Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper

muldjord

@sammyboy Yes, you can creates something very similar to that, please read the documentation. Simple mode is, as per the notice when running it, only meant for first time scrapings. For second time scrapings, if you wish to change the output folder for media, use 'Skyscraper -p [platform] -o [folder name] -s localdb'. Check all available command line flags with 'Skyscraper --help'.

SammyBoy

@muldjord Thank you for your reply.

AnalogHero

@SammyBoy With the artwork.xml muldjord posted for me, you can create a similar result.

SammyBoy

@analoghero what would you need to edit in artwork.xml file to get the cover to get it down a bit more? - so it looks like this https://goo.gl/images/psZJoR
I don't care if it's a box (I would rather it isn't) and I'm presuming for the wheel all you need is to add the layer resource and output type.
Thank you for reading my long message.

muldjord

@sammyboy I appreciate your interest in Skyscraper but please read the documentation. What you want is explained right here for 'x' and 'y' attributes. I know it's easier to just ask, but pretty much everything is already documented. If you feel the documentation is missing something, let me know.

SammyBoy

@muldjord I'm sorry I've been asking many questions but the truth is I should have read the wiki first. But thanks to your help I'm pretty positive that the scrapings will turn out good. Thanks for all your help and I'll keep the any unnecessary questions out the way.

muldjord

@sammyboy I don't mind questions if it helps develop the documentation. And I can understand if it seems daunting to get into how Skyscraper works. So if you find something in the documentation that needs further explaining please let me know.

SammyBoy

@muldjord OK I've got it.

AnalogHero

@muldjord @SammyBoy Forgot to mention that there is an error in the artwork.xml. One ">" is missing after "layer"

SammyBoy

@muldjord can you also add ports in the next skyscraper release. As well as this can you give me an estimated time of the next skyscraper release? Thanks

muldjord

@sammyboy Ports won't be supported for the time being. Next release is imminent. :) Check the next post

muldjord

Removed for clarity. Check next release post 2 posts further down.

SammyBoy

@muldjord Can you implement ports for the next update and do I need to delete the old skyscraper files in order to update to 2.2.5? As well as this could I manually allow ports to be scraped if I added ports to the platform.pp file and compiled skyscraper?

muldjord

Skyscraper 2.2.5 released: https://github.com/muldjord/skyscraper

Improved artwork 'shadow' effect. Now renders correctly on artwork with transparency
Added '(uncached)' to terminal output for media types that user has disabled for caching
Now always uses existing cached resources when scraping with any scraping module. Use '--updatedb' to force a refresh
Improved 'artwork.xml' parser to better handle xml syntax problems
Improved '--cleandb' so it always resaves the db after a cleaning run
Updated 'simple mode' to also include questions about '--forcefilename' and '--updatedb'
Now always converts images to 16bit externally. Still uses 32bit internally
Added 'pc' and 'ports' platforms

Happy scraping! :)

muldjord

@sammyboy Please re-download 2.2.5 (delete your files, and follow the instructions from the beginning again). I have now included 'ports' as you requested. :)

SammyBoy

@muldjord Thank you so much

SammyBoy

@muldjord is there an ETA for skyscraper version 2.2.6 and do you know anything about how retropie themes work? (please see artbook theme thread if you do)

chipsnblip

@sammyboy said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

@muldjord is there an ETA for skyscraper version 2.2.6 and do you know anything about how retropie themes work? (please see artbook theme thread if you do)

can you give the guy a break? geez. you have basically hijacked this thread and turned it into your own personal support thread. you can subscribe to the commit feed on github for updates, but can you please refrain from spamming this thread anymore?

SammyBoy

@chipsnblip ok I'll stop spamming stuff on this thread because I know that he works hard on this stuff. And @muldjord sorry for being so annoying.

aphyx

@muldjord First of all, love what you’re doing with Skyscraper. It’s a cracking scraper – fast, efficient, and the Simple mode works very well. Keep up the good work!

I have a question which I’ve not been able to find the answer to after much searching and experimenting:

The gamelist.xml file produced by Skyscraper is populating the <image> node with screenshots, whereas my theme (Art book) requires the boxart / cover to populate the <image> node (it ignores the <cover> node entirely). I’m keen to keep all the image types in the db, so don’t want to simply copy / replace the covers onto the screenshots, and try and I may I cannot get the artwork.xml to produce the required <image> node. The other scrapers I use put the boxart / cover in the <image> node, but I’m keen to use Skyscraper as my default from now on.

I’m assuming that the nodes and their scraped content are hard-coded by Skyscraper, but is there any way I can edit the config / src files to get it to populate the <image> node with the cover art? I tried editing the code in emulationstation.cpp to do just that but it doesn’t seem to have worked. Have I got a config setting wrong somewhere?

My workaround for now is a series of find / replace tasks in a text editor, but I’d love to be able to get this excellent scraper to output the perfect xml file for my theme.