[OBSOLETE][PLUGIN] PinballX Loading Image Changer (de-randomiser)

[scutters]

Here's a pretty simple plugin for pinballx to control the loading image used, so that you can have custom loading images by table or by system name. 

What does it do? 
As pinballx selects a random .png image to use as the loading image from Pinballx\Media\Loading Images folder, the plugin on pinballx startup will rename all .png file extensions in loading images to .pbu (i used pbu to indicate PngBackUp). When you select a game it will rename one file back to a .png for pinballx to use based on matching criteria. If a file is found matching the table name then that is renamed to .png, if a file is found matching the system name then that is renamed to .png, otherwise it'll just rename the default Loading image to .png (so it does assume you have this file in place even if no others). Pinballx will then use the one renamed .png file as the loading image as no other .pngs are in the folder. 

Example
I have 3 images in the Loading Images folder, Loading.png, Star Wars.png & Visual Pinball.png. On pinballx startup all files are changed to .pbu. If i then launch Star Wars the Star Wars.pbu is renamed back to Star Wars.png for use as the loading image. If i launch any other table under the system name Visual Pinball then the Visual Pinball image is renamed & used, and if I launch anything else the default Loading image is renamed and used as a catch all.

Install

Extract the contents of the zip file into your pinballx\plugins folder, unblock the dll file if required (https://www.limilabs.com/blog/unblock-dll-file) and then enable the Loading Image Changer plugin in plugin manager and you should be good to start adding png files to your loading images folder, named to match a table or system name (don't forget to leave a Loading.png file in place), table images,instruction cards, whatever..

Thanks to @chergaand @simbamame for help testing the plugin on their systems. Also thanks to @Tom Speirs and @Adultery for pinballx and the plugin template i used.

Notes

• By default the plugin has logging enabled (log file in the plugins folder) once you're confident things are working you can disable it if you want. Please post the log file along with pinballx ini and log files if you do have issues.
• In the plugin config screen there is an Undo Changes button, this renames all the .pbu files in Loading Images back to .png. I could have done this on each pinballx exit, but this seemed cleaner. This can be used at anytime but most likely uses would be if you've created multiple new loading images and are about to copy them across, or are installing a new version of pinballx to prevent duplicates (the plugin will not work correctly if you have a Star Wars.png and a Star Wars.pbu in the same folder as the rename operation will fail) or if a future version of pinballx supports loading images by table/system name natively, or any other time you may want to disable the plugin and go back to random loading images.
• Plugin will also match files on table description to loading image file name. Order / hierarchy of matching is Table Name, Table Desc then System Name.

28/02/19 V1.0.1 Update

Default now is to change all file extensions back (from pbu to png) on pinballx exit rather than via the button on config screen. As file extensions are being changed and no file copying taking place this shouldn't carry much overhead and reduces the chance of copying duplicate files into loading images. This can be disabled in config which will re-enable the manual undo button. Replace/Copy both files in the zip to your plugins folder and install as above.

29/04/19 V1.0.2 Update

Support added for JPG format loading images following issue reported by @qcol in this thread. Loading images supported by the plugin are PNG, GIF and JPG. You can use a mixture of these formats, which will enable you to have up to three different loading images for one table or system (PinballX would then use one of the three randomly). Personally i'd stick to one format and one loading image per table / system.... but it's up to you!. Replace/Copy both files in the zip to your plugins folder and install as above.

 

05/09/2019

*** This plugin is for versions of PinballX up to V3.60 - Please use V2 for V3.60 and later ***

https://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/23127-plugin-pinballx-loading-video-image-changer-de-randomiser-v2/

 

PBXLoadingImage.zip

[simbamame]

A great little Plugin that works 

[scutters]

Updated to V1.0.1 - attachment updated in first post

[qcol]

I'm looking for just such functionality that I can assign a specific "loading" image to a specific table. According to the description, the plugin should do exactly what I'm looking for. 

Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. Plugin installed, unblocked... png files in "Loading images" folder I renamed the same as the table name, but when run such a table still displays a random image.  

[scutters]

Yep, that's exactly what the plugin should do.

Can you post your PBXLoadingImage_log.txt file from the plugins folder along with the pinballx.ini and log.txt files? (after launching a table and exiting) thanks. 

 

[qcol]

sure!

I'm thinking about it: "Last PNG renamed:  Adummyvalue"?

log.txt PinballX.ini PBXLoadingImage_log.txt

[scutters]

@qcol Thanks for the info..ignore that 'adummyvalue' line in the log - it's because it's the first table loaded so the last loading image used is not yet populated. I'll revisit that log entry if i open up the code again.

Back to the issue... i had previously thought pinballx only used png & gif files for loading images, but your screenshot gave me a clue, it looks like pinballx can also use jpg files as loading images, i'm not sure if this is a recent change or if it's always been that way. The plugin doesn't handle jpgs so i'm guessing the random image you get displayed is one of the jpg files.

Can you remove the jpg's (plus any other non png format files) and try again to prove this is the cause of your issue?

Thanks

[qcol]

You're right, when I moved the jpg files to the backup folder everything works as expected! Thank you! 

[scutters]

Thanks for confirming.

I'll update the first post to reflect the jpg issue for now. Guess i'll be opening up the code to add jpg support!

Watch this space for v1.0.2..

[qcol]

Thanks!

[scutters]

Updated to V1.0.2 - attachment updated in first post

[scutters]

I'm working on a version that'll include loading videos as well as images for PinballX v3.60

Will either update here or post in new thread when done

 

EDIT 05/09/2019 - Plugin compatible with loading videos now in separate thread https://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/23127-plugin-pinballx-loading-video-image-changer-de-randomiser/

Don't use this version anymore after updating PinballX to V3.60 or later!

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Nais ! Thanks Scutters

We...euh...only need a good artist, who can create awesome  loading videos of systems and of individual tables.  Any volunteers? 

[scutters]

4 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

We...euh...only need a good artist, who can create awesome  loading videos of systems and of individual tables.  Any volunteers? 

Not me 

Basic version that would work would be table videos (rotated 180 degrees) with a loading text overlay added... that's about my arty limit!