FX3 tables - Using Different Parameters

[jdsabin1]

I am using PinballX on my 4K cabinet running both VPX and FX3 tables. Everything runs great. Zen Studios just announced a few new tables being released for the Halloween season - 'Creature From The Black Lagoon' and 'Monster Bash'. I do have both of those in the VPX variety and they are great releases too. Rather than simply add the new FX3 tables using the default -class parameter (so all the FX3 tables will start in classic mode if they have it) I would rather start those tables in the very NON-classic style that FX3 really caters to.  l figure that would be a neat way to play those tables in the more whimsical style now and then rather than add them and have the same true emulated machines from both VPX and FX3 on the cabinet.

My question is, would there be a way to start specific tables in PinballX without using the default command line that includes the -class parameter? I took a look inside PinballX setup and didn't see an obvious way to do this. Any suggestions would be most welcome. 

Thanks! 

 

[Draco1962]

The only way I can think of would be to set up the specific tables to run via Other Programs. 

As an Enhancement request to the integrated Pinball FX3 support, allowing for a "flag" that can be set via Game Manager that would allow for both normal FX3 and classic entries.

[Mike_da_Spike]

I know @joyrider3774 created a nice tool :

https://github.com/joyrider3774/PinballX_Launcher_app

After selecting an FX3 table it will shows you th enext screen for 5 sec and you can decide how many players and in classic or not :

[joyrider3774]

yup my utility (in between launcher) can be used for that purpose you can even add extra parameters (like for example -offline) to the ini once it has been generated. I still use it to launch pinball fx3 on my cabinet and i also use it for pinball wicked same files with different ini file.

You can also edit the ini file to for example only show 2 buttons (normal / classic) if you don't need multiplayer support

[jdsabin1]

Wow how did I ever miss that? Thanks for the replies guys. I will definitely give your utility a go joyrider. Thanks for sharing it too :). 

[Mike_da_Spike]

10 hours ago, joyrider3774 said:

 i also use it for pinball wicked same files with different ini file.

I'm a bit lazy (but you properly already knew), but what are the parameters for pinball wicked for multiplayer?

 

[joyrider3774]

3 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

I'm a bit lazy (but you properly already knew), but what are the parameters for pinball wicked for multiplayer?

 

It does not have any parameters that i'm aware off but i created a launcher that can select number of players and choose between the modes then i used my pinballx launcher to create a new ini file that passes those parameters to the pinball wicked launcher (where i invented my own parameters for). I'm able to selected multiplayer if i remember correctly. The launch script is an ahk script that will send keypresses to navigate through the menu's.

You can get it from the zip in the files in this topic

 

[jdsabin1]

I love the launcher you created joyrider. A few questions for you as I installed it and used it: 

a) My cab is 4k and I am using Windows 10 64 bit. If I don't scale the primary desktop to 300%, the text and graphics make it almost impossible to work on things. If I do not have it set to 100% however, the menu that it uses will hide half of the title, and also hides the different modes. When I change it back to 100% things display just fine. Is there any way to keep my main display scaled at 300% and still be able to have the launcher displayed properly? 

b) Is there any way to remove the 5 second delay altogether and have it wait until the right mode is selected and then press enter to proceed? If not, can I change the 5 second delay to something longer? 

Thanks again! 

Jeff

[joyrider3774]

A): Try playing with SCALEM and SCALED properties in the ini file. Since you scale your windows to 300% you have less space for displaying windows and my launcher is 800x600 by default if i remember correctly (or 600x800 depending on rotation). So it's possible it does not fit your screen. You can try with SCALEM=1 and SCALED=2 that will make the size of the window equal 800*1/2 = 400 by 600*1/2 = 300 so 400x300 (50% size of original). But text will get downscaled as well as it just scales images with the text on. You can write any value within reason for SCALEM and SCALED. If it's still not enough you can try SCALEM=1, SCALED=3 (33% size). SCALEM=1 SCALED=4 (25% of original size). IF that does not work can you post a screenshot of the launcher if your windows is at 300% you can press the printscreen button while the launcher is running (you can run it from outside pinballx and close with alt+f4) after having pressed printscreen open paint and paste the image
edit: i don't think SCALEM / SCALED will work. I think the problem is the text i write inside the buttons also get scaled to 300% and then cut of so you can not read the mode. I'll have to try and see if i can make it so that it does not scale the text on the buttons to 300%. Not sure it can work, i'll try to find a solution but it will probably require a new version

@jdsabin1 does it display something like this in your case ?

B)You can define a key to not have to wait until the 5 seconds have passed and just select the mode immediatly but you can not increase or remove the 5 second delay. The 5 second delay was added for a reason, i initially had no limit but if you waited too long either the black image (or loading image / video) would go away and you would see the desktop or pinballx decided it could not find the program to be launched and reverted back to pinballx menu's. I can't remember which one it was but spending too much time in the launcher interfered with pinballx behaviour. Normally 5 seconds should be plenty of time to select something. If you really want to try and remove it you can download the delphi free edition download sources and edit them so you can increase the timer for your own personal use and compile a new version.

[joyrider3774]

@jdsabin1 can you try this version (replace the file you have):

PinballFX3Launcher.zip

By default it won't scale the font anymore if you are at 300%. But text on a 4k resolution could be too small. I introduced 2 new settings in the ini file (you have to run the launcher once before they appear and make sure you did not change the ini setting to not save the ini file anymore). Set ScaleFontM=5 and ScaleFontD=3 it will make text bigger and still show you everything. Or play around with the values a bit. It uses same logic as with SCALEM and SCALED but then for font scaling. Text in buttons will be cut off if it's too big so don't exagurate with the values.

If you could let me know if that fixes it for you so i can release a new version with these options

[jdsabin1]

EDIT: Works perfectly (and my desktop is scaled to 300%). Thanks for the quick fix! 

[joyrider3774]

22 hours ago, jdsabin1 said:

EDIT: Works perfectly (and my desktop is scaled to 300%). Thanks for the quick fix! 

Ok thanks, i'll release a new version today then and update the readme concerning the new parameters

Edit: New Version + Sources released https://github.com/joyrider3774/PinballX_Launcher_app/releases/tag/V3

[GAH1068]

Thanks for Update - the scaled font is much easier to read on 4K display now.   Been using this since you released it.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Removed text

[jdsabin1]

Quick question - can you specify where on the playfield this will display? I currently have a 'loading' graphic that I like to use and this displays over that. It would be perfect if I could somehow slide it down a little lower on the playfield underneath that 'loading' graphic  and having it display just over the apron would make it be more intuitive to use I think too. Regardless and as always, thanks for this app. It works great! 

[joyrider3774]

not currently implemented but can't be too hard todo, will see what i can do

[joyrider3774]

@jdsabin1 can you try this version PinballFX3Launcher.zip, replace your current exe. Don't start it from pinballx but goto the folder where you have it installed and double click the exe there. The window is dragable now and while you are dragging the window the timer stops counting down. So you can position the form using the mouse. The program will save the window top/left position in the ini file (can be negative) in the values POSTOP and POSLEFT. Once you have positioned it press the quit key (default Q if you have not changed it) so the program quits without starting pinball fx3. Now you need to enable the program to use the supplied POSTOP and POSLEFT values saved in ini as starting position for the window. You can do that by setting REPOSITIONWINDOW=1 and leave it at that value. Default is 0 and if it's 0 the program will keep using the original method of centering the window in the middle of the screen and overwriting POSTOP and POSLEFT values in ini with current center screen coordinates

you can also manually enter values for POSTOP and POSLEFT in the ini or after dragging to make it more precise. Watch out with values so you don't move the window outside the visible range, if that does happen you can always temporary set REPOSITIONWINDOW to 0 and start the program. It will have saved the values from centering on the screen again.

If you do this directly when running from pinballx, pinballx might think the program it tries to start can not be started and returns to the menu's if you spend too much time dragging the window around, so it's better to avoid that and set it up once externally, outside pinballx and use the quit key (Q) to quit the program without launching anything but you can expirment, you can always press the key assigned to quit. You can of course fine tune inside pinballx but if the timer runs it will start pinball fx3 and if you keep the program busy with dragging too long pinballx might have returned to the menu's

Also if you want the window (and also buttons) to be smaller play with SCALEM and SCALED values, but you can not resize the window, it's a fixed width and height but can be rescaled using SCALEM and SCALED value combinations 

Edit seems it's not possible to finetune inside pinballx, can't see the mouse and i think pinballx does something with the mouse when you launch a program. so have to do it outside. Btw using this new method you can also position the tool on the backglass but you will have to probably change ROTATE parameter to 0 then so it does not rotate. I placed mine on the backglass now both for pinballx as pinballwicked  (beta)

Please let me know if it works then i'll release new version.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Thabks mate !

I will give it a try too this afternoon.

I have a small loading video with the fx3 logo and just on top of it.

Normally the video is only show for 1 sec, but with your program, it shows it now for 6 sec 

 

Edit: is it possible to assign 2 different buttons to 1 action ? I start games with my start and launch button. Can both buttons be assigned ?

[joyrider3774]

@Mike_da_Spike

I have it also that my loading video displays longer but i can't do anything about it. I think it's because pinballx is waiting for the process to monitor shows up (being pinball fx3.exe) which only shows up after you made a selection in my launcher. Nothing i can do about that.

Also there is no way to assign multiple buttons to 1 action. I could introduce a second LAUNCHKEY2 if it really bothers you  but not sure its really needed 

[Mike_da_Spike]

1 hour ago, joyrider3774 said:

Also there is no way to assign multiple buttons to 1 action. I could introduce a second LAUNCHKEY2 if it really bothers you  but not sure its really needed 

if it is too difficult, don't bother it. it was just a "nice to have" for me

[joyrider3774]

3 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

if it is too difficult, don't bother it. it was just a "nice to have" for me

I will add the second launchkey it's not too much work. But currently busy creating the video's for monster pack. My wifi is acting up and it's messing up my virtual screen i record from once i'm done with that i'll add the second launch key

[Mike_da_Spike]

5 minutes ago, joyrider3774 said:

I will add the second launchkey it's not too much work. But currently busy creating the video's for monster pack. My wifi is acting up and it's messing up my virtual screen i record from once i'm done with that i'll add the second launch key

Thanks ! Awesome
I only have flying over video's cretaed. need to spend some time this weekend for the realDMD video's

 

[jdsabin1]

I haven't been able to get back to this because of the j-o-b but plan to hit it first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks for the fast fix! :) 

[joyrider3774]

@jdsabin1 no problem be sure to tell me if it works and be sure to set it up outside pinballx as when running from inside pinballx you have no control over the mouse when pinballx launches something. at least i could not control / see it.

@Mike_da_Spike try this version PinballFX3Launcher.zip replace your exe run it once (outside pinball x if needed and press Q(uit) key you have specified) ini will have a new value LAUNCHKEY2 by default set to the space value. Change it to the key (value) you like and let me know if it works for you.

[Mike_da_Spike]

2 hours ago, joyrider3774 said:

@Mike_da_Spike try this version PinballFX3Launcher.zip replace your exe run it once (outside pinball x if needed and press Q(uit) key you have specified) ini will have a new value LAUNCHKEY2 by default set to the space value. Change it to the key (value) you like and let me know if it works for you.

Hey @joyrider3774

Maybe I was not clear. You added a start (launcher) button for the keyboard, but  I'm using joystick (sorry for that)
 

When I launch the PinballFX3Launcher.exe outside PBX I can indeed move the window. The position is saved to the INI file.
But re-launching it, set the INI file settings for the display windows back to 

POSLEFT=1320
POSTOP=240