386 replies to this topic

[Thalamus]

What two tables are we talking about ? Are you recording in forced full screen ? You might want to try to download a different vpinbalx.exe, rename the one you got and just replace it while recording. I noticed on a few tables a long time ago, one was elvis by stern, that I too had troubles recording the game (not only the backglass though, crashed) as long as I ran the regular vpinballx.exe. Just resolved it by using a older 10.4 for just the recording, then renamed back. Now, I let PinballY do this job. You might want to have a look at that frontend. It is cimpatible with your pinballx xml.

 

Updated my answer. Forgot that pbxrecoder disables that automatically.

Edited by Thalamus, 26 April 2019 - 02:50 PM.

[jdsabin1]

Thanks for your reply. The tables are the new Check Mate and Jack-Bot. They were both created in VPX 10.6 and Jack-Bot wouldn't work correctly without upgrading to it. I run all the tables in exclusive full screen mode. I'll try a different version of VPX executable and report back.

Edited by jdsabin1, 26 April 2019 - 12:15 PM.

[gtxjoe]

Strange. PBX doesnt do anything different for diff VPX versions

Post a pbxrecorder.log if you dont get it sorted out.

[stoj]

Awesome tool.. great work Wiz.

 

Not sure if this is the 'recommended' way to use PBXRecorder (especially since I'm a VP newbie), but in case anyone finds it useful this has been by approach..

- Use PinballX's Game List Manager to setup tables, assign table descriptions and download online content (wheels, instructions, etc). After content is downloaded (it's very slow!), use the tool to go back and tweak anything that looks out of place (e.g. select alternative wheel images)

- Use PBXRecorder to replace the shabby PinballX video with some high quality 4k captured video.  Taking care to setup PBXRecorder to use table descriptions and not file names, since PinballX will download descriptions which take precedence over file names.

 

A few suggestions/fixes for the next version..

- Specify "-pix_fmt yuv420p" for ffmpeg's mkv to mp4/f4v conversion.  The default 4:4:4 YUV format doesn't appear to work on PinballX.. or more precisely, it didn't work on my 4k setup.

Run, "%FFMpegPath%\ffmpeg" -y -i "%A_ScriptDir%\playfield.mkv" -pix_fmt yuv420p -ss 5 -to 1000 -vf %PFRotation% -c:v libx264 -crf 26 "%MediaOutPath%\%MediaSubDirOut%\Table Videos Desktop\%SearchString%.%RecExt%",,UseErrorLevel

- Add A 'desktop' support option to optionally record in "Tabletop Video Desktop" folder

- Perhaps investigate why the mkv (and thus converted mp4/f4v) video is a little jumpy.  The video is reporting that's it's been encoded at 30fps, but it looks more like 3-4fps judging by the way the moving ball is rendered.  Perhaps upgrading to the latest ffmpeg might help?

 

Also, speaking as a developer (not an ahk developer though!) have you considered moving the project to github (or similar)?  If it was then I'd be happy to send a merge request your way

 

Keep up the good work!!

[gtxjoe]

Thanks for the feedback. The frontends have all started adding auto recording capability since Carneypriest created the ffmpeg recording script and I added the xml parsing logic, so not sure if I will continue updating PBXRECORDER.

However, If you do have a modified ahk script, I can release the update so its available to all and give you credit of course

[stoj]

I can't work out how to add attachments in this reply, so I've published the code here instead.. https://gofile.io/?c=YA0Z3c.

 

Changes..

- new desktop configuration option

- set pixel formatter to yuv420p for backward compatibility with PinballX

- updated version to 1.7 to ensure config files are re-created

- removed some uneeded(?) ffmpeg default commandline options

 

Feel free to undo any changes you don't like.  Also, you might want to do a bit of testing as I don't have a backglass or DMD to verify them.

 

Regarding the competition such as PinballX (the only VP front end I've used), their UI is more polished but IMHO PinballX has limitations that  PBXRecorder does not..

- Only supports recording video for one table at a time.  This is a showstopper for anyone who has more than a handful of tables!

- Video files are ~5 times as large

- 4k video is also jumpy.. albeit not quite as jumpy as PBXRecorder

- PinballX isn't open source

 

Anyhow, I hope you find the script update useful.  No need for any credit.. I'm happy to help out

[Thalamus]

Thanks for the update and open-sourced version. PinballY is however both a open-source alternative "of" PinballX. It can read and re-use PinballX xml files. It has the multiple game recording and more. I've converted. http://mjrnet.org/pi...pe/PinballY.php

[stoj]

Thanks for the heads up on PinballY.  I've been playing with it for the past few days and it's certainly a nice front end.. snappy, open source, and supports batch recording!

 

It'll be interesting to if PinballY's 'beta' development bridges the various gaps with PinballX, for example..

- Retrieve media automatically instead of relying on a 'let me google that for you' solution.

- Fill in game details (manufacturer, year, etc) from a pre-defined list instead of having to type them manually

- Auto acknowledge dialog option when starting terminals, e.g. missing backglass, authorised to use this rom, etc.

- Hide pinMame dialog

- Fix unicode (e.g. "copyright") and special characters (e.g. '/') handling

- Properly support desktop mode (see below)

- Stability fixes, e.g. crashes 2-3 times when batch capturing video for ~30 tables

- Don't record the "capturing video" dialog in the video when the 'show backglass' option is enabled

- etc

 

Regarding PinballY's video recording, it's interesting to note it has similar 'issues' to PBXRecorder (prior to my earlier changes)..

- Creates videos using a pixel encoding that isn't supported by 4k PinballX 'planar 4:4:4 YUV'.  That said, you could argue the real issue is PinballX should support this format perhaps.

- Doesn't support 'desktop' mode, i.e. doesn't record the videos in the "Tabletop Video Desktop" folder

- Also something unique to PinballY is it rotates the recorded video by 270 degrees even when looking at the table in portrait mode (i.e. desktop mode).  You don't really notice this is you're using PinballY to play the video as it 'compensates' for this.

 

On the plus side though, PinballY's 2 pass video recording is *much* smoother than PinballX and PBXRecorder.  That said, I suspect PBXRecorder could be improved easily enough by tweaking the ffmpeg parameters to use the same setup

ffmpeg.exe" -y -loglevel warning -thread_queue_size 32  -f gdigrab -framerate 30 -video_size 3840x2160 -i desktop -f dshow -i audio="Stereo Mix (Realtek High Definition Audio)" -t 30 -probesize 30M -rtbufsize 2000M -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -threads 8 -qp 0 -preset ultrafast "video.tmp.mkv"

Anyhow, in short..

- If you use PinballY as your front end then PinballY's recorder is the way to go.

- If you use PinballX (perhaps for reasons above and others?), then you'll probably want to stick with PBXRecorder.. perhaps with some of my earlier tweaks

[Thalamus]

You need to tick cab mode in pinmame to resolve a few of the things that seems to still annoy you

A few things that you mention, PBY is lacking is actually already there. Maybe you downloaded old version ? You better take the rest of the suggestions of your to the correct thread. MJR doesn't read all topics on this site. But, he seems to follow up on those he start himself ;-)

 

https://www.vpforums...ic=40679&page=1

[stoj]

Thanks for the pinmame tip.. the splash and nag screen are no more.  I'm guessing PinballX's 'hide pinmame' option is for anyone who hasn't setup PinMame in cabinet mode.  Not sure why someone would consciously do this though since pinmame cabinet mode seems to work perfectly fine with PBX in table (aka desktop) mode.  Perhaps it should be renamed "remove annoying splash and nag" screen option

 

I'm running the latest beta 11 PBY, so unless I'm doing something wrong (which is very possible) then I suspect they are bugs and/or feature-gaps.  Good suggestion though.. I'll post them in the appropriate forum as they're unrelated to PBXRecorder.

 

Thanks again for the PinballlY and PinMame tips.

[wrd1972]

Just felt like thanking Joe once again for this super utility. The amount of time, PITAness and effort that this tool eliminates, simply cant be put into words.

[Thalamus]

Oh. I so agree with you on this. A true life saver before Pinup Popper and PBY was around. Thank you so much Carny and GtxJoe !

[wrd1972]

Did not know carny was in on it. Many thanks to carny as well.

[Thalamus]

Oh yes. He is very much part of pbxrecoder. For what I've learned, the ahk wizard got Joe starting to put it all togheter into this great tool. I've said it a few times before. Cooperation and sharing is essential for new ideas and progress.

[Carny_Priest]

I coded a capture engine. Gtxjoe made it great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wrd1972]

Bull Shit. Both of you made it great.

And great it is.

[Imgema]

This program doesn't work if you have any screen at 4K. It won't create pictures because it says the combined width resolutions (1920 and 3840) exceed the desktop resolution of 4480. I have no idea where this "4480" comers from. There is no setting like this anywhere.

[wiesshund]

4480 or 4080? though unless you have your OS rotated, neither makes sense

 

Your desktop resolution is 5760

but i think it get's it's value (PBX Recorder) from what ever is in screenres.txt

I dont have a 4k monitor, but my video card does support virtual resolutions, so i set it to 4k and then redid my screenres.txt
and it took the video and screen shots

[Imgema]

It complains about a 4480 resolution. I checked it multiple times.

 

This number doesn't exist in screenres.txt. I have the correct numbers in there, 1920 x 1080 for for the 1080p screen and 3480 x 2160 for the 4K one.

 

I looked everywhere, trying to find that elusive 4480 setting, in VPX, in PinballX, in every cfg or ini i could find but there is no such thing. So i don't know where it gets this number from so i can't fix it.

[wiesshund]

the 4480 is a combined measurement of monitor 1 monitor 2 and monitor 3 (If you have 3)

Problem is 1920 + 3480 is 5400

 

Now, on the other hand 1920 + 2560 is 4480 and 2560 is 2K

 

So i guess my question is, where on earth is PBX Recorder getting the 2K screen rez info from?

With PBX Recorder comes with a copy of the AHK file itself, pbxrecorder.exe is just a compiled version of that.
You could actually edit it and recompile it as a new version.

Anything in there that pertains to 2K ?

 

Did you ever, at any time, have a 2K monitor on this setup?

 

edit again

i looked at the ahk file for the 1.9 version of pbx recorder
It does in fact seem to be grabbing monitor info from windows registry
Windows is bad about leaving OLD monitor entries in the registry, in really funky order, can confuse the hell out of other apps.
So i am wondering if maybe you had a 2K screen installed at some point and it is finding its values from the registry?

 

If so, easy fix, delete monitors from registry, reboot and plug them back in one at a time

Edited by wiesshund, 05 October 2020 - 11:23 PM.