1624 replies to this topic

[mjr]

 

Which type of game are we talking about here?  Visual Pinball, something else?  That message isn't anything that's coming from PinballY - it's coming from the game.  So the option will be something you need to set in the game, either in the game's settings or in a command-line parameter, again depending on what game player program you're talking about.

 

Yes, it's Visual Pinball. Of course the popup comes from VPX, but I don't see a way to suppress the 'Preparing table' popup in its options, unless I'm missing something obvious.

I was just wondering if PinballY is capable of hiding that, since PinballX is not showing the same window when starting a game.

 

Okay, if it's VP, then It sounds like you're launching VP with the editor window visible.  The usual solution is to launch VP minimized so that the first real window VP opens is the play window.  Do you have the window mode in PBY set to Minimized, and did you include the /minimized option in the VP command line?

Edited by mjr, 20 February 2022 - 09:53 PM.

[htamas]

It works now, thanks 

I did have the window mode set to Minimize (SW_SHOWMINIMIZED), but I was missing the extra /minimized in the command line parameters.

Thank you once again for the advice, much appreciated.

Edited by htamas, 21 February 2022 - 05:57 AM.

[freebird1963]

It's working, PinballY give me the total time played in hour/min/seconds !

A friend of mine gave me a little help for the rest of the script.

 

So if you want to have this information, just create a "main.js" file in the script folder of pinballY, and copy/paste these lines

function convertHMS(value) {
    const sec = parseInt(value, 10); // convert value to number if it's string
    let hours   = Math.floor(sec / 3600); // get hours
    let minutes = Math.floor((sec - (hours * 3600)) / 60); // get minutes
    let seconds = sec - (hours * 3600) - (minutes * 60); //  get seconds
    // add 0 if value < 10; Example: 2 => 02
    if (hours   < 10) {hours   = "0"+hours;}
    if (minutes < 10) {minutes = "0"+minutes;}
    if (seconds < 10) {seconds = "0"+seconds;}
    return hours+' hours '+minutes+' min '+seconds+' s'; // Return is HH : MM : SS
}

let totalSeconds = 0;
gameList.getAllGames().forEach(game => totalSeconds += game.playTime);


let totalPlayTime;
function updateTotalPlayTime() {
   totalPlayTime = 0;
   gameList.getAllGames().forEach(game => totalPlayTime += game.playTime);
}

// figure the initial play time when this script is first loaded, at the start of the PinballY session
updateTotalPlayTime();

// and update the total play time each time we return from a game play session
mainWindow.on("postlaunch", ev => updateTotalPlayTime());

// substitute [totalSeconds] into the lower status line text on each display update
mainWindow.statusLines.lower.on("statusline", ev => {
   ev.expandedText = ev.expandedText.replace(/\[totalSeconds\]/g, convertHMS(totalPlayTime));
});

After that, in the lower status line option of PinballY, add a line with this :

[totalSeconds] played

 

Actually the result is available only on lower status line (not upper one), but it's updated "in real time".

I'll try the next option as soon as possible.

 

Thank you again MJR !!!!!!!

THANKS !!!! Worked for me.

[jamiegates]

When I load a table in Pinbally it displays the wheel art doubled up and the image of the playfield and a can't find the option to to turn this off.  Wasn't there an option at one time to display something to cleanup the transition to loading a table?  Did this option get removed from a newer build?  It just looks ugly to me. Please Help! 

[mjr]

When I load a table in Pinbally it displays the wheel art doubled up and the image of the playfield and a can't find the option to to turn this off.  

 

I'm guessing you selected a transparent launch overlay image.  What you're seeing is the game wheel continuing to be displayed underneath the "launching" screen overlay, which shows the game wheel image and the current launch status message.  The regular wheel is normally hidden behind the opaque launch overlay background image, but if you select a transparent image, everything underneath still shows through, including the regular wheel image.

 

What you need to do is hide the wheel during launch (and underlay, if you have one) with Javascript.  See Tidying up the UI in Javascript scripting > Worked Examples > "Seamless" Game Launch in the help, but here's the Javascript:

mainWindow.on("launchoverlayshow", ev => {
    mainWindow.showWheel(false);
    mainWindow.setUnderlay("");
    ev.preventDefault();
});


mainWindow.on("launchoverlayhide", ev => {
    mainWindow.showWheel(true);
});

I should probably just make this a regular checkbox option somewhere.  I'm reluctant to add yet more checkboxes when there's a way to get the same effect in JS, but this one seems to be common enough that it might justify yet another checkbox.

Edited by mjr, 26 February 2022 - 07:35 PM.

[jamiegates]

Thanks @mjr , your fix gave me a idea on how to fix my problem.  I just went into my media folder and found the 'Game Launch Background.png' and renamed it problem solved.  It was so long ago that I forgot how I did it, and was thinking it was a checkbox.

[JLPicard001]

I have been using FutureDMD with Future Pinball tables integrated into PinballY, now that DMDExt is available to use with Future Pinball, what parameters should I be working with to get that working within PinballY?

TerryRed includes this scripting for PUP, but it probably needs to be edited to reflect what PinballY requires.

 

c:
cd "C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME"
start /min "" "dmdext.exe" mirror --source=futurepinball -q --virtual-stay-on-top --fps 60 -g "[GAMENAME]" --use-ini="C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME\DmdDevice.ini"

 

EDIT: I got DMDExt and Future Pinball working with PinballY, I made a .bat file with the above four-line script as the .bat file.  I edited the above to reflect the location of my VPinMAME, and the last line, the ini line to reflect the location of my DMDDevice.ini file.

 

Then within PinballY you add the .bat location under Future Pinball Run Before, so it will run before Future Pinball opens.

Then I added: taskkill /f /im "dmdext.exe" in the Run After spot.  I had a problem with DMDExt not closing when I got out of a Future Pinball game and had to add this.

Edited by JLPicard001, 10 March 2022 - 10:43 PM.

[licwip]

During attract mode, PinballY appears to select tables based on a small random number. It might show one table, then skip five tables for the next one, then skip three more tables for the next one, etc. Is there any way to set it up, so that attract mode shows every single table in order without skipping? Thanks in advance!

Edited by licwip, 14 March 2022 - 05:47 PM.

[jogrady7]

Hi, Love PinballY.  Question:  Some tables take at least 3 times longer to load from PinballY then if I double click on the Table's  in File Explorer.  For example Blood Machines takes 30 secs in PinballY, and only 10 seconds when I double click on the Table Name,  The new VPN Workshop version of  Jokerz takes 45 seconds in PinballY and 10 seconds when just double click on the name..  Most Tables load in a timely manor in PinballY.  Is there something I can do to speed-up the load time in PinballY

 

Thanks much  

[Samuel Villena]

Hello people!

 

One question: now that the new pinballfx has cabinet mode, how can we add the game and tables to pinballY? Thank you!

[freebird1963]

Hello

So can't find the answer, tho might be asking the net the wrong way and didn't see it in the options part but how do I make or run a script for a table. ?

I.E. the  VPX Rockabilly table uses Pinsound. Someone posted a script to start Pinsound on table start up then kill the pPnsound task when exiting.

 

Thanks.

Fly High or Pinball High lol

Could you just put all that one the line instead of the bat or is the bat file needed ? I was trying to figure out how to do it myself.

Thanks for this. !!

 

I have been using FutureDMD with Future Pinball tables integrated into PinballY, now that DMDExt is available to use with Future Pinball, what parameters should I be working with to get that working within PinballY?

TerryRed includes this scripting for PUP, but it probably needs to be edited to reflect what PinballY requires.

 

c:
cd "C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME"
start /min "" "dmdext.exe" mirror --source=futurepinball -q --virtual-stay-on-top --fps 60 -g "[GAMENAME]" --use-ini="C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME\DmdDevice.ini"

 

EDIT: I got DMDExt and Future Pinball working with PinballY, I made a .bat file with the above four-line script as the .bat file.  I edited the above to reflect the location of my VPinMAME, and the last line, the ini line to reflect the location of my DMDDevice.ini file.

 

Then within PinballY you add the .bat location under Future Pinball Run Before, so it will run before Future Pinball opens.

Then I added: taskkill /f /im "dmdext.exe" in the Run After spot.  I had a problem with DMDExt not closing when I got out of a Future Pinball game and had to add this.

[Milos]

First of all, I am very happy with PinballY - it has more or less all functionality that I need. It is fast and simple - great work, thank you!

 

I have finished adding my Visual Pinball collection and I now started adding Future Pinball tables but I have serious issues.

 

I add folder and tables are there but when I start them, sometimes I get black screen and everything is frozen so I have to reset my PC. Sometimes table starts loading but FP is frozen before start. Tables start only in rare cases.

 

I guess this is because of way how PY starts FP tables because all of them work normally when started directly, without frontend.

 

Maybe startup command for FP tables needs to be adjusted?

[Milos]

OK, I solved my issue with Future Pinball by creating new System where fpt files are explicitly started using fploader.exe from BAM folder

So now all tables work without issues

 

However, I have new problem - media recording does not work correctly - table starts and closes correctly but on a video there is only message Starting Media Capture...

 

Obviously, it captures wrong window

 

Any ideas?

[mjr]

> However, I have new problem - media recording does not work correctly -

> table starts and closes correctly but on a video there is only message Starting

> Media Capture...

 

My guess is that you have FP running in "exclusive full screen" mode.  It's not possible for another program to capture video in that mode, because FP is the only process that can access the video buffer.  For capture, you have to run FP in a windowed mode.  You can maximize the window to full-screen.  I don't know what the command options are in FP to force it into window mode - hopefully someone more familiar with FP can help you with that.

[NailBuster]

 

> However, I have new problem - media recording does not work correctly -

> table starts and closes correctly but on a video there is only message Starting

> Media Capture...

 

My guess is that you have FP running in "exclusive full screen" mode.  It's not possible for another program to capture video in that mode, because FP is the only process that can access the video buffer.  For capture, you have to run FP in a windowed mode.  You can maximize the window to full-screen.  I don't know what the command options are in FP to force it into window mode - hopefully someone more familiar with FP can help you with that.

 

 

FYI.  the new/latest versions of FFMPEG allow GPU recording now.  Its now possible to record FP and other full screen exclusive that way.  Not sure how pby launches ffmpeg but checkout the new ddagrab options.  probably just need to change the command line options.

[mjr]

That's good news - I'll have to check it out.

[Milos]

Thank you for this idea.

 

I tried several ffmpeg options but none works for me. I have laptop with Windows11 with 2 graphic cards. All computing is done by RTX 3060 (hence performance is very good) but output goes via integrated AMD card (I forgot technical name for this setup) and this confuses ffmpeg.

 

Since I don't have too much Future Pinball games in my collection, I will just grab screen with integrated Windows 11 screen grabber and rename files... This is only thing that works for me. 

Edited by Milos, 29 January 2023 - 05:32 PM.

[digitalarts]

Out of topic, but... BAM has an integrated screenshot function, too.

[Milos]

Yes but I want videos  because this is how I like 

 

Anyway, I have recorded videos of all my FP tables so they are now in PinballY - my setup is now complete. More than 1350 tables and everything is super smooth. Very happy with PinballY.

[wpilot]

Hello. I have a JS code question.

I’m using the “Hide Window” command explained on the PinballY Help Website because I was having the issue mentioned where PinballY has a black screen display over my tables B2S Backglass when playing tables. The script is listed as:

 

‘To turn it off
mainWindow.on("gamestarted", ev => { backglassWindow.showWindow(false); });

‘To turn it on again when exiting table
mainWindow.on("gameover", ev => { backglassWindow.showWindow(true); });


This script lives in the Main JS file for PinballY. My question is this:
Is there a way to exclude this from turning on and off for specific programs and tables?
I have Pinball Deluxe Reloaded as a game in my setup and I’ve created a custom Backglass PNG file that I load in PinballY - I set it to Keep the Backglass image up when I launch Pinball Deluxe in PinballY, but now that I have the above code added it ignores the “Hold Backglass” checkbox setting.

I’m not someone who is very knowledgeable on code in general so I’m not sure how I could either alter or add to the above code to say 

“Ignore this command if PinballDeluxe.exe launches”

Thanks! any help appreciated!
Mark