Pinball Arcade single table launch

[Crush]

There's a way to add and play single tables from Pinball Arcade with Launchbox. You have to download this:

http://pinballarcadefans.com/showthread.php/10199-DOWNLOAD-Pinball-Arcade-Free-Camera-Mod

Place it in any folder you like. Open Settings.ini and add the path to your PinballArcade.exe.

Run TPAFreeCamMod.exe as Admin. It will appear minimized in the taskbar. Right-click and choose: Generate Offline File.

Create a shortcut for TPAFreeCamMod.exe, open it and add to Target: " -table CentralPark" or any other table name you want, the valid names are here: http://pastebin.com/8azvyP8B

Import the shortcut to Launchbox.

You can create a shortcut for each table you want to run. TPAFreeCamMod.exe also adds a custom camera to Pinball Arcade. Note that it temporarily patches Pinball Arcade (in memory) so many antivirus will think it is a virus.

 

 

Edited March 20, 2017 by Crush

[alnyden]

Thanks for these instructions!  Unfortunately I can't get it to work.  When I launch it says "the mod is under maintenance"  Not sure what this means as I am not familiar with mods, if it's something I'm doing wrong or it's the wrong version of the mod, etc.  Would be so cool to get this to work. Thanks again.

[Crush]

7 hours ago, alnyden said:

Thanks for these instructions!  Unfortunately I can't get it to work.  When I launch it says "the mod is under maintenance"  Not sure what this means as I am not familiar with mods, if it's something I'm doing wrong or it's the wrong version of the mod, etc.  Would be so cool to get this to work. Thanks again.

The Camera mode auto-updates itself when a new version comes out - probably the update server is not online at this time, so it can't update.

When a new Pinball Arcade comes out, the mod also needs updating. I hope that they will fix/release the update soon...

 

[alnyden]

Got the mod to update, but now I realize I have an older version of pinball arcade that is not compatible with the mod anymore.  But for anyone that has the most recent pinball arcade, this should work.

[alnyden]

I've upgraded to the most recent version of pinball arcade  but still can't get this to work.  Crush, were you able to?  I've tried everything including:

- I'm using pinball arcade 1.61.10 DX11 (most recent) with the most recent FreeCameraMod.
- Changed settings.ini to launch correct path of pinball arcade.
- Pinball arcade set to run as administrator and open in windows mode.
- Changed name of pinballarcade11.exe to pinballarcade.exe so it would launch the DX11 version.
- I'm using Windows 10 so I assume that .net 4.5.2 is already installed.

When I launch TPAFreeCamMod.exe the icon appears in the taskbar and the notification says "ready and waiting for pinball arcade.exe". Then Pinball Arcade opens on the "press to start" screen but the camera overlay never appears.  I also made a shortcut to freecameramod.exe and added -table TABLENAME to the target but this also does not work.

Thanks for any help!

R

Edited June 17, 2017 by alnyden

[Crush]

Here's my Settings.ini:

Spoiler

 

[Settings]

; Auto launch the game when the mod starts.
LaunchGame=1

; Path to the game executable.
GamePath=G:\Games\PinballArcade\PinballArcade11.exe

; Overlay is hidden when the game starts.
StartHidden=1

; Opacity of the overlay (0 -> 1.0 / 0.1 range).
Opacity=1.0

; Enable/disable the mod.
FreeCameraMode=0

; Auto hide the ingame HUD when you click START button.
AutoHideHUD=0

; The cam values are applied to the sliders when you click START button, otherwise sliders value are applied to the cam.
AutoCamToSliders=0

; Check if a *.cam file exists for the current table and automatically loads it.
AutoLoadCamFile=0

; Enable/disable Hotkeys.
HotKeys=0

; The key (constant) defined in the game to manually hide the ingame HUD (default key: H)
; Keyboard scan code constants list: http://goo.gl/rvrMS9
; Take the hex value in the table (0x48) and convert it to an integer (72);
HideHUDKey=72

[Cabinet]

; Enable cabinet mode, dual monitor display with backglass & DMD.
CabinetMode=0

; Backglass monitor number (as displayed in Windows/Nvidia/Ati display settings).
BGMonitor=2

; Enable/disable 4K resolution support.
HighRes4K=0

[DMD]

; ### DMD Settings (position is ignored when a table specific DMD file exists) ###

; DMD monitor number (as displayed in Windows/Nvidia/Ati display settings).
DMDMonitor=2

; DMD Default X Position.
DMDXPos=0

; DMD Default Y Position.
DMDYPos=0

; DMD always on top of all windows.
DMDTopMost=0

; DMD position is locked by default.
DMDLockedPos=0

; DMD size is locked by default.
DMDLockedSize=0

; ############################# HOTKEYS NOTE ###############################
; # For a complete list of usable keys, please visit: http://goo.gl/0blPF6 #
; # NumLock key should be ON to use NumPad keys.               #
; # 'PageUp' key is also known as 'Prior' for backwards compatibility.     #
; # 'PageDown' key is also known as 'Next' for backwards compatibility.    #
; ##########################################################################

[HotKeys]

HideShowOverlay=NumPad0
XTranslation+=Right
XTranslation-=Left
YTranslation+=Up
YTranslation-=Down
ZTranslation+=Home
ZTranslation-=End
XRotation+=NumPad2
XRotation-=NumPad5
YRotation+=Numpad6
YRotation-=Numpad4
ZRotation+=NumPad1
ZRotation-=NumPad3
FOV+=Insert
FOV-=Delete
CamSpeed+=Add
CamSpeed-=Subtract
SetCamView1=F1
SetCamView2=F2
SetCamView3=F3
CycleViews=F4

 

Works fine with latest FreeCamMode and PinballArcade.

I am using a Shortcut to play Gorgar:

G:\Games\PinballArcade\FreeCamMod\TPAFreeCamMod.exe -table Gorgar

Edited March 22, 2018 by Crush

[dux]

Hi i'm having trouble launching the single table.when i choose It in launchbox the game starts in the main menù.if i launch the table outside launchbox the table loads fine.how Can i fix It?

[rtavani]

adding some extra platforms recently and trying to have pinball arcade tables launch directly in launchbox, but having no luck. Suggestions in this thread not working and since its been over 2 years hopefully someone has come up with a better solution, any help/suggestions woull be great, tks

[thexavi]

same problem as you, rtavani.

Any help?

[thexavi]

On 3/22/2018 at 7:06 PM, Crush said:

Here's my Settings.ini:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

[Settings]

; Auto launch the game when the mod starts.
LaunchGame=1

; Path to the game executable.
GamePath=G:\Games\PinballArcade\PinballArcade11.exe

; Overlay is hidden when the game starts.
StartHidden=1

; Opacity of the overlay (0 -> 1.0 / 0.1 range).
Opacity=1.0

; Enable/disable the mod.
FreeCameraMode=0

; Auto hide the ingame HUD when you click START button.
AutoHideHUD=0

; The cam values are applied to the sliders when you click START button, otherwise sliders value are applied to the cam.
AutoCamToSliders=0

; Check if a *.cam file exists for the current table and automatically loads it.
AutoLoadCamFile=0

; Enable/disable Hotkeys.
HotKeys=0

; The key (constant) defined in the game to manually hide the ingame HUD (default key: H)
; Keyboard scan code constants list: http://goo.gl/rvrMS9
; Take the hex value in the table (0x48) and convert it to an integer (72);
HideHUDKey=72

[Cabinet]

; Enable cabinet mode, dual monitor display with backglass & DMD.
CabinetMode=0

; Backglass monitor number (as displayed in Windows/Nvidia/Ati display settings).
BGMonitor=2

; Enable/disable 4K resolution support.
HighRes4K=0

[DMD]

; ### DMD Settings (position is ignored when a table specific DMD file exists) ###

; DMD monitor number (as displayed in Windows/Nvidia/Ati display settings).
DMDMonitor=2

; DMD Default X Position.
DMDXPos=0

; DMD Default Y Position.
DMDYPos=0

; DMD always on top of all windows.
DMDTopMost=0

; DMD position is locked by default.
DMDLockedPos=0

; DMD size is locked by default.
DMDLockedSize=0

; ############################# HOTKEYS NOTE ###############################
; # For a complete list of usable keys, please visit: http://goo.gl/0blPF6 #
; # NumLock key should be ON to use NumPad keys.               #
; # 'PageUp' key is also known as 'Prior' for backwards compatibility.     #
; # 'PageDown' key is also known as 'Next' for backwards compatibility.    #
; ##########################################################################

[HotKeys]

HideShowOverlay=NumPad0
XTranslation+=Right
XTranslation-=Left
YTranslation+=Up
YTranslation-=Down
ZTranslation+=Home
ZTranslation-=End
XRotation+=NumPad2
XRotation-=NumPad5
YRotation+=Numpad6
YRotation-=Numpad4
ZRotation+=NumPad1
ZRotation-=NumPad3
FOV+=Insert
FOV-=Delete
CamSpeed+=Add
CamSpeed-=Subtract
SetCamView1=F1
SetCamView2=F2
SetCamView3=F3
CycleViews=F4

 

Works fine with latest FreeCamMode and PinballArcade.

I am using a Shortcut to play Gorgar:

G:\Games\PinballArcade\FreeCamMod\TPAFreeCamMod.exe -table Gorgar

And what's inside the folder FreeCamMod ???
I can't find any table

[twobucks]

I have single table launch working in launchbox using FreeCamMod but when using Bigbox most times the game gets minimized to the task bar and even alt tab will not bring the window into focus.  Does anybody have a script to bring the pinball Arcade into focus when using Bigbox? I am not using any startup screens and still have the same problem.

[sundogak]

@twobucksI had swapped motherboards on my PC with working FreeCamMod setup but then after I was having similar issues. At the time I just assumed I messed something up even though had backups with the exact same setup.  I was only using FreeCamMod for the single table launch feature so tried an alternative tool since couldn't get it back to working status. If that is case for you, you might want to look at this tool: "Pinball Arcade Loader".  If do google search should be the first entry.  That seemed to fix my issues with screen focus (even though it did work).  Also it fixed some minor issues I always had with FreeCamMod where it would sometimes not launch to table on the very first instance as well as just a complete clean launch into the table. FreeCam seemed to stop at the main screen briefly and move the mouse around then launch (which may be the issue with the screen focus).  

So if only using the single table feature here is my setup with Pinball Arcade Loader:

The key with Launchbox is you need to point to the PinballArcadeLoder.exe as the "emulator" but also have in the Default Command-Line Parameters the full path to your PinballArcade11.exe.  The launcher will then take whatever "ROM" (text file pointer) and launch from that. 

Here is my dummy text pointer to ACDC. Similar to FreeCam the names of the pointers are specific to each game. The "HIDE TEXT" command tells Pinball Arcade to not bring up the intro text, if you want that just leave only the game name pointers.  You can do via CMD batch files but I always find it easier and LB seems happier (with Pause Screen) if keep direct to the launcher exe.  Make sure you have the "Don't Use Quotes" and the "Use File Name Only" check boxes checked in the emulator screen if using the pointer text file method.  

I have attached my pointer text files for reference so you don't have to hunt down the table names that the launcher wants to see.  

Launcher Text Pointer Files.zip

Edited August 3, 2021 by sundogak

[twobucks]

On 8/3/2021 at 3:00 PM, sundogak said:

@twobucksI had swapped motherboards on my PC with working FreeCamMod setup but then after I was having similar issues. At the time I just assumed I messed something up even though had backups with the exact same setup.  I was only using FreeCamMod for the single table launch feature so tried an alternative tool since couldn't get it back to working status. If that is case for you, you might want to look at this tool: "Pinball Arcade Loader".  If do google search should be the first entry.  That seemed to fix my issues with screen focus (even though it did work).  Also it fixed some minor issues I always had with FreeCamMod where it would sometimes not launch to table on the very first instance as well as just a complete clean launch into the table. FreeCam seemed to stop at the main screen briefly and move the mouse around then launch (which may be the issue with the screen focus).  

So if only using the single table feature here is my setup with Pinball Arcade Loader:

The key with Launchbox is you need to point to the PinballArcadeLoder.exe as the "emulator" but also have in the Default Command-Line Parameters the full path to your PinballArcade11.exe.  The launcher will then take whatever "ROM" (text file pointer) and launch from that. 

Here is my dummy text pointer to ACDC. Similar to FreeCam the names of the pointers are specific to each game. The "HIDE TEXT" command tells Pinball Arcade to not bring up the intro text, if you want that just leave only the game name pointers.  You can do via CMD batch files but I always find it easier and LB seems happier (with Pause Screen) if keep direct to the launcher exe.  Make sure you have the "Don't Use Quotes" and the "Use File Name Only" check boxes checked in the emulator screen if using the pointer text file method.  

I have attached my pointer text files for reference so you don't have to hunt down the table names that the launcher wants to see.  

Launcher Text Pointer Files.zip 6.67 kB · 2 downloads

Thanks,  This launcher works much better than FreeCamMOD.  I was able to at least run the game in fullscreen exclusive mode which makes launching tables much more reliable. freeCamMod you must run in windowed fullscreen mode which is way more problematic.