1328 replies to this topic

[xio]

Great news DNA, thx for adding more tables !

[sleepy]

Thanks DNA! Much appreciated!

[xio]

I think it would be great to have more players in the ladder.

Here's a list of things that could make more people want to participate. DNA already made a fantastic work, and it would be great to reach another level in the World VP playing competition !

- more tables :

the more the better, there's a lot of great tables here, and most of them should be in the ladder : HSII, WCS94, TZ, CFTBL, , Dracula, Elvira, Cueball, StarTrek25th, Cyclone, Guns n'Roses, Tommy, Who Dunnit, Goldeneye, Elvis, Baywatch + the newest ones (BBB, Cactus, Diner) + maybe JP's originals Pirates & Spiderman ? not forgetting EM tables that some players will prefer.

I know it's a lot of work to add tables => maybe we can have a team working on it and not only DNA ?

- more visible ladders :

Maybe the ladders could be somewhere on VPF (if Noah is OK with it of course), with some declinaisons (all time, year, month), some special contests, and could even be linked to the forum Id, so some rank can appear on members data. And with a more sexy design.
Is there a need to separate FS & desktop ladders ? it's the same tables even if it "feels" differently, but just as much as one table will be different on a cheap PC than on a breand new gamerz one.
The ladder could be all tables / all format but still have different "champions" (EM Gold champion, FS Silver one, and so on)

Again, DNA must not be the only one working on it, but I'm sure there's plenty of people able to help on this.

- user friendly :

One other way to have more people participating is to make it easier. The best way would be to integrate PinemHi program inside VP, but it might be a dream.
Another thing I thought about would be to dissociate scores sending from playing : launching program would only read the nvram files and send the best score of each recognized one. So player has not to lauch the program each time he plays but just a few times to have his hiscores uploaded on the server. I don't know if it's possible either.


These are just some ideas. I love the way DNA allowed us to play against each other, and it's great to compete with DedRok, Ced, sleepy, Drawde, ... but it would be again better to play with the whole VPF community (and I'm a good loser )

What do u guys think ?

PS : HS is still in v1.01 in PinemHi, but there's a 1.0.3 I think (High Speed 1.0.3 FSLB VP912)

Edited by xio, 13 April 2012 - 11:35 AM.

[Drawde]

I agree with some of the things xio said. PINemHi is easily the best frontend (or is it an addon?) for VP. We could definitely use more players and more tables. Players are harder to add than tables though and I don't really know how we could do that. Maybe we could look into some of the players we already have. Some stats: according to the challenge log in there are 36 registered players. Of those players 20 have sent in scores for three tables or less and half of them have registered but never sent in a single score. Of the remaining 16 players only 10 of them have sent in scores in the past month. As far as finding new players I know yogi used to do promotional stuff here on the forums (thats what got me playing). Maybe we could try some more of that. Asking our friends (on the forum or in person) to play would probally be a good thing to do.

As to adding more tables I think we should put together a single list of tables to have. I know there are still 13 on ceds list. I have a list of around 20 or so I was waiting to put up until ced's was finished. I imagine DedRok, sleepy, karlojue, Dave Beedle, xio (aside from the few he mentioned maybe), and anyone else who plays have lists of their own. I'm willing to bet that there is a lot of overlap so the total list wouldn't be that huge. As far as getting people to help I am a fully functional C/C++/C# programmer and can get around in several others. I am more than willing to help out dna in working on PINemHi.

I do not think the VP9 and FS cups should be merged. I don't play FS (yet) so I know what I say on this might not count for much. I can kind of see xio's point about some of the tables playing pretty much the same. From what I've gathered the only difference from the desktop and fs versions on some of JP's tables are the views angles and some of the graphics used. But what about tables where they have completely different authors, like T2? I doubt they have the same physics. Also what about tables that only have FS versions? The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from ced's list is one. If the cups are merged then the players who only play desktop will be at a disadvantage.

I'm not sure yet about what I think about trying to be more integrated with the forums but I know we should avoid contests or anything else that would make the Leaderboard too serious. I think it's best just sending in scores for the fun of it. Speaking of that, I like being in control of which scores get sent in. I don't think that part of the program should be changed.

Edited by Drawde, 13 April 2012 - 10:34 PM.

[DnaDisturber]

Hi Guys,

I understand what you're saying.....

Tables:
Getting more tables in isn't that hard, although some don't have the last score in 'm...
El bueno for instance and in BBB I couldn't find one (wanted to add them in the previous release)
But with a little trick the score can be used as in a special score (topping the highest score will then only get it in).
An overall list of most wanted tables would be nice to work from..

At first I had all tables in for a game but that didn't work out so well , now it's somewhat organised (just one table per category).
It's more competitive as the players scores are just for that game instead of dividing the scores among several tables.

-Em tables can't be added as they use a totally different way of saving the hiscore(s), this also includes originals unfortunately.
Would maybe be possible in the future but it's all custom work per table (but that's also with the SS tableroms) and a rewrite of the code now being used.

As of late I haven't added much tables as I worked on the other program which can now readout almost all hiscore (SS tables only of course).
I even got it working in pinemhi leaderboard , so when you're playing you can see your local hiscores when pressing H.
For FS tables I even got it working to rotate to 270 degrees. (Unfortunately only that and not the menu as of yet)


Players:
As for players , I know it's only for 10 people or so....It would be nice to have more people in.
But better some players that play often than a lot that just play once and then never be seen again.
It has been tough from the beginning...but if you look at how much people put hiscores in the hiscore-thread then it's not that bad.
That's also a small percentage of people who use that.
I agree with Drawde that a contest could be getting too serious , it should be just for fun.
On submitting scores afterwards , I'm not a fan of that because it becomes very easy to alter the scores and then send them.
Sure if you want there are still many ways to cheat....but I like to know that it's really played at the time of entering it.


A nicer website is something I would like to do (separate pages for VP9 , FS and VP8) with a litlle bling bling.
Other ladders is possible but that would only be of use when more people would play.
I like the idea of all time/year/month...

Intregated in Vpinball itself , that would be something...I use vb for the program but with the help of autohotkey.
Who knows maybe some day

I never would have expected that pinemhi leaderboard would work the way it is working now and that I could make something like this.
It has evolved into a fairly usable program and who knows what it will turn into.
Hope you guys still like using it....
Thanks for using it.....

Dna Disturber

[DedRok_V]

I think its an awesome program ...... I'm happy to play whatever tables you add whenever you add them.

More people playing would be nice.

Not only do the FS and desktop versions play different, (maybe that in my head), but different systems play different.

When I first started playing, I was pretty hopeless, then got better ...... then with a new system it played much smoother and different, and I started to play much much better.

DNA
Is the pinemhi score reader usable for cabs now or still have to be worked on.
Would be nice to pull up scores when I need them.

[sleepy]

I've been wondering how many more players there might be if the .ini file configuration were automated.

I looked at vbscript trying to figure out how to get the full path for VPinball912.exe by searching the hard drive, but I can't find a method that works.

If there is one, then a script could take that path and autoinsert it into the .ini file at the line for VP9, and then the path for VP8.1 if desired by the user, while an InputBox could take the username and password, typed or copy/pasted, and write it to the .ini file.

I'm thinking that, with the difficulties that many people have with setting up Visual Pinball/VPinMame, that perhaps the PINemHi_Leaderboard setup is too much for them.

Do you happen to know how many people have downloaded PINemHi_Leaderboard in total?

Edited by sleepy, 14 April 2012 - 12:13 PM.

[DnaDisturber]

DNA
Is the pinemhi score reader usable for cabs now or still have to be worked on.
Would be nice to pull up scores when I need them.

Here is the new version to try out.
It's a full install.
As many things have changed I would suggest to extract it in a new directory or clean the one you're using and then extract.
Don't forget to keep your code in a safe place while doing so.

The new feature does require that you have flashplayer 10 or above installed on your system.

Use h in a game to bring it up and h or Esc to return (feature does not work in 5 minute-mode)
If you have made a big score in the game , the hiscore will not show until you again start the game.
The nvram is as you may know updated by visual pinball on exiting a table and I read out that nvram.

Let me know what you think of the new feature.

_edit- removed it as it's not working as it should be for the moment

Edited by DnaDisturber, 14 April 2012 - 02:02 PM.

[DnaDisturber]

I've been wondering how many more players there might be if the .ini file configuration were automated.

I looked at vbscript trying to figure out how to get the full path for VPinball912.exe by searching the hard drive, but I can't find a method that works.

If there is one, then a script could take that path and autoinsert it into the .ini file at the line for VP9, and then the path for VP8.1 if desired by the user, while an InputBox could take the username and password, typed or copy/pasted, and write it to the .ini file.

I'm thinking that, with the difficulties that many people have with setting up Visual Pinball/VPinMame, that perhaps the PINemHi_Leaderboard setup is too much for them.

Do you happen to know how many people have downloaded PINemHi_Leaderboard in total?

Searching for the executable could be tricky as people maybe have several if for instance they use hyperpin as well.
So it could turn up multiple times.
Also some people rename it to vpinball, then i can't tell which version it is.
I don't think that's the difficulty, i would say the extra things as turning uac off and for vista and windows 7 turning lastaccestime on that that's making it difficult.
If they got as far as installing visuall pinball with vpinmame i would say that editing an ini-file is fairly easy

The last full version v1.5.2 was downloaded 2 times and the update 10 times.



Damn finally had a first place (class of 1812) but you had to ruin it, didn't you...
Now i have to try and snatch it back


Oh and I wanna thank ced for introducing this very cool table to me....i just love class of 1812...thanks

Edited by DnaDisturber, 14 April 2012 - 01:26 PM.

[ced]

Hi DNA,

I have test the new version , but when I press h , on the table I see " canonball" I think it's for cirqus voltaire , but I played Batman and Eight ball deluxe.

Have you an idée for this ?

@++
ced

[DnaDisturber]

Hi DNA,

I have test the new version , but when I press h , on the table I see " canonball" I think it's for cirqus voltaire , but I played Batman and Eight ball deluxe.

Have you an idée for this ?

@++
ced

Hmmm that's strange....
There is a file under Misc that's called Hitemp.txt , that one contains the hiscores fetched.
For some reason it won't fill yours with the new games.
It should be filled every time you press the h with the game you are playing.
Does the file have a readonly flag on it or something?
You could edit it and put something in...start a game and press h....if your text comes out instead of the hiscores then you know for sure.

I will test it out on another computer to see if it happens to me also.....

[ced]

I have play The machine bride of pinbot , I have make a good score , but when I esc "no game played" always with the new version of pinemhi.

[DnaDisturber]

I have play The machine bride of pinbot , I have make a good score , but when I esc "no game played" always with the new version of pinemhi.

I was a little too hasty I'm afraid.....
I suggest not using the new version just yet.
Removed the download from the previous post.

[ced]

ok dna I delete this new version

[DnaDisturber]

DNA
Is the pinemhi score reader usable for cabs now or still have to be worked on.
Would be nice to pull up scores when I need them.

Here is the new version to try out.
It's a full install.
As many things have changed I would suggest to extract it in a new directory or clean the one you're using and then extract.
Don't forget to keep your code in a safe place while doing so.

The new feature does require that you have flashplayer 10 or above installed on your system.

Use h in a game to bring it up and h or Esc to return (feature does not work in 5 minute-mode)
If you have made a big score in the game , the hiscore will not show until you again start the game.
The nvram is as you may know updated by visual pinball on exiting a table and I read out that nvram.

Let me know what you think of the new feature.

Attempt number 2.........
Anyone wanna try out the new version with the local hiscore feature ?

Not an official yet but who knows.....if it's working ok for the volunteers it might be



Let me know what you think of the new feature.

[xio]

I'm willing to help, so first thing would be to keep the "most wanted" list if I understood your posts above. I suggest everyone (the whole 5 players ) send me in pm his own list, so I summarize everything, find the most recent versions, count the votes then give the whole list to DNA, if that's helping you ?

About linking to the forum profile : it wasn't meant to be a real contest, as there's nothing to win (nor lose ), it was just to have a rank that could make people curious & so willing to try the PinemHi program. Advertising, and still keeping just fun.
About FS & desktop cup : I understand there are some little differences, I'm just not sure it justify the two ladders. As I told above, I think it's more difficult to play with a slow computer than with one or the other version of the table. And it was in the idea of the forum link, to have just one rank.

Anyway that was just some ideas to increase Pinemhi success, I hope it did not sound as I was complaining or something (with foreign languages it's not easy to mean exactly what u have in mind).

I came too late for the new version, but I did not understand : what will the h key show ?
EDIT : OK I just tried the new 1.6 and I got a "blue Pinemhi" window with a ball passing through the screen and the hiscores above, it's great and seems to work well on the 2 tables I tried

Edited by xio, 14 April 2012 - 03:55 PM.

[DnaDisturber]

I'm willing to help, so first thing would be to keep the "most wanted" list if I understood your posts above. I suggest everyone (the whole 5 players ) send me in pm his own list, so I summarize everything, find the most recent versions, count the votes then give the whole list to DNA, if that's helping you ?

About linking to the forum profile : it wasn't meant to be a real contest, as there's nothing to win (nor lose ), it was just to have a rank that could make people curious & so willing to try the PinemHi program. Advertising, and still keeping just fun.
About FS & desktop cup : I understand there are some little differences, I'm just not sure it justify the two ladders. As I told above, I think it's more difficult to play with a slow computer than with one or the other version of the table. And it was in the idea of the forum link, to have just one rank.

Anyway that was just some ideas to increase Pinemhi success, I hope it did not sound as I was complaining or something (with foreign languages it's not easy to mean exactly what u have in mind).

I came too late for the new version, but I did not understand : what will the h key show ?

Yeah great idea (the most wanted list)...

Didn't sound as complaining to me....it's all good advice and discussion

I was too quick with the new release but I have (probably) fixed it, the download is now one post above this one.
Was too anxious showing the local hiscore feature I guess

By pressing h you get your local hiscores (on your system).
It's what I wanted to add to hyperpin but for now I integrated it in pinemhi leaderboard.

It's all about hiscores so why not put it in....

Edited by DnaDisturber, 14 April 2012 - 04:00 PM.

[DnaDisturber]

Xio,

Good to hear that the new version is working properly.
Have you tried the amazing ahum....feature "rotate" for the local hiscore for your FS-tables ?

Thanks for testing it out btw

[xio]

I tried the 270 feature : blue windowwith the moving ball, but no hiscore is shown

[DnaDisturber]

I tried the 270 feature : blue windowwith the moving ball, but no hiscore is shown

Does it happen on every table you play ?
It's working here on 2 pc's.... a windows 64 bit and xp 32 bit

If you exit the program and try it again, does it still happen?