======.============================================================================================================================================= DISCLAIMER : this tool is in active development, is in a beta status and may not work correctly and/or functionality may change in future versions. (constructive) feedback is appreciated : info@tinypin.nl =================================================================================================================================================== Unfortunately there are still some issues which occur sometimes - check the list below the instructions.. Settings : Location of Visual Pinball and Tables directory : Specify this to let VPtools find the VP executable and the tables. Tables can be in a completely different directory from the VP executable (but normally it's the same dir). External command : You can specify any command or script to start VP, use this only if you require special tweaks and settings. (a nice tool for this is 'Auto it') Files, Stats, Scores (Data tab) : VPtools tries to gather some stats and scores and this depends on the filename of tables staying the same - DO NOT CHANGE IT ! It logs the end of a session when VPtools gets the focus after VP quits (you will hear a 'swoosh' sound after a 2 second delay) You can change the name displayed in the launcher tab by editing it in the Game datagrid. This name will act as an 'Alias' and the original filename of the table will not be changed. You can delete a table from the DB by selecting a row and clicking the delete button. This will also delete it from collections and scores. Stats, logs, scores and collections are saved in a SQlite database in the file 'vptools.db'. You may want to backup this file from time to time.. Scores : After each session you can enter scores for up to 4 players (enter their names first) by clicking on the scores button. A small window will pop up where you can select a player and enter her score. The scores will be saved and can be seen in the scores tab for each game or in the general scores tab where scores for ALL games can be seen. In settings, there's a checkbox (scores after game) which enables auto-popup of the scores window after each game session. tip : if you want to enter scores during a session (say you're playing 5 games on 1 table) you can Alt-tab from VP to VPtools and click the scores button to enter scores VPXspy : Is a small external tool which should be present in the same dir as VPtools.exe Select a game in the Games grid (via Data tab) and click the Spy button. VPXspy will open with that game selected (1st time you need to specify the tables dir) and now you can see the table info, the vbs script and you can browse through the images contained in the vpx file of the game. Images : Table/wheel images are loaded from the subdirectory themes/default/img. The images should be 128x128 pixels in size and in PNG format. You can use your own imageset by replacing the images or by putting them in another dir instead of 'default'. In that case, you need to specify that dir name in the settings. Table filenames and image filenames are matched using the 1st 10 characters of the filename. If no match is found a generic image is used (game.png). If you want to force a match, it's probably best to change the image filename (in themes/default/img) so it matches the table filename. Press 'Reload' to check. Games List : You can display icons for each game or you can show a list with details. This is configured in settings : the 'show Icons' setting. After changing this, you need to click the 'Reload' button in the Launcher tab to see the change. Double-Clicking on an icon or list item launches a game (same as click the big red button) Screenshots : You can take a screenshot of the running game using Alt-S, this will be of the same screen where VPtools was started. Screenshot will be saved in the 'shots' directory and will have a JPG compression of 50%. If a game is selected and a matching screenshot is found, it will be displayed on the right at about 1/2 the size of the window. ==> You may need to maximise/minimise the window to get a 'right' fit. If no screenshot is found, the game's (blown-up) icon will be shown. You can enable partial screenshots in settings, then the middle of the screen will be captured (may be nice for desktop mode) Collections : (which you need to create 1st in the Collections tab) can be selected in the dropdown in the Launcher tab Demo mode : Click the demo button to toggle demo mode on/off In this mode, games will be automatically launched and stopped in a random order. Wait for about 20 seconds for the 1st game to start, each game will be active for 100 seconds, with a 20 second pause inbetween. Some tips : Cabinet usage : the goal is to be able to use the Launcher without the need for a mouse, but at this point a lot of functions still require it.. Ideally, your games should all launch perfectly so you can switch between games easily, but there's an edit checkbox below the start button which lets you start VP in edit mode so you can make quick adjustments. Buttons : To help you configure buttons : in the settings tab there's an area that shows which buttons are pressed - button nrs start with 0, so button 1 shows as button 0, button 2 as button 1 etc. Exit HotKey : Not really needed if you use Desktop mode - then just press q on the keyboard. In a Cabinet you need to assign VPs 'quit' command to a cabinet button (but VP is not always closed correctly, so you may need this key). Alt-x will kill the VPinball process. PinMame settings or (high)scores may not be saved in that case, so you should exit VP using the 'q' or 'esc' key instead. Other cabinet buttons will be disabled for VPtools until VP is closed. ------------------------------- Roms : Some tips : To resize the PinMame window, Right click PinMame window > Show window title If you use external DMD, position settings don't work If you use see 'Coin door is open bla,bla,bla..' on a WPC rom, click the Esc button If you enable ddraw to resize DMD without getting black borders, make sure the 'display' setting is set to default (Right click PinMame window > Paths > Display) Note that ddraw has to be DISABLED if you're using exclusive fullscreen (or ROM won't start) ------------------------------- Issues : Reset/clean the database : it seems like some versions of Vptools were distributed with a db that was not empty but contained some tables. If you find lots of bad records in the DB (see Data tab) and don't care about the stats or scores, you can delete the file vptools.db and rename the file vptool_clean.db to vptools.db. Then click reload and VPtools will scan your tables directory again and create new records. Dates sorting in Details view not correct Sometimes the path to the tables is lost, in that case you can go to settings and click the search icon again to reload tables. Thanks : Jordi for feedback & testing and all the VP devs & table authors !