[ATTN TOM] Pinball Arcade GUI Change

[TerryRed]

While I haven't been able to try this.... (too busy installing feedback, solenoids, lighting on my cabinet), I assume that the new gui still has the "news" pop-up issue when running TPA. 

Previously, the "news" would show up randomly (when TPA first loads) and mess up the key sequence that Pinball X uses to select your tables. There was a method to disable this that worked perfect for me before. Here's was my response to Ginsonic about it back then...

----------------------------------------------

     On ‎2016‎-‎01‎-‎15 at 4:25 PM, Ginsonic said:

Actually, it is possible

I suggest to create a shortcut to PinballArcade11.exe in the same directory, rename it e.g. to Start_PBA (no extension necessary) and add skipwhatsnew as parameter within the shortcut.

In the PbaCamMod settings file change the program call of PinballArcade11.exe to Start_PBA and everything should work like a charm.

 

My response:

This, and the CameraMod combined with the built-in Pinball Arcade support in Pinball X works perfect for me! No more news, and its been working every time.... I just gotta update my grid positions!

Thanks Gin and Tom!

---------------------------------------------

Don't know if this is an issue or if it will help, but there its....  now I'm back to more and more wiring....will it ever end!

[Draco1962]

If only it were that easy, @TerryRed. At issue is the UI has changed drastically from the "strip" to a grid. For a lot of us, you can hear the integrated keypresses taking place while the TPA Start screen is displayed, then flipping to the menu and clicking Exit, without going to the alpha listing and selecting a table .

For some others, the grid does not display a consistent number of columns.

For everyone,  FarSight is now using the table grid to advertise tables not owned, which skews the grid coordnates.

I really hope that they will add true command line and cabinet support soon as they have made the program unusable on my cab in the present format.

[hlr53]

It is completely broken now. I just did a clean install of PBX and added no media. When I tried to call up a TPA table my system completely locked up after Steam started. I couldn't kill PBX with the task manager! I'm done with this front end for now.

[Draco1962]

The problem isn't necessarily the frontend as the author is trying to work through the inconsistent behavior of the display of the menu. 

Have you submitted copies of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files for him to review? Click on the PinballX How to ask for help link in my signature for instructions on how to locate the files and submit them for review. 

[Drybonz]

More than complaining here... it would be more effective to go to the Pinball Arcade Steam discussion page and post as many complaints about the new interface as possible. That is where the problem lies.  Farsight studios is either completely oblivious to customer concerns or too arrogant to reply, but the best hope we have for them getting on this is to flood them with posts and bad reviews.

[Tom Speirs]

All I would say is just be careful they don't decide to have a problem with PinballX.

It sounds like the OP was just frustrated. Ill take that.

[Drybonz]

15 minutes ago, Tom Speirs said:

All I would say is just be careful they don't decide to have a problem with PinballX.

I don't think they could make it any worse even if they intentionally tried.

[Draco1962]

I think what Tom is trying to say is don't bring any unnecessary attention down upon PinballX or the community and to show the decorum and maturity in the requests for change that our community is known for. They may not be as responsive as other program teams to our requests. Trust me when I say that I am equally frustrated now that I cannot access over half of the tables or more that I purchased.

I am sure that those TPA users with pincabs and using PinballX or HyperPin are a minority and, like most companies, they don't serve their "bottom line" by catering to niche users, but by casting a wider net to bring in money from the larger audience.

[TerryRed]

Pinball X is NOT the problem...period. The fact that I have been able to get Future Pinball, Visual Pinball, Pinball FX2, MAME, TPA (with previous GUI), Windows Store and PC Games running on it shows how versatile it is. Its a free program that offers a fantastic option for a passionate group of people, and it has a great community. I for one am very thankful for this.

The Pinball Arcade has NEVER supported pincabs or ANY front-end....period.  Are Farsight obligated to....no.

Pinball X is doing what it CAN do to work with what TPA now is. Nothing else than can be done.

If Farsight one day decides to give support, then its a bonus. It wasn't that long ago when PFX2 had the same issues.

 

While not the same as cabinet support, you could always use a wireless keyboard with your cabinet in the mean time.  Or you could use something like Roccat Power Grid with your phone / tablet to act like the same with your cabinet (or any PC on your network).

[Drybonz]

4 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

I am sure that those TPA users with pincabs and using PinballX or HyperPin are a minority and, like most companies, they don't serve their "bottom line" by catering to niche users, but by casting a wider net to bring in money from the larger audience.

This is exactly, 100% why we should be over there posting reviews and comments (not sure why you think that would mean not displaying maturity).  If you take the attitude that they don't cater to us, might as well just accept it... then we will never see any changes we want.  If you gave them your money, you have more than a right to get together and voice some concerns and requests.

[Draco1962]

Never said that posting reviews and comments would mean not displaying maturity. Reread my friend.It was a cautionary statement - no more or less. As you have seen on the Steam forums and elsewhere, there are those that go full out to be an ass. There are those that troll and are itching for a fight. My statements, and Tom's for that matter, are for all involved and a request to not do anything that would cast the community or PinballX into a negative light.

I have voiced my concerns on the matter to them. I even changed my initial positive review of the software to a negative with sound reasoning as to why. I bought into the software. If there is no positive change, they will get no more from me. It's just that simple.

[hlr53]

I am just going to keep TPA disabled in PBX.

I wanted to play a VP Cabs machine at Watson's in Sharonville, OH this past weekend to get the feel of a virtual machine, but they sold the 3 they had in stock and no more are arriving until Christmas! I may give VP a call and see if they have any in their showroom? I'm not too far from the VP Cabs headquarters in the Fairfield - Cincinnati area.

Thanks,

Harry

 

[rothbauerw]

Instead of using the A-Z tab for table selection, why not use the Table Packs tab?  In the "Table Packs" tab, the table are all ordered based on release date.  There will be no need to modify the selection grid for old tables every time a new table is released.  A pre-built xml for table selection could be used based on grid size.

[Carny_Priest]

An update to the freecammod was released so I was able to do a little testing. I have some hope. Although the integrated selector is selecting the wrong table it is pretty consistent about it. I'm running with the longest delays set for now.

No change in the ini.

A difference is that I have configured TPA for 1080p resolution instead of 4K. I could not get the floating DMD mirroring properly in 4K.

[rothbauerw]

Ok, I finally have game selection working.  Here's what I found:

• When PinballX is launched from a portrait screen, [Display] rotate=0 in PinballX.ini, game selection can't find the "Press here to Start"
• When PinballX is launched from a landscaped screen, [Display] rotate=270 in PinballX.ini, game selection works fine

 

[TerryRed]

2 hours ago, Carny_Priest said:

An update to the freecammod was released so I was able to do a little testing. I have some hope. Although the integrated selector is selecting the wrong table it is pretty consistent about it. I'm running with the longest delays set for now.

No change in the ini.

A difference is that I have configured TPA for 1080p resolution instead of 4K. I could not get the floating DMD mirroring properly in 4K.

I had similar issues with previous versions of the camera mod in 4K. Also, I found that having TPA in a resolution higher than 1080p (especially 4K) made the older menu scroll MUCH slower which would throw off the auto table selection. What about dmdext?

 

 

[Carny_Priest]

Afaik, they are still working on bringing that feature back to support the new UI.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Carny_Priest]

1 hour ago, rothbauerw said:

Ok, I finally have game selection working.  Here's what I found:

• When PinballX is launched from a portrait screen, [Display] rotate=0 in PinballX.ini, game selection can't find the "Press here to Start"
• When PinballX is launched from a landscaped screen, [Display] rotate=270 in PinballX.ini, game selection works fine

 

I typically have PinballX launching the main playfield display rotated at 270. And I use display changer II to force to portrait and 1080p. I disabled display changer II and let, I presume, TPA handle the rotation as defined it its configuration setup. It always selects the first table The Addams Family for everything.

 

If I use display changer II, it will get to the table selection screen and navigate through but select the wrong table if it gets past selecting The Addams Family..

Black Hole selects Bram Stoker's Dracula

Earthshaker (the current free play table of the month) gets correctly selected sometimes, sometimes it is F-14

Ripleys selects STTNG

TOTAN selects TOM

TOM selects Junkyard and sometimes Whirlwind.

Something to do with how quickly the menu scrolls. If I were to manually select with the arrow keys, the scrolling can throw me off. Example: At 1080p portrait, you can click the arrow key down eight times in column 1 and highlight Goin' Nuts. The next downward click scrolls the menu and the next highlighted item is not High Roller Casino but Lights Camera Action. You would need to click the up arrow twice to highlight High Roller Casino. I guess this behavior is understood as table selection is working for some people, but perhaps the speed of the scrolling varies by user.

 

[Drybonz]

Is the weird mouse behavior in the new gui messing with it, Carny?  It has a new behavior where the mouse "jumps" to different selections... I'm sure you probably noticed it, but I thought I might suggest that maybe it was contributing to the problem

[Carny_Priest]

Well, I think the mouse jumping to different selections is intentional. It appears to be clicking the correct buttons to bring up the game menu sorted alphabetically. Once it is highlighting table icons, the selection may be getting thrown off as I tried to describe above. 

Hmm, seems solvable. I'd figure out a launcher for myself if I had any investment in TPA. I only have TOTAN, the free table, and the launch pack, Black Hole, Ripleys, and TOM which FarSight offered for a penny during a Steam sale a while back. I already have excellent VP versions. At the moment, I'm trying to clear some space to work on hardware, DOF toys, DMD, etc.

[Drybonz]

10 hours ago, Carny_Priest said:

I already have excellent VP versions.

Yeah, I can't help but have the same thought any time I start trying to deal with Pinball Arcade problems... "Why am I bothering with this when I already have VP, which is so much better anyway?".  I think I get obsessed with trying to fix stuff.

[Carny_Priest]

Don't get me wrong. Pinball Arcade is fun to play and looks very pretty. Also my interest is motivated by getting prepared for Stern Pinball Arcade. It may actually have something to offer that can't be had with VP.

[Cab System]

Hello

Pinballx doesn't reach the tables on new Pinball Arcade. It always finish on the Default Table and nothing happen. I tried to change the grid positions but it did nothing.

Have you got a solution?

Thanks a lot

log.txt

Pinball Arcade.xml

[Draco1962]

1 hour ago, Cab System said:

Hello

Pinballx doesn't reach the tables on new Pinball Arcade. It always finish on the Default Table and nothing happen. I tried to change the grid positions but it did nothing.

Have you got a solution?

Thanks a lot

log.txt

Pinball Arcade.xml

Please pay attention to where you are posting and consult the General Forum first to see if the issue you are encountering has been reported. I moved your thread from the FAQs, Guides, & Other Useful Information subforum and merged with the currently open topic for reporting this issue.

[mace]

I've had similar issues, to get over the selection for now I've been testing TPA table selection as a standalone system and using  <SendKeysOnStart> command in the database .xml to pick the games, here's an example:

<menu>
 <game name="Addams Family">
  <description>Addams Family (Midway 1992)</description>
  <rom>taf_l7</rom>
  <manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer>
  <year>1992</year>
  <type>SS</type>
  <hidedmd>True</hidedmd>
  <hidebackglass>False</hidebackglass>
  <enabled>True</enabled>
  <rating>0</rating>
  <SendKeysOnStart>"^%{Up}"{sleep 6000}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Up}{Right}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Enter}{sleep 3000}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Enter}</SendKeysOnStart>
 </game>

</menu>

It's pretty crude (the initial  "^%{Up}" is the rotation the rest is self evident. The issue seems to be that the new interface is wildly sensitive to button presses sometimes the commands above jump two spaces. I'm no programmer so if anyone knows a way to speed up AHK key commands I think it could help for now.....