FPLaunch MOD: Pause and Loading screens...

[jasonsmith]

Should be doable, but not sure why you need to talk to wife - no purchases are required.

Just bought a LedWIZ, sleeping with one eye open.

In respect to DWJB, I read through and watched all the vids, I get how to use the wrapper to make it go to the backglass, just not sure how or what to add in the HyperPin database file to get it to show and launch from the wheel. I imagine that's what all the chatter is about. Maybe another thread is in order showing a step by step?

[blur]

New prerelease of fplaunch wip 10 with jukebox and new focus routines uploaded to vpu: http://vpuniverse.com/forums/index.php/topic/200-fplaunch-with-jukebox/?p=1473

From previous releases changes are:

1.295 wip 10

+ highscores added tnx to dna disturber, bleasby and horseyhorsey

+ custom fp and vp exe (vp/fpexetables.txt in settings dir)

+ custom b2s settings from koadic added (CustomB2STables.txt)

+ toggleLedwizKey button added to menus - tnx to deegor

+ toLog added to every function

+ external ahk script focus.exe executed on exit to focus hp

+ exitemulatorkey changed to exitkey

+ pausekey changed to exitkey1

+ exitemulatorKey2 and 3 changed to enterkey and enterkey1

+ usepausekey true/false removed (it is always used same as exit key)

+ #winactivateforce added again

+ memory leak found in hp on win7 if used in comp. mode - USE NATIVE MODE

+ taskbar problems - auto hide taskbar HAS TO BE OFF in windows

+ some images updated

+ instruction card menu item changed to instructions

+ improved error handling (winwait removed, mouse moved out of the loop)

and new additions:

+ jukebox support added

+ new compiled focus script added

+ instructions moved a bit down so more of a playfield is visible

[Zablon]

rosve routines in fplaunch are very simple - if table ends with b2s rosve starts b2s exe and rosve_close kills b2s exe.

they are both run before vp is run or closed

sleep 200 is just for letting b2s exe launch before we start running vp

what's the idea? you want to run something on table start and on table exit - did you tried using ledwiz bat files which are in the code alread, just put ledwiz = true in settings and whatever you want in ledwiz bat files?

This is an example of what I'm working on. Sorry the cam sucks, the screen is a real DMD. The process for it is completely different from displaying it on a 3rd screen because of the time it takes to communicate with the PinDMD. Basically what it does is loads an animation scene when Hyperpin boots, and plays it until you choose a table. Then it loads another scene(in this case static picture), until the game loads. If the game is rom based, you see the pinmame / fp output. If it is not, then you just see the pic you loaded. These 2 are working examples in in VP and FP. When you exit the table it loads the main animation back. The scrambling you see with the FP table is common to the dll used (it might be fixed in the next release).

The issue I described in my last post is with B2S tables.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Zablon

[DeeGor]

Nice job Zablon. That looks sweet.

It's good to see HyperDMD is getting used.

[jasonsmith]

That is so awesome Zablon, my DMD is going to be very pleased to see this as will I.

[bent98]

Zablon, you made my day. I cant wait for this to get added to FPlaunch.

[evil eye]

That looks sick Zab, wow. Totally want to add that to my cab as well.

[jasonsmith]

EDIT: IGNORE THIS, file rebuilt on a different PC and it worked fine.

RE: fpexetables.txt in Wip10

I'm having an issue with this. I set up the txt file as follows:

table name (no .fpt)

fpPhysics.exe

[space]

repeat

I start HP and play a few tables.

I return to the txt file after closing HP and all the exe lines have been removed for the exception of those tables that I played. If I relaunch HP again and play a table that used to have a exe line, I get the first loading image but then it freezes and does nothing.

Edited February 9, 2013 by jasonsmith

[blur]

i only read from fpexetables.txt - i don't write to it, i tested with few tables and it works

second part is normal - if exe line is removed it freezes because it tries to run bad exe

[jasonsmith]

I rebuilt the txt file from another pc and it worked, sorry for the trouble.

[JaronSenna]

Gents, I installed the wip10 version of fplaunch, read through the changelog and tried to figure out what was the reason that my control buttons on the cab broke, but I cant seem to figure it out on my own:

Previously I had the exit/menu button on my cab assigned to press the Escape key. That would popup fplaunch when I was playing a table, allowing me to go back to the hyperpin wheel. However, with wip10, that no longer works. As soon as I press that key (escape) the VP dialog pops up asking me if I want to get back to the editor, resume playing, etc.

I noticed in the ahk script that exitkey was set to 'e', so I programmed the ipac to press e instead of esc when pressing the exit button, but that did not solve it.

Could someone please explain what I am missing here and why I need to change something?

[jasonsmith]

Try changing "exitkey" from e to Esc.

EDIT : Maybe try this:

Put "e" key in settings file for exitEmulatorKey and Hyperpin Exit key, like this:

[Keyboard]

Exit = 69

[FPLaunch]

exitEmulatorKey = e

Edited February 10, 2013 by jasonsmith

[Aurich]

Yeah, most people map exit to e instead of Esc for precisely that reason.

[blur]

Gents, I installed the wip10 version of fplaunch, read through the changelog and tried to figure out what was the reason that my control buttons on the cab broke, but I cant seem to figure it out on my own:

Previously I had the exit/menu button on my cab assigned to press the Escape key. That would popup fplaunch when I was playing a table, allowing me to go back to the hyperpin wheel. However, with wip10, that no longer works. As soon as I press that key (escape) the VP dialog pops up asking me if I want to get back to the editor, resume playing, etc.

I noticed in the ahk script that exitkey was set to 'e', so I programmed the ipac to press e instead of esc when pressing the exit button, but that did not solve it.

Could someone please explain what I am missing here and why I need to change something?

you checked change log and didn't see this?

+ exitemulatorkey changed to exitkey

+ pausekey changed to exitkey1

you can use Esc if it works for you, for most people esc brings pause menu in vp, and closes b2s backglass every time you open menu

e key is prefered so i put e in default settings

you should be ok with e if you reconfigure ipac ok - you have to change hyperpin exit key also

Edited February 10, 2013 by blur

[blur]

boogies i noticed an error in launch of jukebox.bat in last version

i forgot to put runwait - i just did copy paste of ledwiz code and forgot to add wait

because of that ledset will be executed too early (on start instead of on exit) so you'll have ledwiz and ledblinky controling leds at same time

so command should be runwait .... jukebox.bat, you can change it in last version and recompile and let me know if it works ok on your rig?

Edited February 10, 2013 by blur

[blur]

As i said on vpf here are few notices on focus problems:

There are few things you can do to tune focus:

first is tune focusSleep in settings from 100 to 1000 (or more or less - test what works on your rig - it depends on length of time it passes after table exits)

if that doesn't help - you can remove first break from onexitscript loop and recompile - then all checks for focus will be made from fplaunch and from focus

if (PID) { 
   ; activate hyperpin 
   ;WinActivate, ahk_pid %PID% 
   ;ExitApp     loading = 1 
   Loop { 
       break <- this one

in this release you have focus diagnostic sounds so that you know what's going on right away, without looking at debug log later

it is the same solenoid sound used in menus

first sound means vp/fp is closed,

second sound means fplaunch is closed and HP is acitvated, it can repeat several times cause focus script does win activate in a loop

so if you hear two sounds and then you have black screen for few seconds and then hp has no focus - that means HP had focus shortly and then lost it

what you then have to do is enlarge focusSleep time so that focus script detects that focus is lost and waits for it to come back again (through all black and white screens)

default is 500, in last script it was 400 (but executed from fplaunch), my rig works just fine with 100

Edited February 10, 2013 by blur

[JaronSenna]

you checked change log and didn't see this?

+ exitemulatorkey changed to exitkey

+ pausekey changed to exitkey1

you can use Esc if it works for you, for most people esc brings pause menu in vp, and closes b2s backglass every time you open menu

e key is prefered so i put e in default settings

you should be ok with e if you reconfigure ipac ok - you have to change hyperpin exit key also

yes I did see that Blur, that's what threw me off: I changed the ipac to send e instead of esc, but somehow it didn't work. What I did not realize I had to change was the escape key in the hyperpin settings.ini file. So, I tried changing the ahk script back from e to esc, but that did not work for me, because I had not yet recompiled. Late at night I start making mistakes I guess :-) Thanks for clearing it up: I changed the ipac to send an e, and changed the hyperpin setting to exit on e too.

[blur]

that all ok, everybody makes mistakes that's why i put this in ahk code:

iniKeys = ( 
[FPLaunch]
; default settings, 
; if you don't have them they will be added to your settings.ini file
[b]; ***** don't change them here - edit your settings.ini file!!! *****[/b]

and this

    Check FPLaunch Manual at
       http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10935
   You can use this script *** without recompile *** -
   - just configure your options in Settings.ini
   If you want to change the script you have to recompile it
   with autohotkey *** BASIC *** version from www.autohotkey.com

recompile would not help you - keys in ahk script are used only if some setting is missing from settings

then new setting is added with default value from script

so first time you run this script you got exitkey set to e

second time it is found in settings so value from script is not used

and why are key names changed?

it gets clear when you look at all of them in ahk script:

exitScriptKey    = ~q & ~s  ; kill script key
; menu keys
exitKey          = e        ; invoke exit menu, can be joy button also (Joy1)
exitKey1         = p        ; former pauseKey, works same as exit key
enterKey         = 1        ; key for entering into menus
enterKey1        = Enter    ; and another one
upKey            = LShift   ; left flipper goes up in menus
upKey1           = LShift   ; another left flipper key - for joystick
downKey          = RShift   ; right flipper goes down in menus
downKey1         = RShift   ; another right flipper key - for joystick

You see that all menu keys are doubled - that enables you to use first one for keyboard and second one for joystick buttons. Just like hyperpin has double configs - for keyboard and gamepad. But keys are not read from hp setup so that you can fine tune them the way you want.

Also this is suggested order in your settings file to make it easy readable. The rest of options should also follow order in ahk script.

[JaronSenna]

Thanks for that Blur. I guess I rushed in too quickly, trying to fix what I thought I had broken :-)

I noticed one thing though that I guess is keys related, but I am not sure where to look: when I am playing a table now, and I press the exit key briefly, it brings up the menu for flyers, instruction cards, etc. But previously the game in the background stopped while the menu was open. Now, it continuous to run in the background, draining the ball. I tried setting the use of pausekey to false, but I did not notice a difference there.

i read this on the OP:

pauseKey- default: p

Old name for this key was pauseVPinball. Now it is used exactly the same as exit key (exitEmulatorKey) - it brings exit menu. So you can actually have two configured exit keys all the time. If you have different pause key on your cab you can put it here.

It HAS TO BE different from pauseFPkey. Just like exit key - you don't need to configure this key in FP or VP. Only FPLaunch has to know about this key, and FPLaunch will send what is needed to FP and VP to pause them. If you don't have a Pause key on your cab leave this on default value "p", and use your exit key for exit menu.

I have my cab setup with just an exit (e), start (1) and launch (enter) button. So no pause key. Hence, I left the pause key on default (p) and I have useExitAsPause= true.

What am I missing? The documentation says there is no pauze key in VP, and I did not find one ;-)

[blur]

vp or fp?

usepausekey is removed since there is no pausekey any more - only exitkey and exitkey1 which work the same

for vp the ball stops as soon as vp loses focus

for fp you have to configure pauseFPkey inside FP

Edited February 10, 2013 by blur

[Aurich]

Since it doesn't get said often enough thanks blur for continuing to work on this stuff. I'm still running version 9, but when I get some more free time I'm looking forward to upgrading to 10.

[JaronSenna]

vp or fp?

usepausekey is removed since there is no pausekey any more - only exitkey and exitkey1 which work the same

for vp the ball stops as soon as vp loses focus

for fp you have to configure pauseFPkey inside FP

I am talking about VP, and the ball continues when I hit the exit button (e) briefly to bring up the menu... I don't get why...

[JaronSenna]

Since it doesn't get said often enough thanks blur for continuing to work on this stuff. I'm still running version 9, but when I get some more free time I'm looking forward to upgrading to 10.

And I agree with Aurich: Thanks so much for continuing development and support, Blur!

[blur]

tnx every body

do you see menus? do you have pictures?

This is not full release - you still need all images from wip 9 version

it will have all images when it is done - these are still test versions

[jasonsmith]

Hey Boogies, how does one go about launching DWJB from the HyperPin wheel? I think I get the rest but not clear on this.