Boxart resolution general discussion

RetroArch General
#1

Hello All,

I want to start creating boxart DB for RetroArch but to be safe from possible inconsistency with developers plan I need to ask some questions:

  • What max dimension of image should be. Obviously that different system has different cover design. As an example Genesis has a book orientation but SNES has album orientation. And that should be in mind and somehow managed by UI
  • Are there any plans to use several covers for a single title? Like front cover, back cover, cartridge cover (other media), screen from a game itself etc.
  • Do you have a plane to add title description like plot, genre, rating system etc
  • What about different releases of the same game? I mean like for Genesis and Mega Drive. Often they have different coved design.
  • Is naming boxart same as game name mandatory or you’re planning to change it in a future? Like add a CRC relation or else.
#2

Boxart name scheme definitely should be changed because it’s confused for the same games on different systems. For example: Earthworm Jim, Pitfall, Ultimate Mortal Kombat. They all share the same names across different systems (snes / genesis).

#3

I think they want to put boxart in sub folders eventually. Probably with names matching the playlist names. If that’s implemented, I think using the file name to match boxart would be better than using the description name. Since descriptions could theoretically have characters not supported by the file system.

#4

Yeah, definitely this will fix the issue and moreover reduce number of files in a boxart dir. Now the only thing I’m really curious is what picture resolution should be. Would be nice to hear it from someone official :wink:

#5

It’s not finalized yet, AFAIK. It’s still a preliminary feature, so don’t go too crazy investing a lot of time on something that’s subject to change.

And, yes, there will be access to all sorts of metadata and additional pictures (cart images, etc.).