[PLUGIN] PinballX Pinemhi Challenge Table Launcher

[scutters]

The Pinemhi Online Leaderboard created by @Dna Disturber lets you compete against other players online in weekly high score competitions on set tables.

This plugin allows you to create wheel entries in your Visual Pinball system to launch the Pinemhi tables of the week from set locations, for the weekly 5 minute challenge table it can also toggle the 5min mode used by Pinemhi on and off on game launch & exit.

The plugin will try to locate the table of the week in your collection and then launch it (this is done by matching on roms and then by fuzzy matching on table names against the challenge table). If no match is found then no table will be launched, and if you have more than one version of a challenge table then one will be picked randomly. Tables set to use the 'alternateexe' in database xml are ignored during the matching.

You must be connected to the internet and already have set up the Pinemhi leader board for this plugin to work!!

See https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=44580&page=1 and https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/25229-guide-pinemhi-leaderboard-setup-and-use/ for info on how to setup and configure Pinemhi leader board.

 

Plugin Install and Configuration

1. Create dummy table files for the Pinemhi Weekly and/or 5 Min Challenges & Golf Challenges and place them in your Visual Pinball\Tables folder (you can find dummy table files in the Support Files attachment)
2. Using Game Manager or PinballX Database Manager add the dummy tables to your Visual Pinball system (make a note of the table descriptions / display names used)
3. Table Media - add as required in Game Manager / PinballX Database Manager - there are some examples of media in the Support Files attachment, wheel images, videos etc (I use the Rocky theme as table audio for the challenge tables but that is not included due to copyright, the backglass video is adapted from here). Also included are a couple of company logos you can use if you set the Manufacturer field to DNA Disturber or Pinemhi (take your pick)
4. Extract the PBXPinemhiLauncher.dll and place it in your PinballX\Plugins folder  (unblock the file if required - https://www.limilabs.com/blog/unblock-dll-file)
5. Enable the plugin in Plugin Manager (in PinballX folder) 
6. Configure the plugin via the Plugin Manager Configure button

          

• Enter the EXACT game descriptions / display names from step 2
• For the Golf challenge you can optionally select to have the plugin replace the PinballX backglass video with a standard one that shows the current closest to the pin target score, or to speak it on game launch. The score on the backglass video will always be in the same location but the background image can be changed by updating the PBXPinemhiLauncher_BackglassGolfScoreImage.png image in the \plugins\PBXPinemhiLauncher_Working folder (after enabling the backglass video option and running PinballX once).
• If using a key to start and stop 5 minute challenges use the 'Input' to set the same key code as configured in Pimehi, the plugin will send this key for you when the 5 min mode table is launched and exited. Note this option is for key codes only, if you have a button assigned then i assume you can easily start stop 5 min mode manually, in which case this can be left blank.
• 5 min key exit delay - this controls how long after the  5 min mode table has exited that the mode is turned off, this figure can be increased if the pinemhi mode is being turned off before the score has been submitted online.

Issues

Please attach the PinballX.ini & Log.txt files as well as the plugins PBXPinemhiLauncher.ini & PBXPinemhiLauncher_Log.txt files from the plugins folder along with a description of the problem, i may also request a copy of your database xml file and pinemhi.ini to help replicate the issue.

Thanks

@Mike_da_Spike i blatantly ripped off his code for rom name and fuzzy table name matching from the API Launcher app , @Tom Speirs and @Adultery for PinballX and the awesome flexibility of plugins!

Changes

10/08/21    V1.0.0    Initial release

19/09/22    V1.0.1    Change to timing when launching 5min mode challenges (plugin could turn 5min mode off before pinemhi registered the score). Thanks @Mike_da_Spike! 

15/11/23    V2.0.0    Added Golf / Closest to the PIN challenge to the the launcher & support files.  Thanks again to @Mike_da_Spike who started the code for this after @Dna Disturber added the functionality to the Pinemhi Leaderboard, and then tested and found a load of issues with all the code i did.

16/11/23    V2.0.1    Small fix for five minute challenge mode if no table found

PBXPinemhiLauncher V2_0_1.zip

 

SupportFiles.zip

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by scutters
V2.0.1

[Mike_da_Spike]

The master of PinballX plugins !
Nice work mate !

Edit :
This is really cool @scutters. I added your media and looks very good in PinballX.
It load the correct tables for the correct challenge (must be very difficult code  ) 

Here's a small demo on my cab :

 

[davy33]

great job guys! very handy!

i also create a xml with weekly and 5mn mode to access quicly by list menu

[Mike_da_Spike]

I created some topper/dmd Videos. based on scutters his neon style company animation and his wheels (I changed the 5 min wheel a bit

For Real DMD :

 

 

 

Topper/DMD (Medium overlay)

 

 

Topper/DMD (Large overlay)

 

And this is the zip file with all the videos in it

Thanks to @scutters who fixed my animated apng convertion (and for this plugin that I really use a lot !)

Pinemhi Weekly Challenge DMD_topper.zip

[Mike_da_Spike]

I created my first tarcisio style wheels for pinemhi

These are more in line with the rest of my wheels

 

 

[scutters]

V1.0.1 update from @Mike_da_Spike for 5min mode timing fix. Attachment updated in first post.

[Dacstyle]

Excelent plugin, thank you.

[scutters]

V2.0.0 of the plugin released and attachments updated in first post.

This adds functionality for the Closest to the PIN Pinemhi Weekly Challenge

and some bug fixes from Mike;

• check when PinballX closes if 5 min challenge is active, if so, stop it
• When no data return from Pinemhi, Filter to check table was empty which result that random a table was taken from all the tables.
  Now it will stop and doesn't run anything (as we have when no rom is found)

Big thanks to @Dna Disturber & @Mike_da_Spike 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Nice one @scutters

I really love it

Here's some media as well :

(create with the 'Spinning Ball' app from @scutters as well)

Realdmd:

 

Topper/virtual DMD

 

Good job on the plugin mate 

[scutters]

Attachment in first post updated to V2.0.1, a small fix to 5min challenge mode if the challenge table was not found. Thanks @Mike_da_Spike