Visual Pinball

[onebadws6]

Has anyone successfully adopted a way to run anything other than vpin992 through launchbox/big box?  If theres even a link to how to configure the rom path and additional command line, please let me know. Ive tried everything from the table as the emulator, rompath as the rom, and then added additional command line /open "rompath location" /open /exit......and still no luck. It just opens the vpin emulator and does nothing. Any help is very appreciated.  Thanks

[JoeViking245]

For Visual Pinball X, just point the ROM file to the actual vpx table.  My VPX emulator settings look like:

I don't know if the "Attempt to hide..." box needs to be checked, but it works as it sits.

I only have 1 VP9 table as most have been converted to VPX.  It's CL is the same. Just point the emu to your VP9 executable.

[onebadws6]

Thank you. Ill try that tonight. I have successfully used rompath "table" and pointed at the executable. For additional commands I used    

/open "link to the table" /play   and everything works as it should.  The only problem is I don't know how to end the game and close table to go back to the LB game selection without having to use mouse or trackball and manually close the table. I have added /exit to the command line after play but it will error out "unable to open"  Do you know how to exit the game without having to mouse/keyboard it back to close the emulator? Im not too familiar with command prompts other than how to open and play the game as mentioned above.

[JoeViking245]

In the games Launcher tab, browse/select the table (i.e  d:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Eight Ball Deluxe.vpt)  like you said you've done.

In the Emulation tab, select your VP emulator you've set up.

Make sure in your VP emulators you set up, that in your Default Command-Line Parameters, you use - [dash] and not / [slash] as shown above and it should work. The "-exit" will exit the table with the ESC key back to LB/BB.

 

It's possible that VP 992 (902??  991??) didn't have the -exit option available. Don't remember.  I do know VPinball994.exe (for .vpt files [tables]) and vpinballx.exe (for .vpx) do for sure. 

[onebadws6]

Yeah....my version of launchbox is not the same as what you posted. Im running 9.3 I believe.  If I use a table and rom without the path of the emulator, it will open in another version/default version of Vpin.  Im not able to enter an emulator like yours is showing unless I choose one in the emulator tab....then I go back to the Emlator details tab and the command lines are ghosted.  The only way I can play is to enter the table in the emulator details path.....then chose my emulator for the Vpin table....then add in the additional command lines under emulator tab as         /open "table path again" /play. Is there an entry I can enter before or after that will allow the emulator to exit that you know of in this type of setup?  Thanks

[JoeViking245]

I'm using LaunchBox 9.3 as well.  Let me try again with better pictures. This will be for setting up Visual Pinball X (VPX).

1st you'll need to set up the emulator for VPX.  Go to Tools, Manage Emulators.

Click Add

(1) Enter the name you want to give it.  (2) Browse to where your vpinballx.exe file is located and select it.  (3) Enter the Default Command-Line parameters: 

-minimized -exit -play

Go to the Associated Platforms tab and select your Visual Pinball platform.

Click OK.   Click Close.

Now when you edit a Visual Pinball X table, in the Launcher tab, Browse to your VPX table.  You will need to change it to All files (*.*) to see your vpx tables.  Select your table and "Open".

Switch to the Emulation tab. Check "Use an emulator to play this game...".  Choose the emulator you just created.  Click OK.

All assuming Visual Pinball X works outside of LaunchBox, you should be good to go.  And when in-game, hitting Esc should close VPX and return you to LaunchBox.

[onebadws6]

Worked like a charm. My bad, I was in the wrong screen. Finally getting closer to having my arcade working as it should.  Any help with closing Jnes, Fusion.364, Snes Gt? I tried to add -exit to the emulator like pinball but they get pissed off and wont even load.  I have been manually closing these because I couldn't figure out how to exit back to LB/BB.  Either way I'm extremely thankful for helping me figure out the pinball deal. Thanks again

[JoeViking245]

Sweet! Glad it's working. 

As for NES, Sega and SNES, I use Retroarch for simplicity.  But look around. You may find something for the emulators you're using. 

[onebadws6]

Werd!  thanks again

[peterrrjr]

I am having an issue with VPX. When I load a game, i need to do 2-3 mouseclick to be able to play the game from launchbox or big box.

Any ideas? Tha table loads, but seems it looses focus. 

I saw some scripts for regain focus exitting a game, but noting related to entering it. Ideas?

[ItchyRobot]

On 12/23/2019 at 6:20 PM, peterrrjr said:

I am having an issue with VPX. When I load a game, i need to do 2-3 mouseclick to be able to play the game from launchbox or big box.

Any ideas? Tha table loads, but seems it looses focus. 

I saw some scripts for regain focus exitting a game, but noting related to entering it. Ideas?

I too have this issue. There is a setting in BixBox to hide the mouse (maybe called mouse settings?). That seems to help a bit; but you loose the ability to regain focus through mouse clicks if lost. I think it has something to do with the DMD window drawing the focus away from the table window.

[sundogak]

 In BB I do have mouse disabled and I have also disabled the start up screen feature for VP (Pause feature active though).  But I haven't had any issues on a two screen desktop setup (backglass on second screen). 

[ItchyRobot]

10 hours ago, sundogak said:

 In BB I do have mouse disabled and I have also disabled the start up screen feature for VP (Pause feature active though).  But I haven't had any issues on a two screen desktop setup (backglass on second screen). 

The focus issue is most likely coming from the DMD window. It is hit and miss for me. This DMD window (which shows the score) sits on top of the gameplay window (unlike most emulated games, VPX has two active windows sharing the same screen-when in desktop view). When I load up a table everything looks fine, but I will need to click on the table with my mouse to reactivate that window to use my buttons (coins, start). I need to research a bit more, but it may specifically be tied to the more advanced Frosty's DMD (enahnced DMD add-on that allows better scaling of the DMD and color DMD), and note the default DMD's. Are you guys having focus issues with the default DMD games too, or just the Frosty DMD's? I'll do some more research on my end to determine this for my setup... at work atm so cant test yet.

Edited January 10, 2020 by ItchyRobot

[sundogak]

Yep, using the Freezy DMD extension 1.7.3 and SamBuild VPinMame.  Basically the setup and links shown here:

https://vpinball.com/forums/topic/freezy-dmd-question/#post-115676

The issue I will have occasionally is not so much focus loss on main screen but that the external DMD will not "stick" in front of the backglass on second screen (will get hidden behind) event though all the settings are correct for it to do so. Usually with some fiddling will get it.  Never figured a pattern on it to determine if some particular script code that is issue.  From setup view, BAM and Future Pinball are far less twitchy I found. 

[ItchyRobot]

On 1/10/2020 at 9:44 PM, sundogak said:

Yep, using the Freezy DMD extension 1.7.3 and SamBuild VPinMame.  Basically the setup and links shown here:

https://vpinball.com/forums/topic/freezy-dmd-question/#post-115676

The issue I will have occasionally is not so much focus loss on main screen but that the external DMD will not "stick" in front of the backglass on second screen (will get hidden behind) event though all the settings are correct for it to do so. Usually with some fiddling will get it.  Never figured a pattern on it to determine if some particular script code that is issue.  From setup view, BAM and Future Pinball are far less twitchy I found. 

Mine is running perfect now ... I am 99% sure it was the Freezy DMD add-on demanding too much window attention.

This weekend I did a clean install of Visual Pinball X with the final build of 10.6. I used the 'all in one' installer that installs all essential software. You have to manually update to MAME 3.2 for some reason, as it does not automatically install. This time I passed on installing the Freezy DMD extension or color DMDs.

In BigBox, under Options>Mouse ... I have all 3 boxes checked. (Enable Mouse, Hide mouse cursor when not in use, Disable Mouse cursor over all apps)

FYI ... my Default Comand-Line Parameters field for the Visual Pinball X emulator is filled in with ...      -minimized -exit -play
... and I have the box checked for "Attempt to hide console window on startup/shutdown".
 

===============
update
===============
Here is a video of the my Launchbox settings. It's been running great for a while now.

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by ItchyRobot

[GamerMTL]

Hello,

I seemed to get the VPX software going and set up within Launchbox. as shown above. I seem to be getting an error to set up my controller. I played around with the software a bit...does not seem to recognize my Xbox One or 8bitdo sn30pro Bluetooth controllers. Is there a tutorial on how to get things set up in there? Thank you!

[ItchyRobot]

I've never seen that error message. Is it a LaunchBox or Visual Pinball X error?

Anyways, I use an arcade controller (keyboard module driven) to control my Visual Pinball X table; but I have played around and set up an Xbox 360 controller before and it works decently. It is impossible to get the triggers working though through VPX - you have to use the bumpers as flippers, and set other buttons for your nudge. To set up your controller, you should just be able to go into the (VPX) ... Preferences > Configures Keys, Nudge, and DOF. Then in that window, you will see a drop down menu under each action where you can select the controller button number. Do this for every action you want. Though, you will need to know your button numbers of your controller. This should be the numbers for yours.

[sundogak]

@GamerMTL What do you have mapped in Preferences, Configure Key's option box in Visual Pinball?  Here is an Xbox One setup I have on one of the desktop machines:

Above settings are mapped as shown below on controller (note the triggers are not mappable without a program like Joy2key or Xpadder):

Note: @ItchyRobotThe VP controller buttons start at 1 (A Button) and not Zero like Retroarch so the above diagram is off by one for each button.

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by sundogak
Edit to note triggers are not mappable directly in VP

[ItchyRobot]

6 minutes ago, sundogak said:

Note: @ItchyRobotThe VP controller buttons start at 1 (A Button) and not Zero like Retroarch so the above diagram is off by one for each button.

Thanks for the correction.

I actually use JoyToKey and set it up to match my Arcade Controls (keyboard) inputs. That way I can trick it to allow me to use the triggers as nudges since JoyToKey accepts those inputs, unlike VPX. Though, I use the joystick rarely... you cant beat side buttons on the arcade controler... feels like playing on a real table.

[sundogak]

Yeah, I had messed with Joy2Key at one point to try and make FP and VP map things consistently. I had used to map the triggers (which I have error in figure above, since notes triggers are flippers).  I would probably go to a complete Joy2Key setup if you could do additional Apps per emulator rather than game.  I know you can edit XMLs, but right now don't have to patience to fiddle with it and keep hoping it will get added as a feature.  I had grand ambitions for an arcade cab and a dedicated PB Cab, but life keeps getting in the way of either time/$ to do it and/or space to put it.