1574 replies to this topic

[apturbo]

MJR, first want to say thank you for all that you have done for the VP community.  I have the utmost respect for your skills at coding and your attention to detail.  Your documentation is incredibly well thought out, from the build guide to all your help info related to the various codes listed on your site.  PinVol with SSF for my cabinet was a game changer.  Also have been running your controller software for the KL25Z for over a decade.  Recently switched from X to PinballY and once again blown away but what you’ve done.  The way you made this program so easy to adjust and “just work” is incredible.  Just added a 3^rd monitor for full time instruction cards thanks to your program allowing me to do this… awesome.  Been tweaking it for a couple weeks, just about got it perfect to my liking.  Mainly adding batch scripts for the before and after settings within VPX. 

 

Now, on for the questions…

 

TABLE LAUNCH AUDIO: 

Unlike “X” which had a built-in option for playing a “table launch audio” aka plays a short mp3 when the table starts, I didn’t see that in “Y” so I just added a before setting that calls:

[NOWAIT HIDE] cmd /c vlc.exe -I null --play-and-exit "C:\ARCADE\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Launch Audio\[TABLEFILEBASE].mp3"

This does work however on occasion I’ll hear the mp3 play twice, one being a few milliseconds behind or ahead of the other.  It seems to have something to do with how long I wait to launch from the interface.  If I wait long enough then it doesn’t happen.  Any ideas/thoughts?

 

edit...  after posting this i realized I failed to search this topic... it appears this is supposed to work natively but for whatever reason I get no table launch audio without the custom startup mentioned above.

 

VPX TABLE LOAD TIMES:

The size of VPX tables range from small to 500mb.  The larger the file the longer it takes to load and be ready to play.  Based on my testing the time varies from like 10 seconds to upwards of 20+ seconds.  Many times, even on the smaller tables, after launching PinballY thinks the table has exited and asks if you want to resume even though it’s still loading, presumably because you can see in task manager VPX goes “not responding” for a bit.  To me that’s not a huge deal, however, when using PinVol it can be problematic with drastic changes in volume.  I’ve tried to find a happy medium using a batch startup script that temporarily disables PinVol and give a certain amount of time to pass before re-enabling PinVol.  Without doing so the table launch audio would spike.  I thought about coming up with a script that first looks at the size of the table and then sets the wait time based on this.  Once again, any ideas/thoughts?

 

Thank you!

Edited by apturbo, 03 February 2025 - 06:18 PM.

[Thalamus]

@apturbo : With table launch audio, aren't you meaning the one that starts to play when you pick play in the table selection ? If so, I didn't have to do anything on my end. Maybe you come upon the vlc replacement that I mentioned a few pages back ?

[apturbo]

@apturbo : With table launch audio, aren't you meaning the one that starts to play when you pick play in the table selection ? If so, I didn't have to do anything on my end. Maybe you come upon the vlc replacement that I mentioned a few pages back ?

Yes, talking about the short mp3 files people use that you hear the moment you launch a table specific to that table with matching filename.  I went back to check out what you're saying regarding vlc replacement... that's not my issue cause i did a full install of the latest and greatest and has all the vlc files/folders in there.  Thanks though.

[mjr]

> This does work however on occasion I’ll hear the mp3 play twice, one being a

> few milliseconds behind or ahead of the other.

 

I have a couple of guesses, but they're just guesses.

 

The first is that the "cmd /c vlc..." command is getting launched more than once.  Hopefully you can rule this in or out by inspecting the log - if you turn on Table Launch logging in the options, each command invocation should get logged, so you should be able to see two launches listed if that's what's happening.

 

The second is that something about launching VLC as a separate process is making the built-in playback work for you.  In other words, one of the tracks you're hearing is coming from your explicit "cmd /c vlc..." script, and the other track that you're hearing at the same time is coming from PinballY's internal player, playing the same launch audio.  You could test for this case by telling the "cmd /c vlc.." command to play some OTHER .mp3 file - if you hear the regular launch audio plus the other .mp3 file playing over each other, this is probably the explanation.

 

> it appears this is supposed to work natively but for whatever reason I get no table

> launch audio without the custom startup mentioned above.

 

... from Thalamus:

> Maybe you come upon the vlc replacement that I mentioned a few pages back ?

 

... you replied:

> that's not my issue cause i did a full install of the latest and greatest and has all the vlc files/folders in there.

 

Having the latest might actually be the problem.  A few people have run into problems with the latest libvlc version specifically - older versions actually work better.  I have no idea what the underlying problem is, but based on symptoms, it looks like the newest libvlc has a regression that makes audio stop working on some combination of hardware/Windows/drivers.  The solution that seems pretty reliable for everyone I know who's run into it is to back out to an older libvlc version.  It seems to affect mostly audio, so that would track with what you're seeing.  Might be worth a try.

Circling back to the first point above, if it does turn out that launching vlc as a separate command somehow makes the built-in audio work, that could be a new data point in understanding this new libvlc problem.  I have no idea what it would mean yet, but it's at least a data point, so I'm curious to hear what you find about that first point.

> Many times, even on the smaller tables, after launching PinballY thinks the table has exited

> and asks if you want to resume even though it’s still loading, presumably because you can see

> in task manager VPX goes “not responding” for a bit.

 

I'll have to think about that.  I might have to add a setting to the Game Launch options that let you adjust the wait time.

[Thalamus]

@apturbo : Sound like you might have missed what I actually did. Get beta7 ... rename or delete the whole VLC64 folder inside beta10. Extract beta 7 somewhere. Copy and paste the VL64 folder from beta 7 into beta 10.

 

I reinstalled my cab completely and I had beta 5 on Win7.

 

When I went to beta 10 after re-install, I had several odd audio problems.

My main problem was that I often play at night and I have set the table audio to only be at sound level 10%.

What happened was that it started at 10% - then became ... I guess 100% or so. Wife would kill me if I didn't fix that.

 

Mjr suggested me to try replacing that folder and I believe it tried several, but, beta 7 was a winner.

 

Just make sure that PBY isn't running. It won't break anything. If you want to go back to previous. Deleting the VLC that you copied and rename back that original folder is all you have to do. Worth a try !

Edited by Thalamus, 03 February 2025 - 11:00 PM.

[apturbo]

Well, I wasn't imagining this but now the launch audio is playing natively.  Sorry.  No idea why it wasn't when i first starting using Y, those launch files were always there and nothing changed with the filenames or path.  Guess i jumped the gun by creating my own startup script.  I originally had all the check boxes checked for the log file then recently reduced it down to just generating info on launching tables... is it possible there was too much overhead in generating the log file that might have something to with this?

 

So guess that just leaves me with the one question about addressing the range of table load times and how to make the wait time longer when required.  Again, sorry.  Thank you both for replying.

Edited by apturbo, 04 February 2025 - 03:39 PM.

[Thalamus]

Sounds like you problem is that the samples you use are too short. Only thing that comes to mind is to make them longer. I have made something in that direction before, but, on linux. It was single pictures made into a video sequence though.

 

And, all my samples in the cab is shorter than the actual load time. So, I'm not sure if pinbally will break the playback when table is loaded.

 

I basically copied a file to a known filename. Then made a sequence of filenames that was easy to feed to ffmpeg as a "pattern" using linux softlink. (Same thing exists in Windows ... mklink.) Then told ffmpeg to create a video from these pictures.

 

 

ffmpeg -y -f image2 -framerate 0.1 -r 10 -s 128x32 -i 'temp-%03d.png' -pix_fmt yuv420p \"$mp4_tmp_file\""

 

The -i 'temp-%3d.mp3' is the "pattern" that I used.

[apturbo]

Sounds like you problem is that the samples you use are too short. Only thing that comes to mind is to make them longer. I have made something in that direction before, but, on linux. It was single pictures made into a video sequence though.

 

 

They play fine now, no need to do anything special at this point.

Edited by apturbo, 04 February 2025 - 05:37 PM.

[Thalamus]

Obviously, I don't understand what you asked for last then.

[apturbo]

Obviously, I don't understand what you asked for last then.

The 1st problem I listed was not hearing table launch natively so i went down the rabbit hole of create a custom start script.  After reading that I shouldn't have to do this i then removed the custom script.  Now for whatever reason i hear the launch audio just fine.  If you are referring to my second issue (calling it a problem is a bit harsh), then maybe i'm missing something.   Sorry for the confusion.

 

The 2nd problem mjr said he'd have to think about that one so I feel like he understands what I'm referring to.  Will wait and see.

 

Thanks for the replies.

[TehLurv]

As I've been playing around recently adding Serum altcolors to cabinets, I've noticed that PinballY is failing to close the B2S Server windows on tables that are using FlexDMD. Does anyone know if there is a fix for this?

[apturbo]

As I've been playing around recently adding Serum altcolors to cabinets, I've noticed that PinballY is failing to close the B2S Server windows on tables that are using FlexDMD. Does anyone know if there is a fix for this?

just add an "after" script to kill the process upon table close.  if you're not familiar with the "kill" command just look up https://ss64.com/nt/

[apturbo]

MJR,

The “mute table audio tracks” doesn’t seem too work (“mute videos” does) so I took the table audio folder out of the equation by moving all the audio files out.  I then combined those files with table videos that had no audio using ffmpeg.  My hope was unlike the “table audio” the table video stops immediately when you launch a table thus eliminating the volume spike I’ve been having.  It appears the table video is still playing in the background because the audio is still playing in many cases after the table has already been loaded.  So although I learned some new things with ffmpeg this was a waste of time as far as correcting my problem.  Also, even after checking both boxes for mute video and mute table audio tracks, when you launch a table the audio from the video starts playing.

 

With task manager running I’ve tried to find a process related to the video/audio being played that I could kill but not finding one.  In summary, it would appear the only solution to the volume spike issue would be to somehow kill the table video (or audio) immediately when you launch the table.  Otherwise I’m back to square one and just go with no audio in the table video and not use separate table audio, basically eliminating all sound when not playing a table.

 

I have PinVol set PinballY volume to 15 to keep a low volume while browsing games.  Most tables are between 40-60 in PinVol.  Thus the spike issue.

 

Love your products.  Thanks for reading.

[apturbo]

Well after going down that rabbit hole and now understanding more about how PinballY and the video/audio works after launching...  Just put together this AHK script and now my issue is resolved.  It runs after table launch:

 

; TEMP DISABLE PINVOL TO AVOID SUDDEN VOL CHANGES

Process, Close, PinVol.exe

 

Sleep 1000

 

KeyWait, 1, D

 

; LOAD PINVOL

Run, Pinvol.exe,C:\ARCADE\PinVol\,Min

 

This little script waits for you to start the game then turns PinVol back on.  Wolla, done!

[licwip]

Hi, MJR! PinballY is still awesome. I finally saw how to categorize my tables, so I could group them by designer. 

 

In case you're looking to update PinballY, I have a suggestion: in the Info Box, could each table show the categories to which it belongs? So, when I pass a Mark Ritchie table, it tells me so in the Info Box (because I already put it in that category)?

 

Also, it would be great to have the attract mode go randomly, instead of that set number of tables. Thanks!