165 replies to this topic

[boslaw]

Hi MJR - I talked to Zeb about mapping his joystick buttons in VP. Turns out I was doing it wrong in VP (you have to use a drop down for joystick buttons in VP). Now the buttons are working fine in VP to control volume but I still can't get them to map in PinVol. Any ideas to try? I think all axes are enabled in his plunger control panel.

[Thalamus]

@boslaw : I'm curious why would you use the same buttons in both programs ? For me that just doesn't make any sense. Or am I misunderstanding something ?

[boslaw]

@Thalamus - I'm not mapping to both programs. mjr asked me to try mapping in VP since VP uses the same DirectInput technology as PinVol. I was able to map the buttons in VP but not in PinVol.

[Thalamus]

Ah. I c

[mjr]

Hi MJR - I talked to Zeb about mapping his joystick buttons in VP. Turns out I was doing it wrong in VP (you have to use a drop down for joystick buttons in VP). Now the buttons are working fine in VP to control volume but I still can't get them to map in PinVol. Any ideas to try? I think all axes are enabled in his plunger control panel.

 

Okay, so DirectInput must be seeing it.  Let's take a look at the log file and see what PinVol thinks it's seeing in terms of joysticks - there should be a file called PinVol.log in your install folder.  It adds to the log each time you run, so you'll want to scroll down to the bottom to find the most recent session information.  Right after "PinVol starting up at ..." there should be a list of joystick devices discovered.  Is there anything listed there?

[boslaw]

A few days ago I had this:

PinVol starting up at 8/25/2018 9:21:45 PM

Joystick devices discovered:

   #1 All The Things (32 buttons)

Hotkeys assigned:

  Global volume up: Ctrl+Up

  Global volume down: Ctrl+Down

  Night mode toggle:  Ctrl+F12

  Mute toggle: Ctrl+F11

  Table volume up: Ctrl+NumPad8

  Table volume down: Ctrl+NumPad2

  Table volume up 2nd device: None

  Table volume down 2nd device: None

Exiting at 8/25/2018 10:29:58 PM

 

Today I have this:

======================================================================

PinVol starting up at 8/28/2018 8:32:24 PM

Joystick devices discovered: None

Hotkeys assigned:

  Global volume up: Ctrl+Up

  Global volume down: Ctrl+Down

  Night mode toggle:  Ctrl+F12

  Mute toggle: Ctrl+F11

  Table volume up: Ctrl+NumPad8

  Table volume down: Ctrl+NumPad2

  Table volume up 2nd device: None

  Table volume down 2nd device: None

 

None of my equipment has changed though. The zebs plunger that has the joystick buttons is the same plunger interface that controls the key inputs for my various VP keys (start game, escape, left/right flipper) so I know the computer and VP are seeing it.

[mjr]

A few days ago I had this:

PinVol starting up at 8/25/2018 9:21:45 PM

Joystick devices discovered:

   #1 All The Things (32 buttons)

 

Today I have this:

======================================================================

PinVol starting up at 8/28/2018 8:32:24 PM

Joystick devices discovered: None

 

None of my equipment has changed though. The zebs plunger that has the joystick buttons is the same plunger interface that controls the key inputs for my various VP keys (start game, escape, left/right flipper) so I know the computer and VP are seeing it.

 

Huh.  Have you changed anything in your software config?  Maybe there's another program running that's grabbing the joystick in exclusive mode (which would prevent PinVol from being able to access it).

[boslaw]

 

A few days ago I had this:

PinVol starting up at 8/25/2018 9:21:45 PM

Joystick devices discovered:

   #1 All The Things (32 buttons)

 

Today I have this:

======================================================================

PinVol starting up at 8/28/2018 8:32:24 PM

Joystick devices discovered: None

 

None of my equipment has changed though. The zebs plunger that has the joystick buttons is the same plunger interface that controls the key inputs for my various VP keys (start game, escape, left/right flipper) so I know the computer and VP are seeing it.

 

Huh.  Have you changed anything in your software config?  Maybe there's another program running that's grabbing the joystick in exclusive mode (which would prevent PinVol from being able to access it).

 

I haven't changed anything on the software side between those two log entries. I did add a teensy over the weekend for playfield led strips, but the joystick buttons were not recognized by PinVol either before or after I added the teensy and the teensy was added so even if PinVol saw the teensy as a joystick, it should have added that entry to the log (not removed it). 

 

I'm going to download and try a shareware program called "joytokey" to see if that makes any difference (mapping the joystick buttons to other windows key combos). Not sure what else to do. I don't know what PinVol was seeing as "All The Things" joystick. 

 

Just for completeness, I have installed a Zeb's Plunger (v1) which controls my VP buttons (flippers, etc), Zebs Virtual Output Kit (LedWiz version) that controls my toys, and Zebs Bare Bones Booster board for extra toy inputs. I also have a teensy for playfield LEDs.

 

On the software side, I'm running Win7 and VPX latest all in one installer + PinballX. Last night I started installing PinUp because my playfield LEDs were not recognized by PinballX. 

 

Thanks

[boslaw]

update - I downloaded and install joy2key (shareware) and I'm able to map the joystick buttons to left alt+any other key, and pinvol recognizes the button presses, so there's something with pinvol not directly recognizing the joystick buttons.

[mjr]

update - I downloaded and install joy2key (shareware) and I'm able to map the joystick buttons to left alt+any other key, and pinvol recognizes the button presses, so there's something with pinvol not directly recognizing the joystick buttons.

 

So is that going to be a workable solution for you, or do you still want to try to get the joystick buttons working natively?

 

I still don't have any guess about what's going on.  I'm just going through DirectInput to scan for joysticks, so it's strange that VP can see the device and PinVol can't.  One question I had about your VP tests:  you were actually able to get button presses to go through to VP, right?  Press a button, something happens in VP?  It sounded like you did do that specific test, but you also mentioned the VP setup screen with the drop-down lists - the reason I ask is that the drop-down lists are always there in VP whether it thinks a joystick is connected or not.  So just being able to configure it wouldn't provide any information; you'd have to have the button presses actually get through to VP and cause action in the game.

[boslaw]

Ideally I would like to get this working natively but this is working for now. I can get visual pinball to recognize the button presses and actually respond to them, so the problem solely seems to be with pinvol. 

[mjr]

Ideally I would like to get this working natively but this is working for now. I can get visual pinball to recognize the button presses and actually respond to them, so the problem solely seems to be with pinvol. 

 

Here - give this a try:  http://mjrnet.org/pi...ol-20180905.zip

 

That should list all of the devices that DI sees in the log, not just joysticks.  Maybe DI is seeing it as a different device type or something.  If so it should show up in this all-inclusive list and show what DI thinks the device is.

[boslaw]

Here you go:

======================================================================

PinVol starting up at 9/7/2018 9:14:30 PM

The settings file (PinVolSettings.ini) doesn't seem to exist; using defaults

Hotkeys assigned:

  Global volume up: Windows+F10

  Global volume down: Windows+F9

  Night mode toggle:  Windows+F7

  Mute toggle: Windows+F8

  Table volume up: VolumeUp

  Table volume down: VolumeDown

  Table volume up 2nd device: None

  Table volume down 2nd device: None

Exiting at 9/7/2018 9:14:34 PM

======================================================================

PinVol starting up at 9/7/2018 9:14:46 PM

The settings file (PinVolSettings.ini) doesn't seem to exist; using defaults

Hotkeys assigned:

  Global volume up: Windows+F10

  Global volume down: Windows+F9

  Night mode toggle:  Windows+F7

  Mute toggle: Windows+F8

  Table volume up: VolumeUp

  Table volume down: VolumeDown

  Table volume up 2nd device: None

  Table volume down 2nd device: None

Scanning for USB devices

  Found non-joystick device: Mouse, DirectInput type=Mouse/1, USB usage=0.0

  Found non-joystick device: Keyboard, DirectInput type=Keyboard/4, USB usage=0.0

  Found non-joystick device: USB Receiver, DirectInput type=Device/256, USB usage=12.1

  Found non-joystick device: USB Receiver, DirectInput type=Device/256, USB usage=1.128

  Found non-joystick device: USB Receiver, DirectInput type=Device/256, USB usage=-68.136

  Found non-joystick device: USB Receiver, DirectInput type=Device/256, USB usage=-256.1

  Found non-joystick device: USB Receiver, DirectInput type=Device/256, USB usage=-256.2

  Found non-joystick device: USB Receiver, DirectInput type=Device/256, USB usage=-256.4

  Found non-joystick device: Zebsboards PinCab Controller, DirectInput type=Gamepad/257, USB usage=1.5

  Found non-joystick device: Ultimarc, DirectInput type=Device/256, USB usage=1.0

Joystick devices discovered: None

Exiting at 9/7/2018 9:16:18 PM

[mjr]

Here you go:

  Found non-joystick device: Zebsboards PinCab Controller, DirectInput type=Gamepad/257, USB usage=1.5

 

Yep, that explains it.  It's declaring itself to be a gamepad, not a joystick - DirectInput considers them to be two different things.  (As does USB - that's the "usage" bit.)  The DI scan that was asking to find joysticks was happily ignoring because of that.

 

Okay, I just added gamepads to the acceptable types in the scan.  The next question is whether the C# DI joystick class will accept this device type.  I think it will, since they're pretty similar types at the USB level, but we'll see... these things are rarely that easy.  Here's a new test version with that change:

 

http://mjrnet.org/pi...ol-20180907.zip

[boslaw]

That fixed it! Thanks very much - excellent service on a Friday evening

[mjr]

That fixed it! Thanks very much - excellent service on a Friday evening

 

Great!  I'll make that the new official version, then.

[grendelrt]

Prob not the right place to ask, but closest thread I can think of. I am using pinvol to control all my sound and it works great. I have a couple tables where the table sounds are right on in the same vol range all my other tables, but the backglass sounds are way too high or low even after messing with the rom volume. Is there a way in VP to lower just the backglass sounds for a specific table instead of application wide?

[Thalamus]

Example of tables please.

[grendelrt]

The one that cannot me named is too loud after trying in the rom options. I had one that was too low after maxing out the rom sound but i cant remember it off hand. 

[mjr]

Prob not the right place to ask, but closest thread I can think of. I am using pinvol to control all my sound and it works great. I have a couple tables where the table sounds are right on in the same vol range all my other tables, but the backglass sounds are way too high or low even after messing with the rom volume. Is there a way in VP to lower just the backglass sounds for a specific table instead of application wide?

 

If it's a DMD-style ROM game, the ROM has its own volume adjustment.  The UI is insanely weird because of all of the emulation layers involved, but here's what you have to do:

 

Press the END key (to simulate "opening the coin door")

 

Press the 8 key for Volume Down and the 9 key for Volume Up.

 

When done, press the END key again to "close the coin door".

 

You should see feedback on the DMD that the volume is being adjusted, if the game works this way.  Most of the DMD era games have "soft" volume controls for the ROM audio; earlier games generally didn't.

 

What's going on here?  The original games had a little control panel inside the coin door for the owner/operator to do game setup functions.  The 8 and 9 keys are mapped to the + and - keys on that operator control panel, which control the soft volume level.  The same keys also operate the ROM setup menu, so if you happen to press the 7 or 0 keys at any point you might go into the setup menu instead.  Pressing 7 a bunch of times will usually back you out of that.  

 

VPinMAME stores the ROM audio volume with the game's settings, so it should stick across sessions.

Edited by mjr, 15 September 2018 - 11:41 PM.