.xml or .ini for FE and emulator configuration?

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Draco1962
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#1 .xml or .ini for FE and emulator configuration?

Post by Draco1962 »

The title of this thread is my question - Will you leverage .xml or .ini for FE and emulator configurations?

While most .ini are really basic .xml in disguise, I find that I appreciate true .xml schemas. There are times that I prefer to use a "setup wizard" to make changes, but others where digging into the .xml via Notepad++ feels more natural and easier to make needed "find and replace" changes.

That said, will OGZ also sport a Setup Wizard lije many popular FEs?

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stigzler
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#2 Re: .xml or .ini for FE and emulator configuration?

Post by stigzler »

@Draco1962 Hey, Mike. So one of OGZ's core design ethics is to move away from editing files directly and make all operations possible from a single, unified wysiwyg GUI. All setups are also contained in a single database file, which means that setups can be made across a whole home network (imagine different machines in your house set up to launch common romsets and assets). 

I chose to mirror a well tried and tested GUI design in mirroring Visual Studio. This makes a "properties editor" central to all operations and once the concept is understood, it's very intuitive. The basic idea is that everything is an "object" and all objects have properties. For example, you have Systems, which all have properties (name, year, manufacturer etc) and also Emulators (boot parameters, rom extensions, version etc). 

OGZ will also provide downloads for each emulator and an auto-setup of what bios files are required (obvs, OGZ won't supply these due to copyright, but it will have the facility to import user made bios sets to provide and automatically move the bios to the right location for the emulator). 

Basically, it should be a one click shot where possible. Here's a screenie to give you an idea:

EmuSetupEg1.png

Now, the other addition is that of "emulator setups." This deals with emulators that can emulate more that one system (e.g. retroarch) or having a specific emualtor setup for specific game (e.g. PCSX2 with a unique command line). It uses and idea called "cores" which allows you to have different setups for different cores. E.g. Retroarch for Playstation and Retroarch for SNES. Pic below:

EmuSetupEg2.png

As for individual emulator setups that will remain with the user to do directly with the emulator itself. That just makes the most sense at the moment as all online guides will be from that perspective. But, as aforementioned, OGZ is aiming wherever possible to be a one click setup, although that won't be possible in every user case due to the inevitable hardware differences that can occur between user machines. 

Hope all's well.

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