Pause Screen Visual Pinball issues

[ed20910]

15 minutes ago, ItchyRobot said:

@JoeViking245 making it -60000 worked. All is perfect now

@ed20910 I use a single button Pause... I was actaully having issues trying to use a 2-button combo for BigBox pause. It was hit and miss when it would work, so I reverted back to a single button and have had no issues since.
From what I understand, VPX does not have a true pause. I just wait until I gutter ball, or get a hold with the flipper... then hit pause.

yeah, i know. Esc is kind of a pause. You can even disable Esc and use Q to sort of pause, then either Q again to quit the table or R to resume.  Might look into using Joy2Key to see if i can get something working.   was hoping someone maybe had a better solution using just LB/BB.  Most probably dont use BB/LB for pinball, but its what i have right now.  1 cab to rule them all until i can do a proper VPin, then will probably go full Pinup Popper for it.

 

[JoeViking245]

It is poor Pinball Etiquette to "Pause" in the middle of a game. 

That said, I did some looking... VPX's innate pause feature is tied to Escape.  (as you stated)  But the tables' programmer has to have the init_something_or_another in the script.  Which most, if not all, will.  Until now, I don't think I've ever tried to pause it mid-ball-roll.   It seems that it will pause the ball rolling, but not RIGHT as you hit the button.   But it does bring up LB's pause menu.

I don't have anything special setup in LB for VPX emu....   Command Line   -minimize -exit -play     and the Pause tab just has "Enable.." and "Suspend..." checked.   Here's my VPX controller config setup.  Maybe you can see something I did a long time ago and forgot about. lol 

Now I can't attest to it working in BB as I usually only use that on the TV with the 360 controller.  It seems kind of sac-relig to play pinball with a handheld controller.  Just sayin'.

[JoeViking245]

@ed20910  Back to your original question (srry 'bout that)...  My cab uses the I-Pac2 encoder-whatever thingy for the joy/buttons/spinner.  It's Pause button is tied to "p" and for Exiting is uses Escape, which on the cab is Player1_Start + Pause.  Player1_Start is set to "1", but is also a modifier when pressed with another "key".  That's how it was when I got it and haven't had any issues.  But it shouldn't make any difference using 2 separate buttons or a button plus a button with a modifier button.  We're still pressing "P" and "Esc".  Though it may make a difference if you don't press the modifier button 1st.

As for the table still running, it might be table dependent.  When I 1st setup VPX in LB/BB (actually fast-forward to when Jason implemented Pause) I recall that it (probably "I") was having issues with Pause even showing up.  But that's all moot now.  I honestly never paid attention if the table actually paused in the background or not.  I didn't and don't "hear" it sill running when paused.  So am I getting a "true" Pause?... dunno.

I'd be more inclined to use an AutoHotkey script than incorporate joy2key, as it's already pseudo built-into LB/BB.  Either way, it'd be something like... 

If "P" is pressed, sendkey "Q".  then  If "1" or "P"(again*) is pressed, sendkey "R".   The "1" key being whatever you have setup in LB/BB as "Select" because both "Select" (if you haven't moved the 'cursor' in the Pause menu) and "P" will bring you out of the Pause menu.  *You'd need to setup the "P" key-press in the script as a Boolean so that you can keep track of whether you're 'inside' the Pause menu or not. Ugh. 

If you can get joy2key working, kudos to you. lol  If you want help figuring something with AHK, I'd be happy to help.  

And so it be known, I have never used nor ever had a desire to use Rocket Launcher.  Nor have I ever experienced that other frontend.  The only other frontend I've use was Maximus Arcade.  Which honestly, is great for what it does.  Hmmm.... don't recall if it had pause.  I think it was strictly emu dependent.

[ed20910]

Thanks for all the info. Your other posts helped me get vpx running in lb in the first place. Might take a stab at it this weekend. But yeah, I get the don't pause mid roll, but sometimes the boss needs you now, and it's always on a good ball. Lol.

I have little experience with joy2key. Use it with fx2 &fx3 for more functionality.  I kind of like having the single key for pause and exit. Makes it easier for rest of family to use.