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Pc games menu

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Honimoura
Posts: 94
Joined: April 3rd, 2018, 11:15 am

Pc games menu

Post by Honimoura »

Hello,
I wanted to know if a plugin or software running with rainmeter was able, with the name of a pc video game, to automatically find the cover on the internet. In this way, to be able to display the images in the menu by the names of the games
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deflore08
Posts: 209
Joined: July 12th, 2020, 7:47 am
Location: Ada, Garden City

Re: Pc games menu

Post by deflore08 »

Hello! I didn't see something like this here. You can check GitHub in your search.
Also, i don't know exactly for now, but i believe you can make it using CDNs (content delivery networks), WebParser and some brains. :)

This skin might be your start point in your beginnings. It uses WebParser and cdn.amakai to parse info from steam. Sure, you need auto search, not static links, and i think it's still possible, even if it's much complicated than this skin is.
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Yincognito
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 7128
Joined: February 27th, 2015, 2:38 pm
Location: Terra Yincognita

Re: Pc games menu

Post by Yincognito »

Honimoura wrote: September 24th, 2020, 10:18 am Hello,
I wanted to know if a plugin or software running with rainmeter was able, with the name of a pc video game, to automatically find the cover on the internet. In this way, to be able to display the images in the menu by the names of the games
For that, you would need some IMDB-like site, but for game covers, instead of movies. Some "game cover database" (you can google that and see what you get) sites do exist, but the URL address for any of the cover images has to have an identical format, or syntax.

For example, you can check TheGamesDB, they have an API that serves a JSON result that can be then parsed by Rainmeter. Take a look at the Developers links at the bottom of their main page, e.g. API Documentation or API Access Request. It seems you have to create an account or sign in on their site and then request an API Key (I don't know if you have to pay or it's free based on what your usage scenario is, but you can ask on their forum). Once you have an API key, you'll basically use the API request URL (something like https://api.thegamesdb.net/v1/Games/Images?apikey=...&games_id=...&... using various parameters, similar to what is used for a weather API request in other cases) in a WebParser measure in your Rainmeter skin, then parse or extract the image URL from the response and use it to populate your "menu" with game images.

If you're a beginner, it might look complex, but it really isn't THAT hard. See if you can get an API key for the site above first, and then come back for help on the rest, if you want to follow that route.
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