PinballX as a racing front End??? Crazy???

[jaharr01]

Hey guys I have a pincab set up with pinballx so I'm pretty familiar with it. I recently built a racing cab and I was wondering if it would be possible to use pinballx as an all in one racing front end (Mame,model 2,PC games and etc.), which should not be a problem. I would like to have the wheel change the all the games in one list and the pedal select the game. It seems like a fairly simple undertaking. I would however like to change the pic for the start up, as it's not a pin cab. it would be on a horizontal monitor. I also think you can keep it from rotating. Are there any roadblocks i'm not thinking of ? Steam games could be set up like pinballfx2, although navigation may be an issue.Artwork which is high res may be difficult to find for all those obscure racing games. If it works it could open up a new genre of cabs.

Thanks Jay

[jaharr01]

well I'm gonna give it a try

[Adultery]

Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you use GameEx for this?

[Draco1962]

You wouldn't be able to use the integrated Pinball FX2 support and would have to setup via the other programs. While probably doable, I have to go with Adultery on this. GameEx would probably be preferable since it handles the games better, has integrated Steam support.

[rockyrocket]

I do see the appeal to doing this, navigating a games list sideways by turning the wheel I mean.

The arc of the PinballX "wheel" sitting above the actual wheel could have a simple and pleasing aesthetic.

Others have used different front ends in a similar way to the same end.

I say go for it OP, and if you dont like it then indeed GameEx could be another option .

[jaharr01]

I could use gamex but As Rocky R. said I wanted to have the aesthetic of the pinballx with the wheel. Plus I know pinballx much better than gamex. Although I have never set up mame in pinballx but it couldn't be too hard.

[tthurman]

Cool, this will interesting for sure. You gonna throw supermodel on there too? I understand some of the racing games work pretty well.

Please post about it in the Gamer Rigs section to show it off

[rockyrocket]

The more I think about this the more I like the idea.

The only tricky bit could maybe be converting a wheel turn into an input PinballX can read/see, but we do of course have xpadder and its plug-in to map a "turn" into a keypress whilst in the menu.

Getting tempted to try this myself on my driver cab .

[jaharr01]

Well Rocky u have a super nice racing cab. the mapping the wheel turns should be no problem depending on how your wheel works. I know in mame it shows up as joystick left and joystick right. I've been thinking and the hard part I think would be finding High res snaps for all those mame racing games. I think its doable. I would have already done it but I have switch my computer out of my racing cab. just too slow. ill give it a go when I get the computer changed out and all the emulators running smooth.

[jaharr01]

found this in a document ."MAME also supports recording in several formats •To record an AVI/MNG/WAV: mame –aviwrite .avi mame -mngwrite .mng mame -wavwrite .wav •To take an in-game snapshot press F12 (configurable) You can control the size of snapshots and movies via the – snapsize and –snapview options. •By default, it is the native screen size"

[rockyrocket]

Realized there big caveat to this for me in that the force feedback locks the wheel when not in game, so turning is not possible whilst in menu.

Not sure if this behavior is changeable as it is a centering mechanism - guess the flappy paddles could be used but unless the wheel can be used think the cab will just stay as it is.

Wonder if shadowplay works with mame?.

[jaharr01]

Interesting, my wheel doesn't do that. I set up about 15 games so far pretty easy. I got around the low resolution snaps by by doing screenshots. Here are some screens from the front end still definitely a WIP

[rockyrocket]

Interesting, my wheel doesn't do that. I set up about 15 games so far pretty easy. I got around the low resolution snaps by by doing screenshots. Here are some screens from the front end still definitely a WIP

Looking good!.

What wheel do you have?, mine is a G25 and it self rotates each way at boot then centers until a game is started, may be able to set pinballX as a game in the config but then once in a game it may not be centered IDK?.

[jaharr01]

older Logitech driving force. Here is a pick of my cab

[rockyrocket]

Nice!

[jaharr01]

Well this seems to be doable. What I like about is the simplistic design of Pinballx. This appeal of a simplistic frontend is also desirable for a driving cab. the appeal to me is using the wheel to cycle through the games. Some one had said gameex, but it did seem that many of the features would not be needed.I have 60 or so games set up, which took a while doing screen shots of each game to make them high res.It was worth it though. the one thing I did change was using the marquees for wheel images. which didn't look right. so I found some logos for most on the BYOAC forum, in the driving section. Many I had to design myself.

What I cant figure out.
How to change where it says like "62 tables" to " 62 games"

I was gonna make a logo and say RacingX a Mod of pinball X with a racing design. That is if its okay with Tom. I'm not gonna redistribute it, it's for my own personal use. When I'm done i'll do a video of it in my racing cab. For now i'm waiting on a new motherboard and power supply, so I can play newer PC games at high res

Jay

[rockyrocket]

Cool glad it worked out!

In regards to the "Tables" text it is now a feature request after someone else asked the same question

This thread was linked as an example .

[jaharr01]

Another interesting idea i had (But I was not the first http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,137295.80.html ) is to put an ultra widescreen monitor for cycling marquee screen. this would be very easy to do just like setting up a backglass or DMD screen. much easier than the way they had to do it with scripts and workarounds.

[Ginsonic]

In regards to the "Tables" text it is now a feature request after someone else asked the same question

This thread was linked as an example .

I don't know the possible side effects, but try to change the "Tables" value of entry "filtername" in the "Internal" section of PinballX.ini

[internal]

filtername=Tables

[rockyrocket]

I don't know the possible side effects, but try to change the "Tables" value of entry "filtername" in the "Internal" section of PinballX.ini

[internal]

filtername=Tables

Unless i`m missing an entry that part of the INI seems to be used by PBX to log the last played table so will be overwritten each play, shame I got excited then!.

[jaharr01]

Well the only minor obstacles I have ran into problems mapping the steering wheel to move the games, the wheel maps like a joystick, when you turn the wheel it either doesn't work or is erratic. I have not tried to map the pedals yet, only fix I can think of is joytokey

[jaharr01]

Do any of you know how to work around this problem?

[Draco1962]

I have no idea. You are using the frontend in a way that is outside its intended use and breaking new ground here. I doubt anyone has considered it up until now.

[rockyrocket]

Do any of you know how to work around this problem?

Going to be tricky I think, as you are going analog wheel to digital keypress.

But I am a huge fan of Xpadder - maybe a large dead zone would work?.

[jaharr01]

I tried joy to key no luck. Did end up using the paddles on the back of wheel and it worked..Left to go left and right to go right