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Do you have any idea how to get additional information displayed somewhere on the playfield when starting a table? For example, you could use the Custom Var #2/3 field
These are short tip tips for games, e.g.
- KISS (Future Pinball): “2 Modes of Play (hold both flippers up for 1.5 seconds to make the change before game starts)”
- Cartoons (VPX) “hold left flipper until menu opens > left flipper scrolls menu items > right flipper picks item > save options scroll to save, right flipper saves and closes menu”
- A-Go-Go (VPX) “Press F6 or hold left flipper to bring up options menu”
etc. Many games have such hidden tips.
This is very useful information but it is impossible to remember it for every table. It would be nice if they reminded you about it when you start the game.
Ideally, if in such an extra window the records of a given table were also displayed
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Better tip. Read the script
 A huge number of tables has options.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
I just wrote about it. Many tables have tips but all of them are different so you can’t remember it. There are thousands of tables and I think you’ll agree that it’s not too convenient to go into the script and check if there are any tips before you start playing? ;) It would be much easier to write this information down once in GameManager and then remind yourself about it every time you browse the Popper menu or start a game.
I was thinking about using the existing Custom Var #2/3 fields but I can see that they are VARCHAR (100) – that’s not enough. It would be great to have a TEXT-type field for every “Other Notes” game. Here you can enter the text that would appear on Playfield in Popper browser.It’s just a loose proposition, not everyone has to like it :)
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You could put info in the import data screen in games manager maybe?
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You could put info in the import data screen in games manager maybe?
“Import data screen”? Can you write something more about what you mean?
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In Poppers game manager, when you click on a game the right half of the screen has all of the data fields that can be filled in. Date, manufacture, game file name and so on. Many of these fields show up when your in the front end select the game (not start) select, then you can scroll over to game info and see the fields.
You could possibly put short game hints in these fields? I know, not ideal, but could work.
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Import does nothing but help to fill in the existing fields (from the puploookup.csv database). There is free access to these fields, so import will not help here.
The idea is to use one of the existing fields in such a way as to be able to display its entire content while browsing games (or during the start-up).
I was thinking about modifying T-Art and PupMenuScriptThemeOptions.txt but there are 2 problems:
1. too little space on the existing “Zone” fields for a longer description.
2. there is no text field in GameManager, CUSTOM2 field is of VARCHAR type (100) – it’s a too small for a bigger description.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
You might take a clue from how MAME front ends use and display history.dat. VPinMAME now has a history.dat pinball subset but I’m not aware of any virtual pinball front ends that make use of it. However, PinballX has a plug-in system. PinballY is open source and has some sort of Javascript add-in functionality. Should be doable.
The real labor involved I think is compiling all the information you are asking for (depending on how many tables you intend on installing). That’s all stuff that you will have to do the desk research for pulling from scripts and release threads. I’m not aware of anyone that’s done it, so you’d be the first and I suppose if there are other users with the same demand then they might help you add to the dat. Or translate to other languages, etc. Good luck.
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You might take a clue from how MAME front ends use and display history.dat. VPinMAME now has a history.dat pinball subset but I’m not aware of any virtual pinball front ends that make use of it. However, PinballX has a plug-in system. PinballY is open source and has some sort of Javascript add-in functionality. Should be doable.
The real labor involved I think is compiling all the information you are asking for (depending on how many tables you intend on installing). That’s all stuff that you will have to do the desk research for pulling from scripts and release threads. I’m not aware of anyone that’s done it, so you’d be the first and I suppose if there are other users with the same demand then they might help you add to the dat. Or translate to other languages, etc. Good luck.
I do not want to extract any information from scripts/files automatically (this is not possible). I simply dream of an additional “additional notes” field of TEXT type, where I would manually enter my notes to the table. Information about “tips”, maybe service information I’m going to do with the table etc. etc., etc. I would like to see such information in a little bordered box while browsing the menu / alternatively during starting the table.
There could be High Scores information there automatically (thanks to PINemHi).I know that PinballX/Y have plugins/JS but I won’t give up Popper for anything in the world, it’s not so important for me to change this great system :)
If there is such a possibility, I will gladly delve into the topic and try to do it myself, but here is the question to Terry Red and Nailbuster (I hope they read it). What tools / documentation do I need to modify T-Arc / Popper?
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Right, you would have to compile the list manually. Copy off the information you want from scripts, release posts, or your own notes. In this chicken and egg scenario, you’d likely have to have this started and with most of the popular tables done and made publicly available before devs would invest the time to make this happen (unless it were dead easy to add the functionality).
Plus, the list would have to be maintained. The current author may change/add options and controls to an existing table that you have documented. Or, a new author may publish their own effort to reproduce a classic table with a completely different set of options and controls to enable them. If you have gone through the effort of compiling the data, maintaining it is not a huge deal as it is a sunk cost at that point. But it will have to be maintained. Such a list will not be complete or up to date forever. Probably would be out of date in a matter of a few months if you are one to keep up with new releases. This is where the real work comes in.
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I’m not sure why Carny ‘implied’ that pbx/y would make this easier to do? Popper would be much easier to implement this.
Popper has the javascript hook/calls that allows you to do anything with PinUP Player system. Upto 20 displays/text overlay/all media text…etc.
It really depends on how ‘strong’ you are with the framework. I mean, if you look at Harry Potter, of Stranger Things you have 100% control of how you want things visually. Not many people have got into the scripting aspect of it yet.
As far as fields. I know of a few that have added their own custom fields to the Games Table in sql database. (start your field names with custom_xxxx).
Then in JS you can access those fields. you can even use puplookup.csv to import against your custom fields…. lots of ways to skin the cat.
also, i already have a NOTES field in the games table for exactly this. Details of table. just not in gui yet…but can be imported or set outside of setup for now.
IF Dux Pup spreadsheet has notes field it could be maintained on it as well for anyone to import…..
BUT.. IMO, i’d say KEEP IT SIMPLE. Use existing utils that take text and overlay over it into a nice HELP.PNG or INFO.PNG for the table. you can call that up or keep it on your topper or use it as a loading image for the table. Another idea is for loading videos could have ‘spash text’ added easily with video editors too..
I’m just throwing out ideas here quickly.
BTW; see pinup wiki on how to see hiscores in the frontend using pinhimem. It was written by Pablo and works well….
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Never meant to imply this could not be done in Popper. I’ve never used it and don’t know anything about its integration capabilities. Fact is, I don’t have any front-end installed at the moment. Had to do a hard reset a couple of months ago, and I have only done any work with VPX since then. Just start through the editor.
The point is not so much making something work with the front end. You figure that out once and it is done. The big time suck is compiling and maintaining the data for a set of tables where there is constant development and new releases. There are half a dozen AFM tables if not more that potentially have different features to document.
Half a dozen LOTR tables, etc. I just don’t envy the person taking on that task, but whateverÂ
Just don’t think he can rely on crowdsourcing for this, but who knows?Something like history.dat takes a huge effort to compile but at least the content does not need to change with each table revision. In short, a waste of time in my opinion. But it’s not my time being wasted so… yeah.
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I think I’ve been a little misunderstood about my intentions. I don’t want to parse files to extract information from them somehow automatically (history.dat? what for?). I also don’t want to work with game code to know the VP framework. I want to do everything on the PinUp system side. As I wrote in my first post, many games have useful tips that I read in the forum or at the beginning of the script when (I always look into the script to see if there is anything interesting there – often there is). The information will come from different sources – so it is not possible to extract it automatically. This is the information I would like to be able to manually enter into GameManager (“additional notes” – txt type field) and then display it in Popper next to the game. In this field I would like to be able to write my own notes too.
CarnyPriest: This kind of information doesn’t seem to be outdated. If in a given game holding down the left flipper at the beginning of the game opens the menu, why should it be different in the next version? So I could be tempted to create such a public Google spreadsheet and enter such information there. The comment system would allow you to report any possible comments / irregularities.
However, I would use this field more for my own notes – I have many that I would like to see here.Nailbuster: I was thinking about modifying this:
http://www.nailbuster.com/wikipinup/doku.php?id=high_scores_setup
It would be the easiest path, but in most games I have the option to leave the topper turned on where I have a beautiful pinball neon sign. I wouldn’t want the text information to remain in the game (it doesn’t look attractive). That’s why it would be great to be able to upload a separate topper for the Popper Menu, a separate one displayed during the game.
I just came up with an idea to generate 2 graphic files with suffix in the name, then change the name with scripts before/after? So I guess the only thing left to do is to pull the Notes field to GUIÂ (so that you don’t need to update this field with sql). Maybe in the next version? :)You need to login in order to like this post: click here
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