ROM Properties Page shell extension

This shell extension adds a few nice features to file browsers for managing video game ROM and disc images.

no vibes, no bevis

v2.8

Major additions in v2.8 include:

• PlayStation TIM textures.

• S98 audio files.

• rpcli supports displaying icons and banners using the Sixel and/or Kitty protocols when using a terminal that supports it.

• Improvements for Wii U firmware files, amiibo, and Lua bytecode.

• Numerous improvements for Windows icon handling, including a fix for NT 3.x EXEs that have two 16-color icons, one of which is actually an 8-color icon.

• Added more ARM NEON optimizations, including linear RGB decoding and Super Magic Drive decoding.

• Windows-specific changes:

• Fix fallback icons for files where the registered DefaultIcon has double-quotes, e.g. PowerShell .ps1 scripts.

• GNU gettext is now built as part of rom-properties, which simplifies upgrades.

• Lots and lots of tiny bug fixes and improvements.

Translators wanted; if you can translate rom-properties from English to another language, check out the Crowdin project. (If you would like to translate to a language not currently listed on the Crowdin project page, file an issue here on GitHub with the requested language.)

See NEWS.md for a full list of changes in v2.8.

Feedback

This is a work in progress; feedback is encouraged. To leave feedback, you can file an issue on GitHub, or visit the Gens/GS IRC channel: irc://irc.badnik.zone/GensGS

Or use the Mibbit Web IRC client: http://mibbit.com/?server=irc.badnik.zone&channel=#GensGS

Installation

Currently, the ROM Properties Page shell extension is compatible with the following platforms and file browsers: * KDE Frameworks 5.x and 6.x (Dolphin and Konqueror) * XFCE (Thunar) * GNOME 3.x through 42 (Nautilus) * GNOME 43 (Nautilus) * MATE Desktop (1.18+) (Caja) * Cinnamon Desktop (Nemo) * Windows 7 (and later)

The following platforms are still compatible, but may not receive as much support: * KDE 4.x * Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista * Note that WinInet in older versions of Windows does not support the newer encryption algorithms used by the online database hosts. To work around this, you will need to download an older version of cURL and a certificate bundle. This is available on the Releases page.

On Windows 10 and later, you will need the MSVC 2015-2026 runtime: * i386 (32-bit): https://aka.ms/vs/18/release/VC_redist.x86.exe * amd64 (64-bit): https://aka.ms/vs/18/release/VC_redist.x64.exe * arm32: https://rpdb.gerbilsoft.com/redist/VC_redist.arm.vs2017.exe * arm64: https://aka.ms/vs/18/release/vc_redist.arm64.exe

On Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.x, you will need the MSVC 2015-2022 runtime: * i386 (32-bit): https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/VC_redist.x86.exe * amd64 (64-bit): https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/VC_redist.x64.exe * arm32: https://rpdb.gerbilsoft.com/redist/VC_redist.arm.vs2017.exe

On Windows XP/2003 and earlier, you will need the MSVC 2015-2017 runtime: * i386 (32-bit): https://download.visualstudio.microsoft.com/download/pr/100349138/88b50ce70017bf10f2d56d60fcba6ab1/VC_redist.x86.exe * amd64 (64-bit): https://download.visualstudio.microsoft.com/download/pr/100349091/2cd2dba5748dc95950a5c42c2d2d78e4/VC_redist.x64.exe

For instructions on compiling from source, see doc/COMPILING.md.

Linux

Install the relevant .deb package, depending on what desktop environment you are using and what your CPU is.

After installing, the plugin needs to be enabled in the Dolphin file browser: * Close all instances of Dolphin. * Start Dolphin. * Click Control, Configure Dolphin. * Click the "General" section, then the "Preview" tab. * Check the "ROM Properties Page" item, then click OK. * Enable previews in a directory containing a supported file type.

If installed correctly, thumbnails should be generated for the supported file type. You can also right-click a file, select Properties, then click the "ROM Properties" tab to view more information about the ROM image.

Windows

Extract the ZIP archive to a directory, then run install.exe. The installer requires administrator access, so click "Yes" if requested. In the installer, click the "Install" button to register the ROM Properties Page DLL.

Note that this will hard-code the location of the DLL files in the registry, so you may want to place the DLLs in a common location.

To uninstall the plugin, run install.exe again, then click the "Uninstall" button.

Current Desktop Environment Feature Support

• ✅ = supported
• ❌ = not implemented (yet)
• ⛔ = OS or DE does not support this feature

Feature	Windows XP	Windows Vista/7/8/10/11	KDE	GNOME	XFCE
Properties tab	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
XAttrs tab	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Thumbnails	✅	✅	✅	✅¹	✅
"Dangerous" overlay	❌	❌	✅	✅	⛔²
Metadata	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Columns	✅	✅	⛔³	✅	⛔²
Context menu⁴	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

• 1: GNOME uses sandboxing when it runs thumbnailing software, which may prevent rom-properties from downloading images from online databases.
• 2: ThunarX's plugin infrastructure does not have any interfaces for adding custom file attributes, such as overlays and metadata, or to display custom columns.
• 3: KDE has a fixed set of metadata properties and does not have any mechanism to extend it, outside of updates to KFileMetaData.
• 4: Context menu entry for supported texture formats to convert the texture to PNG.

Current File Support Level

Game Consoles

System	Properties Tab	Metadata	Internal Images	External Images
ColecoVision	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Commodore 64/128 .CRT	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Intellivision	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
iQue Player ticket files	Yes	Yes	Icon, Banner	No
Microsoft Xbox (XBE)	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
Microsoft Xbox 360 (XEX)	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
Microsoft Xbox 360 (STFS)	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
Microsoft Xbox Game Discs	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
NES	Yes	No	N/A	Title
Super NES	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo 64	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Nintendo GameCube Discs	Yes	Yes	Banner	Disc, Covers
Nintendo GameCube Banners	Yes	Yes	Banner	No
Nintendo GameCube Saves	Yes	Yes	Icon	N/A
Nintendo Wii Banners	Yes	Yes	No	No
Nintendo Wii Discs	Yes	Yes	No	Disc, Covers
Nintendo Wii WADs	Yes	Yes	Yes¹	Title, Covers
Nintendo Wii Saves	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Nintendo Wii SETTING.TXT	Yes	No	No	N/A
Nintendo Wii U (Disc)	Yes	No	No	Disc, Covers
Nintendo Wii U (Firmware)	Yes	No	Yes²	N/A
Nintendo Wii U (NUS)	Yes	Yes	Icon	Disc, Covers
Sega 8-bit (SMS, GG)	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Sega Mega Drive	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Sega Dreamcast	Yes	Yes	Media	No
Sega Dreamcast Saves	Yes	Yes	Icon, Banner	No
Sega Saturn	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Sony PlayStation Discs	Yes	No	N/A	Covers
Sony PlayStation EXEs	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
Sony PlayStation Saves	Yes	Yes	Icon	N/A
Sony PlayStation 2 Discs	Yes	Yes	N/A	Covers

• Sega Mega Drive includes Sega CD, 32X, and Pico.
• 1: Internal images are only present in Wii DLC WADs.
• 2: Custom icons based on the specific firmware type.

Handhelds

System	Properties Tab	Metadata	Internal Images	External Images
Atari Lynx	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Bandai WonderSwan (Color)	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Google Android	Yes	Yes	Icon	N/A
J2ME	Yes	Yes	Icon	N/A
Neo Geo Pocket (Color)	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo Game Boy (Color)	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo Virtual Boy	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Nintendo Game Boy Advance	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo DS(i)	Yes	Yes	Icon	Covers, Box
Nintendo DSi TADs*	Partial	No	No	No
Nintendo 3DS	Yes	Yes	Icon	Covers, Box
Palm OS	Yes	Yes	Icon	N/A
Pokémon Mini	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Sony PlayStation Portable	Yes	Yes	Icon, Banner	No
Tiger game.com	Yes	Yes	Icon	No

• The Nintendo DSi TAD parser supports development TADs that are normally imported using DSi Nmenu. It does not currently support DSi exports from retail systems.
• The PSP parser supports both PSP game and UMD video discs, as well as several compressed disc formats: CISOv1, CISOv2, ZISO, JISO, and DAX.
• The Android parser currently retrieves the largest icon available.

Texture Formats

Texture Format	Properties Tab	Metadata
ASTC container	Yes	Yes
Godot 3,4 .stex	Yes	Yes
Leapster Didj .tex	Yes	Yes
Khronos KTX	Yes	Yes
Khronos KTX2	Yes	Yes
Microsoft DirectDraw DDS	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Xbox XPR	Yes	Yes
PowerVR 3.0.0	Yes	Yes
Quite OK Image Format	Yes	Yes
Sega PVR/GVR/SVR	Yes	Yes
Sony PlayStation TIM		Yes
TrueVision TGA	Yes	Yes
Valve VTF	Yes	Yes
Valve VTF3 (PS3)	Yes	Yes
Windows icons/cursors¹	Yes	Yes

• 1: Icon thumbnailing is disabled for ICO, CUR, and EXE files to prevent conflicts with system icon handling.
• ...with an exception for thumbnailing 16-bit Windows executables on 64-bit Windows by hooking the PrivateExtractIcons() functions.

Texture Codecs

• Assorted linear RGB formats, including 15-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-