[Powerhouse]

I was trying to use the Artist Slideshow in Kodi 18.1, with the new Artist Information folder, but the two aren't compatible.

When reading the documentation, it says the following...

5.1 Slideshow
Local artist folder: (default none)
path to a directory that has artist images. Images must be organized in artist/extrafanart/ unless you set a different local fanart folder name in the advanced settings.

However, in the new Artist Information folder, there is no extrafanart folder, all extrafanart (fanart1, fanart2, etc.) are located in the Artist folder now. So when you run Artist Slideshow, it creates an extrafanart folder, and then downloads the same artwork that is now in the Artist folder, but doesn't contain the same fanart name (fanart1.jpg, fanart2.jpg, etc), instead its usually a bunch of random letters and numbers.jpg).

[pkscout]

I'll have to look into this.  It isn't just a matter of changing where AS looks, I also have to figure out what fanart has been downloaded by Kodi already so that I don't just download it again.  The file names AS saves are from the providers, so unless Kodi maps the names it uses to the provider URL or image name somewhere that I can get to, that might be an impossible task.  If I can't avoid duplicates then there really isn't any advantage to rewriting AS to not use the extrafanart folder.

[Powerhouse]

I completely understand what you are saying, and am not sure why the Kodi developers went the way they did with Music artwork. If they simply left it the same as Movies and TV Shows, and made a extrafanart folder under Artists (like it's always been), we wouldn't have these issues.

Also, just in case you weren't aware, there is an issue with the Artists Information folder (actually in Kodi 18.1), that none of the extra fanart (banners, logos, fanart1, fanart2, etc.) are actually downloaded when scraped. You can read about it in the post I made.

I was also informed that Artwork Beef has the ability to rename the artwork from the providers to the correct naming Kodi is looking for (fanart1, fanart2, etc.), so maybe you can work with that add-on creator, to fix the naming issue. Or just wait until the Kodi devs fix the issue with downloading all the artwork to the Artist Information folder. Then you could just put in the option (checkmark) if using an Artist Information folder, then just grab the Fanart from the Artist folder.

[Karellen]

If they simply left it the same as Movies and TV Shows

It is the same for Movies and TV Shows. The same change was made there. Some skins are already using the new method.

[Powerhouse]

Crap, now I need to move all those files over (x4000 Movies and 720 TV series). Going to be a busy weekend.

[Karellen]

Before making that effort, check with the skinner that the skin you are using supports the new method. Not all skins have converted over.

[pkscout]

@Karellen, I remember seeing some conversation about this during the alpha and beta phases.  Is there documentation somewhere on the new method of handling images?  I have some partial ideas of how to handle it I was thinking about when this first came up, but I don't remember enough details to get any further than that.  Thanks.

[Karellen]

@pkscout

Nothing is written up in the wiki for it, just a couple of forum threads.

Music... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=341179
Video... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=337089

@DaveBlake designed this for Music library and @rmrector followed up with the Video library and they both work pretty much the same as each other.

After reading the above links if you have any questions I am sure one of us should be able to answer them.

---Edit---
Slipped my mind. rmrector has updated the Artwork (wiki) wiki pages, so there is additional info there also.