What's merging anyway ? Some sets are so called 'parent' or 'clone' sets. They share some ROMs and it's possible to put these files in the same sets. That's merging. There are three kinds of storing sets:
Unmerging is the opposite of merging and it will create sets which aren't
merged. (Compare 'No Merging')
Merging can last from seconds to hours. That depends on the amount of files, the filesizes, your CPU, your
HD the zipcompressionlevel and the thread priority. It's possible to stop the process at any time.
Be warned: The backup option in the settings dialog doesn't work for merging ! Use (disable) the
CleanSet instead if you don't want to
lose any data.
Hint: in most case the Rebuilder is
the better choice.
The titlebar shows the current number of enabled games and the currently selected profile. For further information check out the settings dialog. Always be careful if the number doesn't match your selected number. The lower window is the warnings window. All warnings will be listed there. For the warnings-window popupmenu options, go and take a look in the scanner documentation.
You can select which Systems... you want to (un-)merge. Only active systems will be used.
With the following two options you set your wanted merge method.
Not Merged Sets
Enables the unmerge mode. Unmerged means that each set has ALL roms it needs. This is normally a waste of diskspace because even clone sets have the parentsets included.
Split Sets
Enables the split (merge) mode. Split-merged means that parent sets only have the parent roms and a clone sets consists of the clone roms only.
Merged Sets
This enables the (full) merge mode. Full merged sets are parentsets only, which also include all clone roms.
Now you can also specify what to do with the files and the old files.
Clean Set
Enable this option if you want to delete unneeded files in a gameset while doing a merge operation. Otherwise the files 'stay alive' and the ROMs are added to the archives.
Zip Files
Enable this option if the destination files should be zipped. The files will be zipped with the
compression level which is set in the settings dialog.
With the placement options you specify where the new merged roms will be put to.
Keep Original Position
If this option is enabled, ClrMamePro will store the merged set in the path of the parent set (full
merging) or in the path of the parent and clone set (split merging). Same for unmerging.
(Un)Merge Parents/Clones To
Here you can enter a folder name. Click the right button to browse for a folder. ClrMamePro will
(un-)merge the files in this folder.
And finally the one important button to start the unmerging or merging process.
(Un-)Merge
Starts the merging or unmerging process (depends on the chosen
mode).