I did a number of Google searches on this and wasn't able to come up with an answer, but found my own fix.

I like using the titles from the GameTDB because they're generally formatted better than the titles pulled from the file names -- particularly, colons are not allowed in file names, but many games have colons in the title. The workaround is to replace the colon with a dash, but it makes the name longer and doesn't look as good. For instance, change "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" to "Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 3". Not that this is a big deal, but it means that you need to name your files exactly what you want them to be in the games list, and the names don't look nice.

But then there is the "Okami" problem. The "O" in Okami in GameTDB is really an Ō (an O with a bar over the top). USB Loader GX doesn't know how to handle this funny version of "oh-bar" and so it puts "kami" last in the titles list.

The fix I found is to edit the GameTDB database file on the SD card.

On my card, the file is: D:\apps\usbloader_gx\wiitdb.xml

1) Open wiitdb.xml in Notepad (right click on the file, open with, choose Notepad)
2) Search for "kami (USA)" (choose edit / find in the notepad toolbar)
-------- note #1: Searching for "okami" doesn't find "Ōkami".
-------- note #2: There is an entry for "ookami" elsewhere in the database, so searching for "kami" by itself doesn't work nicely.
3) Copy "Ōkami" with the oh-bar
4) Replace all instances of "Ōkami" with "Okami" (choose edit / replace in the notepad toolbar)

Now save the file back to your SD card.

Now I played with this some more -- it is annoying to me when "like" games have different name formats -- There may be "007 Golden Eye" and "James Bond 007: From Russia with Love" -- so I did the same find / replace so that all the Bond games started with "James Bond 007". Likewise, I added "Star Wars:" to the beginning of the Star Wars Games.I haven't gotten through the "Rabbids," "Raving Rabbids," and "Rayman's Raving Rabbids" yet.

Disclaimer -- if you update the GameTDB database file, you'll need to re-implement your edits. I suggest saving a copy of the edited file as a backup on your PC in case it gets over-written.

I hope this helps other people with similar issues on naming!

take care,

Joe

 

[Cyan]

I'l move this to the guide section, it'll be more visible (there are less thread there, here it'll be lost quite fast)

 

[Arecaidian Fox]

Yeah, I did a "find and replace" on my XML file as well for this a good while ago. Not sure why the folks at GameTDB insist on doing this with Okami and other outliers. Sure, it's technically more correct, but it screws with the alphabetical order so badly. There's loads of little niggling things in there that just beg OCD users to edit it.

 

[Cyan]

because that's the real proper title!
USBLoaderGX can display the proper title, you just need to use a font with that letter.

the Wii system font doesn't have that letter.
you can tell USBLoaderGX to not use system font, and you'll see that it works properly. (it's in the settings > gui settings > system font : off)

also, don't expect it to be listed with the other O games, as in alphabetical/ASCII/UTF8 order the "Ō" is located after the Z, same as É is not with E but after Z too.

so it's not the fault of the database, it's not entirely the fault of the apps using the database (and remember that the database is not used ONLY by homebrew on wii), it's the fault of the font you are using. same way that the system font can't display korean or other UTF8 characters, and you need a korean font or one compatible with the character you want to display.
Ō is properly displayed on your computer because the font you use knows it's a O with a bar. if you use wingding font, you won't have a O with a bar anymore, even if it's still using your computer. it's not the computer's fault, nor the database. only the font you use!
Japanese game use Kana and kanji too. for example どうぶつの森+
it's not because you can't read it on your wii that the database should not use the proper name.

 

[Arecaidian Fox]

because that's the real proper title!
USBLoaderGX can display the proper title, you just need to use a font with that letter.

the Wii system font doesn't have that letter.
you can tell USBLoaderGX to not use system font, and you'll see that it works properly. (it's in the settings > gui settings > system font : off)

also, don't expect it to be listed with the other O games, as in alphabetical/ASCII/UTF8 order the "Ō" is located after the Z, same as É is not with E but after Z too.

so it's not the fault of the database, it's not entirely the fault of the apps using the database (and remember that the database is not used ONLY by homebrew on wii), it's the fault of the font you are using. same way that the system font can't display korean or other UTF8 characters, and you need a korean font or one compatible with the character you want to display.
Ō is properly displayed on your computer because the font you use knows it's a O with a bar. if you use wingding font, you won't have a O with a bar anymore, even if it's still using your computer. it's not the computer's fault, nor the database. only the font you use!
Japanese game use Kana and kanji too. for example どうぶつの森+
it's not because you can't read it on your wii that the database should not use the proper name.

I knew most of that already, but thank you. But it does make me wonder if a Wii-specific database file could have been something good to do back before most of this became more solidified. My point is that I find that editing the XML to give more granular control of the sorting than just the USBLGX settings alone.

 

[Cyan]

I suppose the loader could make check and replacement filters, which is why I said it's partially the fault of the loader.
this is what I thought do to (but never did yet) in order to list Ō with the other O games instead of at the bottom of the list. I could also rename it to prevent the need to change the font.
I don't know what other loaders are doing about that game's title.

 

[DrJoe]

Thanks for the added info. And OCD describes me to a "t" (the uncheritable might say "anal retentative")...

I'm not really knowledgeable enough to play with fonts, it is a little beyond my comfort zone. I think I did see a post somewhere where fonts were mentioned by you when I ran my Google search on Okami. Editing a text file is somewhat easier for me.

I was thinking that a csv editable titles file would be nice - I created an Excel file with all my games listed - and basically it seems to be how the xml dB file is being used. But I don't have a good xml handler program. The default on my laptop is Internet Explorer which basically crashes when I try to open the file. Notepad worked best of the simple editors.

I think it is nice to be able to edit the titles so that they are "right" within reason - the titles are as intended, but so that "Okami" shows up in the oh's, and you can flexibly have all the Bond games together also. Without extra work for the developer. This was a nice compromise.

And at this point, I don't think we need to worry about updating the xml file very often anymore.

Take care,

Joe

 

[Cyan]

I use notepad++ for all the file edition.
it has xml support, font highlight and collapsing group.
it has lot of plugin to support new format or features but by default it's already enough for most usage.

starts by doing View > collapse all blocks, then it's easier to look in the file
look for the game based on your titleID, then replace the "title" for the locale you are using in your loader. for example if you use French language in the loader :

<locale lang="FR">
<title>Ōkami</title> <--- you only need to replace this one

but even simpler :
load the xml file.
CTRL+H
fill the Search "Ōkami" and replace with "Okami".
press "replace all"
save the file.

 

[Larsenv]

I'm sending a message to the GameTDB admin to see if we should change the title

 

[zorglub07]

Cyan is right. I have nothing to add so I will do it anyway.

It's a matter of picking the more sensible between:
- changing the title in the database to one that is not accurate, and annoy people that want to keep the correct title and sorting
- leaving it as it is since it's quick to edit the XML for this game
- allowing users to set preferred titles for some games in the loader, by adding their own titles.txt file with the format ID = title
- adding an option in the loader named "Okami" or "Everyone is a diacritic"
- adding an option on GameTDB to get a special version of the XML with "Okami" by using wiitdb.zip&OKAMI=1

There aren't many new games for the Wii nowadays but everyone is welcome to improve the database. It was started as WiiTDB in 2009 and USB Loader GX was the first to support it. If you'd like to contribute to GameTDB there are links in the left menu to search for missing information and missing artwork.

 

[sfs76]

I didn't notice that USBLoader GX had its own font. My personal choice I think will be to "tell USBLoaderGX to not use system font". Of course, I will still have a tendancy to look for this game under the O letter, but it will be my error.

USBLoaderGX has so many options I still don't master/understand... Happy to have learned a new one.

 

[sfs76]

Well, it works with the USBLoaderGX font, but I find it notably less readable than the system font. So back to the system font, with the 'kami' game at the end of the list.

 

[Tosnic]

Nice Idea, but this does not work for me. The relevant wiitdb.xml is about 20-ish MB in size, right?
I replaced every instance of Ōkami with Okami, but the game still appears as kami at the end of the list.
Do I have to update the listing or something in USBLoaderGX?

As a side note, the different sorting options in USBLoaderGX are totally out of whack (especially the "number of players" order), except the alphabetical order.

 

[Arecaidian Fox]

Nice Idea, but this does not work for me. The relevant wiitdb.xml is about 20-ish MB in size, right?
I replaced every instance of Ōkami with Okami, but the game still appears as kami at the end of the list.
Do I have to update the listing or something in USBLoaderGX?

As a side note, the different sorting options in USBLoaderGX are totally out of whack (especially the "number of players" order), except the alphabetical order.

Go into USBLGX's settings screen, then select Features. Turn off "Cache Titles". That should make your edits immediately visible, unless I'm misremembering something

 

[Tosnic]

Go into USBLGX's settings screen, then select Features. Turn off "Cache Titles". That should make your edits immediately visiable, unless I'm misremembering something

Nope, that did nothing.

EDIT: It did work eventually. For some reason, my wiitdb.xml was automatically reverted back to "Ōkami", so I had to change it again, disable title cache and now it works. Thank you.
I could even re-enable title caching after that.

You may want to add this to your main guide.