56 replies to this topic

[DJRobX]

I'd like to see PinUp go open source.  I always get nervous investing time into setting up software that relies on one person not getting hit by a bus...

 

On a front end I don't worry about time investment too much.   If Nailbuster were hit by a bus and Microsoft made some update that irreparably broke Popper, I can pretty easily port my database and media from Popper to something else, just as I did from Hyperpin to PBX, to Popper before that.    I'm a big advocate of open source too, but I'm not too concerned at the moment because Nailbuster is very engaged and feverishly adding requests (which seems to have inspired Tom to do the same with PinballX).   Sometimes there isn't a need for more chefs to come spoil the stew, so to speak..   But I'm happy to see an open source option available in PBY as well.

Something like VPX, VPM, B2S where authors have devoted countless hours to an ecosystem that gets held back if one component can't be updated, is a different story.   I'm very grateful to Herweh for open sourcing B2S when he was done with it.   Because it sits in between VPM and VPX, it was a blocker for new features. 

 

[Gilrock]

@DJRobX:  Yes I agree.  As soon as I posted I thought to myself heck I could re-write the front-end myself if I wanted.  That is if I wasn't already tied up with a major freeware project in my spare time.  I've been a main developer for 4 years for xLights a light sequencing program and we've made it so good a lot of customers are leaving the products they paid several hundred to use.  I think we've brought in over $40,000 in donations over the last 2 years so a lot of times I wish it wasn't freeware.

[rickh]

There is also a new player in town. MJR's PinballY.

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I gave Mike's PinballY a one week test drive.  It's got lots of potential, but it still has a few of the same complaints I have with PinballX.  Primarily there is something in the code that tosses the DMD (if you use the backbox display for also DMD) back behind the display. Analogous to focusing on display and hitting the esc key.  On the cool side it allows you to import all the media from a pinballx setup.  I tried this, but several tables were not recognized. No biggie, I suspect that further improvements are around the corner and if this is anything like pinscape, it should be awesome.  

[CapnJohno]

Pinballx for sure.

I used Pinballx for years with no issues, was relatively easy to setup mame and steam games to run from it via rocketlauncher as well with multimonitortool.
I was interested in Pup Packs so I recently tried Pinup Popper but found Popper buggy as all hell.
I uninstalled and reinstalled again following Terry's video to the letter but it still ran with bugs like table videos degrading while displaying, backglass disappearing when returning to Popper from a game, key configuration not actually doing what I had set.
Pinup player worked fine for the Pup Packs but the front end Popper was a very bad and frustrating experience for me.
Today I downloaded and installed the newest version of Pinballx 3.79 i think and it runs like a dream with my 3 screen setup.
I had nearly all my tables and videos setup inside of 10 min from starting the setup process and am very pleased with all the new options that I didn't have in my old Pinballx (like playfield recording and topper displays).
I'm a big fan of Pinballx and if you want to setup relatively quickly in a logical way then go with PinballX.
Try playing around with Popper down the track if you can be bothered, but do try and get Pinup Player working at that time as some pup packs really improve a game (masters of the universe on VPX for example). Just be warned that the installation process is a real pain and must be followed 100% accurately and in order.
PinballX is basic by comparison.

[sc23]

Just thought i would add that i have no issues with PinballX. It has everything needed in a frontend other than recording real DMD videos (maybe im doing something wrong). I looked into and installed pinUP FE and it just wasnt as intuitive to setup as PinballX IMO. 
For those claiming PinballX causes crashes, in my experience those crashes are usually table or system related. Unless the system is crashing while browsing tables then its probably on the VPX side. Im not saying one is better than the other just that PinballX hasnt really given me a reason to look elsewhere.

Edited by sc23, 14 January 2020 - 11:17 AM.

[KPinball75]

I've been using PinballY for a while now and really like it.  Tried PinballX but wasn't a fan.  I haven't tried pinup popper yet.  I played around with pinup player and had problems with extreme lag on some games that I was never ever to completely eliminate.  I wasn't sure if pinup popper would cause the same issues so haven't looked at it yet.  Pretty sure the problem is the 4K playfield monitor is too much for the RX580 to handle with pinup player.

[KABS]

Just thought i would add that i have no issues with PinballX. It has everything needed in a frontend other than recording real DMD videos (maybe im doing something wrong).
 

 

I went through and recorded videos for my playfield, backglass and dmd last weekend with pbxrecorder, it recorded dmd as video no problems. what ever the dmd was doing when the table loaded and the system started recording is exactly what i get when my pinball x runs.

[jamos]

Only thing that annoys me with popper menu is its in windowed mode and things pop up over it like steam messages. windows messages etc. It is a must if you use pup videos though so its better than pinballx.

[wiesshund]

I've been using PinballY for a while now and really like it.  Tried PinballX but wasn't a fan.  I haven't tried pinup popper yet.  I played around with pinup player and had problems with extreme lag on some games that I was never ever to completely eliminate.  I wasn't sure if pinup popper would cause the same issues so haven't looked at it yet.  Pretty sure the problem is the 4K playfield monitor is too much for the RX580 to handle with pinup player.

 

More likely CPU related
an RX580 is fine, but PUP does not use it for the video playback
it does it all in software if i am not mistaken, so does it all on the cpu

[jamos]

I know tables are very vpu intensive though I tried radeon RX580 on my i3 (soon to be a i7) cabinet blah performance 32 to 35 avg. fps at 1080p. Put in a GTX 1650 steady 60-65 fps on all tables including Future Pinball with PUP packs.

Edited by jamos, 22 November 2020 - 11:35 PM.

[wiesshund]

Something is much amiss there

I have X580 X, and run frame rates well over 100 if i disable v-sync
and that is with all the eye candy that vpx will make use of maxed out, including brute force AA

 

I just dont find the shear and tear all that amusing and so choose to keep v-sync enabled

 

but the GPU has little part to play in PUP since it doesn't do hardware rendering/decoding as far as i understand it.
it does it all in software, so it makes the CPU do it, which is kind of a bummer as the GPU has the hardware onboard specialized to do that job.
Depending on the resolution of the PUP pak, it might be a bit taxing.
Some of them have 4k videos

[jamos]

Something is much amiss there

I have X580 X, and run frame rates well over 100 if i disable v-sync
and that is with all the eye candy that vpx will make use of maxed out, including brute force AA

 

I just dont find the shear and tear all that amusing and so choose to keep v-sync enabled

 

but the GPU has little part to play in PUP since it doesn't do hardware rendering/decoding as far as i understand it.
it does it all in software, so it makes the CPU do it, which is kind of a bummer as the GPU has the hardware onboard specialized to do that job.
Depending on the resolution of the PUP pak, it might be a bit taxing.
Some of them have 4k videos

 

whats your cpu?

[wiesshund]

AMD Ryzen 5 1500 X @3.9 Ghz 8 Thread

[jamos]

AMD Ryzen 5 1500 X @3.9 Ghz 8 Thread

 

lol well thats why such good frame rate. I am waiting on my i7.

[wiesshund]

 

AMD Ryzen 5 1500 X @3.9 Ghz 8 Thread

 

lol well thats why such good frame rate. I am waiting on my i7.

 

Still, you should have gotten FPS around the same as the other video card, considering you are not bottlenecked at the video end of things.

Unless for some reason the i3 is bottlenecking the RX580 some how?

[jamos]

It a first gen it certainly could be with the older motherboard. All I know is I popped in that GTX1650 and got 60+ fps comared to 30.

 

I will just sell the RX580 on ebay or something.

Edited by jamos, 25 November 2020 - 02:40 PM.

[wiesshund]

might save it if you maybe plan to build a 2nd PC for something
Its a good card, but would probably fair better in a newer gen motherboard

 

Probably work great in an AMD motherboard, being that they are both AMD LOL