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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    Hiding multi-disk entries in Emulationstation

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    • L
      looper
      last edited by

      • Raspberry Pi5
      • Official Power Supply
      • Manually installed (5 days ago)

      Hello, I have many multi-disk games from various platforms, all with M3U files in CHD format. I want to hide the multi-disk entries in EmulationStation to avoid having the same metadata for all disks during the scraping process with Skyscraper.

      I found an older topic where it suggests that I can do this by placing a dot before the disk name. Is this the preferable method, or am I missing a setting?

      N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • N
        Nash @looper
        last edited by Nash

        @looper With the dot method, they will be hidden in the retroarch menu when you need to load them.

        With the application Skraper, you can auto-hide or ignore files with string in their name, like "CD 2", CD 3".

        L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • L
          looper @Nash
          last edited by looper

          @Nash
          Thank you! I checked the Skyscraper Wiki and found this option that did the work.

          Here is the link with the instructions: https://gemba.github.io/skyscraper/CLIHELP/?h=ignore#-excludepattern-pattern-1-pattern-2

          Update: Ok, the above method is excluding the metadata but the entries are still in the gamelist.xml and visible.

          testudoT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • testudoT
            testudo @looper
            last edited by testudo

            @looper said in Hiding multi-disk entries in Emulationstation:

            @Nash
            Thank you! I checked the Skyscraper Wiki and found this option that did the work.

            Here is the link with the instructions: https://gemba.github.io/skyscraper/CLIHELP/?h=ignore#-excludepattern-pattern-1-pattern-2

            Update: Ok, the above method is excluding the metadata but the entries are still in the gamelist.xml and visible.

            Not sure if this is a solution for you, but I create folders for multi-disk games and a cooresponding folder entry in the gamelsit.xml, copying the scraped metadata to the folder entry. In the Emulationstation game listing I only see the folder's metadata. If you drill into the folder you do see the metadata duplicated on the individual disks.

            <folder>
            		<path>./Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)</path>
            		<name>Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest</name>
            		<desc>The game's limited story takes place at the...</desc>
            		<releasedate>19940101T000000</releasedate>
            		<publisher>Family Soft</publisher>
            		<genre>Fight</genre>
            		<image>./media/images/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)(Disk 1 of 2).png</image>
            		<genreid>262</genreid>
            </folder>
            
                   <game id="47147" source="ScreenScraper.fr">
            		<path>./Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)(Disk 1 of 2).dim</path>
            		<name>Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest</name>
            		<desc>The game's limited story takes place at the... </desc>
            		<releasedate>19940422T000000</releasedate>
            		<developer>Fill in Café</developer>
            		<publisher>Family Soft</publisher>
            		<genre>Fight</genre>
            		<players>1-2</players>
            		<image>./media/images/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)(Disk 1 of 2).png</image>
            		<genreid>262</genreid>
            	</game>
            	<game id="47147" source="ScreenScraper.fr">
            		<path>./Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)(Disk 2 of 2).dim</path>
            		<name>Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest</name>
            		<desc>The game's limited story takes place at the... </desc>
            		<releasedate>19940422T000000</releasedate>
            		<developer>Fill in Café</developer>
            		<publisher>Family Soft</publisher>
            		<genre>Fight</genre>
            		<players>1-2</players>
            		<image>./media/images/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)/Asuka 120 Percent Burning Fest (1994)(Family Soft)(Disk 1 of 2).png</image>
            		<genreid>262</genreid>
            	</game>
            
            L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • L
              looper @testudo
              last edited by

              @testudo
              Thanks for your suggestions! I stick to the first approach for now. I hide the disks with the dot, and only the m3u file is visible in EmulationStation and Skyscraper.

              N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • N
                Nash @looper
                last edited by

                @looper But how can you load next CD when game need it ? I tried with dot method and I can't see the dotted CD in retroarch menu.

                L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  sleve_mcdichael
                  last edited by sleve_mcdichael

                  https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Playstation-1/#m3u-playlists-for-cue-bins-or-chds

                  EmulationStation parses the .cue, .chd, or other files as menu entries.

                  The purpose of renaming the .cue or .chd is to hide them from this parsing. This way only the multi-disc .m3u is parsed and not the individual discs.

                  The choice of .cd1, .cd2, etc extensions are merely aesthetic, you could call it .foo, .bar, or anything else you want*. They don't need to be different than each other either, you could make them all the same .cd or whatever (disc1.cd, disc2.cd works fine instead of disc1.cd1, disc2.cd2).

                  *anything that isn't one of:

                  <extension>.cue .cbn .chd .img .iso .m3u .mdf .pbp .toc .z .znx .CUE .CBN .CHD .IMG .ISO .M3U .MDF .PBP .TOC .Z .ZNX</extension>
                  

                  Skyscraper is not a requirement but if you choose to use Skyscraper it will read the .m3u file as the sole game entry and ignore the unrecognized .cd (or whatever) files, just like EmulationStation does.

                  S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • S
                    sleve_mcdichael @sleve_mcdichael
                    last edited by sleve_mcdichael

                    some emulators (lr-duckstation) don't accept the renamed disc files even with the M3U. In this case you can hide the discs by keeping them in a different directory, and make sure the M3U points back to that other location.

                    roms/psx/A Game.m3u:

                    ../psx-multi/A Game (disc 1).chd
                    ../psx-multi/A Game (disc 2).chd
                    
                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • L
                      looper @Nash
                      last edited by looper

                      @Nash

                      I don't know what could be wrong with your setup. I have multi-disk games with extensions .bin, .cue, .chd, .dsk, and .rvz, and disk swapping is working correctly in RetroArch. I have created .m3u files for all of them.

                      Example of a PSX game:

                      Chrono Cross (Disc 1).bin
                      .Chrono Cross (Disc 1).cue
                      Chrono Cross (Disc 2).bin
                      .Chrono Cross (Disc 2).cue
                      

                      .m3u file:

                      .Chrono Cross (Disc 1).cue
                      .Chrono Cross (Disc 2).cue
                      

                      And sleve_mcdichael suggestion is a very good solution that I didn't know

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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