Possible to treat playlist as a platform?

[Sylwahan]

I was wondering, is it somehow possible to treat a playlist as a separate platform for the purposes of launching emulators? In the properties of the playlists there's a checkbox called "Include this Playlist with Platforms" but it doesn't do what I hoped it would do—it still doesn't turn up in the list of available platforms in the emulator management. In fact I don't know what that option does at all.

In this specific case I have imported a complete Mame romset, but I'd like to run the Neo Geo and Capcom CPS titles trough the FinalBurn Neo core in RetroArch instead of using Mame, but it seems once imported they all get assigned to the "Arcade" platform by default, with no way to to change it for specific games. So it's either assign everything to run with FBNeo (which will make a ton of games unplayable) or nothing.

If it's not possible I suppose a workaround would be to delete everything but those playlists once imported, then import the entire romset again and call the platform something else, like "Arcade - Mame", or would that still silently assign it to the same "Arcade" platform under the hood?

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, Sylwahan said:

I was wondering, is it somehow possible to treat a playlist as a separate platform for the purposes of launching emulators? In the properties of the playlists there's a checkbox called "Include this Playlist with Platforms" but it doesn't do what I hoped it would do—it still doesn't turn up in the list of available platforms in the emulator management. In fact I don't know what that option does at all.

In this specific case I have imported a complete Mame romset, but I'd like to run the Neo Geo and Capcom CPS titles trough the FinalBurn Neo core in RetroArch instead of using Mame, but it seems once imported they all get assigned to the "Arcade" platform by default, with no way to to change it for specific games. So it's either assign everything to run with FBNeo (which will make a ton of games unplayable) or nothing.

If it's not possible I suppose a workaround would be to delete everything but those playlists once imported, then import the entire romset again and call the platform something else, like "Arcade - Mame", or would that still silently assign it to the same "Arcade" platform under the hood?

First question would be why do you even want to use FBANeo for a MAME romset? its a MAME romset not a FBA one, if you want to use FBANeo then you should have a FBA romset as they are not the same as MAME romsets. As to your actual question a playlist is always just a playlist it takes games from other platforms and combines them into a list, its by definition not a Platform.

 

5 minutes ago, Sylwahan said:

In the properties of the playlists there's a checkbox called "Include this Playlist with Platforms" but it doesn't do what I hoped it would do—it still doesn't turn up in the list of available platforms in the emulator management. In fact I don't know what that option does at all.

This option includes the playlist in the platforms list, its as simple as that, if it wasnt checked you would first have to change the dropdown to playlists and then pick it from there.

 

6 minutes ago, Sylwahan said:

with no way to to change it for specific games. So it's either assign everything to run with FBNeo (which will make a ton of games unplayable) or nothing.

You can do this per game, or in batch by highlighting the games you want to change from the actual Platform list, not the playlist.

[Sylwahan]

1 hour ago, neil9000 said:

First question would be why do you even want to use FBANeo for a MAME romset? its a MAME romset not a FBA one, if you want to use FBANeo then you should have a FBA romset as they are not the same as MAME romsets. As to your actual question a playlist is always just a playlist it takes games from other platforms and combines them into a list, its by definition not a Platform.

Because the FinalBurn arcade romset is a subset of the Mame one to such a large extent that it seems a waste and hassle to deal with both. From a cursory glance it seems it's only the handful of CPS3 games using CHDs in Mame that are any different. Plus I also wanted to use Flycast in RetroArch for the Sega Naomi games in the same manner.

1 hour ago, neil9000 said:

This option includes the playlist in the platforms list, its as simple as that, if it wasnt checked you would first have to change the dropdown to playlists and then pick it from there.

Oh I see now, it's just for the that drop-down filter, I never change it from platform category so I didn't realize.

1 hour ago, neil9000 said:

You can do this per game, or in batch by highlighting the games you want to change from the actual Platform list, not the playlist.

Thanks! I saw that all of the arcade platforms I wanted were actually in the import rom list, so after importing the full Mame set I managed to do exactly what I was looking for by importing dummy roms just to get the platforms into the system and then reassigning the platforms for all the relevant games, after which those platforms could be used in the emulator management.

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, Sylwahan said:

Because the FinalBurn arcade romset is a subset of the Mame one to such a large extent that it seems a waste and hassle to deal with both.

Well this is exactly my point, all the games from a FBA set are in the MAME set, some may be named differently, but FBA doesnt have anything that isnt in the MAME set, so why not just use MAME? You get all the games from the FBA set as well as a ton more. I guess i just dont understand why you want to use FBA at all if you already have a MAME romset, i mean MAME will play all the games from a FBA set and then some.

[Sylwahan]

I see your point now, yes, that's easy, if perhaps a bit silly: I simply dislike the Mame interface and the menu-ception of the full Mame libretro core, so I'd rather run the FBNeo core for as many games as possible.

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, Sylwahan said:

I see your point now, yes, that's easy, if perhaps a bit silly: I simply dislike the Mame interface and the menu-ception of the full Mame libretro core, so I'd rather run the FBNeo core for as many games as possible.

Yeah thats why i dont use retroarch at all for arcade, i just use standalone mame, plus Launchbox is launching into the games so i dont see the UI unless i need to, but i hate how in retroarch the mame/fba cores fight with retroarch itself over controls and ui.

[Merovingio]

On 11/28/2020 at 4:58 PM, neil9000 said:

Yeah thats why i dont use retroarch at all for arcade, i just use standalone mame, plus Launchbox is launching into the games so i dont see the UI unless i need to, but i hate how in retroarch the mame/fba cores fight with retroarch itself over controls and ui.

It is true what you say, but note that with the MAME emulator the achievements of Retroachiviements do not work. However, with RetroArch they do work (core FinalBorn Neo).

I have done the following. I grab the Arcade SNK Neo Geo MVS playlist and check the "include playlist with platforms box".

Then I create a completely new RetroArch emulator with the FinalBurn Neo core. I add the Arcade platform (they belong to the Rom Set de Mame) and I link it in the core as I said, but I do not apply any platform by default. In other words, I leave the "Emulator by default" box unchecked.

Then in the platforms menu I go to the Arcade SNK Neo Geo MVS playlist and with ctrl + a I select all the games in the playlist. Then you right click and choose "Open Bulk Edit Wizard" and it will ask you what you want to change. Then you choose the emulator field and choose the emulator that we have chosen before, the FinalBurn Neo. This way, only the SNK Neo Geo MVS playlist roms will boot with the Retroarch emulator that has the FinalBurn Neo core.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Mongu