[RESOLVED] Multi-page instruction cards

[JSpradlin]

This might be a dumb question, but can instruction cards be multi-page? 

[Krakerman]

This might be a dumb question, but can instruction cards be multi-page? 

Yes


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[Carny_Priest]

Yes. Add “1” to the file name of the second image, “2” to the file name of the third image, and so on. As many pages as you want.


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[JSpradlin]

I assume file matching has to be on for this to work. Is that correct?

[Carny_Priest]

Either way.

Myself, I don't use file matching for the reasons you mentioned in other threads.

Media files may be matched either against the value in the "game name" tag or the "description" tag in the system database xml file. 

What I do to make housekeeping for recreations somewhat simple for me is to use the format  - "Table name" ("manufacturer" "year") as the value in the description tag  Here, table name comes from how the table is identified in IPDB.org. The PinballX install includes an export from IPDB. Look for the file "IPDB List.txt"

I use the table vpt or vpx file name as downloaded and unmodified as the value for the "game name" tag. I tend to keep one definitive version of a table (no night mod, physmod, toy mod, blah, blah, blah) so it's usually enough info for me to be able to identify the specific version. You could always add the author and version yourself to the file name. You will have to do it for both the file name and the value of the "game name" tag so that they will be identical matches.

Alternatively, you can also add author and version or any other info as a comment in the xml. Or you can create your own tags to hold this information although there would be no mechanism within the core PinballX program to make use of tags that you have added yourself.

I do not use Game Manager. I find it easier and faster just to edit the xml file manually in Notepad.

For media files you would then name wheel images, instruction cards, flyers, etc. using the value in the "description" tag. When a new version of a table comes out, you only have to update the value of the "game name" field. 

Of course, everyone has there own preferences and way of doing things.   

[Draco1962]

14 minutes ago, Carny_Priest said:

I do not use Game Manager. I find it easier and faster just to edit the xml file manually in Notepad.

1

I prefer to use a text editor as well. I used Notepad until I discovered Notepad++ which keeps the XML file and other element alignments nice and tidy. And it is free so win-win for me.

[Carny_Priest]

Yep, Notepad++ for my development laptop. That's where I do most of my coding. My cabinet is free of any apps or programs that I don't absolutely need to play pinball. I just use plain, old, vanilla Notepad when doing minor updates on the cabinet. It's good enough. 

I actually use a custom xml and custom launcher for Visual Pinball within PinballX. The xml is not compatible with Game Manager, but I find the Game Manager UI to be slow, constraining, and clunky for me to work with anyway. Of course, I do a bit of coding and scripting for a living, so I'm good not having a GUI.

PinballX has some ease of use features that work very well if you are happy enough with the way it operates from default. PinballX can also  be made to get out of the way of itself, if you have other ideas about how you want the front-end to work. But the more customizations you have in mind, the more you need to have some programming knowledge to do what you want to do. And perhaps the more labor involved to maintain your configuration. That's just the facts. 

[JSpradlin]

My assumption or understanding was that the Wheel Image, Flyer, Instruction Card names had to match to the game name not the game description. Was I wrong in that? When I named my game files using author and such with the description "Table Name" ("Manufacturer" "Year") that is when I had trouble with files not matching. If it matches to game description with file matching off then I just wasted a ton of time renaming my table files (ugh!) 

Anyway, I ended up just naming my table files exactly like my descriptions. Then to keep track of the version/author, I just created a couple of custom property tags under Windows and saved them there. I love PinballX. It's a great piece of software, but that file matching stuff is the bane. Oh well.

[Carny_Priest]

Media files or table files can match to either game name or description tags.

With file matching off, the file name has to match the value in the tag. I just copy and paste to/from Notepad and Windows Explorer. Simple.


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[JSpradlin]

At any rate I think I'm good to go now. It was just a chore. At this point it shouldn't be too terrible to maintain. Thanks for all of your feedback.

[Carny_Priest]

Think of it as a labor of love. It's worth it if it gets you where you want to go.