Editing Table Views, View Property Database/Library/Repository

[ph349397]

I’ve been using VPX for a couple months now and I can do a pretty good job of editing the view/viewpoint of any individual table.  But all that experimentation was on my laptop.  I just received a two-screen cabinet (one 1920 x 1080 playfield monitor and a 1280 x 1024 backglass monitor) that someone built for me (I purchased it) and due to some difficulty (I had to swap out the graphics card to improve performance) I ended up messing up the viewpoint of every table.  That’s right, I somehow overwrote the registry keys that dictate the viewpoint/view-mode of EVERY TABLE, and it’s quite a large number.

The only thing that I think may have caused this is that I was using the B2S_ScreenResEditor.exe in order to set the backglass screen resolution and after I did that, the next time I opened the tables they ran in the “desktop” view.  So for a few tables I went in and unchecked “Test Desktop” (I think?) and that seemed to orient them in a cabinet friendly way (XY Rotation of 270).  The problem is that I still don’t really like the way they look.

I have some specific preferences that I’m not sure the VPX community also favors.  I like a “natural” look, as opposed to a 100% top-down look.  As a point of reference, I like the way that Pinball FX3 renders the tables, in cabinet mode, it fills the entire playfield monitor but it uses a perspective that to me simulates the real world perspective very nicely.  It looks like you are standing at the end of the table like in real life.

In contrast, for VPX, when I unchecked the “Test Desktop” and all the view parameters seemed to snap to a cabinet mode view, it ends up looking like I am floating directly above the table with a very slight “fish eye” perspective.  In other cases, on some tables, i’ve been been able to avoid the directly-above-with-fish-eye effect but often I end up with a “fat flipper” effect going on (I hope that makes sense, everything looks too “thick” in the vertical direction).

To sum all this up, this is what i’m asking:

1. Is there an easy way to change the view properties of every table en masse?  And is there a community “library” or “database” of viewpoint parameters that I can pull those values from?
2. Does what I’m saying make sense about the more “natural” view properties that I’m wanting to get?  What properties do you think I’m setting incorrectly?  I want to avoid both fish eye effect and fat flipper effect.

I want to emphasize, I’ve done a good bit of viewpoint property editing, changing x/y/z offsets, inclination, x/y/z scales, field of view, but when I get to layback and 3D stereo stuff I feel like I am out of my depth.

 

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[Badazzwi]

First off make sure you have always use fullscreen backdrop settings checked in vpx video settings.

Dont mess with the z scale. It should be at 1 for majority of tables. There are a few that aren’t but either way leave it alone.

My strategy is to set inclination at 0-3 (most at 0) for EM and SS without ramps. Field of view at 15-25. Inclination 4-10 (most at 5) for tables with ramps and tall objects. Field of view 15-50. All tables layback 50-75. Set x scale to 1 and use z offset to fit screen. Then adjust y scale to fit. X and y offsets adjusted to center screen. All done in the camera mode.

There is a good discussion on pov here

https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=40643

Hauntfreaks has  pov repository for many games that you can import in vpx if you would like

https://vpinball.com/forums/topic/hauntfreaks-fs-pov-repository/

 

Hi my name is Barry and I'm a virtual pinball addict.

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ph349397

[ph349397]

First off make sure you have always use fullscreen backdrop settings checked in vpx video settings.

Dont mess with the z scale. It should be at 1 for majority of tables. There are a few that aren’t but either way leave it alone.

My strategy is to set inclination at 0-3 (most at 0) for EM and SS without ramps. Field of view at 15-25. Inclination 4-10 (most at 5) for tables with ramps and tall objects. Field of view 15-50. All tables layback 50-75. Set x scale to 1 and use z offset to fit screen. Then adjust y scale to fit. X and y offsets adjusted to center screen. All done in the camera mode.

There is a good discussion on pov here

https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=40643

Hauntfreaks has  pov repository for many games that you can import in vpx if you would like

https://vpinball.com/forums/topic/hauntfreaks-fs-pov-repository/

 

Thanks!

One thing I should mention, I like the default “Desktop” view that VPX tables launch into first-time because it includes visuals of the cabinet box walls and side rails.  So that’s another thing I’m going for.

I’m likely going to have to mine the info quoted above for my specific use-cases.  So thanks for that.

However, after experimenting I’ve come across this method:

1. Delete all the table-specific registry keys for pinmame, other than the default and global keys, here:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\Visual PinMame

2. Then start a table (any table) in VPX and exit to the editor.  The viewpoint values now are default “desktop” values.
3. Go and change the XY Rotation value to 270, then fiddle with the other values until you get the table looking how you want it.
4. Once that table is done, go to File > Export > POV and save the .pov file somewhere where you can reference it.  This will give you a good “default” point of view that you can now, one by one, open each table in VPX and then import, which will give you a good starting point.
5. Now go through to each table, open it, import the POV file in order to get it rotated at 270 and at the rough inclination and whatnot that you like, but then fiddle with Z Offset and X Offset and Y Offset to get the table area in view that you want.

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[ph349397]

Update: I’m very, very confused about where exactly point-of-view (POV) settings are actually persistently saved.  This is ultimately due to the fact that I haven’t dug in and done all the homework involved with VPinMAME, Visual Pinball X, etc.

Additionally, I have a feeling that various applications that are employed in a cabinet setup can step on each other’s toes.  The major components of my setup are (I think):

1. Visual Pinball X
2. 1. The .vpx file itself
   2. The Visual Pinball X registry settings at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Visual Pinball
3. VPinMame
   1. the VPinMame application itself, the .exe at : “C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\PinMAME32.exe”
   2. The “default” and “global” VPinMame registry settings at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\Visual PinMame
   3. The table specific registry settings, also at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\Visual PinMame
   4. The table specific nvram files in: C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\nvram
4. B2S Background server
   1. This applicaiton is installed in the VPX tables directory at: C:\Visual Pinball\Tables
   2. The screen res editor is there at: C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\B2S_ScreenResEditor.exe
   3. The screen res file at : “C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\ScreenRes.txt”

I’ve had major problems where I had to modify the ScreenRes.txt file using B2S_ScreenResEditor.exe (I swapped in a new video card and that threw some stuff off), but after I did that all the POV’s for my tables were thrown off.  Every table started loading in desktop mode.

Then I started modifying the table POV’s one by one, but I noticed that for some tables a second backglass window was being displayed on top of the backglass.  I think this was the “LED” window.  So I had edited about 20 table’s POV’s manually and then I noticed that LED issue so I ran B2S_ScreenResEditor.exe again and set the LED dimensions to zero (both width and height) and that blew away those table settings, the 20 that I had just spent a couple hours editing!

Am I onto something here?

Does B2S_ScreenResEditor.exe mess with POV’s?

Also, where exactly is each table’s POV stored?  I thought it was in the VPinMame registry setting for that table, but now when I look at those registry values I don’t see parameter names that look like POV parameters.

I’m also concerned that the table .vpx file itself might do weird stuff where it boots up, that conditional logic in the .vbscript that is inside of the .vpx file behaves differently depending on various other inputs and things that it reads.  So maybe the B2S_ScreenResEditor.exe changed the LED parameters in the ScreenRes.txt file, and then when the .vpx was booting up the .vbscript code behaved differently and blew away my previous POV settings and reverted to the default desktop mode.

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[outhere]

In the editor in Preference, video do you have Always use FS back drop checked

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ph349397

[gtxjoe]

Table POV changes are stored in the .vpx/.vpt file., so not sure how you lost all your changes. The only global setting is in Preferences->Video where you enable/disable cabinet mode

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ph349397

[ph349397]

Thanks guys, both these comments helped out:

outhere wrote:

In the editor in Preference, video do you have Always use FS back drop checked

gtxjoe wrote:

Table POV changes are stored in the .vpx/.vpt file., so not sure how you lost all your changes. The only global setting is in Preferences->Video where you enable/disable cabinet mode

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[JR]

“First off make sure you have always use fullscreen backdrop settings checked in vpx video settings.

Dont mess with the z scale. It should be at 1 for majority of tables. There are a few that aren’t but either way leave it alone.

My strategy is to set inclination at 0-3 (most at 0) for EM and SS without ramps. Field of view at 15-25. Inclination 4-10 (most at 5) for tables with ramps and tall objects. Field of view 15-50. All tables layback 50-75. Set x scale to 1 and use z offset to fit screen. Then adjust y scale to fit. X and y offsets adjusted to center screen. All done in the camera mode.”

For those that may follow this thread down the road – – THIS!!   @Badazzwi explained in a few sentences what took me months to …never quite figure out.

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ManWorkingHere

[Greynurse]

Guys, this info is gold for me. I’m planning on getting a cab in the near future. Since I started VP, I’ve always played in Desktop mode, often resetting VP8 & 9 FS tables to play DT. So this info is going to come in really handy for the migration to the cab. I never even thought of exporting a POV. It was there all the time. Huh! Must be enjoying myself too much playing all the great tables.

 

Cheers,

Nursie.

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[ph349397]

Greynurse wrote:

Guys, this info is gold for me. I’m planning on getting a cab in the near future. Since I started VP, I’ve always played in Desktop mode, often resetting VP8 & 9 FS tables to play DT. So this info is going to come in really handy for the migration to the cab. I never even thought of exporting a POV. It was there all the time. Huh! Must be enjoying myself too much playing all the great tables.

 

Cheers,

Nursie.

The most challenging thing for me, learning all of this, is where various settings are located.  You’ve got:

1. Pinmame settings, both default and global, as well as table-specific settings, in the Windows registry
2. VPX settings that are accessed through the VPX editor but that actually get stored in:
   1. The vbscript that is embedded in the .vpx file and that can be viewed and edited
      1. DIRECTLY in the VPX editor (dangerous)
      2. But also the vbscript can be edited “indirectly” by setting things in the VPX editor UI, which has the downstream effect of touching/editing things in the vbscript when the table is loaded (speculative)
   2. VPX registry settings?  I think these exist and are important
3. More that I haven’t learned/discovered yet

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[ManWorkingHere]

JR wrote:

I’ve been using VPX for a couple months now and assembled 350 tables and backglasses.  I use PinUp Popper for menuing my choices.

I built a two-screen cabinet (one 1920 x 1080 playfield monitor and a 1280 x 1024 backglass monitor

I ended up messing up the viewpoint of every table. That’s right, I somehow changed the viewpoint/view-mode of EVERY TABLE, and it’s quite a large number. The only thing that I think may have caused this is that I was using the B2S_ScreenResEditor.exe in order to set the backglass screen resolution and after I did that, the next time I opened the tables they ran in the “desktop” view.

So for a few tables I went in and unchecked “Test Desktop” and that seemed to orient them in a cabinet friendly way (XY Rotation of 270).

The problem is that the setting did not ‘stick’.  The next time I would load the table, Test Desktop would be checked again.

This is what I’m asking: Is there an easy way to change the view properties of every table en masse?

 

JR wrote:

“First off make sure you have checked ‘Use always FS (fullscreen} backdrop settings‘ checked in the Video/Graphics Options of the Preference menu in Visual Pinball X.

This response helped me quite a bit!

I had been looking for POV changes and through spreadsheets of POV settings.  Glad to read I did not have to make any other changes once I used this setting.

Thanks again!

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