Capture Videos to PinballX Media - Table, Backglass, and DMD

[allknowing2012]

"How do you do it on your setup?" - I kill the rebuild script after the table -- so I can kill the backglass and then restart :-)

Took a while but it made it through them all now. So it should be pretty painless going forward. I was doing it with carney's script before, but I had to remember what tables needed it and which ones didnt..

Some advice .. dont overcomplicate it too much. "KISS" for the non-programmers out there that just want the media :-)

Heck a "PRO" version and "LE" version .. hahaha...

[allknowing2012]

gtxjoe, found a case for a guy where he has no dmd, has a real one so the capture doesnt grab anything

(which is correct)

If DMD_width > 0

but the script still expects to find a .f4v file so it can skip over during subsequent runs.

IfExist, %MediaOutPath%\%MediaSubDir%\DMD Videos\%Description%.f4v

I think that needs some sort of (or DMD_width = 0) in there...

[Draco1962]

Would be great to adapt this somehow for Pinball FX2 and Pinball Arcade.

[gtxjoe]

I am working an update this weekend that will let you pick the media to capture, so skipping Dmd on a pindmd setup will be supported. For now you can use the NoDmd beta02 version

Recording other systems, I may look at after the VP support is fully baked

[Draco1962]

Since Pinball FX2 does not display a backglass, being able to select what screen you want to capture upfront is paramount from playfield, backglass, and DMD. I don't have Pinball Arcade so not sure if it is the same so far as images that are displayed but will venture that it is.

[gtxjoe]

Okay, I am releasing PBXrecorder 1.0. Special credit to Carny_Priest

All you have to do is download, unzip and run.

It can record videos and/or take screenshot images for all VP tables found in the Pinballx XML file.

Updates/Fixes:
- specify exactly what you want to record - any combination of playfield, backglass or dmd videos or images.
- specify video recording length (5,15,30,60,120 or 300 seconds)
- option to record only missing items, media sets for new tables, or re-record all media
- supports the older b2s.exe files now
- will detect bad DMD sizing and resize so DMD video or image is still captured
- ffmpeg is included now, so no need to download separately and install

Here is a video

Here is the link to x64 and x32 bit versions:
http://goo.gl/eIhc88

[adamstorm]

This is a fantastic tool! Thank you so much!!! I'm just now putting my PinballX front end together and this makes things a heck of a lot easier. I ran through 24 tables just now perfectly. I added another 3 and it worked just as advertised

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gStAv]

Thanks guys for this setup :D

Now it was easy enough for me to try it out, and it worked perfectly!

Super sweet!!!! 26 tables updated with video for BG + PF

[zanehed]

Awesome, it recorded all files perfectly until it came across Avatar, where I think it failed because of my file naming.

I have Avatar.vpt and Avatar.vpx in the same folder, and I think it tried to load Avatar.vpx with VP9.

I think I need to change my folder structure.

Looking forward to sorting this and running it again.

[Draco1962]

Now for Pinball FX2 recording!

[gtxjoe]

I guess you have 2 options

- Putting them in separate folders would work or

- Naming them so they have unique filenames would work also, even Avatar.vpt and Avatar1.vpx would work.

I wonder how Pinballx knows which table to launch Avatar.vpx vs Avatar.vpt, since this is not really identified in the setup/xml file either

I guess I could check if the letter x exists in the Executable, like vpinballx.exe and that would look for .vpx files first. if no x, then look for .vpt file

[allknowing2012]

You should have avatar.vpx game in your vp10 pinballx folder within the game manager. When you select that game it will then use vp10.exe and hence load the .vpx file. It will of course pull only one video since that name matches both the .vpt & the .vpx file name.

gtxjoe's script will show it tried to load .vpx file if it cant first find the file as a .vpt file. Double check your entry within the game manager to be sure it really does match what the game name that is on the disk.

[gtxjoe]

I just tried this with Pinballx, having a vpt and a vpx with the same name but different extensions in the same table folder. Pinballx gets confused also just like the PBXrecorder, it will always try to launch the vpt version with both the vp9 exe and vp10 exe configured correctly in settings.

Are you able to launch both version of Avatar on your system

[Carny_Priest]

Can't say that I have put this to the test as I have my vpx tables in a separate xml until vp10 is out of beta. But if the user is using the alternateexe tag in the xml, I would think that could be leveraged for solving this. Otherwise, I do rename the game name to something that is more unique. The example from my setup is Fire! and Firepower. I wound up using aFirepower for the game name tag and renaming all my media to match that rather than use the description tag.

[jbg4208]

This is a great tool. I seem to be getting very poor video quality from it though. My videos are very choppy both in pinballx and out of pinballx,. I have a 2 screen setup. I do have shark codecs from this site installed, don't know if that helps anything or not.

Also it didn't close the b2s.exe backglass down after it recorded it. So it would keep it up over all the rest of the recordings.

Is it supposed to close down VP each time or just keep loading more and more? I ran through about 5 tables and it kept opening new versions of VP and they were all open when I stopped it.

Like I said this is a fantastic tool. I'm just having issues on my end. And perhaps it could just be my PC that is not cooperating. Thanks for the work and time you guys have put into this.

[gtxjoe]

Maybe try to run this as administrator to see if that helps. It should close VP and B2S.exe between each table.

You could also Try just the screenshot capture - no videos- with it just to see if it runs correctly

What PC hardware and OS do you have?

[jbg4208]

Running Win10 64 bit on Intel core 2 duo e8400 @ 3.00ghz

16 gb ram. GTX650 2gb video card.

I figured it was supposed to close down between each recording. I will try running as admin and see what happens.

Thanks for the reply!

[Scooby1]

This looks like an awesome tool and I can't wait to try it. My current setup has videos playing for all tables in PBX (I don't believe there is any missing media for those tables in my xml), however I would like to record newer versions for some tables to better reflect the actual table being run.

Is there a way to select specific tables to capture video from, instead of recording missing media or complete sets?

Thanks.

[gStAv]

This looks like an awesome tool and I can't wait to try it. My current setup has videos playing for all tables in PBX (I don't believe there is any missing media for those tables in my xml), however I would like to record newer versions for some tables to better reflect the actual table being run.

Is there a way to select specific tables to capture video from, instead of recording missing media or complete sets?

Thanks.

I guess you could mod a temporary xml for the tables you want just for the recording.

I remove the physmod5 and vp9 tables just before recording so I just get the VPX ones

[jbg4208]

Maybe try to run this as administrator to see if that helps. It should close VP and B2S.exe between each table.

You could also Try just the screenshot capture - no videos- with it just to see if it runs correctly

What PC hardware and OS do you have?

Dont know why I didnt think to run as admin. With win 10 you about have to do this to grt anything to work. That cured all but one of the issues.

Still getting very choppy video for the playfield. The backglass is fine, about 45-50 fps output from ffmpeg. But the playfield is about 5-7 fps.

Is there a line I can edit in ffmpeg to get a bit less choppy results?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Draco1962]

Have you just tried to capture only the playfield instead of all 3 at once?

[zanehed]

Can't say that I have put this to the test as I have my vpx tables in a separate xml until vp10 is out of beta. But if the user is using the alternateexe tag in the xml, I would think that could be leveraged for solving this. Otherwise, I do rename the game name to something that is more unique. The example from my setup is Fire! and Firepower. I wound up using aFirepower for the game name tag and renaming all my media to match that rather than use the description tag.

Just tried to run this again, it was perfect for two tables and then on the third tried to load, Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988).vpx , when the table I have is a vpt.

I had removed all the vpx tables from the directory and also removed the vpx database from Pinballx before this run.

Here is the log:-

Back to the Future (Data East 1990)

MISSING: Table Video

MISSING: BackGlass Video

MISSING: DMD Video

Launching table: C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Back to the Future (Data East 1990).vpt

Video and screenshot capture (17:39:14)

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Table Images\Back to the Future (Data East 1990).png"

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Backglass Images\Back to the Future (Data East 1990).png"

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Images\Back to the Future (Data East 1990).png"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\playfield.mkv"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\bg.mkv"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\dmd.mkv"

Convert Videos to .f4v if video was captured (17:39:57)

Converting to "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Table Videos\Back to the Future (Data East 1990).f4v"

Converting to "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Backglass Videos\Back to the Future (Data East 1990).f4v"

Converting to "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Videos\Back to the Future (Data East 1990).f4v"

Table done (17:40:53)

Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM

MISSING: Table Video

MISSING: BackGlass Video

MISSING: DMD Video

Launching table: C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Bad Cats (Williams 1989).vpt

Video and screenshot capture (17:41:25)

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Table Images\Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM.png"

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Backglass Images\Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM.png"

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Images\Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM.png"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\playfield.mkv"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\bg.mkv"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\dmd.mkv"

Convert Videos to .f4v if video was captured (17:42:09)

Converting to "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Table Videos\Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM.f4v"

Converting to "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Backglass Videos\Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM.f4v"

Converting to "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Videos\Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM.f4v"

Table done (17:43:01)

Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988)

MISSING: Table Video

MISSING: BackGlass Video

MISSING: DMD Video

MISSING: C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Images\Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988).png

Launching table: C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988).vpx

Video and screenshot capture (17:43:34)

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Table Images\Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988).png"

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Backglass Images\Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988).png"

Screenshot "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Images\Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988).png"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\playfield.mkv"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\bg.mkv"

Recording "C:\Users\pincab\Desktop\PBXRecorder\dmd.mkv"

[zanehed]

Here is the matching section from my Visual Pinball.xml:-

<game name="Back to the Future (Data East 1990)">

<description>Back to the Future (Data East 1990)</description>

<rom></rom>

<manufacturer>Data East</manufacturer>

<year>1990</year>

<type></type>

<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>

<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>

<enabled>True</enabled>

<rating>0</rating>

</game>

<game name="Bad Cats (Williams 1989)">

<description>Bad Cats (Williams 1989)NM</description>

<rom></rom>

<manufacturer></manufacturer>

<year></year>

<type></type>

<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>

<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>

<enabled>True</enabled>

<rating>0</rating>

</game>

<game name="Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988)">

<description>Bad Girls (Gottlieb 1988)</description>

<rom></rom>

<manufacturer>Gottlieb</manufacturer>

<year>1988</year>

<type></type>

<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>

<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>

<enabled>True</enabled>

<rating>0</rating>

</game>

Thanks for your help guys.

[gtxjoe]

If I recall I check if the vpt file can be found. If not the script assumes the is a vpx file. For your Bad Girls table are you sure the xml table name matches the file name. Is there maybe an extra space somewhere or a special character?

[gtxjoe]

Scooby1. If you delete the unwanted videos it will re-record them.