[APP] PinballX Database Manager 24.10.11.0 (supports Touch Play as well)

[Mike_da_Spike]

@scutters and myself improved some annoying 'things' that we had in DBM.
These where introduced to get new functionality working or to get in Line with a new version of PinballX (or that my knowledge of visual studio doesn't reach that far, but glad I have scutters !)

During the introduction that PinballX supports animated PNG's, scutters and I also implemented it to DBM. 
The support of animated PNG's is that great in Visual Studio, so we introduced some things that we wanted to fixed in the future.

Well. the future is here and we fixed it.

One of the issues was that a preview of the animated PNG could loose some frames on the end.  This causes that an animation didn't looks fine on a loop

Another issue was that the APNG lops could show some blank frames as well, what was causing flickering when the loops end.
When combining both APNG preview, the animation never look good.

Here's an example, where you can see the flicker and shorter loop of the animated png in preview release and fixed in this release.

When overwriting a file with an animated PNG, the overwrite dialog showed a still image (with animated under the file info)
Starting from this version the preview will show the animated PNG as animation as well. it also shows the duration of the animation.
GIF animation never showed the duration of the animation as well, and that is fixed in this release too.
See example video 

 

Another small tweak we did, is that some PC's could show a non responding during Bulk FTP or Media Audit.
Although the program was working in the background the 'ESC' key didn't work to stop the process.

With this version, we tried to avoid the not responding, so that you can hit esc again to interrupt the process

Some small tweaks where done as well which maybe are mentioned in the release notes or we forgot what we added/changed.

As usual, a big thanks to @scutterswho is doing a lot of work for DBM as well

[MrGrynch]

@Mike_da_SpikeWith the latest upgrade I am noticing that some Table/Launch audio files are not playing in preview mode in DBM.  If I select them, there is no sound, but if I run PBX they play fine

[Mike_da_Spike]

13 minutes ago, MrGrynch said:

@Mike_da_SpikeWith the latest upgrade I am noticing that some Table/Launch audio files are not playing in preview mode in DBM.  If I select them, there is no sound, but if I run PBX they play fine

Thanks, need to check it, as I dont use sound in preview

If you "open" the file in DBM (right click on media), the media should open in wmp, does the sound play overthere ?

[scutters]

41 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Thanks, need to check it, as I dont use sound in preview

If you "open" the file in DBM (right click on media), the media should open in wmp, does the sound play overthere ?

@MrGrynch Can you attach one or two of the problem files in a zip too so we can reporoduce?

Thanks

[MrGrynch]

47 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

If you "open" the file in DBM (right click on media), the media should open in wmp, does the sound play overthere ?

Hi MIke.  If I open the file from DBM, it plays fine.. just not in preview

5 minutes ago, scutters said:

Can you attach one or two of the problem files in a zip too so we can reporoduce?

Hi Scutters!  I've attached the files. In this example, the table audio works in preview, but the launch audio does not.  As I mentioned previously, both work fine in PBX

 

tron_legacy.7z

[Mike_da_Spike]

10 hours ago, MrGrynch said:

Hi MIke.  If I open the file from DBM, it plays fine.. just not in preview

Hi Scutters!  I've attached the files. In this example, the table audio works in preview, but the launch audio does not.  As I mentioned previously, both work fine in PBX

 

tron_legacy.7z 567.39 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks ! We will look into it

EDIT: Just tested both and I have audio  with the launch and table audio. 

See :

 

The only thing I noticed is that the first time the audio skips the begin par of the audio file. We will look into this as well (maybe that is causing your 'no audio')

this is caused by my crappy headset that will turnoff when no sound is active. And playing sound will turn on my headset (should not do any audio in the middle of the night ) 

[scutters]

@MrGrynch Both files preview ok in database manager for me too. 

One file is mono and one is stereo so maybe it's an audio setting on your setup.

Can you confirm that when you opened the files manually they opened ok in Windows Media Player (i.e. not Groove or VLC etc)?.

[MrGrynch]

On 7/26/2022 at 3:31 AM, scutters said:

Can you confirm that when you opened the files manually they opened ok in Windows Media Player (i.e. not Groove or VLC etc)?.

Sorry for the delay.  I confirmed that DBM is using my VLC to play the file, which works fine.  I then tried it with WMP and observed the same problem I reported.  So it seems the mono files are having an issue for me.  This is likely due to my SSF.  VLC must map mono signals automatrically to L/R whereas WMP is expecting a middle channel.  I am not mapping the center channel to my L/R because it hasn't been necessary, and frankly, still isn't.  Now that I know why its not working, I can deal with it.  It works fine in PBX and I have no other table audio issues.

Thanks!

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Awesome ! Sounds like you nail it down.

The "open file" will play the media with the default that is set in windows for the extension. (So vlc for you)

And DBM is indeed using WMP to play media. We thought about vlc in the beginning, but to add vlc to visual studio, gives a lot of overhead and the install file will grow. 

 

[scutters]

6 hours ago, MrGrynch said:

Sorry for the delay.  I confirmed that DBM is using my VLC to play the file, which works fine.  I then tried it with WMP and observed the same problem I reported.  So it seems the mono files are having an issue for me.  This is likely due to my SSF.  VLC must map mono signals automatrically to L/R whereas WMP is expecting a middle channel.  I am not mapping the center channel to my L/R because it hasn't been necessary, and frankly, still isn't.  Now that I know why its not working, I can deal with it.  It works fine in PBX and I have no other table audio issues.

Thanks!

 

No problem.. sorry, don't think we can help much, too many variables on your setup, sound card, drivers, WMP device options etc. I did think WMP would play mono as stereo by default if no center channel is found though.. but maybe you have a center speaker but no volume? dunno. I use the backglass tv as a center (it has an audio input jack), not great but it works. 

[MrGrynch]

4 minutes ago, scutters said:

No problem.. sorry, don't think we can help much, too many variables on your setup, sound card, drivers, WMP device options etc. I did think WMP would play mono as stereo by default if no center channel is found though.. but maybe you have a center speaker but no volume? dunno. I use the backglass tv as a center (it has an audio input jack), not great but it works. 

It’s really not a problem.  I could use EQAPO to map center to l/r, but as long as I can just right click and play, that’s fine.  I was just reporting what I thought was a bug with new version.   Just coincidence I updated right after finishing my SSF uograde

[MrGrynch]

Alright, FINE!! I mapped the center and now it works as expected!  Thanks guys!

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Scutters and I just released a new version for DBM.
Nothing specials for end users, but since the last update, we changed the complete apng support.
I was not happy how we showed APNG files during the overwrite dialog and preview on the main screen. It could take a lot of time before it shows, and we could not have  animated PNG's shows directly in the wheel image.
But .... thanks to @Tom Speirs we could have a fully integrated apng library into Database Manager.
We received the source code from MNGer player, which gave Scutters and myself a good start for getting animated PNG's to display.
@scuttersdid a good job of fixing frames issue in the code.
I did some things myself as well  

The biggest difference from previous version and this version is :

• show animated PNG's directly as animated in the program (only when it has the extension .apng as PinballX will not show apng file renamed as png file)
• much faster showing the overwrite dialog and preview screen

A small video created to show the differences :

 

I hope you like it

Again, big thanks to Tom and Scutters !

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

New version just uploaded.

Thanks to @scutters who did again a lot for this release.
Starting with PBX 5.50, Tom introduced FULLDMD media.
DBM Could not stay behind to easily manage FULLDMD videos or images
We introduced a new icon in the DMD section : 

Drag and drop, your full DMD media to this icon and it will be placed in the correct directory.
Right click on it, to download or upload your media from the FTP.
If you have a mega link, add it to the megalinks and you can use it too with right click.

Another modification on the main screen, is the rich text box for action log

Any hyperlink can be clicked, text can be selected and with right click, you can copy the selected text (or select all and copy the complete list)
Same behaviour off course if you double click the action log to get the windowed version of it.

We removed the quit program from the ESC key.
It happen too much that the program was exited , but wanted to abort the bulk action.
Talking about the ESC key, for people that has a real DMD, the video can now be stopped on the real DMD by pressing ESC key. Don't need to wait to watch to complete video

We also fixed some bugs around APNG's showed as wheel image.
As that looks small for the end users, that gave us a lot of headaches and frustrations

For the non technical people, we also updated the documentation that is shipped with the program (don't get me wrong that I mention the non-technical people. From experience I know that technical people NEVER read a manual)

Thanks for @Tom Speirs for adding FULLDMD support into PinballX
And thanks to @scutters who did a lot of work for this release
 

[aXeBLaDe]

Hi guys,

Let me know if this is a very stupid question but I need an answer. How can I enable the "Media FTP" button? It is greyed out at the moment. I didn't find any menu where I can configure my gameex.com account.

Regards

[Mike_da_Spike]

16 minutes ago, aXeBLaDe said:

Hi guys,

Let me know if this is a very stupid question but I need an answer. How can I enable the "Media FTP" button? It is greyed out at the moment. I didn't find any menu where I can configure my gameex.com account.

Regards

You didn't read the manuals that are shipped with the installation ?

Go to settings, tab 'gameexonline', put your credentials in it and hit test.

If credentials are ok, the button will be available. 

I think we even got a YouTube video posted about it

Edit: we got indeed a YT video about it

 

[aXeBLaDe]

Thanks I already did find it out. The big Settings button that I over looked did the job ;). Is there somewhere a topic with Mega links somewhere that you are aware of?

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

21 minutes ago, aXeBLaDe said:

Thanks I already did find it out. The big Settings button that I over looked did the job ;). Is there somewhere a topic with Mega links somewhere that you are aware of?

 

Like this ?

https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/23840-app-pinballx-database-manager-2209050-supports-touch-play-and-pbx-w7vista-version-as-well/?do=findComment&comment=193100

[aXeBLaDe]

Yeah like that and did already found those but was hoping there is some more on other links. I did a google search and did found some. Thanks Mike for helping me out.

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

No problem. 

I hope my reply helped you

[Mike_da_Spike]

Release 2022.10.20.0 available.

A feature request was to add a refresh button for the media :

The benefit of this button is that you can delete a media file outside the program.
With the refresh button, it will be showed as deleted (missing) as well.

Same for importing. If you import manually a media file (that was showing red in the interface) by putting the file just in the corresponding folder, you can hit the refresh button to show in the interface as well.

Hope this make sense

We also repaired some bugs that were found after releasing the latest version
Thanks to @pepeleches for having an issue that he didn't installed  WMP on his system (and it was stated in the 'Prerequisite' in the download section ) and caused taht DBM was directly closed after launching. 
You will receive a message that WMP isn't found on the system

As always, a big thanks to @scutters for helping on this release 

 

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Release 2022.11.22.0 available.

@DBrown67 asked for some extra to get on the statistics plugin.
With this release of DBM, we added extra information from IPDB to the system XML file.
This is turned off by default, so enable this in the setting dialog :

Enabling this feature will add an extra icon on the main form
(and also enable some extra checkboxes in the Bulk IPDB)

The button will not be showed on System List media and button is only active when there is an IPDB nr.

Clicking on this button give an extra form 

Adding the extra info, can be done, by clicking the "Import info" button.
Make sure the radio buttons and checkbox is correct selected.
You can also use your own text in the fields.|
You don't need an internet connection for getting the data from IPDB, all is embedded in DBM

We updated the IPDB list for this to IPDB nr 6937

Some small tweaks were done on the main form to align the icons/texts a bit.

We changed the save of the XML file as well.
No header is in the XML anymore as the file is saved in the correct format.
All PBX fields and values will be written, but any empty fields that DBM is using, will not be written.
This will reduce the XML file size a bit.

Another small feature is that DBM will not be opened twice if it is running from the same location.
You can run multiple instances of DBM from different directories

a big thanks to @scutters for this release again.
he helped with ideas, code, design, debugging, testing and my mental health

Hope you like it
Now it is up to @scuttersfor an update on his statistics plugin.

 

[scutters]

I've finally caught up!

V2.0 of the the statistics plugin is now posted and can display the extra IPDB data added in the last release of Database Manager in PinballX on a screen & location of your choice.

[johnwillsey]

On 4/23/2022 at 9:12 PM, Mike_da_Spike said:

Haha. So all is fine for you ?

sorry, lost track of this thread.  with current version, still having issue.. here is my output after testing...

FTP CHECK    :    FTP access granted
ERROR INFO    :    Encrypt    Key not valid for use in specified state.

ERROR INFO    :    SetRegValue    Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: value
ERROR INFO    :    Decrypt    Key not valid for use in specified state.

 

I just can't seem to save my ftp password after it tests fine.

[Draco1962]

6 hours ago, johnwillsey said:

sorry, lost track of this thread.  with current version, still having issue.. here is my output after testing...

FTP CHECK    :    FTP access granted
ERROR INFO    :    Encrypt    Key not valid for use in specified state.

ERROR INFO    :    SetRegValue    Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: value
ERROR INFO    :    Decrypt    Key not valid for use in specified state.

 

I just can't seem to save my ftp password after it tests fine.

Maybe take this to the PinballX General forum as a new thread to help you sort your FTP access issue?