1622 replies to this topic

[DJRobX]

 

If it does end up causing you any grief to rename it, or you just don't want to take any chances, you can rename it back and tell PinballY to ignore it.  Open up the options, go to Real DMD, and select OFF instead of AUTO.  AUTO mode means that the DLL is used if present, ignored if not.  It was *supposed* to make this all nice and automatic - the idea was only people with real DMDs would have the DLL. 

 

 

No, this DLL is recommended for all cabinet users, not just ones with real DMDs.    It provides much nicer hardware accelerated output than VPM itself can provide on LCD displays, and the full version of it is also used for ROM colorizations.    It is included with the official VPX All-in-one installer, so most VPX installs have it present.

 

Since it provides a virtual display, you should easily be able to test its various output modes even if you don't have real DMD hardware.
 

[toxie]

btw @djrobx: you think you could try to get a new dmdext build with colorization disabled so that we have a recent build in the all in one installer?

[Brer Frog]

Alpha 6 is now available.

 

There's a new media file viewer that should be helpful for troubleshooting media file installation, especially when the program is just refusing to see your files and it's not clear why.  Operator Menu > Game Setup > Show Media Files brings up a list of all of the folder locations where the system is searching for media for the current game, the file name template it's searching for, and all matching files.  You can also directly delete files from this list, and for anything more complex that you need to do (such as move or rename files, or see everything in a folder), a couple of button clicks will open a Windows Explorer desktop window on any folder in the list.  Hopefully this will add some transparency to the media file handling without making the UI seem too "technical".  It's in the Operator Menu, so it won't be something that civilians using your cab will have to see while just playing.

 

Also...

 

- the Table Audio media type is now included

 

- all dialog positions are saved across sessions, so those of use with rotated playfield monitors won't have to move dialogs every time they open

 

- the taskbar should always get un-hidden now, even if the program crashes at an inopportune time

 

- you can turn off the splash screen at startup if you don't want to keep seeing it

 

If I unzip the new version inside the existing PinballY folder I presume some folders & files will be over-written. What happens to the existing data such as the Media folder? Will running the new version use this data or will it create a new Media folder, etc.?

 

Regarding Media - have you had an opportunity to look at the information I posted (message 68) and why my images do not show up?

 

Thanks

[Joppnl]

Hi Mike,

 

first of all, thank you for your hard work in building PBY, the updates and answering all the questions... (and yes..I found the PinVol easter egg    ) 

 

Now, I did do some tests with V6 and ..well...there is some good news....(that was the positive note).

 

So...as I can not say directly, this and this is not going well I will tell you in detail what I did and what I see, may-be you can get a conclusion from that:

 

1st :  I deleted all the contend in the D:\pinbally directory to have a fresh start. 

Unzipped all the Alfa V6 / 64  to this dir and started PBY

Put all screens on it's place

 

Now, 1st I see is a very strange set of tables, some I recognize, some I don't and most of them missing all media.

 

When I check the box 'Unhide games....' in the Game Wheel menu make disappear the strange tables and only the VP9 tables remain. No clue however where the strange and unwanted tables come from though.

 

Now, only VP9 tables are visable, together with all media and (...!!) table sound! 

 

But, no pin two-you-know dmd.     When I enable it for sure in the options menu it gives an error that it can not find dmddevice.dll and that it should be in the \pinbally folder.

 

Did that but same result, no real display.

 

For the next story I fully disable the real dmd to see if I have on-screen dmd.

 

Enabeling the software on-screen dmd gives me a 'PinballY' display but it does not display the attracht mode display files.  Just like the table sounds the display sounds are linked to each table to show up during the use of PBX. Same story as the table sounds.

 

Starting a table with a DMD display does blank the on-sreen DMD (so it's a black rectangle) but no display on the virtual DMD.

 

Also: the topper which was displaying a video during PBY stopped working (black screen) when starting a table.

 

When I exit the VP9 table the topper comes back as well as  'PinballY' on the virtual DMD.

 

Now....that was the VP9 part.

 

Now the VPX part:

 

No VPX tables are being shown by default. That is strange because the information is there.

 

First I made use of the new file pointing addition you made pointing the media and database folder : 

 

Now....In these folders there are (a lot) of subfolders but also the subfolder called Visual Pinball (for the VP9 tables) and PinballX for that kind of tables.

 

Looked at any changed but...still no VPX tables.

 

Then I manually filled in the media and database folder into the 'systems' tab:

 

The Media folder is pointing to D:\program files\Visual Pinball\PinballX\Media\VPX  and the same but ...\Databases\VPX for that.

 

Now....That gives me my VPX tables, including wheels, including table sounds and also Launch sounds when (trying to) startin a table. (but also, no virtual display).

 

But....starting a VPX table won't work :

 

 

If I make a wild guess: I do think a lot of the mentioned problems refer to 1 thing: not being able to locate the VPX directory.

 

You see it when running PBY initially : no VPX tables being displayed.   You see it in the DMD movies/images: not displayed on the virtual dmd) and when starting a table: it can not find the specific table.

 

And then there is the Pin2-you-know error which is pretty strange as I did copy dmddevice.dll into the \pinbally root but we can adres that later.

 

Now...that's it for me for V6 so far....again, thank you for your hard work :-) !

[Brer Frog]

 

 

The Media folder is pointing to D:\program files\Visual Pinball\PinballX\Media\VPX  and the same but ...\Databases\VPX for that.

 

Now....That gives me my VPX tables, including wheels, including table sounds and also Launch sounds when (trying to) startin a table. (but also, no virtual display).

 

But....starting a VPX table won't work :

 

 

If I make a wild guess: I do think a lot of the mentioned problems refer to 1 thing: not being able to locate the VPX directory.

 

You see it when running PBY initially : no VPX tables being displayed.   You see it in the DMD movies/images: not displayed on the virtual dmd) and when starting a table: it can not find the specific table.

 

And then there is the Pin2-you-know error which is pretty strange as I did copy dmddevice.dll into the \pinbally root but we can adres that later.

 

Now...that's it for me for V6 so far....again, thank you for your hard work :-) !

 

I'm no expert at this, but several people, including myself, had problems when placing the Visual Pinball folder inside the Program Files folder. VP kept asking for permission.

 

It was suggested that VP should be located in the root directory such as  D:\Visual Pinball.

 

I'm just mentioning that & hopefully mjr will comment on it.

[dopdahl]

Program Files and Program Files (x86) are protected directories.  Even if your logon is part of the Administrators group, UAC will still prompt you for access to that directory.

 

It's a bad idea to put files in those directories.

 

I should note that D:\Program Files (unless you have monkeyed with Windows registry settings...) in the post above, isn't the same as C:\Program Files....

Edited by dopdahl, 08 August 2018 - 05:27 PM.

[hlr53]

Also TO DO

 

System6 Zen FX3

 

MJR may not own any tables? I/We can help

 

:-)

Edited by hlr53, 08 August 2018 - 06:16 PM.

[mjr]

 

 

If it does end up causing you any grief to rename it, or you just don't want to take any chances, you can rename it back and tell PinballY to ignore it.  Open up the options, go to Real DMD, and select OFF instead of AUTO.  AUTO mode means that the DLL is used if present, ignored if not.  It was *supposed* to make this all nice and automatic - the idea was only people with real DMDs would have the DLL. 

 

 

No, this DLL is recommended for all cabinet users, not just ones with real DMDs.    It provides much nicer hardware accelerated output than VPM itself can provide on LCD displays, and the full version of it is also used for ROM colorizations.    It is included with the official VPX All-in-one installer, so most VPX installs have it present.

 

Okay then...

 

So, I take it you know which DLL this is, then?  If it's something open-source, a pointer to the source would be helpful - I'd like to take a look and see why it's reportedly so crashy with PBY. 

 

And if it's open-source, I'd propose adding an entrypoint that queries the physical device type it detects/is configured for (presumably it's doing something along those lines if it works for all cab users) so that programs like PinballY that don't want it involved when it's only going to do a simulated video display can suppress it.  That would restore the automatic configuration I was shooting for.

[mjr]

If I unzip the new version inside the existing PinballY folder I presume some folders & files will be over-written. What happens to the existing data such as the Media folder? Will running the new version use this data or will it create a new Media folder, etc.?

 

The ZIP and Setup don't contain any instances of the Media or Database folders, so you can safely update to a new version without losing any of those files.  It doesn't even overwrite your Settings.txt file.

 

 

Regarding Media - have you had an opportunity to look at the information I posted (message 68) and why my images do not show up?

 

Please try the new "View Media Files" command - I added that specifically to troubleshoot problems like this.  That'll tell you exactly which files PinballY is trying to find, which hopefully will explain why it's not finding them.

 

 

 

Now, 1st I see is a very strange set of tables, some I recognize, some I don't and most of them missing all media.

 

Hopefully this will explain that part for you.  If you think it's something else, let me know:

 

http://mjrnet.org/pi...#unconfigTables

 

 

 

But, no pin two-you-know dmd.     When I enable it for sure in the options menu it gives an error that it can not find dmddevice.dll and that it should be in the \pinbally folder.

 

Right, I haven't fixed that, and I'm afraid I will continue to be unable to fix it because I don't have one of the devices in question to test with. 

 

Is there anyone out there who has one of these devices who can look at it in the debugger?

 

 

 

But....starting a VPX table won't work :

 

That error is coming from VP, so it's evidently launching VP successfully.  Does that path and filename look right to you, and does it actually refer to a file?  Please check it carefully - it has a lot of punctuation marks, so maybe there's a "(" out of place or something.  Remember that this is a computer so everything has to be EXACT.

[mjr]

Also TO DO

 

System6 Zen FX3

 

MJR may not own any tables? I/We can help

 

Indeed, I don't have any of those to test with.  If anyone wants to work out the right settings for those, I'd be happy to add them to the default set.

[DJRobX]

 

 
If it does end up causing you any grief to rename it, or you just don't want to take any chances, you can rename it back and tell PinballY to ignore it.  Open up the options, go to Real DMD, and select OFF instead of AUTO.  AUTO mode means that the DLL is used if present, ignored if not.  It was *supposed* to make this all nice and automatic - the idea was only people with real DMDs would have the DLL. 
 

 
No, this DLL is recommended for all cabinet users, not just ones with real DMDs.    It provides much nicer hardware accelerated output than VPM itself can provide on LCD displays, and the full version of it is also used for ROM colorizations.    It is included with the official VPX All-in-one installer, so most VPX installs have it present.

 
Okay then...
 
So, I take it you know which DLL this is, then?  If it's something open-source, a pointer to the source would be helpful - I'd like to take a look and see why it's reportedly so crashy with PBY. 
 
And if it's open-source, I'd propose adding an entrypoint that queries the physical device type it detects/is configured for (presumably it's doing something along those lines if it works for all cab users) so that programs like PinballY that don't want it involved when it's only going to do a simulated video display can suppress it.  That would restore the automatic configuration I was shooting for.

Yep, it is open source. You can find the code here:

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

You can read dmddevice.ini if you want to query if it is being used on a virtual display.

[mjr]

Yep, it is open source. You can find the code here:

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

You can read dmddevice.ini if you want to query if it is being used on a virtual display.

 

Perfect - thanks.  I'll take a look.

[hlr53]

OK MJR, need further guidance,

 

I installed the DirectX SDK successfully (after deleting the 9 previous VC++ distributions), added the GitHub extension to VS 2017 Community, created a Fork to PinballY, and sucessfully cloned your repository and have all the source up in Team Explorer.

 

How do I build it? Do I use CMake | Build All

 

I ran it:

 

>------ Build started: Project: CMakeLists, Configuration: RelWithDebInfo ------

,.

.

.

Just posting line [37/37]

 

[37/37] cmd.exe /C "cd . && "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\CMake\CMake\bin\cmake.exe" -E vs_link_exe --intdir=CMakeFiles\example.dir --manifests  -- "C:\PROGRA~2\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.14.26428\bin\Hostx86\x86\link.exe" /nologo CMakeFiles\example.dir\test\example.obj  /out:example.exe /implib:example.lib /pdb:example.pdb /version:0.0  /machine:X86 /debug /INCREMENTAL /subsystem:console  zlib.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib uuid.lib comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib && cd ."

 

Build succeeded.

 

This look right? All the time for today :-(

[Brer Frog]

 

If I unzip the new version inside the existing PinballY folder I presume some folders & files will be over-written. What happens to the existing data such as the Media folder? Will running the new version use this data or will it create a new Media folder, etc.?

 

The ZIP and Setup don't contain any instances of the Media or Database folders, so you can safely update to a new version without losing any of those files.  It doesn't even overwrite your Settings.txt file.

 

 

Regarding Media - have you had an opportunity to look at the information I posted (message 68) and why my images do not show up?

 

Please try the new "View Media Files" command - I added that specifically to troubleshoot problems like this.  That'll tell you exactly which files PinballY is trying to find, which hopefully will explain why it's not finding them.

 

 

 

Now, 1st I see is a very strange set of tables, some I recognize, some I don't and most of them missing all media.

 

Hopefully this will explain that part for you.  If you think it's something else, let me know:

 

http://mjrnet.org/pi...#unconfigTables

 

 

 

But, no pin two-you-know dmd.     When I enable it for sure in the options menu it gives an error that it can not find dmddevice.dll and that it should be in the \pinbally folder.

 

Right, I haven't fixed that, and I'm afraid I will continue to be unable to fix it because I don't have one of the devices in question to test with. 

 

Is there anyone out there who has one of these devices who can look at it in the debugger?

 

 

 

But....starting a VPX table won't work :

 

That error is coming from VP, so it's evidently launching VP successfully.  Does that path and filename look right to you, and does it actually refer to a file?  Please check it carefully - it has a lot of punctuation marks, so maybe there's a "(" out of place or something.  Remember that this is a computer so everything has to be EXACT.

 

 

I installed vers A6 and ran it but still no images.

Went into the Options > Folders screen and changed from Auto to "Use PinballY Media folder", but made no difference.

Changed to "Use a different folder" & browsed to select the folder, but still no images.
Please see screen print of the folder.

Then went to Systems > (3) Visual Pinball X
The Media folder and Database folder boxes were empty.
If I enter anything in those fields, such as Pinball Media or just Media as shown in the other screenshot, the "Wheel" does not pickup on of the games that I did setup.

What the heck am I doing wrong?
 PinballY Options_1.jpg   67.98KB   3 downloads     PinballY Options_2.jpg   78.54KB   2 downloads

[STV]

Success report alpha 6 unzipped the minimal install and just copied everything over.   Fired up no problems, no unexpected changes. Worked fine. 

[Brer Frog]

I've been trying different filepaths but to no avail. I thought I returned everything back to original settings. But now the Wheel shows only 8 names which includes the 5 that I entered game setup information plus AutoSave0, AutoSave1, & AutoSave 2. Those last 3 are in my Visual Pinball folder and do have a .vpx extension.

 

I do not have "Hide unconfigured games in the main list" checked.

 

Why is it only showing the 5 configured games?

Why is it picking up the AutoSave filenames?

 

I upzipped the new update again hoping that would reset things but no luck.

 

How do I reset the default filepaths without deleting any game data that is already there?

[Brer Frog]

I'm making some progress in one area.

 

I renamed "Settings.txt", hoping it would be recreated. I then unzipped the new A6 updated version - again. Then ran PinballY and miracle of miracles I now get all the images!! FWIW "Settings.txt" was re-created.

 

But the Wheel now only shows 6 tables, the 5 that I setup plus "Nudge Test and Cakibration". I have over 100 table so don't know why they are not showing up because I do not have "Hide unconfigured games in the main list" checked.

[mjr]

 

Yep, it is open source. You can find the code here:

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

You can read dmddevice.ini if you want to query if it is being used on a virtual display.

 

Perfect - thanks.  I'll take a look.

 

Okay, took a look, found the source of the crash.  It's a bug in the dmd-ext implementation.  I put in a pull request with freezy with the fix.  I also managed to find a workaround in the meantime, although it gives up the game context sensitivity.  That'll be in the next update (a future alpha 7, emphasis on "future" - don't go looking for it yet).

I installed the DirectX SDK successfully (after deleting the 9 previous VC++ distributions), added the GitHub extension to VS 2017 Community, created a Fork to PinballY, and sucessfully cloned your repository and have all the source up in Team Explorer.

 

How do I build it? Do I use CMake | Build All

 

Just use the built-in Visual Studio build commands:  on the VS menu, Build > Build Solution.  Select the configuration you want to build first (Debug | x86, perhaps) in the drop lists in the main toolbar.

 

(It's not configured for CMake - that's a different tool entirely.  I have no idea what CMake thought it was doing when it reported "build successful"; maybe a default empty build or something.  You can check if it actually did anything by looking in the Debug folder under the main project folder to see if it created any executables.  Maybe they have it set up so that CMake invokes MSBuild by default and builds the solution, but I doubt it.  That was probably something else entirely.)

[Brer Frog]

I'm back to trial & error testing. Under Options I toggled "Hide unconfigured games in the main list" on & off, but the Wheel still only displays the 6 names.

 

I went into the Operator Menu and clicked on "Show unconfigured games". But that makes the Wheel show only one title - "Nudge Test and Cakibration". No tables display at all.

 

Now I lost the images after going back & forth with these settings.

 

I deleted "Settings.txt" and un-zipped the A6 update again and this brought back the images. But the Wheel still shows only 6 titles.

 

Any suggestions on how to get PinballY to show all 100+ tables like it used to would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Brer Frog]

If I use the Options > Table folder file path as shown in the photo #1, all 123 tables show up in the Wheel, however there are no images. It also works using just “Tables - VPX”. And the tables will play properly.

It also works with all 3 Options > Folder selections. Photo #2 shows what I used when I browsed to use a different folder. But again no images.
 PinballY Options_1.jpg   78.4KB   5 downloads     PinballY Options_2.jpg   68.04KB   5 downloads

 

If I delete the “settings.txt” file & run PinballY it will re-create the file. The Wheel will display the 5 tables that I have setup plus "Nudge Test and Cakibration", and all the images will display. However this also changes the Options > Table folder file path back to the default “Tables” as shown in photo 3. When trying to play a table it displays an error message as shown in photo 4.

 PinballY Options_3.jpg   78.05KB   5 downloads     PinballY Options_4.jpg   25.57KB   5 downloads

 

It seems these file paths are working against each other. Any help would be appreciated while I still have hair on my head.

 

Thanks