Hacking Rominator for NDS

[IBNobody]

I finally had the chance to play around with the latest build.

It's better than it used to be, but it still has a few rough edges. I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

(I'm running Windows XP.)

Here are the problems (not bugs) that I found:

1. Window minimization is handled poorly. (Is this RealBasic's fault?) If you minimize the main window, the only way to get it back open is to right-click on the taskbar icon and select "Restore". Furthermore, the Toolbox is set to "always on top" and remains open when the main window is minized.

2. The Toolbox window does it not auto-dock with the main window. It also doesn't move with it. (See above for the minimization problem, too...)

3. Handling of non-database ROMs is much improved over the last time I tried it, but there's room for improvement. Icons are still an issue. Are you still reading them on-the-fly, or are you caching them in your DB? How are you planning on handling icons for zipped ROMs?

Here are some suggestions I had for you:

1. Have the Toolbox auto-dock with the main window. Better yet, add in a snap feature. (During a reposition event on the Toolbox window, check the XY coordinates of the main window. If the newly repositioned Toolbox window is within 10-20 units of an edge of the main window, adjust its position so that it snaps adjacent to the main window.)

2. Continue with the idea of using the splitter control for the Details window.

3. CTRL-T and CTRL-D should close the Toolbox or Details windows regardless of which Rominator window is active. (Hit CTRL-D twice to see what I mean. You'd expect the Details window to close.)

4. The main window should auto-reposition itself on start-up so that the Details window is fully on-screen.

 

[hankchill]

1. Window minimization is handled poorly. (Is this RealBasic's fault?) If you minimize the main window, the only way to get it back open is to right-click on the taskbar icon and select "Restore". Furthermore, the Toolbox is set to "always on top" and remains open when the main window is minized.

This is realbasic's fault, and I have been trying to find ways around it... Still no luck, but I found that the reason why it won't come back up is because of floating windows.

2. The Toolbox window does it not auto-dock with the main window. It also doesn't move with it. (See above for the minimization problem, too...)

Yeah I made the toolbox kinda separate from the main window... I can have it move with the main one not a problem.

3. Handling of non-database ROMs is much improved over the last time I tried it, but there's room for improvement. Icons are still an issue. Are you still reading them on-the-fly, or are you caching them in your DB? How are you planning on handling icons for zipped ROMs?

I'm doing a little bit of tweaking on the icon handling, basically it stores the game icons in ram on initial startup and goes from there, making for a speedy Rominator, however the bug with 5.0.1 that'll be corrected in 5.0.2 is that it re-caches whenever you load a game list -- Not good

I will have it cache once, and if it finds any more icons that don't exist in the cache, just append it instead of recaching the current icon index. That'll make it run much faster.

However, there will be an option available for the end user: Turn on/off Icon Caching. With it ON, there will be about a 5 second startup time, but after that it's smooth sailing. If it is OFF, startup will be instantaneous, but there will be lag when scrolling in lists and resizing the main window (this is because icons are being read on the fly)

What I was *thinking* was to store the icon in the Library database and just cache it from there... it'll exponentially decrease load times, as well as I can handle Zipped Games icons this way when identified. Currently Zip game icons are not handled, and just displayed with a Zip Icon (since the icon can't really be read without it being decompressed, and then I would need to store it.)

Here are some suggestions I had for you:

1. Have the Toolbox auto-dock with the main window. Better yet, add in a snap feature. (During a reposition event on the Toolbox window, check the XY coordinates of the main window. If the newly repositioned Toolbox window is within 10-20 units of an edge of the main window, adjust its position so that it snaps adjacent to the main window.)

Done.

2. Continue with the idea of using the splitter control for the Details window.

I've been working on this last night -- Loads of stuff to adjust for adding in this meddling feature

No biggie though, I figured out how to fix an issue I was running into with it in a dream

3. CTRL-T and CTRL-D should close the Toolbox or Details windows regardless of which Rominator window is active. (Hit CTRL-D twice to see what I mean. You'd expect the Details window to close.)

This is a Windows problem for mishandling floating windows. On my Mac, it doesn't treat a floating window as a separate entity, it treats it as a... well... floating window

Therefore it still believes that the Main Window is at front. Windows however will think that the floating window at front is the important one upon spawning it. What I can do as a fix is to enable the menubar when a floating window opens.

4. The main window should auto-reposition itself on start-up so that the Details window is fully on-screen.

Won't really be necessary as the WindowSplitter will be in place

 

[halljames]

I am still getting an error when I use the Rom Queue to flash to my R4. It comes up with an error every time.

I am still using Rominator to organise and rename my roms, but am using R4 Rom trimmer to trim them and then windows explorer to copy them over.

 

[hankchill]

I am still getting an error when I use the Rom Queue to flash to my R4. It comes up with an error every time.

I am still using Rominator to organise and rename my roms, but am using R4 Rom trimmer to trim them and then windows explorer to copy them over.

Buddy, you've mentioned it 3 times now (twice in the forum, once through the suggestions feature), it's already being worked on! Will be fixed for v5.0.2.

It's not the end of the world that this doesn't work for you; it'll be fixed.

Another alternative you can do is in Rominator just drag your games over to your flash card. If you have trimming active then it'll auto-trim when it's flashed; queue is only necessary when you...well...want to queue up games to flash

 

[halljames]

Sorry Hank, but as no one replied to my post, I thought maybe it had been missed. I am a very patient man, just letting you know.

Great piece of software by the way (crawl crawl)

By the way, i was also getting an error when dragging the games to the flash card as well

 

[IBNobody]

What I was *thinking* was to store the icon in the Library database and just cache it from there... it'll exponentially decrease load times, as well as I can handle Zipped Games icons this way when identified. Currently Zip game icons are not handled, and just displayed with a Zip Icon (since the icon can't really be read without it being decompressed, and then I would need to store it.)

Put everything in the DB and pull from there. Otherwise, I'll be staring at a bunch of zip icons and will have trouble finding what I want.

What I'd also suggest is that you allow users to create a DB that exists in parallel to your official database. That would allow us to add an icon to a file not currently in the official database. This would let us Iconize files that weren't in the latest database update.

The rationale behind this is that people run into unlisted ROMs frequently. They're waiting on a new release, and they immediately want to copy it to their flashcart.

Yes, homebrew sometimes contains garbage icons. But you can always prompt the user if they want to add the icon to the custom DB.

QUOTE(hankchill @ Oct 25 2007, 03:02 AM)This is a Windows problem for mishandling floating windows. On my Mac, it doesn't treat a floating window as a separate entity, it treats it as a... well... floating window

Therefore it still believes that the Main Window is at front. Windows however will think that the floating window at front is the important one upon spawning it. What I can do as a fix is to enable the menubar when a floating window opens.

Add the Saves window (CTRL-S) to the list, too.

I'm not sure how that would fix things for us windows users. Wouldn't that make things more funky?

Can you install callbacks into these floating windows that call the hide/show routine?

---

Other suggestions/questions:

1. On ROM renaming, you can add the country code by adding in %c. The defaults are (U), (E), and (J). You can also do substitution. What's the order that Rominator processes the renaming? If I add in a "Replace (U) with (US)" rule, will the final name contain (U) or (US)?

2. You've hot-keyed the find, tools, details, and save windows. You should also hot-key the options/settings. CTRL-O?

3. You need to remember which windows were opened or closed when Rominator closes.

 

[Juli1000]

Can you add .zip/.rar Support? Would be great

 

[hankchill]

Put everything in the DB and pull from there. Otherwise, I'll be staring at a bunch of zip icons and will have trouble finding what I want.

I'll think about it... feeling a little sick today so we'll see what happens.

What I'd also suggest is that you allow users to create a DB that exists in parallel to your official database. That would allow us to add an icon to a file not currently in the official database. This would let us Iconize files that weren't in the latest database update.

The database would be created automatically if it were parallel... heck, it wouldn't really be "parallel", it would just be an icon database that would be contain the icons to load into RAM, but only contain data for *your* entries in the library.

The rationale behind this is that people run into unlisted ROMs frequently. They're waiting on a new release, and they immediately want to copy it to their flashcart.

It doesn't matter if the game is in the database or not -- they can still transfer it through Rominator. Only thing they can't do is auto-renaming.

Yes, homebrew sometimes contains garbage icons. But you can always prompt the user if they want to add the icon to the custom DB.

We'll see... It'll take some reworking, I'll worry about getting these other features fixed and out the door before I go revising large chunks of code. Rominator was not made for Homebrew, so I am skeptical about supporting homebrew...

Add the Saves window (CTRL-S) to the list, too.

I'm not sure how that would fix things for us windows users. Wouldn't that make things more funky?

Can you install callbacks into these floating windows that call the hide/show routine?

Saves is a given -- It's a floater too

Why would it make anything funky? All I'd be doing is allowing menu actions from a floating window? Nothing more.

Other suggestions/questions:

1. On ROM renaming, you can add the country code by adding in %c. The defaults are (U), (E), and (J). You can also do substitution. What's the order that Rominator processes the renaming? If I add in a "Replace (U) with (US)" rule, will the final name contain (U) or (US)?

If you add in a string replacement for (U) to (US), yes, it will convert ANY (U)'s in the name to (US). It does the string replacement AFTER it has retrieved it's database name. Wouldn't make much sense to do string replacements beforehand

After the replacements, that's when it gives the file the proper name.

2. You've hot-keyed the find, tools, details, and save windows. You should also hot-key the options/settings. CTRL-O?

We'll see

3. You need to remember which windows were opened or closed when Rominator closes.

I really didn't see it as necessary, and if it is, then the only window I should have it remember is the Save Window, as details will be embedded back into our main window, and the Toolbox is as easily accessed as pretting Ctrl+T.

As I said, I'm feeling pretty sick today so we'll see what happens... I'm at work right now, so during my lunch I'll see what I can do. I've just got a massive sinus headache and feel really dizzy, so no guarantees on having an update available today.

I appreciate all your feedback though, it's really helpful as I enjoy improving Rominator for all of you guys

--Henry

 

[PieOPah]

Can you add .zip/.rar Support? Would be greatÂ

Read the thread.....

 

[IBNobody]

There's no hurry for anything other than Zip support. But even for that, we can give you a few sick-days.

The homebrew comment threw you off. What I meant by it was that I knew in the past you were reluctant to suck in icons for non-database ROMs because someone could have a homebrew app mixed in with their ROMs. I'd try to suck in the ROM icon anyway, but I don't use homebrew.


Also... I didn't realize you could add menu access to sub windows. That's pretty much the same thing I was suggesting.

- N

 

[IBNobody]

Can you add .zip/.rar Support? Would be greatÂ

I doubt you'll see RAR support. Right now, the only RAR Realbasic apps are Win32 only.

http://www.aaronballman.com/programming/REALbasic/UnRAR.php

 

[cheatah]

hmm quick question..

I tried to extract some of my roms that were compressed by Rominator with the linux rzip tool from http://rzip.samba.org/ but doesn't seem to work. They decompress fine with the osx/win32 rzip extractors that were posted.

Are they different incompatible rzip implementations?

 

[hankchill]

hmm quick question..

I tried to extract some of my roms that were compressed by Rominator with the linux rzip tool from http://rzip.samba.org/ but doesn't seem to work. They decompress fine with the osx/win32 rzip extractors that were posted.

Are they different incompatible rzip implementations?

rZip stands for Rominator Zip -- It is a compression format solely for Rominator, as it has data only Rominator understands... Yes, there is another rzip format out there, but doesn't seem like it's very famous, but the two musn't be confused

Download the Windows rZipper and use WiNE.

--Henry

 

[Maupi]

Hi Hank,

First of all, thanx for an amazing job! The program is great! It's fast, simple and does everything I could dream of it doing...
I've got 1 little issue: on my mac, the update function seems to be a bit weird. It keeps telling me that I should update to v5.01 while the about window tells me I allready have this version. No big deal, but I thought you should know...

Keep up the good work!

 

[nicman000]

I can't see any of my games in the game list.

Or the ones on my R4.

Here's what I did:

I opened Rominator it told me to name my games directory. So I got all the nds files out of their folders and put them in a folder called "Final" this is where I told Rominator to look for games.

I put in my micro-sd card and named the drive in which it was and then finished setup I can't see any opf the games in my library.

Any help appreciated

 

[hankchill]

I can't see any of my games in the game list.Â

 Or the ones on my R4.

Here's what I did:

I opened Rominator it told me to name my games directory. So I got all the nds files out of their folders and put them in a folder called "Final" this is where I told Rominator to look for games.

I put in my micro-sd card and named the drive in which it was and then finished setup I can't see any opf the games in my library.

Any help appreciatedÂ

Press Refresh button. Done.

 

[daveteee]

Hi Hank,

First of all, thanx for an amazing job! The program is great! It's fast, simple and does everything I could dream of it doing...
I've got 1 little issue: on my mac, the update function seems to be a bit weird. It keeps telling me that I should update to v5.01 while the about window tells me I allready have this version. No big deal, but I thought you should know...

Keep up the good work!

I also have this same issue with the update function on the mac version, not a big deal but just to let you know.

Good job though on this whole program, thanks.

 

[hankchill]

It's already been mentioned multiple times that it's a known bug, and will be fixed for the next revision. No worries.

 

[IBNobody]

Hank,

You should be able to use the zstream class in e-CryptIt to partially unzip files.

So... If you wanted to, you could partially unzip a ROM and read its header/icon information.

- N

 

[GuardianHX]

I'm getting some sort of visual problems with the program.
It looks nothing like the screenshot... Every thing's just a plain, grey window.

The icons show up as a weird, "Nintendo DS" icon, and doesn't show the game's actual pic, and so on.
I'm using XP, so I think it'd appear properly. :/