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1

clrmame Discussion / .7.2 crashes?

« on: 31 July 2026, 09:59 »

There is some user feedback regarding the following things in .7.2:

- missing 7z.dll, well I was sure that I added an up2date dll in the package, it may be wrongly named or I accidently picked the wrong dll from the official 7z app. Either way this should be easily fixable for you by getting an up2date one and place it in the main folder

- windows 7: I have updated to the latest Visual Studio and it seems that updating the solution dropped Win7 support. I will check if an extra compile option/linkage/win sdk brings bsck the support but hey win7 is pretty outdated

- crashes when starting a scan. Ok this one is spooky since nothing scanner related was changed. What I do see is that c++ calls std:filesystem:absolut on an empty path (empty name, not sn existing empty folder) seems to throw an exception. Cant check it further at the moment but maye it helps if you specify an addpath/samplepath in case you have them empty.

If nothing helps you can still download .7.1 by guessing the download link.

I will be checking the stuff in around 10 days

2

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.7.2 released

« on: 23 July 2026, 16:13 »

2026-07-23 clrmame V0.7.2 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v072.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

Core:
- switched to Visual Studio 2026
- misc: instead of taking over all dependency roms for a machine, standalone mode now only takes the required ones
- misc: nonmerge mode, when resolving filters, only auto add devices and bios machines instead of all
- misc: updated bit7z to 4.1.0, updated 7z sdk/dll (26.02), lots of improvements and no need to keep my own fork anymore
- misc: updated pugixml to 1.16
- fixed: rar5 files can be skipped since they are falsely identified as "not first volume"

UI:
- fixed: reset threads to auto (instead using 1) when you switched to a new system with different hardware thread count

3

clrmame Discussion / Busy?!

« on: 12 June 2026, 08:34 »

I should work on the profiler, shouldn't I.......wait...something's blocking....

4

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.7.1 released

« on: 24 April 2026, 15:51 »

2026-04-28 clrmame V0.7.1 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v071.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

fixing johnIV's finding regarding fix-missing...thanks John!


2026-04-24 clrmame V0.7.1 released

Core:

- fixed: dir2dat: fixed broken 'archive as files' option
- fixed: cmdline, not always load/save settings.xml from application folder
- fixed: cmdline, when using relative paths, they are not always relative to the current directory (cmdline version) or application folder (ui version)
- misc: rewrote wrong named machines fixing. Clearer handling should also sort out all known rare edge cases which were fixed. Also it reports all found instances of wrong named machines (e.g. chd folder and archive)
- misc: updated ZipArchive to 5.0.1/zlib-ng 2.3.3 zip operations are way faster
- misc: updated cli11 to 2.6.2
- misc: updated bit7z to 4.0.11

UI:
- misc: changed the way the tree gets refreshed, maybe this solves the rare "no tree" refreshing issue

5

clrmame Discussion / End of month...where is a new release :-)

« on: 25 March 2026, 19:44 »

Well well well...you have to be a bit more patient, however it seems that some nice things happen:

- planning to change the way how wrong named machines are handled a bit which resolves some weird rare constellation problems plus reduces the needed code

- ZipArchive was updated to 5.0.0 which allows using zlib-ng instead zlib as basis for zip compression and some tests show some really great improvements. Just a quick rebuild with 'rezip' (3.20 gb of zip files,  unpack files individually to temp, recompress (deflate, best) to a new folder) takes around 10:48 minutes on the test hd based system...with zlib-ng as basis this shrinks to 04:47 minutes.....

So....there are some things going on.....

6

clrmame Discussion / Another visitor, stay a while....

« on: 04 March 2026, 20:34 »

Well...pretty busy with real life work at the moment, so not really much development on clrmame at the moment.
I've fixed some commandline based relative path issues and got 2 bugfinder's machine name fixing issues on the list.....plus some 3rdparty libs update...nothing really with high prio or breaking stuff...
Hopefully I find some time in the next weeks to switch to new Visual Studio, clean up code, etc...profiler....etc.....etc...open source...etc..etc...


While being busy I saw https://www.commodore.net/category/c64-ultimate and have to say...wow...I love what I see there.
Actually I followed the story behind it and all the stuff about buying the Commodore brand and was a bit sceptical in the past...but it looks so great. Anyone already using it?

Start of cheap begging

Just in case you are rich or you are a group of people and you say "hey, we used clrmame since decades and that old grumpy guy needs a part from his youth back", or you actually own Commodore now....
That basic beige one..I'd fall in love with....if you're in a donation mood, contact me ;-)

End of cheap begging

7

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.6.3

« on: 17 February 2026, 08:01 »

2026-02-17 clrmame V0.6.3 released

Thanks to Bugfinder and t23 for finding interesting things in the scanner and dir2dat....

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v063.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

Core:

- fixed: Scanner, unneeded files in "empty" machines aren't listed or fixed
- fixed: Scanner, only one file is renamed when a file within a machine needs to be renamed to more than one instance within that same machine
- fixed: Scanner, wrong named machines, which also have stand-in files for other sets, are put to backup and need a second scan to get back in
-fixed: Scanner, when a machine is renamed to more than one new instance and the instances don't use the same rom names, a second scan is needed so that all files get renamed
- added: Dir2Dat, archiveById option which enables collecting content of archives which aren't named like .7z/.zip/.rar. So e.g. content of .jar files will be added to the datfile

8

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.6.2

« on: 24 January 2026, 17:07 »

clrmame 0.6.2 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v062.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

Core:
fixed: calculating hashes on 7z archives with more than one file cause crash

9

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.6.1 released

« on: 15 January 2026, 20:53 »

clrmame 0.6.1 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v061.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

Core:
- added: non-merge mode
- added: dir2dat, optionally add md5 value to roms
- fixed: rebuilder, very rare case where a fully copied archive can prevent copying a single but shared rom from a different set (kof2k4se/kf10thep *.m1.bin)
- fixed: scanner, a scan (not new scan) isn't able to fix missing files from a different machine which shares the missing file and is fully ok (and so not included in the scan)
- fixed: scanner, when name check finds a wrong named machine archive and wrong named (chd) machine folder, it took one as unneeded instead both as wrong named
- fixed: dir2dat, remove extension cuts any extension. Aligned to cmpro now.
- misc:  reorganized hash getter to allow easier integration of any kind of hash algorithm
- misc:  update spdlog to 1.17.0

UI:
- added: non-merge mode selection for rebuilder/scanner
- added: dir2dat option to optionally add md5 values
- fixed: redraw issue when grabbing, leaving the dialog and release mousebutton

10

clrmame Discussion / Happy Holidays

« on: 22 December 2025, 07:20 »

So now that 2025 is nearly done I want to send out a big thank you to the users of clrmame and clrmamepro. Enjoy the holidays, merry xmas and have a great and healthy 2026.

So what happened since 0.6 and what's next?
Well, some devs followed my "being open for discussion" remark when talking about "standalone" versus "non merged" mode and convinced me that there are some cases - mainly for board dumpers - where a non merged mode would make sense. Since the new architecture of clrmame makes it pretty easy to add all kind of merge/whatever mode with just a few lines of code, I've added it. So with the next version, you will have split, full, standalone and non-merged.
I've also found and fixed a very rare rebuilder bug. There is a case where a full copy of an archive results in a skipped single (but shared) file later on.

So 2026...what's on the list? Well, as mentioned too many times before: The profiler. There is already basic functionality in there to add/remove/move datfiles around (and doing that pretty fast compared to old cmpro), but some final steps are still required. I'm also interested in supporting chdman to add delta chd and deep chd verification like cmpro does. A couple of minor things are also on my list.

So..let's see what the future brings....So long, and thanks for all the fish

11

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.6 released

« on: 04 December 2025, 07:37 »

clrmame 0.6 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v060.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

Core:
- added: dir2dat module
- added: compression level option to set compression level for 7z/zip(zstd). You can select "store", "fast", "normal", "best" (default)
- added: commandline version can use configurations from a toml or ini file
- misc: updated zipclass library with better compression level mapping for zstd (zstd/best is pretty slow by the way)
- misc: updated CLI11 to 2.6.1
- fixed: don't overwrite settings.xml when using cmdline and ui version
- fixed: fixing a special fixable-missing + existing-but-wrongly-named combination within a machine can lead to the same but inverted problem. Unfortunately no message was shown so that the user thinks the files are ok
- misc: greatly improved sha1 prefetcher for solid 7z files
- misc: disabled multi folder selection under WINE since it's causing issues there

UI:
- added: dir2dat module
- added: added compression level and compression method drop down in misc tab
- misc: moved threads/loglevel to new misc tab
- misc: rebuilder: removed zstd / rezip zstd compression options, instead use zip method drop down
- misc: scanner: removed auto detection of compression method, instead use zip method drop down

12

clrmame Discussion / clrmamepro 4.050

« on: 29 October 2025, 08:15 »

Believe it or not....there is a small clrmamepro update (https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/#downloads)

4.050
fixed: xml parser issue with CDATA or comment ending in the same line
fixed: some device clones parent roms might not get marked as wrong placed
fixed: unneeded files in sample parents aren't detected

13

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.5.2 released

« on: 16 October 2025, 16:38 »

clrmame 0.5.2 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v052.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

Core:
- fixed: temporary path getter can fail leading to unpacked files in rom, sample or last used path
- misc:  updated spdlog to 1.16.0
- misc:  scanner, removed fileAccessible test for unneeded files in rompath, it's pretty slow and normally all files within rompaths should be accessible anyhow. If you now get warnings, please let me know

14

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.5.1 released

« on: 08 October 2025, 17:38 »

clrmame 0.5.1 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v051.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

UI:

- added: context menu options to take over compatible settings from current Scanner to Rebuilder 'profile' and vice versa. Option is only available if no scan (or rebuild) job is currently running. Not all options can be taken over, mapping is described in the documentation
- added: context menu options to link Scanner and Rebuilder, so that if you switch the XML/EXE in one, it will select the same in the other module (XML/EXE needs to be setup in both first, e.g. with upper mentioned take over option). This only works if the other module is currently not running.
- misc:  combobox, hold CTRL while clicking X additionally removes current entry from list when clearing input, no more empty entries in the drop down list, use X
instead if you want to have an empty selection

Core:

- fixed: 7z, addFiles(from, to) was limited to unique from files, i.e. multiple additions from the same source (a->b, a->c) skipped creating files
- fixed: rebuilder, deletion of rebuilt unpacked files doesn't work when creating archives
- fixed: rebuilder, creation of some destination files is skipped when a matched file is used multiple times and is listed more than one time in the source machine xml
- misc:  additionally give machine name when renaming roms/disks/samples due to errors in dat

15

clrmame Discussion / tiny wip

« on: 24 September 2025, 18:25 »

If you're interested in some wip....

UI:
- added: context menu options to take over compatible settings from current Scanner to Rebuilder 'profile' and vice versa. Option is only available if no scan (or rebuild) job is currently running. Not all options can be taken over, for mapping see readme.md
- added: context menu options to link Scanner and Rebuilder, so that if you switch the XML/EXE in one, it will select the same in the other module (XML/EXE needs to be setup in both first, e.g. with upper mentioned take over option). This only works if the other module is currently not running.
- misc:  combobox, hold CTRL while clicking X additionally removes current entry from list when clearing input, no more empty entries in the drop down list, use X instead if you want to have an empty selection


Core:
- fixed: rebuilder forgets to add some destination files when a matched file is used multiple times and is listed more than one time in the source machine xml
- misc:  additionally give machine name when renaming roms/disks/samples due to errors in dat


To sum it up, one important rebuilder fix and some nice to have UI options.....still waiting for some feedback for 2 posts here on the board, unfortunately not repeatable things and not enough information was given....so maybe I do a 0.5.1 release soon...

16

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.5 released

« on: 06 September 2025, 17:54 »

clrmame 0.5 released

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v05.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

UI:

misc: recoded resize/move/drag controls handling, allowing resizeable combo boxes etc (resets your current positions once, though)
misc: moving options/modifiers in rebuilder/scanner to tabs, reducing used vertical space
misc: aligned scanner/rebuilder look
misc: scanner, chd version check options are now visible in the chd tab
fixed: don't remember window placement on first close without changing tabs
added: rebuilder, tree output for rebuilt files (context menu available, too)

Core:

misc: tweaked the determination of best fitting rompath a bit for users which split chds/roms
misc: updated to spdlog 1.15.3
fixed: scanner, updateMissingInformation phase isn't thread safe and could lead to crash
fixed: resolved potential reallocation/dangling pointer issues

17

clrmame Discussion / wip

« on: 29 August 2025, 17:13 »

So....ok...finished working on the resizable controls.....and still not really in the mood to finalize the profiler, so I took a look at the wishlist and added some rebuilder output (see attached screenshot). It lists rebuilt (standard coloring) and existing (blue) roms/chds and indicates if the machine is fully available (checked circle) or incomplete machines (half filled circle).

Don't know if it's really needed but since I've already aligned the layout of the rebuilder to match the scanner layout, I though adding this request is some nice add on...

so....coming closer to a new release...still without the profiler though.

18

clrmame Discussion / So quiet in here...

« on: 05 August 2025, 17:22 »

well well well.....it's summer time...holiday time....so what do you expect?
I was on holiday and had no time to do more work on the profiler, however, I've added a bit UI stuff here.....take a look here https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/resize.mp4
It's still work in progress though.....

19

clrmame Discussion / What if...

« on: 16 June 2025, 17:43 »

....you take a "TOSEC - DAT Pack - Complete (4743) (TOSEC-v2025-03-13)" zip file containing 4743 datfiles and drop them in the old clrmamepro profiler?
Well, ok, a select dialog opens rather quickly, you select all 4743 dats and add them to cmpro....so..what happens? On a decent PC it takes about ~5 minutes until the dats are added to the profiler....so..keep that in mind for now... As you might know, for the new clrmame, I'm currently working on the profiler. Unfortunately I had not that much time lately but I want to give you an update what happened.

So maybe start with some common core/ui news:
UI:
- fixed: don't remember window placement on first close without changing tabs
Core:
- misc:  tweaked the determination of best fitting rompath a bit for users which split chds/roms
- misc:  updated to spdlog 1.15.3
- fixed: scanner, updateMissingInformation phase isn't thread safe and could lead to crash
- fixed: resolved potential reallocation/dangling pointer issues


Nothing really big, but fixing one thread safe bug and resolving possible reallocation issues improves stability.

Now back to the profiler...it looks a bit like the old one, on the left side you will have a folder structure, on the right the belonging files for the selected folder. You can add profiles (either by context menu or by drag'n drop), you can move folders around my drag'n drop, you can of course add and delete folders via context menu.

The main handling of files and folders, is mostly done but there are a couple of things which need to get implemented, the actual color coding/different icons, some more columns on the right, more progress dialog handling etc....maybe I find some more time in the next days...

now back to that "what if" thing from the beginning. Here is a video which shows what happens if you drag'n drop the mentioned zipfile in the new profiler. The video grabbing isn't perfectly grabbing the drag'n drop operation which happens within the first seconds of the video but you can see how long it takes to fully parse (!) (did I mention that old clrmamepro only reads in the datfile header) 4743 datfiles, select the tosec folder to show the files in there, move the tosec-pix folder insinde the tosec-iso folder (that will do the same on your harddisk then) and restart clrmameui to see how long in takes after an import...

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/profiler.mp4

Actually, I think I can make it faster.....but time till tell

Keep in mind, it's just a start for a profiler, what you really need when working with 4k datfiles is a good rompath assignment management and batch runs.......again...time will tell...

20

clrmame Discussion / clrmame 0.4 released

« on: 20 April 2025, 17:01 »

https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/clrmame_v04.zip
https://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/binaries/readme.html

UI:

- scanner, fixed showing of empty and complete machines
- scanner, fixed showing of non rom/sample/disk related machine/file/folder issues

Core:

- added: read/write support for zstandard compressed zip files
- rebuilder, two zstd compression methods added, newly created/added files   will use it (existing destination files which don't get replaced won't be   updated). Source files which don't use the set compression method won't be taken into account when checking for a direct archive copy
- scanner, automatically detects if you prefer zstd or deflate compressed zips and uses the preferred setting the case that new files are added.
- with both, rebuilder/scanner you can theoretically end up with zip files which have files in it with different compression methods. Rebuilder: if you
  rebuild to existing files, scanner, if you already have a mixture of archives using different compression methods.

- added: scanner, reporting 'wrong' chd version. Current expected version is 5, warning is not shown for baddumps. Version and baddump warning can be altered in settings.xml

- misc:  changed the behaviour of devices which have romOf dependencies. When fully merging such devices they are now handled like parent/clone machines. On the one hand it makes sense since there are merge attributes indicating that such sets belong together but there are also cases where they are distinct. This is now aligned with clrmamepro, but still something which might need further discussion

- misc:  updated cli11 to 2.5.0
- misc:  updated spdlog to 1.15.2
- misc:  updated bit7z to 4.0.10

- misc:  scanner, using absolute pathnames for error reporting in path scan
- misc:  scanner, only trace-log machines with issues in fixing phase
- fixed: scanner, typo "uneeded"
- fixed: scanner: detection of empty but unneeded folders in archives
- fixed: scanner, backup of chds in software list collections can fail
- fixed: scanner, archives which match a valid rompath subfolder name (e.g. softwarelist name via pattern or automatically) are falsely iterated like a folder instead of listing them as unneeded (wrong placed)
- fixed: crash on rom definitions without a crc
- fixed: filter enrichment might miss sampleof dependencies
- fixed: doing archive backups from a folder and backup archive already exists creates a new archive instead of merging files in