deleting certain media?

[AndersE]

I have problems with many tables in the gamelist manager regarding naming of mediafiles.

For example:

 

the table "ALI" automatically loads the mp3 file for alien poker, and there is no way to get rid of it. I have thought of making

an silent mp3 to load for all tables that load wrong mp3.

The same is for wheel images, background and table images.

 

If several files begin with the same letters: example i have problems getting Playboy tables to get correct wheel and background/table images.

The ones i have problem with is: Playboy stern 2002 and Playboy Bally 1978.

It seems that everytime i try to change ex the wheel, it automatically creates a NEW wheel with the same name as my description (table desc)

I thought first that the media info is also stored in the table xml, but it is not, so where does the manager store that info?

 

 

 

[Carny_Priest]

Yes, that'll happen. You'll have to do some selective renaming of files to avoid having the system get confused by similarly spelled description tags.

 

Example: Rename the GAME NAME element in the xml, so that the spelling is no longer similar, such as "aPlayboy stern 2002". Then rename your vpt and media files to aPlayboy stern 2002.???. You description tag can remain Playboy stern 2002 and it will be located in the correct place on your wheel when you are running PinballX. Correct media will be displayed because of matching game name elements.

[AndersE]

yeah, but why the f does it when i select an image called "playboy1978" write a new image named as my description and then use that new written file instead of the selected one??

I sit here now with a quadrillion different named files that are the same.

Following:

gamename: PPlayboy(Bally 1978)FS-1.1

description: Playboy Bally

i select a wheel image named "pplayboy"

then it creates and use a file named "Playboy Bally" and we are back to not showing the right image because i have table

named "playboy Stern". with a wheel image named "playboy stern"

 

 

 

[AndersE]

Sigh... fiddled a bit more, it show the correct wheel image in the manager, but now it show playboy 35th anniversay wheel image instead

in pinballx.

 

 

[Carny_Priest]

Perhaps there is still some confusion with similarly named games. Programmatically, it might have been better to use IPDB numbers instead of table names but users even keep multiple versions of the same table (Night mod, Day mod, PM5, Color Mod, Toy mod, etc.). In any case, if you are using Game Manager to import your media it sounds like you will have to take the extra step of verifying media for tables with similar names and do some manual renaming as described above.

Myself, I don't use the Game Manager. I edit my databases with Notepad and generate most of my own media. Everything else, I just download directly from the FTP or elsewhere so that I can check them out before I copy over to the PinballX\media folders.

Hope this helps you at least work around some of the issues you are experiencing.

[AndersE]

Yes, the naming thing is really a thing the programmmers should fix, because it gets really frustrating when you have 3,4,5 different versions of the same table installed.

I still have BIG problems even after renaming a lot.

 

[Carny_Priest]

Well, you are going to have to be more specific. What big problems are you having after renaming? What, specifically, needs to be fixed? Need some detailed feedback if you ever expect to see any improvements in the program.

XML tag and file name matching is not perfect, but I've been able to work around my issues. Of course, I tend to keep one version of a table and I use the table names in IPDB.org as the value for my description tag.

[Draco1962]

Keep in mind that you also have to leverage the File Matching under General Settings in the Setup Wizard. Of course, with no pinballx.ini and log.txt files provided, it is difficult to know if this is also coming into play.

[Carny_Priest]

I tend to turn off File Matching because of mismatches. I think I'm better off manually renaming, especially if there a lot of tables. Seems like it would really be preferable where there are different versions of the same table to list in the xml.

[Draco1962]

I manually name mine as well due to issues it causes with loading media for similarly named files (ex El Dorado vs. El Dorado City of Gold) and have File Matching disabled. 

It is possible @AndersE has this enabled but difficult to know without seeing a copy of his pinballx.ini. 

[MBison]

I'm having this same issue. And I don't want to turn File Matching off at this point cause I have 118 tables already on here and all using File Matching cause if I understand correctly, when you turn off File Matching, it just acts like it was never on so ALL that media you used file matching on disappears and you have to redo it all manually.

 

But again, I'm having a similar issue. I added Fire! Williams (1987) or whatever and even though I selected the Fire! wheel logo it added the Fireball wheel logo and attached all Fireball and Firepower media to it. So then I tried renaming all the media Hose Williams (1987) and it fixed all of it but the audio. For some reason it insists on keeping Firepower audio no matter how many times I try to fix it.  I want to add Batman Forever and Simpsons Pinball PArty but considering I have other Batman games and other Simpson games I figure I'm going to run into the same issue.

 

So is your suggested solution to rename the table like aFire then all of the media also aFire then delete any current entry and start over?

 

I know that there's a Visual Pinball.xml file in the databases but it just lists the game names. Where does it store all the attached media? You can't just manually edit them in some .xml file? That would be an easier fix.

 

Thanks for any help!

 

 

[Carny_Priest]

Yes, you can edit Visual Pinball.xml manually. Media files are not deleted just because you edit the xml manually or using Game Manager or anything else.

If you want to fix file matching for those problem tables like Fire! and Firepower, do the following:

 

Leave Firepower as-is.

 

For your example, Fire!, the description tag should remain Fire! (Williams 1987).

 

The game name tag should be Hose (Williams 1987) or whatever you want. All your media files should match the game name tag. For example, wheel should be "Hose (Williams 1987).png", audio file should be "Hose (Williams 1987).mp3". Also, the table file name should also match the name tag, such as "Hose (Williams 1987).vpt". 

Just some selective editing of the xml and renaming a few media files only for your tables where there is a problem with file matching. Pretty easy.

[MBison]

12 minutes ago, Carny_Priest said:

 

So just to clarify, the Visual Pinball.xml file seems to really only list the game names and descriptions. Plus like Hide DMD and Hide Backglass etc, but doesn't list specific media files. So if I rename the "game" section to Hose Williams (1987) it will then link up all the Hose media files?  So the game names in the Visual Pinball.xml files are different than the names that appear on the PinballX menu?

Pretty sure I understand what youre staying. I assume I could also in the future just start naming tables and media the same but something unique. Like for Simpsons Pinball Party when I attempt it, I could name everything TSPP etc. And that should link up from the get go.

Am I pretty much on target?

 

THanks!

[Carny_Priest]

Where tables appear in the PinballX menu is dependent on the entry in the description tag. The media files can be "linked" using either the description or the game name tags. Usually everything works fine if your media files are named the same as the description tag. Where the link is not matching correctly because the names are similar, I then rename the media files to match the game name tag and make sure that the name is unique enough not to cause a mismatch. There's more flexibility here. You can use anything you want in the game name tag and the table should still show up in the correct order as long as the description tag is correct. You just have to be sure that your table file name is also the same as the game name tag (has to be the same as the game name tag in order for PinballX to launch the table).

[Draco1962]

A small pointer to be made. Where you have spaces in the game name tag or file name, be very careful when renaming your media files. I have found that in some cases of media I have either downloaded or created myself where an extra space was added and I could not find anything.

It is a bit of a chore trying to rename a large collection to match up, but in the end it is worth it and easy to keep up when just adding a few tables here and there going forward.

My usual routine is to open my .xml files, verify the game name is correct and doesn't contain any extra spaces or special characters that are reserved for Windows, then rename any media files to match. I also try to keep my .xml files in alpha order, which is very critical for use with Pinball Arcade, and also makes it easier to go down the list when jumping back and forth between the .xml and my media in Windows Explorer.

[MBison]

On 3/6/2016 at 2:00 AM, Carny_Priest said:

 

 

Just wanted to say thanks for the help and advice. Since then I've added like 10 tables with no issues with conflicts and such. Just now naming the table file AND all media files the same exact name. Much easier. I haven't fixed Fire! yet but at least Simpsons and Batman Forever went on without a hitch despite multiple pinballs named close.

 

Thanks again!