Will "Import -> ROM Files..." download everything from EmuMovies all over again or just what I'm missing?

[Metallica93]

When I go to Tools -> Import -> ROM Files..., I select the file directory with my games for a given platform, point LaunchBox to the emulator I want to use with those games, and then it goes through the rather lengthy process of downloading art/media/etc. from EmuMovies. This is awesome and working as intended during my initial setup of each respective emulator/game directory.

However, my assumption was that the "Scan" feature was essentially the abbreviated version of this (i.e. if I added 1-2 games for that same platform, it would scan that folder for just the new games and download the art/media/etc. for just them as if I had used Import -> ROM Files... for those two games and not the whole directory). Nothing happens (that I can tell) when I click on Tools -> Scan -> For Added [current platform] ROMs, though.

Am I off the mark here in what the Scan feature does? I was afraid that using Import -> ROM Files... would attempt to download everything from EmuMovies again, even existing art/media/etc., which I do not want outside of this initial setup.

Tools -> Download came close, but the first option is for all metadata. Unsure if this also accounts for existing art/media/etc.

Any direction here would be appreciated to save me a bunch of time in downloading. Thanks in advance!

[faeran]

The scanning tool will scan the files listed in your Game folder and import any new ROMs it finds. Right click your platform and go into Edit. Then click on the Folders tab. You'll find it there.

The next major release of LaunchBox (currently in beta), we will set this path for you automatically based on the first file path we find during your import.

This feature will not work properly if you spread out games for a given platform into multiple different folders, but it works great if you keep things nice and organized.

[Metallica93]

On 2/15/2022 at 7:52 PM, faeran said:

The scanning tool will scan the files listed in your Game folder and import any new ROMs it finds. Right click your platform and go into Edit. Then click on the Folders tab. You'll find it there.

The next major release of LaunchBox (currently in beta), we will set this path for you automatically based on the first file path we find during your import.

This feature will not work properly if you spread out games for a given platform into multiple different folders, but it works great if you keep things nice and organized.

Everything's only in one directory per emulator, so that's not a problem. My issue was seeing art-less R.O.M.s in LaunchBox and assuming Scan would go "Hey. This is missing media. Let's check for that."

Am I missing a way to accomplish this without having to do the entire folder over again?

[C-Beats]

Can use the Download Metadata and Media Wizard to update metadata and media on already imported items. Found in Tools > Download > (top most item)

[faeran]

7 hours ago, Metallica93 said:

Everything's only in one directory per emulator, so that's not a problem. My issue was seeing art-less R.O.M.s in LaunchBox and assuming Scan would go "Hey. This is missing media. Let's check for that."

Am I missing a way to accomplish this without having to do the entire folder over again?

This sounds like you'd want to use the Audit tool for this. The audit took will show you a list of games, along with each images you have for each image type. It's designed to allow you to fill in the gaps of your media.

It also has a column for LaunchBox Games Database ID, allowing you to easily find which games didn't find a match for metadata and media.

You could also use the Games Missing Media filter in the side bar dropdown filter.

Either way, you would identify the games missing a certain image type, highlight them and then run the Download Metadata and Media wizard tool, like C-Beats mentioned.

The scan tool is used for when you want LaunchBox to identify if you added or removed ROMs from your ROM folder.

 

[InvaderJim]

On 2/17/2022 at 8:23 AM, faeran said:

...

The scan tool is used for when you want LaunchBox to identify if you added or removed ROMs from your ROM folder.

With LB 12.9 I imported the full MAME 0.239 romset, but I noticed some random games missing.  I imported again and it got most games (using same settings, same ROMs, so unsure why this happened).  Even after this second import I found a game missing.  That's when I discovered the scan tool which sounds like it's designed to solve my problem of missing ROMs.  However, when I run the scan it seems to ignore my import filter "How would you like to filter your games?" page 2 settings.  For example on page 1 I basically kept the defaults (no mature games, magjong games, etc.).  On page 2 I checked "Skip games requiring a light gun".  Now when I scan my MAME ROMs it wants to add all the light gun games (but the page 1 filtered games are still correctly left out).  Is this by design?  It seems like a bug.  I'd like to be able to scan my MAME ROMs and have LB honor both pages of my import filter settings (or let me verify/specify what the filter settings should be on the scan).

[neil9000]

7 hours ago, jimj said:

With LB 12.9 I imported the full MAME 0.239 romset, but I noticed some random games missing.  I imported again and it got most games (using same settings, same ROMs, so unsure why this happened).  Even after this second import I found a game missing.  That's when I discovered the scan tool which sounds like it's designed to solve my problem of missing ROMs.  However, when I run the scan it seems to ignore my import filter "How would you like to filter your games?" page 2 settings.  For example on page 1 I basically kept the defaults (no mature games, magjong games, etc.).  On page 2 I checked "Skip games requiring a light gun".  Now when I scan my MAME ROMs it wants to add all the light gun games (but the page 1 filtered games are still correctly left out).  Is this by design?  It seems like a bug.  I'd like to be able to scan my MAME ROMs and have LB honor both pages of my import filter settings (or let me verify/specify what the filter settings should be on the scan).

The scan for roms tool should never be used with MAME, MAME is different to every other system, so so is our importer, if that tool was to work with MAME you could end up with 10's of thousands of files imported, in which most do not work, or are not games at all. As long as you have a full romset and the matching version of the emulator you should not have any games missing as we get the working games list directly from the emulator. What games is it that you think you are missing, as they could be under other games depending on the region priority you specified in the MAME fullset import wizard.

[InvaderJim]

4 hours ago, neil9000 said:

The scan for roms tool should never be used with MAME, MAME is different to every other system, so so is our importer, if that tool was to work with MAME you could end up with 10's of thousands of files imported, in which most do not work, or are not games at all. As long as you have a full romset and the matching version of the emulator you should not have any games missing as we get the working games list directly from the emulator. What games is it that you think you are missing, as they could be under other games depending on the region priority you specified in the MAME fullset import wizard.

Thanks for the heads up about not using scan with MAME, fortunately I haven't done that yet (it'd be nice if LB itself warned you not do do that).

I first noticed I was missing sharrier, so I re-did a full romset import of MAME 0.239 and my game count went from 2623 to 2777 (and sharrier is now in my games list).  I next noticed thndrx2 was missing, so I then imported just this game (I now have 2778 games in total).

For my filters I pretty much keep the defaults like:

• Region to Prioritize:    North America
• Variant to Prioritize:    2-Player

On page 2, however, I do check:

• Skip games requiring a light gun
• Skip games requiring a wheel

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by jimj