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11 bundled tools

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github-actions[bot] edited this page Oct 14, 2026 · 13 revisions

11 — Bundled Tools

The shipped tools\ payloads, the tool-launcher service, Easy Mode downloads, and the Tools\ source projects. Related: 02 — Projects & Solution · 10 — Game Scanning

Shipped payloads (SimpleLauncher\tools\)

Every tool ships x64 + ARM64 variants (X.exe + X_arm64.exe) unless noted. All are launched through ExternalToolLauncherService (below). The Tools menu is Windows-only except XISOStudio, CHDStudio, RVZStudio and FindRomCover: the Avalonia app keeps only those items visible off Windows (MainWindow hides the other entries on Linux/macOS) because the Linux packaging script prunes every Windows tools/**/*.exe and tools/**/*.dll. The studios are the cross-platform successors of the old BatchConvertIsoToXiso / BatchConvertToCHD / BatchConvertToRVZ tools, and together with FindRomCover, RetroAchievementsSharp, SimpleXisoDrive and SimpleZipDrive they ship one payload per OS/architecture (tools\<Tool>\<rid>\ — win-x64 / win-arm64 (the .exe plus the per-tool helper files) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (the extension-less binary plus the .so natives/helpers)), each with the tool's license files and ReadMe.md; the launcher resolves the payload for the running OS/architecture and both packaging scripts keep only the packaged RID's subfolder. CHDMounter also ships one payload per OS/architecture (tools\CHDMounter\<rid>\) but is not a menu entry — it is the CHD mount helper used by the game-launch flow (see below). The mount services (MountChdFiles, MountXisoFiles, MountZipFiles) resolve the per-RID payload and mount through Dokan on Windows / FUSE 3 on Linux; on macOS (no payload) they log a single Information-level "not supported on this platform" entry instead of a missing-tool Warning (LB-14).

Folder Executables Purpose
SevenZip 7za.exe, 7za_arm64.exe (Windows) / 7zz, 7zz_arm64 (Linux, static 7-Zip 26.03 builds) + License.txt Fallback 7z extraction (SharpCompress failure path) — ExtractionService picks the binary for the running OS/architecture and ensures its execute bits on Unix before launching (LB-15)
CHDMounter win-x64 / win-arm64 (CHDMounter.exe) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (CHDMounter) subfolders (+ licenses/README) Mounts CHD files as virtual drives for emulators without native CHD support — Dokan/WinFsp on Windows, FUSE 3 on Linux (needs libfuse3 + /dev/fuse + the .NET 10 runtime). Used by MountChdFiles/ChdMountStrategy (not a Tools-menu entry); on Linux the managed CHDSharp conversion is the fallback when FUSE or the runtime is unavailable
SimpleXisoDrive win-x64 / win-arm64 (SimpleXisoDrive.exe) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (SimpleXisoDrive) subfolders (+ licenses/README) Mounts Xbox images — .iso / .xiso, CISO (.cso), Xbox-ISO CHD and ZArchive (.zar) — through Dokan (Windows) / FUSE 3 (Linux); --image-iso also exposes a virtual image.iso inside the mount (CISO/CHD decompressed and ZAR trees synthesized on demand — no extraction) for xemu. Used by MountXisoFiles — XisoMountStrategy (Cxbx .iso/.xiso/.cso/.zar), XemuMountStrategy (.cso/.zar) and ChdMountStrategy (Xbox-ISO .chd on Windows and Linux, with the CHDMounter/conversion fallback when the driver is unavailable)
SimpleZipDrive win-x64 / win-arm64 (SimpleZipDrive.exe + 7za.exe + winfsp-msil.dll + Skia/HarfBuzz natives) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (SimpleZipDrive + 7zzs + .so natives) subfolders (+ licenses/README) Mounts ZIP/7Z/RAR/TAR archives (and Xbox images) through Dokan/WinFsp on Windows and FUSE 3 on Linux. Used by MountZipFiles (RPCS3/ScummVM/XBLA archive launches); on Linux the managed temp extraction remains the fallback when FUSE or the payload is unavailable
CHDStudio win-x64 / win-arm64 (CHDStudio.exe + chdman.exe / chdman_arm64.exe + 7za + Avalonia/Skia/HarfBuzz natives) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (CHDStudio + 7zz + .so natives) subfolders Convert to CHD (the cross-platform successor of BatchConvertToCHD, bundled per OS/architecture; see below). DiscConverter, ConvertChdToIso and ConvertChdToCueBin run the bundled chdman from tools\CHDStudio\win-{x64,arm64}\ as the Windows fallback
RVZStudio win-x64 / win-arm64 (RVZStudio.exe + DolphinTool.exe / DolphinTool_arm64.exe + 7za) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (RVZStudio + 7za / 7za_arm64) subfolders Convert to RVZ (the cross-platform successor of BatchConvertToRVZ, bundled per OS/architecture; see below). DiscConverter.ConvertToIsoAsync and ConvertDiscImageToIso run the bundled DolphinTool from tools\RVZStudio\win-{x64,arm64}\
XISOStudio win-x64 / win-arm64 (XISOStudio.exe) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (XISOStudio) subfolders, each with the matching 7za/7zz helper + licenses ISO ↔ XISO conversion (the cross-platform successor of BatchConvertIsoToXiso, bundled per OS/architecture; see below)
BatchConvertToCompressedFile BatchConvertToCompressedFile.exe, _arm64.exe, 7z dlls Convert to 7z/zip
CreateBatchFilesForPS3Games .exe, _arm64.exe PS3 game launcher batch files
CreateBatchFilesForScummVMGames .exe, _arm64.exe ScummVM game launchers
CreateBatchFilesForWindowsGames .exe, _arm64.exe Windows game launchers
CreateBatchFilesForXbox360XBLAGames .exe, _arm64.exe Xbox 360 XBLA launchers
FindRomCover win-x64 / win-arm64 (FindRomCover.exe + Magick/Skia/HarfBuzz natives + mame.dat) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (FindRomCover + .so natives + mame.dat) subfolders (+ licenses/README) Cover-art finder tool (Tools menu, visible on Linux since the 3.3.0 build)
RetroGameCoverDownloader .exe, _arm64.exe Bulk retro cover downloads
RomValidator .exe, _arm64.exe, 7za.exe / 7za_arm64.exe helpers, RomValidator.xml (+ license/README/What's New) ROM validation against No-Intro DAT files
RetroAchievementsSharp win-x64 / win-arm64 (RetroAchievementsSharp.Cli.exe) and linux-x64 / linux-arm64 (RetroAchievementsSharp.Cli) subfolders (+ README/LICENSE) RetroAchievements hashing engine (rcheevos port) — invoked by RetroAchievementsFileHasher/HashScanner, not by ExternalToolLauncherService

Tool launcher (ExternalToolLauncherService)

SimpleLauncher.Core\Services\ExternalToolLauncher\ExternalToolLauncherService.cs

  • Arch-aware resolution: per-RID tools (FindRomCover, RetroAchievementsSharp, SimpleXisoDrive, SimpleZipDrive and the studios/CHDMounter) resolve tools\{Tool}\{rid}\<binary> for the running OS/architecture (the Linux payloads are extension-less ELF binaries); the remaining Windows-only tools use _arm64.exe suffixes. Execute bits are applied before launching a Unix payload (LB-15).
  • PE validation: bundled Windows executables are checked for a valid MZ/PE signature before launch (skipped on Unix, where the payloads are ELF).
  • Public methods (each shows a "not found" / "canceled" / error box on failure):
    • CreateBatchFilesForXbox360XblaGamesAsync, CreateBatchFilesForWindowsGamesAsync, CreateBatchFilesForPs3GamesAsync, CreateBatchFilesForScummVmGamesAsync
    • LaunchXisoStudioAsync, LaunchChdStudioAsync, LaunchRvzStudioAsync, BatchConvertToCompressedFileAsync
    • FindRomCoverLaunchAsync, RetroGameCoverDownloaderAsync, RomValidatorAsync
  • UAC cancel (error 1223) is handled with a "canceled" message.

Easy Mode downloads

EasyModeManager (Core Services\EasyMode\) + EasyModeWindow (app) drive the guided setup: a system manifest lists, per system, the recommended emulator, RetroArch core, and image-pack download links (fetched from Urls:EasyModeApi). Downloads run through DownloadManager with progress, retry, and cache (EasyModeCacheDur* keys). See 03 — Quickstart.

Tools\ source projects (in this repo)

Project Purpose
Tools\Mame.DatCreator WPF tool that builds mame.dat (MessagePack) from MAME -listxml + software lists
Tools\RetroAchievements.DataFetcher CLI tool that fetches the RA game database into RetroAchievements.dat
Tools\XmlToBinaryConverter WPF tool that converts history.xml ↔ history.dat (MessagePack)

These are development-time tools — they are not part of the shipped app payload.

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