RetroPie forum home
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Home
    • Docs
    • Register
    • Login

    ES Filter by Genre, Publisher/Developer, Players and Rating

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Ideas and Development
    emulationstatiofilterstestingdevelopment
    23 Posts 7 Posters 8.7k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • pjftP
      pjft @Zigurana
      last edited by pjft

      @Zigurana Ah, of course.

      In fact, as I was developing it, I was thinking about, if we actually had the metadata for favorites and kids being loaded into the current ES version, that this would very easily handle it - it can probably be added in 15-30 mins, if that much.

      Happy to chat!

      EDIT:

      Actually, thinking about the previous talk we had about breaking down the Kids mode into smaller commits, if you do add the metadata PR, this can handle the filtering easily without you having to implement it again.

      This indexes the games at load time, and then at render time, we filter. I implemented a hacky "empty" item, so that it wouldn't crash if there's no match for the filter combination.

      The main difference is that this is not system-wide, but more by design (because different systems will have different developers/publishers/etc), but nothing prevents us from filtering system-wide for kids and favorite at render time.

      On metadata editing (or, in your case, on setting favorite and kid-friendly), I just remove the game from the index and re-insert it again with the new metadata. That's so I can remove categories from the index that do not match any current game data.

      Hope these help.

      Edit 2: and yes, I tried to design it in a way that can be easily adapted to whatever metadata architecture we end up pursuing (xml, SQLite or something else). :)

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • D
        Dochartaigh @Zigurana
        last edited by

        How about the ability to Star or Favorite games? That was what a LOT of us have been asking for off and on for a while - it would make those LONG (like 1000+) complete game libraries so much easier to navigate through if our most favorite games could be brought to the top of the list (or something like that). I'm currently stuck using folders...

        pjftP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • pjftP
          pjft @Dochartaigh
          last edited by

          @Dochartaigh Yeah, I was just answering @Zigurana in that direction. He already did the whole work of adding that metadata.

          If you use this, for the time being, you can just filter by 5 star ratings, for instance, but I agree - favorites and kid friendly should be a straight application of this, and as I said, it's fairly easy to implement should the metadata be there.

          daeksD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • J
            jdrassa
            last edited by

            @pjft I am testing this out on my linux desktop. I pulled the latest source from your github repository and built it myself. I haven't had a chance to dig in to find the cause, but if I pick a set of filters that would result in no games available, I get a core dump.

            terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::out_of_range'
              what():  vector::_M_range_check: __n (which is 0) >= this->size() (which is 0)
            Aborted (core dumped)
            

            Get latest build of EmulationStation for Windows here

            pjftP 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • pjftP
              pjft @jdrassa
              last edited by

              @jdrassa wonderful :)

              Thanks for looking into this.

              That's interesting, as that exact behavior should be... Explicitly... Coded... For. Hmm.

              Unless it just got busted when I refactored the code to move the filtering to FileData!

              That may be the case.

              I'll try it out later and dig into it. I don't recall testing whether an empty selection still worked after I did the last change.

              Thanks! I'll get back to you, no need to waste time tracking it down - unless you do have a proper way to do debugging other than via logs, which is how I'm doing it. If that's the case, if you can track down the exact line where it's crashing it's easier for me, but it still shouldn't be a big deal for me to track down otherwise.

              Happy Saturday!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • daeksD
                daeks @pjft
                last edited by daeks

                @pjft said in ES Filter by Genre, Publisher/Developer, Players and Rating:

                @Dochartaigh Yeah, I was just answering @Zigurana in that direction. He already did the whole work of adding that metadata.

                If you use this, for the time being, you can just filter by 5 star ratings, for instance, but I agree - favorites and kid friendly should be a straight application of this, and as I said, it's fairly easy to implement should the metadata be there.

                it would be cool if there is also some visual indication in the gamelist already as well (recalbox has a star in front of the game name if it's a favorite + moved to the top of the list)

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • pjftP
                  pjft @jdrassa
                  last edited by

                  @jdrassa Of course, that was the case. Had left some logic in the view that should have moved to FileData.

                  Should be sorted now - apologies for the trouble, and thank you for catching it!

                  If you pull the code now it should work now.

                  @daeks Different feature request :) We don't have favorites yet, but that's a good idea if/when it ends up being implemented, should it be easy.

                  Sorting shouldn't be hard - the visual component I imagine will need to be done at a theme level. That does not exist at the moment.

                  Thanks both!

                  pjftP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • pjftP
                    pjft @pjft
                    last edited by pjft

                    @jdrassa FYI, there's a leftover problem from the refactoring where in some occasions the gamelist will reset to the first on the list.

                    I'll look into it today.

                    EDIT: and it's fixed now. Should be all sorted! Thanks for testing.

                    mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • mattrixkM
                      mattrixk @pjft
                      last edited by

                      Hey @pjft, I know this is an older thread, but I have a question that relates to how the filtering works:

                      If I select 2 options, eg Racing and Shooting, will that return all games with the Racing genre and all games with the Shooting genre? Or will it return just the games with both the Racing and Shooting genres?

                      Is it possible to choose how the filtering works? Inclusive or Exclusive? Broad or Explicit? I don't know the best way to phrase it.

                      My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                      pjftP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • pjftP
                        pjft @mattrixk
                        last edited by

                        @mattrixk Hi!

                        Not at all, glad someone is happy to use this :)

                        The filtering is:

                        • UNION/JOIN in the same <category>
                        • INTERSECT across different <categories>

                        So, what this means is:

                        • If you select two different genres, it will show games that match either genre 1 or 2 (as a game can't have more than one genres, so doing it otherwise would always return none :) ).
                        • If you select two categories (say, genre and players), it will intersect both. So, if you select:
                          • Developer: Capcom, SNK
                          • Genre: Fighting
                          • Players: 2
                          • Rating: 4, 5

                        It will filter for Capcom or SNK fighting games for 2 players which have ratings of 4 starts or above.

                        I hope this helps. I wouldn't think of making this more complex unless there is a clear need/use case for it. The use case here is "you're looking for something that matches a criteria", rather than "everything that matches at least one of the parameters".

                        But do let me know how it goes!

                        mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • mattrixkM
                          mattrixk @pjft
                          last edited by

                          @pjft said

                          as a game can't have more than one genres

                          Uhh... so I can't have a gamelist that looks like this:

                          <game id="goldnaxe">
                            <path>./goldnaxe.zip</path>
                            <name>Golden Axe</name>
                            <desc>Golden Axe is a sideways scrolling beat-em-up set in a traditional fantasy world.</desc>
                            <image>./media-detailed/goldnaxe-detailed.png</image>
                            <genre>Brawler, Hack-Slash, RPG, 2.5D, Golden-Axe</genre>
                            <players>2</players>
                          </game>
                          

                          So I can then filter by all Brawlers, or by all Hack-Slash games, or all 2.5D games?

                          I've spent most of my free time doing that to my Genre tags so I can easily filter exactly what I want. I hope I haven't been wasting my time.

                          My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                          pjftP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • pjftP
                            pjft @mattrixk
                            last edited by pjft

                            @mattrixk Huh.

                            I'm not really sure that's how these tags are meant to work, but in this case what that'll result will be in an entry for "Brawler, Hack-Slash, RPG, 2.5D, Golden-Axe" :l

                            The genres usually come from the scraper and are a single entry. It is "genre", not "genres" :/

                            At least for now that will now work as you expect it to.

                            Sorry for that.

                            mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • mattrixkM
                              mattrixk @pjft
                              last edited by

                              @pjft Darn. Oh well, at least I don't have to do my whole collection that way (it would have taken a while). Cheers for letting me know. I'll have to have a play with it when I get the chance.

                              My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                              HurricaneFanH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • HurricaneFanH
                                HurricaneFan @mattrixk
                                last edited by

                                @mattrixk If your gamelist has the data saved, I'd imagine you could probably have a script turn those genres into a custom collection. So all your 2.5D games would get its own collection, Brawler would be a collection, etc. This isn't a filter, but it would give you just the games you wanted per collection.

                                mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • mattrixkM
                                  mattrixk @HurricaneFan
                                  last edited by

                                  @hurricanefan: I wouldn't have a clue how to make a script to do that. So far I've only made the change to a couple of systems. The plan was to then use those new genres to add a only a couple of custom collections, I didn't want too many.

                                  Because I used a couple of different scrapers, and they all have their own Genre names (eg: Platform and Platformer), I need to clean up the Genres anyway. I figured I'd come up with my own Genre names. Here's the list I've come up with if anyone is curious:

                                  Genre:
                                    Racing
                                      Racing-Car
                                      Racing-Kart
                                      Racing-Bike
                                      Racing-Boat
                                      Racing-Plane
                                      Racing-OffRoad
                                      Racing-Toy
                                      Racing-Demolition
                                      Racing-Hover
                                      Racing-Snow
                                    Driving
                                    Vehicular-Combat
                                    Flight-Sim
                                    Space-Sim
                                    Tank
                                    Mech
                                    Shooter
                                      Shooter-Rail
                                      Shooter-LightGun
                                      Shooter-Flight
                                      Shooter-Tunnel
                                    Action
                                    Adventure
                                      Point-Click
                                    Action-Adventure
                                    Action-RPG
                                      Hack-Slash
                                      Run-Gun
                                    RPG
                                    Platformer
                                      Platformer-3D
                                    Brawler (Beat 'Em Up)
                                    Fighter
                                      Fighter-2D
                                      Fighter-3D
                                    Sports
                                      Sports-Snow
                                      Sports-Skate
                                      Sports-Bike
                                      Sports-Blade
                                      Sports-Wrestle
                                      Sports-Baseball
                                      Sports-Soccer
                                      Sports-Tennis
                                      Sports-Football
                                      Sports-Basketball
                                    Stunts
                                    Puzzle
                                    RTS
                                    Strategy
                                    Music
                                    Rhythm
                                    Management-Sim
                                    Stealth
                                    Turn-Based
                                    Maze
                                    Shmup
                                      Shmup-Vert
                                      Shmup-Horz
                                  
                                  View:
                                    1st-Person
                                    3rd-Person
                                    Isometric
                                    Side-Scroller
                                    Top-Down
                                    Birds-Eye
                                    2.5D
                                  
                                  Theme:
                                    Horror
                                    SciFi
                                    Fantasy
                                    Post-Apocalyptic
                                    Medieval
                                  
                                  Age:
                                    Kids
                                    Adult
                                  
                                  Collection:
                                    Alien
                                    Predator
                                    AvP
                                    Doom
                                    Street-Fighter
                                    Marvel
                                    X-Men
                                    Avengers
                                    Hulk
                                    FPS
                                    Rampage
                                    MegaMan
                                    SuperHero
                                    Batman
                                    Spiderman
                                    Superman
                                    DC
                                    Spawn
                                    Star-Wars
                                    Tetris
                                    Worms
                                    Mortal-Kombat
                                    LEGO
                                    Jurassic-Park
                                    Dinosaurs
                                    Punisher
                                    Pong
                                    DnD
                                    Donkey-Kong
                                    Cartoon
                                    Golden-Axe
                                  

                                  Sure, if what I wanted to do worked, it would have made for a very large Genre Filter list, but that's a small price for being able to search for exactly what I wanted.

                                  My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                  HurricaneFanH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • HurricaneFanH
                                    HurricaneFan @mattrixk
                                    last edited by

                                    @mattrixk Wow, that is a long list. :)

                                    mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • mattrixkM
                                      mattrixk @HurricaneFan
                                      last edited by

                                      @hurricanefan Heh, yeah... It just kind of grew. It's not a complete list, as I'm sure the "Collection" section will continue to grow as I go through more of my Gamelists.

                                      My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • First post
                                        Last post

                                      Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.

                                      Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.