Future Pinball Image/ video loading

[societyab]

When I use Bam+Future Pinball Slamt1lt exe I get no Loading Images or videos and a flicker of the Future Pinball loading Screen then black until table loads and pops up (Sometimes a long time due to table file size).

I have searched everywhere for a solution and gave up looking

but I hated it so much.

I created a Program that you can launch with Future Pinball in PinballX settings that alleviates the problem a little.

It displays Splash.png first then gradually fades outs, waits for future pinball window to exist then keeps it in front.

You can change Splash.png to whatever you want. Just make sure it is in the same folder as Splash.exe

I added the ahk file if anyone needed to adjust anything. (you need Autohotkey installed)

Or If there is a simpler solution to this problem please let me know.

(Edit: Updated files)

 

Splash.exe Splash.ahk

[societyab]

Run, C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe Loading.mp4 --fullscreen ; Update Vlc location if you installed 64bit version
Sleep, 5000 ; Replace "5000" with how long your video is in milliseconds
Process, Close, vlc.exe ; Closes Video

Replace the SplashImage section of the script with the code above if you want a video instead of a fading Image.

Have a video named Loading.mp4 in the same folder as Splash.exe and make sure to have VLC installed and tinker with the settings to hide Vlc Gui (Google it)

 

[societyab]

It doesn't seem to work on smaller file size tables but you can just create a new system for those tables until I or someone figures it out.

Only a few.

[societyab]

Ok I fixed the problem and so far this works best.

Updated files attached

Splash.ahk Splash.exe

[scutters]

I'm not a big fan of FP (disabled on my system) so i haven't noticed any issues with the loading video/images. 

Out of interest in Table Loading Media Mode are you set to Use playfield images or Use loading folders? Do neither work correctly?

If you disable your workaround for now and post your pinballx.ini and log.txt file after launching a table with the issue Tom might be able to fix it in the front end

Sounds like a handy workaround for now for those having the issue though! 

[societyab]

Yeah, I know I'm probably the only one using everything but Visual Pinball.

But I only have a 22" playfield screen and 15" backglass. with the Playfield on a 30 percent angle instead of flat. I like the camera view 3 in Pinball fx3 and TPA has similar camera views and Future Pinball with BAM has the kick addon which can be set up to emulate pinball fx3 Camera Movement. 

It gives the system a more Casual Gaming feel than a Enthusiast Pinball Museum feel. (Not saying one is better than the other)

And Im trying to use budget parts and VPX takes too much power to run smoothly.

And I'm using Vibration Speakers for Force Feedback and mic controlled RGB for under lighting. Simple but Enjoyable.

I would like to build a VPX dedicated cab with DOFlinx, and all the bells and whistles in the future.

Getting FP to load like PFX3 and TPA is all I need to say the Mini is complete.

What I have above is just a bandaid, Hopefully Tom can help me out.

He just helped me with another issue and my LOG and Pinballx.ini are the same as that post.

Can anyone else duplicate my problem to see if its just me?

[societyab]

And now my script doesn't seem to be working?.....

I guess once i rebooted I didn't have the same environment?

#NoEnv
#SingleInstance Force
SplashImage, Splash.png, b
Loop, 240
{
	WinSet, Transparent, % Mod(0xffff - A_Index, 256), ahk_class AutoHotkey2
	sleep, 20
} until A_Index > 0xffff
SplashImage, Off
WinWait, Future Pinball - © 2008 BSP Software Design Solutions ahk_class FuturePinballOpenGL, , 30
Sleep, 1500
SplashImage, Splash.png, b
Sleep, 35000
SplashImage, Off
ExitApp

This works but by Covering the FP loading screen with an image (otherwise it is just black until table loads)

This is a better alternative anyways because the FP loading screen was tacky looking.

Still hope there is a fix I would love Video loading For every Pinball Software.

[scutters]

If i get chance later i'll re-enable FP on my system and see what happens for me during load. My guess with the FP loading screen is how it handles fullscreen, might be an option to try turning that off in FP. 

I wasn't having a go at FP & BAM, it's just not for me, horses for courses and that. My cab is dof'less, i use vibration speakers too for feedback and a music visualiser on one of my audio outs to control the undercab lighting, so we're not too dissimilar there.

 

Edit : gave it a go, same issue as you with FP loading screen (using either playfiled images setting or loading media) - screen flickers between pbx loading media, fp loading and then to black.

Tried changing FP fullscreen option to off in editor and then sometimes after that the screen would stay black after loading completed, so don't recommend that (but might just be something to do with my setup. Only luck i had was in fp exe properties for compatibility turning off the full screen optimizations (i also have set to run in XP SP3 compatibility mode, not sure when or why i set that). After turning off fullscreen optimisations the FP loading screen appears (after a flicker where you see pinballx loading screen) and stays on (most of the time), so still not the pinballx loading screen but better than black. I suppose you could go into the FP editor and change the loading background image for all the FP tables (i don't know how but assume you can somewhere).  Hope that helps a bit, i'm no FP expert and will be disabling it again now , maybe someone with more experience in FP realms and how it uses fullscreen exclusive will chip in.

[societyab]

Fullscreen optimizations feature is exclusive to Windows 10 (I'm assuming you are running Windows 10)

So no luck for me, But I really appreciate your effort to help me out.

I'm glad its not just my setup.

My Script Covers up the problem pretty well, the FP loading screen still flashes for a split second but I can fix that by changing the loading image to black and the text on the FP loading screen to black as well. But it sucks I have around 80 tables in FP so it will be time consuming. I hate that I'm a perfectionist

Scutters, thanks again for your help.

[scutters]

Bit of an afterthought, but could you hide the FP loading screen and show it after 30 secs or something?. I don't really use ahk so don't know if it'd work and allow a pbx loading video to show but worth a thought maybe?

https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/WinHide.htm

[societyab]

I'm about to crash, but it might work I'll look into in it tomorrow.

[societyab]

It hides future pinball but each table has a different loading time. and Pinballx doesn't show loading video. If it did I could come up with some thing that hid FP based on a file size equation.

But WinHide will be useful in my arsenal of Autohotkey knowledge. (which isn't large by any means)

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[scutters]

Rats!.. must be the nature of the fullscreen FP loading screen. I guess you just get a black screen instead after it's hidden?

Only other thing you could try if you're using loading videos would be to switch from loading folders to playfield images in pinballx and see if you get the same result after hiding FP (but you probably will )

After that i think you'll have to use your splash tool unless Tom thinks of something from a pinballx angle...

[societyab]

using playfield image loading produces the same result.