1622 replies to this topic

[mjr]

 I tried the Win key - R cmd prompt and a blank window comes up and I get the missing ucrtbased.dll error on both my laptop and the cab. In Powershell it does nothing. It just goes back to the drive/folder prompt.

 

Hang on - when I say "CMD prompt", are you hearing "Win+R box"?  What I mean is:

 

Press Win+R

Type CMD into the Run box

Press return

 

The window that appears now is the CMD prompt window I'm talking about - that's where you want to run the screen test program from.

 

And are you absolutely sure you have the updated version?  I just downloaded what's on the site and did a dumpbin on it, and it definitely doesn't import that DLL.  Somehow you've got to have a different version.

Also, is there a way to get rid of the BG window title bar?

 

Just switch it to full screen - right click in the BG window, select Full Screen from the context menu.

[hlr53]

Okay, I will DL again and try cmd.exe after work this afternoon. I thought doing it from Powershell would also work?

 

Removing title bar from BG, slight brain fade yesterday. I was just maximizing the window rather than right clicking.

Edited by hlr53, 29 August 2018 - 11:03 AM.

[hlr53]

 

PBA unfortunately doesn't use table files; it's all in some internal database or built into the exe or something.

 

 

Same with Pinball Arcade but some fancy scripting can launch their tables. 

 

Note that the fancy scripting is built in via the "startup keys".  That sends a sequence of keystrokes and mouse clicks that you can customize, so in principle it should be extensible to any system.  Maybe you can figure out how to set up something like that for Zaccaria - if you can come up with something workable, I'd be more than happy to add it to the default settings.  The downside of that approach is that it's really twitchy because the program is just blasting out the keystrokes in the blind and hoping that the program is responding as expected - it doesn't have AI computer vision capability to read the TPA screen and see what the UI thinks it's doing.  It's kind of like remote control macros for your home theater equipment; if something gets out of sync or the timing is a little off, everything gets screwed up.

 

 

So THAT'S what the pause parameters in Pinball Arcade are for. I haven't gotten far enough to look at that. That is some very nice functionality built-in. I will play with that over Labor Day Weekend, and hopefully others following can look at also. I own all the PBA tables except Season 7. And yes, one can get the keys all setup and PBA will break it again. Maybe do something for Zarcaria but I doubt it. They have a multi-leveled UI and it changes quite a bit. At least launch the executable.

Edited by hlr53, 29 August 2018 - 04:23 PM.

[mjr]

So THAT'S what the pause parameters in Pinball Arcade are for. I haven't gotten far enough to look at that. That is some very nice functionality built-in. I will play with that over Labor Day Weekend, and hopefully others following can look at also. I own all the PBA tables except Season 7. And yes, one can get the keys all setup and PBA will break it again. Maybe do something for Zarcaria but I doubt it. They have a multi-leveled UI and it changes quite a bit. At least launch the executable.

 

In case you haven't seen this, the mini-language for the keystroke generator is described in the help page for the System Settings page - click the little "?" icon at the top of the settings dialog to see it.

 

 

Okay, I will DL again and try cmd.exe after work this afternoon. I thought doing it from Powershell would also work?

 

Yeah, Powershell really should be equivalent to CMD for this sort of program, but since it didn't seem to be working there I figured it would be good to go with the known quantity.  CMD is sort of the least common denominator that should work the same everywhere.

Edited by mjr, 29 August 2018 - 06:30 PM.

[manples]

Hi Mike,

 

First a big thank for the new tool. Impressive, as always.

 

Second, I can't get my realDMD to display anything. Works in game, just not in PinballY.

 

 

I've tried with the last Freezy's DmdDevice.dll and then with yours (32&64 from the last alpha). Always put it in the VPinMAME folder.

 

I have the following error message "The real DMD system file (DmdDevice.dll) can't be located. You should be able to get this file from your DMD device manufacturer. When you obtain a copy, install it in the PinballY program folder"

 

So,

 

1- Maybe this error message should mention the VPinMAME folder instead of the PinballY folder? (In a despair move, I've tried to put DmdDevice.dll in C:\PinballY but it didn't work, of course ;-)

 

2- My VPinMAME folder is located in a non-usual place c:\Users\pincab\Downloads\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME. It's not in c:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME. Does it matter? Cause it looks like PinballY just can't locate the dll, so maybe it only checks in c:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME by default?

 

Thanks for your inputs :-)

 

Edited by manples, 29 August 2018 - 06:42 PM.

[mjr]

I have the following error message "The real DMD system file (DmdDevice.dll) can't be located. You should be able to get this file from your DMD device manufacturer. When you obtain a copy, install it in the PinballY program folder"

 

So,

 

1- Maybe this error message should mention the VPinMAME folder instead of the PinballY folder? (In a despair move, I've tried to put DmdDevice.dll in C:\PinballY but it didn't work, of course ;-)

 

Good point!  I'll make that change to the message.

 

If you could look in your PinballY folder for the log file - PinballY.log - it should have full details on where the program is looking for the DLL.  (You might have to go to the options dialog, Log File page, and make sure the "Real DMD" logging checkbox is checked, but it normally is by default.)  Let me know what you find in the log - hopefully that will point to what to look at next.

2- My VPinMAME folder is located in a non-usual place c:\Users\pincab\Downloads\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME. It's not in c:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME. Does it matter? Cause it looks like PinballY just can't locate the dll, so maybe it only checks in c:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME by default?

 

The location shouldn't matter, because PBY locates VPinMAME by looking for its registered COM object in the registry.  As long as the COM object is registered, PBY should be able to find the VPM folder from that.  (And if VP is working, you can be pretty sure the COM object is registered properly, since VP finds it the same way.)

Edited by mjr, 29 August 2018 - 06:59 PM.

[hlr53]

Here ya go Mike.

 

From screenmetricstest.exe on pincab

 

Vertical resolution: 1920
Desktop resolution: 1920
Desktop area: 0,0 - 3000,1920 (3000x1920)

 

I did full captures on a few VP and FP tables. Everything looks solid. Haven't tried FX3 yet because I have to put PBX back on for the XML file. Should be the same though.

Edited by hlr53, 29 August 2018 - 08:59 PM.

[mjr]

Here ya go Mike.

 

From screenmetricstest.exe on pincab

 

Vertical resolution: 1920
Desktop resolution: 1920
Desktop area: 0,0 - 3000,1920 (3000x1920)

 

Thanks.  Just to be sure, that's with the 150% scaling put back in place for the second monitor?  I'm trying to figure out how to sort out the differences between what Windows tells PBY about the monitor layout and the "fake" numbers its feeding to ffmpeg (due to ffmpeg's use of the older DPI semi-awareness), so that PBY can adjust its readings to match the fake numbers ffmpeg gets.

 

I'm starting to think the easier thing to do would be to create a custom build of ffmpeg with its DPI awareness fully modernized.  But that might be a bit of a hassle; I think the ffmpeg build process is pretty ugly and requires cross-compiling on linux.

[hlr53]

 

Here ya go Mike.

 

From screenmetricstest.exe on pincab

 

Vertical resolution: 1920
Desktop resolution: 1920
Desktop area: 0,0 - 3000,1920 (3000x1920)

 

Thanks.  Just to be sure, that's with the 150% scaling put back in place for the second monitor?  I'm trying to figure out how to sort out the differences between what Windows tells PBY about the monitor layout and the "fake" numbers its feeding to ffmpeg (due to ffmpeg's use of the older DPI semi-awareness), so that PBY can adjust its readings to match the fake numbers ffmpeg gets.

 

I'm starting to think the easier thing to do would be to create a custom build of ffmpeg with its DPI awareness fully modernized.  But that might be a bit of a hassle; I think the ffmpeg build process is pretty ugly and requires cross-compiling on linux.

 

No, 2nd monitor was at 100%. Just reran at 150% with same results

 

Vertical resolution: 1920
Desktop resolution: 1920
Desktop area: 0,0 - 3000,1920 (3000x1920)

[mjr]

No, 2nd monitor was at 100%. Just reran at 150% with same results

 

Vertical resolution: 1920
Desktop resolution: 1920
Desktop area: 0,0 - 3000,1920 (3000x1920)

 

Thanks - definitely helpful information.  I'll have to puzzle over the API docs and figure out what to try next.

[hlr53]

I have a question on adding Manufacturers logos. Assume no PinballX installed.

 

Help docs say:

 

Manufacturer logos

PinballY doesn't come with graphics for the manufacturer company logos, since most of the logos are official trademarks. If you wish to provide your own graphics files for the company logos, though, it's easy to install them.

File formats: use PNG files for all logos. Use transparency ("alpha") as desired.

Location: place all company logo files in the Company Logos

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Confused on where to put the folder. Do I create a folder off each system Media folder, like:   C:\PinballY\Media\Visual Pinball X\Company Logos ??

 

or off C:\PinballY\Media\Company Logos  ??

 

or a different location and name the folder something else?

Edited by hlr53, 29 August 2018 - 10:33 PM.

[mjr]

Confused on where to put the folder. Do I create a folder off each system Media folder, like:   C:\PinballY\Media\Visual Pinball X\Company Logos ??

 

or off C:\PinballY\Media\Company Logos  ??

 

The second one - <your main media folder>\Company Logos.  These aren't divided by system.

[manples]

Thanks Mike,

 

Here's my log: 

 

 

So apparently my VPinMAME COM Object is not correctly registered. How do I do that ? ;-) 

[mjr]

So apparently my VPinMAME COM Object is not correctly registered. How do I do that ? ;-) 

 

If you're able to run ROM-based games in VP successfully, the COM object must be registered, so either PBY is screwing something up looking for it, or it's a 32/64 bit thing. 

 

Any chance you're running 64-bit PinballY and 32-bit VP/VPM?  (Or vice versa, although that would be an unlikely combination.)  If so, that's probably the issue, since the COM object is specific to one or the other bit size.  In this case, your VPinMAME copy of DmdDevice.dll will have to be 32-bit as well, because one of the cardinal rules on Windows is that 32 and 64 bit code can't be mixed.  Which in turn means that 64-bit PinballY won't be able to load the 32-bit DmdDevice.dll.  So... the solution is to install a separate copy of the 64-bit DmdDevice.dll in your PinballY folder.  That will let 32-bit VPM continue to use its 32-bit copy (which it has to), and will let PBY use the separate 64-bit copy.

 

If that's not it, and you're running everything in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode, it must be the registry lookup.  Take a look in RegEdit and see what you see under these keys:

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F389C8B7-144F-4C63-A2E3-246D168F9D39}\InProcServer32

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{F389C8B7-144F-4C63-A2E3-246D168F9D39}\InProcServer32

 

Those are the VPM COM object registration keys.  (Which one depends on the combination of 32/64 bit for Windows itself and for your VPM install.)

Edited by mjr, 30 August 2018 - 12:10 AM.

[manples]

"Any chance you're running 64-bit PinballY and 32-bit VP/VPM?"... yeeees I do! 

 

And now with the 32-bit PinballY it works ;-) The world needs more awesome troubleshooters like you.

 

I think I've installed the 64bit version because your page mentions "Recommended if you wish to use 4K (Ultra High-Def) video media" and I didn't think about the rest.

But actually, I don't really care about ultra hi-res video. I just want the lightest front end possible, with the lowest cpu/gpu impact, in order to max-out VP. 

 

Now I need to figure out 3 things but I'm not asking for help, I'll try alone first so you can concentrate on something else ;-)

 

1. get rid of that DMD on the playfield (need to read the whole topic, I'm sure it's there)

2. make Cactus Canyon Continued work as I did with P-ROC and dmdext in PinballX. Sleepless nights incoming...

3. Make PinballY auto-start with my "tweaked" windows 10 x64. Too many things removed I think. Doesn't work from the checkbox in the options, neither with a manual shortcut in the startup menu. Guess I have to create a task etc. 

[mjr]

"Any chance you're running 64-bit PinballY and 32-bit VP/VPM?"... yeeees I do! 

And now with the 32-bit PinballY it works ;-) The world needs more awesome troubleshooters like you.

 

Great!  

 

 

1. get rid of that DMD on the playfield (need to read the whole topic, I'm sure it's there)

 

If it's the PinballY DMD window, just right-click the window and select Hide from the menu - that'll get rid of it.  If it doesn't have a right-click menu, and it wants to stay on top of all of the other windows, it's probably the "virtual DMD" window that DmdDevice.dll presents by default.  You have to fiddle with the DmdDevice.ini settings for that - I think you just have to put "enabled=false" in the [virtualdmd] section.

 

 

3. Make PinballY auto-start with my "tweaked" windows 10 x64. Too many things removed I think. Doesn't work from the checkbox in the options, neither with a manual shortcut in the startup menu. Guess I have to create a task etc. 

 

Not sure what's wrong there.  If you enable auto-start in the options setting, it should create a Task Scheduler task for you - you can check if the task got created properly by opening Task Scheduler (press Win+R, type taskschd.msc into the Run box and press return), go to the Task Scheduler Library section in the left tree, and look for the PinballY Startup Task in the list.  If the task is there and it's not working, I don't have a good guess.  Maybe it's something from those system tweaks you mentioned.  One thing that comes to mind is that if you've been doing aggressive performance tuning, you might have gone on a rampage through the Windows "Services" control panel and disabled as many system services as you could, and maybe you killed the one that Task Scheduler uses to launch startup tasks.  If you did something like that at some point, you might see if you can get Task Scheduler working again - I think it's a pretty lightweight system service to leave running.

[mjr]

@hlr53 - could you run a quick test for me?  I think I came up with an easy solution to that "150% scaling" problem with ffmpeg, which is to force ffmpeg into full DPI awareness by adding a program manifest to its exe.  That should fix its desktop layout calculation by letting it get the true pixel numbers from Windows, which should match the true pixel numbers PinballY gets from Windows - as NASA and JPL well know from the early days of Hubble, things work better when everyone agrees on a single system of units.

 

Here's the test:

 

1. Download the "fixed" version of ffmpeg.exe:

 

http://mjrnet.org/pi...32-with-dpi.zip

http://mjrnet.org/pi...64-with-dpi.zip

 

Grab the one that matches your PBY bit size setting and install it in the PinballY\ffmpeg folder, replacing your current copy.

 

2. Make sure your 150% backglass scaling is in effect

 

3. Run a capture in PinballY and see if the backglass gets captured correctly this time

 

Thanks in advance!  It sounds like you've already ditched the 150% setting entirely for normal operations, so this probably isn't going to be an issue for you one way or the other, but I'd really like to fix the underlying problem anyway because I just know other people are going to run into it eventually.  So it would be a big help if you could try it out and let me know if this attempted fix actually works.

[hlr53]

GOOD.TO.GO

 

I ran a couple of FP and VP tables and switched from 150 to 100 back to 150. Looking great. Standalone in VLC looked the same.

 

Personally, I like keeping my blackglass monitor at 150% for times I need to get into Explorer, goto the web, etc. Nice not having to change back and forth.

 

I over wrote one FP backglass because I went into BAM to scale it a little better (not a PBY thing). PBY marked the first capture like this: Air Aces (Bally 1975).old[1]

 

That's really nice in case one wants to go back.

 

Kevin Nealon - Mr Subliminal Man (if anyone remembers that character from SNL - LOL) says "Great job MJR [batch capture ]. So far, PBY is looking very good [batch capture). Keep up the great work [batch capture]"………..

 

I have mucho B2S tables to bring over 

 

EDIT: Hubble, yeah the mirror, now I remember! Well, keep the custom-built reflective null corrector out of PBY and we should be good!

Edited by hlr53, 30 August 2018 - 09:55 PM.

[mjr]

GOOD.TO.GO

 

I ran a couple of FP and VP tables and switched from 150 to 100 back to 150. Looking great. Standalone in VLC looked the same.

 

Personally, I like keeping my blackglass monitor at 150% for times I need to get into Explorer, goto the web, etc. Nice not having to change back and forth.

 

That's fantastic - thanks for running the thorough tests!  Sounds like we finally have this sorted out. 

 

Now I just have to automate the ffmpeg manifest embedding step as part of my build process so that I don't forget to do it on future ffmpeg updates.

 

 

Kevin Nealon - Mr Subliminal Man (if anyone remembers that character from SNL - LOL) says "Great job MJR [batch capture ]. So far, PBY is looking very good [batch capture). Keep up the great work [batch capture]"………..

 

Definitely high on the list now that capture is solidifying.  It would probably be good to brainstorm the mechanics of it a bit - met me know if you have any thoughts.  UI-wise, I'm thinking of a menu like the current capture menu, so you can select what to capture for each game and what to do about existing files (Capture New, Keep Existing, Skip).  I'm undecided on whether there ought to be a giant checklist of games to include in the capture, or if it should just generically capture every configured game.  Or maybe some other rule?  Perhaps all games selected by the current filter?  That might be the right compromise - gives you more control than just a flat "every game", but it doesn't require going through a giant checklist.

[hlr53]

Definitely high on the list now that capture is solidifying.  It would probably be good to brainstorm the mechanics of it a bit - let me know if you have any thoughts.  UI-wise, I'm thinking of a menu like the current capture menu, so you can select what to capture for each game and what to do about existing files (Capture New, Keep Existing, Skip).  I'm undecided on whether there ought to be a giant checklist of games to include in the capture, or if it should just generically capture every configured game.  Or maybe some other rule?  Perhaps all games selected by the current filter?  That might be the right compromise - gives you more control than just a flat "every game", but it doesn't require going through a giant checklist.

 

 

Hope some others chime in. I know you won't use a naïve method for every table. I really like the current capture menu. Very easy to use and gives options for existing media. Maybe add to existing menu and option(s) to capture missing media and/or unformatted tables.

Edited by hlr53, 31 August 2018 - 02:48 PM.