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What advantages does the PinUP system offer?


PiAnt

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Hi All, I was wondering if someone with more experience could clarify a few things about the PinUP System.

I have a small cab which only has a playfield and a backglass monitor and simple stereo speakers. There is no additional hardware such as solenoids or programmable lights at all.

I've already set up PinballX to work with Pinball FX2, Pinball Arcade, Future pinball and Visual Pinball and am very happy with everything so far - PinballX seems ideal for my setup.

However, it was recommended that I take a look at PinUP system (almost exclusively so that I could experience "Stranger Things"), the support pages of which confirms that PinUP system must be installed.

Having installed the system, I followed the link to download the media, which turns out to be around 2.5GB of clips from the TV show. I also downloaded the media for Indiana Jones Adventure, a piffling 650GB, also of clips taken from the movies.

Is this front end intended simply to play video (and sound) clips on multiple screens and flashing lights in unison (I note a YouTube clip of He-Man I think), or something else?

Based on my setup, is there any advantage other than for tables which need this system and which I could easily go without, to me using PinUP system (especially given that I am very happy with PinballX)?

Is there any advantage (in gameplay or overall experience) to having clips from the movie or TV show (or whatever) playing on the cabinet (even if I added more screens). I mean while playing a game do you stop to watch the clips? Wouldn't it be more of a distraction than an embellishment?

As it stands, I only installed PinUP on my desktop (also 2 screens), to try it out, and I won't be putting it on my cabinet unless someone can tell me why it's necessary given my setup. I'll also be removing it from my desktop where, again, PinballX does just what I need and 3GB of clips to play 2 tables strikes me as overkill.

Cheers for your insight guys!

 

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No advantage

Mainly all the videos that are going on when you're playing the game are for the spectators

Pinup system is 2 parts

Part 1 - is pinup player for all the added video stuff,  Which works with any front end because it even works when you play a game straight from VP

I think there might be one game that requires pinup player

Part 2 - is pinup popper front end

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I don't agree with "no advantage".

You might say "an endless configuration and setup work".

Or you might say "a wonderful way to improve pinball experience and enter another world".

You can also just use PinUp player, which replaces the backglass (instead direct2bs) where you need the huge files as you described. They work fine with 2 screens, even 3 or 4 do not hurt. If you once played Tron with that, you never want to miss that. I think there are 20+ games using it and each one is worth the time to setup. Tron. Jaws. Back to the future. Terminator 2 and many more.

And you can use it for the player, which replaces PinballX. No different size, but thousands more ways to setup. Several videos (transparent) on top of each. You will need a while to understand, but the result is worth the time...

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Pinup Player enhances existing games. They add video clips and just adds that little extra. 

Frontend - Pinup Player is excellent. Coming from me, a diehard HyperPin user, this is a huge compliment.  It makes the transition from selecting a game to playing a game; a completely transparent process.  Popper is easy to setup, difficult to master and it's very fast and snappy.  It just makes a better user experience overall.

2019-04-21 10.01.56.jpg

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Hi all, thanks for your answers and insight.

Maybe if I build something more ambitious, this could be a cool thing to include as I can see how it might be an attractive addition, but I think in my particular instance there's not enough of an advantage over the set up I have now to warrant changing.

Cheers guys!

 

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The PinUp Player is a relatively lightweight extension to VPX that enables enhanced multimedia support and advanced backglasses for tables like Stranger Things.    There are also packs that augment existing tables.

PinUp Popper is a front-end that lets you launch games.

You can use either/or.   You can use PinballX as your FrontEnd and still use the PinUp plugin for tables.   Or you can use Popper as your front-end but never load any PUP packs.   If you like your ROM-based games as "stock" as possible - not to worry, having PinUp won't change anything, but you probably are still going to want it for excellent tables like Stranger Things and other originals that require it. 

It offers features not present in the older B2S standard and not in VPX itself, so it's particularly useful to original table authors.   Think of it as another tool in the tool box.  

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...and for the record....I had Stranger Things converted down to approx 700MB instead of the 2+ GB. Either way...your loss at a fantastic table.

As others have said....Pinup Player is used for active video backglasses for VPX, FP, FX3... replacing rom music with OST music... SSF for FX3...original tables....support for real mini-games...lots of stuff....and another great tool to add the the virtual pinball experience. 

Pinup Popper is a front-end that "makes use of" pinup player. You don't need Popper if you only want to use Pinup Player.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I went through PinballX, took a quick look at Hyperpin, and both seemed to be very user friendly, but not very flexible, when it came to organization, and features. 

Pinup Popper, was that (Flexible and Easy to organize your games and media) but alas it's not very user friendly to setup. It took me a couple of hours, with tutorials, and I develop software for a living.  So it's not what I'd call Plug and Play.

Once running it's very easy to update, and customize, every so often you run into a "Why is it doing that" Like when it finds multiple Icons with the title "Airborne" and one is the correct one and one is not, and it keep cycling through them. Either way you can typically find a way to get that sorted. And I have WAY more experience with Popper than my short lived experience with PinballX, so I have come across way more head-scratchers with popper than with pinballx, that being said TerryRed is putting a lot of effort into this project and I feel he has a lot of good ideas and is generous with his time, so I will just leave this with :

It's not easy to setup, once configured the way you want it can do many things others can't / won't.

 

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  • 6 months later...

Is there a way to use it AND disable the video clips?  To each their own but I think video clips are a waste of space and a bit of a distraction.

 

Also is there a way to import media online like PinballX?  Workaround now is to import media online from PinballX.  Just "point" the media folders to pinballX.

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