Future Pinball

[InfinityFox]

I've seen a video somewhere that instructs you to add a command line to each Future Pinball table to get the tables loading rather than just the emulator. This seems like a rather time consuming process, is there another way?

 

I see referenced in one of the sub forums a sticky providing all settings for the emulators and it say this for future Pinball. /open /play /exit

Where do I place this info and will that suffice to run all the tables or will I need to add this command to each table?

 

cheers guys

Edited October 6, 2016 by InfinityFox
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[JaysArcade]

It is indeed a pain in the arse. You can import the tables into Launchbox and specify Rocketlauncher as the emulator to load the tables for you (which is unfortunately broken currently due to the split xmls, plus Rocketlauncher can be challenging to set up in it's own right), or you can import the tables and specify Future Pinball as the emulator. You will have to manually edit each table entry in order to tell Launchbox how to load the tables. The /open /play /exit in the sticky you refer to is missing is missing the path. For me to get any of the tables to open, I had to manually add the command line to each table. Doing a bulk edit to all tables adding the /open /play /exit to the custom command line won't work because the table path is missing.

In Launchbox, right click a table after importing it. Click Edit. Go to the Emulation tab and click the Use Custom Command-Line Parameters: check box and enter the command /open "Drive Letter:\full path\table_name.fpt" /play /exit where "Drive Letter:\full path\table_name.fpt" is the full path to your table. Make sure you use quotes, especially if there are spaces in the name. Click OK and try opening the table. 

Pain in the butt to set up each table this way but it seems to work. I currently have over a hundred tables set up this way, editing each table one at a time.

If there is a way for Launchbox to do this automatically, I must have missed it.

[InfinityFox]

Thank jaythompson for the help!   I guess I better get started  

[JaysArcade]

No problem. On another thread, Jason mentions making a batch file for launching tables but I'm not really sure how to do something like that.... (I'm not sure how to quote from another thread so I'll copy and paste below).

"Right now, officially, you can't. But what you *can* do is create a batch file to do it properly. It's slightly complicated, but it can be done. You just have to use %1 variables and then you can reorder the parameters in the batch file. It's far from an ideal solution though because of the command prompt window that shows up. I do have a fix for these odd emulators somewhere on my list."

Maybe you or someone else can make something of that. Good luck!

[InfinityFox]

No idea how to do that!

I wondered if there is a proposed list on what will be worked on in Launchbox somewhere, can't find anything?

[JaysArcade]

At the top of the page is a link called issues/requests. That link opens bitbucket which is a feature implementation/bug tracking tool that Jason uses. This ticket seems similar to what we need Launchbox to do for Future Pinball although there might be something in there more specific to our problem. If you go to the site and create an account, you can vote on issues/features that you'd like to see get worked on.

[InfinityFox]

I just wanted to revive this thread to ask a question about Libraries and the files that come within that folder.

I've been putting all my tables within the tables directory in the Future Pinball Directory. Some tables come with a Libraries folder and within there are some files which I assume the table in question needs to work. I saw that within the emulator root directory there is a Libraries folder so I've been putting them in there. Everything was fine with the first few tables but noticed that the forth table I added had files for the Libraries folder that we named exactly like files already present. I assume then that these will need to go somewhere else, Any ideas.. Do you perhaps extract the tables each to a seperate folder and put each individual Libraries folder in to the relevant folder, rather than in the root emulator Libraries folder?

[JaysArcade]

Here's what I do. I open the zip file containing the table. A lot of times there will be more than one version of the table. I will pick the latest and copy it out to my FP tables (roms essentially) folder. Sometimes there will be a libraries folder with a few files in it, or a textures folder, as well as table and flyer images that may be anywhere in the folder. Any Library or Textures folders should get copied to the root of the future pinball folder. This will just add whatever is in the copied Libraries folder to the existing Libraries folder. If the same files are already in there, it will prompt you to over-write. I think some tables share the same libraries so its not a big deal if this happens. Sometimes, the individual that created the table did a not so good job organizing the folder when they made the table and just dropped the library file or texture file right in with the table file in the zip folder. In this case, if you try to organize things the way you think they should be by dropping the stray texture file or library file in its corresponding folder when you import the table, the table won't run because it is looking for those files in the same folder the table is in. Does that make any sense? In this case I just drop those stay texture and library files right in the same folder as the table. I then load the table and make sure it works. If it doesn't, I copy those files into the proper Library or Texture folder and try again. I test every table before importing it into Launchbox because sometimes no matter what you do, the table might still have issues. I think the tables can be edited rather easily to make each one look for the library or texture file in a different location (e.g.. the corresponding Libraries or Textures folder) but that seemed like too much work to figure out. Another thing I've noticed is the table will generally give you a clue what the problem is when it throws an error. It will usually state it could not load such and such texture or library file. That a good clue you don't have those files where the table thinks they should be.

TL:DR; Put those files right in with the table in the FP table or rom folder and try to open the table. Your table folder will be a bit of a mess, but at least the problem tables will open.

[JaysArcade]

For anyone reading this, I recently created a tool that will help tremendously with setting up your Future Pinball tables. See the post below for more info.