Naming and companions

Visual Pinball — and therefore vPinOps — finds a table’s companion files (.directb2s, .ini, .vbs, .info, .scv) by searching three ways, in order.

The three-step companion rule

Note

“Base name” below means the name without its extension.

1. Exactly the table’s own filename. Medieval Madness (Williams 1997) VPW v1.0.1.directb2s next to Medieval Madness (Williams 1997) VPW v1.0.1.vpx.

2. The folder’s name. Medieval Madness (Williams 1997).directb2s inside Medieval Madness (Williams 1997)/, even though the .vpx carries a longer name with the author and version on it. ⚠ Do not rely on this one — see below.

3. A folder you have told Visual Pinball to look in. Its documentation describes one and does not say how it is configured, so vPinOps does not set it and does not guess a default.

Step 1 is the one that always works — so import renames the file

A .directb2s named after the folder rather than after the .vpx does not load. We measured it: 22 of one 171-backglass library were placed correctly, reported as a success, and Visual Pinball never found any of them.

The shape is completely ordinary — the glass carries the plain machine name while the table adds an author and a version, Attack From Mars (Bally 1995).directb2s beside Attack from Mars … _Bigus(MOD)2.0.vpx.

So when you import a mismatched backglass, vPinOps renames it onto the name the table will actually be looked up by, which is step 1. That is why a glass whose filename does not match your table still works: not because Visual Pinball found it, but because the name was corrected on the way in. It is the same thing already done for art, where a wheel.png lands as (Wheel) <table>.png.

⚠ Only when the folder holds exactly one table — two builds sharing a folder have no single name to normalise to, so those are left alone rather than guessed at. And a .vpxz package extracts verbatim and is never renamed, because that is what lets it move between machines unchanged.

Name the folder Title (Manufacturer Year)

Medieval Madness (Williams 1997)/
Attack from Mars (Bally 1995)/
The Machine: Bride of Pin·Bot (Williams 1991)/

The importer suggests this name from a list of every known machine, offers alternatives, and always gives you a box to type your own into. The list suggests; it never gates — a table nobody recognises still imports, under the name you gave it.

The list is not built in. Fetch it once, in OpsLink: Settings → Table name list → Get the table list. A fresh install has none, and until you do this every import says the name is not in the list, which is true and not a fault. Importing works without it; you just type the name yourself.

Table identity — title, manufacturer, year, VPSId — comes from VPSdb.

The name on the wheel is yours

The wheel shows a table by a name worked out from its filename, which is often long. You can change what the wheel shows: open the table in OpsLink and edit the name under On the wheel. It is stored in the table’s own folder, so it travels with the table if you package it, and it moves no files — the folder and the .vpx keep their names.

Keep the table’s own filename

Do not rename the .vpx to match the folder. Authors put their name and version in the filename on purpose, and that is how you can tell two builds of the same machine apart. The three-step rule exists precisely so you do not have to flatten them.

What import renames, and what it leaves alone

It renames what has to be renamed to work, and nothing else.

• Media — into the medias/ convention, because the (Surface) Name prefix is the only thing that makes art findable.
• The backglass — a .directb2s is found by the three-step rule above, so one downloaded under an unrelated name has to be brought onto the table’s name or the folder’s before it will load.

The .vpx keeps its own filename, always. Authors put their name and version there on purpose, and that is how you tell two builds of the same machine apart.

When a name cannot be matched

In a flat pile of downloads, backglasses and companions whose names differ from the table’s are matched by what they have in common. When it cannot tell, it says so and lists the file with a reason — it never guesses, because a wrong guess attaches somebody else’s backglass to your table.