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[nate1579]

I like the idea I would use it           Instead me having to look up guides online just right click browse to and tada

[madmab]

ok just throwing around ideas here..  I managed to find the two messages I was looking for.  One of the original suggestions was..

QUOTE

\Game Manuals\
\Gamefaqs\
\Text Files\ (For the general help, thanks, etc.)
\TV Commercials\

 off the root emu directory.  In general it kinda makes sense to put them there but there are two disadvantages.

1)  If the user is running off of DVD (does anyone really do this?)
2)  If the drive the user is using for emulators (typically E:) low on space.

Then there was the other suggestion.

QUOTE

E:\Manuals
E:\Videos
E:\TV Commercials
E:\Gamefaqs

Not sure what happened to "Text Files".  Would that still be in the emu directory?  Disadvantage being #2 above.

Question.. Is there any point to a "Text File" directory?  Originally it was intended for viewing text based documentation (of which there is plenty of).  But I think RessX is viewing it as having a different purpose?

Possibilities..  Whatever directory the user sets to default (lets pretend it's E:\emu-documentation).  Nice and generic.

Let Manuals, and GameFaqs be off of that directory.

E:\emu-documentation\Manuals
E:\emu-documentation\GameFaqs
E:\emu-documentation\Text Files? (I miss our old friend).  

TV Commercials would be stuffed in the same directory as movies.  (lets pretend it's E:\Videos).
a sample..

E:\Videos\TV Commercials
E:\Videos\Colecovision
E:\Videos\Atari5200

Yes I finally had a change of heart and decided removing the forced emu name from the default movies is a good idea.  It finally hit me that screenshots and saves are like that because they are files "writable" by the emu.  Whereas movies are "placed" there by the user.

If the user really wanted to get fancy they could do (with manuals/gamefaqs) the following.
Say the emulator is AdamX.  They pick "E:\emu-documentation\Colecovision" as their default directory.

E:\emu-documentation\Colecovision\Manuals
E:\emu-documentation\Colecovision\GameFaqs
E:\emu-documentation\Colecovision\Text Files? (I miss our old friend).  

Or if the emulator was Genesis.  They pick "E:\emu-documentation\Genesis" as their default directory.

E:\emu-documentation\Genesis\Manuals
E:\emu-documentation\Genesis\GameFaqs
E:\emu-documentation\Genesis\Text Files? (I miss our old friend).  

I hope this all makes sense.

[Cospefogo]

I like the idea.
And I like the following:

1. I am playing a game
2. I go to the In-game menu
3. I go to Game Documentation
4. The emulator throws me on the root if "it's" documentation folder,
something like --- F:/Emulators/Emu-Name/Documentation

5. And from there it is up to me, I can enter in the directory FAQ and check it.
Or enter in the directory Manuals and look for my game.

The only thing I find out important is to - once the guy opens a document - make
the emulator remember this document as long as the game session is running.
If the user quits the game the emulator "forgets" the document and in the
next game played the user will need to search again.

For the users running from DVD:
The newer versions of emulators should have the documentation folder
already created inside its distribution file. If the guy burns it to a DVD
without "stuffing the dir" with documents, the emulator will just open
a empty folder when the function is used in the In-Game menu.

If the user removes the empty bundled documentation folder and burns
to a DVD, the emulator just should notice it and say --- "You fool, there's
no milk and honey for you."

Anyone agree?

AND ----- Snes9Xbox V1 has this View Text Feature already in the InGame menu.
I use it sometimes to check out some game faqs. Once I enter the game,
read some document, return to the game, the emu remembers the correct position in
text where I was in the next time I read it again ----- of course, during the very
same current game session.

This looks like the same feature you have been talking about, MadMab.
By the way... is this present in the other Xport stuff too?
I don't remember about it in the other emulators. I will check.

C.

[ressurectionx]

Sorry I've been missing while you were discussing this.  I had to finally get a little nap.  Couldn't sleep too long though because I work tonight and I have to be able to sleep a little while before work.  So I got a few more hours for testing now and then it's off to my one day work week.  


Sorry to bring different suggestions to you this late that I hope you consider.  I hope you haven't invested too much time into this yet because I have a different way of doing this that I would like to debate and hope that you don't choose the other way because you've already done it  


The ability for the emu to select the system name for movies has actually grown on me since I started using it the right way.  I'm actually sad to see it go now.  Are you able to make the emu assign nested directories as well?


Here's how I will like to have my rig set up when it's all done.  I'll use ADAM and mendafenx_nes as the example.  (I've made two to see what your preference is.  I like both of them, but number 2 is probably the way to go)

Example 1:

F:\Xtras\Commercials\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Commercials\NES
F:\Xtras\Game Faqs\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Game Faqs\NES
F:\Xtras\Game Manuals\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Game Manuals\NES
F:\Xtras\Screenshots\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Screenshots\NES
F:\Xtras\Video Previews\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Video Previews\NES

Example 2:
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Commercials
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Video Previews
F:\Xtras\NES\Commercials
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\NES\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\NES\Video Previews

Points to mention:

1) I don't really see a benefit in "nesting" both the gamefaqs and the manuals in a "emu-documentation" directory level by default (Assuming you're using a different menu option for each one).  I think it's a lot cleaner looking if separated the way I have them above.

2) We absolutely cannot use the E: drive for this stuff by default.  I understand why it needs to be done with screenshots, but this stuff is so large for the most part that it would take a great deal of work for anybody to pear it all down to actually fit on the E: drive with their favorite games.  The only exception to the size issue would be gamefaqs, but if we're putting the rest of them on F, I would just as soon put them together with the rest of the Xtras on F.

3) E is a horrible place to use emulators in my opinion, unless you only have the standard 8GB box and you're forced to (what's a 500 GB hard drive now?  40 bucks?)  I used to have them there but found the F:\ drive much more suitable.  As I mentioned before, I still have many more images to go and I have less than 1GB left on the E drive as it is.  There is no way my emulators would even fit on E anymore.

That being said, I'm not too concerned with people using a DVD to play these either.  If you wanted to use the full Xtras for SNES, you'd need 3 DVDs or more to do it (which I don't even think is possible anyhow).  

Let's keep stuff (except for saves and screenshots) off of the D and E drive for my sanity.

4) I think relying on game CRC as the first place to look, and then allowing the user to manually select the specific Xtra is a great idea.  Particularly if we're already going to be setting up CRC's for the synopsis.  All of my names will be matching perfectly with the Xtras, so there's really no reason somebody should be doing double work and gathering their own roms now anyhow.  The ability for the emu to discover there is no matching CRC and then defaulting to the directory for the user to choose would be a good backup plan if for some reason they haven't downloaded the Xtras yet.

5) I do like the idea of the emulator remembering the last gamefaq or manual you brought up too, but if we use the CRC check functionality, this won't matter for those of us with the correct roms.

6) I don't know if there is a memory drain for allowing the user to choose directories, but we may want to reconsider the ability to do so for all options.  I know that we have to make concessions for E drive and DVD users, but because of the large file sizes spanning many different emulators, F drive as default is really the only place that makes sense.  

Let me know what you think,
~Rx

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(gilles9999 @ Dec 6 2008, 09:38 AM)

TOTALLY agree with RessurectionX here  

Awesome man.  Always glad to have your vote  

Which option did you like more:

QUOTE

Example 1:

F:\Xtras\Commercials\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Commercials\NES
F:\Xtras\Game Faqs\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Game Faqs\NES
F:\Xtras\Game Manuals\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Game Manuals\NES
F:\Xtras\Screenshots\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Screenshots\NES
F:\Xtras\Video Previews\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Video Previews\NES

Example 2:
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Commercials
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Video Previews
F:\Xtras\NES\Commercials
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\NES\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\NES\Video Previews

I prefer number two myself.  Whatever your base directory for Xtras was (Maybe you don't like "Xtras"  ), when you chose directory "X" for Commercials for ADAM, it would automatically put your directory to "X"\ADAM\Commercials.

If we have a uniform system like this for rom directories on everyone's box, we can simply have a help file telling people where to put all there stuff (assuming they have an F drive) and there should be no questions about the default settings for the directories.

QUOTE

And for the games texts, see how zsnexbox works:

-You are playing a game
-You are clicking the right thumbstick (in game menu option)
-You choose "load game guide", and here, you choose yourself the desired game.txt file from the list
(you can even choose the color of the displayed text)

In fact, the users put themself the gamefaqs (in .txt) in the "guides" folder of zsnexbox
I love how zsnexbox handle this.

Yeah... that's an awesome feature, ain't it?  Now imagine it with a CRC romcheck before defaulting to the default directory, and take it another step further in your imaginiation and see a textfile viewing screen for gamefaqs that looked like another of your skin screens with readable black text on a nice looking background.

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(madmab @ Dec 6 2008, 07:37 PM)

Shortened up for sanity.
1) The "root" directory will be configurable by the user.  It's just the "Commercials" "Game Faqs" "Game Manuals", etc that would be hard coded.  Plus the emu-name since you seem to like it that way now.

2) See #1

3) See #2

Okay.  That does seem to clear up number 2 and 3 as well...... I think.  I get.  The Point.  (I say in my best Joe Peshci voice)  

So this goes back to my "nested directories" question.  If, say, I were selecting the "Root" directory for Commercials while I was in the ADAM emulator.  Could it then create the ADAM folder as well as the Commercials nested within it and then I could load my files in the F:\Xtras\ADAM\Commercials folder?  I'm picturing the 25 plus emus that I'm going to have set up in this fashion in the future, and with 5 (or more?) possible sub-folders for the Xtras on each one I think it would work out really well that way.

Root\Emu\Xtra "X"

To think..... I was storing this stuff inside each individual emu folder since we started with the SNES emulator.  What a cluttered mess when we're talking about 12 or so emus instead of one. That's the first one we did and even the screenshots are in the emu directory on that one.  I got so used to my text files, manuals, screenshots and videos all in the emu directory that I modeled every other emulator out there after that system.  I gotta say now, because of the fact that all the directories are hard coded, that's really the only flaw that ZSNES has.... except for the 25 or so games it doesn't play, but I have yet to find the emu with perfect compatibility.   I know some people in here are bigger fans of XPorts version, but for me it's ZSNES all the way, even if I have to do everything differently for that one.  

QUOTE

4) Remember how confused you were when I tried to explain how my overlays were named.  Now just imagine the user trying to name their files that way.  Plus there are some games with 8 or so CRC's.  That really eats into the 42 character limit.  If we create a text file to store this info then the user would have to edit it everytime they wanted to add documentation.  If there is an easy way around this I'm open to suggestions.

I don't remember what happened at work last night man, but if you say it's true, it's true.  (You sure it wasn't Gilles  

Actually, I'm having a hard time picturing it now.  Regardless of how I name the rom, it will read off the CRC, right?  (Maybe the problem there is each CRC adds to the 42 character limit?)

I'm thinking we could do this option to automatically pull up the manual/gamefaq/commercial/etc. by my romnames, and then as a backup if there is no matching romname you could go to the designated folder you were looking for and manually select your intended file.  Win win for everyone.  It doesn't lock out people who don't have my extras from getting to what they want, but guys like you me and Gilles who put the Xtras on the box will have perfect tested naming conventions for all roms and they will match up perfectly to our synopsis file.  

You wouldn't even have to re-do it the way you've already done it with Colecovision for the synopsis because I've already tested and it looks as though the synopsis looks perfect for all of the games it's provied for.  Am I right in thinking that since the synopsis for ADAM works perfect with the CRCs that it won't be any problem making the emu check for matching CRC before going to the manual, commercial or gamefaq?

QUOTE

5) Currently the text viewer remembers where you were in the last document you looked at.  But I don't think it actually remember what the last document was.

Ah yes, but if we can manage a CRC/Romname pre-check functionality.  

QUOTE

6) See # 3.  

6) I don't know if there is a memory drain for allowing the user to choose directories, but we may want to reconsider the ability to do so for all options.

I must not be reading you right on that one.  I'm not sure how 5 answers 6.  I was just talking about memory drain because I believe you thought it may be a problem if we allow the user to configure every directory before.  I was simply saying that we may want to reconsider and allow the users to configure the directories for every option on their own.  (Even though that sucks to have to do all that and the possibility it would eat more precious memory)

I'm thinking if we went with my suggestion in answers to 1,2,3 above that it's a moot point if most of the directories that will be new to the emulator will be created off of the root directory.

QUOTE

Don't worry about my code.  I ended up coding it in such a way that I can still test it while we decide how to do things.

I don't want to put you out man, but it's nice of you to clairify that.   I just know how pissed off I was at myself when I finished all of my work on NES and SNES (and undoubtedly other emu dats I will release in the future) and realized I messed up and used old roms after hearing from everybody how they couldn't find half of the roms that would match with the newer sets available.  How was I supposed to know though, right?  I mean, it they were working, why would somebody update them to a newer dump?

At that moment, it seemed like so much of my work was wasted  (I mean, it's fine on mine, but I really want to help other people do this so nobody ever has to waste years of their life like I have).  It wasn't just the rom version, but I wouldn't bring myself to just change the datfiles to the new roms, which by itself takes a lot of work and a considerable amount of time to rename everything and then make sure it's got exactly the same roms in the same place, but I'd then have to tell people I tested the games when they were in all essence completely different roms sharing the same general information.  There was no way I was going back and re-testing everything.  I tested PSX long enough to know what a difference that could make and I might be vouching for work that I didn't really do.  

BIG THANKS TO MM? FOR STEPPING UP AND FIXING THAT PROBLEM FOR NES AND SNES!  

Take a bow bro.  You deserve the recognition. Only I could probably really appreciate the work involved in doing all of that since it was a very large sum of roms you had to replace on both emus.   Just about 1/50th of the work I've done so far maybe, but much much more than I could ever expect out of anybody.  Really man.... thanks for not just being a lurker and leacher.  I've been both myself plenty, so I'm not rippin' on anyone.....

Just sayin I know the feeling of having to re-do a whole bunch of stuff.  Not even saying you are re-doing anything at this point, because I really don't know where you stand on the issue now.  Just saying that I hate doing double work myself, and wouldn't want to be putting you out is all.

Later,
~Rx

[Mega Man (?)]

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Dec 7 2008, 07:38 AM)

BIG THANKS TO MM? FOR STEPPING UP AND FIXING THAT PROBLEM FOR NES AND SNES!  

Take a bow bro.  You deserve the recognition. Only I could probably really appreciate the work involved in doing all of that since it was a very large sum of roms you had to replace on both emus.   Just about 1/50th of the work I've done so far maybe, but much much more than I could ever expect out of anybody.  Really man.... thanks for not just being a lurker and leacher.  I've been both myself plenty, so I'm not rippin' on anyone.....

With out tooting my own horn in the presence of you gentleman, It was my pleasure.  I am glad I can offer some sort of help to this great project! I hope that these dats will make it easier for people, and give you guys a bit more to work with. I will be glad to improve upon the dats (if needed) when people really start testing this stuff.
So again, Thank you guys.

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(madmab @ Dec 7 2008, 06:36 PM)

Yeah we could have it create those directories, whether we go with example 1 or 2.  Although I would expect that the user already has them set-up.  Alot of x-port functions do this anyways.  I assume to make it easier for the user and prevent any confusion.

Good to know.  I'm really leaning towards example 2 here, how about you?

QUOTE

Yeah I ran into that issue some time ago when I used to stuff my ROMS and screenshots into the emu directory.  Especially on the emu's with larger games!  It's gonna be even more crowded with all the Ressurection Xtra's.

Yeah.  No problem with one emu..... quite messy with over 10 though.  It won't be bad though if we do it like we're talking about though.  Nice and organized and easy to find everything because it's all uniform.

QUOTE

It was back when you were working on the Adam games and asked if I minded sending you the overlay files and I tried to explain to you how I name them so that the emu knows they go with a particular game.

Ah.... Now I vaguely remember this conversation.  It must have been so confusing to my feeble little mind that I just purged it.

QUOTE

Yes but if there exist say 8-10 different ROM's with different's CRC's.  Then naming a documentation file AABBCCDD_EEFFGGHH_IIJJKKLL_MMNNOOPP_QQRRSSTT.txt not only exceeds the 42 character limit but can be pretty confusing to the average user.

That's what I thought you were saying.  Bad solution there then for a system with so many alternates.

QUOTE

This is really the only way to go.  At least the only one I can think of.  Especially considering most people are gonna be using the Ressurection Xtras.

I think so too, and the backup plan provides a fail-safe for it so there shouldn't be any problems for anyone.  

QUOTE

Yeah that is pretty much what I was shooting for.  I don't think the user will complain to much about the directory names.  Just as long as they can specify the drive and root directory so they can put it somewhere where they have the space.

Nice and clean and easy to explain.  That's what a lot of this work is all about right?

QUOTE

As for ROM versions... who knows.  Some people are just OCD and just want their ROMs to be technically correct.

I'm having a hard time following this thread now with our 10 conversations in a post.  I'm not exactly sure which of my comments triggered this.  I'm about as OCD as you can get and still function relatively normally in society.  But I'm not that OCD  (well... technically I am, but there are certain things that just don't bother me as much as others.  I'm already obsessing over 1 set of a million things.... I'll leave the other million things to the next crazy OCD guy out there to clean up after me.... shame on you for giving me anymore ideas.)

QUOTE

Before I forget the new code will be able to view within ZIP files.  I still need to test it, though.  I'll probably take one of the sets you have available and zip 'em up for testing purposes.

Wow... that's pretty cool.  Now I kinda wish I left the long romnames with the extra rom information on the actual rom image and just shortened the zip so it would transfer.  We can put most of that stuff in the synopsis where it belongs though.  Just like in ADAM.

Keep up the great work man,
~Rx

[ressurectionx]

Hey madmab....

I'd like to organize everything on my computer tonight the way we're going to have things set up in the future.  Which one did you want to do?

Example 1:
F:\Xtras\Commercials\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Commercials\NES
F:\Xtras\Game Faqs\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Game Faqs\NES
F:\Xtras\Game Manuals\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Game Manuals\NES
F:\Xtras\Screenshots\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Screenshots\NES
F:\Xtras\Video Previews\ADAM
F:\Xtras\Video Previews\NES

Example 2:
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Commercials
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Video Previews
F:\Xtras\NES\Commercials
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\NES\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\NES\Video Previews

Thanks,
~Rx

[madmab]

Sorry I didn't respond sooner.

I suppose #2 would be ok.  I dont really have a preference one way or the other.

[ressurectionx]

Cool.  2 it is then...

Oh.... just realized that I can't mirror my PC changes that I'm making on my box until that part of the code is updated on emus with vid preview, since the movies won't be in folders like "A2600" anymore.  I'll hold off on mirroring my PC until the NES, PSX and ADAM betas are updated and then I'll let you know how it works.

EDIT: I'll also hold off on moving my screenshots at all until we figure out what we're doing for sure.  There are benefits to changing SCREENSHOTS to my directories above and there are benefits to leaving them the way that they are already.  

I think that it would look more uniform the way that I have it above, put in a system specific folder marked "ADAM\Screenshots", instead of the current "SCREENSHOTS\ADAM", but that would all depend on how you were able to make the code work for the default.

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(madmab @ Dec 10 2008, 08:03 AM)

Whoops didn't realize you were lumping screenshots and previews in there.  

That might create confusion for current users.  Especially with screenshots since most people probably already hava an established set of screenshots.

I was looking at it from the viewpoint that if the user was "navigating" directories for documentation Example 2 would be easier.  But as far as screenshots go changing the format may be a bit of hassle for people.

We have people that barely know how to get an Emu on their xbox or FTP ROMs over much less move screenshots to another place.  

That's fine.  I was kinda thinking the same thing.  If by "previews" you mean video previews, I don't see any harm in them going there.   Anyone who used my Xtras so far had to know how to move them there in the first place.  I don't see any reason why not to have the video previews and the commercials in the same spot as the gamefaqs and manuals.

Could you do me a favor though?  I'd like to put the screenshots there on my own.  I want everything completely clean, even though I will be veering off the path that was previously established to do it.  Can you write in a small bit of code that only makes the emu folder (ADAM, NES, etc.) if you pick E:\screenshots or F:\Screenshots?  I would like to put my screenshots in the directories as I have them above, but I'm unable to now because the emu automatically adds the emu folder.

Thanks man,
~Rx

EDITED TO ADD:   If you have any other ideas about how to do this madmab, that's cool too.  

In the end, i want one single folder that contains all of this stuff.  I am even going to put my roms in these folders in the end so that every single thing that one of the emulators uses is in a system specific folder.

Basically, I want it to look like this in the end:

F:\Xtras\ADAM\Commercials
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Roms
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\ADAM\Video Previews
F:\Xtras\NES\Commercials
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Faqs
F:\Xtras\NES\Game Manuals
F:\Xtras\NES\Roms
F:\Xtras\NES\Screenshots
F:\Xtras\NES\Video Previews

And any other folders we end up using that are emu specific.  I know that that is not going to be what everyone wants, but I was just mentioning it so we can adjust the code so we can have it both ways.

Thanks again man,
~Rx

[madmab]

Time to celebrate!!    

Thing is RessX not everyone stuffs their screenshots on E:\screenshots or F:\screenshots.  I can think of at least two people who place them in different places.

[ressurectionx]

So, how do we get it so I can put it in the folder I want without it creating the emu directory?   Any ideas?

[Mega Man (?)]

QUOTE(madmab @ Dec 10 2008, 01:47 PM)

Time to celebrate!!    

Congrats madmab, I was just waiting to consider you a freak

Here's to you!