New TPA Interface Beta and the Camera Mod ... ???

[nudnick]

Hey NoEx ... will the Camera Mod be compatible with The new interface Beta that TPA is adding to steam this week?

Quote from this months news letter:

New UI Open Beta

The new Pinball Arcade User Interface beta will become available next week via Steam!

We've added new features and streamlined the user experience with the ability to sort, rate your tables, play random and much more!

To access the beta (next week):
1) Go to your Steam Library
2) Right Clock on "Pinball Arcade"
3) Select "Properties"
4) Select the "BETAS" tab
5) Select "public_beta" from the dropdown
6) Select "CLOSE"
7) Restart Steam
8) Report bugs here (Must be logged into Steam)!

Thanks!

 

[NoEx]

Nop it certainly won't be compatible.

 

[Nate]

Nop it certainly won't be compatible.

When the new UI becomes an official build I don't think were going to be given a choice of which user interface we want to use which means (obviously) that the current build of the mod will no longer work, do you plan to recode it to work after the changeover or is that even going to be possible? If it is possible to rewrite your program code to work with the new UI, and if so is it going to be just changing a few window handles so that the names match up and the mod can properly detect whats on the screen and know what cam/dmd file(s) to load and all that good stuff that allows us to play TPA with multi-monitor support (sorry if I don't make sense my only programming experience is with visual basic 3 about 20 years ago) even if it ends up that it was only a brief glimpse of what the TPA world could look like with some sort of basic cabinet support options I thank you for your effort and time to make this a reality for us.

 

[NoEx]

No, i don't think we'll be able to choose which UI we want to play with and yes the mod will obviously stop working because of the changes in the game structure, the hooking methods i use would have to be re-adapted as well. Furthermore, i'm probing here and there, to retrieve the table name, to detect when a table is loaded, when the game is started, etc, all these things have probably changed a lot, and i'll have to fix some parts of my code.

Of course it'll be possible to rewrite the mod for the new interface, and this is what i'm planning to do as soon as the new UI is available. Tbh I don't really know what i'll have to change in my mod until the new UI is out, the time it will take to adapt it will depend on all these things (+ i'm planning to add direct table launching feature).

 

[mpad]

Thank you NoEx for keeping this up. Sometimes one or two people can really make a difference.

 

[seattlemark]

No, i don't think we'll be able to choose which UI we want to play with and yes the mod will obviously stop working because of the changes in the game structure, the hooking methods i use would have to be re-adapted as well. Furthermore, i'm probing here and there, to retrieve the table name, to detect when a table is loaded, when the game is started, etc, all these things have probably changed a lot, and i'll have to fix some parts of my code.

Of course it'll be possible to rewrite the mod for the new interface, and this is what i'm planning to do as soon as the new UI is available. Tbh I don't really know what i'll have to change in my mod until the new UI is out, the time it will take to adapt it will depend on all these things (+ i'm planning to add direct table launching feature).

Thanks again NoEx for all you do for this Community! From your answer, I'm relieved to know that the TV I took off the wall, mounted instead at a pinball table angle horizontally on top of a bookcase, and then added a second backglass monitor, will not go to waste in this arrangement ! (This, in conjunction with controls I have rigged up to the bookcase (using multiple mice and an AutoHotKey script), serves well as my inexpensive pinball cab without my learning lots of new carpentry skills and getting new tools. )

 

[SilverBalls]

From your answer, I'm relieved to know that the TV I took off the wall, mounted instead at a pinball table angle horizontally on top of a bookcase, and then added a second backglass monitor, will not go to waste in this arrangement)

I just got images of your wife walking into your living room/lounge one day and saying "Where the f*** is my TV you pinball obsessed b'stard".

We've all done it at some point

 

[seattlemark]

I just got images of your wife walking into your living room/lounge one day and saying "Where the f*** is my TV you pinball obsessed b'stard".

We've all done it at some point

Actually, it's a better story than that. I took the TV off the wall from my wife's sewing room!

LOL. In actuality she was happy to get it off the wall of that sewing room, as I had only mounted it in there in the first place so I could rotate the TV into a portrait position for TPA. (The TV in the family room is too big for hanging in portrait.) And she is happy to get me out of her "woman cave" as I am no longer playing pinball in there. I did replace the TV in her sewing room with one that she likes better, as it's smaller and no longer on a pinball rotating mount on the wall.

And you're right about the obsessed part. A couple of months ago I took an early retirement, from a nationwide U.S. telecom company where I have been in IT for many years. When various co-workers throughout the IT Department asked my retirement plans, I told them to play video pinball. They had no idea what the h*** I was talking about. For the ones still interested, I suggested that they download Pinball Arcade on their phones as a start.

 

[mpad]

Love is...

 

[SilverBalls]

lol. We are all a bit pinball obsessed around these parts. Good luck with the cab building when you get to it. I had the IT skills as well but no carpentry skills but with some planning managed to build one. I remember clamps being the most useful tools I bought so would recommend getting some of those if you don't have them already.

 

[nudnick]

NoEx ... glad to hear you'll be preparing the cam mod for the new interface. I can't live without the cam mod! The new PBA interface will be a great improvement and the cam mod to go along with it will be an outstanding combination. I'll be sending more beers your way. Keep up the good work!