[PLUGIN] PinballX Loading Video & Image Changer (de-randomiser) V2

[scutters]

4 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Will this avoid the crashes ?

That's the idea! 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Sounds good ! 

Will check it in the next few days (end some other plugins that you updated).

A 'Scutters plugin bundle' would be handy nowc

Thanks mate

[tligu]

Hi.
Love the random table generator, and it works perfectly.
Is it possible to use random table and the loading screen to that specific table.
Now it works like this:
random table with the random table loading screen and not the loading screen to the table

eksample
Random table => Avatar => loading screen for Random table and not avatar.

Solution ?

tligu

[Mike_da_Spike]

I should say, because it is random, you shiuld not know it by the loading video. It must be a surprise until it is loaded.

But thats how I see it

[scutters]

22 hours ago, tligu said:

Hi.
Love the random table generator, and it works perfectly.
Is it possible to use random table and the loading screen to that specific table.
Now it works like this:
random table with the random table loading screen and not the loading screen to the table

eksample
Random table => Avatar => loading screen for Random table and not avatar.

Solution ?

tligu

The plugins don't 'talk' to each other so it's not possible with how they currently work..   but Mike's right, when launching a random table i think the chosen table should remain unknown until it's loaded. Let the suspense build!! 

[Mike_da_Spike]

If you wish to see the correct loading video with a randomized table, you can use the API of GameEx, but that spoils the surprise 

[jadflat]

 

 

edit: working now

 

[Draco1962]

Maybe an animation on the loading screen to add to the mystery?

[echodun]

Any way to get the backglass to stay on while loading as well?

[scutters]

2 hours ago, echodun said:

Any way to get the backglass to stay on while loading as well?

Most people set the Backglass option in Game Manager or PinballX Database Manager so that the backglass is not hidden in game (so continues to show during game launch). The other option is to use a backglass image file (if you have a backglass video showing in PinballX but also have a backglass image file then PinballX will switch to the backglass image file on table launch). Hope that helps.

[Mike_da_Spike]

5 hours ago, echodun said:

Any way to get the backglass to stay on while loading as well?

 

2 hours ago, scutters said:

Most people set the Backglass option in Game Manager or PinballX Database Manager so that the backglass is not hidden in game (so continues to show during game launch). The other option is to use a backglass image file (if you have a backglass video showing in PinballX but also have a backglass image file then PinballX will switch to the backglass image file on table launch). Hope that helps.

Here's an explanation (including video ) that will show the backglass during load of table . It is based on DBM, but same feature can be used within game list manager

 

Check the video starting from 4:20 and it will show a backglass image during launch. Removing the image, will show you the video 

 

[Helshaks]

Did they ever fix the loading video sound issue ?

 

[scutters]

4 hours ago, Helshaks said:

Did they ever fix the loading video sound issue ?

 

Sorry, i've not seen any news relating to loading video audio changes in PinballX (but it may have passed me by as i only use muted videos)

[Draco1962]

4 hours ago, scutters said:

Sorry, i've not seen any news relating to loading video audio changes in PinballX (but it may have passed me by as i only use muted videos)

Would this warrant a separate thread in the General subforum if @Helshaks is having a problem with the requisite pinballx.ini is log.txt files attached?

[Helshaks]

2 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

Would this warrant a separate thread in the General subforum 8f @Helshaks is having a problem with the requisite pinballx.ini is log.txt files attached?

it not a problem but more of a nice option that would be very nice to have , some table take more that 30 sec to load having some sound on the video could making it even more interesting  pinup does it ...but im with pinballx from the start and im not planning on crossing over the dark side , lol 

[scutters]

6 hours ago, Helshaks said:

it not a problem but more of a nice option that would be very nice to have , some table take more that 30 sec to load having some sound on the video could making it even more interesting  pinup does it ...but im with pinballx from the start and im not planning on crossing over the dark side , lol 

A feature request is still the best bet for new or changed functionality in PinballX - https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/22259-pinballx-enhancementsfeatures-requests/

 

[DJO Maverick]

Would it be possible with the plugin to use the loading gifs over table video, as opposed to only stills?  And at the same time, to specify an alternate table video folder?

Thought would be, to have the normal table video continue to play, just with a loading animation overlay, seamlessly going into the game.

This could have two advantages to doing it through plugin instead of the load video creator:

1) The load creator (as far as I can tell) can't go up to 4k quality; this would prevent jarring quality change during loading

2) Space saving, as one could use one pool of 4k table videos

 

[scutters]

4 hours ago, DJO Maverick said:

Would it be possible with the plugin to use the loading gifs over table video, as opposed to only stills?  And at the same time, to specify an alternate table video folder?

Sorry, not as part of this plugin. The control for the use of still image & gif or just loading video (and the file location) are controlled by PinballX so it would need a feature request and change there.

One option that might be of interest would be to use a loading video with gif incorporated into it, i did an app a while ago that should be able to do that (it's a while since i used it with a gif overlay though), see;

 

[SixOfTwelve]

I have two questions:

 

1. What determines how long a video is being displayed?

2. Can I exclude a table from displaying a video or image?

 

The reason for my questions:

I recently installed the 2025 release version of Pinball Wicked: Black Flaggers on my cab. I created an .EXE from an AHK script that launches the game and sends "Enter" to start after a few seconds. Since I'm on a cab, I launch the game with the "-rotate 90" parameter. So far, so good, and when I run it from outside PinballX, I have no complaints.

 

Unfortunately, the screen rotation screws up the loading video display.

 

(I don't have a "Black Flaggers" loading screen, so I used a "Pirates of the Caribbean" one as placeholder for testing purposes.

This is what it looks like when I launch the game:

 

"No problem", I thought, "I'll just rotate the loading video 90 degrees as well, that should do the trick."

 

Nope:

 

I tried several more things:

- a video that's 1x1 pixels, with a duration of 1 second

- a transparent png file as a loading image

- an empty text file that I renamed to [tablename].png in the hope that PinballX would just skip it if it couldn't read the file

The results have always looked like this:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-7HiHNvNaFo

 

So - how do I solve this?

I can't deactivate the loading videos for "Black Flaggers" - even if I don't have a loading video or image, my default loading video will play.

I can't force the video to quit after a second - for some reason, it seems to stay on for ten seconds or so, regardless of the length of the actual video itself.

 

Obligatory log files are attached. Grateful for any hints.

 

logs.zip

[Mike_da_Spike]

10 hours ago, SixOfTwelve said:

What determines how long a video is being displayed?

That's pinballx it's magic.

I believe for VPX it waits until the vplayer is launched. For other systems, it is when the exe file is loaded.

10 hours ago, SixOfTwelve said:

Can I exclude a table from displaying a video or image?

If you use the de-randomizer, I thought that if you dont have a matched video/image it will not shown anything. But not 100% sure, but @scutterscan tell if he is awake.

Note: Loading media is a PinballX feature.

When you launch a game, PinballX will show a screen with your media. If you rotate your screen before launching the game, PinballX will indeed show an incorrect location of the video, as it calculates the player when it launches the first command, not after the 'launch before'.

To avoid these issues, I launch my PinballX when Windows is in portrait mode and set PinballX to horizontal. For VPX and Steam games, I don't need to rotate my screen anymore. It's not a solution, but a workaround. Maybe add a featurecrequest to have a setting per system to show the loading media after the 'launch before' is finished

[scutters]

1 hour ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

If you use the de-randomizer, I thought that if you dont have a matched video/image it will not shown anything. But not 100% sure, but @scutterscan tell if he is awake.

I'm awake!. @SixOfTwelve is correct. If no matching loading media is found then the default loading media is used instead.

Not sure about Pinball Wicked but PinballX will normally show the media until it thinks the emulator is active. Clearly the screen rotation messes up the display location for the media in this case.

I'd have suggested trying to run the rotation as part of a launch before routine with wait for exit set (rather than as part of the main system exe, run_BlackFlaggers2025.exe) to see if that would help but it sounds like @Mike_da_Spike has tried that before - so that only leaves you with his workaround.

[SixOfTwelve]

There is a German phrase, "von hinten durch die Brust ins Auge". It translates as "from behind through the chest into the eye", meaning something that's done in a very cumbersome and roundabout way.

It also describes the workaround I cobbled together to get things running more or less like I want them.

1. Your suggestion about rotating the playfield BEFORE starting Black Flaggers proved to be the key. I removed the "-rotate 90" command and ran a little tool called "Display" as my pre-game EXE. (http://noeld.com/programs.asp?cat=misc#display) This of course also meant that I needed to create a whole separate "Other System" category for Black Flaggers in PinballX. Never mind. Maybe it'll come in useful for other games in the future.

2. Now the loading file would still show up rotated, but for some reason it would show up ONLY on the playfield, not covering half the backglass as it did before.

3. I created a version of the standard loading video, rotated it by 90 degrees, and named it the same as my Black Flaggers loading EXE. Now it showed up the right way around, but stretched horizontally to about 200% width.

4. So I loaded the original standard loading video into my video editing software, shrunk the height (remember, it's not rotated yet) to 50%, repositioned it, exported it, and rotated it by 90 degrees. Now the video image sits to the left of the video frame and is only 50% as wide as it was before. 

5. Now when I run Black Flaggers from PinballX, the screen is rotated 90 degrees, the loading video plays, but since it's stretched to about twice the width, the squeezed image now actually looks like the normal width. After 10 seconds, the video disappears, leaving me with the proper playfield.

Now if that's now from the back through the chest into the eye, I don't know what is. 😁

 

In the end, one thing that came to my mind that might be very helpful:

What process is used to play the loading video?

If I knew the name of that process, I could just kill it and thus end the video playback in my AHK script five seconds sooner. 

(I tried having the task manager open while starting the table to find out the process name, but the task manager window was always getting covered up by other game windows, and by the time it was freed up again, the video had stopped playing.)

[scutters]

2 hours ago, SixOfTwelve said:

There is a German phrase, "von hinten durch die Brust ins Auge". It translates as "from behind through the chest into the eye", meaning something that's done in a very cumbersome and roundabout way.

It also describes the workaround I cobbled together to get things running more or less like I want them.

That sounds like a very good phrase for your workaround 

(well done though!)

2 hours ago, SixOfTwelve said:

What process is used to play the loading video?

PinballX.exe 

(i think you're better off living with the extra 5 seconds than killing that!)

[Mike_da_Spike]

Lol.

Here's my video :

not squeezed

I dint have table audio or launch audio, and the loading video is just my table file

 

I need to tweak the script so it will goes faster to the table