1130 replies to this topic

[scutters]

 

 

but I forgot to start PINemHI after I took a break.
 

Why not leaving it running all the time ?
My pinemhi is starting during boot and during launch of vpx, it checks if process is running, if not, it will start it again.
And yes. All is posted. Even my tables that I'm checking and adding to the frontend

 

 

Mike Can you share your script here? I can't find it on PinballX. Running monitor through the task scheduler results in the error I gave a few posts ago. Unfortunately adding a delay of even a minute does not help. Running manually does not result in the error. 

 

 

 

 

Think Mikes script is here - https://forums.gamee...-setup-and-use/

 

 

PINemHI is supposed to just work with PinballY frontend right? somethings amiss with my setup if it is - it's not grabbin scores or listing hiscores (also no options in the front end which im assuming there should be to like launch into 5 minute mode) what must I do to get it working correctly? what a nightmare the 4 buttons required are....

 

I'd assume it should just work like for other front ends. If it's not showing hiscores then make sure that the nvram path for vpinmame is set in pinemhi.ini should be something under [paths]  like VP=C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\nvram\

See piple's post for adding PinballY menu options https://www.vpforums...=34#entry478746

[Csilk]

The confusion stems from the PinballY documentation, claiming that it does it all for you when reality is you must start the watchdog (is this outdated information in PinballY docs?)

 

I just have it starting the watchdog when a table launches with the latest version, I'm not sure what the point of having PINemHI come with PinballY when its version 1.3.1?

 

there is a helluva lot of confusion as to what must be done to work correctly, I was expecting it to be fully integrated into PinballY.. like why not have a tab in the settings to say auto-launch PINemHI monitor on visual pinball launch and then take all

the configuration out of the users hands, with a nifty dialog box to add code and name and a link to the website to get said code... speaking of which it really needs a way on the leaderboard pages to go back to the previous page via the header or something, its a PITA navigating the website by manually typing url or going to my bookmarks over and over again just because I want to go to a different portion of the website.

it seems to want to work against people from using it and could use a great deal of streamlining, I also wonder if there is some way to write a script so that a table always closes and relaunches after 3rd ball (maybe via table script?) so that it will always record your scores for you.

 

I can't be the only one wishing for a more streamlined experience... don't get me wrong I really like PINemHI and what it brings to the table *pun unintended * I just find it very rough around the edges.

Edited by Csilk, 17 June 2021 - 03:04 PM.

[scutters]

The confusion stems from the PinballY documentation, claiming that it does it all for you when reality is you must start the watchdog (is this outdated information in PinballY docs?)

 

 

I'm a PinballX guy, but i guess Y is similar. Think the confusion is that the version of pinemhi that the front end uses is for local high scores (so you can see them in the front end). The watchdog/monitor is for DNA's online scoring database. It's the local hiscore data that is (probably) automated in PinballY not the online stuff.

[wiesshund]

The confusion stems from the PinballY documentation, claiming that it does it all for you when reality is you must start the watchdog (is this outdated information in PinballY docs?)

 

I just have it starting the watchdog when a table launches with the latest version, I'm not sure what the point of having PINemHI come with PinballY when its version 1.3.1?

 

there is a helluva lot of confusion as to what must be done to work correctly, I was expecting it to be fully integrated into PinballY.. like why not have a tab in the settings to say auto-launch PINemHI monitor on visual pinball launch and then take all

the configuration out of the users hands, with a nifty dialog box to add code and name and a link to the website to get said code... speaking of which it really needs a way on the leaderboard pages to go back to the previous page via the header or something, its a PITA navigating the website by manually typing url or going to my bookmarks over and over again just because I want to go to a different portion of the website.

it seems to want to work against people from using it and could use a great deal of streamlining, I also wonder if there is some way to write a script so that a table always closes and relaunches after 3rd ball (maybe via table script?) so that it will always record your scores for you.

 

I can't be the only one wishing for a more streamlined experience... don't get me wrong I really like PINemHI and what it brings to the table *pun unintended * I just find it very rough around the edges.

 

The front ends (PinballY and PinballX) only use a subset of PinEMhi for local score recording
neither will send your scores up or anything, it is mostly for the table info feature of the front ends, neither one run the ROM monitor
 

[DnaDisturber]

The confusion stems from the PinballY documentation, claiming that it does it all for you when reality is you must start the watchdog (is this outdated information in PinballY docs?)
 
I just have it starting the watchdog when a table launches with the latest version, I'm not sure what the point of having PINemHI come with PinballY when its version 1.3.1?
 
there is a helluva lot of confusion as to what must be done to work correctly, I was expecting it to be fully integrated into PinballY.. like why not have a tab in the settings to say auto-launch PINemHI monitor on visual pinball launch and then take all
the configuration out of the users hands, with a nifty dialog box to add code and name and a link to the website to get said code... speaking of which it really needs a way on the leaderboard pages to go back to the previous page via the header or something, its a PITA navigating the website by manually typing url or going to my bookmarks over and over again just because I want to go to a different portion of the website.
it seems to want to work against people from using it and could use a great deal of streamlining, I also wonder if there is some way to write a script so that a table always closes and relaunches after 3rd ball (maybe via table script?) so that it will always record your scores for you.
 
I can't be the only one wishing for a more streamlined experience... don't get me wrong I really like PINemHI and what it brings to the table *pun unintended * I just find it very rough around the edges.

Pinemhi leaderboard has no relationship with any frontend...can be used with all and without a frontend
You're saying it has rough edges but you are referring to things outside pinemhi leaderboard.
Things in frontend, also after third ball visual pinball should stop...none of them are related to pinemhi
Also complaining about the website but nearly all information is on your cab/pc...no need tot go to the website
Maybe you don't know this but nearly all is there

Doesn't your browser have a back button , it doesn't go that deep , with one or 2 you are back there.

It's a hobby...i don't get paid for all this work...can't expect too much

[Csilk]

ah so it only does local scores for the frontend pinbally, the documentation doesn't really mention that its only partly implemented.. I was expecting PINemHI features builtin since it comes packaged with the frontend with such advice as you don't need to install PINemHI, I wasn't aware that PINemHI leaderboards was a different thing altogether.

 

I guess you could call it complaining or constructive criticism, regardless I'm thankful for the leaderboards aspect of it.

 

what do you mean stop after 3 balls? I have to quit for it to register my score, I can't just keep playing and have it update my scores or am I mistaken?

 

oh and scutters i just noticed the menu addition part that you posted, thats what I was looking for thanks.

Edited by Csilk, 17 June 2021 - 09:49 PM.

[DnaDisturber]

ah so it only does local scores for the frontend pinbally, the documentation doesn't really mention that its only partly implemented.. I was expecting PINemHI features builtin since it comes packaged with the frontend with such advice as you don't need to install PINemHI, I wasn't aware that PINemHI leaderboards was a different thing altogether.
 
I guess you could call it complaining or constructive criticism, regardless I'm thankful for the leaderboards aspect of it.
 
what do you mean stop after 3 balls? I have to quit for it to register my score, I can't just keep playing and have it update my scores or am I mistaken?
 
oh and scutters i just noticed the menu addition part that you posted, thats what I was looking for thanks.

Yes only after you quit the score will be sent.
I can't determine wether a 3rd ball has been played (the program pinemhi that is)
So can't help with that

It's ok to give constructive criticism...but it will be better to do that at the involved party.
The part about the website i understand but the other things are out of my control...made by others...that's all

Edited by DnaDisturber, 17 June 2021 - 11:02 PM.

[wiesshund]

ah so it only does local scores for the frontend pinbally, the documentation doesn't really mention that its only partly implemented.. I was expecting PINemHI features builtin since it comes packaged with the frontend with such advice as you don't need to install PINemHI, I wasn't aware that PINemHI leaderboards was a different thing altogether.

 

I guess you could call it complaining or constructive criticism, regardless I'm thankful for the leaderboards aspect of it.

 

what do you mean stop after 3 balls? I have to quit for it to register my score, I can't just keep playing and have it update my scores or am I mistaken?

 

oh and scutters i just noticed the menu addition part that you posted, thats what I was looking for thanks.

 

DNA has nothing to do at all with PinballX PinballY Pinup Popper, Hyperpin etc

How ever they chose to implement pinEMhi, and how ever they choose to document it (or fail to) is on them, but they would see any suggestions about better

implementation here, you would have to post on their support sites.

 

DNA made pinEMhi for the associated website, they use parts of it for something else.
If you just put the rom monitor in windows startup, what ever you play, if it is supported, will upload to the leader board, and wont have any correlation 

to what ever the front ends are doing.

 

3 balls?

Because that is all that exists in pinball, as soon as the 3rd ball hits the drain, you have to quit, multiball be damned
It's a rule, everyone knows that

/plays through 3 rounds of 6x multiball

[Csilk]

oh sorry DNA for some reason I thought you were author of PinballY as well

 

doh.

 

I don't want you to think i'm complaining, I do really enjoy what you have created here and it makes me want to log on and try for a big score. Currently trying my hand on modding some tables. I just wish there were a way through script to count the balls lost (and increase the count if you have had a multiball) and then after the match over the table would close itself and reopen if thats not possible I understand, just would be nice if it sent all scores to the database after every game (unless it was to low to make the board)

[DnaDisturber]

oh sorry DNA for some reason I thought you were author of PinballY as well

 

doh.

 

I don't want you to think i'm complaining, I do really enjoy what you have created here and it makes me want to log on and try for a big score. Currently trying my hand on modding some tables. I just wish there were a way through script to count the balls lost (and increase the count if you have had a multiball) and then after the match over the table would close itself and reopen if thats not possible I understand, just would be nice if it sent all scores to the database after every game (unless it was to low to make the board)

No problem...

Yeah would be great if that was the case but for now it's manually starting it again i'm afraid....i only pick a good score to submit it...if i have a lousy one i'll just start a new game until i get a good one..then i quit (and submit)

Btw every score gets submitted to pinemhi leaderboard......even if it's not on the board...you decide yourself if you want to submit it by quitting the game (even scores of like a 1000)

 

[ced]

Hello 

 

New video for the weekly challenge 5-minute mode on Iron Man (stern 2010) (Jp Salas version_3.0)

Score:42 millions

https://youtu.be/j0TSTHzd_Lo

 

[Mike DA Spike]

oh sorry DNA for some reason I thought you were author of PinballY as well
 
doh.
 
I don't want you to think i'm complaining, I do really enjoy what you have created here and it makes me want to log on and try for a big score. Currently trying my hand on modding some tables. I just wish there were a way through script to count the balls lost (and increase the count if you have had a multiball) and then after the match over the table would close itself and reopen if thats not possible I understand, just would be nice if it sent all scores to the database after every game (unless it was to low to make the board)

No problem...
Yeah would be great if that was the case but for now it's manually starting it again i'm afraid....i only pick a good score to submit it...if i have a lousy one i'll just start a new game until i get a good one..then i quit (and submit)
Btw every score gets submitted to pinemhi leaderboard......even if it's not on the board...you decide yourself if you want to submit it by quitting the game (even scores of like a 1000)
 

When I have time to update my cab, I test normally the tables. And than you see a lot of pretty low scores posted for me on pinEMHi.
Need to have time to join challenges again (although I don't have those score of you guys, but someone needs to be on the bottom of the list)

[jejepinball]

Hi DnaDisturber,

 

I found an issue with your great program PINemHI, I already discuss on the error with Mike Da Spike and scutters : https://forums.gamee...#comment-202722.

 

In resume, because I'm French (nobody is perfect !) my regional Windows settings (Control Panel/Regional and Language Options) indicate a "space" character as thousands separator.

In PinballX, my scores text files (PinballX\High Scores\Visual Pinball\) generated with PINemHI contains stranges characters "ÿ" instead of spaces. Strange characters appears also in the menu Information of a table in PinballX.

I reproduce the problem when I launch this command line and generate a text file : pinemhi.exe > test.txt dm_lx4.nv

 

I think you can reproduce the error by changing the Windows regional settings. For the moment, I change the separator character with a comma.

 

Thank you for your answer,
Tell me if you need more info,

[DnaDisturber]

Hi DnaDisturber,

 

I found an issue with your great program PINemHI, I already discuss on the error with Mike Da Spike and scutters : https://forums.gamee...#comment-202722.

 

In resume, because I'm French (nobody is perfect !) my regional Windows settings (Control Panel/Regional and Language Options) indicate a "space" character as thousands separator.

In PinballX, my scores text files (PinballX\High Scores\Visual Pinball\) generated with PINemHI contains stranges characters "ÿ" instead of spaces. Strange characters appears also in the menu Information of a table in PinballX.

I reproduce the problem when I launch this command line and generate a text file : pinemhi.exe > test.txt dm_lx4.nv

 

I think you can reproduce the error by changing the Windows regional settings. For the moment, I change the separator character with a comma.

 

Thank you for your answer,
Tell me if you need more info,

Hi jejepinball,

 

I don't think i can do much about that.

You already have a solution to the problem

The normal output i create is with a dot. That gets replaced because of your local settings

If you want to have a space maybe you can still use that in your local settings as i understand this has to do with 2 different space types 255 and 32 in the ascii table

I believe the 255 gives the problem

 

[jejepinball]

Hi DnaDisturber, and thank you for your reply !

 

Yes I have a solution, but I think all French people have this problem. It would be more practical if your program made the modification of the space character.
 

[Mike DA Spike]

I know we don't have a lot of PinbalLX users, but I made a small program for PinballX, that can launch directly the Weekly Challenge or the Weekly 5 min mode challenge.
If you don't have buttons on your cabinet left (and don't have a stream deck as I have), there is also an option to toggle the 5 min mode that will simulate a keypress (just by running the programming)

Anyway, the program can be downloaded on the PinballX forum PinballX API Launcher (PINemHI Leaderboard selector) - Apps - Spesoft Forums (gameex.com)
Thanks to DNADisturber who made it easy for me to grab the table names and roms for the challenges.
Also a big thanks to Tom Speirs for adding applications to PinballX 
And off course thanks to Scutters who helped me a lot with this small project 

Btw . The program will works best if you have ROM names in your PinballX database file.
These are automatically added via PinballX Database manager. 
If you don't use databasemanager and you don't have roms in your database file, you can still use this, but the table match will be done on file and description name.

[Mike DA Spike]

Hey DNA

this morning I played a 5 min challenge :
 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
22/07/2021, 06:22
detected game with rom description :  Monster Bash (1.0)
matching romname :  mb_10 
previous mb_10 score extracted 

*** 5 MINUTE MODE GAME ***
22/07/2021, 06:30 
detected exit from game with rom description :  Monster Bash (1.0) 
new mb_10 score extracted 
New score submitted to pinemhi leaderboard 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

But checking the website, it was put as a normal score :
<img src='http://vpforums.org/.../mb_pinemhi.png' alt='Powered by Imged.org' />

Something went wrong when processing the score ?
 

[DnaDisturber]

Hi Mike,

Did you use your app for the 5 min challenge start?
5min mode can normally not be turned on/off during gameplay.
It is needed because there are 2 moments that the scores are checked....at the beginning and at the end.
Maybe your app switches it back during gameplay. That could probably result into this.
Don't know if you enable 5min mode and after say a couple of seconds after the start of a table disable it within the app.
If that is true then probably that's why this happened

[Mike DA Spike]

Actually this game was started via a plugin for PinballX that scutters created (with code that I created for my peogram ). I was doing some tests on it
The 5 min challange key was pressed before the table starts and also pressed after vpx was closed.
So it was not during gameplay that the key was pressed (because I was playing the game )
I will keep an eye on it.I was just curious if this was possible and who it was possible.

I will blame scutters for it that he presses the key too many times

Edited by Mike DA Spike, 22 July 2021 - 05:21 PM.

[DnaDisturber]

Actually this game was started via a plugin for PinballX that scutters created (with code that I created for my peogram ). I was doing some tests on it
The 5 min challange key was pressed before the table starts and also pressed after vpx was closed.
So it was not during gameplay that the key was pressed (because I was playing the game )
I will keep an eye on it.I was just curious if this was possible and who it was possible.

I will blame scutters for it that he presses the key too many times

 

Haha blame it all on Scutters

 

It probably needs a small delay after vpx exits...
there is a delay in reading the nvram after vpx exits...the plugin will probably also need that, otherwise it's too soon

would make it like 2 or 3 seconds and then switch 5min mode off after exiting vpx

 

Edited by DnaDisturber, 23 July 2021 - 02:15 AM.