[SOFT] Universal XML Scraper V2 - Easy Scrape with High Quality picture

denisuu

How can I scrape PORTS? I can use the ES scraper to find DOOM, DUKENUKEM3d, Quake... But not Outrun etc. Can I use U XML for this? Or any way to manually do this? I already tried editing the gamelist.xml under /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ports but that doesn't work.

I tried another app (Emulationstation XML maker) but that results in the same and editing /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists/ports/gamelist.xml also doesn't work. :(

patastinky

@stet said in [SOFT] Universal XML Scraper V2 - Easy Scrape with High Quality picture:

I have been getting the following error when trying to use "Scrap all your system":

Line 22140 (File "C:\winapps\Universal Scraper\Universal_XML_Scraper64.exe"}:

Error: Variable used without being declared.

Because of this error I have had to scrape each system separately instead of just letting it run overnight. Is anyone else getting a similar error?

I'm having the same issue with NES and N64. SNES was able to scrap just fine. I tried SCRAPE ALL and got that problem, hence why I was scraping them individually all day today. Just got down to N64 and NES when the "LINE 22140" error appeared.

FlyingTomahawk

@screech

Is it possible to create a custom Mix image profile with video and marquee similar to the Standard (2img) but instead of a screenshot have a video?

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk: There are 2 different Profile types:

Scrape Profile
MIX Profile

The Scrape Profile is the one that grabs the metadata, and downloads the single images (and videos) and creates the gamelist using them.

The MIX Profile gets the selected images and combines them together in the positions you want them.

You tell the Scrape Profile to create a MIX image, and then you tell the UXS program which MIX Profile you want to use to create that image.

eg:

You have 3 tags to fill: <video>, <image> and <marquee>.

"md_video" uses "md_image" as a backup if the video is missing, so a Screenshot is best for that.
"md_marquee" sits over the video/screenshot (in the z-index), so you might want the game Logo and 3D Box-art, so you want to make a MIX image for that.

You create a MIX Profile that combines the Logo and the 3D Box-art into a single image, and call the profile "Logo Box-art MIX".

You then create a Scrape Profile called "Scrape [video][image][marquee]" that:

Downloads the Video and puts it into the <video> tag of the gamelist.xml.
Downloads the Screenshot and puts it into the <image> tag of the gamelist.xml.
Downloads the selected MIX Profile image and puts it into the <marquee> tag of the gamelist.xml.

In UXS, select the "Scrape [video][image][marquee]" Scrape profile. (You'll have to set up the autoconfig to point to your Roms, and also make sure the gamelist.xml has all the paths set correctly. You might need to play with that a little to get it right.)

Now set the MIX Profile to "Logo Box-art MIX" and scrape your Roms.

I suggest testing it first on a System that only has 2 or 3 Roms in it. It's annoying to scrape the data/images for a few hundred Roms only to discover the MIX Image doesn't look how you want it to, or you've missed something in the code so the Screenshot didn't download, forcing you to do it all again.

If you need examples of the code let me know, but you can usually suss it out from the Profiles provided with UXS.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

I knew that it is possible to create mix profiles I just didn't know how to add the video part.
I wanted to take the Standard 2img profile and just replace the screenshot code with the video code.
You provided your code which will help me do that. Thanks.

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk:
This Scrape Profile should do what you want it to do.

Just add it to the "ProfilsFiles" folder within UXS, then select it from the Scrape Profiles list. You'll also need to set up the autoconfig so UXS sees your Roms, and points the paths where they need to go. You'll then need to select the Standard (2img) MIX Profile and you should be good to go.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

Awesome! Thx.
I test it as soon I get back from work.

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk I had to update that xml file as it still had some unneeded parts in it, but it's fixed now.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

I had a chance to test the code of yours and it does give me the correct entries inside the gamelist xml file but the videos are downloaded as "gamename"-video.png
I can see that the entry for video in your file is correct and says mp4 as file format but I think the Standard (2img) code is saying to save it as png. I tried to change that to match a video file and mp4 format but then I get all kinds of errors.
Right now I am scraping the roms twice, once for marquee and once for video. At the same time I set it to update the XML file to get the right entries.
That works good for me right now, I just thought I could reduce 1 scraping step and have both at once.

EctoOne

@FlyingTomahawk Can you not just batch rename the *-video.png files? I'm using a similar scrape profil as @mattrixk has and it also downloads the video files as png. My script downloads all files (2D Box, marquee, screenshot, fanart, video), creates a Mix Image but only put the mix image in the xml (because i don't care about video, but i want to have the other images). So that's why i deleted all my *-video.png files after scraping without testing if those where just falsly named mp4 files.

FlyingTomahawk

@EctoOne

Yes, I did that. I batch renamed them and I can do that for all the others too.
Still it does not reduce my work, I still need to do 2 steps either scraping, scraping or scraping, renaming.
But then again I don't think I will be doing a lot scraping once everything is setup, so a 2 step solution is not bad after all.

EctoOne

@FlyingTomahawk
OH right, I forgot that you have to edit the xml files as well if you rename the files. I probably purged the memory from my brain about all the work I had with my setup. :D

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk that's really odd. I didn't have a problem scraping videos, but I don't think I used that exact profile (I have lots of them scattered around my hard drive in various states of completion).

I'll hopefully get a chance to have a look at it tomorrow.

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk okay, I just had a quick look and this is what it should scrape:

<image>gamename-screenshot.jpg</image>
<marquee>gamename-mix-video.png</marquee>
<video>gamename-video.mp4</video>

Are you maybe getting confused about the MIX image being called "-mix-video.png"?

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

hmm...nope not confused....I think.
I had the video files as png format and when I renamed them to mp4 all was good.
I am fiddling for 3 hours now and at the same time cleaning out my roms since I try to reduce it to max 50 roms per system. Let's be honest no one really needs 700+ roms per system, there is no way to play all the games anyway. That will reduce my work with this video stuff significantly.
So I might have a burnout at the moment and lost a bit overview and concentration.

EctoOne

@FlyingTomahawk
Tell me about it. I probably spend a whole week just to get perfect Metadata. At the very beginning I've made the decision to use the standard 3 img mix, but I changed it to use 2D boxart. So I was able to simply create/fix images if they had missing elements or none at all (for Romhacks). Then go through the created xml with the Metadata Editor to check if everything is set correctly. It was such a tedious task, I won't even imagine to do that with complete romsets.

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk okay, that's really strange and I have no idea why that's happening. I'll have to do some testing.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

Yesterday before I called it a day I reverted everything. I deleted the UXMLS files and downloaded a fresh package from github.
Now I don't know what is going on but I have the following issues now.

1.)
No matter if I choose RetroPie mix profile or regular RetroPie when I scrape now and select create new XML file as option it scrapes 3 images.
Marquee, video.png and screenshot.
Looking at the XML file there I have the right paths but at the end many empty </game> tags.

)
If I select "update XML file" in the options he doesn't scrape anything. 0/0 roms.

3.)
Previously I could download only videos or only images without creating an XML file by selecting "create image only" in the options.
When I do that and I select video it creates the videos in png format and also the regular screenshot images.

I have no idea why this all is happening. I mean I deleted everything from my PC, restarted it, downloaded a fresh, new UXMLS package from github. Still it won't go back to normal.
I will take another look at it today but this is getting annoying.

FlyingTomahawk

So back at it again...new day, new luck?

Can someone please give the following a try and tell me what they get?

Load RatroPie MIX [Rom folder]

Select Standard (2img)

Settings in General options

Create New XML file

Picture configuration

default

Options configuration

Item Choice

Marquee

Paramater to change

Wheels

What files do you get and what file extensions do you see in the game list?

Load RatroPie MIX [Rom folder]

Select Standard (2img)

Settings in General options

Create New XML file

Picture configuration

default

Options configuration

Item Choice

Video

Paramater to change

Yes

What files do you get and what file extensions do you see in the game list?

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk hmm, very strange. Do things scrape correctly if you just use the built-in profiles? The latest version of UXS is v6, so if you're still having problems with that one, you could try v5 or v4. I don't think I'll have a chance to do any testing today (niece's b'day then mate's going away party), but I'll hopefully have a chance tomorrow.