Adjustable settings in VP with a VB Menu

shiva

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Something that occured to me. I know with other templates, you can set and adjust a setting (such as amount of balls in a game) but they all use a textbox.

If you have reels though, and don't use textboxs at all, that doesn't help. With shivaEngine and se2 beta, we used the MsgBox to display stats, but I never figured out a way to make that box adjustable like the pinsettings with VPM games.

Bugs me really, and I haven't found a example of it either anywhere.

Anyone have any ideas on how to do this?
 
I have to be the last person you ever expected to reply to your question. This might not be exactly what you're talking about, but Patrick created an input text box for his TrueBali Bingo project. I know this isn't what you're wanting, and it's very basic, or seems that way to me, but maybe it will get you thinking in the right direction. You can check it out here, where it's the 2nd last table on the page:

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/index.php?name=UpDownload&req=viewsdownload&sid=14
 
hmm, interesting screenshot. have to look at the code once it's downloaded. Maybe a VB 6 example will work, though VP may not accept it.

Think jumpboxes would be better than radio fields though.
 
If you want to use the vbs files for vpinmame you can, but the catch is they use calls to the dll, so the end user would need the dll registered/installed for vpinmame before they will work. Or you could get by with just having the end user register the .ocx file - I have a copy of it (really old) if you just need the form ocx control.
 
needs to be in straight code in the table for users to modify Des.

Boy, amazing that the simplest info is so hard to find in google
 
Wait a sec, the code is within the .vbs files, surely one need only examine those files, the calls to them, then include that script within your table, then again I could be wrong...?
 
For checkboxes, multiple circle selections, and the form code, you need to call the routine in an activex control. VP doesn't natively support the function/routine to display enhanced formes in the application. Messageboxes with the basic msgbox codes is all you have access to natively. AFAIK. The core.vbs file references routines in the ocx file - I can check it when I get home.
 
http://www.sovsol.com/wshform/index.html

"Create Forms in VBScript that contain Combo Boxes, Check Boxes, Radio Buttons, Text Boxes, and many other functions that were previously unheard of using VB Script !!! Create VB Scripts that you could only have done with Visual Basic Previously using these three (.OCX) Files! "

The difference is visual basic vs visual basic script. In visual basic, you can create forms at will and make them look the way you want them to, but vbscript doesn't have the functionality without at least having wshLtWtForm.ocx registered/available. I'm fairly sure that the functionality of this ocx was merged into vpinmame, as it's not required anymore if you have vpm installed - as of at least 2 years ago or so. I forgot who determined that vpinmame is required to use custom set forms for vp, and couldn't find the post regarding it, so I apologize on the documentation side of things.
 
Thanks Des, i did some research and saw the same thing. Well, there goes that idea, people don't like to register dll's, even with a automatic program. It was a old idea I had, was thinking of cleaning up some old stuff, maybe text boxs would have to be used, but that makes things a bit messy.

What's a good program to view dll files with? None of my text editors will work since I moved to XP.
 
Yond Scapino has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.
 
And now for something completely different....

The worlds first VP/VPM hybrid (or bastard child, if you think like that...)

;)
 

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of course it's just a menu, nothing will work or save, and it uses the playboy se menu as a example, but no errors so far. Was just to see if it was possible is all.

It uses the code to call VPM, plus the core, key and Bally vbs files. Wish I was better at this, wouldn't it be nifty to use the rest of the VPM codes for straight VP tables?
 
You are using VPM mearly for the tables menu? or for a method to create a custom menu?
Nothing will work or save? You mean just for now?

This is cool.
 
Shockman said:
Yond Scapino has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.

I'd prefer that over the fat and hungry look I always have? :p
 
As I recall, he made a nifty interface for dip switches and stuff.
 
Yeap, he did, but images I believe, using reels.

To answer the question, yes, it just uses the menu system, nothing else. Getting it to save should be possible, but I'm not the best coder in the world either. Since it didn't nag me for a ROM, I suspect maybe other features within VPM can be used as well, but that would be up to someone else, as well as strip out the unused code.

I guess I will look at getting it to save/load tonight, see if I can do it. Interesting though huh? The possibilities at least, and as everyone knows, even if a idea I have didn't work at first, I always keep it in the back of my mind for a later date.
 
Shiva... this got me thinking. I hope you don't mind but I've been experimenting by putting my DMD into your engine (not sure if it is the latest one though). It's a good test for it and it seems to work quite well. Would you be interested in developing a working DMD version of your engine with me? It may also be possible to create a basic dip switch control system with it too - see attached, it would be reasonably easy to implement this. The code all runs in the background, the only thing needed in the main table script is the 'printdmdtext' command which lets you print in different font sizes and colours on the DMD. One flipper could cycle through the menu, the other could change the settings. It would give a nice realistic feel too.
 

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The orginal shivaEngine? That's what I used, but I also used it because it's a lot simplier to use. I already added reels to it etc, I had thought a DMD would be better, but the main reason I didn't fold in a DMD is because of the advanced nature of the coding from previous examples might make it too complex, it is a beginners engine after all, and not very flexible at that.

Interesting idea though, yeap, would like to see it at least, but I also should say that I have no interest in doing any more community projects, it's just a waste of time for me. I was only doing this for myself as a engine for my own games.
 
well, my main aim with this DMD is to create some code that runs in the background, effectively giving the user a new set of commands which are easy to understand. The printDMDtext command is something you can just put anywhere in the code. For instance, to show scores, I run a timer that checks if the score has changed, and updates it in the background. So to have the DMD show a players score, it just uses this simple code:

Sub scoretimer_Timer()
if shownscore(player)<>score(player) then
scr=score(player)
printdmdtext scr,scorex,scorey,scorefont,scorefontcol,scorealign
shownscore(player)=score(player)
end if
End Sub

where scorex and score y are the position on the DMD, scorefont and scorefontcol are the colour and size, and scorealign is the alignment, left or right.

This is a handy trick as it allows you to put messages on the DMD which are then overwritten when the score is updated. If you don't want the score to be updated for a time, you just disable the timer temporarily.

It would be pretty easy to implement something into the engine that allowed you to define where the score should go, what the bonus / extra ball / game over messages should be etc.

The other thing you can do is display all the scores on the DMD like in the attached.

If you don't want to use it for a community project, I'd be happy to work on helping you put it into any table you'd like. I'm just keen to get it used somewhere after the work I've put in.
 

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Ah, okay, like Trigon, but with a dmd instead of split display. Sounds easier though
I'm pretty sure other people would be interested, maybe you should ask to them. I do have a layout, just I work on other things now other than pinball, and don't have the time to make a long tern commitment anyway. Just something I work on when ever the mood strikes me, and as everyone can tell you, I'm very very slow and hate scripting. :)
 
ok, well if you don't mind me modding your engine to create a DMD version, I'll do that. The DMD is a bit fiddly to put into tables, so having a template for it would certainly help a lot.
 
Don't mind so go ahead. I guess the orginal se, (Tutorial in VP) as it's the only ss type, other than skelton, which has a dmd already.
 
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