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Advanced Emulator Launcher metadata and artwork data model

TODO

  • Describe the ListItem properties that define a Category, Launcher or ROM.

  • Describe the global properties Window(10000).

Categories

List of Virtual Categories

  • {ROM Collections}

  • [Browse by ...]

  • [Browse AEL Offline Scraper]

  • [Browse LaunchBox Offline Scraper]

  • Inside [Browse by ...], Browse ROMs by Title, Browse ROMs by Year, ...

Category metadata labels

  • Properties set by AEL when a Category or Virtual Category is selected.

  • setInfo() first argument is video.

Metadata name AEL name setInfo() setProperty() Infolabel Type
Title m_name title $INFO[ListItem.Label] string
Genre m_genre genre $INFO[ListItem.Genre] string
Plot m_plot plot $INFO[ListItem.Plot] string
Rating m_rating rating string from 0 to 10

Categories asset labels

  • Properties set by AEL when a Category or Virtual Category is selected.

  • thumb = DefaultFolder.png is the default for categories.

  • Trailer is an asset, however label is set with setInfo() instead of setArt().

Asset name AEL name setArt() setInfo() Infolabel
Icon s_icon icon $INFO[ListItem.Icon]
Fanart s_fanart fanart $INFO[ListItem.Fanart]
Banner s_banner banner $INFO[ListItem.Art(banner)]
Flyer s_flyer poster $INFO[ListItem.Art(poster)]
Clearlogo s_clearlogo clearlogo $INFO[ListItem.Art(clearlogo)]
Trailer s_trailer trailer $INFO[ListItem.trailer]
Extrafanart extrafanart extrafanart1 Not implemented yet
Extrafanart extrafanart extrafanart2 Not implemented yet

Launchers

List of Virtual Launchers

  • [Favourites]

  • [Recently played ROMs]

  • [Most played ROMs]

  • Inside {ROM Collections}, every collection is a Virtual Launcher.

  • Inside [Browse AEL Offline Scraper], every platform name is a Virtual Launcher.

  • Inside [Browse LaunchBox Offline Scraper], every platform name is a Virtual Launcher.

Launcher metadata labels

  • Properties set by AEL when a Launcher or Virtual Launcher is selected.

  • setInfo() first argument is video.

  • AEL platform uses an internal official list for the scrapers to work properly. Platform is never read from NFO files. Also, AEL platform is a Launcher property, not a ROM property.

  • Year and Rating are integers according to Kodi Pydocs. However, they are stored as string. If Year and Rating are not set they are the empty strings, which is different from integer 0. Kodi seems to handle this behaviour well.

Metadata name AEL name setInfo setProperty Type
Title m_name title string
Year m_year year string
Genre m_genre genre string
Plot m_plot plot string
Studio m_studio studio string
Rating m_rating rating string range 0 to 10
Trailer s_trailer trailer string
Platform platform platform string
overlay int range 0 to 8

Launchers asset labels

Asset name AEL name setArt label setInfo label
Thumb s_thumb thumb
Fanart s_fanart fanart
Banner s_banner banner
Flyer s_flyer poster
Trailer s_trailer trailer
Extrafanart extrafanart extrafanart1
Extrafanart extrafanart extrafanart2

  • thumb label is set to DefaultProgram.png or DefaultFolder.png.

  • Trailer is an asset, however label is set with setInfo() instead of setArt().

  • extrafanart is a Python list.

ROMs

ROMs metadata labels

Metadata name AEL name setInfo setProperty Type
Title m_name title string
Year m_year year string
Genre m_genre genre string
Plot m_plot plot string
Studio m_studio studio string
Rating m_rating rating string range 0 to 10
Trailer s_trailer trailer string
Platform platform platform string
overlay int range 0 to 8

  • setInfo first argument is video.

  • Platform is a launcher property, not a ROM property. Also, setProperty() is used instead of setInfo().

  • Year and Rating are integers according to Kodi Pydocs. However, they are stored as string. If Year and Rating are not set they are the empty strings, which is different from integer 0. Kodi seems to handle this behaviour well.

ROMs asset labels

Asset name AEL name setArt label setInfo label MAME mapping for MAME views
Title s_title title/thumb title
Snap s_snap snap snap
Fanart s_fanart fanart fanart
Banner s_banner banner marquee
Clearlogo s_clearlogo clearlogo clearlogo
Boxfront s_boxfront boxfront cabinet
Boxback s_boxback boxback cpanel
Cartridge s_cartridge cartridge pcb
Flyer s_flyer poster flyer
Map s_map map
Manual s_manual manual
Trailer s_trailer trailer trailer
Extrafanart extrafanart extrafanart1 extrafanart
Extrafanart extrafanart extrafanart2 extrafanart

  • thumb label is set to DefaultProgram.png.

  • For Confluence/Estuary, user will be able to configure what artwork will be set as thumb and fanart.

  • Trailer is an asset, however label is set with setInfo() instead of setArt()

  • extrafanart is a Python list.

Launchers/Categories artwork supported by plugins

Plugin Thumb Fanart Banner Poster Trailer
AL YES YES NO NO NO
AEL YES YES YES YES YES
HL YES YES YES YES ???
IARL ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Console ROMs asset availability

Artwork site Title Snap Fanart Banner Boxfront Boxback Cartridge Flyer Map Manual Trailer
EmuMovies YES YES NO NO YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
HyperSpin Media NO NO <1> YES YES NO YES <1> <1> NO NO
No-Intro YES NO NO NO YES YES YES NO NO YES NO
Retroarch YES YES NO NO YES NO NO NO NO NO NO
TheGamesDB <2> <2> YES YES YES YES NO NO NO NO YouTube
GameFAQs <2> <2> NO NO YES YES NO NO NO NO NO
MobyGames <2> <2> NO NO YES YES YES NO NO NO NO
GiantBomb <3> <3> <3> <3> YES <3> <3> NO NO NO YouTube

  • Banner is a horizontal image with name of ROM/system. It is called Wheel in Hyperspin and Logo in HL.

    Also, HL has both Logo/Wheel and Banner in separated directories. I do not know the difference between them.

    No idea about what is HL Clearart.

  • Flyer is a vertical image. It is called Poster in HL.

  • EmuMovies/HyperSpin Media provide 2D and 3D version of Boxfront and Cartridges.

  • <1> In the HyperSpin forum you can find per-game/per-system themes that have Fanart and Banner. However, in many cases assets are inside SWF files and difficult to use outside HyperSpin.

  • <2> TheGamesDB/GameFAQs/MobyGames do not differentiate between Title/Snap. They just have screenshots.

  • GameFAQs have gamebox Spine, which can be considered a kind of Banner.

  • <3> GiantBomb has quite a lot of artwork. However, everything is mixed (Title, Snaps, Fanart, all showing on the same page) and makes it difficult to scrape. Boxfront is easy to scrape from GiantBomb.

  • RetroPie and Emulation Station users have nice No-Intro artwork collections including Title, Snap and Boxfront.

AEL artwork policy

  • One artwork directory will be required for every ROM launcher. User will be asked for one Artwork directory and AEL will create subdirectories inside automatically.

  • To deal with Confluence (default) skin, user will be able to choose which artwork to display as thumb/fanart. For example: thumb -> Boxfront, fanart -> Fanart.

  • No more separated thumb/fanart scrapers. Thumb/fanart scrapers will be unified into artwork scrapers. Artwork scrapers will download all possible Artwork depending on site availabililty.

ROM artwork storage

  1. Asset directory may be the same as the ROMs directory.
ROMs directory         ~/ROMs/SNES/Super Mario World (Europe).zip
Artwork directory      ~/Artwork/SNES/
Created automatically  ~/Artwork/SNES/titles/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/snaps/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/fanarts/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/banners/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/boxfronts/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/boxbacks/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/cartridges/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/flyers/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/maps/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/manuals/Super Mario World (Europe).pdf
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/trailers/Super Mario World (Europe).mpeg
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/extrafanart/Super Mario World (Europe)/fanart1.png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/extrafanart/Super Mario World (Europe)/fanart2.png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/extrafanart/Super Mario World (Europe)/fanart3.png

Launcher/Category artwork storage

  1. Category name SEGA. Each category will have a subdirectory with same name to store extrafanart.

  2. Launcher name SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced). Each launcher will have a subdirectory to store extrafanart.

Artwork directory  ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/SEGA/fanart1.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/SEGA/fanart2.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/SEGA/fanart3.png

Artwork directory  ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced)/fanart1.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced)/fanart2.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced)/fanart3.png

Importing AL stuff into AEL

  • AL thumb will be imported as title.

  • AL fanart will be imported as fanart.

  • User will have to reorganise artwork directories to take full advantage of AEL capabilities after importing AL launchers.xml.

Font used: Agency FB