ClrVpin (aka ClrMamePro for VP) - call out for beta testers

[stoj]

Hi everyone

 

I've been doing some part time development on a new open source application to automate the monotonous task of managing my Visual Pinball collection.  It's an application akin to what ClrMamePro provides for Mame, but tailored specifically for Visual Pinball..

- Visual Pinball: vpx, directb2s, pov, etc

- VPY/VPX front ends - launch audio, wheels, instruction cards, etc.

 

It's proven useful for myself to audit and clean my collection and also when importing new/updated tables/backglasses/instructions-cards/etc.

 

If you've used ClrMamePro then you should hopefully find it pretty intuitive.  If not, then I've written some 'how to' guides that should assist.  And of course, pictures speak a thousand words.. https://github.com/stojy/ClrVpin/wiki/Screenshots

 

Of course everyone's collections are a little different in the VP world, so I'd be interested if anyone would like to a beta tester?  You can download the latest release from here.. https://github.com/stojy/ClrVpin/releases.

 

I'd happy to hear your feedback (postive or otherwise) in this forum, but would prefer bugs/requests are raised in github to make them a little easier to track.

 

Enjoy 

[Dazz]

I've used CMP for many many many many years, so I'm very familiar with it and how it works. I can see where this would be useful for the main PinMAME rom set, but for front ends like Pinup Popper... this is unnecessary as the Media Manager takes care of everything. I think PinballX has something similar and I'm not familiar with PinballY.  Also, anyone not familiar with CMP... this can destroy someones existing collection.

[stoj]

hi Dazz

 

Are you referring to this tool?  https://www.mankier.com/1/romcmp.  At any rate, ClrVpin doesn't look at the ROMs as there are already some superb tools for that such as ClrMamePro (and presumably CMP).

 

I'm not familar with Pinup Popper's "media manager", but here's a snippet of the sort of things that ClrVpin does consider which might prove useful for making a comparison.

 

Also, if the tool can be run with 'trainer wheels' which will effectively just run an audit without making any changes.  That way you can see what changes would be made prior to anything actually being changed.

 

[stoj]

Just a quick note to let you know that a new version has been published.  This is primarily a fix to support the existence of non-ascii characters in the xml DB file, e.g. "TM" character.

 

https://github.com/stojy/ClrVpin/releases/tag/1.0.0-rc10

[stoj]

Firstly, a shout out to the beta testers.. i really appreciate your feedback.  Hopefully you've found the app useful for file auditing/fixing (scanner) and importing (rebuilder).  And with a familar feel for anyone who has used 'clrmamepro' for mame before.

 

As per the roadmap (https://github.com/stojy/ClrVpin/wiki/Roadmap), I'm going to integrate the visual pinball spreadsheet (https://www.facebook.com/VPSheet/?ref=page_internal) next.  Similar to what 'PinballX DB Manager' offers, but a little different..

1. Open source, anonymous, no account required, PinballyY friendly, etc

2. Profiler (new) - ingest the online spreadsheet, display/navigate content locally, filter on user criteria (missing, out of date, table name, type, etc), working links, add IPDB info to DB using ClrVpin's existing fuzzy matching logic, add missing tables entries to DB (using a 'standard' naming convention), etc

3. Scanner (existing) - provide links to any missing content in the audit results

 

If anyone has any other suggestions, then I'd be keen to hear them