2 posts tagged with "metadata"

Hey everyone!

In our last post we mentioned the challenges we've been facing with the videogame metadata database we've been using, rawg.io. Unfortunately, it's become an unmaintained abandonware, causing frequent downtime and issues like incorrect search results and registration problems. The situation peaked on May 5th when the service went down completely for a day.

GameVault's new metadata provider strategy​

To address these issues, we're making significant changes to GameVault's metadata system. Our goal is to make GameVault metadata provider agnostic, allowing users to seamlessly plug in their preferred metadata provider.

We're also excited to announce our official partnership with IGDB (twitch.tv), a trusted video game database. Going forward, GameVault will primarily use IGDB's APIs out of the box.

More details on our plans can be found in this GitHub ticket. We also plan to continue supporting the use of your own API keys and other vendors.

However, as decided in our recent poll, we will be removing all support for RAWG.

Temporary solution: Implementing a RAWG replacement​

However, implementing these changes will take time, and we are both currently busy with work commitments and travel plans. So what happens if RAWG suddenly stops working while we're away? To address this concern, Toylerrr, one of our most valuable community members, had a great idea. He began developing a solution that would be a drop-in replacement for RAWG. An application that mimicked the behavior of RAWG, but fetched data from Steam instead. All you have to do is replace the url in the RAWG_API_URL environmental variable.

We loved the idea and built on it. Introducing rawg-to-steam-redirect.

The link above explains how it works and how you can use it today.

What we liked most about it is that it required minimal backend changes to integrate. We have already tested this solution on our 667 games server and it works great. The quality of box art for example is much better. One drawback is that Steam does not have a lot of tags in its API.

While https://api.rawg.io/api will remain the default RAWG_API_URL for now, you can switch between RAWG and the new solution at any time. Just make sure your GameVault backend is updated to at least v12.1.0.

Exciting new features​

In addition to these changes, we're excited to introduce you to some new features that were recently released:

• 🔖 Bookmarking Video Games: You can now bookmark your favorite games within GameVault.
• ⏯️ Download Management: GameVault now supports pausing, auto-resuming, and resuming downloads.
• 🔒 Encrypted Archives: GameVault now supports password protected archives.

We hope these updates will make your experience with GameVault even better as we move through this transition period.

Supporting GameVault​

Finally, we want to thank all of you for making all of this possible. If you have not already done so, please consider upgrading to GameVault+ to flex with animated profile pictures on your server. We would really appreciate it. Bet you can't find the GameVault+ easter egg though... 😉

With love,

Phalcode

Hey Guys,

Our team has been working tirelessly for the past year on creating GameVault, the source-available, self-hosted, and free alternative to traditional cloud-based game platforms like Steam, Origin, Epic Games, and GoG. We are excited to share that GameVault is now available for everyone to use, and we are delighted to disclose it to the community.

With GameVault, you can play and track games together with your friends on a shared file server, free from any restrictions that traditional game platforms may impose. We have designed it to work with DRM-free games, providing a unique solution for those who want a more flexible and open approach to gaming. Think of it like Jellyfin, but for Videogames.

GameVault offers a self-hosted approach that gives you complete control over your gaming experience. The platform enables you to browse your server's game collection, securely download games, launch and play them, and even track your playtimes and progress - regardless of whether the server is offline. Additionally, you can compare stats and play states with other users on the server.

Our server features offer automatic indexing of games on the file system into a database, enrichment of games with metadata like tags and genres using RAWG API, multi-user authentication, and configurable logging. We have also implemented health monitoring, full-text search, filters, sorting, pagination, and a fully documented API. The GameVault platform is highly configurable to suit your needs.

We are thrilled that you have found us, and we invite you to try GameVault today. We would be grateful for any contributions, feedback, bug reports, and feature requests you might have. You can also support us by donating using the links provided on our website. If you have any questions or would like to connect with other GameVault users, please join our Discord, Reddit and Lemmy communities - links to which are available in the footer.

We are passionate about creating a gaming experience that is more open, flexible, and enjoyable for everyone. We hope you will join us on this journey and experience the benefits of a truly source-available alternative to traditional game platforms with GameVault.