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[YRUSirius]

Yes, you're good to go, I'm using tbns with transparent backgrounds for emulator icons.

-YRUSirius

[ressurectionx]

Cool.... Thanks guys.

Hopefully I can figure out this .CUT thing sometime today, using those TBN files.   I've had no luck getting them working so far.  The images only show up in XBMC as a folder with a question mark on them, and every time I've tried using a .CUT file I get booted back to XBMC's splash screen.  

I'll let you know when I figure it out.

[ressurectionx]

CODE

   F:\Emulators\(04) ATARI\2600\default.xbe
   3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
      
         F:\Media\A2600\Roms\(1) Licensed\(1_1) US\3-D Tic-Tac-Toe.zip
      

This looks right to me.  Looks like the two directories are exactly what they should read.  

Any suggestions?
~Rx

[Bomb Bloke]

I mimicked the directory structure in your CUT file on my drive, then tested it. Worked perfectly. Granted I didn't use the actual Atari emulator (NeoGenesis was closest to hand - I assume the emulator you're using does support loading ROMs via CUT files?), but I stuck it in the Atari folder, and renamed a Castlevania ROM to Tic-Tac-Toe...

If the ROM path were different on your system, or if the emulator didn't support ROM loading via CUTs, I'd still expect the emulator to at least start. Given that it doesn't, the path to the emulator might be incorrect.

If you're absolutely certain that it's all accurate, then check whether this trouble is with CUT files, or if it also happens when attempting to load programs in the "usual" way.

By the way, just in case you didn't know, you can take screenshots within XBMC by clicking in the left thumbstick.  

[ressurectionx]

I was afraid of that.

I think we may have introduced a bug while loading cut files.  I'll have to have madmab take a look.


EDIT:

To elaborate, I believe it is trying to load the emulator, but the problem lies afterward.  You get a black screen, then you get the XBMC logo as if XBMC just started over (leading me to believe that it did actually start up the emu, but failed somewhere between that and loading the rom from the zip file).

As far as I know, all XPORT emus support command line  launching, right?

I have no problems loading this emulator otherwise.



EDIT2:

Weird... it works perfect for Atari 7800.  No problems at all loading the games.  Either we did something to the 2600, or it never worked for that system in the first place.   I can honestly say I've never tried .CUT files for that system in the past.

[ressurectionx]

Could somebody try making .CUT files for the latest XPORT version of Atari 2600 for me?  I still can't get them to work on madmab's newest beta.

So far, I've gotten the following to work with .CUT files without any problems (That is to say, there are perfect .CUT sets for the following systems):

Atari 5200/800
Atari 7800
Chip8
Colecovision
Gameboy/Gameboy Color/Gameboy Advance
Genesis/32x/Sega CD
Atari LYNX
NES/Famicom Disk System
Neo Geo Pocket/Neo Geo Pocket Color
Odyssey2
TurboGrafx 16 (CD Games are going to be a HUGE chore to make)
Sega Master System/Game Gear/SG-1000
Super Nintendo
Watara Supervision
Virtual Boy
Bandai Wonderswan

DOESN'T WORK:
Atari 2600 - Kicks you back to XBMC splash screen.
Pokemon Mini - Black screen/freezes XBox
Sega VMU - The .CUT creator ignores *.vms files.  I couldn't zip these files up because they wouldn't run in the emu zipped.

EDIT:

Also... could anybody point me in the direction of a doc that explains how the thumbnails made from the thumbs in the .CUT folders get named when they're put in the UserData folder in XBMC?

[Bomb Bloke]

An explanation of the naming system can be read here. See here for further discussion/code samples.

[ressurectionx]

Thanks BB... I'll check those out.



Have a few issues to iron out.

1) SegaVMU cut creator doesn't work.  It ignores *.vms files and I couldn't zip them up because they wouldn't work in the emu zipped.

2) TGCD games don't work in the creator.  They use the .CUE file to run, but it looks like it's making a single cut for any track that was an ISO instead.  Any idea how to tailor the creator for TGCD use separate so it only looks for .PCE, .ZIP and .CUE files?

3) Possible problem with PSX games.   Every file for PSX games will have the same name, whether it's 1 or 4 per CD.  If we have it looking only for the image file types that run, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Bomb Bloke]

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Apr 18 2010, 07:36 PM)

2) TGCD games don't work in the creator.  They use the .CUE file to run, but it looks like it's making a single cut for any track that was an ISO instead.  Any idea how to tailor the creator for TGCD use separate so it only looks for .PCE, .ZIP and .CUE files?

To memory, don't CUE files go with BIN files, not ISO...? Is there some sort of weird exception I don't know about here, or is that what you meant?

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Apr 18 2010, 07:36 PM)

3) Possible problem with PSX games.   Every file for PSX games will have the same name, whether it's 1 or 4 per CD.  If we have it looking only for the image file types that run, it shouldn't be a problem.

I don't know of any circumstance where there'd be more then two files per CD (You'd either have an IMG file, an ISO file, or both a BIN and a CUE file, right?). Could you provide examples of where this figure'd be higher?

(ISOs might be accompanied with MP3 files, like some SegaCD emulators accept - not really the point here, I suppose...).

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(Bomb Bloke @ Apr 18 2010, 11:30 PM)

To memory, don't CUE files go with BIN files, not ISO...? Is there some sort of weird exception I don't know about here, or is that what you meant?

The TGCD games I have are ripped into ISO/MP3 files.  Controlling these files is the .CUE files.

The CUE file is the only file in the folder for each game that share's the games name.  For example, here's what Bonk III looks like:

CD - Bonk III - Bonk's Big Adventure.cue
track01.mp3
track02.iso
track03.mp3
track04.mp3
track05.mp3
track06.mp3
track07.mp3
track08.mp3
track09.mp3
etc....

Only by selecting the .CUE file can you launch the game, which turns out to be a good thing for us since it's the only file inside the folder with a name for the game we're launching.

QUOTE

I don't know of any circumstance where there'd be more then two files per CD (You'd either have an IMG file, an ISO file, or both a BIN and a CUE file, right?). Could you provide examples of where this figure'd be higher?

(ISOs might be accompanied with MP3 files, like some SegaCD emulators accept - not really the point here, I suppose...).

PSX games generally come in several formats (at least these are the only ones I know that work on XBox):
BIN
BIN/CUE
CCD/IMG/SUB
CCD/CUE/IMG/SUB
ISO

Here, we would want the program to make a shortcut for every BIN, IMG & ISO file... while completely ignoring the CUE, CCD & SUB files.  This is completely different than the TGCD games where you would only want to recognize the CUE file instead of the ISO files.  It's just the matter of how each emu handles the CD's differently.

[Bomb Bloke]

I see. Indeed, it'd be quite difficult to get the program to automatically determine which extension to use based on the system, so what I've done is stick the list of the extensions it hunts for in the INI file ("CutCreator.ini").

So, all you gotta do edit that list to replace ISO with CUE when dealing with the TGCD games, and change it back to normal when dealing with other systems (eg PSX).

This also allows people to add whatever other extensions they want to work with (eg VMS) without bugging me to do another compile. Shoulda done this ages ago.  

[ressurectionx]

Thanks man.  That ought to solve any extension issues just fine.


One more request....

Is there a way we could have another .ini file made where we can put the 3 directories the 2 batch's ask for?

Where is your parent rom directory on your PC?
Where is your parent rom directory on your XBox?
Where is your emu located on your XBox?

This would be really nice to have so you can make a different folder for each system and easily update the shortcuts in the future if you add any new games.


Thanks again bud.  You've saved me months of work with your different scripts you've created for me,
~Rx

[Bomb Bloke]

I've added some parameter support that should sort all that for you.

"GenerateDirectoryListing.bat" takes two arguments, first is the target search directory, second is where the ROMs are located on the console.

"CutCreator.bat" also takes two: If you use "/defaults", it won't ask you any questions when it runs (it'll assume everything in the listing/INI files is correct). You may also specify an alternate INI file to use by simply throwing in its name as an arguement as well.

What this means in practical terms is that you can create your own batch files to run the programs for you, using pre-determined inputs. The contents of a batch file designed to work with, say, your Atari 2600 ROMs would look something like this:

QUOTE

call GenerateDirectoryListing.bat "E:\WhereTheseAreOnYourPC" "F:\Media\A2600\Roms\(1) Licensed\(1_1) US\"
call CutCreator.bat /defaults "Atari 2600.ini"

Where "Atari 2600.ini" is a copy of the original "CutCreator.ini", but modified to work with that specific ROM set (eg, you'd set the "EmulatorXBE" line to read "F:\Emulators\(04) ATARI\2600\default.xbe").

Running this new batch would first create the directory listing file, then create the shortcuts, all in one go. Create one of these batches for each platform, and from then on you can very quickly generate new CUT listings just by double clicking 'em.

Edit:

You could also add a third line to move the CUTs from the output folder to where you actually want them to end up, if you wanted. It'd read something like this.

QUOTE

move "output\*.*" "C:\FolderWhereYouWantTheCUTsToGo" /Y

This post has been edited by Bomb Bloke: Apr 20 2010, 04:43 AM

[ressurectionx]

Took me a while to figure out what you were talking about, but wow... that's awesome!   (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Thanks for the tips.  I'll make one for each system and give instructions on what to change if anything you have is different than what I have.





Got a new one for ya now..... Say somebody got this all set up, but now their only problem is that they have to organize the .CUT files by hand (like I did).   Is there a way that we could use the listing output to make another .BAT file convert all the PNG files in the main "Output" folder to TBN files, and then move them next to their respective .CUT files?




EDIT:  We're not actually "converting" the images.  A simple rename from *.PNG to *.TBN is all that needs to be done.

This post has been edited by ressurectionx: Apr 20 2010, 10:38 AM

[Bomb Bloke]

Create a batch file in your PNG folder that reads like this:

QUOTE

ren *.png *.tbn
move *.tbn "C:\FolderWhereYouWantAllYourTBNsToGo"