New GB version coming... feature requests, anyone?

[K.C.]

If you specify a Edit_CLP command in a Gemus script, you have an OK and a Cancel button.
OK should launch the game and Cancel should return to the frontend without launching the game, but the Cancel button also starts the game.

This was by design - the Cancel button just cancels/reverts any edits to the command line. So basically if you type some changes, then change your mind, you press cancel to run the game with the original un-edited command line. Perhaps there should also be an "abort script" button on there.

OK, clear. Thanks for pointing that out. Thought that OK and Cancel did the same, but that's not true.

The control type Light Pen is parsed incorrectly by GEMUS.
If you set the control type to Light Pen for a certain game, you can not test it.

Looking at the source, it seems its looking for "LightPen" (case sensitive), so I don't *think* it's a bug. I suppose I could change the source to make case-insensitive comparisons though - I don't think that'd screw up any existing GEMUS scripts.

Could be, but the Auto syntax check changes LightPen automatically to Lightpen.
So you need to correct that in either the GEMUS script language, or in the syntax check routines.
However, after changing Lightpen to LightPen with notepad, the script above still returns Something else. So a lightpen cannot be activated in the launched emulator using the standard GEMUS script function. In my opinion, making GEMUS commands and functions case insensitive will be the best option for this.

(BTW the sidebar looks great!)

[.mad.]

Strange window size.

When you dont have any screenshots selected.
and are ONLY using the "no_picture320x200.gif"

settings are as follows

Code: Select all

[UI]
FullSizePictureWidthPixels=320
FullSizePictureHeightPixels=200
SmallPictureWidthPixels=160
SmallPictureHeightPixels=100
ZoomedWidthPixels=640
ZoomedPictureHeightPixels=400

the No Picture only displays a 320x294 window.


however if you stretch the main window
enough to show 2 screens.
the correct 320x200 window size is shown.

also if you add just one picture to any game in the GameBase
it also corrects itself.

[arthur_gill@hotmaIl.com]

does this mean the dos gamebase is actually happening??
based on the screenshot is seems so.
I would love to have a decent dos gamebase for those classics (commander keen, jazz jackrabbit etc.)
????

[Jimbo]

Just looking at the relative paths thing and came across this code in the global GetPathInfo() function: -

Code: Select all

'convert relative path to absolute
If Mid$(.strRealPath, 2, 1) <> ":" Then
    .strRealPath = g_strAppPathWithBackslash & .strRealPath
    iLen = Len(.strRealPath)
    'let filesystem convert relative path to qualified directory name (remove "..\", etc.)
    If g_xobjFunc.DirExists(.strRealPath) = True Then
        .strRealPath = CurDir()
    End If
End If

If whoever added this code could explain it to me that would be great To me it looks like if the path exists then its changing it to the current directory, which seems wrong to me - or maybe I am misinterpreting it and there is a perfectly valid reason. Either way it would be good to clear up the confusion as I want the GBGame folder to follow the same logic as this (i.e. allow it to be a relative path).

Thanks

[K.C.]

This code was added by Brataccas.
See this topic for more information about the updates.
Maybe you could PM him for an explanation.
All I can say is that this code works.
Suppose,

• Gamebase is installed in C:\Gamebase
• There is a collection named oldsystem
• In the oldsystem folder, there is a folder structure emulators\emu1
• In the emulator.ini fole, there is an entry EmulatorPathFile=oldsystem\emulators\emu1\program.exe

When I view in the emulator settings, I see the emulator path C:\Gamebase\oldsystem\emulators\emu1\program.exe
When I click OK, the Emulator.ini is actually changed to this absolute path.
When I click Cancel, the relative paths remains unchanged.

[Jimbo]

aaah its ok I figured it out. the DirExists function changes the current directory to it's passed-in parameter in order to check if it exists, so the CurDir() function works.

[Jimbo]

Right I think I pretty much got 7-Zip support done - for extracting anyway, rezipping still to do.

As a side effect, GEMUS now also supports most of the formats supported by 7-Zip (including RAR and ISO files). It's also now able to extract archives whilst keeping folder structures intact.

Hopefully a new beta soon.

[.mad.]

hubba hubba.

that's the news i was waiting for.
the DOS games really need that unzip to folders function.

and using 7zip to merge all the versions of the same game
will cut the size down by about a third.

i think i love you!

[hardmanm]

Any chance of adding the ability to add a programmers pic, like you can with muscians

[K.C.]

When writing a GEMUS script for DOSBox, I encountered a few issues with the GEMUS script language:

• It would be handy if I could use GEMUS environment variables in key=value pairs.
  For example: if I press F2 and type

  Code: Select all

  command=-c "mount %gamepath%\diskette -floppy"

  I would like to see it parsed as

  Code: Select all

  command=-c "mount C:\GBGame\Rezip\diskette -floppy"

• A small typo in the GEMUS documentation: under Script Environment Variables Reference a variable %gamefilepath% is listed. This should be %gamepathfile%.
• Mentioned earlier: it is not possible to check from GEMUS for Lightgun support. You replied that this had to do with upper/lower case characters.
  Can this be fixed in the official release?
  (Maybe there could be a difference between lightgun and light gun also?)

[Jimbo]

Any chance of adding the ability to add a programmers pic, like you can with muscians

Not in this version, but maybe a candidate for v1.4

It would be handy if I could use GEMUS environment variables in key=value pairs

Good idea, I'll implement that!

A small typo in the GEMUS documentation: under Script Environment Variables Reference a variable %gamefilepath% is listed. This should be %gamepathfile%.

Good spot, docs will be fixed.

Mentioned earlier: it is not possible to check from GEMUS for Lightgun support. You replied that this had to do with upper/lower case characters.

I spotted a typo in the code which I've corrected. Hopefully this has fixed the issue.

Strange window size. When you dont have any screenshots selected.
and are ONLY using the "no_picture320x200.gif", the No Picture only displays a 320x294 window.

What do you mean by 'only using the "no_picture320x200.gif"'?

----

I want to start wrapping up v1.3 now, so any more big feature requests will probably not make this version. I've just a few things left to do then a new beta should be ready. Another new feature that's made it into the new version is an "Import Personal Info" tool: you can now import favourites/rating/difficulty/timesplayed/date last played, etc from another GB database. This means for example when a new GB64 collection comes out, you can keep all your personal info fields and game favourites, instead of them just getting wiped. It's based on Game ID, so it just copies the data from the old db to the current db, where the Game ID matches.

[.mad.]

What do you mean by 'only using the "no_picture320x200.gif"'?

if you create a GIF picture 320x200
called "no_picture320x200.gif"
and put it in the GFX folder.

and don't have any screen shots assingned for any games.
this picture will show for every game without a screen shot.

[ldaneels]

Fantastic job ! I can't begin to express how glad I am that you started work on Gamebase again. The changes you have made so far are a vast improvement & make Gamebase a lot more flexible. I had been looking into other database programs for GamebaseCPC, but there is no need to change now

Here are some suggestions that I believe were not mentioned:

- I think that adding the ability to resize every selection window would be great (like the screenshot selector window). Since I use the full name of the game for Game, Music, Extras,.... that would make things easier for games with long names.

- A sub title for the games would be nice. Some games have a main title and a secondary sub title (Yogi bear & Friends in the Greed Monster / A Treasure Hunt)

- A review rating field to aggregate review scores from magazines in addition to the rating field in the personal tab.

- Possibility to have multiple control types in the games tab. A lot of games can be controlled using a variety of input devices.

- Possibility to have multiple programmers / musicians / graphic artist. That would allow to filter by unique artists instead of just one big clump of artists.

- Ability to rename the fields without messing around the INI files.

- Modernize the look when you have nothing more to do

Aside from that, I have a small question about Gamebase. I use the GEMUS to modify a field (Autotype=) in the CPCE emulator INI. Is there a way to reset the value of Autotype to nothing (no value, symbol,...) ? If not, I would greatly appreciate if you added a way to do it.

Many thanks for your work & I hope you will continue to improve gamebase.

Loïc

[K.C.]

[Feature request shooting mode on]

Request: Global key=value pairs!

There should be a key=value pairs window in the <GBName> Options screen.
In this window you could type a list of key=value pairs that are set default for all games that are started, except pairs with the same name that are specified for a game.

Example:
In the Global Key=Value Pairs screen are the following settings defined:

• fullscreen=false
  setting1=abc

And for a game, this is specified:

• fullscreen=true
  setting2=123

Then the game is launched with this settings:

• fullscreen=true
  setting1=abc
  setting2=123

When the GEMUS script checks is the game needs to run fullscreen, none of the games will run in that mode, except the ones where fullscreen=true is specified.

If you change fullscreen to true in the Global Key=Value pairs, all games will start fullscreen, except the ones where fullscreen=false is specified.

So Global Key=Value pairs can change the default behaviour of the emulator, without touching the GEMUS script.

Hope I explained it a bit clear.

[/Feature request shooting mode off]

[K.C.]

And another feature request!

The Verify Available Files checks if all needed files can be found and generates a text file with all files it needs, but are not found at the locations where they need to be.

Can this be expanded with an option to look for redundant files?
In a collection there could be too many game images, screenshots, or extras that are not accessed from any database entry.
They can be removed to keep the directories clean, but there isn't an easy way to find them.