Topper Video Support

[RustyCardores]

Hi Tom, 

Huge thanks for adding toppers.  It works great, but not for video. Is there no video support or have I done something wrong?

Cheers, Rusty.

[Tom Speirs]

I knew this was coming. I just kind of thought 4 monitors playing videos was way overkill. lol. I can do it if there is demand for it.

[RustyCardores]

1 hour ago, Tom Speirs said:

I knew this was coming. I just kind of thought 4 monitors playing videos was way overkill. lol. I can do it if there is demand for it.

lol ..... Yeah, plenty of video toppers have been created already. From simple videos from slide show animations to create lighting effects, to full on videos.

I gotta admit that they look awesome, although my CPU only has enough poke to run the simple ones. 

It would be awesome if you could add it. Thanks heaps for your support on this.

[Tom Speirs]

Its in there for the next release. Probably today, I don't want to hear any complaints about performance issues though!

Although any desktop based i7 should be fine.

[RustyCardores]

1 minute ago, Tom Speirs said:

Its in there for the next release. Probably today, I don't want to hear any complaints about performance issues though!

All good Tom. We will promote it as such. My experience is that I cannot run the full blown video toppers, but others with better systems have no worries. So I'm very aware of the potential for system drain.

I can happily run very small videos which are basically static topper images with light changing effects. They only need to be a few second long and loop. Surprisingly, just a little bit of lighting can really bring them alive and this on its own makes the video option well worthwhile.

You are more than welcome to flick any topper questions/complaints to the Visual Pinball Addicts Facebook Group and we will look after them there, as it is that group that is largely driving the increased use of toppers.

[Tom Speirs]

No worries, but its a shame its on facebook and I can't view it without an account.

[RustyCardores]

49 minutes ago, Tom Speirs said:

No worries, but its a shame its on facebook and I can't view it without an account.

It just happened like that and to be honest, in these early days of building interest, the Facebook platform is working well for it.  perhaps one day it will become more "formal" off of the dreaded 'book.

... also, the toppers are shared at some of the usual Pinball forums and I will collate a collection to upload to the resources here soon.

 

[Tom Speirs]

Awesome and sorry, just grumpy git syndrome on the facebook. lol

[Draco1962]

+1 to the grumpy git reference!

 

[gtxjoe]

Thanks for adding topper support. Can't wait to try the video support also

The is a topper upload section at vpuniverse with probably 100 examples already.  Thanks to all who created them

I use wheel logos for now for the missing topper images

 

 

[Draco1962]

Will it support animated gif files at present?

[RustyCardores]

6 minutes ago, Draco1962 said:

Will it support animated gif files at present?

When using the /DMD Images folder for toppers it didn't.  The way I got around it was to make animated slideshows and export them as video.

It basically achieves the same thing. Works really well for static toppers with lighting effects, as the transitions can be made super smooth.  Looping these files meant that the video could be kept small as the clip itself need never be very long at all.

This was important for me, as I have a good GPU but just an old quad core system and the hunger of longer vids drained resources far too much.

[RustyCardores]

Thanks for the update Tom.  GREATLY APPRECIATED!

[TerryRed]

Can't wait to give this a go someday...

While I don't have a topper yet....  I do have videos/marquees/control panels that can make use of that in my middle screen.  If I ever get a topper and a real DMD instead of my "dual" middle screen, I would be able to use the topper videos for the same purpose. Win-win.

If "ANY" of your videos are at 60 fps.... I HIGHLY recommend converting them all to 30 fps or lower. Pinball X can only play a single playfield video at 60 fps.... once you have more than that playing at one time, it will cause performance issues. Even having ONE non-playfield video playing at 60 fps will cause some video stutter.

I have an i5 2500K, so I hope this will cut it with four 30 fps videos playing at the same time.

Great new feature! 

[intakan]

First, thanks for this great front end...

I have a small issue with topper videos though. I run VP in Exlusive Fullscreen, If I have an image on the topper it will stay there when I start a table. But if I use a video it only work in pbx, when I launch a table it disappears. what to do?

[TerryRed]

1 hour ago, intakan said:

First, thanks for this great front end...

I have a small issue with topper videos though. I run VP in Exlusive Fullscreen, If I have an image on the topper it will stay there when I start a table. But if I use a video it only work in pbx, when I launch a table it disappears. what to do?

Do you change the layout, position or rotation of ANY of your screens right before you launch a VP table fomr PBX? Changing your screens layout in any way may create an issue with pics and videos that PBX is showing. For me, if I do this my videos for my DMD screen will either freeze or have part of it covered,etc....

[screamingcandle]

Its the hide topper checkbox in the game manager. It hides by default. The hide checkdboxes apply to when within launched applications.

[intakan]

The hide box is not checked, the images stay upp there. and the video works if I not use Exlusive fullscreen in VP. It's only a problem when I use Exlusive Fullscreen. I don't think I change any layout.

[Tom Speirs]

Okay, probably cant help much with that then because of exclusive mode in VPX. Sorry.

[RustyCardores]

It's a weird one, as the still images work. Open a table with a video topper and press ALT-TAB.  Do you see a PinballX Topper Window and is it displaying the topper? 

Also, I wonder if the refresh rate is mucking things up?  ...having different refresh rates on different screens has been known to cause issues in the past.  In your VP Exclusive Full Screen settings, have you selected the correct Hz beside your screen res for your hardware?

I'm clutching at straws here I know, but as I said, it's a weird one.  

 

[intakan]

When I Alt-Tab, Pbx topper is there but it's not showing on the topper when I select it. The refresh rate is set to 60 Hz on all screens and it is set to 1080 60Hz in vp exclusive full screen. 

 

[Draco1962]

And what about when you do not have VP in full screen exclusive? I think Tom indicated that there isn't anything he can do if you are running in that display mode.

 

[intakan]

If it's not in exclusive full screen it works, but I must use exclusive full screen or else I get stutter problems. I earlier had the same problem with b2s not showing when launching in exclusive full screen, but the latest update of pbx fixed that! Before the update I used a workaround by adding vpx in other system and use custom instead of visual pinball in system. But that is not working with the topper issue. 

[Tom Speirs]

Its a different issue I think related to directx conflicts. It affects backglass and DMD too as far as I know. If it doesn't then let me know.

[Draco1962]

@intakan It might be a good idea to attach copies of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files in reply so that Tom can look at what resources are available with your setup. Due to the number of displays, it may come down to smaller 30 FPS ancillary videos (backglass, DMD, Topper) as TerryRed suggested previously.