I have always used “Manual Scan” with a DAT file to identify my arcade roms but of late, this seems to miss a lot of boxart in my collection. Having run “Scan Directory”, this now seems to identify the roms name (not 8 character name) as well as matching the boxart more. Is this now the preferred method of scanning?
Not exactly. The boxart file needs to have the same name (sans extension) as the playlist entry. Hence, if your dat rom name is different from the boxart name you have, then you’ll need to modify either one of them.
When you use scan directory, you’re using RetroArch’s internal database, which may be more updated than your current dat. If that’s solving your issue, then it’s just a matter of grabbing a more up-to-date dat here: https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/tree/master/dats
Probably a placebo effect due to half your collection not being recognized and not being added to the playlist. Manual scan is the recommended method and always will.
I’m pretty sure the DAT was very recent and I would have downloaded from the link mentioned (thanks). Previously, very few roms would not have been identified and I would have done what you mentioned but to have so many not recognized, seemed very strange. Although the directory scan did take ALOT longer to complete it did recognize the full names (which I don’t remember it doing before).
Tbh, my collection is very small anyway and I’m sure most were recognized before. If manual is preferred, then I will continue this way. At times, there have been issues with the server pulling the boxart down, so maybe this is the issue but I’m going to start by clearing my thumbnails folder and rescan (manual) and see what happens.
EDIT: Thinking about it, would placing in multiple sub folders affect the scanning, as previously all the roms were at the same level (ie. arcade) whereas now they are in the manufacturer, hardware folders (ie. sega, system 16).
I’ve just done a test of 40 roms and when using a manual scan with the latest dat only 9 boxarts are displayed. When scanning directory is used, 39 are detected which is what I would expect. Is the dat file at fault?
EDIT: Have done another test (different roms) and roughly 95% have been detected. This also proves that the dat file is ok, so not sure what is going on here. I suppose I will need to check each rom against it’s boxart name next.
Oh, do you mean that you don’t have the boxart yet and are trying to download it from the thumbnail downloader? Or do you already have the boxart, but it’s just not being displayed?
No, it’s your fault.
You must have the latest dats, and the latest romset compatible with that dats. The best thing to do is to check it with a roms manager.
If you do a manual scan and they do not appear, it is because they are not the same or you are not doing the scan well.
What you can’t do is to have the latest FBNeo, a “recent” dats and a romset from who knows when.
I don’t have the boxart yet but it seemed to download ok on my first test using directory scan, not manual scan. Yet, on my second test (different roms) worked ok with manual scan. Thumbnails folder deleted during each test.
EDIT: Not sure if this makes any difference, but the thumbnails are downloaded per game, not via a full scan, although I would expect both to point to the same location.
I have the latest dat and the romsets are a mixture (new and old). What I don’t understand is why the directory scan works as expected (displays full name and 99% boxart). Shouldn’t the % be similar with the manual scan?
The scanner database is two years old at this point:
https://github.com/libretro/libretro-database/blob/master/rdb/FBNeo%20-%20Arcade%20Games.rdb
The thumbnail names likely haven’t been updated either. So with a manual scan with a much newer database (with updated game titles) the thumbnails won’t match.
I see. The thumbnail downloader looks for a file that has the exact same name than your playlist entry. That means: if your dat names the rom even slightly different from what the thumbnails repository expects, then it won’t download the boxart. In that case, it’s better to externally get the desired image and name it just like your dat does. It’s more troublesome, but I do it myself with many games which don’t have a match with the thumbnail downloader.
Although the scanner database is 2 years old, it is more compatible with my romsets. I think what has changed over time is the dat file. I’m not saying that the dat file is bad (being kept up to date) but this is creating more work for me (having to download the matching boxart manually). I suppose what needs to happen is that the boxart source needs to update their names to match the dat. This is a tough one but I suppose I need to update the box art to match and then hope the dat doesn’t change much over time.
Yes, this is what I tend to do with my consoles but the arcade roms always seemed to match more.
Thanks guys for all your help and suggestions with this.
Could you share the list ? It doesn’t seem normal for the manual scan to only find 9 boxarts out of 40 romsets (most likely popular ones).
Having compaired my romset to the boxart that is expected, I can see that this mostly affects European roms. Where my roms are appearing as “Name… (Europe…)”, the boxart appears as “Name… (Euro…)” so at least this is going to be a find and replace job.
Yes! As you have been told several times, the romset changes, if you change a letter in the name, the thumbnail does not work anymore. That is why you have to update it.
I do not believe the romsets have changed though as they used to work before. This is also the case when scanning directories as they pull down the correct thumbnails. To me, it looks like the DAT file has changed and is identifying these roms as Europe now instead of Euro.
MAME changed all “Euro” into “Europe” some time ago, so we did the same for consistency.
The manual scan gives the correct names, but the thumbnails in the repo are outdated.
I’ll try to update the thumbnails repo in the near future.
