[RESOLVED] Future Pinball takes a long time to load in PinballX

[Segador]

Hello, as the title says, Future Pinball takes a long time to load the tables from PinballX. If I launch from Future Pinball the same tables load in seconds. Any idea what could cause this?

Visual Pinball and FX2 and 3 load ok.  Those are the 4 systems I have configured.

Sorry fot not uploading the files, pretty new to this.

PinballX.ini

log.txt

[Mike_da_Spike]

Please attache your log file and your pinballx.ini file

[scutters]

I don't have FP installed these days, but i think you need to check you configuration in PinballX Settings;

Recommendation these days is to use the 'BAM' FPLoader.exe to launch Future Pinball rather than the Future Pinball.exe itself, and you should also have the /STAYINRAM option added to the launch parameters.

Have a look at this post; https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/18508-guide-how-future-pinball-should-be-setup-for-bam-doflinx-pinball-x/

 

[Segador]

I have noticed now that the problem is not only whit FP but whit all of the programs. Visual Pinball too takes a long time to load the tables.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Did you set up all correctly ?

How is it performing if you do the same outside pinballx and do it from command line ?

Not sure what kind of machine configuration you have ( i see from the log you got a celeron with a gtx 650). Not sure about your harddrive.

But first check all from command line (fp, vp, fx3) to do a compare.

[Segador]

If i launch the tables from their respective programs all work ok, tables load in seconds. The HDD is a WD of 1Tb but the PinballX is installed in a SSD, the tables and the other programs are in the HDD.

I have watched some YT videos and i think the config is ok but dont have enough experience to tell for sure.

Is not only when the tables launch, when you close the table pinballx takes a lot to reload.

[Mike_da_Spike]

As I said. Try to launch the programs from the command line to a table.

When you already have an emulator open, it is comparing apples with oranges. Pinballx is just a wrapper to make the launches easier and show it in a nice way.

I hink fx3 is a nice example, as the direct launch is seen directly when fx3 processes is starting.

I'm not exactly sure for visual pinball, but I thought it waits until the visual player is started to switch the loading image/video to the vp player.

If that is taking longer than expected, try to "play" with exclusive mode within visual pinball.

If I check your log in your first post, you started a vp table and the time between launch and that vpx detected a game running wasn't that bad

23:56:12.13  2023/04/21:  D:\Visual Pinball\VPinballX.exe /play -"D:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Back To The Future (Data East 1990).vpx"
23:56:12.21  2023/04/21:  C:\PinballX\vpauto.exe 
23:56:21.22  2023/04/21:  Visual Pinball Player window foreground: 8
23:56:24.96  2023/04/21:  Found PinMAME ROM: bttf_a27
23:56:44.71  2023/04/21:  Main display running full screen windowed.

As I don't use Future Pinball, I cannot say what the timing should be.

 

Btw... i should put tables and emulator on ssd. But thats my opinion

[Segador]

I have another log. In this one you can see it takes more than one minute and half for PX to launch FP. After that FP takes his normal time to load the table.

How i do the command thing?

 

 

log.txt

[Mike_da_Spike]

According to your log, you are still launching fp incorrectly (see scutters his first post). Fp should be launched via BAM's fploader.exe. see https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/18508-guide-how-future-pinball-should-be-setup-for-bam-doflinx-pinball-x/

 

And looks like its taking 30 seconds to load:

09:19:13.68  2023/04/24:  D:\Future Pinball\Future Pinball.exe /open "D:\Future Pinball\Tables\Batman Joker Edition ULTIMATUM 1.04.fpt" /play /exit /arcaderender
09:19:43.06  2023/04/24:  PinMame Not detected. Potentially loading DMD image/video
09:20:34.03  2023/04/24:  Exit System Control Pressed

 

To open a command prompt see:

https://en.m.wikiversity.org/wiki/Command_Prompt/Open

 

 

[scutters]

There does seem to be a delay in the log file after 'set plugin data', before the actual launch

09:17:51.62  2023/04/24:  Set Plugin data
09:19:13.68  2023/04/24:  D:\Future Pinball\Future Pinball.exe /open "D:\Future Pinball\Tables\Batman Joker Edition ULTIMATUM 1.04.fpt" /play /exit /arcaderender

One my setup this step only takes 1 sec, and i have several plugins enabled.

I'm not sure what PinballX is doing during that period on your setup, but a guess is maybe that's when it grabs a screenshot before table launch to use as a loading image. So one thing to try is in Settings.exe under General Settings -> Table Loading Media Mode change to 'Use Loading Folders' as a test. This would use a default loading image instead of a screenshot / video frame.

If that doesn't help then as your hardware isn't high spec then maybe running 'PinballXLite' might be worth trying instead of PinballX.exe.

(and yes, your FP launch parameters still need updating)

[Mike_da_Spike]

9 minutes ago, scutters said:

There does seem to be a delay in the log file after 'set plugin data', before the actual launch

Good catch ! I didnt noticed that. Thats indeed an extra 'delay' of 24 seconds. 

12 minutes ago, scutters said:

So one thing to try is in Settings.exe under General Settings -> Table Loading Media Mode change to 'Use Loading Folders' as a test. This would use a default loading image instead of a screenshot / video frame.

This screenshot will be created one time, right (@scutters)? So curious what happen 2nd time when loading this table

But yeah, try to disable the option first to check if it makes any differents.

[Segador]

This was the problem "General Settings -> Table Loading Media Mode". After changing it all was good. All tables loaded normally in FP and VP.

 

Thank you very much.

[Mike_da_Spike]

good catch @scutters ! 
But isn't that only for tables that you launch only for the first time ?

Although the option and feature is good, I prefer loading videos with Scutters his de-randomizer (sorry Tom)

[scutters]

53 minutes ago, Segador said:

This was the problem "General Settings -> Table Loading Media Mode". After changing it all was good. All tables loaded normally in FP and VP.

 

Thank you very much.

Good to know. Interesting that it causes such a slow down on your system, are you using a long 4k playfield video as media in pinballx or something? 

Maybe it is something @Tom Speirs can look at as it definitely causes an issue in your case.

 

16 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

But isn't that only for tables that you launch only for the first time ?

Not sure on that, don't know if the loading images are cached or not when extracted from playfield videos. I don't use that option either.

[Segador]

Quote

Good to know. Interesting that it causes such a slow down on your system, are you using a long 4k playfield video as media in pinballx or something? 

I am pretty new to pinball emulation, dont even know what you are talking about. I just installed the 2 emulators and then PX. Did a little config, point Px To where the emulator are installed, and thats all.

[Mike_da_Spike]

So, you dont have any fancy videos that shows up within pinballx ?

Just the pinballx logo and animated backglass from pbx?

[scutters]

7 hours ago, Segador said:

I am pretty new to pinball emulation, dont even know what you are talking about. I just installed the 2 emulators and then PX. Did a little config, point Px To where the emulator are installed, and thats all.

PinballX allows you to have custom media (images or videos) for the tables as you browse, for most people they're just images or videos of the games playfield so you can view it before launching. It is that media i'm talking about (but you might not have got that far in your setup yet)

[Segador]

I just checked the videos folder and the most big one is under 50mb. I dont think thats big enough to ralentize the system so much. When browsing i dint notice any problems going from one table to the next, the videos appeared instantly.

[scutters]

I think Tom would need an example video (and any custom loading gif files you might have added) if you wanted the problem on your setup with  'use playfiled images' looking into. But if you're happy with 'use loading folders' then i guess it's resolved for you