11 replies to this topic

[vrumor]

Have been running this table for about a year, Windows 10, 16gb of RAM 970GTX, and it was working great up until about 2 months ago. Had a WIndows update, and now when I load any table that uses a b2s the backglass pins itself under the main playfield. PUP packs work as they should. I havent changed the settings for the backglass or anything else. And now it seems like whatever I change doesnt do anything. Feel like its simple very simple, but cant place my finger on it. Any help would be fantasitc. TIA.

 

Tom

[wiesshund]

post screen sizes, resolutions and your screenres.txt

[vrumor]

I will when I am home from work. Thank you for your quick response.

[vrumor]

3840

2160

1920

1080

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

 

 

Screen sizes are 3840x2160 playfield and 1920x1080 for backglass and dmd. 2 seperate displays.

Edited by vrumor, 27 May 2022 - 12:43 AM.

[wiesshund]

I think You need to have

 

3840 (playfied width)

2160 (playfied height)

1920 (backglass width)

1080 (backglass height)

1 (display to reference backglass position against 1 is playfield which is fine)

3481 (pixels to offset backglass position to the right, 1 pixel more than playfield is wide)

0 (pixels to offset backglass vertically, usually 0 unless using a custom resolution)

1920 (DMD display size Width, I recommend 1920)

1080 (DMD Display size Height, I recommend 480)

1921 (DMD offset to right, 1 pixel more than backglass resolution)

0  (DMD offset vertical, but if you use the DMD rise i recommend of 1920 x 480 then i suggest vertical offset of 720 which will put the DMD in the center of the DMD screen, or adjust as you see fit)

0 (flip DMD Y, not normally used)

*NOTE* DMD refers to a B2S DMD components which is not really a DMD and has no bearing on ROM DMD's displaying at all
Examples of a B2S DMD, see Tom and Jerry or Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball or Apollo 13  3 screen backglasses

 

Now, if i am reading the above wrong and you are saying that you ONLY have 2 screens total and your not telling me you have 2 separate backglass and DMD screens of 1920 X 1080
All the above is still correct except leave everything i have above pertaining to the DMD as 0

[vrumor]

I have 3 screens, and it worked flawlessly for a year, im baffled, cause ive never filled out that many fields in the screenres.txt. But I will give it a go in the morning and report back, thank you.

[wiesshund]

I have 3 screens, and it worked flawlessly for a year, im baffled, cause ive never filled out that many fields in the screenres.txt. But I will give it a go in the morning and report back, thank you.

 

Well, you have your backglass set to the playfield screen in your screenres.txt

 

Which is fine actually as it dodges the issues that popup when windows decides to redetect the monitors.
But you than have to tell it how far to offset it from the playfield, which is playfield width + 1

 

And the pretend DMD would have never works right with all 0's
IF

Key word being IF

You ever had any backglass pseudo DMD components on the 3rd screen, maybe you never did?
Maybe you always had b2s limited to 1 screen only, but you do not have to.

Here is bugs bunny, which is just an alpha numeric ROM
using a 3 screen backglass.

Now this is all on one screen so im obviously lying to b2s about sizes etc, but you get the general idea

 

 

Or Tom and Jerry

 

Or Mr and Mrs Pacman with b2s DMD AND an add on flexDMD

[gtxjoe]

Where you have 1, try values 1 to 15 until the backglass is in the correct screen

[vrumor]

I am an idiot. I have never had to change that value before, and changing it to 3 fixed it. Why would an update change that? But, because I was pretty dumb, if either or both would like a 6 pack for helping me out DM me your paypal or i can zelle it. Thank you.

[wiesshund]

I am an idiot. I have never had to change that value before, and changing it to 3 fixed it. Why would an update change that? But, because I was pretty dumb, if either or both would like a 6 pack for helping me out DM me your paypal or i can zelle it. Thank you.

If anything causes windows to re-evalutate the attached monitors and decide they are in different logical order, you can have this problem because of the way in which our software tries to ask the pc about the screens

over time, windows can accumulate multiple entries in registry for the attached monitors, with each entry showing the monitor differently.
Windows does not care, obviously, but other apps that look to it for one right answer and instead get 5 answers, get confused.

 

Even by setting this to 3 this issue can and may come back to you again, hence me telling you leave it as 1, and use exact pixel values.
Playfield is always going to be 1, unless something else is wrong which we would of course have to fix 1st, cause no one wants the playfield on the DMD
 

So if backglass is set to display 1, and offset biy (display 1 width +1 pixel) it has no choice but to land on the next monitor to the right, and what ever resolution we dictated for the backglass
no matter how many conflicting registry entries are found, if the screen is visually to the right of the playfield, the backglass will go there.

Same with the b2s dmd LCD values i gave
if the backglass is offset correctly, then it has no choice but to offset over onto the 3rd screen,

Sometimes, with cabinets, and using TV's as playfields, you get screens not coming available at the same time, which makes windows redetect them and assign new registry entries

Or maybe the PC is external and gets shared between a cabinet and using for other stuff, or a bunch of other situations etc.

 

So, basing the Backglass and b2s dmd location off the playfield, like i am showing simply works because the stuff has no choice but to go to the exact pixel location i tell it
it avoids having to go purging monitor registry entries.

Unfortunately FP and maybe FX3 dont have the luxury of manually dictating this.
When monitor madness has forced those to go all out of whack, you have to purge the reg entries

 

If you ever need to reset the monitors in windows, you can save this in a bat file and just run it as admin

reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Connectivity
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\ScaleFactors
pause
shutdown /r /t 5

it will purge them and then reboot the PC
Windows will come back up, redetect the monitors, make only 1 set of reg entries
and then you just align the monitors again in windows display settings, and set playfield as primary desktop if it isnt
and all should become normal again

Edited by wiesshund, 27 May 2022 - 08:09 PM.

[jarr3]

In the latest version 1.3.1.1 of B2S Server you are allowed to have comment lines (starting with '#')

 

like this example:

 

# Playfield Screen resolution width/height

800

600

# Backglass Screen resolution width/height

800

600

# Backglass Display Devicename screen number (\\.\DISPLAY)x for the Playfield or screen on position (@x) or screen index (=x)

1

# x position for the backglass relative to the upper left corner of the Playfield screen

0

# y position for the backglass on the selected display (Normally left at 0)

0

# width/height of the DMD area in pixels - For 3 screen setup

600

130

# X/Y position of the DMD area relative to the upper left corner of the backglass screen - For 3 screen setup

700

300

# Y-flip, flips the LED display upside down

0

# X/Y position pos when StartBackground is active, relative to upper left corner of Playfield ("Small" Button in the Options)

800

0

# width/height of the backglass when StartBackground is active 

800

600

# C:\path\Frame (The path to the location where you have the background image)

C:\path\my_bezel_for_EM_or_grill_for_dual_screen.png

 

 

As you see in the example above, the B2S Server want to know which screen is used as backglass on line #5 (excluding comments)

The number you enter is the "Devicename" used by Windows, which might not be that easy to find and as Weisshund explained it can also change over time.

 

The number can also have an "@" sign added before, meaning you say you want the screen starting on x coordinate (@800 from the example above)

The last option is to add an equal sign "=" telling you want the screen on a specific index from left (=2 from the example above). I beleive "=2" should be the most stable value to use, as long you have the screens in Playfield, Backglass, DMD and topper order. 

 

Only drawback might be that other tools do not know about the equal sign yet. 

 

/Jarr3

[wiesshund]

 

The last option is to add an equal sign "=" telling you want the screen on a specific index from left (=2 from the example above). I beleive "=2" should be the most stable value to use, as long you have the screens in Playfield, Backglass, DMD and topper order. 

 

 

 

Can still blow it up set to 2, if i purposely induce a few bouts of "Oh lets redetect and renumerate monitors and create multiple entries for the same device, because IM WINDOZE!"

 

But it still works if set to one and the offsets are dictated literally, providing you get the playfield on the correct screen of course.
Slaps the snot out of windows silliness

 

Mind you this does Nothing for FP or any front end etc that windows has now royally confused
for that, a quick monitor purge and reboot is in order, which after you realign them real quick and assign playfield as main desktop, a state of normalcy returns