52 replies to this topic

[subdisturb]

 

This is sweet! Now if you could find a way to get it to check this spreadsheet for missing tables.. and download them.. It would be the penultimate app!
https://docs.google....#gid=2143924347

Holly Molly ! Didn't even know that this existed ! Will check it out !

I'm curious on how you're pulling the high scores.  I've got some friends who come over quite regularly for pinball/beer and we are all very competitive, so I created a scoreboard intranet website that runs on my server in my house that allows us to keep track of our wins on each table and total wins against each other.  I set up a Raspberry Pi3 with a 7 inch touch screen that displays the website and lets us log the scores.  One of the features I wanted to add was the ability to display the high scores of each table (the actual table, not just between us), so we wouldn't have to wait to see it scroll after the game how close we might have been to adding a new high score.  There's a folder (in the pinmame folder I believe, created by PinHiMem maybe, it's been a while since I've looked at this due to my frustration with the naming conventions), that keeps a list of most of the high scores.  I wrote a small batch application that scans that folder on table exit in PinballX for any updated files and then pushes them over to my web server.  So, if you're getting the high scores in some other method, I'd been very keen to know how to see if I can improve my set up.

 

Here's the actual Pi (Don't mind the second logo.  Since I built the web app, my friends don't get to choose their own logos  ) :

 

 

Here's the game log from Popeye when it actually can match on the high scores from the cabinet:

 

 

I'm taking the high scores either from:

-PinballX high score txts

-then running Pinemhi if not found

-I have modified some EMs table to record their score in the same dir too.

 

Then I generate an image file by overlaying the text in a frame with portion of the backglass (config.ini configured), and using Topper to display it over the backglass. It looks cool ! You can change parameter for the font to use too. The scores are either generated on table exit, or globally too.

 

 

Thanks for the info/response.  I guess I'll have to take a second look back at how I'm doing this and see if I can tweak it at all.  Sorry for derailing your thread a bit.  The software looks great and I think it'll be a great contribution to the community should you decide to further develop and eventually release it.  It's very impressive! 

[lancer1977]

Sweet start! I'd find something like this useful. Just getting started with the whole Virtual Cabinet thing, so a nub on that end but I am a developer as well. Have you considered making your project open source or recruiting others to help with the plumbing?

[STAT]

Sounds good, what about your Score Board one "local" and another "world" ( Internet db anywhere )

[CloudHead]

Sweet start! I'd find something like this useful. Just getting started with the whole Virtual Cabinet thing, so a nub on that end but I am a developer as well. Have you considered making your project open source or recruiting others to help with the plumbing?

 

I definetely will at some point, when the codebase is more mature and readable.

Sounds good, what about your Score Board one "local" and another "world" ( Internet db anywhere )

While the idea sounds pretty interesting, I'm afraid it'll take some maturing to get even there

[CloudHead]

Tiny progress report to keep you guys interested... though I've been hindered lately by the Pinball FX3 release.

-made the vp extensions configurable
-manage the media files moving and renaming according to description changes
-renaming tables also renames every file that goes by the same name in the table dir (b2s, htm, etc)
-you can now copy or move any table to any other XML/category/system
-as I wrote a tiny config editor for the table manager itself, I happened to extend it over to PinballX config, and Visual Pinbal registry keys edit as well.



I am now about to look into automated video recording and screenshooting.
I will have to revisit the scoreboard generation as well - as it fits my needs as it is but needs to be more adaptable to each tastes.

[Stevo1911]

Thank you for keeping us posted on your progress. Looking and sounding great. Can't wait for your release.  

[Rajo Joey]

Thank you for keeping us posted on your progress. Looking and sounding great. Can't wait for your release.  

Me too. Like to see it for testing. :-)

Gesendet von meinem SGP511 mit Tapatalk

[CloudHead]

A little bit of progress...

 

 

1/Table files import

I was kind of sidetracked during debugging process, and while playing around with network access to my pincab setup (the table manager being setup to access \\pincabname\C$\Pinball\ windows share, thanks for the suggestion)
and realized there was a feature I was missing : file import.

I mean you download a table, then what ? Do you have to manually push it to the right place ? No way.
So I added this:




Basically the first two option let you choose some zip or vpt/vpx/fpt/whateverknownextension, and push it automatically to the correct table directory for the system you are currently working on.
The third option let you choose from a list of tables that already are in you table dir, but are not yet present in your XML.

Then with a bit of fuzzy matching, if a game is found in the IPDB table list it is auto selected, then the game is auto fed to the XML with the proper informations.

Hope you'll like the functionality, I sure do.
 

 

2/Performance improvements

Aside from this, I played around and made image rendering multithreaded so that navigating the list is smoother and faster.
Audit has been multithreaded too, and is now pretty fast - even when running off the network.

3/ Video playback issues

 

I've been struggling with videos playback. They seem to be using a huge amount of memory and I'm not sure how to proceed from there. I tried a couple options and python modules, but I can't seem to find a balance yet.

I mean - mp4 playback is working but I'm not satisfied with the result. I disabled the playback until I find a better solution. If anybody has some experience with python+tk+video playback feel free to pass it along

 

4/PinballX encoding

 

Does anybody knows why PinballX text files are encoded in UTF16 ? Hell, I fought my way to figure out this. That, plus it doesn't release its lock on image files while playing a table which makes it hard to overwrite them on table exit... hmmm.

 

 

 

Anyway, if I'm keeping the pace, I might be able to release an alpha build in about two weeks. It won't be too polished, but enough to play around with I guess. It's already useful to me, so I guess it might be to some of you.

I'm already far past the initial little scipt I toyed with aimed at generating high score images.

 

PS: played around with the vpdb.io REST API - gawd it's really great. I wish I come to the point in some not so distant future where I get to interface with them guys. Let's add this to the list of whishful future stuff...

 

[hlr53]

You will have to ask Tom Speirs about PBX file formats.

[CloudHead]

Hi, a little more of the WIP status:

 

1/Video Recording

I'm glad to say I've got the playfield video capture feature rolling and working ! Every FFMPEG parameters are configurable in the configuration file/dialog, so that you can find the right balance between quality and weight. I might add some predefined settings at a later point.

I'll be adding other screens capture afterwards - even tho I don't need them (I've got only two screens and have trouble making pinballx smooth with 2 videos at once).

 

 

2/Automatic screenshoting.

Screenshots are in as well - playfield and backglass for now. I'd be needing some help on this from someone having a 3 screens pincab since mine is setup in an unusual way (my playfield screen is 2, and portrait). I think a detailed setup description along with a screenres.txt file would do.

 

Question for people with a real DMD : is it seen by windows as a real screen ? Does the DMDEXT (or whatever PinMAME output that is used nowadays) creates a GDI ressource window ?

 

3/Compilation trouble

Some parts of my program are using some multiprocessing feature and I seem to have trouble compiling them with nuitka. If anyone has some experience regarding this, I'd love to have a chat ! They are working okay when using pyinstaller, but I'd really love to give nuitka some love.

 

4/Next up are some cleaning functions : audit for unecessary files and stuff, filter display list for missing target feature (wheel, b2s, etc).

 

Thanks for reading !

 

[Rajo Joey]

It seems, that this will be THE army swiss knife for Pinball X. Can't wait to try it.

Gesendet von meinem SGP511 mit Tapatalk

[CloudHead]

1/Filters are in.
This was actually pretty easy to do since the auditing was already in place and modular. Now you can filter your current displayed system list with just what you need to be working on !



2/Patched in the record chooser dialog.
Okay, now we can configure what we want to do with the filtered list.As I said, I'll be extending the recordable stuff when I get more informations on how 3 screens and DMD pincabs actually work. I'll then be testing simulateneous recording for multiple targets (playfield, backglass, dmd) and see if it's a reasonable option. Early tests indicate that recording a fullhd playfield@60 fps doesnt even eat up a whole core on my pincab, so I guess there's still some headroom available depending on number of cores in the CPU.



3/I just launched a test run for batch re-recording most of my playfield mp4s with crisp quality alongside with filling in the blanks on the screenshot side. Still a couple hours to go, no miracle here, bruteforce powa ! Working great so far !

 

 

[CloudHead]

As said yesterday, I integrated the option to also record backglass simultaneously. Against all odds, both playfield and backglass are captured at a steady 60fps on my modest pincab. FFMPEG is truely an astonishing piece of software !

Maybe I'll try to capture the DMD window too now...

 

This is still of litterally no use to me since my PinballX install can't cope with 2 videos at once, let alone 3 !

Edited by CloudHead, 09 October 2017 - 10:20 PM.

[yagesz]

I am glad you implimented my idea on the auditing. I have been MISSING having an option that is fluid and easy to decipher to find missing pieces. Will this show me the extra files? and Can it fuzzy match them and show me stuff that is missing simultaneously so I can click and rename on the fly?

Will you impliment Media pack grabs for the PBX FTP?

[CloudHead]

Hi, great progress today regarding videos. Figured out WHY PinballX was so jerky when playing 2 videos at once, let alone three ! Read about it here : http://www.vpforums....showtopic=38853

[32assassin]

great job so far,

 

if you are able to launch tables for video recording,

you should consider adding a normal table launch button to your program.

(a launch button that does not require Pinball X to be installed)

 

Desktop Users need an up to date GUI to launch their tables, the only basic option is VP-man; and this program is no longer cutting it.

[CloudHead]

great job so far,
 
if you are able to launch tables for video recording,
you should consider adding a normal table launch button to your program.
(a launch button that does not require Pinball X to be installed)
 
Desktop Users need an up to date GUI to launch their tables, the only basic option is VP-man; and this program is no longer cutting it.

As a matter of fact... I already did. The only thing missing for Desktop users would be some configuration variables that I grab from the PinballX ini file rather than have them in my own, but I'll consider adding this as a fallback if no pinballx is found.

[yagesz]

when can i beta test? 

[CloudHead]

when can i beta test?

Well even when releasing an alpha version, I wouldn't want to break anyone's system, would I ?
I've been playing around with it over the last few days, and I stumbled upon a few obvious bugs, Pinball FX issues, etc. I will pack a preview version at some point, then I need a bug report setup somehow so that I can gather the feedback.
Because as they say... There will be blood... err huh bugs.

[yagesz]

when can i beta test?

Well even when releasing an alpha version, I wouldn't want to break anyone's system, would I ?
I've been playing around with it over the last few days, and I stumbled upon a few obvious bugs, Pinball FX issues, etc. I will pack a preview version at some point, then I need a bug report setup somehow so that I can gather the feedback.
Because as they say... There will be blood... err huh bugs.

I have a 100tb plus size server that has all my backups lol. Try and break it. I dare ya

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk