FAQ
Is it out yet?
Section titled “Is it out yet?”No. vPinOps is in development, and these are the documentation pages for it.
What does it run on?
Section titled “What does it run on?”Windows, macOS and Linux. All three work — any computer already running a cab is enough.
Two features are not on Linux yet: video playback on the wheel, and Steam games. Smaller platform differences are called out where they matter — reading the machine’s own volume, for instance, is macOS only today, and vPinOps says so on the page rather than leaving a dead control.
Not iOS and not Android. Your phone’s part is OpsLink, in a browser.
Does it install Visual Pinball, ROMs or DOF for me?
Section titled “Does it install Visual Pinball, ROMs or DOF for me?”No. vPinOps is a front end, not a rig installer — it installs nothing and takes nothing over. You bring Visual Pinball, your tables and your ROMs, and vPinOps is the layer over the top.
But do not read that as “point it at your existing cabinet and it works.” vPinOps needs Visual Pinball Standalone (BGFX), 10.8.1 or newer — see what you supply. On that build, DOF, PinMAME and the backglass are plugins inside Visual Pinball, not separate programs you point us at, so an older rig is not a matter of pointing at what you have.
Does it move or rename my files?
Section titled “Does it move or rename my files?”Import copies your files into the correct folder structure, and renames the things that have to
be renamed to work: media, into the medias/ convention, and the backglass, onto a name
Visual Pinball will find. Your originals stay where they are. Move is opt-in, and is
copy → verify → delete, never a bare rename.
The .vpx keeps its own filename, and nothing you placed yourself is overwritten. When bulk
import would have to create a table folder on top of one that already exists, it refuses rather
than merging two tables into one — adding to a table you already have is what its Files section is for,
and it does that all day.
Will it download tables for me?
Section titled “Will it download tables for me?”No — and it will not download ROMs or backglasses either. Those are the playable pieces, and scraping them is what lets people sell cabinets pre-loaded with the community’s free work, authors uncredited.
Frontend art is different. Wheel logos, playfield videos and DMD art are cosmetic dressing, and fetching those from vpinmediadb is in scope and optional.
Where does the table information come from?
Section titled “Where does the table information come from?”VPSdb for identity — title, manufacturer, year, VPSId. vpinmediadb for media.
Does it only do Visual Pinball?
Section titled “Does it only do Visual Pinball?”No. Pinball FX and Pinball FX Midnight appear on the same wheel as ordinary entries, launch through Steam, and return you to the wheel when you quit. You own them on Steam; vPinOps finds and launches them. Windows and macOS today, Linux untested — the detail.
Do I need a cabinet?
Section titled “Do I need a cabinet?”No. Desktop mode is first-class, not a stripped-down afterthought: one screen, keyboard or gamepad. The same vPinOps serves both, and you do not install a different thing for each.
Do I have to reorganise my library first?
Section titled “Do I have to reorganise my library first?”No — building that structure is what the importer is for. Point bulk import at a directory full of tables and backglasses and it lays out a table folder for each one, matches the backglass to it, suggests a name you can override, and names every file it could not place, with the reason. Nothing is quietly dropped.
Two things to know before you point it at everything you own:
- It will not go and collect your ROMs. It places a ROM that is sitting in the folder it is importing; it does not reach into your existing shared PinMAME folder and pull matching ROMs into table folders. Your shared folder keeps working exactly as it does now — see ROMs and nvram.
- A directory laid out by an older front end is best effort, not a promise. It has not been run
against a real one end to end. There are community tools that convert an existing library into
.vpxzpackages, and a package imports exactly — if you have a big old library, that route is the one we can stand behind today.
Can I keep using my existing front end?
Section titled “Can I keep using my existing front end?”Yes. vPinOps reads the standard Visual Pinball layout and writes Visual Pinball’s own settings. It does not convert your library into a format only it understands, and nothing stops another front end reading the same folders.
Does it need internet?
Section titled “Does it need internet?”Only for optional media fetching. The app itself, OpsLink and playing are entirely local — there is no account and nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Is OpsLink reachable from outside my house?
Section titled “Is OpsLink reachable from outside my house?”No, by design. It is a local service on your own network.
What happens to my high scores?
Section titled “What happens to my high scores?”They live in nvram, next to whichever ROM folder Visual Pinball used — and that is the whole answer, because it decides whether they travel.
- Shared PinMAME folder — the scores sit on that machine, not in the table folder. Every version of the table shares them, and they do not come with you if you copy the table somewhere else.
- Per-table
pinmame/— the scores are inside the table’s own folder, so they move when it does. Each version of a machine then keeps its own, which is why your grand champion does not follow you to a newer build.
Neither is wrong; they answer different questions. Details: ROMs, nvram and high scores.
How much will it cost?
Section titled “How much will it cost?”Nothing. It is free, and it always will be.
vPinOps is made by a virtual pinball enthusiast, for the pinball community. There is no paid tier, no licence and nothing held back — that is not what this is for.