[Feature Request] Match thumbnails to the file name of the ROM, not playlist entry

[derpyjoystick]

RetroArch downloads thumbnails (snapshots, titles and boxart), naming them after the playlist entry not the filename of the rom. For example, the MAME rom ninjaw.zip's thumbnails are called The Ninja Warriors (World, later version).png and not ninjaw.zip. Moreover, RA often downloads multiple copies, I assume as a fallback. For example:

The Ninja Warriors (World, later version).png
The Ninja Warriors.png

Since the filenames never change, RA should always default to the filename, especially with arcade cores where the filename is strictly controlled. Clones can be fuzzy matched the parent.

This would allow users to rename the roms without breaking the link between the assets as changing the name of a playlist entry breaks the link and requires either the assets to be manually renamed alongside the change or be downloaded again, creating multiple copies of the same image.

[dvessel]

This would be great for roms structured around MAME but terrible for consoles since it doesn’t have a forced naming convention. How about using a hash for the naming? It’d be a pain (but no impossible) if you had to manually work with the files but it would be consistent at least.

For consoles, take the rom hash in the database. For MAME, hash the short-form name itself, e.g…

echo rtype | sha1 -q
# 76ff2d21482422e691ccdf5ad90702ec2bde9450

This might be a terrible solution but how they are handled needs to work well for both conventions.

[dvessel]

Actually, RetroArch already has an option to use the file names for thumbnails but it’s disabled by default. Just remove the option and default to checking both. The extra work will be getting those downloads for MAME to use the file name instead of labels.

For consoles, it would automatically fall back to label names since RA can’t predict file names.

[i30817]

These requests all fail on the fact people requesting them aren't thinking of the thumbnails server that would need to be completely rehauled and the reason why the real name was chosen (hint, its to have real names in playlists). The thumbnails being named as they are is just a consequence of wanting "good" names. Having duplicates for the filenames wouldn't help because then there would be people complaining about ninja warriors being named "njw.zip" or something. In turn if they fix that, then they have thumbnails. Ergo, there isnt actually a need to use filenames to get thumbnails.

Its not just mame, several other sets games have unrepresentable/ugly filenames that get translated, even if they're here and there on the sets. Whdload for instance.

Leaving the files as they are and requesting a new manual scan mode that can use the RetroArch rdbs, which already have a mapping of filename+system to "real name" would be enough, along with some education for the the people using the manual scanner to point them to the right options in arcade scans in the docs/label of the scanning modes

Btw you can use the manual scanner and get the real names right now using a dat of mame or fbneo (exists in the github) on the manual scanner with the scan option "File Dat(strict)" (or whatever its called). You can get away with "File dat(loose)" for fbneo since it doesnt have bios on the same dir as the games. Loose adds files of allowed core extensions when you dont want that with bios.

My request #19103 proposes such a mode (and some others)

And this request proposes a way to get thumbnails on hacks (a vaguely related feature):

#19168

[i30817]

That request also has a link to a linux script to get the latest fbneo dat and some filtered versions of the latest mame xml only for the devices that can be emulated in emulators other than mame in RetroArch (I didnt bother to get a general arcade mame dat because I didnt care about it but its also possible, although its easier to find it in the internet than recode the script, although with AI its kind of easy too). The "arcade only" mame xml is like 10mb instead of the 310mb of the latest mame xml, although ofc you can also try to use the complete xml if you want I guess.

[dvessel]

I’ve been getting the names for mame roms through a script myself. The problem with mame is that nothing is static. The description or label can change over time, so the chances of getting a thumbnail downloaded decrease over time.

Even the file name can be switched up for a different region but that’s far more rare.

[i30817]

Desync problems will always exist without using the automatic scanner (for filename desyncs only), because mame is the source of the names and checksums.

As soon as you update to the latest mame set and use the MAME (no year) core youre rolling dice for if the thumbnails server updated all the names, not to mention the rdbs. But its not all that frequent for the old arcade set imo.

Thats quite normal, and happens with redump too (recently redump changed some psx (USA) games to (USA, Canada) because they finally noticed they were the same discs sold in both countries - in fact I kind of suspect they backed out because I would expect every game to be the same and only some were renamed - and thumbnails for those were still not updated/duplicated)

The thumbnails server for "MAME" only has a single dir for every mame core (which has different rdbs) so I'm sure the thumbnail renames and originals are just all stuffed into that dir. The thumbnails depend on users reporting defects like this, you can't "freeze the world" (using generic up-to-date mame core anyway the yearly cores names/filenames are frozen).

Its also not impossible to get the people maintaining thumbnails to delete if the names are especially horrid or the "base default set" changes. For instance Scummvm thumbnails removed some horrid "Game name {metadata}" names that probably came from grubby set when the core started using a internal playlist generator with the upstream names.

If you want it fixed, open issues or open prs.

[i30817]

Also mame/fbneo is kind of special because very few arcade games released with something that can be called a "cover" (mostly on arcade cabinets that used removable discs).

Most "covers" in the thumbnails are magazine merchandize ads or posters, or even fan art. But retroarch users see a lot of "missing" covers and think its a bug. Most of the time in mame when the screenshot/title thumbnail exists but not the cover, its because of this. This also happens often with noncommercial games even if they're on the originating sets, scummvm has many games missing because few people having anything like a complete scummvm collection, but also redump has dats for aftermarket roms that are full of missing covers.

I dread the day people start submitting AI covers to "fill the blanks".

[i30817]

This is the thumbnails repo, not the old one in the libretro organization that wasn't updated in 8 years, if you want to contribute

https://github.com/libretro-thumbnails/libretro-thumbnails

[dvessel]

I’ll take a look at it. I have a plenty of boxarts that I’ve added manually but they were ML upscaled then reduced to 1028px to clean it up. It’s automated through a watch folder, so it’s been applied to everything. Not sure they’d be acceptable.

[i30817]

Thumbnails in retroarch have to have a max of 512px width as source, iirc.

[derpyjoystick]

These requests all fail on the fact people requesting them aren't thinking of the thumbnails server that would need to be completely rehauled and the reason why the real name was chosen (hint, its to have real names in playlists). The thumbnails being named as they are is just a consequence of wanting "good" names. Having duplicates for the filenames wouldn't help because then there would be people complaining about ninja warriors being named "njw.zip" or something. In turn if they fix that, then they have thumbnails. Ergo, there isnt actually a need to use filenames to get thumbnails.

Its not just mame, several other sets games have unrepresentable/ugly filenames that get translated, even if they're here and there on the sets. Whdload for instance.

Leaving the files as they are and requesting a new manual scan mode that can use the RetroArch rdbs, which already have a mapping of filename+system to "real name" would be enough, along with some education for the the people using the manual scanner to point them to the right options in arcade scans in the docs/label of the scanning modes

Btw you can use the manual scanner and get the real names right now using a dat of mame or fbneo (exists in the github) on the manual scanner with the scan option "File Dat(strict)" (or whatever its called). You can get away with "File dat(loose)" for fbneo since it doesnt have bios on the same dir as the games. Loose adds files of allowed core extensions when you dont want that with bios.

My request #19103 proposes such a mode (and some others)

And this request proposes a way to get thumbnails on hacks (a vaguely related feature):

#19168

Mame file names are static. Mame is very strict about that. It sadly doesn’t apply to other rom sets like consoles, but both mame and fbneo strictly adhere to this rule and make up the lions share of games.

There won’t need to be a njw.png or Ninja Warriors (World).png or Ninjawarriors (World, new version).png, or any other variant, nor will you need to account for clones as they still need the parent rom. ninjaw.png would cover every rom that pertains to that game, with a single, immutable file name, regardless of what the game entry is called inside RA.

Pleasuredome provides a zip of all the art assets, file names all using the mame rom file and is maintained and updated regularly, source is now on github.

As for using the manual scan mode now, it does not work by file name, and I can see in real time as it pulls down the art that it cycles thru the name entry in RA, not the file name of the rom, often creating duplicates (as mentioned above). A dat file + manual scan is how I typically import my mame roms and it leads to the problems I mention in my original post.

If servers or other factors outside RA are an issue, then a simple addition of a new option to take the rom name from the actual rom (as it is listed in the file path provided by Information on a given rom entry in RA) seems like the simplest solution. Then there is no need to change servers or add complex workarounds. This would get the job done and work for all rom sets, not just arcades.

All RA has to do is grab the rom name and rename any art assets accordingly. It may be the case that your screenshot is called Super Ghouls and Ghosts.pmg and mine is called sgng.png because our SNES rom sets are named differently but they don’t need to be the same, just respectively called after our own file names. Having this script run locally means never having to worry about the server source either. It would just save users the time to always have to rename the art assets manually through a pretty basic script.

There is a huge hit when someone renames their game inside RA and has to redownload the art as a result, which is the current state of affairs.