1972 replies to this topic

[studlygoorite]

Wonder if anyone knows if setting a POV with any build 10.7 or 10.8 to a table (so there is no POV file in the tables folder) would have any affect on creating a new POV with the Window Mode for the same table? When adjusting a POV and saving the table, what does that do to the table if anything compared to saving the POV to a POV file to put in the table folder? When I start to adjust a POV with Window mode and hit the launch button to reset, my Table X,Y and Z scales always start at 120% and was wondering if that's normal or did the old POV that was saved previously to the table mess with anything?

[Drybonz]

I would say back up your POV's before you change them.  I don't know if it's related exactly, but my POV's got messed up if I switched to the camera (camera mode?) and I had to re-make them.

[wiesshund]

I would say back up your POV's before you change them.  I don't know if it's related exactly, but my POV's got messed up if I switched to the camera (camera mode?) and I had to re-make them.

i have had no troubles

 

except

 

on pre-existing POV's that i found had adopted an error that came about long back in i think 10.7.4 beta

and the corrupt POV's went to hell after making 10.8 attempt to edit them

 

on tables with no pre-existing, i have been able to flip them around through the other POV methods without issue
and a lot of my existing too.
 

but some did kinda go fubar

[Drybonz]

There was another guy, some pages back, that was having a similar problem I did with the POVs as well.

[gamerjoe]

Anyone getting any tables locking up to where can't be close? Had to sign out of Windows in order to force close it. I couldn't get the table screen to go away as well. Task Manger hidden behind it.
 
For example. Cosmic (Taito do Brasil - 1980) v4 and Zephy (LTD - 1982) v4 will lock up on Windows 11 Home.
 
VP X85. Most of the X tables is fine.

It always happened for me with 10.8 and the Last Starfighter original table that also uses a Taito rom. I run that table using the 10.7 instead.

Anyone getting any tables locking up to where can't be close? Had to sign out of Windows in order to force close it. I couldn't get the table screen to go away as well. Task Manger hidden behind it.
 
For example. Cosmic (Taito do Brasil - 1980) v4 and Zephy (LTD - 1982) v4 will lock up on Windows 11 Home.
 
VP X85. Most of the X tables is fine.

It always happened for me with 10.8 and the Last Starfighter original table that also uses a Taito rom. I run that table using the 10.7 instead.

[naeromagus]

Here's a strange issue. When launching either Vpw CCC, or Game of thrones, directly from vpx it will work fine.
But upon launching from Pinballx or PinballY, the games will not respond to any button commands. This is with vpx_gl 1450,
I tried the 32bit version of 1450 and both games have no issue they both perform normally when used with a front-end launching

. Have no idea how they work directly launched from vpx.exe but not with pinballx , or pinballY ? I will continue to use the 32bit version for now.
Does not make sense?

[wiesshund]

32 or 64 bit pinballx?

[naeromagus]

32bit
All my .exe are 32bit. I haven't made the jump to 64bit

[lukpcn]

Maybe someone has an idea...

On my system (INTEL Core i7-11700F 16GB DDR4 RAM 2x 500GB SSD, and RTX 3080) I play at 120Hz Oled...

and In DirectX version of 10.8 beta it's stable >=120FPS

but on GL version of 10.8 is barely 50-60FPS...

what settings can be wrong ? It is said that GL should event work better if not the same as DX.

[Mrtr32]

I tested the Hawkman Taito table that crashing when exit and it is related to the NVramPatchExit sub routine.

All the Taito tables seems to have this Subroutine.

 

The line 146 look like this on the original table

146 Sub table1_exit:NVramPatchExit:Controller.stop:End Sub

 

Changing the line like this solve the crash issue

146 Sub table1_exit:Controller.stop:End Sub

 

@jpsalas

Is this subroutine is needed and why in your Taito tables? 

 

Thanks!

Edited by Mrtr32, 21 September 2023 - 08:52 PM.

[wiesshund]

I tested the Hawkman Taito table that crashing when exit and it is related to the NVramPatchExit sub routine.

All the Taito tables seems to have this Subroutine.

 

The line 146 look like this on the original table

146 Sub table1_exit:NVramPatchExit:Controller.stop:End Sub

 

Changing the line like this solve the crash issue

146 Sub table1_exit:Controller.stop:End Sub

 

@jpsalas

Is this subroutine is needed and why in your Taito tables? 

 

Thanks!

 

I can answer that

All Taito pinball controllers have a feature to resume game, minus ball in play, on power loss

 

It works fine, even in VPX

But it pisses users off because they dont understand what is going on, quit tables in mid play and then load them up again later to be in mid game.

 

You just shoot balls down the drain till game over registers and back to normal, but people are not fond of doing that.

 

What this routine does is wipe the game in play status from nvram on table exit

 

It should not normally be an issue though

[Mrtr32]

@wiesshund

 

The nvram preserve the game status?

 

It is not what we want in VPX.

 

I don`t know why clearing the game status crash the table on exit.

 

It is a random crash issue not so good.

 

It has worked without issues before?

 

I tested an old VPM 3.5 build and a lots of VPM 3.6 builds and having the same issues

 

perhaps @toxie could do something in VPM to prevent those randoms crashes?

Edited by Mrtr32, 21 September 2023 - 10:33 PM.

[wiesshund]

 

The nvram preserve the game status?

 

 

Yes, that is how Taito programmed the controller

 

 

It is not what we want in VPX.

 

 

But it is what Taito wants, they hardwired their pinball machines to work that way.
Gamestate is continually saved to nvram, and restored after a powerloss.

 

 

I don`t know why clearing the game status crash the table on exit.

 

It is a random crash issue not so good.

 

It has worked without issues before?

 

I tested an old VPM 3.5 build and a lots of VPM 3.6 builds and having the same issues

 

perhaps @toxie could do something in VPM to prevent those randoms crashes?

 

That i do not know because i cannot replicate the issue.

I have latest vpx 10.8 beta

I have latest built of VPinMAME
I have PinballX

I have Taito tables that use the nvram saved state clearing routine

But i cannot replicate the issue, not sure what the exact catalyst is beyond running the nvram clear.

Though i think controller should stop 1st, then nvram clear, since controller is the guy writing to nvram
be nice if he quit before trying to manipulate it?

[Mrtr32]

I don`t know why I`m having this issue on two different computers

dmdext-2.2.1-SNAPSHOT-r15-x86-Release is present in the two VPM folders so

On my Test computer I'm using Virtual DMD and on My cab I'm using DMDext.

If I don't use DMDext in my test computer it should not causing this issue?

 

I don't test with PinballX

I test with Visual Pinball

I double click to the table in the table folder to start the table

Hit Q two time and Visual Pinball Freeze and crash if I click the table with the mouse button.

 

In PinballX you can bypass the crash with a command line.

Edited by Mrtr32, 21 September 2023 - 11:23 PM.

[wiesshund]

i would not think DMD extensions has anything to do with it

[Mrtr32]

@wiesshund

 

Is it possible to add a pause just before the Controller.stop command in the table script?

 

I think clearing NVRAM could take some time and if the Controller.stop command is sent at the same time it could be the cause of the crash.

Edited by Mrtr32, 22 September 2023 - 12:22 AM.

[wiesshund]

@wiesshund

 

Is it possible to add a pause just before the Controller.stop command in the table script?

 

I think clearing NVRAM could take some time and if the Controller.stop command is sent at the same time it could be the cause of the crash.

Well you could try this inside the table exit sub maybe

 

sub table1_exit

dim Q

controller.stop

for Q = 1 to 15000

if q = 14999 then NVramPatchExit

next

end sub

 

that may be too long but

it should tell vpm to exit

then count off 15 seconds and at 14.9 seconds tell NVramPatchExit to run

 

Let me look at how i am employing the nvram patch in heavy metal, since i am using it in the DMD enhanced version
since it is easier for people since the dmd and rom and table need to be in sync

 

Mind you the easiest solution is, just let taito be taito
if you quit mid game, next game toss the remaining balls in the drain

or play them out for giggles, sometimes i do that too

[jpsalas]

Thanks wiesshund for the explanations about the nvrampatch in the Taito tables, the explanation is correct.

 

I simply guess you have a corrupted nvram file, so simply quit VPX, and delete the nvram file and its backup that the nvrampatch system creates. In this case will be the files hawkman.nv and hawkman.nvb

 

The routine was written by Pmax65, and he included a way to delete the nvram files; you simply start the game and then you press the start key (in the keyboard that will be the key 1) and keep it down while you press twice the insert coin key (in the keyboard that will be the key 5). Then the nvram files are deleted and the table quits. Close VPX and run the table again.

[wiesshund]

 

 

The routine was written by Pmax65, and he included a way to delete the nvram files; you simply start the game and then you press the start key (in the keyboard that will be the key 1) and keep it down while you press twice the insert coin key (in the keyboard that will be the key 5). Then the nvram files are deleted and the table quits. Close VPX and run the table again.

Make sure is NVramPatchKeyCheck is in table script (some authors dont include it)

 

heavy metal's implementation, which matches cavlier de negro

' =============================================================================================================
'                 NVram patch for Taito do Brasil tables by Pmax65
'
' NVramPatchExit	' Must be placed before the Controler.Stop statement into the Table1_Exit Sub
' NVramPatchLoad	' Must be placed before the VPinMAME controller initialization
' NVramPatchKeyCheck' Must be placed in the lamptimer timer
' =============================================================================================================

Const GameOverLampID = 149 ' set this constant to the ID number of the game-over lamp

Dim NVramPatchCoinCnt

Function GetNVramPath()
    Dim WshShell
    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    GetNVramPath = WshShell.RegRead("HKCU\Software\Freeware\Visual PinMame\globals\nvram_directory")
End function

Function FileExists(FileName)
    DIM FSO
    FileExists = False
    Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    FileExists = FSO.FileExists(FileName)
    Set FSO = Nothing
End Function

Sub Kill(FileName)
    Dim ObjFile, FSO
    On Error Resume Next
    Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set ObjFile = FSO.GetFile(FileName)
    ObjFile.Delete
    On Error Goto 0
    Set FSO = Nothing
End Sub

Sub Copy(SourceFileName, DestFileName)
    Dim FSO
    On Error Resume Next
    Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    FSO.CopyFile SourceFileName, DestFileName, True
    On Error Goto 0
    Set FSO = Nothing
End Sub

Sub NVramPatchLoad
    NVramPatchCoinCnt = 0
    If FileExists(GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nvb")Then
        Copy GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nvb", GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nv"
    Else
        Copy GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nv", GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nvb"
    End If
End Sub

Sub NVramPatchExit
    If gameover.state = 1 Then
        Kill GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nvb"
 '       Do
 '           LampTimer_Timer          ' This loop is needed to avoid the NVram reset (losing the hi-score and credits)
 '       Loop Until LampState(20) = 1 ' when the game is over but the match procedure isn't still ended
    End If
End Sub

' =============================================================================================================
' To completely erase the NVram file keep the Start Game button pushed while inserting
' two coins into the first coin slit (this resets the high scores too)
' =============================================================================================================

Sub NVramPatchKeyCheck
    If Controller.Switch(swStartButton)then
        If Controller.Switch(swCoin1)then
            If NVramPatchCoinCnt = 2 Then
                Controller.Stop
                Kill GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nv"
                Kill GetNVramPath + "\" + cGameName + ".nvb"
                QuitPlayer 2
            Else
                NVramPatchCoinCnt = 1
            End If
        Else
            If NVramPatchCoinCnt = 1 Then
                NVramPatchCoinCnt = 2
            End If
        End If
    Else
        NVramPatchCoinCnt = 0
    End If
End Sub

and

Sub GILight_Timer()




If gameover.state = 0 Then

Stuff to do

		Else
Game over stuff to do
		NVramPatchKeyCheck

End If


		
		

End Sub

stuff to do removed as it is not important

 

and table exit

' Table Exit - kill the DMD and stop the controller
Sub table1_Exit
SaveBGV
SaveLut
Controller.Games("heavymtl").Settings.Value("sound")= 1
NVramPatchExit
Controller.stop
  If Not UltraDMD is Nothing Then
    If UltraDMD.IsRendering Then
      UltraDMD.CancelRendering
    End If
UltraDMD.Uninit
    UltraDMD = NULL
    FlexDMD.Run = False
End If


End Sub

im running as i said 
PinballX latest release or maybe 1 behind

VPX latest 10.8

VPM latest

freezys r15 i think

flexDMD latest 

 

i cannot replicate the issue though

 

try what JP asks, maybe it is a bad nvram or backup, maybe has a glitch in it.

[sinizin]

On the latest 10.8 beta opengl 64bit, I'm having an issue where when the table loads it's turning off my desktops HDR. Even when I quit the table the HDR switch is set to on, but I'm getting a white-washed look. I have to switch HDR off and back on to get it right. I don't have this issue at all with the 10.8 beta non opengl 64 bit...