Importing ROMs won't work under certain folders

[dominikabra]

Hi all,

I'm facing an issue I had not seen before and (obviously) it's either me doing something wrong or a bug.

I have some PS2 disc images (ISO for DVD, BIN/CUE for CD) from PAL, NTSC-U and NTSC-J regions. They are placed inside their own folder (named like the ISO/BIN file) and inside a folder for each region (PAL, NTSC and NTSC-J) and I use the "use the files in their current location" option (don't want LB to alter my folder structure):

E:\Launchbox\Games\Sony Playstation 2\PAL\Insert Game Name Here\Insert Game Name Here.iso

I've imported and scrapped the PAL and NTSC-U regions with no problem. BUT, when it comes to importing the NTSC-J images, the wizard detects no games (the "ready to import" dialog appears empty, only showing the "name", "file", etc. row) .

If I point it to the subfolder of a given game, it detects it properly but not when I point it to the "E:\Launchbox\Games\Sony Playstation 2\NTSC-J" root folder of the collection. I've tried all possible combinations (force import duplicates, use folder name, etc.) and even renamed the NTSC-J to JPN in case the similar folder name (to the "NTSC" folder) would confuse the parser somehow. I've tried importing as "Sony Playstation 2 (NTSC-J)" using the "Scrape as" option, directly as "Sony Playstation 2" with no extra fancy naming, cleaned up the XML for the platforms so only the already properly scrapped PAL and NTSC platforms exist (there were traces of NTSC-J here and there even), and I'm sure something else I can't remember now. The only thing that has worked was moving some of those iso-named-folders to an upper level (E:\Launchbox\Games\Test JPN\Insert Game Name Here\Insert Game Name Here.iso) removing the common "Sony Playstation 2" part of the structure.

Why doesn't it work like the previous platforms but needs to be in a different folder? Sounds like some kind of dodgy bug to me and I'd be really grateful if someone proved me wrong and provided me with a solution.

Thank you very much!

[Jason Carr]

Not exactly sure what's happening, but there is an option in the wizard to look in subfolders, or not. So do make sure that that option is set to look in subfolders.

Beyond that, anything can be imported easily using Windows search. For example, you could just go into your NTSC-J folder in Windows explorer, and use the search box in the upper right. Type in *.iso, and that will show all the games in all the subfolders. Then just select them all, and drag them onto the LaunchBox interface to import them.

[dominikabra]

12 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Not exactly sure what's happening, but there is an option in the wizard to look in subfolders, or not. So do make sure that that option is set to look in subfolders.

Beyond that, anything can be imported easily using Windows search. For example, you could just go into your NTSC-J folder in Windows explorer, and use the search box in the upper right. Type in *.iso, and that will show all the games in all the subfolders. Then just select them all, and drag them onto the LaunchBox interface to import them.

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the tip, the "drag & drop" procedure works but it's still sub-optimal. The first batch was limited to 500 files but from then on, it will only accept batches of 10 files which would make it incredibly lengthy. Is there some kind of throttling in effect?

EDIT: Think I found it, I'm afraid it's due to the folder and file name being too lenghty. Will try to trim that somehow and see if it works.

EDIT 2: That was the cause, be aware of the pathing length. Some Japanese games have incredibly long filenames and if they are inside a folder with the same name as the ISO file, you'll go well beyond the 256 character reasonable limit.

I'm at a loss at what's causing the other weird behaviour. The option to not look into subfolders was disabled (exactly the same as with the successfully imported platforms) but for this one, it just would not detect anything.

If you want me to provide any kind of log feel, I'm eager to do so.

Thank you very much and keep up the great job!

Edited July 3, 2020 by dominikabra

[Jason Carr]

On 7/2/2020 at 11:40 PM, dominikabra said:

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the tip, the "drag & drop" procedure works but it's still sub-optimal. The first batch was limited to 500 files but from then on, it will only accept batches of 10 files which would make it incredibly lengthy. Is there some kind of throttling in effect?

EDIT: Think I found it, I'm afraid it's due to the folder and file name being too lenghty. Will try to trim that somehow and see if it works.

EDIT 2: That was the cause, be aware of the pathing length. Some Japanese games have incredibly long filenames and if they are inside a folder with the same name as the ISO file, you'll go well beyond the 256 character reasonable limit.

I'm at a loss at what's causing the other weird behaviour. The option to not look into subfolders was disabled (exactly the same as with the successfully imported platforms) but for this one, it just would not detect anything.

If you want me to provide any kind of log feel, I'm eager to do so.

Thank you very much and keep up the great job!

Yeah, the maximum folder/file length crap in Windows can be a real pain. Unfortunately there's no good and consistent way to get around that issue globally, so there's not much that we can do about it. There are ways to make Windows use longer paths, but from I hear, it requires Windows 10 Pro and custom Windows settings, so that would already ruin any opportunity for us to fix that issue for a good chunk of our user base.

[dominikabra]

I've found an easy workaround for a situation like this. Here's what I did:

Move the games to a folder at the upper level possible in your structure. For instance, if you have:

D:\Launchbox\Games\Sony\Sony Playstation\JPN\

and then a ridiculously long folder name hosting a ridiculously long named BIN/CUE like 

Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen Mae Hashutsujo - High-Tech Buil Shinkou Soshi Sakusen! no Maki (Japan)\Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen Mae Hashutsujo - High-Tech Buil Shinkou Soshi Sakusen! no Maki (Japan).cue

Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen Mae Hashutsujo - High-Tech Buil Shinkou Soshi Sakusen! no Maki (Japan)\Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen Mae Hashutsujo - High-Tech Buil Shinkou Soshi Sakusen! no Maki (Japan).bin

then odds are you'll hit the length limit. The solution will be to move that "JPN" folder so it's directly under "Games" (or wherever it makes the path short enough) and import from there. You'll know you've shortened the path enough when Launchbox's parser shows the list of games, otherwise it will turn out empty.

After the importing has finished, use the built-in move wizard or simply close Launchbox, move the folder including the games ("JPN" in the example) to the "proper" location manually and edit the platform XML (under the "DATA" folder) and replace the route from

<ApplicationPath>Games\JPN\

to

<ApplicationPath>Games\Sony\Sony Playstation\JPN\

Problem solved! Hope this helps someone in the same situation I was.

Edited October 25, 2021 by dominikabra