PinballX Enhancements/Features Requests

[Mike_da_Spike]

42 minutes ago, PcTeknic said:

But I do not know if it is used to make a pcgames system and in the database put in the alternateexe the paths to the different executables or if it serves so that single table systems, such as Pro-Pinball, Wicked or SlamIt can be executed directly from the systems menu without accessing the menu with a single table to launch it.

Alternateexe is more a system that you want to launch another table. And you are right. This is more to launch exe's without parameters. So you can have 1 system and put the exe's in 1 list.

44 minutes ago, PcTeknic said:

I guess when I install it I'll see.
But sometimes, I think that the information when publishing a new release is very brief.

An explanation of what a feature is for and how to use it, never hurts.

As what I can see, Tom is. A busy man. All his stuff on gameex needs to be updated, website needs maintenance, and he answers a lot of questions. And this all almost for free!

The features are mostly self explaining and people like you, me and a lot of others will help each other with questions. And if needed. A tutorial/manual will be created.

That's all the good stuff of the community ! 

When you try the new feature, you will understand the work of it. 

i think this is more used for the touch version that needs more more standalone programs, but maybe we can use it as well.

 

[PcTeknic]

Perfect, I had that question. It was not a criticism.
I know and appreciate the great work of Tom and all the collaborators and I try to contribute what I can.
I do not have systems based on executables, but everything that is implemented is good and can be used by whoever needs it.

[scutters]

Can we have a Restart (windows) option on the Exit screen (along with Exit and Shutdown)?

Just a nice to have for the really lazy people like me.

Edit - added in pbx 4.87. Thanks Tom!!!

[PcTeknic]

A feature that I think would be very interesting would be to be able to choose if we want the wheel in arc by enlarging the image of the game selected above, as it is now or if we want the wheel in a straight line, minimally enlarging the image of the game selected in the center of the straight line.

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Una característica que creo que resultaría muy interesante, sería poder elegir si queremos la rueda en arco ampliando la imagen del juego seleccionado más arriba, tal como está ahora o si queremos la rueda en línea recta, ampliando minimamente la imagen del juego seleccionado en el centro de la linea recta.

[PcTeknic]

I cross out the two previous messages because it can be done with VPMAlias.txt

[Lefabulleux]

Feature request :

that would be cool if we could get rid of items in the pbx menu such as "most played" "recent add".....maybe an option could be added in the setting wizard to disable those filters and only have custom groups when opening the menu.

BTW PBX is amzaing so keep on giving us new features

[ode1979]

New guy here, wondering if is posible to add a key to just retur to the systems list without going thru the menu, example, instead of having to lanch a game to get to the systems option on the menu, just press a key instead and it gets you back to the systems list. Just as any regular arcade front end, that presing esc takes you to the main list. Thanks for the great work. 

[scutters]

PinballX Installer

A couple of minor things with PinballX updates when running the installer;

1. The pinemhi.ini file is always overwritten. I have to remember to go back in and change the nvram path entry back. Can the installer skip the overwrite of that file if the local copy has a more recent update datestamp?
2. I use a custom 'No DMD.png' image in the Media\Images folder, this is retained during PinballX updates - but a new copy of 'No DMD.mp4' is added to the Media\Videos folder that i have to then delete as the mp4 is used in preference to the png image by PinballX. Can the installer have an option not to include the 'No xxx' media files?.

Note these are very minor irritations  - for number 1 i can set the ini file to read only and ignore the error during the install, and for number 2 i know i've not deleted the video file as soon as i launch PinballX so i'm reminded to do that anyway. Just thought i'd mention them as there might be a easy installer fix, if not then i can live with things as they are 

 

edit - Or have i been wasting my time with number 1, does pinballx even use the paths from the ini file for pinemhi?

[dielated]

Hey guys, just wanted to say thanks for this amazing piece of software! And thanks for providing all of the awesome support you do for guys like me! Here are the two features I would love to see some day:

- an easy / medium / hard  rating - similar to the star ratings, to set per game and maybe filterble as well.

-the ability to add 'startup notes' that will display on the DMD screen during game load. For example to add 'Don't forget to use magna save buttons!' Or other useful information while the game is being loaded.

 

Thanks again for everything you guys do!

[Mike_da_Spike]

Cpuld the menu list be extended with entries that cpntsins "send keys" entries?

My cabinet is running out of physicall buttons and some background programs (like pinemhi leaderboard) wants key pressing to start challanges or show info.

If I can map a keyboard key and give a name to it that shows in the menu, that would be very helpfull

[berk104]

Good afternoon, they told me to post this question here. Would it be possible to configure a button to directly access the list of personal table filters without having to go through the previous menu? Thanks a lot

[scutters]

On 1/27/2021 at 1:57 AM, dielated said:

an easy / medium / hard  rating - similar to the star ratings, to set per game and maybe filterble as well.

PinballX database manager  (https://www.gameex.info/forums/files/file/2499-pinballx-database-manager/) can create filters for you, and in the latest release you can use the unicode 1,2 and 3 star symbols as table difficulty ratings to the description field to filter on 

 

[dielated]

On 2/1/2021 at 8:50 AM, scutters said:

PinballX database manager  (https://www.gameex.info/forums/files/file/2499-pinballx-database-manager/) can create filters for you, and in the latest release you can use the unicode 1,2 and 3 star symbols as table difficulty ratings to the description field to filter on 

 

True but then I wouldn't be able to also show the regular star ratings correct?

[scutters]

32 minutes ago, dielated said:

True but then I wouldn't be able to also show the regular star ratings correct?

Regular star ratings would be unaffected, the unicode stars would be part of the table description which is a different field to the game rating field. Alternatively you could include text like Hard, Easy etc as part of the table comment field which you can also use to build filtered lists.

[Mike_da_Spike]

@dielated 

What @scutters means is :
Set your ratings in the display field (note, these are unicode symbols, not regular stars):

and in advanced search create a filter and filter on the difficulty, like :

In PBX you have a filter:

That will filter all the medium rated (so, create an easy filter and hard as well)

(sorry, just on my test system, but think you get the point)

[dielated]

Okay I see, thats dope, and I will definitely consider doing that for myself. Just bc this is the feature recommendation thread though I will just clarify that my main objective is to have difficulty ratings that will show visually in the optional 'info' box in the main PBX menu, beside the star ratings. (If the feature gets added though, it should be filterable too, as you awesome dudes are suggesting).

Attached screenshot so you can see what I mean - I would suggest to display it in smaller text, aligned to the right of the 'star' ratings (as you can see I've replaced my star logo with beer mugs hehe

I find the info in this window is useful for guests, when I have visitors browsing my menu, and I think the difficulty rating is a 'missing' element that would improve overall user experience and should just be considered for future development

[philby85]

On 11/3/2020 at 3:27 PM, ode1979 said:

New guy here, wondering if is posible to add a key to just retur to the systems list without going thru the menu, example, instead of having to lanch a game to get to the systems option on the menu, just press a key instead and it gets you back to the systems list. Just as any regular arcade front end, that presing esc takes you to the main list. Thanks for the great work. 

Would love to see this too. I’m new here as well. Love the front end.

[scutters]

A couple of suggestions;

• From v4.84 - Where no company logo is found the 'No Image.png' file is used, a 'No Image.apng' file if present is ignored - can PinballX be changed to use a .apng (or .gif) file  in preference over the 'no image.png' file if found?
• Filtered lists - Can a pipe character or similar be used in the ini files to act as an 'OR' type operator? (e.g. "manufacturer=Gottlieb|Premier" to form a filtered list of Gottlieb and Premier tables)

Thanks!

 

Edit - added in PinballX 5.01. Not tested them yet but i trust you Tom. Thanks mate! 

[Knievel]

If it's not too difficult I would love an option to remove the black screen transition when a table is launched.

Trying to achieve a seamless transition from  my table preview vids to the cool new loading vids.

Thanks

[Quadrasputnik]

I want Pinball X to support DJ DAO's Pop'n Music Controllers. Currently, the Frontend treats every button press as if it was on permanent turbo as long as the button is pressed.

[PcTeknic]

I have 10 Visual Pinball based systems.
- Visual Pinball (All tables)
- VPinball Classics (Tables without DMD 60s, 70s, 80s and some 90s)
- VPinball Basics (Tables with DMD 90s, 00)
- VPinball Spanish
- VPinball Fantasy (Original Tables)
- VPinball Kids (Children's Tables)
- VPinball Musical
- VPinball New Generation (Stern SPike 2, Jersey Jack, etc)
- VPinball PinUp
- Taito Pinball
He will probably add VPinball Zaccaria with Zeccaria tables from Vsual Pinball.

The point is that some tables, for example, are visible in 2 or 3 systems, such as the AC / DC PinUp, which is visible in Visual Pinball, VPinball Musical and VPinball PinUp.

The same happens with the children's ones, which can be visible in up to 3 systems.

The rest are visible in 2 systems VIsual Pinball and classic or Spanish or the corresponding one.

The point is that this represents an increase in the weight of the average by 150% approx.

It would be great if when we create a custom system, we can choose the directory of the media, to choose if we want the medias in VPinball Kids (for example) or we want them in Visual Pinball.

This, in addition to greatly reducing the weight of the medias by avoiding duplicates or even triplicates, would also save a lot of time when creating the medias since it would not be necessary to distribute copies among different folders.

For this to be possible, in addition to being able to choose the directory of the media, PinballX should have folders for the system media, just as it has the System Logos folder where it looks for the logo of each system by name, there should also be System Table Videos , System Table Audio, etc

Our files would go in those folders with the name of the system instead of being in each system with the name of - system -

Frontends like HyperSpin allow to choose the directory, although only for videos, I think it could be done in PinballX as well and for all media.

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Tengo 10 sistemas basados en Visual Pinball.
- Visual Pinball (Todas las mesas)
- VPinball Classics (Mesas sin DMD 60s, 70s, 80s y algunas 90s)
- VPinball Basics (Mesas con DMD 90s,00)
- VPinball Spanish
- VPinball Fantasy (Mesas Originales)
- VPinball Kids (Mesas Infantiles)
- VPinball Musical
- VPinball New Generation (Stern SPike 2, Jersey Jack, etc)
- VPinball PinUp
- Taito Pinball
Probablemente añadirá VPinball Zaccaria con mesas de Zeccaria de Vsual Pinball.

La cuestión es que algunas tablas por poner un ejemplo, están visibles en 2 o 3 sistemas, como por ejemplo la AC/DC PinUp, que está visible en Visual Pinball, en VPinball Musical y en VPinball PinUp.

Lo mismo ocurre con las infantiles, que pueden estar visibles hasta en 3 sistemas.

El resto están visibles en 2 sistemas VIsual Pinball y clásicas o spanish o el que corresponda.

La cuestión es que esto supone un aumento del peso de la media un 150% aprox.

Sería fantástico que cuando creamos un sistema personalizado, podamos elegir el directorio de las medias, para elegir si queremos las medias en VPinball Kids (por ejemplo) o las queremos en Visual Pinball.

Esto además de reducir mucho el peso de las medias al evitar duplicados o incluso triplicados, también ahorraría mucho tiempo a la hora de crear las medias ya que no habría que estar repartiendo copias por distintas carpetas.

Para que esto sea posible, además de poder elegir el directorio de las medias, PinballX debería tener carpetas para las medias de sistema, tal como tiene la carpeta System Logos donde busca el logo de cada sistema por su nombre, debería haber también System Table Videos, System Table Audio, etc

Nuestros archivos irían en esas carpetas con el nombre del sistema en lugar de estar en cada sistema con el nombre de - system -

Frontends como HyperSpin permiten elegir el directorio, aunque solo para los videos, creo que se podría hacer en PinballX también y para toda la media.

[lm_shaker]

PinballX Feature Request: Return to System Selection

 

Greetings; 

Thank you for providing PinballX. It is a wonderful program with the exception of this ONE thing.  :-)

I keep things as simple as possible. Once Covid is over, I will return to throwing a bunch of parties, and I want anyone to be able to walk-up and use my machine without having any prior knowledge. 

My VP cabinet has playfield and DMD screens, but just a static translite. 
The only PinballX media I use are Table Images and a Wheel Images. No audio, no video, no backglass images, no launch images, no exit images. ..
I have Show Additional Detail disabled. 
I have One Click Launch enabled. 
In addition to the standard pinball buttons my cabinet has  buttons for Volume Up, Volume Down, Pause and Exit. 

If someone is playing a table, pressing the Exit Button should: 
1) Exit the Table to the Tables Wheel
2) Exit the Tables Wheel to the Systems Wheel
3) Exit the Systems Wheel to the Operating System. 

At the moment 2) is skipped. 

I understand that if I were to disable One Click Launch, that there would be an option to return to the System Wheel. But that is not at all intuitive. 

Thank you for your consideration! 

   - Mark  

 

21/04/11: I had an additional thought. At the moment pressing Exit from the Tables Wheel brings up an menu with the options Return and Exit. Adding a third option for Systems would solve my issue.  Again: Thank you for your consideration! 

[scutters]

Another idea for the system list..

Introduce another layer in pinballx navigation between the system wheel and the table wheel, a filtered list wheel.

So, when you select a system if that system has filtered lists associated with it then display a filtered list wheel (media can be named similar to - system -, e.g.  - filtered list name -), and then when a filtered list is selected the table wheel is then shown. The system would be shown again in the filtered list wheel as well as an 'all tables' or 'no filter ' type option.  

If there are no filtered lists then selecting a system will navigate straight to the table wheel as now.

I think this could help with @PcTeknic's duplicate media across systems, as filtered lists could be used instead of different systems. It could also incorporate @lm_shaker's logic with the Exit button navigating back up through table to filtered list to the systems wheel.

For users who do not enable system lists then i suppose the current navigation in PinballX could remain. 

 

( i'm not sure where the legacy custom database xml would fit in with this proposal)

[PcTeknic]

With custom databases, there is no problem, in fact I always give people 3 options:

1- Install Visual Pinball (shows all tables) and also the rest of the systems that come out of Visual Pinball (Basics, Classics, Spanish ...)
2- Install only the systems and do not see Visual Pinball with all the tables (nobody chooses this option)
3- Install only Visual Pinball, in this case, I put the databases of the rest of Visual systems in Visual Pinball and they can be accessed from LISTINGS. (Although the averages of those systems are not seen).

In the same way, there are those who prefer to have a single MAME system in HyperSpin or those who prefer to have MAME with all games and also have systems like Capcom, Data East, etc.

When you have 100 or 200 Visual Pinball tables, you only want to have a single system, but when you have 700, 800 or 1000 tables, it is appreciated to have separate systems and go directly to Spanish, PinUp, Classics, etc, depending on what you are looking for .

As lists can be filtered perfectly, but the grace for many is in having them as systems, everything is a matter of taste and it is always good to have both options.

In HyperSpin it only allows us to modify the directory of the videos, while in other frontends, we are allowed to modify the directory for the media and this is great, just add the "Media Folder" field to the system configuration.

But for this to be possible, it would be necessary to have the media of the systems in its own folder, Media / Systems or Media / Main Menu and in that folder the rest of the subfolders for the systems (BG IMG, BG VID, Table IMG, Table VID, Table AUDIO, System Overlay Logos, System Underlays, Wheel Images ...)

Something that I already mentioned is that PinballX when choosing to show the system in the details area, shows the image of the System Logos folder, which is the same as the system wheel.

For the systems wheel, generally, people use large images in a rough way, be it MegaBalls, MegaDocklets or SilverRing (tarcissus). These types of images do not look good in the deteal area, there are better small rectangular images, like the ones we have in System Overlays or that could have their own subfolder (System Logos - System Overlays - Wheel Images).

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Con bases de datos personalizadas, no hay ningún problema, de hecho siempre doy 3 opciones a la gente:

1- Instalar Visual Pinball (muestra todas las mesas) y también el resto de sistemas que salen de Visual Pinball (Basics, Classics, Spanish...)
2- Instalar solo los sistemas y no ver Visual Pinball con todas las mesas (nadie elige esta opción)
3- Instalar solo Visual Pinball, en este caso, meto las databases del resto de sistemas de Visual en Visual Pinball y se puede acceder a ellas desde LISTADOS. (aunque no se ven las medias esos de sistemas).

Del mismo modo que hay quien prefiere tener un único sistema MAME en HyperSpin o quien prefiere tener MAME con todos los juegos y también tener sistemas como Capcom, Data East, etc.

Cuando tienes 100 o 200 mesas de Visual Pinball, solo quieres tener un único sistema, pero cuando tienes 700, 800 o 1000 mesas, se agradece tener sistemas separados y entrar directamente a Spanish, PinUp, Classics, etc, en función de lo que busques.

Como listados se puede filtrar perfectamente, pero la gracia para muchos está en tenerlos como sistemas, todo es cuestión de gustos y siempre es bueno tener ambas opciones.

En HyperSpin solamente nos permite modificar el directorio de los videos, mientras en otros frontends, se nos permite modificar el directorio para la media y esto es genial, basta con añadir el campo "Media Folder" a la configuración del sistema.

Pero para que esto sea posible, habria que tener la media de los sistemas en su propia carpeta, Media/Systems o Media/Main Menu y en esa carpeta el resto de subcarpetas para los sistemas (BG IMG, BG VID, Table IMG, Table VID, Table AUDIO, System Overlay Logos, System Underlays, Wheel Images...)

Algo que ya comenté es que PinballX cuando se elige mostrar el sistema en el area de detalles, muestra la imagen de la carpeta System Logos, que es el mismo que muestra la rueda de sistemas.

Para la rueda de sistemas, por lo general, la gente usa imágenes grandes de forma ciercular, ya sean MegaBalls, MegaDocklets o SilverRing (tarciso). Este tipo de imágenes no quedan bien en el area de detealles, allí quedan mejor imágenes pequeñas rectangulares, como las que tenemos en System Overlays o que podrían tener su propia subcarpeta (System Logos - System Overlays - Wheel Images).

[Mike_da_Spike]

Not sure if it is a good idea or not, but can we have in the menu, entries where we can launch applications ?
For example :
I use PinemHi leaderboard.
This runs in the background, but to start a challenge, a key press (or joy press)  is needed.
also to check highscores or start the weekly challenge.
If I could add entries in the menu that would start a program, I could do a key send as well
Why not assigning the keys to the joy ?
I run completely out of buttons ! And think this will help me (and others ?) with the same issue

Forget it. 
I think I need something like this