28 replies to this topic

[DDH69]

So today or yesterday, depending where you are in the world, Steam released another FX3.EXE program with the new Monsters pack.  As is normal with an update to the FX3.EXE DOFLinx no longer recognises the EXE, reports as such, but most importantly does not link up for table triggers.  In short, toys stop working.

 

Also as is normal when a new FX3.EXE is released, a body of work starts to find the required information to get those toys up and working again.  That is happening as I sit here on a hot Adelaide evening watching cricket, scanning my cabinet's memory, and writing this post.

 

Sadly, I lost about 6 hours of productive time today to work on this as my Pinball FX3 update caused Pinball FX3 to stop working altogether. After two complete reinstalls of FX3 I found that the new FX3.EXE requires Microsoft C++ redistributable for 2015-2019 to be installed.  So a crappy install by Steam to not detect that wasn't on he machine and then not display any error messages when using the standard short-cut.  Anyway, enough moaning, I figured it out and have Pinball FX3 now running on the cabinet.

 

Determining the correct mapping for DOFLinx is currently taking longer than it has for some time, and of course longer than I want.  My guess is that Steam have updated compilers to the latest causing both my issue with the missing redistributable and a completely new configuration.  You can see this as well given the significant change in EXE size.

 

The current status at DOFLinx Central is that I can detect all of the triggers, but am struggling with the game and menu modes.  Hopefully tonight, otherwise back to it after work tomorrow.

 

[Slydog43]

Thanks, good luck tonight

[DDH69]

Well its time to stop for the night.  Good but slow progress.  This update of FX3.EXE is certainly big one.

 

So far I have all of the triggers working including the two new games.  The PITA part is that I can't seem to get the modes sorted out, ie when is it in game mode, menu mode, etc.  This is essential as you don't want toys triggering at the wrong times.

 

I'll get back to it tomorrow night after work.  At present I fear this one might take a few days.  The bit that always causes me some anxiety is the worry that I just wont be able to find them, but I worry about that every time ..... until he next update.

[Mike DA Spike]

Take your time mate.
I really appreciate the work you do for supporting Doflinx.
And you already did a hell of a job the last couple of years for getting everything to work.
And looks indeed a small update on the FX3 site, but they changed (and broke) more (like dmdext)
Again, take your time (grab some beers) and relaxe.
Thanks for your hard work for this community

[qcol]

Thanks for your efforts, DDH69!  I appreciate your hard work - we will be patiently waiting. It's understandable that a big fx3.exe update requires a lot of changes in your code.  

[JLouLoulou]

Take your time DDH! You make good work for all of us! we are not in the vital emergency.

 

Big Thanks

[DDH69]

Another night of testing, coding and discovery ..... and the news is all good !   .  I'm up to about 18 hours on this over a few work days.  Those elusive setting have been found (I think - more testing to fully confirm yet).  The best news is that I've spent the evening playing Monster Bash and Creature from BL.  Not that Halloween is big in Oz, but it was a bit poetic none-the-less.

 

I am now 99% sure that I'll have a release with everything working over the coming weekend.  Just a few life things getting in the way a little. 

[miniashman]

@DDH69, Appreciate all the hard work you put into this. Whenever i am Down Under will buy you few beers 

[Slydog43]

Great news, Do you think you will ever figure out a more automated way to find the correct memory locations?  It seems like there must be a better way to do this.  Maybe autoplay a few games to watch memory locations, I don't know just throwing some ideas out there.

[jdsabin1]

I am so happy you're on this one DDH. I had forgotten all about needing to update DOFLinx until I fired up the new tables and realized I had no mechanical sounds (and the SSF stuff in FX3 kept me from not running all of them on my cabinet but kudos to the developers because they look and actually play quite well and is a nice break from VPX now and again). Anyway .... thank you for all that you do. Just wanted to let you know that others appreciate it . 

[DDH69]

@Slydog43, the methods used to find these items are semi-automated.  Each time I do this the code gets a little better, but always different.  I'm not sure we'll ever get to an automated scan, although its always in my mind about how this might be achievable.  The method used locates memory used by FX3 to indicate certain "triggers", each time the FX3 program is recompiled you get the issue not just of new memory locations, but often slightly different structures.  Its the second part that is really hard to automate.  None-the-less, as I say, always looking for a way.

[barto107]

Take your time DDH and thank you for this great job   

[DDH69]

..... and done.  Now over to the release thread.

[redrooster]

How did you fix the C++ issue?  Because that's where I'm at.  I've tried every which way I know, and I can't get rid of the old C++ (2015) and when i try to launch FX3, i get the runtime c++ error.

 

Anyone?

[DDH69]

I downloaded and installed the Visual Studio C++ redistributable for 2015-2019 from the Microsoft Visual Studio downloads area.

[Outhere]

https://vpinball.com...ed/#post-149118

[smackalip]

Guys I have pinball fx3 working by updating my windows 7 but  DOFLinx not working and when  i try to manually start doflinx.exe, I am getting the "DOFLinx has stopped working:."  Why am I getting this ?

[DDH69]

..... and the rest of the error message is ?

[smackalip]

18-Nov-19 16:45:09.173 - DOF Linx for Pinball Emulators - DOFLinx by DDH69
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.184 - Starting up - version 6.84
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.185 - For support come and visit the community here http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showforum=104
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.187 - Pre-Reading DOFLinx.INI startup config file details
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.217 - DEBUG enabled with showing of window True
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.224 - No DOF Global Config file supplied
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.241 - Joystick # 1 detected : 32 buttons   DPAD Z-Axis
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.244 - Joystick # 2 detected : 10 buttons   DPAD Z-Axis
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.317 - 0 Pinscape device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.451 - 3 LEDWiz device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.453 - DOFLinx device: 1 Initializing as LEDWiz #1 with ID=2
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.459 - DOFLinx device:1 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.461 - DOFLinx device: 2 Initializing as LEDWiz #2 with ID=0
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.463 - DOFLinx device:2 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.465 - DOFLinx device: 3 Initializing as LEDWiz #4 with ID=1
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.467 - DOFLinx device:3 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.469 - 0 FTDI (Sainsmart) device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.476 - 0 PacLED64 device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.479 - 0 Ultimate IO device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.482 - Reading DOFLinx.INI startup config file details
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.484 - Turning DEBUG off
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.497 - DEBUG enabled with showing of window True
18-Nov-19 16:45:09.502 - Reading DirectOutputConfig file named c:\DirectOutput\config\directoutputconfig.ini
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.234 - 0 Pinscape device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.237 - 3 LEDWiz device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.240 - DOFLinx device: 1 Initializing as LEDWiz #1 with ID=2
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.243 - DOFLinx device:1 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.246 - DOFLinx device: 2 Initializing as LEDWiz #2 with ID=0
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.249 - DOFLinx device:2 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.251 - DOFLinx device: 3 Initializing as LEDWiz #4 with ID=1
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.254 - DOFLinx device:3 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.261 - 0 FTDI (Sainsmart) device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.266 - 0 PacLED64 device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:11.272 - 0 Ultimate IO device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:35.444 - Found valid process name of 'Pinball FX3'
18-Nov-19 16:45:35.451 - Setting FX3 process ID to :3328
18-Nov-19 16:45:37.461 - Activated by process name : 'Pinball FX3'
18-Nov-19 16:45:38.202 - Named process detected and startup commenced
18-Nov-19 16:45:38.359 - Process has administration rights
18-Nov-19 16:45:38.916 - FX3 EXE name=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Pinball FX3\Pinball FX3.exe Size=10986640 bytes, Dated 11/17/2019 3:46:45 PM
18-Nov-19 16:45:38.932 - No matching size profile for FX3.EXE found - prepare to panic pinball may be broken
18-Nov-19 16:45:38.938 - FX3 information process failed to recognise the EXE, it may be a new FX3.EXE ..... now disabling the link
18-Nov-19 16:45:38.951 - Using full colour palette
18-Nov-19 16:45:38.958 - 488 colours added to the palette
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.080 - Activating process disappeared so stopping things
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.089 - 0 Pinscape device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.095 - 3 LEDWiz device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.100 - DOFLinx device: 1 Initializing as LEDWiz #1 with ID=2
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.105 - DOFLinx device:1 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.111 - DOFLinx device: 2 Initializing as LEDWiz #2 with ID=0
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.116 - DOFLinx device:2 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.122 - DOFLinx device: 3 Initializing as LEDWiz #4 with ID=1
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.127 - DOFLinx device:3 LEDWiz setup with 32 outputs
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.133 - 0 FTDI (Sainsmart) device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.139 - 0 PacLED64 device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:45:58.144 - 0 Ultimate IO device(s) found
18-Nov-19 16:47:55.614 - Shutting down
18-Nov-19 16:47:55.838 - Program close

Here is my log. What is the FX3 issue? What do you see?

[Outhere]

Time to update

Make sure read the notes / What's New in Version 7.xx

https://www.vpforums...&showfile=12318

Edited by Outhere, 18 November 2019 - 10:01 PM.