Rom Collection Browser

[billyc666]

does anyone know if its possible to add a sub menu to rom collection browser via the skin , it works flawlessly with hyperlaunchhq just missing selection screen for each system.

also ive been working on offline scraper files if anyone is intrested. they are based on hyperlists databases

the layout is

game name
publisher
year
genre
description

 

[sandman7793]

I will see if I can mess with it. I use XBMC everyday. Leaving out of the country in 2 days so no promises. I will be back in 11 days.

Sent from my SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[billyc666]

sounds good, enjoy your holiday no rush as I still have a lot of scrapers to do

 

[nosh]

I just started tinkering with XBMC for the first time a few days ago. I am seriously considering migrating completely over to XBMC. I have seen a few people speak of integrating with the Advanced Launcher plugin which seems to be a better fit than Rom Collection Browser.

I would only move over if i knew i could get a similar experience to HS so videos, carts, boxes, backgrounds and such. I would also want to integrate with LEDBlinky which has been something people have mentioned doing but no guides on how to do so.

 

[djvj]

I've had mixed results just getting advanced launcher to simply launch an exe the way I wanted and integrated into the main menu of xbmc. I thought advanced launcher was just a method to launch an external application, how would it be a good replacement for RCB?

Let me know how that works for you.

 

[nosh]

I've had mixed results just getting advanced launcher to simply launch an exe the way I wanted and integrated into the main menu of xbmc. I thought advanced launcher was just a method to launch an external application, how would it be a good replacement for RCB?

Let me know how that works for you.

Honestly i dont know how it would be better, i just found a couple of forum posts saying that they used Advanced Launcher. If RCB is proven to work then i would rather use that.

 

[djvj]

Going the strictly AL route you will not like, especially coming from HS. All you get is an icon, which I guess can be boxart, and a background.

 

[billyc666]

I tried advance launcher. its not for me but rcb with hyperlauch works great. no hastle setting anything up as the ahks in hyperaunch sort everything. plus hyperspin databases can be converted into rcb scraper files pretty easy

 

[djvj]

Good to hear thanks for the update.

 

[sandman7793]

I tried advance launcher. its not for me but rcb with hyperlauch works great. no hastle setting anything up as the ahks in hyperaunch sort everything. plus hyperspin databases can be converted into rcb scraper files pretty easy

Nice!!!

 

[nosh]

I just got my first system up and running in XBMC. I am using a combination of HS media and the standard scrapers for the fan art. I decided to go with XBMC version 12.3 (Frodo) and Aeon MQ4 theme. Setting up RCB to run HL was easy. The only issue I am running into is when a game is launched a command prompt shows in front of XBMC but other than that its perfect.

 

[djvj]

Hyperlaunch does not have a command prompt so do you know what is bringing that up?

 

[nosh]

Ya i know HL doesnt have cmd window. There are a few settings i havent tried in RCB. Hopefully i wont have to resort to running a pre launch bat or something.

 

[nosh]

Setting "Use Popen to launch Emulator" in edit rom collection fixed it.

 

[nosh]

I upgraded to gotham 13.1 to see if there was any cool changes made to RCB and i wanted to test out Aeon MQ 5 and Aeon Nox. Both skins are really buggy with RCB at least for me. Sucks because there are a few addons like Spotimc that i wanted to use that dont work in 12 but its not worth staying in 13 until addons mature.

I tried setting xbmc.exe as my frontend in HLHQ and it barked at me saying MainMenu.xml is missing. DJ do i have to create a dummy MainMenu.xml or am i trying to do something that is not possible?

Started looking into how i could integrate LedBlinky into XBMC. Since i use audio animation for pretty much all FE events i really just want to run LedBlinky from cli when XBMC starts and send the FE Start command with audio animation. I think i can use RCB pre and post launch commands to send Game Start and Game Stop cli to LedBlinky but i need to test. I would also need to send a command when XBMC exits but I may just do that when i shell XBMC which should make it easier.

So just some feedback on my experience so far if anyone is looking to migrate to XBMC:

- Use XBMC 12.3 (frodo) for the time being until skins and addons mature
- Aeon MQ 4 is by far the best skin to use with RCB the filtering and display options are superior to other skins i have tried.
- Make sure to set "Dont Extract zip" and "Use popen to launch Emulator" in each rom collection
- If you plan on importing a large number of collections you might want to set "Prevent unfiltered search" in addon settings, you can also hide the "All" filter and play around with "Reduce Result Set". You want to prevent having RCB load all your games at once.

Importing Systems
- Clean your rom sets before importing into RCB, I used DJ's Rom Folder Cleaner utility to do so.
- If you plan on using HS/EmuMovies media you will want to select "Game Info and media are available locally"
- Emulator Params should look like this "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" "%ROMNAME%"
- I used HS media folders for all my artwork boxfront = HS box art folder, cartridge = HS cart art folder, gameplay (videos) = HS video folder, screenshots and fanart are used for the background image, i just had RCB scrape the internet for them. I created fanart and screenshots folders within /media/(System Name)/Images/.
- Use "scrape game info online" for Game Description Type, this will get the game description and everything else from the web

 

[djvj]

Thanks for the info nosh. The mainmenu.xml thing is changing in the next HL update. HL & HLHQ will have its own main menu.xml basically when one is not found for the FE you decide to use. So the 3.0.1.1, you need to create a dummy one to satisfy the file check. Also HLHQ needs it so it knows what systems you have.

 

[nosh]

Thanks for the info nosh. The mainmenu.xml thing is changing in the next HL update. HL & HLHQ will have its own main menu.xml basically when one is not found for the FE you decide to use. So the 3.0.1.1, you need to create a dummy one to satisfy the file check. Also HLHQ needs it so it knows what systems you have.

Np Dj. Ill duplicate my HS mainmenu.xml and give it a whirl. I can't really make up my mind whether i want to go all out on XBMC or not. On one hand you can't beat the game filtering capabilities, you can filter by system, year, letter, manufacture and genre which is something we all wish we had in HS. On the other hand I start to miss having a system select like in HS before drilling into the games. I kind of like that separation at the top level. That would be huge for me if RCB adds something like that.

There is a way of launching HS directly from XBMC which i may try. I also want to integrate Steam big picture. So i will probably end up using both which is easy for me at this point because i completely reworked my folder structure, I had everything nested inside my HS directory, now my frontends, HL, Media, Emulators, and Roms are completely separated making things so much easier to manage.

 

[djvj]

Yea it sucks we can't just have the perfect FE with everything we want. Who knows what the future holds though...

 

[sandman7793]

Nosh,
Have you tried to setup the new prometeus skin in Gotham?

http://www.getxbmc.com/downloads/

You might like it with your setup. It has quite a bit of transparency. It also has a 3d function that supposedly all you need is glasses without a 3d TV. I'm messing around with it now to see what can be done with it. To fully make it your own though, it will probably need some xml edits for sure.

Sent from my SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[nosh]

Nosh,
Have you tried to setup the new prometeus skin in Gotham?

http://www.getxbmc.com/downloads/

You might like it with your setup. It has quite a bit of transparency. It also has a 3d function that supposedly all you need is glasses without a 3d TV. I'm messing around with it now to see what can be done with it. To fully make it your own though, it will probably need some xml edits for sure.

Sent from my SM-N900A using Tapatalk

I installed it and I do like it. However I am still seeing the same bugs with RCB. I really like Aeon MQ 4 so I think I am going to stick with frodo for now.