iGame v2 - A well known Amiga game launcher ( New Build! )

[Dwarfboysim]

Hi all,
I have downloaded and installed iGame 2.4 and have it running and it has successfully used the igame.dat files to populate the .CSV file. I also have the igame.iff files in each game folder but igame will not display the picture. I just get a very tiny square with nothing in it. By tiny I mean .5cm by .5cm roughly.

What else do I need to set to get the igame.iff files to display.

Thanks,
Dwarfboysim

[mfilos]

Do you have GuiGfx installed?
Have you checked going into Settings and disabled the GuiGfx support and restart iGame?

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by mfilos

If you use Retroplay's WHDLoad Pack then you can use mrv2k's fantastic compilation that has all images along with igame.data for every game/demo etc.
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=106096

I already use the Retroplay pack, albeit haven't run the update in a while.

I also have the older images from mrv2k too, I just understand how I get this all to work with iGame 2.4.

As an experiment I copied over the mrv2k .data files for games beginning with the letter Z. So each game directory for Z games has it's .data file in the drawer. But in iGame no extra information shows up for these games even if I run the scan on repositories again.

[vulture]

snapshot it like any other mui window

[walkero]

@EctoOne
I am sorry I didn't reply earlier. Currently, the igame.data does not support multiple games/demos in the same folder. This is a new feature and still in early stages. I preferred to keep it as simple as possible now. I have an idea on how this can be done so as to support multiple games in the same folder with one igame.data file. But this is low in priority for now.

Also, those kind of games are not 100% tested, because they need some extra changes to be supported. As much as I know on a big collection the percentage of this kind of game is pretty low. I will add the ones you mentioned in a list of games to test and fine tune the feature.

@storm
Can you please open an issue at https://github.com/MrZammler/iGame/issues with a description on what is not working and how I can reproduce it? So as I can work on that situation and fix it.

@StevenJGore
I guess you are using MUI 3.8, right? I would suggest to go to the envarc:MUI and delete the igame prefs files. This might fix the list size since it will get the default ones. Unfortunately, MUI 3.8 has limited ability to save this kind of things. The latest version of MUI behaves much better on that.

[walkero]

Originally Posted by Dwarfboysim

Hi all,
I have downloaded and installed iGame 2.4 and have it running and it has successfully used the igame.dat files to populate the .CSV file. I also have the igame.iff files in each game folder but igame will not display the picture. I just get a very tiny square with nothing in it. By tiny I mean .5cm by .5cm roughly.

This sounds like the .iff images are not used and tries to load the NewIcon images that are not supported.
The .iff images might not be used because of a datatypes issue. Try to open one of them in multiview and see if it shows up. If not check if you have PNG and JPG datatypes installed in your system.


The NewIcon images are the icons those games are using. Depending on the version of the AmigaOS you are using it needs either to install it from aminet or enable the support in Workbench prefs application.

[walkero]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

As an experiment I copied over the mrv2k .data files for games beginning with the letter Z. So each game directory for Z games has it's .data file in the drawer. But in iGame no extra information shows up for these games even if I run the scan on repositories again.

Try to delete the gameslist.csv and rescan the repository.


Right now iGame doesn't support to update an existing gameslist with extra data. This is something that I have in my todo list. You see, the gameslist changes a lot with the new versions and a new rescan is mandatory now that the igame.data files are used.

[walkero]

Originally Posted by vulture

snapshot it like any other mui window

Unfortunately, if the MUI 3.8 is used the balance size is not saved because that version doesn't do that. So the only solution is to delete the prefs files from envarc. But For the window size I believe you are right that this is the way to do it.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by walkero

Try to delete the gameslist.csv and rescan the repository.


Right now iGame doesn't support to update an existing gameslist with extra data. This is something that I have in my todo list. You see, the gameslist changes a lot with the new versions and a new rescan is mandatory now that the igame.data files are used.

I had done that. Unless it regenerated. Let me check.

[StevenJGore]

Originally Posted by vulture

snapshot it like any other mui window

As the youngsters of TikTok would say, "I was today years old" when I found out individual MUI windows could be snapshotted by adding the snapshot gadget to the window title bar. Seriously, how could I not know this from over 30 years with an Amiga?

[mfilos]

Originally Posted by StevenJGore

As the youngsters of TikTok would say, "I was today years old" when I found out individual MUI windows could be snapshotted by adding the snapshot gadget to the window title bar. Seriously, how could I not know this from over 30 years with an Amiga?

For a system dead for 40 years, it's fascinated to learn new stuff every day
Btw, anything snapshoted (or altered in it's config - being different from the default MUI config) is saved under ENVARC:MUI/
Just in case you want to backup or delete the .prefs file of any particular app. For example delete the config if you want it to look as default

[crazyc]

I have just upgraded my lowest spec a1200 from aos 3.2 to 3.2.2.1, and alongside this have refreshed my games archive to the latest retroplay packs including mrv2ks stuff. Now its an a1200 with a b1230mk4 running an 8gb cf card, so its not a base level machine, but the lag on loading the games list on 2.4 is an issue for me. I have two repositories and around 3,100 games included. From clicking the icon to being able to view my full.games list (it opens to favourites first) is around 30 seconds. Using 2.2 (i think) set to the same repositories is about 10 seconds. Is this an issue with my setup or is this the normal difference and the price of the new gameslist? I will try this on my faster a1200s when I get a chance. If it is then I think I will keep the trusty previous version on this machine at least.
Cheers

[CCRider]

Originally Posted by crazyc

I have just upgraded my lowest spec a1200 from aos 3.2 to 3.2.2.1, and alongside this have refreshed my games archive to the latest retroplay packs including mrv2ks stuff. Now its an a1200 with a b1230mk4 running an 8gb cf card, so its not a base level machine, but the lag on loading the games list on 2.4 is an issue for me. I have two repositories and around 3,100 games included. From clicking the icon to being able to view my full.games list (it opens to favourites first) is around 30 seconds. Using 2.2 (i think) set to the same repositories is about 10 seconds. Is this an issue with my setup or is this the normal difference and the price of the new gameslist? I will try this on my faster a1200s when I get a chance. If it is then I think I will keep the trusty previous version on this machine at least.
Cheers

It’s the normal behavior now.

The longer times are noticeable even on a 060.

[walkero]

@crazyc
Thank you so much for your message. This version introduces new features that probably need more time to complete against the more simple previous versions. This is also the first version which means that there might be areas for optimisation. In my opinion, the new features are really useful, which might justify the delay of a few seconds.

[crazyc]

Originally Posted by walkero

@crazyc
Thank you so much for your message. This version introduces new features that probably need more time to complete against the more simple previous versions. This is also the first version which means that there might be areas for optimisation. In my opinion, the new features are really useful, which might justify the delay of a few seconds.

I have loved and used igame for years and will continue to do so - perhaps I have been spoiled as my two main machines have both 060s and quick (7.8mb/s and 4.5mb/s) drive access and so it generally is only a few seconds delay - I am also not necessarily your target user so to speak and so am really grateful for all the work you do on this. I am sure further progress will be made as you say.
I will keep watching and testing new versions as they come out, and will see how big the delay is on my other machines, but on my B1230 wedge with its measly normal IDE access times the latest version takes just too long to pull up the games list etc, so I will stick with the previous Igame version. (I am trying to not go upgrade crazy on this machine and so dont expect any hardware improvements to it).

Once again I just want to stress that I was not trying to complain in any way, just making sure something on my system wasnt causing extra slowness.

Thanks for all your hard work

[walkero]

@crazyc

Once again I just want to stress that I was not trying to complain in any way, just making sure something on my system wasnt causing extra slowness.

Hey, I am not saying that you were complaining. Not at all. And I am sorry if I sounded defensive or if my post was harsh.

On the contrary. I am actually glad you sent that message, and please keep on sharing your experience with iGame. I will run more tests and see how can I make it faster.

My goal is to make it as usable as possible. I am listening to users' comments and requests, trying to fix as many problems as possible and introduce new features, so as to make iGame even better.

It is always hard to add new features with more data and keep everything super fast. Maybe the solution would be to give the users the option either to use them or not, by enabling them at the preferences window. The problem with that is that the code gets bigger, having multiple implementations for the same thing, and that makes it harder to maintain, which is something I would like to avoid.

But you are right. If the time of showing the list is tripled, then there might be something I missed and I could optimise.

Also, have in mind that in v2.3.0 there was the following change:

iGame window appears first and then the list is loaded from the file. This makes the application appear faster, giving feedback to the user

That means that in the older versions of iGame, the window showed up after the games list was loaded from the file into the memory. The problem with that is that the user didn't get anything on the screen and it was not obvious that the application was executed.
After v2.3.0 the window appears fast (depending on hardware resources) and then the list is loaded, giving information to the user at the status line at the bottom of the window.

I am not sure if that's the reason you feel that the newer versions of iGame are slower.
But I will definitely have a look if there are places to optimise.

And again, I am sorry if I was harsh in my previous message.

[crazyc]

Oh dont worry mate you weren't harsh, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't inadvertantly come over as critical - the joys of communications on an internet forum.

Yes I had noticed the change in behaviour, on my old igame the window shows up after around 10 seconds and the list within a second or two after that. On the new one I get the window after 3 seconds, but to then to load the favourites and then switch to show all and have the list appear is another 27 seconds or so. (all timings from memory from last night so not fully reliable, but roughly right)

[walkero]

@crazyc
Are you using MUI 3.8 or 5 on your system?

[crazyc]

3.8
I was underr the impression that anything higher was a bit too much for something like this spec a1200.

[walkero]

Cool, so as to know what is used.
It depends. I use MUI 5 on mine, but it is a pain to change its configuration in some parts. But overall works pretty well and has a few things missing from the 3.8.