If I choose to update the available artwork using the "Update / Install Artwork" option within Pixelcade Companion (under 'Manage Artwork'), will that process overwrite any / all of the current artwork files under /userdata/system/pixelcade? For example, If I have several .PNG files I had to create (by renaming) to match the ROM involved, will those files survive the update process?
the artwork update script will overwrite all existing files in the repo. Any new files you've added that have a different file name won't be touched but I'd recommend to be on the safe side and do a backup prior. Also if you don't mind, attach here in a zip the renames you did and can add those to the main repo, that'll help others, thanks
Thanks for the reply. I'm still transferring ROMs over from my old (Retropie) setup, and right now my arcade cabinet is temporarily disconnected because we're replacing the carpet in the basement, so it may be a while before I can post a list of renamed ROMs. But, I'm pretty sure that one I had to add was for Centipede (in MAME) - the ROM version I have is 'centiped1.zip' (revision 1), and there was no .PNG file for it within pixelcade/mame so I simply made a copy of one of the other versions present and renamed it. Sounds like that won't be overwritten.
I guess it's good to know, though, that mod'ing a file that is in the main repo would be overwritten if updating through the Companion interface. I routinely use the option in EmulationStation to "Backup User Data", especially before making any system updates / changes, so it would probably be fairly easy to write a script to copy custom image files back over after updating Pixelcade.