1622 replies to this topic

[marie]

Just installed PBY. And it went very smooth using the use PBX-option. Only renaming a few media files and ready to go! 

The options menu feels very intuitive and is very clear!

 

Thanks for this nice piece of art! 

 

Just want to mention that I ran into one error when I changed the fonts.

 

In the options menu I was in the Font section.

 

There I chose another font for Menu and all works fine until I changed the font size (I tried various numbers (12, 40, 100). After that an error occured, when opening the menu

'Image object creation failed (menu background) Technical detail: Sprite::Load, CreateTexture2D failed, HRESULT 80070057: De parameter is onjuist' (=parameter wrong)

When I entered the options menu after this error the font size for menu was changed in a very large number (fx 32.989)

 

Again, changing the other options in the font menu (font family, weight) don't give this error.

 

I hope it helps, btw running on W764, using the 32b verison of PBY

 

PS I don't now if it is foreseen as one of the future features, but it would be nice if in the menu's it would be possible to use (PNG) pictures instead of text. So the front end could even be more personalised

[mjr]

I have a focus issue. I‘ve activated the „Autostart“ option at „Startup“ (the standard one, not the Admin one), and it‘s working pretty fine but after startup no button is working. Looks like a focus thing as I have to do one mouse click on the playfield.

 

It should be taking focus initially, so I'm thinking that maybe something else is getting launched at startup just after PinballY, and that other program stealing focus.  If something's getting launched and minimized, for example, focus will usually go back to the Windows desktop by default.  

 

So one thing you might try is to delay the PinballY auto-start slightly.  The auto-start is actually handled by a Windows Task Scheduler entry that PinballY creates for you.  You can edit that manually to adjust its timing.  Open Task Scheduler (Windows+R, type taskschd.msc).  Click on "Task Scheduler Library" in the list at the left, find the PinballY Startup Task in the main list.  Right click, select Properties, go to the Triggers page, select the "At log on" trigger, click Edit.  In the Advanced Settings section, check the box for "Delay task for:" and enter a slight delay time - maybe try 10 seconds for starters, and increase it a bit if that doesn't seem to help.  If you can't find a reasonably short delay that fixes it, let me know and we can explore other approaches.

 

 

mjr, one question: Is it okay to post here? Or do you prefer these stuff via PM?

 

Posting to the thread is probably better than PM, just because my mailbox fills up pretty fast as it is.   But if something gets lost in the shuffle here, you can also file an issue on the Github page.  That's a good way to track bugs, especially for anything complex that might need some discussion to figure out.

Just want to mention that I ran into one error when I changed the fonts.

 

In the options menu I was in the Font section.

 

There I chose another font for Menu and all works fine until I changed the font size (I tried various numbers (12, 40, 100). After that an error occured, when opening the menu

'Image object creation failed (menu background) Technical detail: Sprite::Load, CreateTexture2D failed, HRESULT 80070057: De parameter is onjuist' (=parameter wrong)

When I entered the options menu after this error the font size for menu was changed in a very large number (fx 32.989)

 

Thanks for the details - I'll take a look and see if I can figure out what's going on.

 

 

PS I don't now if it is foreseen as one of the future features, but it would be nice if in the menu's it would be possible to use (PNG) pictures instead of text. So the front end could even be more personalised

 

That hadn't occurred to me, but I could put it on the to-do list as something to look into.  You're thinking in terms of all of the basic text menus, replacing the individual line items with custom PNGs?

[marie]

PS I don't now if it is foreseen as one of the future features, but it would be nice if in the menu's it would be possible to use (PNG) pictures instead of text. So the front end could even be more personalised

 

That hadn't occurred to me, but I could put it on the to-do list as something to look into.  You're thinking in terms of all of the basic text menus, replacing the individual line items with custom PNGs?

 

Yes that was indeed what I meant. It would be nice when you would consider this. 

 

I could try to make some picture-sets if you like.

[STV]

 

I have a focus issue. I‘ve activated the „Autostart“ option at „Startup“ (the standard one, not the Admin one), and it‘s working pretty fine but after startup no button is working. Looks like a focus thing as I have to do one mouse click on the playfield.

 

It should be taking focus initially, so I'm thinking that maybe something else is getting launched at startup just after PinballY, and that other program stealing focus.  If something's getting launched and minimized, for example, focus will usually go back to the Windows desktop by default.  

 

So one thing you might try is to delay the PinballY auto-start slightly.  The auto-start is actually handled by a Windows Task Scheduler entry that PinballY creates for you.  You can edit that manually to adjust its timing.  Open Task Scheduler (Windows+R, type taskschd.msc).  Click on "Task Scheduler Library" in the list at the left, find the PinballY Startup Task in the main list.  Right click, select Properties, go to the Triggers page, select the "At log on" trigger, click Edit.  In the Advanced Settings section, check the box for "Delay task for:" and enter a slight delay time - maybe try 10 seconds for starters, and increase it a bit if that doesn't seem to help.  If you can't find a reasonably short delay that fixes it, let me know and we can explore other approaches.

 

 

 

I solved this focus problem by running this in the command for the scheduled task:   

 

C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe /c start "" "c:\pinbally\pinbally.exe"

[mwong168]

I just installed PBY and so far so good except my menus dont show any text for the options. I have pm'd MJR and he said I probably have windows 7 aero disabled which I did. I enabled it and still nothing. I also tried reinstalling with 64bit and still same thjng. The options on the menu works except you need to remember or know what is what. Anyone else experience this or know what the fix is? Thanks in advance.

Attached Files

•  IMG_20190304_192951.jpg   155.45KB   4 downloads

Edited by mwong168, 05 March 2019 - 12:30 AM.

[mjr]

I just installed PBY and so far so good except my menus dont show any text for the options. I have pm'd MJR and he said I probably have windows 7 aero disabled which I did. I enabled it and still nothing. I also tried reinstalling with 64bit and still same thjng. The options on the menu works except you need to remember or know what is what. Anyone else experience this or know what the fix is?

 

I've heard from two people who ran into what looks like the same thing, and the solution seemed to be Aero:

 

https://github.com/m...ballY/issues/10

 

What does your About Box look like, or a game information popup (make sure a table is selected, then press "2" - the digit two/@ key)?  Also, maybe you can try selecting a different font - press "O" (that's the letter O as in Options), go the Fonts page, and select a font from the top drop list.

[randr]

Using freezy 1.7.2 with pindmd2 the table exits to desktop! Removing option for real dmd all works fine. Is this a known issue?

[mjr]

> Using freezy 1.7.2 with pindmd2 the table exits to desktop! Removing option

> for real dmd all works fine. Is this a known issue?

 

Nope, there were problems with earlier versions, but it should work with 1.7.2.  Where exactly is the crash happening?  Have you looked at your dmd-extensions log?  That might tell you why it's crashing.

[Thalamus]

1.7.1 is the latest that works with the vni/pal color loading. You want dmdext.exe for FX3 though. So it is a cherry pick from two releases. Or, @outhere has recommended trying the new beta without adding alphanum info into the *.ini if you want to run it "as" the 1.7.1 functionality.

 

Didn't you MJR make some code changes from the 1.7.1 so you have more like a 1.7.1 plus ??

 

@randr : I can't recall people having stability issues with 1.7.2 though.

[Phazer51]

Weird occurence with DOF: I have PBY start up with Win10. The first table that is loaded never gets DOF to load and run (can see light on Teensy blinking slowly in standby). If table is exited and restarted, DOF runs (light on Teensy blinks rapidly and LEDs work fine).

Odd.

[randr]

I’ll check the log tonight I should mention the dmd works fine with pby and 1.7.2 but just when exiting a table it don’t go back to pby it exits to desktop. If I uncheck realdmd it exits table just fine and back to pby no problem( spent 2.5 hours finding out it was the 1.7.2 causing it )

[LUCAS COLLODA]

Congratulations on the beautiful project.

 

I'm setting up a cabinet with the pinscape controller and 2 screens.

I installed everything from scratch and got VPX 10.5 running with backglass.

Everything is OK.

 

I installed PinballY. Everything seems to be OK, but when I select a table that uses B2S, my backglass goes black, but the DMD appears.

 

Actually, if I use ALT-TAB, the backglass is there and I can select it and play the table, but I have to do that every time I run a VPX table.

I already researched some alternatives, but nothing solved the problem.

 

I wonder if anyone has had this problem and managed to solve it.

 

Sorry for my English from Google Translate

[mjr]

Didn't you MJR make some code changes from the 1.7.1 so you have more like a 1.7.1 plus ??

 

I did, to fix a few problems I ran into with 1.7.1, but that became obsolete when freezy merged my changes into his official branch.  Here's a link to my fork in github if you want to look at it, though:

 

https://github.com/m...dmd-extensions/

 

 

1.7.1 is the latest that works with the vni/pal color loading. You want dmdext.exe for FX3 though. So it is a cherry pick from two releases. 

You've conferred with freezy about that, right?  Because I thought the color support was just a build setting; unless he's intentionally withdrawn it, I'm not sure why it would be missing other than an easily corrected oversight when the build was created.

 

 

I’ll check the log tonight I should mention the dmd works fine with pby and 1.7.2 but just when exiting a table it don’t go back to pby it exits to desktop. 

 

Do you mean "it returns to the desktop because PinballY has crashed and is no longer running at this point", or "it returns to the desktop, and I have to manually switch back to the PinballY window that's still there in the background"? 

 

So otherwise, PinballY and VP are both using the DMD okay up to that point?  It's just when you press Escape to quit out of the VP process that the trouble starts?  And is it consistent across all games?  That is, it happens every time you play a game, the very first time you play a game, for all versions of VP and all games?

 

Both the PinballY and dmd-extensions logs might be helpful to look at it.

 

 

I installed PinballY. Everything seems to be OK, but when I select a table that uses B2S, my backglass goes black, but the DMD appears.

 

Just to be sure I understand, does "select a table" mean that you're simply navigating to the table in the PinballY window, not launching anything... or does it mean that you're using the "Play Game" command to launch Visual Pinball and run the game?  

 

What kind of monitor/window layout do you have overall?  Does the playfield window still appear during all of this?

 

A video showing the whole cab through each step might help clarify and might give me or someone else an idea of what might be going wrong.

[Thalamus]

@mjr : no I haven't been following up on the 1.7.2 vni/pal problem. It is in a closed issue https://github.com/f...ions/issues/151

 

I noticed other issues with that new code on my pindmd3 - so, for the moment I have a script that can easily swap between yours, freezy 1.7.1 and that beta. Believe the one you released is the one I've got running at the moment to be honest.

Edited by Thalamus, 05 March 2019 - 07:29 PM.

[randr]

Correct the dmd works fine but when you exit a table it closes off everything and sitting at desktop nothing is minimized it’s just closed off instantly.

[LUCAS COLLODA]

 

 

I installed PinballY. Everything seems to be OK, but when I select a table that uses B2S, my backglass goes black, but the DMD appears.

 

Just to be sure I understand, does "select a table" mean that you're simply navigating to the table in the PinballY window, not launching anything... or does it mean that you're using the "Play Game" command to launch Visual Pinball and run the game?  

 

What kind of monitor/window layout do you have overall?  Does the playfield window still appear during all of this?

 

A video showing the whole cab through each step might help clarify and might give me or someone else an idea of what might be going wrong.

 

Hello, mjr

 

I'm sorry if I did not explain very well.

 

When I select "play game" in Pinbally, everithing works: playfield, DOF, DMD. But the backglass does not appear, there is a black screen behind the DMD, which is displayed on the same monitor as the backglass. 

With the keyboard, if I type alt + tab, I see that the backglass is running, I can even select it and play normally. But only after giving alt + tab and selecting the backglass.

 

When I get back from work, I make a video and post it to you to see what I'm talking about.

[mjr]

@mjr : no I haven't been following up on the 1.7.2 vni/pal problem. It is in a closed issue https://github.com/f...ions/issues/151

 

Oh, I get it - so it's just a bug that he hasn't released a fix for yet.

 

 

Correct the dmd works fine but when you exit a table it closes off everything and sitting at desktop nothing is minimized it’s just closed off instantly.

 

Okay, so it sounds like PinballY is crashing.  Definitely take a look at the PinballY log and see what it's saying about the real DMD. 

 

You should go to the Options dialog (press the "O" key, that's the letter O as in Options), Log File page, and check the checkbox for "Real DMD" to enable detailed logging for that subsystem.

 

Then exit PinballY, start a new session, launch a game, and exit the game (presumably triggering the crash).  Take a look at the log file and see what it says about real DMD initialization and startup.

Edited by mjr, 05 March 2019 - 08:13 PM.

[mjr]

When I select "play game" in Pinbally, everithing works: playfield, DOF, DMD. But the backglass does not appear, there is a black screen behind the DMD, which is displayed on the same monitor as the backglass. 

With the keyboard, if I type alt + tab, I see that the backglass is running, I can even select it and play normally. But only after giving alt + tab and selecting the backglass.

 

When I get back from work, I make a video and post it to you to see what I'm talking about.

 

That helps - I think I can picture it now.  A video would still be really helpful to make sure I'm on the right track.

 

My wild guess is that it has to do with the way your windows are arranged - in particular, the part where the DMD and backglass are on the same physical monitor.  I suspect there's a problem with the way the windows are layered.  PinballY leaves all of its windows visible while the game is playing, blanked out to black, on the assumption that the game (VP in this case) will just naturally bring itself to the foreground and put its windows in front of the blacked-out PinballY windows.  But there might be something about this particular combination of windows with the DMD and backglass on the same physical monitor that's preventing B2S from coming to the foreground when it starts up.  I think the mysterious black window you're seeing is the PinballY backglass window, which for some reason is staying in front of the B2S window.

 

What I might have to do is add an option where you can hide the PInballY backglass window while running, rather than leaving it open in the background.  I've been leaving the windows open because it generally makes things work more smoothly.  Window state changes can have unwanted side effects on keyboard focus, app activation, and the Windows task bar.  But in your case it might be creating this problem.

[LUCAS COLLODA]

 

When I select "play game" in Pinbally, everithing works: playfield, DOF, DMD. But the backglass does not appear, there is a black screen behind the DMD, which is displayed on the same monitor as the backglass. 

With the keyboard, if I type alt + tab, I see that the backglass is running, I can even select it and play normally. But only after giving alt + tab and selecting the backglass.

 

When I get back from work, I make a video and post it to you to see what I'm talking about.

 

That helps - I think I can picture it now.  A video would still be really helpful to make sure I'm on the right track.

 

My wild guess is that it has to do with the way your windows are arranged - in particular, the part where the DMD and backglass are on the same physical monitor.  I suspect there's a problem with the way the windows are layered.  PinballY leaves all of its windows visible while the game is playing, blanked out to black, on the assumption that the game (VP in this case) will just naturally bring itself to the foreground and put its windows in front of the blacked-out PinballY windows.  But there might be something about this particular combination of windows with the DMD and backglass on the same physical monitor that's preventing B2S from coming to the foreground when it starts up.  I think the mysterious black window you're seeing is the PinballY backglass window, which for some reason is staying in front of the B2S window.

 

What I might have to do is add an option where you can hide the PInballY backglass window while running, rather than leaving it open in the background.  I've been leaving the windows open because it generally makes things work more smoothly.  Window state changes can have unwanted side effects on keyboard focus, app activation, and the Windows task bar.  But in your case it might be creating this problem.

 

 

 

Thanks for the feedback.

It may be something like that, since without the frontend the backglass runs normally.

Here is the video link that I did demonstrating the problem:

https://www.youtube....h?v=7QZIvVw_UW8

[Phazer51]

If I update PinballY with the most recent Windows 32-bit installer, will it overwrite any of my current configuration files?