585 replies to this topic

[George Corrigan]

What do you mean getting it running. It is currently working.

[tspeirs]

I mean for new users. Files were all over the place, and dependencies wernt installed if missing.

 

There was an installer created with the last version but it didn't install dependencies. Neither does Toxies install.

Edited by tspeirs, 14 September 2019 - 04:55 PM.

[tspeirs]

Okay, so I still don't seem to have access to the currect source for UltraDMD. I will try and make contact and see what I can do on that further.

 

However, I was able to modify XDMD so UltraDMD works with the latest version. The latest XDMD has several improvements and also supports dmddevice.dll allowing PinDMD1 to run and a couple of other devices.

 

I looked at the blocking and think I was able to improve it a bit.

 

I am limited to what I can do without the UltraDMD source but replace xdmd.dll and xdmdnative.dll with the attached and we will go from there.

 

I tested with diablo and Americas most haunted and have not tested on a real DMD just yet.

Attached Files

•  x86.zip   197.33KB   4 downloads

[tspeirs]

I've been able to hack my way to get compilable source of UltraDMD. Obviously not ideal. I am trying to contact Stephen.If anyone knows him on a social level or have other contact information that I might not have such as email address post 2018, please let me know.

[tspeirs]

Can we compile a list of higher priority issues with UltraDMD post my update above?

[Thalamus]

Support for non US characters.

Get rid of micro stutter.

Support for higher scores than 32bit limit. (2,147,483,647)

 

But, personally. I must admit, I'm not really looking for a solution via UltraDMD/XDmd anymore. It would need to address the above and give me something new to get me interested again.

[tspeirs]

Support for non US characters.

Get rid of micro stutter.

Support for higher scores than 32bit limit. (2,147,483,647)

 

But, personally. I must admit, I'm not really looking for a solution via UltraDMD/XDmd anymore. It would need to address the above and give me something new to get me interested again.

If I get permission for the source I should be able to fix the latter too. Stutter may already be better.

 

Are you talking about Unicode/UTF-8 or ANSI? The latter should be doable and judging by your flag that should work for you.

Edited by tspeirs, 21 July 2020 - 09:08 AM.

[tspeirs]

Ive allowed long aupport for scores but I would really like to at least try to get permission for the source before I publish.

[tspeirs]

Okay, here is a little update.

 

- Font bitmaps are loaded on a thread. This may help stutter a little.

 

 

 

Attached Files

•  x86.zip   197.47KB   2 downloads

[Slydog43]

Thanks for the updates, what table has the most stutter for people in regards to UltraDMD?  I want to do some testing

Edited by Slydog43, 21 July 2020 - 11:09 AM.

[tspeirs]

Here is another little optimization without having to modify UltraDMD,

 

I am trying to improve performace of exesiting tables so please let me know if any are broken.

 

 

Attached Files

•  x86.zip   197.51KB   5 downloads

Edited by tspeirs, 21 July 2020 - 12:32 PM.

[tspeirs]

Support for non US characters.

Get rid of micro stutter.

Support for higher scores than 32bit limit. (2,147,483,647)

 

But, personally. I must admit, I'm not really looking for a solution via UltraDMD/XDmd anymore. It would need to address the above and give me something new to get me interested again.

 

How does Visual Pinball handle high scores? I was looking at this and the maximum size of an integer in vbscript is 32bit?

 

No worries if your not interested, I appreciate the feedback previously. Im not planning to waste loads of time on this project just hopefully remove the rough edges.

[Thalamus]

I'm not sure how it handles it. Maybe it is a double issue ? Pr. example, Diablo, without changing the script, isn't very hard to reach that score and the the table crashes. Question about non US characters. Well, I expect that regular ANSI will do, but, would not be angry if it started to support UTF8 either. Could get some cool animations just from character set that way

[tspeirs]

UTF8 wont happen but ANSI (255 characters) is not hard. It really does it already. The issue is we don't have the fonts. Not really a programming thing or an issue with UltraDMD. 

 

As for the scores. Not anything to do with UltraDMD either. Its on the VP end as far as I can think. There is a high score display feature in UltraDMD but the maximum vbscript can send to is a  32 bit integer and there is no requirement on a table to use this feature. Not even sure Diablo does? Tables could do there own thing if they wanted, maybe round down a money datatype. When the table crashes is it accessing the high score function in UltraDMD? What is the error  message?

Edited by tspeirs, 21 July 2020 - 07:02 PM.

[Thalamus]

I'm sorry. Don't remember the error message any more. Maybe it is hidden in the Diablo thread somewhere. Personally, I've patched the script so it gives me 1/10 of the score and with the already mentioned solution, replacing, it is ok for me. It feels a bit, like trying to keep a horse with 4 broken legs alive - fixing this now to be honest. FlexDMD is the better solution until something new is added. It might be important to fix it for the reason that you at least used to distribute xdmd.dll and xdmdnative.dll with PBX. I used to have to have to replace those on every release you made. And it was really getting annoying in the end to be honest, new released of PBX without any info on what changed. I begged you to at least give some kind of info of what changed on pbx releases, so I could make a qualified quess to if I wanted to update to the latest or not. So, when PBY came out with a very detailed change-log and re-using the xml index, it was too tempting not to switch over. You should know though. I loved PBX, and it served me well for a very long time, so, thank you very much for that.

[The Loafer]

edit: never mind

Edited by The Loafer, 22 July 2020 - 05:02 PM.

[tspeirs]

Good news. Heard from Stephen so he is alive and well. I am still trying to work out why the source code is an older version and will update when I know more.

I'm sorry. Don't remember the error message any more. Maybe it is hidden in the Diablo thread somewhere. Personally, I've patched the script so it gives me 1/10 of the score and with the already mentioned solution, replacing, it is ok for me. It feels a bit, like trying to keep a horse with 4 broken legs alive - fixing this now to be honest. FlexDMD is the better solution until something new is added. It might be important to fix it for the reason that you at least used to distribute xdmd.dll and xdmdnative.dll with PBX. I used to have to have to replace those on every release you made. And it was really getting annoying in the end to be honest, new released of PBX without any info on what changed. I begged you to at least give some kind of info of what changed on pbx releases, so I could make a qualified quess to if I wanted to update to the latest or not. So, when PBY came out with a very detailed change-log and re-using the xml index, it was too tempting not to switch over. You should know though. I loved PBX, and it served me well for a very long time, so, thank you very much for that.

 

Well, I certainly don't want to waste my time or anyone elses. Happy to move on like I said. I asked if I should bother and two people said I should and you also got involved.

 

Ill try and get the current source out there and move on unless anyone gives me some motivation to bother with this. There is nothing in this for me other than a little feeling of accomplishment and some respect for Stephens work.

 

Not sure what this has got to do with PinballX though?  Although I understand the frustration with technology and software. I am regularly loosing my shit with Uber support!! Tonight included.

 

As I always said if a release does not have notes its a bug fix. Its always been like that with GameEx and PinballX.

 

Im vey guilty of it too but people should ask and try to communicate before making assumptions.

 

 

If anyone has some kind of issue over anything I have apparently done, please let it go.

 

I have my moments but I normally forgive people. That is me. Please understand that. I don't do petty and move on really fast.

 

I feel a lot of people still like what I do too. So am not going anywhere anytime soon. Thank you for your support even if its expired. I have no problem with that buddy.

Edited by tspeirs, 22 July 2020 - 10:56 PM.

[Carny_Priest]

I run both FlexDMD and UltraDMD. I haven't taken the option of having FlexDMD replace UltraDMD as I haven't had the problems reported by others. Performance has been fine for me with the version in the AIO installer. I've only edited scripts to ensure I have comma separators. That said, I'd welcome any bugfix updates.

[tspeirs]

I run both FlexDMD and UltraDMD. I haven't taken the option of having FlexDMD replace UltraDMD as I haven't had the problems reported by others. Performance has been fine for me with the version in the AIO installer. I've only edited scripts to ensure I have comma separators. That said, I'd welcome any bugfix updates.

 

Thanks. Could you elaborate on "comma separated"? Maybe that is something I can fix?

[Thalamus]

I believe it again is related to "locale". If you're from Europe or other places, where a comma is used instead of a punctuation to separate large numbers ... like 100.00 vs 100,00  - there is an issue. Or, I might have misunderstood ? I know in fact hat it has been a issue more than once. But, that is not the only place in VP world. https://vpinball.com...77/#post-182758 - I believe it is more or less the same issue.