PinballX Enhancements/Features Requests

[qcol]

PinballX is wonderful. However, I miss a few features (maybe some of them already exist but I don't know about them?). Anyway, after reading the documentation I didn't find anything from the list below. These are of course my thoughts, not everyone has to agree with them, but maybe some position will interest the authors of this great front-end  

 

1. fuzzysearch in game manager. 
Currently, if we have a large number of games and want to reach this particular one - there is a lot of scrolling which is not convenient. The "search" field at the top where you could enter at least 3 characters, after which the list would be filtered, would be very convenient. 

2. highscore displayed on playfield info box (not DMD) 
It would be nice to see what records are set on it while browsing the games (no need to go to menu/info)

3. Loading images
Displaying random images is not always OK.... is a collection of beautiful graphics but if they are displayed randomly, some do not match the game being loaded at all. I have some ideas for this:
a) if there is a picture with the same name as the game - load it... if not - use a random image.

I know that there is a plugin that works the way it is described, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me.  

it works now, see thread: 

Plugin works, but if it doesn't find a picture with the same name as the table, it will load randomly only those named loading.png, loading.gif, loading.jpg. So randomly we have only 3 options at our disposal.  Ideally, any image from a folder should be loaded randomly. 

It could be a built-in option
b) subfolders in the 'Loading images' directory with a name such as a group or a list. If there is a subfolder with the same name as the group/list, use a random image from that subfolder. This would make it possible to create images thematically
c) in my opinion the best option: do not use the images from the "Loading images" folder at all! Instead, leave the animated playfield/backglass as long as the game is loaded, with the only difference that you can change the contents of the "info box" window to animated "LOADING" text (optionally put "loading" text on the backglass, e.g. in the lower right corner). After loading the game playfield and backglass disappear.  

4. creating your own lists with advanced filters:
Possibility of creating advanced filtered lists. E.g:

 - show all Visuall Pinball games that are over 80 and have 5 stars. 

-  show all Williams games with >4 stars 

5. Possibility to set the order of menu items
Now you need many clicks to go to your own created lists because they are at the very bottom of the menu. Custom lists are the most commonly used items. I know you can go back to jump to the very end, but it would be more convenient if the lists were at the top and items like "information", "rules" etc. can be at the bottom (I rarely use them personally). 

[GAH1068]

Still would really like to see a scrollable popup keyboard using the flipper keys that would allow you to quickly jump through the tables.        

Something like hit popup button,    A B C D E F ... Z  are displayed.     Hit the flipper button to scroll to letter and press launch to select.  You jump to first table with that latter in your table list.

Once you get a ton of tables even scrolling page by page takes a long time.

[qcol]

Feature Request:  additional info in the info box

It would be really helpful if the Info Box contained content that is outside the brackets in the description field. 

Typical game name consists of such elements:
Game name (Manufacturer Year) version, author

Now in the Info Box you can see the name before brackets, everything on the right of the brackets is omitted. However, the information there is also important information such as author and version. It would be great if this information appeared below the title in small print, grayed out (as less important but still important).  

The "Own notes" field in Game Manager would also be useful. "Own notes"  could also appear in small print in the Info Box (any of your own information that is important to us).

 

[qcol]

"show only not enabled" option in game manager would be very useful to filter all games that need service. 

[qcol]

it would be nice if PinballX let you choose what to name recorded files

 

 

 

[E36M3ZF]

Game Manager could need an "Export media from tables in the database".

This way you can gather all the linked media files that are actually in use in one place and get rid of all the left overs, junk, duplicates, old unused files, etc, with ease.

 

It also needs a "Remove missing tables from the database".

Every time you delete a table from the tables folder, you also have to manually delete it in the Game Manager. This isn't an issue if it's only a few tables but if it's like 300+ (like in my case) then it becomes a problem.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Addition to the logfile of pbx.

Shows with what privileges it is running. To check if pbx is runnings as administrator or as user

[osc]

Feature Request:
Would it be possible to reposition the (main menu) Info Box?
It would be ideal to be able to remove it from the playfield and assign it to the Topper.
A second option to mirror it may also appeal to some users.

I'd imagine this would be a checkbox/flip menu item in the Settings app:
- Render Game Info to Topper (no info box on playfield)
- Render Game Info to Playfield (default - current behavior)
- Render Game Info to Playfield and Topper (mirror on both)

If the option was active for the Topper, topper videos/images would not be shown - even if available in the respective media folders.
The existing Topper X/Y co-ordinates options for position/size would be used to control the Topper Info box display.

[halen]

System selection start menu !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Draco1962
added original topic since user did not provide details

[Juan]

Can you to integrate the control voice in PinballX?

It would be a option very interesting because when we have a lot of tables it losts much time to looking for to letter or to name the tables manually.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Sorry Tom, but since your new feature I have some requests (I hope you can implement them) :

• When returning from a System list (if you in a system list), it will always go the the same (3rd) system list. Can it be changed so the system where you return from is the selected/highlighted  ?
• Can the "quit" button be used to first go back to the system (when enabled) and in the system menu  when pressing on quit,  shows the menu to quit the system ?
• Can the "Favorites" also be in the systems menu ? 
• Combining systems in the systems menu
   

[joyrider3774]

I also have a small request for the system menu. Besides the quit button thingie that @Mike_da_Spike requested and i would like as well, it would be nice if the narrator plugin could mention the system names also when selecting them. I use the narrator plugin on my cabinet with table selection and i like that it "says" the names of the table but system names would be nice also.

If it would require to much changes i can try to record system table audio (if that would work) which says the names of my systems using same narrator voice, but i'll have to verify how i can record it correctly then

Edit: I created audio recordings of the system names spoken by narrator and converted to mp3 and named them "- system -.mp3" and placed them in table audio but for some reason they are not played on system selection screen

[joyrider3774]

can the other systems be increased to 20 ? I've used the 10 places all up and can not experiment anymore. I do have a duplicate entry but it's for comparing / testing internet pinball fx3 setup versus other pinball fx3 setup i could remove that one. But i'm nearing the limit on my cabinet and can not add any other systems anymore. I'm not sure how much work it would be to increase it to 20 supported other systems

[Tom Speirs]

 

On 9/7/2019 at 12:17 AM, joyrider3774 said:

can the other systems be increased to 20 ? I've used the 10 places all up and can not experiment anymore. I do have a duplicate entry but it's for comparing / testing internet pinball fx3 setup versus other pinball fx3 setup i could remove that one. But i'm nearing the limit on my cabinet and can not add any other systems anymore. I'm not sure how much work it would be to increase it to 20 supported other systems

Ive increased it to 15 in 3.72. 20 is supported by manually editing pinballx.ini

[Mike_da_Spike]

Hi Tom. 

Is it possible that the start of the "loading videos" have the opposite effect than when I start a table and the playfield video is gettong "zoomed" in ?

This will make the transition better between playfield videos to loading_videos much better

(I hope you understand what I try to say)

[joyrider3774]

50 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Hi Tom. 

Is it possible that the start of the "loading videos" have the opposite effect than when I start a table and the playfield video is gettong "zoomed" in ?

This will make the transition better between playfield videos to loading_videos much better

(I hope you understand what I try to say)

you probably mean when you select play that the screen gets zoomed out before the loading video displays and like the loading video to get zoomed in (opposite effect of when selecting play ?)

[Mike_da_Spike]

Yes. That what I try to to explain 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Another feature request:

Can the time be displayed for a couple of sec on the (real)DMD after the 1st video loop and before the highscore is displayed ?

[killa7977]

It could be cool to see in the box or Just under the wheel how many times you played the selected table. It Is Just a counter, should not be hard to implement

Thanks

[PcTeknic]

The systems at the beginning is great, a long time ago that was being requested and I wanted to take hold of this feature.

I only see a small detail that should be taken into account and if possible, add it in subsequent versions.

We can put a video or image for each system in its folders for the backglass, dmd and table, also the audio of the table.

Simply rename each file as - system -

This is great.

But we cannot do the same with the image of the wheel.

Even if we put it, PinballX searches the system logos.

If we put in our folder our circular logos, MegaBalls or MegaDocklet style, they will also be seen in the system information and they don't look good there.

For the information of the system the rectangular wheels (Nuke type) are better and for the wheel of the systems the Megaballs or Megadocklets are better.

Could this be solved?

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Los sistemas al inicio está genial, hace mucho tiempo que se estaba pidiendo y quería agardeceros que se incorporase esta característica.

Solo veo un pequeño detalle que se debería tener en cuenta y si es posible, añadirlo en siguientes versiones.

Podemos meter un video o imagen para cada sistema en sus carpetas para el backglass, dmd y mesa, también el audio de la mesa.

Basta con renombrar cada archivo como - system -

Esto es genial.

Pero no podemos hacer lo mismo con la imagen del wheel.

Aunque lo pongamos, PinballX busca en logos del sistema.

Si nosotros ponemos en esta carpeta nuestros logos circulares, estilo MegaBalls o MegaDocklet, también se verán en la información del sistema y allí no quedan bien.

Para la información del sistema quedan mejor los wheels rectangulares (tipo Nuke) y para la rueda de los sistemas quedan mejor las Megaballs o Megadocklets.

¿Se podría solucionar esto?

[BrandonLaw]

On 9/10/2019 at 12:28 AM, Mike_da_Spike said:

Another feature request:

Can the time be displayed for a couple of sec on the (real)DMD after the 1st video loop and before the highscore is displayed ?

Ha!  I want a clock option as well!  I don't have a clock (other than my PC) in my office, oddly.  I dig it.

[scutters]

Loading videos are great, thanks.

But, is there any chance we could show them on any screen rather than just playfield?. Ideally i'd like to have the playfield video continue running in a loop until the game loads, and probably show loading media on the DMD screen (virtual or real) and then just convert some of the  loading overlays in https://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/23114-loading-videos/ to work on that screen.

Probably a big change i guess, but figure it's worth an ask!

[silentsoundguy]

Will there ever be hotseat/game mode selection for PFX3 in PinballX. It's the only thing keeping it from being AMAZING for me. Since these are command line options, it seems like it would be an easy add.

 

I know this topic was discussed last year and a user made some sort of add on to accomplish this, but I would rather have it built into the software.

[scutters]

Can PinballX extend it's high score support to include visual pinball ultradmd and/or EM table (post-it note style)  in the frontend as well as for rom tables, holding the info in statistics.ini or as text file in the high score folders.

Post it note score info is held in text files under visual pinball\user folder, which also contains a vpreg.stg file with ultrdmd scores. The scores might not be in a common format though so might be tricky, if it can't work for all but works for most that would still be great!

[PcTeknic]

Now that we can show the systems at the beginning, I think it would be very interesting that in the configuration of the systems we had the possibility of configuring the games either as systems or as executables.

The idea is to be able to open Steam games such as Pinball FX2, PinballFX3, Pinball Arcade, ProPinball, Zaccaria Pinball, etc. directly from the systems view, avoiding databases and medias that must be updated every time they take out new tables.

This is possible in HyperSpin and I think it would be very interesting for PinballX

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

Ahora que podemos mostrar los sistemas al inicio, creo que sería muy interesante que en la configuración de los sistemas tuvieramos la posibilidad de configurar los juegos bien como sistemas o bien como ejecutables.

La idea es poder abrir juegos de Steam como Pinball FX2, PinballFX3, Pinball Arcade, ProPinball, Zaccaria Pinball, etc directamente desde la vista de sistemas, evitando databases y medias que deben actualizarse cada vez que sacan nuevas mesas.

Esto es posible en HyperSpin y creo que sería muy interesante para PinballX