FBNeo .dat file rebuilds ROMs that don't work

[lucasmr]

Okay, I'm using the tagged versions:
retroarch-1.8.5
libretro-database-1.8.5
clrmamepro 4.036a
FBNeo commit 198ecc91182e72966ffac731a69248e4726a195a (same day as RetroArch tag)

Loading up the libretro-database/metadat/fbneo-split/FBNeo - Arcade Games.dat into clrmamepro, the default method of rebuilding (the other options are not selectable) is Non-Merged Sets. Rebuilding my romset like that makes the roms NOT work when selecting the games with Load Content, but the scanning works and the playlist is built correctly. Separate BIOS Sets are grayed out as well.

The default .rdb for FBNeo is libretro-database/rdb/FBNeo - Arcade Games.rdb, so I'm sure it was built using the same .dat from the clrmamepro rebuild.

What is even more confusing is that I cannot select Split Sets in the rebuilder with this .dat. Remember that the current folder is fbneo-split/.

Trying to build a .rdb using the c_converter utility and the dat FBNeo\dats\FinalBurn Neo (ClrMame Pro XML, Arcade only).dat gives the following error message:
libretro-database/metadat/fbneo-split/FBNeo_romcenter.dat:1:7: fatal error: Expected '(' found 'version='
This .dat provided by FBNeo makes Split Sets correctly, are playable when choosing Load Content, but of course can't be added to the playlist because the .rdb build failed.

[dezraj]

I think I'm having a similar issue. I've updated my romsets using a very recent Arcade dat file (which can be found here https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/tree/master/dats ) and the roms work perfectly in the standalone fbneo emulator. But when I try to generate a playlist in Retroarch, very few games populate in the list. Something is wrong either with this dat or Retroarch's database. :/

[hizzlekizzle]

Are your ROMs torrentzipped? I believe that's necessary for the scanner/databases to pick them up. If you've already verified them elsewhere (clrmampro or whatever), you can just do a manual scan and supply the appropriate DAT to get the "pretty" names.

[dezraj]

Thank you so much. That was the problem!

I thought Clrmamepro would torrentzip all my roms after fixing them but apparently it didn't. So I manually torrentzipped them with the torrentzip program and now they are detected by the Retroarch scanning.

It's interesting that this information is available nowhere in the internet except in this site:
https://docs.libretro.com/guides/arcade-getting-started/

I suppose it had to be in FBNeo's libretro page too because it does make all the difference.

Anyway, I hope the original poster can find a solution for his issue too.

[lucasmr]

Yes, thank you for the suggestion. Using torrentzip I was able to scan the roms after rebuilding with clrmamepro.

The only issue I think is that maybe the dat folder fbneo-split should just be named fbneo? It is a Non-Merged dat after all.

[lucasmr]

One detail: the dat provided by libretro-database/metadat/fbneo-split/FBNeo - Arcade Games.dat still produces ROMs that are not loadable by FBNeo, but scannable.

The correct dat to use it is FBNeo\dats\FinalBurn Neo (ClrMame Pro XML, Arcade only).dat from the FBNeo repository.