PBX Recorder - captures Playfield, Backglass and DMD videos and images

[bushav]

Thanks for hint on screenres.txt file modification.

[scutters]

Pbx Recorder V2.1

Changes V2.0

                Skip comment (#) lines in screenres.txt
                If screenres.txt not found in Visual Pinball\Tables folder attempt to locate using B2S registry entries
                Added a taskkill catch all (useful if using vpx starter app - https://vpuniverse.com/files/file/17134-vpinballxstarter/ where the actual vpinball exe is a child process)
                Changed DMD_X location to also include backglass offset value
                Playfield screen videos captured via ddagrab instead of gdigrab should now capture VPX OpenGL fullscreen (requires updated ffmpeg.exe)
                Added link to forum post re audio capture
                Kill pinemhi rom monitor at startup and restart on exit (avoid potential for leaderboard popups in captured videos)

Changes V2.1 (thanks @Mike_da_Spike)

                Add option for ‘-INI’ Check: Added a check for the ‘-INI’ parameter on the launch line to facilitate launching VPX.
                Correction custom XML handling . Fixed an issue where custom XML files were creating new systems in the media directory with the name of the XML file.
                Bug Fix: Progress Window: Replaced internal function progress with newly created myprogress to avoid flickering during rapid updates to the Progress window.
                 Pause Progressbar: Fixed the progress window behaviour after return of pause

Note - this version uses a newer version of ffmpeg to enable ddagrab for VPX OpenGL capture (gdigrab results in a static image capture only), this is included in the zip, an older ffmpegold.exe version is included as well which after renaming to ffmpeg.exe can be used with V1.9 if you have any problems with V2.1.

PBXRecorder_x64_v2.1.zip

[Jopp]

GREAT, Thank you!!

I didn't know there was an update so I still used an older version which was not capable of recording the playfield in VPX.8 (just a still picture).

This version does it all, also VPX.8GL and also very fast, great help, thank you!

[wrd1972]

Hey guys. As some may know, I can no longer get the resident recorder in PBX to work for me. So, I am going to try PBX recorder in the interim. I used it years ago and I am fairly familiar with it, but of course, its throwing me a whammy. Just my fuggin luck.

Here is my monitors config:

When I run PBXrecorder to record table videos, it records screen 1 (main monitor), which is the wrong screen. Obviously, it should record screen 3.

If I go into W10 display settings and change screen 3 to main monitor, it records the table videos properly, but now, I have my freezy DMDs showing on screen 3 as well. No good.

I see there is now a PBXrecorder.ini file in the folder, and I kind of understand what it should do. So now, I simply need PBXrecorder to record screen 3 for the table videos. Simple as that. So what do I revise in the .ini to force recording of only screen 3?

One last thing. I would prefer to have screen 1 be set to main monitor in W10 display settings.  

Thanks.

[wrd1972]

I guess I could also temporarily disable the freezy DMDs for table recording tables. Its messy, but if it works, it works. Anyone know the cleanest way to maybe do that? It would be nice if a single setting would turn them off, then one turned back on, they are work as usual.

[jejegameex]

NOTE: PBX Recorder uses the DirectB2S screenres.txt to figure out how to record the Playfield, Backglass and DMD.  (If the DMD portion of screenres.txt is not filled in correctly, you will have trouble with DMD video or screenshot capture.  Try ScreenResCheck utility, to see exactly what PBX Recorder will record).

Where is your screenres.txt ? The program search TABLEPATH (where all VPX tables are) from PinballX config file. The program uses by default the screenres.txt in this TABLEPATH.

[wrd1972]

Wait. So PBXR still looks at screenrex.txt in the tables directory? Whats the purpose of the .ini file in the PBXR folder. Is the PBXR.ini being partially populated by the screenres?

[jejegameex]

the .ini file inside the installation folder of PinballX Recorder is created by the application for save the configuration steps (ex : the second parameter is the path of PinballX installation). The .ini file contains, but not information about screens and their sizes. The application read config files of PinballX for get the path of the Visual Pinball tables, and get screenres.txt.

Before, we installed B2SServer inside the tables path. Now we can install outside, but PinballX Recorder don't manage that. Maybe in the future release, we can indicates the path where is the screenres.txt.

[Mike_da_Spike]

1 hour ago, jejegameex said:

Now we can install outside, but PinballX Recorder don't manage that. Maybe in the future release, we can indicates the path where is the screenres.txt.

10 hours ago, wrd1972 said:

Wait. So PBXR still looks at screenrex.txt in the tables directory? Whats the purpose of the .ini file in the PBXR folder. Is the PBXR.ini being partially populated by the screenres?

Pbx recorder will check if there is a 'global' screenres.txt. but if there is a screenres.txt inside the table directory it uses that.

The thought behind to use screenres.txt is that people wants to record exactly what they see within vpx, so b2s is used to find the location of screens to capture

[scutters]

22 hours ago, wrd1972 said:

I guess I could also temporarily disable the freezy DMDs for table recording tables. Its messy, but if it works, it works. Anyone know the cleanest way to maybe do that? It would be nice if a single setting would turn them off, then one turned back on, they are work as usual.

One method would be to change this section in dmddevice.ini (in visual pinball\vpinmame folder)

; a DMD that renders with nice dots on a computer monitor
[virtualdmd]
enabled = true

so that enabled = false. Then freezy's dmd shouldn't open. Might do as a quick fix workaround?

22 hours ago, wrd1972 said:

Hey guys. As some may know, I can no longer get the resident recorder in PBX to work for me. So, I am going to try PBX recorder in the interim. I used it years ago and I am fairly familiar with it, but of course, its throwing me a whammy. Just my fuggin luck.

Would probably need to see the pbx recorder log file and ini to see what's going on. But hopefully progress will be made with the native pbx recording option in the other thread.

[wrd1972]

Thanks for the replies guys. I made a copy of the dmddevice.ini and stripped out the specific tables.