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Messages - beaker

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1
Suggestions / Re: Final Table
« on: November 09, 2012, 09:13:09 AM »
Hi Jody,

Not sure if this will work in your situation, but I also use a new table as the "final table". I just run home tournaments so I often borrow tables from friends. I have created accurate imagines of all tables that are used. 

I update the image / picture associated with the "final table" by triggering an event called "alter seating chart". This event launches a program called rename table chart.bat. The batch file is real simple and looks like this -

==
rename "RacetrackTenSeat_red.xml" "RacetrackTenSeat_red_OLD.xml"
rename "Final_table_image.xml" "RacetrackTenSeat_red.xml"
td.exe
==

So basically I'm just altering the image (from my regular card room) associated with the last table in the collapse order to become the image of the table (in my "final table' room. )

So I suppose the challenge will be determining when to best trigger the event. In my case it is no problem because I only display the image based seating chart on two occasions -- pre-game and when the final table has been reached. I simply select an arbitrary clock-tick in the first round and trigger it then.

I suspect you may need something a little more complex to meet your needs, but thought I'd share.
Thanks,
Beaker

2
Help Me / Re: Inserting images of players in an automated fashion
« on: February 03, 2012, 08:42:23 PM »
Hey Caeles,

I love your heads-up screen, great idea. Think I'll have to add something similar to my next tournament.  I've been trying to think of a way to automate the pictures on the heads-up screen as you mentioned in your original post.

I doing an automation type thing for my break screen background imagine. Of course I realized later that it would have been WAY easier to simply add three seperate break screens, but I've never been one to take the easy route! I ended up creating a BAT file that will rename my 3 different break background imagines to match the name specified in the TD break background path (one by one depending on the current break). This "name change.BAT" file is triggered via TD event 4 minutes into the round following each break. So when the next break occurs the background image will have changed as a result of the BAT event.... hope that made sense.

Anyway, I was hoping to do something similar with pictures on the heads-up screen, but so far it is proving a bit more difficult. It seems there may be some opportunity to use the new "status update" feature to write to a txt file and then use some of the associated player information to figure out which picture to rename. Likely would need some fancy IF statements (external to TD) to ultimately accomplish this one.... good thing for Google!. However, I've been looking through the "status update" information and it doesn't look like there is anything is help determine who may have just busted out.

Corey, is there a way to include the <name>, <winner>, <ID> or similar token / data in the status update information? I've got the feature configured to update on significant event only, so I was searching for some bust-out (player) related data in my test example but didn't notice any?

Thanks,
Beaker


3
General Discussion / Re: Run Program event action
« on: January 23, 2012, 09:16:48 PM »
Hi E Z Aces,

You basically need a way to connect and control either a power outlet or a light with your computer. If you are a little bit adventurous and comfortable with electricity, you can google instructions to control a power outlet using a PC parallel port (i believe you can find the same thing for a serial or USB port also). I considered going this route but in the end decided to buy online; I got this one

http://www.synaccess-net.com/remote-power.php/1/8

This box does a good job of turning lights on and off and is very simple. I didn't even need extra software, I just send it commands using the command prompt (echo). Anyway, now that I've got this working good I'm already looking to ramp it up to be more impressive..... so I kind of wish I'd got a box with a bit more power (I know there are a few out there - with a wide range in cost), one that can support rapid on/off sequences in milliseconds so that I could make dramatic lighting events on game start, game over, bust outs, etc.... oh well it is still pretty cool as it is.

Anyway, like I said, I control the lights from the command prompt. So I just created a little batch file (.BAT) and trigger the BAT using TD.

Let me know if you have any more questions,
Thanks,
Beaker

4
Help Me / Re: Chip Up message
« on: January 17, 2012, 05:12:50 PM »
Thanks Corey, working good now!

5
Help Me / Re: Chip Up message
« on: January 16, 2012, 07:47:04 PM »
Thanks guys. I was able to overcome this issue by creating an event something like this to fire my "break message" (a bit messy but it works)

(state = 2) and (not isRound) and (roundNum = 3) and ((secondsLeft = 1200) or (secondsLeft = 1175) or (secondsLeft = 1150) or (secondsLeft = 1125) or (secondLeft = 1100) or (secondsLeft=1075) and so on, and so on, and so on until you reach secondsLeft=25))

I have 3 events, one for each break. So, one of the following messages will appear depending on which break we're at....
"NOT THE FOOD BREAK"
"FOOD IS READY"
"CHIP UP!"

If a player happens to bust out during a break period the message will be cancelled and the "bust out" message will appear in it's place. While the bust out message is on screen the conditions above will trigger the "break message" again and will wait in queue for the "bust out" message to finish. Once the bust out message has expired the "break message" will appear again right away thanks to the conditions above.

The only problem I run into is that I've set the duration for the "break message" to be 1200 seconds. TD only reviews the event conditions for a newly triggered message and doesn't cancel an existing "break message" when the round changes to an "isRound" state. So, the "break message" may end up running into the next round if somebody busts out during the break. To combat this situation I simply trigger an event with each "level start" that displays a message for 1 second.... the message has a foreground and background color that match each other and the screen background (in other words, this 1 second message is invisible). This message serves no other purpose but to cancel the "break message" if it happens to run into a regular round. Yes... if a players busts out at the end of the break the associated message will be canceled prematurely, but the thought process is that a bust out will most likely occur near the start of the break.

So, all of the above mentioned works quite well!!

Only one problem. When the "break message" is initially triggered, it appears in an unexpected format, with each word in the message on a new line. If the message is cancelled and then triggered again, it appears on one line as expected. (please see attached).

Anyone have any idea why the first triggered message appears in an odd format??

Thanks as always!
Beaker

6
Help Me / Re: Chip Up message
« on: January 09, 2012, 12:39:25 PM »
Thanks Jody / Stuart!

Stuart, I did create an event as you described. The only problem is that I allow bust outs to occur during the break period which trigger a message, so in this scenario the "chip up" message is cancelled by the bust out message.... or I could place the bust out message in queue which I don't really want either.

I will try to play with the <breaktext> token tonight and see how that works out

Thanks again for all the help!
Beaker

 

7
Help Me / Chip Up message
« on: January 09, 2012, 08:13:21 AM »
On the "rounds" tab (I believe), there is an option to flag breaks as a "chip up" period. Wondered if there is a way to alter the default positioning of the resulting "CHIP UP!" message that appears?

Thanks!
Beaker


8
Templates, Layouts and Sounds / Re: delay between rounds
« on: January 06, 2012, 05:46:02 PM »
Just noticed I put this post in the wrong spot.... sorry I meant to put it in "help me".  ???

9
Templates, Layouts and Sounds / Re: delay between rounds
« on: January 06, 2012, 05:38:54 PM »
Excellent!! Thanks!

10
General Discussion / Run Program event action
« on: January 06, 2012, 05:38:04 PM »
Corey, a big thanks for the "run program" event action; what a great feature!

I use it to trigger several things -

- launch keyboard wedge script for scanner registration
- kill registration script
- launch bust-out script
- turn table lights on at game start
- turn table lights off on breaks
etc, etc, etc.

It works great; lots of fun!

I'm only running into one small thing that I need to refine a bit. It seems that running these DOS batches are causing TD to lose it's active screen status (sorry if my terminology is wrong here). Basically after some of the batches run I will notice Itunes pop up in front of TD (for example), or some other random application that is running in the background. Or even worse, TD is still maximized and everything "appears" fine but another app is actually "active", therefore none of the hotkeys work until I click on the TD screen to restore it's active status.

To work around this problem I've been triggering another event a few seconds following the original event that runs "TD.EXE"; this effectively restores an active status. I tired to simply perform a save tournament action to accomplish this, but it didn't work. Wondering; can you think of any negative side affects that might occur from running the TD.EXE a number of times throughout the tourney as a solution?

Thanks,
Beaker

11
Templates, Layouts and Sounds / delay between rounds
« on: January 06, 2012, 05:16:26 PM »
Hi All,

I am noticing a big delay between rounds. Basically the clock counts down each second without hesitation until it reaches 0:00; at this point it hangs for 4 to 5 seconds. Is this pause between rounds configurable anywhere? I didn't have this big of a delay using the last 2.6 beta version and I can't seem to figure out what I might have changed that would be causing this... I do have a ton of events setup, many of them triggered by the clock, maybe I'll disable all of them and see if that helps. Please let me know if anyone knows what might be causing the delay.

Thanks,
Beaker

12
Help Me / Re: No auto player movement screen on break
« on: January 06, 2012, 08:25:49 AM »
Hi Corey,

I haven't noticed any error message since upgrading to V3. I have a tournament planned for Jan 21st so I'm hoping to find the time to do some detailed testing before then. I'll let you know if I observe anything interesting.

Thanks,
Beaker

13
Help Me / Re: No auto player movement screen on break
« on: January 04, 2012, 11:06:58 AM »
Thanks Corey

BTW.... Also thanks to Jody (I know you read everything on here :)) for all your help in setting up live sports scores. The screen shot that I attached earlier in this thread is the final result; I'm pretty bad with layouts / photoshop, etc. But I think that it turned out pretty good!

Beaker

14
Suggestions / Re: <lastbustout> Token
« on: January 04, 2012, 11:00:50 AM »

In my case the table balancing event (audio announcement) is a requirement and the bust out event (audio and display message) is just a "nice to have". Since the bust out audio clips are pretty funny / entertaining, the guys certainly notice when they don't play.

Thanks!

15
Suggestions / <lastbustout> Token
« on: January 03, 2012, 08:48:10 PM »
I know the likelihood that many others will find this suggestion useful is not good; but I figured that it can't hurt to ask.

I use the following tokens to drive a display message which is triggered by "a player busts out".

<name> has busted out in <ordinalrank> place.

The bust out message is displayed and an associated sound file plays each time a bust out occurs, EXCEPT when a table balance suggestion results from the bust out. In this case, the balance suggestion action (audio announcement) takes priority

In an attempt to satisfy both events I decided to merge the bust out audio clip with the table balance clip. (bust out plays first, brief pause and then the table balance clip plays) - problem solved (almost). The only problem is that the <name> and <ordinalrank" tokens do not work if "table balance is suggested" is the trigger.

Wondered if it might be possible to add something like <lastbustname> and <lastordinalrank> so that the table balance trigger can be used to display information from the bust out that forced the balance suggestion?

Thanks,
Beaker

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