Synctool Guide - Revision history

Butter100fly at 08:58, 19 October 2019

2019-10-19T08:58:14Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:58, 19 October 2019
Line 60:		Line 60:

	==What do I do if I want to cancel a download?==		==What do I do if I want to cancel a download?==
	It can be that your connection is so slow you give up trying to download an image, you can press ctrl+c to close the terminal session. If it still doesn't close fast enough you can click to close the command line window (~~whih~~ may not close the window straight away but will kick QuickPlay back to life		It can be that your connection is so slow you give up trying to download an image, you can press ctrl+c to close the terminal session. If it still doesn't close fast enough you can click to close the command line window (which may not close the window straight away but will kick QuickPlay back to life)

	==Known Issues==		==Known Issues==
	<ul>		<ul>
	<li>Currently displaying download progress is impossible, this is a technical limitation of the technology used. We do print the size of the file being downloaded, so if you're going to download big things, maybe do a speedtest from a website beforehand and that will give you an idea of how long things might take. The copy itself is the native OS ~~copy~~ of Windows, so its fast....		<li>Currently displaying download progress is impossible, this is a technical limitation of the technology used. We do print the size of the file being downloaded, so if you're going to download big things, maybe do a speedtest from a website beforehand, and that will give you an idea of how long things might take. The copy itself is the native OS Copy function of Windows, so its fast....

	<li>An interesting situation occurs when you want to right click and look at rom information. Since John never concieved of my idea of syncing roms between locations, he inspects zip files to give QuickPlay and you information about what's contained in them, some of it is ~~quit~~ important at the time too, ~~and its~~ availability in the right-~~clikc~~ menu is assumed ~~later~~ at running time. So regrettably synctool has to go fetch the rom before displaying the info. It can be fixed but for now just have a ~~string~~ desire to ~~get~~ the game before you right-click ;-)		<li>An interesting situation occurs when you want to right click and look at rom information. Since John never concieved of my idea of syncing roms between locations, he inspects zip files immediately to give QuickPlay and you information about what's contained in them (some of that information is quite important at the time too), so the availability of the archive in the right-click menu is assumed at running time. So regrettably, synctool has to go fetch the rom before displaying the info. In time this can be fixed, but for now just have a really strong desire to play the game before you right-click and ask for game information ;-)

	<li>Just as before, its quite hard to do a cleanup of the partially-downloaded file if it fails. If a download is interrupted, you can of course do a successful downlaod over the top of it. But if you can't do that, now when you right-click in QuickPlay and choose to 'explore ROM directory' you get taken straight to the partially-downloaded file, so you can delete it that ~~way if you want~~		<li>Just as before, its quite hard to do a cleanup of the partially-downloaded file if it fails. If a download is interrupted, you can of course do a successful downlaod over the top of it. But if you can't do that, now when you right-click in QuickPlay and choose to 'explore ROM directory', you get taken straight to the partially-downloaded file, so you can delete any partial downloads like that, just a couple of clicks...
	</ul>		</ul>

Butter100fly at 20:18, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T20:18:26Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:18, 13 October 2019
Line 18:		Line 18:

	==Right...so come on: who would want this?==		==Right...so come on: who would want this?==
	Well, interestingly there are some considerations here, I can see some people wondering why on earth they would want this, but other people wondering how they ever lived without this. here are some considerations to help ~~deide~~ if this is for you:		Well, interestingly there are some considerations here, I can see some people wondering why on earth they would want this, but other people wondering how they ever lived without this. here are some considerations to help decide if this is for you:
	<ol>		<ol>
	<li> '''Are you a collector?'''		<li> '''Are you a collector?'''
Line 35:		Line 35:

	==How can I use this?==		==How can I use this?==
	You'll need some way of having a remote set of games, and they need to be collected together in a single folder. Once you have that all you need to do is be able to map them on your machine somehow. You can use anything you like: Originally i tried to do a WebDAV proxying and caching thing, but i reckoned you'd have some other ideas, you might use VPN, or some kind of remote SMB, or SSH, FTP, SFTP. I like using ~~NetDrive~~ (not free!) to do the folder mapping for this type of storage, but there are many other ways. You just need to be able to map your remote games folder under a drive or folder on your 'laptop', and have a corresponding folder locally on the laptop where the games are going to go - so drive D:\Games is the remote and ~~its~~ going to sync to C:\Games, for instance.		You'll need some way of having a remote set of games, and they need to be collected together in a single folder. Once you have that all you need to do is be able to map them on your machine somehow. You can use anything you like: Originally i tried to do a WebDAV proxying and caching thing, but i reckoned you'd have some other ideas, you might use VPN, or some kind of remote SMB, or SSH, FTP, SFTP. I like using http://www.netdrive.net/ (not free!) to do the folder mapping for this type of storage, but there are many other ways. You just need to be able to map your remote games folder under a drive or folder on your 'laptop', and have a corresponding folder locally on the laptop where the games are going to go - so drive D:\Games is the remote, and any file under it QuickPlay gets asked to run is going to sync to C:\Games, for instance.

	==Understanding the settings file==		==Understanding the settings file==

Butter100fly at 20:00, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T20:00:01Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:00, 13 October 2019
Line 1:		Line 1:
	=Synctool Instructions=		=Synctool Instructions=

	[[File:~~synctool_options_menuitem~~.~~PNG~~]]		[[File:synctool_in_operation.png\|800px]]

	==What is this?==		==What is this?==
Line 14:		Line 14:

	Basically the big idea is this: If you got a new machine tomorrrow, by using Synctool you could have all your games playable just by getting QuickPlay and some emulators on the machine. If you got used to that way of doing things, then maybe you'd just always keep your games on the remote storage.		Basically the big idea is this: If you got a new machine tomorrrow, by using Synctool you could have all your games playable just by getting QuickPlay and some emulators on the machine. If you got used to that way of doing things, then maybe you'd just always keep your games on the remote storage.

			[[File:synctool_options_menuitem.PNG]]

	==Right...so come on: who would want this?==		==Right...so come on: who would want this?==
Line 78:		Line 80:

	Just run the same flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before		Just run the same flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before

			'''What if I didn't see what happened and my game hasn't run'''

			Look in the log file in quickplay's root:

			[[File:synctool_logs.png\|600px]]

Butter100fly at 19:29, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T19:29:06Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:29, 13 October 2019
Line 73:		Line 73:
	'''What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?''''		'''What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?''''

	I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally i'm trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this should warn you instead...		I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally we're trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this feature should warn you instead...

	'''Help - I didn't want to flip a load of romdatas but i just did?''''		'''Help - I didn't want to flip a load of romdatas but i just did?''''

	Just run the same flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before		Just run the same flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before

Butter100fly at 19:28, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T19:28:03Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:28, 13 October 2019
Line 71:		Line 71:
	==Tips==		==Tips==

	''What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?'''		'''What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?''''

	I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally i'm trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this should warn you instead...		I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally i'm trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this should warn you instead...

	''Help - I didn't want to flip a load of romdatas but i just did?'''		'''Help - I didn't want to flip a load of romdatas but i just did?''''

	Just run the same flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before		Just run the same flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before

Butter100fly at 19:27, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T19:27:34Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:27, 13 October 2019
Line 56:		Line 56:
	==Does this replace anything we already had?==		==Does this replace anything we already had?==
	Actually yes, for years the QuiikPlay CD/DVD Multiloader has supported something similar for CD/DVD games for particular Emulators of particular Systems. It worked via Symlinks effectively meaning 'i want to download this file from the server', and it put all its downloaded files in the root of C:/QPGame. One thing I found really unsatisfactory about this approach was the games ended up such that you didn't know what game was for what system. With this new functionality, the folder structure from the 'server' is always matinained, so you know what games you have from what system. And QuickPlay will tell you what games exist locally when you look at a Romdata. So now the QuickPlay Multiloader just deals with what it always should have done: unpacking images, working out how to mount them and passing them to Emulators.		Actually yes, for years the QuiikPlay CD/DVD Multiloader has supported something similar for CD/DVD games for particular Emulators of particular Systems. It worked via Symlinks effectively meaning 'i want to download this file from the server', and it put all its downloaded files in the root of C:/QPGame. One thing I found really unsatisfactory about this approach was the games ended up such that you didn't know what game was for what system. With this new functionality, the folder structure from the 'server' is always matinained, so you know what games you have from what system. And QuickPlay will tell you what games exist locally when you look at a Romdata. So now the QuickPlay Multiloader just deals with what it always should have done: unpacking images, working out how to mount them and passing them to Emulators.

			==What do I do if I want to cancel a download?==
			It can be that your connection is so slow you give up trying to download an image, you can press ctrl+c to close the terminal session. If it still doesn't close fast enough you can click to close the command line window (whih may not close the window straight away but will kick QuickPlay back to life

	==Known Issues==		==Known Issues==
Line 67:		Line 70:

	==Tips==		==Tips==
	What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?
			''What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?'''

	I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally i'm trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this should warn you instead...		I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally i'm trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this should warn you instead...

	Help - I didn't want to flip a load of romdatas but i just did?		''Help - I didn't want to flip a load of romdatas but i just did?'''
	Just run the ~~smae~~ flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before
			Just run the same flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before

Butter100fly at 19:23, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T19:23:42Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:23, 13 October 2019
Line 4:		Line 4:

	==What is this?==		==What is this?==
	Its a service that will take 2 folder locations: a 'remote' and a 'local', and any rom you ask quickplay to load from your 'local' will be compared against the remote - if its absent or different, it will get synced to the local path with the same folders created as existed on the remote - so if I have on my remote location: /sega games/sega saturn/panzer dragoon.zip, I will get /sega games/sega saturn/panzer dragoon.zip on the local location on my laptop. That's all it is. That's what it is...		Its a service that will take two folder locations: a 'remote' and a 'local', and any rom you ask quickplay to load from your 'local' will be compared against the remote - if its absent or different, it will get synced to the local path with the same folders created as existed on the remote - so if I have on my remote location: /sega games/sega saturn/panzer dragoon.zip, I will get /sega games/sega saturn/panzer dragoon.zip on the local location on my laptop. That's all it is. That's what it is...

	==So why would I want that?==		==So why would I want that?==

Butter100fly at 19:23, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T19:23:21Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:23, 13 October 2019
Line 12:		Line 12:

	Synctool works well if you sync your QuickPlay install via some method between your computers, I like https://freefilesync.org/ for this. Say I have both a home PC and a laptop: if I setup realtime sync from freefilesync to sync my QuickPlay (and emulators), then I turn Synctool on for the laptop, whatever games I add on either computer to a romdata in QuickPlay will be available to both, but on the laptop, the game will sync if its not in the local folder you've setup for your games		Synctool works well if you sync your QuickPlay install via some method between your computers, I like https://freefilesync.org/ for this. Say I have both a home PC and a laptop: if I setup realtime sync from freefilesync to sync my QuickPlay (and emulators), then I turn Synctool on for the laptop, whatever games I add on either computer to a romdata in QuickPlay will be available to both, but on the laptop, the game will sync if its not in the local folder you've setup for your games

			Basically the big idea is this: If you got a new machine tomorrrow, by using Synctool you could have all your games playable just by getting QuickPlay and some emulators on the machine. If you got used to that way of doing things, then maybe you'd just always keep your games on the remote storage.

	==Right...so come on: who would want this?==		==Right...so come on: who would want this?==
Line 45:		Line 47:
	[[File:synctool_flip_menuitem.PNG]]		[[File:synctool_flip_menuitem.PNG]]

	If you do start to use Synctool, you'll come across the situation where you setup some new games on some machine, probably against your remote location, and you want to make them local so that Synctool will work (and so that QuickPlay will show you which games Synctool has synced locally with ~~its~~ romdata missing ~~icons~~). You will want to 'flip' the filepaths in your romdata so that they change all 'remote' locations into 'local' ones		When you start to use Synctool, you'll come across the situation where you setup some new games on some machine, probably against your remote location, and you want to make them local so that Synctool will work (and so that QuickPlay will show you which games Synctool has synced locally (which you can see in a romdata file with the romdata missing icon against each romdata entry). You will want to 'flip' the filepaths in your romdata so that they change all 'remote' locations into 'local' ones. You might have setup something elaborate under one folder, so you might want a lot of paths suddenly made local (or remote). So you use this menu item.

			Select one of your folders in the sidebar in QuickPlay, and select this option, and in every romdata in that folder or any subfolders under that folder, paths will flip from all remote to all local or vice versa. So you can setup new games against the real roms at the remote location, but then switch the romdata to local, effectively 'engaging' synctool. Or you can stop trying to pull games down to your local machine by flipping paths from local to remote, then they will always stay on the NAS (for instance some romset you are bored of but want to keep for reference or something like that)

	==What if I run out of room in my destination folder?==		==What if I run out of room in my destination folder?==

Butter100fly at 15:02, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T15:02:44Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:02, 13 October 2019
Line 45:		Line 45:
	[[File:synctool_flip_menuitem.PNG]]		[[File:synctool_flip_menuitem.PNG]]

	If you do start to use Synctool, you'll come across the situation where you setup some new games on some machine, probably against your remote location, and you want to make them local		If you do start to use Synctool, you'll come across the situation where you setup some new games on some machine, probably against your remote location, and you want to make them local so that Synctool will work (and so that QuickPlay will show you which games Synctool has synced locally with its romdata missing icons). You will want to 'flip' the filepaths in your romdata so that they change all 'remote' locations into 'local' ones

	==What if I run out of room in my destination folder?==		==What if I run out of room in my destination folder?==
Line 65:		Line 65:
	What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?		What if my server gets corrupted somehow and the game is fine on my local pc?
	I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally i'm trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this should warn you instead...		I lied slightly above, there's one case in which the ROM will not sync even though the files are different, if the file is smaller on the server. You might have a valid reason for that situation, but generally i'm trying to catch just this situation where something's happened to the server copy and we might be about to wipe your good copy, this should warn you instead...

			Help - I didn't want to flip a load of romdatas but i just did?
			Just run the smae flip again and the filepaths will all be back to what they were before

Butter100fly at 14:58, 13 October 2019

2019-10-13T14:58:54Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:58, 13 October 2019
Line 43:		Line 43:
	==Understanding the Flip Filepaths menu item==		==Understanding the Flip Filepaths menu item==

	[[File:synctool_flip_menuitem.PNG~~\|800px~~]]		[[File:synctool_flip_menuitem.PNG]]

	If you do start to use Synctool, you'll come across the situation where you setup some new games on some machine, probably against your remote location, and you want to make them local		If you do start to use Synctool, you'll come across the situation where you setup some new games on some machine, probably against your remote location, and you want to make them local