1630 replies to this topic

[Teahaus]

Teahaus - there's no secret mystery option you could have disabled.  The selection of which windows to offer for capture is really simple: it's just the list of open windows.  Given that you're trying to capture the backglass, I have to assume that you're also showing the backglass at all times, right?  If not, showing the backglass window before capture should be all that you need to get it back on the list.  If you already are showing the backglass window, I'm not sure why it wouldn't be in the list - the condition in the code is just "If window is visible...".

Hi MJR.......I know those options were there at one point but now they are gone.  I have backglass showing when I play the tables, which I am assuming that I've enabled the backglass option when I do the initial set-up.  I just don't have the options appearing...........maybe it is time to upgrade to the latest version.

http://vpforums.org/...7/img_95901.jpg

[mjr]

I have backglass showing when I play the tables, which I am assuming that I've enabled the backglass option when I do the initial set-up.  

 

It's not the playing that matters, it's which windows you see while browsing in PinballY.  The PinballY Backglass window has to be visible for the Capture Backglass options to be listed.  You're absolutely sure that the PinballY Backglass window is on-screen when you start the capture?

 

Just to be clear, it's the window that appears when you do this:

 

- Right-click in the main PinballY playfield window

- Select Show Backglass from the context menu

 

 

maybe it is time to upgrade to the latest version.

 

Worth a try, but I doubt it's going to change this particular thing - nothing related to capture has changed since Beta 14.

Edited by mjr, 01 December 2019 - 01:17 AM.

[Teahaus]

Hi again......ok.  Solved the issue!  Sorry, I didn't realize that I didn't have the backglass window enabled.  I did what you suggested and voila, all my tables have the backglass capture option.  Thanks for the help and better yet, thanks for the great front-end!!

[mjr]

Hi again......ok.  Solved the issue!  Sorry, I didn't realize that I didn't have the backglass window enabled.  I did what you suggested and voila, all my tables have the backglass capture option.  Thanks for the help and better yet, thanks for the great front-end!!

 

Great!  Glad that did the trick.

[Teahaus]

Well, I thought I had this figured out last night.  It worked for some tables (the backglass capture) but am still getting a lot of blank BG's when scrolling through the tables after configuring them.  Here's what I'm doing to set-up/configure a table. I probably should mention that I have a 2-screen mini-cab, using a virtual DMD via freezy on the backglass monitor.

• Scroll to a non configured table (backglass is the PBY default). 
• Press 0 on my keyboard.  Menu comes up, press GAME SETUP. 
• Another menu comes up, I press EDIT GAME DETAILS. Fill out the form that pops up.  Should I be selecting anything on the bottom of this dialogue - it let's me check-mark BG/DMD/TOPPER/INSTRUCTION CARD?  I'm leaving it as is.  Click OK.
• Back to PF view, BG is still the PBY default.  Press 0 again to bring up the EDIT GAME DETAILS. 
• Scroll down the menu to CAPTURE IMAGES & VIDEOS.  Press enter and the PROCEED menu comes up. 
• Press ENTER and all the capture options are available.  I have playfield image set to capture.  Playfield video set to skip.  Table audio set to skip.  Backglass image set to capture.  Backglass video set to skip.  Adjust start/delay set to 20 seconds.  Begin the capture. 
• It goes through the capture sequence and tells me the PF and BG have been successfully captured but while the PF is fine, the BG is black.  When I right-click on the BG monitor and click on hide backglass, the windows background appears.
• When I attempt the capture routine after right-clicking the backglass monitor and hiding the PBY backglass, I only see options for the PF capture. (I presume since I've hidden the PBY backglass).

The problem I'm having is the B2S image is only showing up when the BG monitor is showing the windows background.  When I have the PBY backglass showing, I only get a black screen during gameplay. Sorry for the long-winded explanation but I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.  Once caveat is that certain tables show a BG image when scrolling through the games and start up normally.  Not sure how I accomplished that since I thought I was using the same procedure with each table.  Any help or advice is appreciated.

Edited by Teahaus, 01 December 2019 - 05:02 PM.

[blur]

I'm a little unclear on exactly which windows are problematic here.  Is it the PinballY backglass window that's stuck in front, or the B2S backglass window that's stuck in front?  In other words, is it:

 

Depends on db2s settings - db2s has option bring bg to front.

If I select that then db2s is in front of dmd which is in front of pinbally black backglass screen.

If i don't select that then dmd is in front then pinbally black screen and then b2s which is invisible until alt-tab.

Either case is not good.

 

My dmd is plain floating vpinmame dmd - i don't have pinbally dmd window open - can i put vpinmame dmd inside pinbally dmd and set position in each game? Will pinbally then keep it on top? BUT i have to be able to set position for each game - cause every grill is different...

 

I will try this javascript option or freezy

 

BTW i have suggestion for name 4u - instead of pinbally which sounds like just another pinballx - use ypinball which is again just another pinbally but also raises eternal philosophical question - why

 

Tnx guys for quick answers and lots of ideas!

[mjr]

Depends on db2s settings - db2s has option bring bg to front.

If I select that then db2s is in front of dmd which is in front of pinbally black backglass screen.

If i don't select that then dmd is in front then pinbally black screen and then b2s which is invisible until alt-tab.

 

Okay, I think I see - basically the three programs (B2S, VPM, PinballY) fighting over who's in front, back, and middle.  I think the Javascript approach I pointed you to should do the trick, then.  What you want is to force the PinballY window to the back of the stack and let the other two programs do what they were going to do - they're doing what they're doing on the assumption that they're the only two things on the screen, so getting the PinballY window to the back of the stack should fix it.  You can also modify the Javascript slightly to minimize or hide the PinballY backglass window if the force-to-background approach doesn't do it, but I think it probably will work, and it should make for smoother transitions because it'll avoid additional window frame animation.

[Teahaus]

Hi MJR.......thanks for your advice in this thread.  I really really think I've figured my issue out now; B2STableSettings.xml needs to have the following line added near the top: <FormToFront>1</FormToFront>.  This brings the B2S BG to the top and let's me capture the BG within PBY.  I thought I would leave this here in case anyone down the line runs into the same issue.......

[blur]

Yup - putting it into background with HWND.BOTTOM works but, it has side effect - backglass is not full sceen any more - so when I close the game I have backglass with title and taskbar on top of it.

 

I tried to minimize it but didn't find good way to do it - first I tried adding SWP_HIDEWINDOW to options of setWindowPos and removing other options but it didn't work.

Then i tried using backglassWindow.CloseWindow(); to minimize it but it also didn't work, Probably I'm using it wrong.

 

Then I tried finding vpinmame window by it's class name and putting it in front (which is my preferred solution together with bring bg frame to front in b2s) - also didn't work:

mameDmdWindow = findWindowEx( 0, 0, "MAME", 0 );

mameDmdWindow.setWindowPos(HWND.TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOACTIVATE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOOWNERZORDER);

or

mameDmdWindow.bringWindowToTop();

 

It reports findWIndow is not defined, i tried findwindow, findWindowEx findWindowA findWindowEx A:

ReferenceError: 'findWindowA' is not defined

 

[mjr]

blur - it sounds like you're taking a bunch of stabs in the dark here, but just FYI, there's no need to guess!  There's extensive documentation:

 

* The Javscript scripting section in the help is the umbrella section everything's organized under

 

* For places where you want to call Windows system APIs (such as FindWindow), see Javascript scripting > Calling Native DLLs from Javascript

 

* For operations on windows (the small "w" kind) in general, see Javascript scripting > Window Objects, and Javascript scripting > Window Objects > backglassWindow for the backglass window in particular.  Under Window objects, you'll find that you can minimize a window like this:

backglassWindow.setWindowState("min")

With that information, you might try the "minimize" approach again and see if that works.  But really, the send-to-background approach should have worked in the first place - PinballY should have automatically reinstated the window when the game exited.  When you say it's no longer full-screen, do you mean it moved/changed size, or something else?

 

[edit] Hang on, reading the documentation, I see that <windowObject>.setWindowPos() says: "First, if the window is currently in full-screen mode, it's switched to normal windowed mode."  So there's why it's coming out of full-screen mode.  So you just have to set it back after the game exits.  Perhaps this (untested):

let backglassWasFullScreen = false;
mainWindow.on("gamestarted", ev => {
    if (backglassWindow.hwndFrame.isVisible()) {
        backglassWasFullScreen = backglassWindow.fullScreenMode;
        backglassWindow.setWindowPos(HWND.BOTTOM, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOACTIVATE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOOWNERZORDER);
    }
});

mainWindow.on("gameover", ev => {
    if (backglassWasFullScreen)
        backglassWindow.fullScreenMode = true;
});

Hi MJR.......thanks for your advice in this thread.  I really really think I've figured my issue out now; B2STableSettings.xml needs to have the following line added near the top: <FormToFront>1</FormToFront>.  This brings the B2S BG to the top and let's me capture the BG within PBY.  I thought I would leave this here in case anyone down the line runs into the same issue.......

 

Great, glad you found a solution!  Sounds like you ran into the same thing as blur, in a slightly different form.  This sounds like a good thing to add to the troubleshooting section.  Or maybe PinballY should just start sending the BG to the background by itself, given that B2S seems to be intentionally bringing itself up in back by default (which B2S is undoubtedly doing as a by-design workaround for the VPM DMD window layering issue that blur has).

Edited by mjr, 02 December 2019 - 06:51 PM.

[blur]

Tnx m8, i was digging through documentation, but documentation is huge

Fixed it finally. After playing with different commands and loading stages I used this:

 

mainWindow.on("runbefore", ev => {
    backglassWindow.showWindow(false);
});


mainWindow.on("runafter", ev => {
    backglassWindow.showWindow(true);
});

If I hide it too early taskbar appears on screen which is not good.

Also show window command doesn't cancel full screen first like minimize (set window state min).

 

Tnx a lot! PinballY is great!

 

This solution needs "bring bg form to front" - off on b2s on dmd tables.

Will check later how can i find handle on dmd window and bring it to front.

Then b2s option bring to front can stay.

BTW Teahaus you have that same option on right click on b2s backglass.

 

There is one nice side effect of having backglass hidden during loading - speeds up launching of the game. Option to limit frames in pinballY also helps.

I use to have table loading times of one minute in pinballY - outside - 5 seconds. Cause all cpus were on 100%.

Edited by blur, 02 December 2019 - 09:23 PM.

[Thalamus]

I thought I should just make you guys aware that db2sserver v1.3.0.4 that is default with all-in-one installer has some changes that might help out here.

https://www.nailbust...d=install_guide

 

Something to be aware of at least. People that install pby will most likely have different default behavior for a long time to come.

[Teahaus]

I used MJR's little javascript file to solve my backglass/capture issues combined with the adding of the formtofront line in the B2Ssettings.xml.  It all works smoothly now.......

blur - it sounds like you're taking a bunch of stabs in the dark here, but just FYI, there's no need to guess!  There's extensive documentation:

 

* The Javscript scripting section in the help is the umbrella section everything's organized under

 

* For places where you want to call Windows system APIs (such as FindWindow), see Javascript scripting > Calling Native DLLs from Javascript

 

* For operations on windows (the small "w" kind) in general, see Javascript scripting > Window Objects, and Javascript scripting > Window Objects > backglassWindow for the backglass window in particular.  Under Window objects, you'll find that you can minimize a window like this:

backglassWindow.setWindowState("min")

With that information, you might try the "minimize" approach again and see if that works.  But really, the send-to-background approach should have worked in the first place - PinballY should have automatically reinstated the window when the game exited.  When you say it's no longer full-screen, do you mean it moved/changed size, or something else?

 

[edit] Hang on, reading the documentation, I see that <windowObject>.setWindowPos() says: "First, if the window is currently in full-screen mode, it's switched to normal windowed mode."  So there's why it's coming out of full-screen mode.  So you just have to set it back after the game exits.  Perhaps this (untested):

let backglassWasFullScreen = false;
mainWindow.on("gamestarted", ev => {
    if (backglassWindow.hwndFrame.isVisible()) {
        backglassWasFullScreen = backglassWindow.fullScreenMode;
        backglassWindow.setWindowPos(HWND.BOTTOM, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOACTIVATE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOOWNERZORDER);
    }
});

mainWindow.on("gameover", ev => {
    if (backglassWasFullScreen)
        backglassWindow.fullScreenMode = true;
});

Hi MJR.......thanks for your advice in this thread.  I really really think I've figured my issue out now; B2STableSettings.xml needs to have the following line added near the top: <FormToFront>1</FormToFront>.  This brings the B2S BG to the top and let's me capture the BG within PBY.  I thought I would leave this here in case anyone down the line runs into the same issue.......

 

Great, glad you found a solution!  Sounds like you ran into the same thing as blur, in a slightly different form.  This sounds like a good thing to add to the troubleshooting section.  Or maybe PinballY should just start sending the BG to the background by itself, given that B2S seems to be intentionally bringing itself up in back by default (which B2S is undoubtedly doing as a by-design workaround for the VPM DMD window layering issue that blur has).

 

Maybe it would be beneficial to add that script file during the install of PBY............

[RastaMan007]

Awesome work!  As of tonight, I will be switching over to PinballY on my pin!

 

Thank you!

[Teahaus]

Quick question.......If I upgrade to the latest beta, will I lose all my table settings that I currently have from the Beta 14 version which I'm using now?  Is there a file that I shouldn't over-write?  Is the upgrade like visual pinball, just drag the new files to the PBY folder and let them over-write the existing files?  

[Thalamus]

Yes. No issues here after upgrade from 14 to 16. Go ahead. My regular schedule though is to take backup before.

Edited by Thalamus, 05 December 2019 - 04:58 PM.

[Teahaus]

Yes. No issues here after upgrade from 14 to 16. Go ahead. My regular schedule though is to take backup before.

Thanks Thalamus......good to know! Yes, a good habit is to back-up anything before an update........looks like the newest beta has a bunch of stuff that will make PBY even better!!

[Onevox]

Is there an efficient way to set up PinballY with like 10-15 games that are in my tables folder, without having to go through the process of hiding the other 360 games in my tables folder? I've been wanting to try it and I'm having a work get together at my place and want to limit people to a manageable number of games in the front end. I guess I'm looking for something like a list of games and an "active, hidden" checkbox sort of thing. Thanks.

[mjr]

Is there an efficient way to set up PinballY with like 10-15 games that are in my tables folder, without having to go through the process of hiding the other 360 games in my tables folder? I've been wanting to try it and I'm having a work get together at my place and want to limit people to a manageable number of games in the front end. I guess I'm looking for something like a list of games and an "active, hidden" checkbox sort of thing. Thanks.

 

First question: are you talking about 360 games that you've configured?  I.e., set up with metadata and media?  Or just 360 .VPX files that you haven't set up with metadata yet?  

If it's the latter (tons of unconfigured .VPX files that you don't want to see in the wheel UI), try Settings -> Game Wheel -> "Hide unconfigured games in the main game list".

 

If it's the former (tons of configured games that you want to limit to a small subset), I'd recommend a custom filter.  I get the impression that you want to hand-pick the subset, in which case I'd probably use a custom tag:

 

* To create a new custom tag, press "0" (digit zero = Operator menu) -> Select Categories -> Edit category names -> New -> type the new category name (sorry, you need to get out the keyboard for this part!) then click OK and close out of the dialog

 

* Once you've created the tag, add it to each game that you want to associate with the tag via "0" (digit zero) -> Select Categories -> Edit category names -> then check-mark the tag in the list, and select Save

 

* To filter for the tag, "1" (digit one = main menu) -> Filter by category -> select the category

 

* If you want to lock down your cab somewhat more than usual, to prevent your nosy co-workers from messing with your setup, take a look at the Kiosk Mode example in the Javascript > Worked Examples section in the help

Edited by mjr, 07 December 2019 - 12:59 AM.

[Onevox]

Turns out my games were all configured, so went with category. Once you get a rhythm going, it's super easy. 

 

thanks for all the info. 

Edited by Onevox, 07 December 2019 - 12:40 PM.