Simple Static Backglass Homebrewed App

[Larry]

Seriously, where do they think up these stupid defaults...
Let's use a non-existent manifest...derp

Anyway..it's uploading again

 

[Larry]

okay much screwing around later...not yet I guess

Sorry guys, i'll fix this up in a day or two

 

[Larry]

Okay, here we go -> Final Build Posted
Tested install on the wife's laptop logged in as her...no issues

This is the best I can do, by default Visual Studio 2012 is only setup to go back to Vista, not XP.

Here's to hoping, at least from Vista forward it's good and using some additional optimization settings I found. Target CPU should be x86 so it's only going to run 32 bit, meh, I've never seen any performance issues but fwiw Enjoy!

EDIT: Never say never! I'll figure out something if this doesn't work

 

[Larry]

Np man, I also added you on steam, maybe live chat is better?

And thanks a ton again for the help testing!!
I hope this works!

 

[Pantah010]

It's Alive!!

Thanx man works great

Smart solution untill the cab support is released

 

[Larry]

Excellent news indeed!

Thanks again for your help and sorry for all the screw ups!

Enjoy and now it's off to work :/

 

[netizen]

This is a great idea, is the display selectable? When I do use 2 displays for TPA I use a secondary display for TPA, as I play it on my POS laptop for the time being.

 

[Larry]

This is a great idea, is the display selectable? When I do use 2 displays for TPA I use a secondary display for TPA, as I play it on my POS laptop for the time being.

Sort of, the coordinates should allow you to set it's monitor placement.
1080+ in my case pushes it to the 2nd screen as long as Windows is set to extend desktop.

I'm looking into adding a specific selection in the near future but haven't tackled it yet.

 

[Tin_Foil]

Any chance we could get a picture of this in action?

 

[Larry]

Toolbar Window->
http://s778.photobucket.com/user/XGScorch/media/Toolbar-Pic.png.html

Settings Panel ->
http://s778.photobucket.com/user/XGScorch/media/settings-pic.png.html

Back Glass Window->
http://s778.photobucket.com/user/XGScorch/media/BG-pic.png.html

All Together->
http://s778.photobucket.com/user/XGScorch/media/BigPicture.png.html

 

[Larry]

Updated: Added Black Rose

 

[lettuce]

Great program....any chance of getting the DMD moved to another screen by chance?

 

[Larry]

I would if I could, that was one of my original intentions but it's strictly up to Farsight at this point and confirmed as a cabinet mode option, sorry.

 

[K3V]

Finally set this up in my cabinet tonight. Nice work! Gives me a reason to turn on my backglass monitor again

Couple questions/requests:

-Could you possibly set a generic "Pinball Arcade" default backglass image to load at launch?
-Can you set the images to stretch to fit the screen?
-Can the app be set to run full screen so we don't see the window borders?
-Is it possible to edit the images used? I'd prefer images of just the backglass/translite, no DMD or speaker panel if possible

Here's a pic of it in action. Thanks!

 

[Larry]

I'll do what I can but most of these things I addressed during creation and they either didn't work or were way more trouble than they are worth at this point I'd imagine true TPA cab support to be a couple months off at the latest.

-Default BG image=Ok I'll do what I can there, shouldn't be too tough but the way it's setup, it will always be in the list to scroll through.
-Image Stretch=not really, when I set it to truly fill the window behavior, it stretches and skews if the window size doesn't match the proportion of the original image so I thought that "zoom" would allow for more flexibility.
Full Screen=No, it behaves very weird (at least on my test machine) when I did this, for most versions of windows, it makes the window completely hidden or black when the TPA window is re-selected. The only way I got it to work right in Win 7-8 was to disable aero and that wound up making all other windows behave abnormally. I have been looking into a custom window class to work around it, but would again suggest that this is "very" short term
Editing the images=under development. This also causes my program a bucket load of trouble from the simple fact that now I have a lot of stuff replace with changeable settings as well as the ability to change, insert into the assets, etc. I agree that my images suck and are very inconsistent, but ultimately only have access to so many "decent quality" images to choose from. Black Rose was a good example, I searched for 2 days and wound up using an image with HORRIBLE color balance because it was the only "legit to use" image I could find that was above 400x400pixels...sooo, if anyone sends me/links me better images, I'm happy to replace them, but at this point, again I thought it didn't really warrant the extra overhead.

All this is assuming cab support is relatively close. If it turns out to be a few more months, I'm sure I'll get more inspired and get a working version out the door.

My work schedule has also been killing me lately so I've just had less time in general to futz around....that should change in a week or two.

Thanks for the pic, it is also very inspiring!

 

[Larry]

Updated: Added Black Knight 2000

 

[DaPinballWizard]

Thanks for your work. I think I will be trying this out soon. Getting sick and tired of waiting on FS to do something. Maybe they should just sell their cab. It is probably just collecting dust there.

 

[Larry]

I will add Who Dunnit after Easter.
I decided to give up my pc for lent sorry

Thinking my way around an image changing system also, and will definitely add a toggle in the config to start with a default logo.


Hopefully it helps a little in the meantime

 

[Larry]

Updated: Publish Build Increment 1.0.0.27

Added: Who Dunnit and High Speed
Added: A new option to start with a TPA logo at launch. If you check the box at the bottom of the settings panel, a TPA logo I ripped off their website will open until you select a different back glass image. Right now it feels "weird" that when you switch from the default logo to another back glass, it just goes away. This is because it's in "hidden" mode by default until you hit the + to show the selected image. If this bothers you, just hit the + before using <- or -> to select the appropriate back glass image.
The logo is not in the image rotation so it will only be displayed once at startup.
The checkbox in the settings panel will check or uncheck itself based on your previous setting.

The next update should include some image tools but I still haven't really decided how to tackle it yet....

Enjoy!!

Thanks to everyone's patience with the odd way I chose to observe my religion

As always, I recommend un-installing the old version via control panel, re-downloading from the link on the first page (dropbox), then re-installing.
This update will force everyone to re-enter their settings anyways due the change in save file format, sorry, it was unavoidable.

 

[Larry]

Updated: Added Junk Yard
Moved Who Dunnit in rotation to match browser order