Tool Others F95Checker [WillyJL]

[WillyJL]

I have just implemented another option, BC7 (ASTC still available, it's a drop down). BC7 is supported on basically all GPUs made in the last 15 years. Same visual quality as ASTC, but takes more space. Compared to uncompressed it uses 4x less VRAM (ASTC would use 9x less VRAM but no GPUs support it so VRAM tends to be unaffected) and gives the same improved load times as ASTC. However, it is larger, even more so than uncompressed images (on disk they are compressed with PNG or JPEG which are a lot more efficient but don't work for GPU random access), from my testing BC7 takes 60% more disk space than uncompressed, while ASTC takes 20% less disk space than uncompressed (used to be roughly same, but I added ZSTD compression at rest to mitigate BC7 disk usage, which made ASTC more efficient on disk too).
Still, for me this is a much better option, images load instantly and I don't care too much about the extra disk space it uses (I have 1.1gb uncompressed, 0.9gb astc and 1.8gb bc7).
For VRAM usage: after loading all images I have, nvtop showed 12gb VRAM and 2gb RAM (I think it didn't allow more into VRAM to not fill it so the extra went into RAM) when uncompressed. With BC7 I can load all images at once and it uses 4gb VRAM, and no RAM increase. But of course, I'll be using BC7 along with unload off screen, so almost no VRAM is used and loading images is faster.

also fixed what i think was the last issue with feat/tex-compress branch (VRAM memory leak when reloading images), so should be good to merge and land in 11.1. latest devbuild uses this of course, if i dont hear of new issues for a few days ill merge

 

[sisco1986]

hey Willy, could be possible to implement a function to auto backup your game list links into a .txt with a timer? or if you can't do that at least to print the current links into the log files so we can manually backup that instead of having to make a txt and manually export the list?

 

[leavy]

I tried the image compression from

You must be registered to see the links

on my system (5800X3D, 7800 XT):

No image compression:

• 971 entries — 11 GB VRAM
• 1070 MB disk space
• Slower image load on scroll

ASTC:

• Very fast compression, 100% CPU usage
• 971 entries — 11 GB VRAM
• 524 MB disk space
• Very fast image load on scroll (Unload off-screen OFF)
• Average image load on scroll (Unload off-screen ON)

BC7:

• Really slow compression, ~50% CPU usage
• 971 entries — 3 GB VRAM
• 990 MB disk space
• Fast image load on scroll (Unload off-screen OFF)
• Average image load on scroll (Unload off-screen ON)

 

[WillyJL]

I tried the image compression from

You must be registered to see the links

on my system (5800X3D, 7800 XT):

No image compression:

• 971 entries — 11 GB VRAM
• 1070 MB disk space
• Slower image load on scroll

ASTC:

• Very fast compression, 100% CPU usage
• 971 entries — 11 GB VRAM
• 524 MB disk space
• Very fast image load on scroll (Unload off-screen OFF)
• Average image load on scroll (Unload off-screen ON)

BC7:

• Really slow compression, ~50% CPU usage
• 971 entries — 3 GB VRAM
• 990 MB disk space
• Fast image load on scroll (Unload off-screen OFF)
• Average image load on scroll (Unload off-screen ON)

Interesting. So yeah it looks like your gpu doesn't support astc but windows is making up for it, so same vram but better image loading. And for disk space, difference between astc and bc7 is about right, but compared to original it's a bit odd, I'm guessing the original images in your case were compressed worse than for me. For bc7 compressing that slow and not using all cpu, I think astcenc detects how many cpu cores there are while compressonator defaults to 8, I'll change it to auto detect it too.
Thanks!

 

[WillyJL]

hey Willy, could be possible to implement a function to auto backup your game list links into a .txt with a timer? or if you can't do that at least to print the current links into the log files so we can manually backup that instead of having to make a txt and manually export the list?

There are no log files lol
And you could easily setup your own system to backup the db.sqlite3 file, which is what matters. Can just copy it somewhere else, on windows you have the event scheduler, on Linux there is crontab

 

[M0narh]

How to disable game banners in Windows notifications when a game updates? I can't find a way to turn them off.

 

[WillyJL]

How to disable game banners in Windows notifications when a game updates? I can't find a way to turn them off.

cant currently. its a new feature and i havent put a toggle on it. ill do that

 

[WillyJL]

How to disable game banners in Windows notifications when a game updates? I can't find a way to turn them off.

added an option for this in latest beta

Really slow compression, ~50% CPU usage

fixed in latest beta, made it use all cpu threads

 

[WillyJL]

Greetings,
Many thanks for this extremely useful tool, and the updates.

I have a question regarding the splash screen I get every time I open the F95Checker.
Is there a way to disable it? If not, may i humbly ask you to consider changing it with something much darker?
You see, as you can tell from my pic, I am very very sensitive to light, and I also happen to (mostly) use my PC in a rather dark environment.
So every single time I run this program, if I forget to look away, or close my eyes in advance, I get this... 'retina destroying' white splash screen for a few seconds, until it loads normally! It makes me want to switch to predator mode and scratch stuff...

Any help is highly appreciated!

latest beta doesnt flashbang anymore

 

[WhiteVanDaycare]

latest beta doesnt flashbang anymore

Thanks for fixing this. Now if we could get rid of the flash between clicking on a download link and acknowledging leaving the site (an F95 problem, not your checker).

 

[WillyJL]

Thanks for fixing this. Now if we could get rid of the flash between clicking on a download link and acknowledging leaving the site (an F95 problem, not your checker).

Not sure I follow what you mean. I don't see any bright flash when clicking download links.
If you use the integrated browser, it will open that on the game thread page then navigate to the download link page, but while that one is loading it shows the previous page, no bright flash.
If you use another browser, it will need to open the integrated browser for a short second to actually grab the link location, then close the integrated browser and instead open the link it grabbed with your chosen browser. But again, no bright flash, while the page loads with the integrated browser the background is black (or your chosen background color in the checker)
If what you mean is showing the integrated browser in general before opening the download link, that's not something that can be fixed, neither by me nor by f95zone. Your pc doesn't get game info from f95zone directly to avoid torturing their servers, instead it gets it from my cache api, and by design the cache api is not authenticated. To have download links open directly without passing through f95zone, your client would need to know the download link beforehand, which means it would need to get it from my cache api, which means the cache api would need to provide download links plainly on the internet with no account required. That would make it trivial for download links to be DMCA'd, and for bots to reupload content to other websites. Instead, you must have an account to see download links, and so the cache api can't store them plainly on the internet, and thus your pc needs to grab the link from f95zone, which means showing a small integrated browser for a split second. And it can't be hidden due to captcha.

 

[Valex]

latest beta doesnt flashbang anymore

You are doing God's work, mi amigo!
And I appreciate it very much!
Take care, and stay safe!

 

[Xakorik]

Just started using this, imported using watched threads, removed a few non-game entries, list is now at 255 games.

I would like some tips/suggestions on how to organize my library with this tool.
Like Tab and Label, or folder structure within the game directory I use for F95 games.

 

[WillyJL]

Just started using this, imported using watched threads, removed a few non-game entries, list is now at 255 games.

I would like some tips/suggestions on how to organize my library with this tool.
Like Tab and Label, or folder structure within the game directory I use for F95 games.

can do pretty much whatever you like, whatever feels most natural to you. could even not organize at all xD
for game directory make sure to select it in manage > set exe dir. then best idea is to have game folders inside it named without version numbers, so after updates you can just swap in the new files and the executable path is still valid. a few good ideas are to just have games/game name, or have something more complicated/structured like games/developer name/game name, when you click to add a new exe it can fuzzy match both of these cases, and start the filebrowser directly inside that subdirectory. you could even include the type, like games/RenPy/developer name/game name, or just games/RenPy/game name.
for library, depends what you need most. what i do is have tabs for main genres/types of games, and same for labels (yeah its "duplicate" information, but sometimes multiple labels to apply to one game that primarily fits more into one tab than another); also have labels for things like mods and unlock codes so i remember to check those after updates.
but ive seen people use tabs as a way to separate between "actively playing" and "avoid" and so on.
i guess it depends how much organization overhead you want, and what you want to see at a glance. could go all out with labels for every single aspect that youre interested in almost like tags, or it could be plain simple like "good" and "meh"

 

[GrammerCop]

Just started using this, imported using watched threads, removed a few non-game entries, list is now at 255 games.

I would like some tips/suggestions on how to organize my library with this tool.
Like Tab and Label, or folder structure within the game directory I use for F95 games.

It depends on your personal preferences. I use folders on the same drive to store the games in, I move the base folder for a game to the appropriate folder be it: Active, Updates, Current, Completed.

In the checker I use tabs for categories, New, Current, Tools, and Mod downloads (if it's on their own thread).

I use labels for status, which mod I use for the game, or "no mod", whether I'm waiting on a mod (some modders take a while to update). There's no sense in using labels for specific tags since you can apply a filter on them.
My 3 cents worth.

 

[WillyJL]

review support




EDIT: i pushed the change to start detecting and caching reviews on the f95indexer api, and latest beta build can show them too. but of course, it will not show them on all games yet, it will gradually start showing on more and more games as their cache expires over the next 7 days. also its possible that theres some issue with how i implemented it, so if there are errors with the cache api thats probably it and ill fix it asap

EDIT: speak of the devil, that just happened xD. some threads have reviews disabled and it redirects, didnt account for that. fixed now

 

[Luci3per]

Hello
I lost my HDD and also all the data from F95Checker. Is there any way to get the data back so I don't have to enter it manually? That's a lot of games. And not all imports in F95Checker don't work. I was thinking of scanning the game directory, for example.
Thanks for the help.
Google translation.

 

[GrammerCop]

Hello
I lost my HDD and also all the data from F95Checker. Is there any way to get the data back so I don't have to enter it manually? That's a lot of games. And not all imports in F95Checker don't work. I was thinking of scanning the game directory, for example.
Thanks for the help.
Google translation.

You can use File Explorer to search for *.url then drag the results into the box on the page Manage/Import/thread links

 

[FaceCrap]

I was thinking of scanning the game directory, for example.

That's not going to work. The checker doesn't scan your disk for games.
If you happen to have your games bookmarked in a browser and those bookmarks survived you can import those. If you bookmarked them in the forum you can import these, same if you marked them 'watched'.

 

[Luci3per]

You can use File Explorer to search for *.url then drag the results into the box on the page Manage/Import/thread links

That's not going to work. The checker doesn't scan your disk for games.
If you happen to have your games bookmarked in a browser and those bookmarks survived you can import those. If you bookmarked them in the forum you can import these, same if you marked them 'watched'.

I only had a few games not in my bookmarks or my watchlist. I managed to do it somehow, although it was probably half done manually. Thank you both so much for your help.
Google translation.