2087 replies to this topic

[mukuste]

 

Thanks for getting back to this, but no, I only use windowed full screen ever since the first DX9 test version. I can't even play in full screen at all because then the table refuses to start with a "Machine terminated before intialized [sic] .." error.

 

 

Anyway, I played for hours on the same table and some others without any crashes. No complaints from me for sure. I even beat my highscore

I'll report back if I can ever reproduce that crash again.

 

 

Hm, that's weird, that error code (provided you didn't misquote it) means "device lost" which only ever happens in fullscreen mode to my knowledge. Do you have b2s or something of the sort running in fullscreen?

 

 

I assume we are still quite a few months off from the dx9 compatibility release.

I'm trying to update everything soon but want to wait and use dx9 renderer.

Would you recommend starting these updates with these test builds

 

It depends on what you are doing:

• backwards compatible changes, like setting black to transparent on light textures, are obviously fine to do now and can be used in an incremental table update.
• non-backwards compatible things, like using a single light with multiple textures instead of layered lights, will of course break your table in the DX7 builds. So I would only recommend using such stuff for new tables which you plan to release exclusively for the new DX9 renderer, not as an incremental update. But I think there is no doubt at this point that the DX9 renderer is the future of VP, so you wouldn't waste any effort using these techniques on new tables.
• don't mess with object heights to fix ordering issues, we will provide a way to tweak this more directly.
• anything else you want to do?

I plan to write a DX9 upgrade guide for table authors at some point, but probably closer to the stable release.

 

 

well like slydog says wont go to dx9 till its stable (no stutter) and good working , but keep up the good work !

 

Heavens. Nobody is forcing you to switch, these are clearly labeled as tests, not finished versions.

Edited by mukuste, 07 March 2014 - 06:17 PM.

[DJRobX]

 

Hm, that's weird, that error code (provided you didn't misquote it) means "device lost" which only ever happens in fullscreen mode to my knowledge. Do you have b2s or something of the sort running in fullscreen?

 

 

That was the error code I got with 1x1 textures.   When I was googling for it, I found it can also mean "Internal driver error". 

 

Speaking of internal driver errors, with the recent test builds, "T" has very strange behavior.  Everything will work perfectly.   Then suddenly the table will freeze for 10-20 seconds (the VPM audio looping).   Just when you figure the system must have crashed unrecoverably, the game will resume, but with corrupt textures.    The first time it happened, the ball turned into a white square.    But other times the ball is fine, and other textures are screwed up.    No errors are reported.   Nothing in the system log either. 

 

It always reproduces on this table for me, but when it happens is completely unpredictable.   One time it happened before I even started a game.   Unfortunately so far I've only seen it on this one table.   I wouldn't be surprised if it were some sort of Windows XP hardware/driver thing on this system, but I figured I'd mention it incase anyone else sees the same behavior. 

Edited by DJRobX, 07 March 2014 - 06:31 PM.

[mukuste]

Sorry, we don't talk about these things here anymore... forum policy.

[BuckoBundy]

Hm, that's weird, that error code (provided you didn't misquote it) means "device lost" which only ever happens in fullscreen mode to my knowledge. Do you have b2s or something of the sort running in fullscreen?

 

Nope, no b2s or anything since I have no cab here. I just turn my monitor sideways and play like that. Sure beats the desktop perspective view in my humble opinion. But since I seem to be the exception that ever got this error and only once so far, I wouldn't worry about it. Probably just some odd circumstances with my configuration.

 

I'll just keep testing your versions and post if that error surfaces again repeatedly.

[mukuste]

 

Hm, that's weird, that error code (provided you didn't misquote it) means "device lost" which only ever happens in fullscreen mode to my knowledge. Do you have b2s or something of the sort running in fullscreen?

 

Nope, no b2s or anything since I have no cab here. I just turn my monitor sideways and play like that. Sure beats the desktop perspective view in my humble opinion.

 

Oh yeah it does -- I actually set my laptop on its side at times just to play FS tables I can never get the VPM window to show just right though, either it's in the original orientation, or it's the right side up but kind of squashed horizontally. Wish I knew how to fix that. What do you do about that?

Edited by mukuste, 07 March 2014 - 07:51 PM.

[kruge99]

 

 

Hm, that's weird, that error code (provided you didn't misquote it) means "device lost" which only ever happens in fullscreen mode to my knowledge. Do you have b2s or something of the sort running in fullscreen?

 

Nope, no b2s or anything since I have no cab here. I just turn my monitor sideways and play like that. Sure beats the desktop perspective view in my humble opinion.

 

Oh yeah it does -- I actually set my laptop on its side at times just to play FS tables I can never get the VPM window to show just right though, either it's in the original orientation, or it's the right side up but kind of squashed horizontally. Wish I knew how to fix that. What do you do about that?

 

 

If you right click your mouse on the vpinmame window you can enable the border and then drag the edges to resize it.

If you're feeling more adventurous, there are script commands which you can use in the table script to rotate the display.

(I don't have my text file on hand with the proper rol/ror syntax at the moment - sorry about that)

 

 

Best Regards,

Todd.

[gtxjoe]

See DMD rotation section here:  http://www.vpforums....als&article=136

[radikal]

Hm, that's weird, that error code (provided you didn't misquote it) means "device lost" which only ever happens in fullscreen mode to my knowledge. Do you have b2s or something of the sort running in fullscreen?

 
Nope, no b2s or anything since I have no cab here. I just turn my monitor sideways and play like that. Sure beats the desktop perspective view in my humble opinion.

 
Oh yeah it does -- I actually set my laptop on its side at times just to play FS tables I can never get the VPM window to show just right though, either it's in the original orientation, or it's the right side up but kind of squashed horizontally. Wish I knew how to fix that. What do you do about that?

 
If you right click your mouse on the vpinmame window you can enable the border and then drag the edges to resize it.
If you're feeling more adventurous, there are script commands which you can use in the table script to rotate the display.
(I don't have my text file on hand with the proper rol/ror syntax at the moment - sorry about that)
 
 
Best Regards,
Todd.

Note that after sizing, you need to give the DMD one final nudge and drag the whole DMD window a bit before right clicking and turning off the window frame. Failing to do that will cause any resizing to be lost and it will revert to its prior dimensions.

There is a reference to ROL in the script: 1|0 - swap the value to rotate or de-rotate the DMD

[DJRobX]

Sorry, we don't talk about these things here anymore... forum policy.

 

I think I'm being as respectful as possible to VPF's rules, while still reporting an issue I'm seeing on the DX9 build only.    Maybe someone will see something similar on a VPF compatible table (or not!).   As a developer and QA engineer, I'm a lot more curious about the issue, it's just unfortunate that, thus far, it only happens for me on a table we can't discuss. 

Edited by DJRobX, 07 March 2014 - 10:49 PM.

[BananaBoat]

Guys just quickly, how do i disable the dmd from displaying on tables that aren't b2s? Is it a script change, if so what do I look for?

Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk

[DJRobX]

In the script there'll be a list of VPinMame settings:

 

 With Controller        

   .GameName = cGameName

   .HandleKeyboard = 0

  ..

  ..

etc...

 

add a line that has

  .Hidden = 1

 

Do note that a DB2S can override this setting (it can both hide a visible DMD and make a hidden DMD visible).  You said you're doing it for non-B2S purposes, but I spent hours trying to figure out why one DMD wouldn't hide, while I couldn't make another one visible before I found out that it was changeable in the B2S settings.  

Edited by DJRobX, 07 March 2014 - 11:02 PM.

[open6l]

You can also use a tool called SetDMD (http://thebigboss.or...ade/setdmd.html). Launch it and it will give you a gui based interface in which you can set, size, change colors, change aliasing etc all on a global basis. Set your settings, preview it then apply it to all your roms at once.

You may still need to rem/comment out a few in the table scripts and it overrides the registry settings for those tables in question.

 

 

 

Hm, that's weird, that error code (provided you didn't misquote it) means "device lost" which only ever happens in fullscreen mode to my knowledge. Do you have b2s or something of the sort running in fullscreen?

 

Nope, no b2s or anything since I have no cab here. I just turn my monitor sideways and play like that. Sure beats the desktop perspective view in my humble opinion.

 

Oh yeah it does -- I actually set my laptop on its side at times just to play FS tables I can never get the VPM window to show just right though, either it's in the original orientation, or it's the right side up but kind of squashed horizontally. Wish I knew how to fix that. What do you do about that?

 

[mukuste]

NB: Test9 has a severe multiball collision bug. This is fixed by Test9a.

Download VP9_DX9_test9a here:  VP9_DX9_test9a.zip   673.76KB   164 downloads
Important: instead of fullscreen mode, run in "windowed fullscreen" mode.

If you get flicker, please disable AA.

Table compatibility spreadsheet (thanks to gtxjoe): https://docs.google....EPwri8/viewform

 

Here's the traditional weekend test release. This time we have mostly internal changes which are not directly user-visible, but may have some effect on smoothness/stuttering, so I'm especially interested in how it compares to Test8 in this regard. Raw FPS may be a bit lower. These changes are still experimental at this point!

 

Also try the new frame limiting feature by toxie, enabled by setting the vsync field higher than refresh rate!

 

If you still get black insert lights on a table, please first try going through the table's playfield GI textures (usually called playfield_XX, pfX, or similar) which are black where the lights are located, and set their transparency color to pure black.

 

When reporting an issue, please first make sure it's not already in the list of known general issues or table issues below! If it's not, then please add it in the form above. Also, screenshots and exact table names/versions help a lot to track any glitches down!

 

Changes since Test8:

• Maximum pre-rendered frames are now limited to 2. See the recently posted technical information. This might become a GUI option in the future.
• Major optimizations to moving primitives
• Decals AGAIN have a much smaller depth bias. (Barracora is now considered as a buggy table since it has lights at height 1 but decals at height 0. Apologies to JF, you had the right idea there!)
• Some new performance counters on F11 display, probably not interesting to general public.
• (toxie) vsync setting can now be used as a frame limiter if set higher than refresh rate
• (toxie) optimizations to octrees

Known general issues:

*) textboxes don't work
*) EM reels only work in Image Reel mode, not Text Reel
*) text decals don't work
*) kickers cut the ball in half
*) some depth ordering issues remain
*) Stereo 3D only works on NVIDIA so far
*) AA hardwired to 4xMSAA, flickers
*) textures aren't preloaded, can lead to stutter in some cases
*) screen shake doesn't work
*) adaptive vsync always falls back to normal vsync (can only be supported if we drop XP)
*) stereo3D parameters are different
*) "real" full screen mode doesn't work with VPM/B2S. Instead, use "Windowed fullscreen" mode.
*) lost devices aren't handled properly (real fullscreen issue only)
 

Known specific table issues:

https://docs.google....p=sharing#gid=0

 

Happy testing!

Edited by mukuste, 09 March 2014 - 08:53 AM.

[Argo]

I've tried test9 and it runs very smooth with sweetfx, the only problem is audio.

[arngrim]

Audio? Be specific

[mfuegemann]

Hi mukuste,

 

I love the fps limt, this is really cool (as is my graphics card now)!

 

Regards

Michael

[Argo]

@ arngrim it only happens when sweetfx is installed and there is a sort of echo

[andyco40]

hi all

 

i have tryed sweetfx and it dont work for me it keeps crashing every time i load a table to play.

 

 

also with dx9 simson pinball party is really messed up.

Edited by andyco40, 08 March 2014 - 01:18 PM.

[mukuste]

SweetFX is not officially supported. Maybe consider making a new thread not to confuse the issues with core DX9 problems.

[Argo]

@andyco: read my posts

http://www.vpforums....=55#entry257791

http://www.vpforums....=55#entry257823

 

ok, mukuste

Edited by Argo, 08 March 2014 - 01:18 PM.