the new official MAME UI version?

thanks

Basically it means you don't need to wait any longer. You'll be able to update to the latest MAME version whenever it comes out. LaunchBox no longer cares what version you're using.

[legolas119]

thank you!

[tj122]

Is there a way to just import just the mame update rom set?  The only option is to import full rom set? I'm trying to save space so if the game is not playable or it's games I don't play I don't need them on my drive.   Afull non-merged rom set with CHDs is about 641Gb.  By putting it though Launchbox and getting rid of unplayable, clones, hacks, and games I don't play  I have 119Gb of games.   use the tool to export/copy rom file to a new location keep the files small and I can get rid of the rest I also go through a delete games manually that I don't like.  Ant there might be a few clones and hacks  that I want so I copy those to the small rom folder.  There's not many so I put them manually.  The problem is when an update set comes out I almost have to go through the whole process again and that takes a  while.  The first time it took me over 2 days.  Is there any way to have a wizard that would instead of trying to import a full set what is new?

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, tj122 said:

Is there any way to have a wizard that would instead of trying to import a full set what is new?

If I'm reading this correctly, you basically have to 2 sets of MAME roms.  A Full Set that that is maintained with monthly[ish] updates.  And your 'personalized' curated set you keep in LaunchBox.  If so read on. If not, ignore me.  

There's probably an easier way, but the way I (used) to do it was through a simple batch file and using robocopy.  After updating the Full Set, I simply run the batch file.

Rem *******************************
Rem   Copy/overwrite files from source directory to destination directory 
Rem   ONLY if they already exist in the destination driectory. No other files
Rem   will be copied.
Rem
Rem  *******************************
Rem  "robocopy" (Built into Windows 7 and above)
Rem
Rem  robocopy "f:\source_directory" "f:\destination_directory" /LOG:"logtest.txt" /XL /R:10 /W:10 
Rem
Rem  /LOG:file   Redirects output to the specified file, overwriting the file if it already exists.
Rem  /TEE        Log output to both the command prompt (visual monitoring) and the specified file in /LOG
Rem  /XL         Copies a file from the source directory only if a file of the same name already exists in the destination
Rem  /R:n        Specifies the number of retries on failed copies. (The default is 1 million.)
Rem  /W:n        Specifies the wait time between retries. (The default is 30 seconds.)
Rem
Rem

robocopy "G:\Roms\MAME_NonMerged" "F:\LaunchBox\Games\Arcade" /LOG:"MameCopyLog.txt" /TEE /XL /R:10 /W:10
pause

This doesn't account new or renamed roms.  But you can read through "whatsnew" from MAMEDev to discover those.

After about a year of doing this and feeling comfortable with 'my curated set' in LaunchBox, I ended up 'telling' LB that the Arcade roms are now located in the Full Set folder.  Then deleted the 'curated' roms in ../Games/Arcade/

[tj122]

Thank you, and yes that is what I'm doing. I have the full set on another drive just for the full set. The stripped-down set is on my launchbox drive. I think I understand what you're saying and it does help with part of what I'm doing. But the part on having more trouble with is just adding the monthly updates to my stripped-down set and adding them to launchbox without launchbox trying to add the full set to my games database. What happens is launchbox well I had the full set minus the ones I told it not to end the wizard but it will still add games that I don't have in my stripped-down romset. So launchbox is showing games that I don't have the ROMs for so I have to go through and delete those but that's a lot to manually have to delete.

Again thank you very much for your help with part of the problem

[JoeViking245]

8 minutes ago, tj122 said:

it will still add games that I don't have in my stripped-down romset

If I'm thinking correctly, you should then be able to go to Tools, Scan for Missing roms (something like that).  It'll find the ones it added [not in your curated set] and then you'll be able to remove 'those' games from LB.  

But since robocopy is only copying same-named [updated] files, nothing needs to be done in LB.    No re-import. no notin'.   

Say for example you have "1on1gov.zip" dated 01/01/2018 (made up date) in your curated set and in LB.  Then your Full Set gets updated and "1on1gov.zip" is now dated 08/14/2020 (actual most recent date).  So robocopy then copies/overwrites the zip file, but LB is still pointing to ../LaunchBox/Games/Arcade/1on1gov.zip  Again, no reason to re-run the LB Full Set Import tool.  And the game runs using the updated rom.

However this also defeats the purpose of the awesome importer for adding New MAME games and accounting for renamed roms.  

So a little give-and-take and some diligence on your part is necessary for maintaining your 'special' set.  While clrmamepro (or your preferred method of updating) is doing its thing could be a good time to attempt to decipher whatsnew.txt.  

[tj122]

Thank you for your reply. Launchbox tools dose have a scan for added roms and scan for deleted roms.  I figured that would be the way to do it.  When I do a scan for added roms it says there is none.  When i scan for deleted roms it wipes them all out. I think it doesn't work well with mame because I can do it with my other games and it's ok.  I'm going to just go through the whole process and download a full split set (I'm using non-merged now) sense .228 just came out and I'll try to figure out how to tackle this problem next month.  Thank you

[JoeViking245]

34 minutes ago, tj122 said:

When i scan for deleted roms it wipes them all out.

Well that's unfortunate.  Were all games actually where you told LB they were located?  Or did they by chance get moved?  Because what I imagine the scan does is look in the Arcade.xml for the application paths of every game and then checks if those files actually exist.  i.e. F:/LaunchBox/Games/Arcade/1on1gov.zip 

If not too late , there is the Restore Data Backup... (under Tools) feature to restore a backup copy of the Arcade Platform.  Or just start fresh with 0.228. 

 

[Kuro Houou]

Did anyone figure out the best way to do this, seems like a lot of different options.. Been trying to figure out how to update my curated list of roms from an up to date full set.  then once that's done I can maybe just do a rescan in LB?

The only thing I can think of is in LaunchBox, change the rom path for all my games selected to the Full set folder.  That way it will then point to the latest versions.  Then use the Export/Copy Roms to a new folder to copy them from where they are pointing in my full rom set to a new folder.  Then finally repoint all the selected games to that new folder.  The only thing that would be missing is any new games that I hadn't imported before, but I can monitor that manually with each release.  Does this sound feasible... I guess I could try it.