503 replies to this topic

[Fulltilt]

Wow! Amazing preview vid, thanks Herweh for such an amazing backglass tool

[pinball buzz]

Thanks Dozer freaking awesome work. Looking forward to seeing these released. The animated effects are great - if Williams were still in production you would be getting an offer of employment !! Cheers Buzz Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[Herweh]

Hi everybody,

 

'B2S backglass server' version 1.0 is done.

I've uploaded it to VPF: http://www.vpforums....s&showfile=7426

 

This version is already able to handle EMs, SS without or with DMD and Originals. You need this server to run ROM controlled backglasses like Cosmic Gunfight, Freefall or Twilight Zone and EM and Original backglasses like the upcoming Scarface, the already known ACDC and Baseball and a lot hopefully upcoming, right now not known backglasses.

 

The first backglasses are coming, so please check this new forum's area: http://www.vpforums....oads&showcat=42

 

This version invalidates all beta backglasses. Sorry, I had to do this because of a pretty cool feature for the designer: All 'directB2S' backglass files with version 1.0 or newer can be simply imported into the designer. So when the designer is released it's wonderful easy for you to make your very special changes to your favourite backglasses.

 

BTW the designer will be released in a week or two. I want to add some chapters to the manual and do some last tests and bugfixes.

 B2SBackglassDesigner1102.png   977.86KB   69 downloads

 

So much 'Thank you' to all the beta tester. You have done a wonderful job since I got so much great input.

And a 'Thank you' to you all for testing and playing my previews, pushing me and sending me some kind words.

 

Have a lot fun, best regards, Herweh.

[Pinball999]

Thanks a lot Herweh.

It's great to see the new B2S section on VPF!!

[bent98]

thanks!

[javier1515]

Thank Herweh! was waiting for this tool.

Cheers.
Javier ..

[maceman]

Wow. What an exciting day!!!  Look at all those B2S BG's a-coming!!
Fantastic progression for VP fans!!
 
Cheers,
Maceman
 
Edit: Very Easy to install, Looks GREAT!!
One problem, stutter city.
I have only tried Haunted House so far and just wante dto mention in case i am misiiong something, but completely unplayable currently do to stutter. Must be on my end?
 
Edit2: Arghhh. Sorry to be a bother Herweh, but I am having issues. It installed smooth as butter...no issues at all.. but something is wrong here. I am now trying Medieval Madness and same thing stutter... Also, it took total control of my keyboard, flippers went into up position and stuck there without me holding the buttons, and just slow as all heck

I am also having crashing issues. I am in win 7 64. I have all applications files set to run as admin as well.
 
Sorry once again. I may have to wait on this until others have a similar issue so we can troubleshoot together i guess...
 
Here is a pic of the Ghost Hold, although it doesn't help us much as you probably think i am just holding the buttons but i am not

Edited by maceman, 12 February 2013 - 03:19 AM.

[ArcadiusMaximus]

Wow. What an exciting day!!!  Look at all those B2S BG's a-coming!!

Fantastic progression for VP fans!!

 

Cheers,

Maceman

 

Edit: Very Easy to install, Looks GREAT!!

One problem, stutter city.

I have only tried Haunted House so far and just wante dto mention in case i am misiiong something, but completely unplayable currently do to stutter. Must be on my end?

 

Edit2: Arghhh. Sorry to be a bother Herweh, but I am having issues. It installed smooth as butter...no issues at all.. but something is wrong here. I am now trying Medival Madness and same thing stutter... Also, it took total cpontrol of my keyboard, flippers went into up position and stuck there without me holding the buttons, and just slow as all heck

 

Sorry once again. I may have to wait on this until others have a similar issue so we can troubleshoot together i guess...

 

Are you running the backglasses in exe mode? This can reduce system stutter. I am not by my machine so I can not tell you how to enable it exactly. Check out the b2s server documentation. Hope that helps you out

Edited by ArcadiusMaximus, 12 February 2013 - 03:19 AM.

[maceman]

Hi Arcade,
I was wondering that as i read mention of that..How do i flip into exe mode? Cheers!!

Edit:

Okay, i see in the readfme file more info i originally missed! So much to remember in a first install

Backglass settings:
-------------------
You can set, tweak and save a lot settings for each backglass. To get into this settings screen,
please click the backglass with the mouse and press 'S' on your keyboard. A dialog window opens.

I will try this and report back!!

Edited by maceman, 12 February 2013 - 03:22 AM.

[darquayle]

Maceman,

 

That just isn't allowed with your Avatar & "Favorite Pinball" being HH.  We must find a solution. 

 

Your specs for your system are better than mine and I experience no stutter.  I'm running Win7 Pro - 32 bit on an older Core I5 system with a Nvidia 660 card.  No stutter at all.  Let me know if there is anything I can do to help as I really enjoyed making the animations in HH and want it to be working well for you.

 

darquayle

[maceman]

Thanx Darq!!

he hee- Yes, I need my fix of HH desperately.

Okay, I was able to get into the BG and made the switch to the exe, but after i reload, i get 2 diaslog boxes. TYhe first says " The system cannot find the specified file" and then when i click ok, i get " no process associated with this object"

Maybe it is good for me to be the guenea pig. I am sure others will do this as well.

Edit: Okay, tried again with another table. Seems like when i switch to the "Start with the exe", it then cannot find the B2S Server ??? I cannot bring up dialog as a result.

Edit2: Okay, going to bed..long day... Last report is that this doesnot work for me unfortunately. I tried following the steps to turn things off. Same results. Even with all things turned off in the BG, still massive stutter and unplayable. Maybe tommorow will be a better day!
Cheers guys.
Maceman

Edited by maceman, 12 February 2013 - 04:02 AM.

[ClarkKent]

Did you copy the directB2S files to the tables directory of VP? I had the same problem that it could not find it - I had the files in the HyperPin directory instead of the tables directory of VP. After moving the files there and authorizing them again it worked!

[Flying Dutchman]

Great results guys!

 

Happy with the outcome of the designer & the steps forward!

Great Job Herweh!

 

Cheers,

FD.

 

ps. Would be nice to credit the author of the Backglass images used when releasing a directB2S!

Edited by Flying Dutchman, 12 February 2013 - 09:49 AM.

[Herweh]

To all who are having some technical problems:

 

Try to get a clean directB2S system

1. Delete all 'directB2S' involved files you have installed or copied to your system: his means delete all files with the extension 'directB2S', delete 'B2SBackglassServer.dll', delete 'B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe', delete 'B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe'
2. Unzip or copy the three server files 'B2SBackglassServer.dll', 'B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe' and 'B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe' INTO YOUR VP TABLES FOLDER
3. Rightclick the 'B2SBackglassServer.dll' and click on 'Properties'. Maybe you'll find the following text on the 'General' tab:
     "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer". Click on the "Unblock" button. If you are not able to find this text everything is allright, too.
4. Start the 'B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe' in the VP tables folder and the server dll should be registered.
     IMPORTANT : With Win7 start the exe as Administrator.
5. Download and copy some of the 'directB2S' backglass INTO YOUR VP TABLES FOLDER. Do not run any older 'directB2S' backglasses.
6. Use the standard versions of the VP tables. Do not use Rosve's special B2S versions.
7. Rename these 'directB2S' to match the table name. I.e. rename 'Elvira and the Party Monsters (Bally 1992).directB2S' to 'Elvira_and_the_Party_Monsters_VP91x_v1.2FS.directB2S' to match the name of JP's current table

 

When you're having performance issues:

• Check the color depth of the backglass monitor. It should be 32bit.
• Get into the backglass settings and check the 'Start the backglass in EXE mode' check button and restart the backglass
• Get into the backglass settings and tweak with the "Skip ... frames". Maybe start with Lamps 2 or 3, Solenoids 10 and LED 2.
• Get into the backglass settings and tweak with the LED type.
• Get into the backglass settings and try to use the "Simple LEDs".

No need to report my files as 'broken' as I'm pretty sure they are working because I'm testing all my backglasses a lot before uploading them.

 

 

When the grill of the backglass or the VPinMAME DMD is visible or not and you don't like that:

Get into the backglass settings. There are three check boxes at the top of this screen. 'Hide grill' and 'HideDMD' are the interesting ones. Both check boxes can have three states: Empty means grill or DMD is visible, solid black check marker means grill or DMD is hidden, light gray check marker will take the default (for grill the settings of the 'screenres.txt' file, for DMD the .Hidden property of the VP script).

You can not hide the backglass scores for some of the backglasses as the scores are a basic part of the backglass, i.e. PinBot, Elvira and the Party Monsters, ...

 

 

 

I will start and pin some detailed threads about the background of the server, how to set it up and how to tweak it but, sorry, I haven't started these threads right now.

Edited by Herweh, 12 February 2013 - 03:17 PM.

[thetooth2000]

FYI - I have tried 20 of the 21 available. They all work great. I had one with a little stutter, the exe trick worked on that one. The only other issue is some of the scripts point directly to an EXE in addition to the B2S.Server.... just commented out the direct call and all was good.

 

Thanks for all the hard work. I can't wait to have all my tables B2S'd

[ClarkKent]

Just a GREAT release! Thank you very very much!

 

As I hate the mess in a folder I would recommend the option to create a directory with the name "B2S" in the VP-tables directory or in the HyperPin directory (same as UVP at the moment). Would be much easier to maintain...

[Slydog43]

congrats on the release.  This is such a huge advancement in VP!  

[ClarkKent]

I can not get rid of the grill in some new dB2S. Tried the "Hide B2S-DMD" and "Hide Grill" but this does not help. If there is no working solution for that I hope that I'll be able to correct that by using the B2S-Designer?

[Herweh]

I can not get rid of the grill in some new dB2S. Tried the "Hide B2S-DMD" and "Hide Grill" but this does not help. If there is no working solution for that I hope that I'll be able to correct that by using the B2S-Designer?

 

Can you please post a screenshot with settings screen visible and the content of your 'screenres.txt' file? Thanks.

[htamas]

When the grill of the backglass or the VPinMAME DMD is visible or not and you don't like that:

Get into the backglass settings. There are three check boxes at the top of this screen. 'Hide grill' and 'HideDMD' are the interesting ones. Both check boxes can have three states: Empty means grill or DMD is visible, solid black check marker means grill or DMD is hidden, light gray check marker will take the default (for grill the settings of the 'screenres.txt' file, for DMD the .Hidden property of the VP script).

You can not hide the backglass scores for some of the backglasses as the scores are a basic part of the backglass, i.e. PinBot, Elvira and the Party Monsters, ...

 

Well, the problem I'm having with the new Pinbot and Sorcerer backglasses is that the fake speaker (?) area is visible, occupying about 20% on the bottom of the screen. I understand that the real machines have these too as part of the backbox, but on a virtual cabinet, these are really unnecessary, wasting space. The previous versions of these two backglasses didn't have this and were perfect. Now, on a three-screen cabinet the useful screen area is decreased and the image gets squished if you have a widescreen backglass (like most people). On a two-screen cabinet with a 4:3 screen (like mine), it is equally worse-looking since other tables that have the speakers at least have the DMD between them, but these ones use LEDs for score display.

 

The above settings don't get rid of these fake grills.

 

Is it somehow possible to use the older versions of the backglasses with the new server? Right now they are not compatible.

Edited by htamas, 12 February 2013 - 04:48 PM.