Guide to use a Table with 2 different roms, altcolor settings and with and without PuP-Pack in Popper

[Saveoldstuff]

Description:

 

This setup drove me crazy until i have found a working solution and now it just works as intended I wanted to use Tron Legacy LE with Terrys stunning End of Line PuP-Pack and the trn_174h muted rom to use the OST soundtrack and one seperate Tron Legacy LE Table without PuP-Pack and the default rom. I did that for different tables as well to have some alternative in case the PuPs are disturbing or the person playing isn't in the mood for videos. Or to built alternative setups that are safe for younger ones to play.

 

Example Table: Tron Legacy LE

 

Goal to Archive:

 

1x Tron Legacy LE Table with Backglass on display 1 and Apron/Full DMD on display 2 with default trn_174h rom. Playfield on display 3.

1x Tron Legacy LE Table with PuP-Pack on display 1 and Apron/Full DMD Video on display 2 with muted rom. Playfield on display 3.

 

(This is not the numbering of your Windows display ID's. It's just an example for 3 different displays or a 3 screen Setup.) You can adjust everything for your personal setup for example if you play with 2 displays or one display in desktop mode). 

 

Steps:

 

1. Create a folder named altrom inside your VPinMAME folder.

 

2. Copy the muted trn_174h rom inside the altrom folder.

 

3. Copy the normal trn_174h rom to your VPinMAME rom folder.

 

4.0. Prepare your Tron Legacy LE PuP-Pack table and name it like PuP-Pack - Tron Legacy LE.vpx (name is up to you).

 

4.1. Prepare your Tron Legacy LE normal table and name it nopuptron.vpx (name is up to you).

 

5. Find a Backglass you like and name it like the Table: For example nopuptron.directb2s

 

6. Open VPMAlias.txt inside your VPinMAME Folder. Create the alias nopuptron,trn_174h. Save the file.

 

7. Open nopuptron.vpx inside your VPX Editor and open the script. Change the game name to the alias you created before. Example: Const cGameName = "nopuptron". Save the table. With this setup you can have different entrys in your dmddevice.ini in case your dmd has a different position per table. In my setup that's the case. Now you have 2 entrys. 1 for trn_174h and one for nopuptron. You can freely adjust your dmd position and save it per table.

 

8. If you want to use altcolor files like serum for both tables, create a altcolor folder inside your VPinMAME folder. 

 

9. Create a trn_174h folder inside the altcolor folder. Copy the trn_174h.cRZ into the newly created trn_174h folder.

 

10. Create a nopuptron folder inside your altcolor folder. Copy the trn_174h.cRZ into the newly created nopuptron folder and rename it to nopuptron.cRZ

 

11. Open the Game Manager in Popper. Go to nopuptron. Fill the following settings in the parameter fields:

 

ROM: trn_174h

Custom Launch Param: HIDEPUP

 

12. Go to your Pup-Pack enabled Table inside the Game Manager. In my Example: PuP-Pack - Tron Legacy LE. Fill the following settings in the parameter fields:

 

Keep Displays ON: 5 (This is if you use a Full DMD Video for your Apron/Full DMD display. In my case the Video dissapears if this setting isn't filled out).

 

Custom Var #2: ALTROM

 

13. Inside PinUP Popper Setup, open the Popper Setup Window. Go to Emulators. Go to Visual Pinball X. Open Launch Setup. Copy the contents of your Launch and Close Scripts into a textfile for backup purpose in case you fuck up your config.

 

14: Go to https://www.nailbuster.com/wikipinup/doku.php?id=pinup_optional and edit your Visual Pinball X Emulator Launch and Close Scripts to Option #2 & #4.

 

Option #2 is to hide a PuP-Pack if you want to play a "normal table version" and have 2 copys of your table.

Option #4 is to use a custom parameter to use an alternative rom. For example a muted rom. 

 

15: !DO NOT USE THE FOLLOWING SCRIPT SETTINGS IF YOUR SCRIPTS ARE MODIFIED MATCHING YOUR PERSONAL SETUP. IT'S JUST AN EXAMPLE OF MY SETUP. YOU HAVE TO ADJUST YOUR SCRIPTS AND ADD OPTION #2 & #4!

 

16: Read step 15 again.

 

Example for Launch Script:

 

@echo off

if "[CUSTOM1]"=="HIDEPUP" (
 echo 1>> "[STARTDIR]PUPVideos\[?ROM?]\PUPHideNext.txt"
 )

START "" "[STARTDIR]Launch\VPXSTARTER.exe" 30 10 60 "Visual Pinball Player" 2
cd /d "[DIREMU]"

rem Change the following to EnableTrueFullScreen to default FullScreen Exclusive!
SET FSMODE=DisableTrueFullScreen

SET VPXEXE=VPinballX-x64.exe

if "[RECMODE]"=="1" (SET FSMODE=DisableTrueFullScreen )
if /I "[CUSTOM1]"=="NOFSX" (SET FSMODE=DisableTrueFullScreen )
if NOT "[ALTEXE]"=="" (SET VPXEXE=[ALTEXE] )

SET ALTPARAM=
if /I "[ALTMODE]"=="NOPUP" (SET ALTPARAM=-c1 NOPUP )
if /I "[CUSTOM2]"=="ALTROM" (REG ADD "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Freeware\Visual PinMame\globals" /v "rompath" /t REG_SZ /d "%C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMame\altrom%" /f)

START /min "" %VPXEXE% "[DIREMU]" -%FSMODE% -minimized -play "[GAMEFULLNAME]" %ALTPARAM%

if %FSMODE%==DisableTrueFullScreen (START "" "[STARTDIR]Launch\PopperKeepFocus.exe" "Visual Pinball Player" 10)

 

Example for Close Script:

 

"[STARTDIR]LAUNCH\PUPCLOSER.EXE" WINTIT "Visual Pinball" 10 1 

if /I "[CUSTOM2]"=="ALTROM" (REG ADD "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Freeware\Visual PinMame\globals" /v "rompath" /t REG_SZ /d "%C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMame\roms%" /f)

17. Now you can enjoy your 2 Tables with completly different Setups and roms. To use Terrys PuP-Pack with OST music, make sure that your settings inside the PuP-Pack is set to 
Mode = Music only

 

Have fun 🙂

[PacketNarc]

I found this while looking for a completely different solution to a problem; but this will help me in multiple ways. So, thank you for posting it !

 

I'm trying to work out a way to have multiple 'versions' of a table; for instance in the case of AC/DC where there's umpteen versions.  But, I don't want 6 ACDC tables in a row on my Pinup wheel. 

 

This little fix of yours gave me some registry ideas.

 

I appreciate the share. 

[ksandersbna]

Thanks @Saveoldstuff for this. This is really helpful!

 

I have a question (still new to all this). If I follow steps 1-10, it seems that I (in a sense) have successfully created a new table using a different rom set (alt rom). I just tried this with Simpsons pinball party (using a muted rom and the pup pack) and was able to run both tables (one with backglass and sound, the other with muted rom and pup) outside of popper.

 

I added the new pup pack version to popper but the only thing I did from your tutorial was to add the keep backglass/apron active. It seemed to work. 

 

Here is the dumb question on my part: Am I missing anything if I don't specify the altrom settings in game manager or do the other steps (11-15)? Again, it's working for me and this is probably a worthless post but I am still learning and was just curious.

 

Again, a big THANK you for posting this. I just came across the pup pack last night and was debating if I wanted to get rid of the altsound I was using with the current table due to the pup but your post gave me the idea to have the best of both worlds.

 

Edit:

- I thought my setup was working with Simpsons Pinball Party and the muted rom but it wasn't. (no big deal). I understand now what is going on in steps 11-15. When launching, it is changing the registry settings for the path to the VPinMame rom folder to the VPinMame altrom folder then setting it back on exit. I messed up something in the launch script (probably missed a step) and had an issue where my registry settings lost the full path to the rom folder so I had an 'Oh crap' moment for a few minutes until I resolved it. lol.  I'll figure it out.

Edited September 12, 2024 by ksandersbna