Regarding image/metadata displays in RetroPie

[Used2BeRX]

Hey everybody. I'm not sure how many of you have noticed this issue before. If you just put all of your roms for a system in the roms folder it isn't an issue. It only becomes an issue if you have sub-folders for a system.

When you first enter a system from the main menu, the image of the first game or folder is displayed properly, along with the metadata.

The problem occurs when you have files nested in sub-folders. When you enter a folder, the first game or folder inside is blank (no picture or metadata displays). Only by moving down one and moving back can you display it.

There is also some other strange behavior that occurs like the date and other data fields do not display their own information when you back out of a folder and instead display the data of the last game you had highlighted before backing out of a folder.

I have only used the default Carbon and the Carbon No-Metadata skins. I assume this is a skin issue and something is loading out of order.

The reason I have these split in different folders is because my collections have Official Licensed games as well as a lot of prototypes/hacks/translations and other games that I don't want mixed up with the official releases.

Thanks

[AlexMurphy]

@Used2BeRX It doesn't appear to be a skin issue as far as I can tell. I don't use Carbon or MetaData and I notice the same. I've just put it down to a minor bug and moved on. Doesn't annoy me as I only have 1 sub-folder that I use. I could see it becoming an annoyance if you use a lot of sub-folders. Just wanted to say I don't think it's the skin, more likely a bug in ES.

[Used2BeRX]

@AlexMurphy Thanks for the reply. At least I know it wasn't just me.

This is a pretty big issue for me because I use a lot of sub-folders for nearly every emu. It probably doesn't bother most people all that much but I'm pretty OCD about things working perfectly. Hopefully somebody with knowledge of the code can figure out whether it's the skin or not and can rectify it.

[madmodder123]

This also happens with metapixel, i have my !translations! Folder and in that folder I added a blank game entry at the top so when u scroll down it reads the info of the first listed game. (if the space wasnt there you would have to go down and then back up to read it)
Also folders dont display all the same info as games, which is lame because i have to enter the folder and press up or down to read more information about the game.

[Used2BeRX]

@madmodder123 How do you make a "blank game entry" at the top of the list? It's not a perfect solution, but if we can't get anybody to fix this it's better than nothing.

About the folders not displaying all of the same info as games, you might want to try editing the XML file so that the folder information is wrapped in <game></game> instead of <folder></folder>. I manually set the folders like this before I attempted to use a scraper and it worked. When you use a scraper it "fixes" this for you. It's worth a shot trying that and seeing if it fixes your problem.

[madmodder123]

@Used2BeRX
I just add an empty file named " .cue" (psx example) and add a blank gamelist entry.
I will also check out your suggestion for folders, a quick question, with the method you are using the folders look the same as a game entry?

[Used2BeRX]

@madmodder123 So the systems I've been using are zipped, so I could add an empty file named ".zip" and add a blank gamelist entry and that should work?

The folders did look the same as the gamelists, but when the scraper changed them I didn't change them back. I might do that now after talking to you. For the folders in my setup I just put a picture of the game console and a description of the console in the metadata.

[madmodder123]

@Used2BeRX
Sure, use whatever file type is appropriate and make an empty file.
I add this to the top of my gamelist:
<game>
<path>./!_translations/ .cue</path>
<name />
<desc />
<image />
<rating>0</rating>
<releasedate />
<developer />
<publisher />
<genre />
<players />
</game>

[LorThe3rd]

Using the Character Map .eg ▼would be nice!

[AlexMurphy]

@LorThe3rd That looks good. Or put something like * B to go back * or Press B to return to main gamelist or anything that suits your taste.

[Used2BeRX]

@AlexMurphy Yeah guys. Actually, short of a legitimate fix for this issue, those are both great ideas :)

[madmodder123]

@AlexMurphy @LorThe3rd

Great ideas guys

[AlexMurphy]

@madmodder123

This is mine, because you need to to have samples for certain games. BTW, I'm just testing if non-alpha characters work...

[Used2BeRX]

@AlexMurphy Sweet man. You mind posting how you're making those characters show up? My knowledge of ASCII type code faded away with all my substance abuse over the years :)

BTW... did you try switching the <folder> tags to <game> tags yet? I was wondering if that worked out for you.

EDIT: Also.... do you think there is a way we could tweak this so the placeholder isn't "launchable". I don't know how it would behave in other emulators, but when I press on the entry for "[PRESS "B" TO RETURN TO PREVIOUS FOLDER]", it will launch the last game played in 5200. I was wondering if there was a way where it would do nothing if you were to accidentally press A on this entry.

[AlexMurphy]

@Used2BeRX Copy and paste, man. Just google them and copy pasta. Some work, others don't.

[Used2BeRX]

@AlexMurphy Good point.

I've got a few people I know that are going to start working on Pi Skins. They've made some of the most amazing skins I've ever used on another platform, so I have some high hopes with what they can do on the RetroPie. I've made them aware of this issue and I hope they have a good solution for it. Even if it's a problem with emulation station itself they might be able to make a workaround for it.

They come from the other project that I worked on years ago and are aware of all of the extra content we collected over the years. I've also got high hopes that they're going to be able to create skins that would be able to easily make use of all of the stuff we collected.

[AlexMurphy]

@Used2BeRX Cool. Get them to share them on here, if they want. The more the merrier.

[Used2BeRX]

@AlexMurphy Yeah, I'm not sure if any of them are signed up here or if they're doing the stuff on their own. They wanted me to join up in their project, but they have different end goals than I do so we're doing our own thing. I'm really looking forward to their skins when then begin work on them.

They're good guys. I'm sure that even if they don't join up around here that they're going to share their work to anyone who wants it.

[madmodder123]

@Used2BeRX I just ended up editing the .cue files and the file names so I could put all the games in their respective root rom folders, it works great!

[Used2BeRX]

@madmodder123 Yeah. That would work for CD games.

My problem is that my collections have licensed games as well as all sorts of prototypes, hacks, translations and others, so I don't want all of them just lumped into one folder per emu.