93 replies to this topic

[widget2k13]

Hi hirez
Did you manage to get ultra dmd to work correctly on your pindmd3

[Gilrock]

Yeah I went through suggestions in this post and I haven't gotten UltraDMD working with my pindmd3 either.  A week ago I had UltraDMD working with a pindmd2 but I upgraded the DMD and installed a new computer/OS.  I even had a screenshot of UltraDMD working with Stranger Things.  So now that is doesn't work the advice I get is well just turn off UltraDMD for the table its not needed.  Well great so what about all the other UltraDMD tables.  I gotta say trying to get a real DMD working with UltraDMD and Future Pinball is a complete DLL hell.  You gotta stumble on the right advice or link buried in a post somewhere or you get lucky trying things and don't even know what you did.  You don't know what advice to trust because they all seem to involved hijacking the same DLLs in multiple directories.  I'm not trying to make it work with PinballX I just want UltraDMD to work for the VPX tables that use it.

 

I started out where the tables using UltraDMD were crashing.  I finally found a post from someone named Outthere that had a dropbox link to an UltraDMD setup file because the main website link is broken.  That got it where my tables startup and display the virtual DMD for UltraDMD but I cannot get it to display on the real pindmd3 DMD.

 

I used the VPX all in one installer so why doesn't it create a working UltraDMD by default?

[HiRez00]

@widget

 

I don't know if I got the UltraDMD working. My main goal was to get me PinDMD3 working properly with tables that didn't use the DMD (to display an image when the DMD was not in use so it wasn't a black hole sitting there.)

 

I kind of gave up on the whole extra color DMD thing, Pinup Popper, and Ultra DMD because all of those were unstable on my system. Whenever I was required to do any sort of update to get 1 working, the other would break / crash ... If Tron worked, Stranger Things wouldn't, etc.

 

So I gave up because I was spending more time futzing with systems files that actually PLAYING PINBALL.

 

Until there is a comprehensive all in one file set and instructions (instead of getting 1 piece here, 1 piece there, and hunting constantly for answers) then I am just gonna stick with the basics for now.

 

There are plenty of "non complex" table to play in the meantime.

[widget2k13]

There is some good ultradmd tables out there, just not very good with no dmd working

[Thalamus]

I have everything working. I posted a dropbox link over at universe containing my required files. I was hoping the guy I shared it publicly with would report back if he managed to resolve it or not. Anyone can give it I try I guess.

[widget2k13]

Where is the link to files? Is it Easy to do I'm not that clued up with it all

[Thalamus]

https://www.dropbox....y_2018.zip?dl=0

 

Depending on what you want to do. Go into the folder that the archive is named. Make a folder named "backup" or something and move all the *.dll files into that folder. Then use the ones that are in this archive instead. It might be that you need to edit dmddevice.ini if the COM port isn't 3 like mine is.

 

If it doesn't work - well - delete the *.dll files and move the originals back. You probably need to replace all in all folders before it works.

 

And you should not have anything VP related running while replacing.

 

You should know that it is based on PBX 3.04 - 32bit version. If you upgrade PBX. Make sure that you don't install 64 which is default on the first "next" dialog box.

Edited by Thalamus, 09 July 2018 - 08:24 PM.

[Johngreve]

I too have ultra DMD working on my PinDMD3. I installed everything long time ago when UltraDMD came out,I think for AMH was the first table I installed it for. Had a pindmd2 at the time and worked perfectly......until I installed my pinDMD3. after installing my pinDMD3 it still worked but I noticed if a UltraDMD table was left running in the attract mode for a couple of minutes I’d get a UltraDMD error not working error. It’s funny that it would only happen in the attract mode....I could play the table all day long and it would work perfectly. I could never figure it out and I did try some of Thalamus’s Files in the above link he provides with no success. After a awhile I just accepted the fact that this was the new normal and was happy to have what I had. I considered contacting the pinDMD.com guy for support but never have.
I wish I could help but am just relaying my experiences.
I wish you luck .....what Thalamus said!

[Thalamus]

Well John. There are more than a few authors that don't add a proper exit routine to their tables. Adding something like this should solve it. Just put it in the end of the table script.

 

Sub Table1_Exit():
  Controller.Stop
  If Not UltraDMD is Nothing Then
    If UltraDMD.IsRendering Then
      UltraDMD.CancelRendering
    End If  
    UltraDMD = NULL
  End If
End Sub

Edited by Thalamus, 09 July 2018 - 08:45 PM.

[widget2k13]

thank you i will try it tomorrow, i dont run pbx i use pinup popper 

[Thalamus]

Yeah. Well. Then you can ignore those files - simple as that

[Johngreve]

Well John. There are more than a few authors that don't add a proper exit routine to their tables. Adding something like this should solve it. Just put it in the end of the table script.
 
Sub Table1_Exit():
  Controller.Stop
  If Not UltraDMD is Nothing Then
    If UltraDMD.IsRendering Then
      UltraDMD.CancelRendering
    End If  
    UltraDMD = NULL
  End If
End Sub

Wow!Thanks Thalamus....can’t wait to try this. It seems to happen to all of my UltraDMD tables and sometimes I like to leave things run in attract mode after I play....the inevitable crash always took the fun out of that.
I’ll owe you big time if this works! I’ll report back tomorrow. Thanks again!!

[Thalamus]

Please note the table itself in the example needs to be named 'table1' - that might change from table to table. You see the name in the upper right corner of the editor. If it is called something else. Change the 'table1_exit()' to 'tablename_exit()'.

 

Also - to be god damn sure, if your are running a front-end. You could also just kill the dmd on exit.

[Johngreve]

Ok....I made it this far...this is for Champions League Season 18. I get the script error that you see here,not really sure what its telling me....can you give me some guidance please? Thank you


Really trying to learn something new here.

Attached Files

•  33D53DB7-EA96-4D37-9EDF-7E886054B9A5.jpeg   284.04KB   3 downloads

Edited by Johngreve, 10 July 2018 - 02:41 AM.

[Gilrock]

I feel like I'm getting closer.  I know most of you know some of these but I'll detail it for the other folks having similar issues.  I found out half my attempts at changing DLLs were invalid because when I ran the UltraDMD.msi installer I got from someone else's dropbox apparently it installs UltraDMD in c:\Program Files (x86)\UltraDMD.  So if you want the version in c:\Visual Pinball\XDMD to be the one used run Command Prompt as administrator, navigate to the XDMD directory and type "UltraDMD.exe /i".  That installs the exe into the registry so that any program looking for UltraDMD.exe will goto that directory instead of wherever it used to be registered.  The other thing you can do is then type "UltraDMD.exe /c" and you should see the pindmd3 light up as well as a dialog for config settings appears.  I also noticed someone I hadn't filled in the COM port value in the [pindmd3] section of dmddevice.ini.  For mine I made this "port = COM4".

 

At this point the tables were playing but nothing was showing up on the pindmd3.  I know at some point I used to have the virtual UltraDMD showing on the playfield but I had right-clicked and disabled it and never could figure out how to get it back.  I tried checking and unchecking the box in the UltraDMD configuration dialog and trying again and nothing brought it back.

 

So then I backed up my XDMD directory and copied over all of Thalamus's files for the XDMD directory.  Then I copied my dmddevice.ini back into that folder and I edited pinDMD.ini to make sure it was COM4.  Now when I run "UltraDMD.exe /c" it displays on the pindmd3 and it displays the config dialog but the dialog disappears after like 2 seconds.  So I tried a table in VPX and for the first time it displayed the UltraDMD logo screen with the chipmunk but then it halted in the script where it's looking for UltraDMD.IsRendering.  Not sure if that's the same thing in John's post above because for some reason I click on his attachment it just spins forever and never displays.

 

So anyways that's where I'm at and it seems like its close to working.  Maybe something I said will trigger a thought for the last piece of the puzzle.

[Johngreve]

I just edited my file and the attachment seems to work now.

[gtxjoe]

Ok....I made it this far...this is for Champions League Season 18. I get the script error that you see here,not really sure what its telling me....can you give me some guidance please? Thank you426B1A5B-1B5A-437B-9277-B1B1C20A0F5B.jpeg


Really trying to learn something new here.426B1A5B-1B5A-437B-9277-B1B1C20A0F5B.jpeg

 

SubTable1_Exit():

 

should probably be

 

Sub Table1_Exit

[STV]

 had a dropbox link to an UltraDMD setup file because the main website link is broken.  

 

Can you share the dropbox link? 

[Gilrock]

 

 had a dropbox link to an UltraDMD setup file because the main website link is broken.  

 

Can you share the dropbox link? 

 

Here's the one I found...like I said mine still isn't quite working so not sure you want to install that version:

 

https://www.vpforums...=39760&p=401058

Question I have is I keep seeing people mentioning putting the dmddevice.dll file in the XDMD folder.  Does really do anything in there because I don't believe UltraDMD.exe even knows to use it.  I thought I saw one post that said you copy it in there but then rename it to pinDMD.dll.  Is that correct? 

[Thalamus]

Is it in my archive ? Yes. Is there a reason ? Yes ! Go look at the support thread #35 for dmdext on github. Does it really - really need to be in the folder too ? No, you can read the documentation and place a ENV variable that points to where to read it from as long as it is version 1.7.1 or higher.

 

Why you are talking about pindmd.dll ? My archive for xdmd doesn't contain that file, does it ? Did you really move ALL the *.dll files out of the original folder to the backup like I asked  ... that would include any pindmd.dll too !?

 

All the settings and fiddling with running xdmd with options can easily be done by editing the registry too. Actually, that is my preferred method.

 

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\UltraDMD :

 

Eg. change hideVDMD=false or true depending on what you want. If you want it on the real dmd only, set it to True. While there, change fullColor=True as well.

Edited by Thalamus, 10 July 2018 - 06:24 AM.