Waiting for official version, how do I remove clones?

[shinyknight]

Hi all, just discovered this utility and I love it.

I use the software to arrange everything as it should, so I can play games I know what a rom is, and that each game has clones and such, and this is where issues start.

Basically I have a 0.161 dump for mame, and it is all right; but I have a ton of games, and honestly, I do not see a reason for keeping the clones.

While checking Romcenter, I see that there is a function to delete a file; but sadly it does not work when you select the files in the datafile; it works only in the rom files tree. This has the negative effect of not allowing me to delete all the roms selected as clone.

I have rom merge mode as "un-merged"; and bios merge mode as "un-merged"; so I have one file with all the roms for each game and clones (from what I understand; please tell me if this is incorrect).
I tought that this may help to get rid of all the clones, but then I found that RomCenter won't keep a record between the game name and the file name (if there is a way, please let me know how to show this info...I see the rom names but not the file name for that rom).

If I knew which file is associated to each clone, I could do the work by hand; which is not ideal but better than nothing.

I saw someone mentioning to use the option to include all the roms in one archive for each game, but this would mean to have a ton of roms in the main archive for the main game and clones, while I would like to get rid of clones.

Also I heard about create a new dat file from the origilnal list, which I could use to then copy all the original roms in a different dir and delete the rest, but I have no idea how to do that.

Also is this feature still under work? I found posts on this forum that are ancient; and they were also requesting a way to remove clones, and the 4.X beta does not seem to have this function either.

Can anyone suggest a way to do so, with some step by step instructions? That would be kindly appreciated.

[Wanderer]

Hi there and welcome to Romcenter and its forum.

First of all, i have to point out that Romcenter4 is still a ***BETA VERSION***, so please backup your roms before playing with it.

Try the following in RC4 which should fit your needs:

1. File \ Create new database from emulator
2. Check "mame filtering". In there, you can remove "clones" and keep only "main sets".
3. Select mame exe in "get datas from"
4. Select a database name in "save datas as"
5. Press "create"

This will create a new database for you based on the mame version of the EXE, which will not contain any clones or anything else you have unchecked. Then add the rom path containing your roms and start deleting. The clones should be displayed with a gray color so the "fix \ remove useless files" option will delete them. If anything goes wrong, you may have either misunderstood something or there may be a bug so ask here and find out what's going on. It will probably be better to wait for an official release of RC4 though to fix all your roms.

[shinyknight]

Thanks a lot!

BTW this procedure is for V4 or V3? I thought I would ask before make a mess

Also, which setup should I then use for the romset? Should I keep the "un-merged" setup for both the options?

LAst thing, I noticed that my sample are not add to the rom and result as missing; what is the format for the sample? I have them packed as zip in the sample folder of Mame, but I don't see a way to actually add the folder in the settings (the UI can choose only the roms folder; it won't allow you to change it from what I can tell.

Thanks again; backing up my original set and will try this now

[Wanderer]

Thanks a lot!

BTW this procedure is for V4 or V3? I thought I would ask before make a mess

You're welcome. It's for v4. I have updated my previous reply but apparently it was too late.

Also, which setup should I then use for the romset? Should I keep the "un-merged" setup for both the options?

It's better to use the "split" setup, which consumes the least HDD space after "merged". The "un-merged" copies all roms in the main and all the clones, which makes it the setting which consumes the most HDD space. Using that you have an autonomous game zip which contains everything needed for the game to be playable but for exchange you waste a lot of space.

Last thing, I noticed that my sample are not add to the rom and result as missing; what is the format for the sample? I have them packed as zip in the sample folder of Mame, but I don't see a way to actually add the folder in the settings (the UI can choose only the roms folder; it won't allow you to change it from what I can tell.

When you create a new database, in the "advanced settings" you can select "merged" in the "samples" section. This will add the samples inside the main game set. You then have to add your samples folder as a normal rom path (after you have created the database). It's better to place the samples in a folder of their own (see next paragraph). Then add this folder as a normal rom path.

You can also choose "split samples". Then you select the path where the samples are and RC adds this path as a roms path and keeps all files in it. In this case, RC will create a separate zip file for each game containing all the samples needed for it.

Don't place the samples zip file in the same folder with your roms because it's not a game and RC will probably delete it anyway if you "fix" the roms path.

Thanks again; backing up my original set and will try this now

Good luck then. If you have any questions, post.

[shinyknight]

Thanks a lot for the help!

So, I did try V4 and it made a bit of a mess

I did create a new db from mame exe; and choose in the filtering, to not include the clones; as mentioned. All was OK until I choose the folder for the roms; then I have got the first error. The scan stopped at aliensyndrome, the window in the roms tree sho that there are 198 files only. The folder thou see 29.455 files in windows. I assume that once that a file has issues and is not read, the scan is interrupted and it won't move on (bug?).

I did click refresh and it did a lots of reading on the HD, but still it show only 198 rom files in the tree (although I can see that in the database tree, there are 9307 files; which are all marked red after Alien Syndrome, to point out that the scan was in fact not successful). This is the same romset that I have successfully scanned and imported with V3.
Tried again removing the rom path and adding it again, it went up to 206 this time but then it gave again the error message ("One or more errors occurred.").

Another issue happened when I did run the fix command; I get plenty of messages saying that the zip already exist...I guess it is another bug where the overwrite of the file should not raise an error but just write the file (or may be my permissions that are bad? I did run RC V3 without any of these errors.).

Do you have a log that I can grab and attach it here? Pretty sure that you can't do much without see the logs or reproduce the problem

[Wanderer]

Do you have a log that I can grab and attach it here? Pretty sure that you can't do much without see the logs or reproduce the problem

Logs are placed in C:\ProgramData\romcenter.

Topic moved to "Romcenter 4.x" forum.

[shinyknight]

Thanks, I did check the log and found something maybe.

I can see these calls in the log; it seems like something get assigned as null in master view (gamesviewmodel?); and the application does not proceed further. This time it did stop at altered beast rom; going up to 244 rom recognized.

Code: Select all

<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8173933-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Progress value set to 99.04</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.819898-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Item null selected in master view GamesViewModel</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8209004-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Updating gameroms view with game  - </log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8214171-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Loading gameroms (no games selected)</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8219019-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>End of gameroms update for  - </log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8234043-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>GameView selectionchanged</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8234043-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>GameView selectionchanged:1 items removed, 0 items added, item null selected</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8239051-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>End GameView selectionchanged</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8264096-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>GameRomView selectionchanged start</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8269105-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>GameRomView selectionchanged:1 items removed, 0 items added, item null selected</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8274114-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>End GameRomView selectionchanged</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8509528-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="UiThread1" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Event Property 'Title' changed received on datasviewmodel</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8689854-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Load files : 00:00:00.0520682</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8694863-08:00" level="DEBUG" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Refreshing DB done</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:20.8694863-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Progress value set to 100</log4net:message>
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:21.3573743-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Progress value set to 0</log4net:message>
    <log4net:data name="context" value="RomCenterWpf.Views" />
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:21.3573743-08:00" level="INFO" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Done</log4net:message>
    <log4net:data name="context" value="RomCenterWpf.Views" />
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:21.3583755-08:00" level="INFO" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Duration: 00:00:06</log4net:message>
    <log4net:data name="context" value="RomCenterWpf.Views" />
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:21.3583755-08:00" level="INFO" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Ready</log4net:message>
    <log4net:data name="context" value="RomCenterWpf.Views" />
<log4net:event logger="RomCenter" timestamp="2015-11-05T20:57:21.3593744-08:00" level="TRACE" thread="17" domain="RomCenter.exe" username="mycomputah\theuser">
    <log4net:message>Progress value set to 0</log4net:message>
    <log4net:data name="context" value="RomCenterWpf.Views" />

Not sure what else to help diagnose this issue; let me know if there is something that you want me to try

[Wanderer]

This may not be the cause of the issue. Attach the full log in a post. I'll take a look at it to see if i can help, but probably Eric (RC's developer) will know better.

[shinyknight]

I see, thanks for the reply.

The full log had a lots of info level data; but I see no errors statements and such; I can send you the whole thing if you like, although I am not sure how helpful is to see a ton of info calls about the rom names. The application just refuse to parse more data once it reach a certain rom, show no errors in the log (Although the UI return an error dialog); which is incredibly confusing.

On a side note, you may want to remove from the log the id of the computer and username; nothing too serious but many people are not happy to see their computer info getting logged, beyond what the application has to know

If you want I can get the source, compile and run in debug; I work as sw engineer, although I work on Unix systems...I am a bit rusty with windows development tools

Did anyone had issues parsing the romset that I have?

[Wanderer]

The application just refuse to parse more data once it reach a certain rom, show no errors in the log (Although the UI return an error dialog); which is incredibly confusing.

Indeed, somewhat confusing. I suggest you take a snapshot (image) of any UI messages when shown and post them here with a detailed description on how to reproduce it.

On a side note, you may want to remove from the log the id of the computer and username; nothing too serious but many people are not happy to see their computer info getting logged, beyond what the application has to know

I'm a moderator here, just helping out. No direct effect on how RC is developed or how it's features work, apart from any suggestions i may make. The whole project is Eric's department

I completely agree with you on this matter though. It would be better to mask all username info in the log with somethings else (i.e. ***USERNAME***) so that no such info are released to the public when posting a log.

[shinyknight]

No problem , I can take a couple of screens and write a step by step list about what I did to reproduce the issue; feel free to point me to any bug tracking system that you guys use; so I can file one if needed

Indeed masking the username and computer name would be very helpful; just for the sake of keeping some info about the machine safe. Thanks for being an understanding moderator I noticed that the post has been moved, and you didn't yell at me

MAde a new topic:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3191

[Wanderer]

feel free to point me to any bug tracking system that you guys use; so I can file one if needed

http://www.romcenter.com/mantis/

Have fun.

[shinyknight]

Wohooo

In the meantime that V4 get fixed, I just made a new romset using the merge option; so I have all games in a single zip, and at least I can delete the games that I won't play, to start with. Once V4 will work for me, I will take care of the clones too.

BTW I was not able to put the samples in the zip using V3; tried various options, and every time that they are scanned, the samples are not there. Planing to open a new topic for this, unless the thing is pretty simple to fix