9.10-beta-1 Released

[ZeSystem]

4 hours ago, Wally said:

For Pinball my humble opinion is that only VPX is worth.

Pinball FX3's new physics is pretty amazing that was added exclusively for the real tables. Fourth volume pack also has experimental flipper physics and they are incredible. I suggest you try that out.

[Jason Carr]

13 hours ago, Suhrvivor said:

I like the default image idea!

Can you please add default images for "cart - back" and "fanart cart - back", since those usually look the same for all games it's a good idea to just have the same default image for all titles of a platform.

There are only image groups for boxes, 3D boxes, carts, 3D carts, screenshots, clear logos, and Steam banners. Back images never show up by default (you can't view the back images for all games together anywhere), so there's really no point in adding default images for them.

[Jason Carr]

Per pinball, I've decided that we will probably not be adding additional support for media and metadata, at least not any more than already exists. For one thing, it sounds like it's trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and with the media "rights" issues I'm hearing about, that sounds like a nightmare as well. So unfortunately, I've been scared away from dealing with pinball media, at least for now. It's a nightmare from multiple perspectives, and I don't believe the audience for it would be big enough to justify the effort at this point (at least not once people realize how much effort it takes to set it all up).

10 hours ago, ZeSystem said:

I've been using Pinball FX3 and had created a separated platform for it. I had some issues initially with launch options simply not working from the LaunchBox, but it got magically fixed after a few updates.

I haven't tested this in the recent version (v9.0+), but last time tested it, command-line parameters were not working properly for individual games. The Williams tables on Pinball FX3 pretty much need "-class" parameter to launch in classic mode while you don't want that in most of the game's original tables. Other than that, it's been working without a problem.

For VP X, I just had to run the table.

Good to know that with Pinball FX3 it is at least possible to launch specific tables. The question though is whether it would be possible to automate an import. If every table requires custom parameters, I'm not sure how we would set that up. I will experiment with it though.

[Jason Carr]

For PinballFX3, do you guys use the Steam version or the version from the Microsoft Store?

[JaysArcade]

I'm using the Steam version. I have every FX2 and FX3 table if you need help testing.

I think I told you in a previous post you couldn't launch tables without going into the FX3 menu first. I believe that was only for the cabinet rotated versions but I'm not certain on that.

[sundogak]

I use Steam as well for FX3.  I also use the same emulator command string across all tables and have never had any issues launching directly to any table (have all but latest pack) within LB. 

[Retro808]

13 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

For PinballFX3, do you guys use the Steam version or the version from the Microsoft Store?

Non-steam version. PBFX is pretty easy to get up and running. Just point to the .pxp for the table and there needs to be a command line to run the table directly. But, I think it was mentioned earlier you do need to have a cabinet mode code from Zen to launch tables directly. 

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

Non-steam version. PBFX is pretty easy to get up and running. Just point to the .pxp for the table and there needs to be a command line to run the table directly. But, I think it was mentioned earlier you do need to have a cabinet mode code from Zen to launch tables directly.  

You mean the one from the Windows Store? Are you able to use that one with command-line parameters?

[JaysArcade]

Just now, Retro808 said:

But, I think it was mentioned earlier you do need to have a cabinet mode code from Zen to launch tables directly

Yes. And in order to do that I had to take a picture of my cab and send it to Zen to get the code. Maybe something has changed since then, or maybe it is only required for 90 degree rotated displays now?

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, JaysArcade said:

Yes. And in order to do that I had to take a picture of my cab and send it to Zen to get the code. Maybe something has changed since then, or maybe it is only required for 90 degree rotated displays now?

That's...odd. What's the point of that? Obviously that ruins things because most people will not be using this on an actual table.

[sundogak]

I bought FX3 a few months ago and got cabinet code.  You just send a screen shot of monitor in any configuration. They don’t care as long as not commercial setting.  It doesn’t  have to be cabinet or rotated display. I use in desktop configuration with 2nd monitor as BG.   

[Retro808]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

You mean the one from the Windows Store? Are you able to use that one with command-line parameters?

Yes. I just added the Pinball FX3.exe as the emulator and used the same command line that would be entered if it were the steam. 

The code request is just a weak way for Zen to check if you are using the cabinet to make money off of. 

[JaysArcade]

I think its to make it harder for commercial cab builders from profiting from it for one reason or another.

[Jason Carr]

I see. What a mess though. Facepalm.

The sad part is that they're only encouraging piracy.

[JaysArcade]

The Pinball Arcade is even worse. LOL

[Suhrvivor]

46 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

There are only image groups for boxes, 3D boxes, carts, 3D carts, screenshots, clear logos, and Steam banners. Back images never show up by default (you can't view the back images for all games together anywhere), so there's really no point in adding default images for them.

I was thinking about being able to flip carts and discs like we do with boxes. since all backs of media are most of the time all the same, it would be cool to just have one default for all of them using this new feature.

[neil9000]

6 minutes ago, Suhrvivor said:

I was thinking about being able to flip carts and discs like we do with boxes. since all backs of media are most of the time all the same, it would be cool to just have one default for all of them using this new feature.

If its just a grey cart back, or the data side of a CD, why would you want to look at them? Or am i missing something obvious?

[Jason Carr]

I'm so sorry guys, but I'm giving up on pinball for now. It's just too much of a mess. It's of course already possible to use LaunchBox just fine with pinball, but with so many roadblocks in place towards making it easy, I don't really see the point in optimizing it all. Unless we can make it a straightforward process, it's not really worth the effort, and as best I can tell there really isn't a way to make it a straightforward process at all.

[JaysArcade]

There used to be a script you could launch, I think it was called NukeLauncher or something to that effect. It would receive whatever table was being launched from the frontend and it was basically a big elaborate AHK that used some positional stuff to tell the mouse to click a certain area of the screen after a period of time to launch the table from the FX2 or The Pinball Arcade menu. The problem was the developers would constantly change the menu when new tables came out, LOL. That was some serious hack stuff there. I think there was some RocketLauncher scripts that did the same thing to some extent. The developers at The Pinball Arcade long ago promised cab support but never came through with that promise, so the bad mouthing of TPA was started. None of the serious pinball dudes will touch The Pinball Arcade. FX2 and FX3 have fared better and at least let you get a code to unlock cab support. The whole scene is/was a hot mess!

[ZeSystem]

59 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Good to know that with Pinball FX3 it is at least possible to launch specific tables. The question though is whether it would be possible to automate an import. If every table requires custom parameters, I'm not sure how we would set that up. I will experiment with it though.

I don't think there are furue-proof methods to automatically detect whether they need "-class" or not, but there is one way to do this:

- The file name for real tables start with either "WMS_" (for Williams) and "BALLY_" (for Bally). However, this is just a naming they did and it can change, although it would be a good practice for them to not. They also acquired license for Stern so we may also get something like that maybe by the end of this year.

To answer the other question, I use the Steam version. I own all tables. Since I don't own the Microsoft version, I wouldn't know too much about their file structure. I would have guessed they are the same, but the tables for the Steam version are located inside a folder literally named "steam":