6 replies to this topic

[PunkTiger]

For the past three-plus years, I've been having an issue getting the Virtual DMD to appear on some VPX tables; games like JP's Wrath of Olympus, Super Mario Galaxy Pinball, Monkey Island, Deadpool, and others that depended on Freezy's DMD and/or UltraDMD to display. I have a two-screen VPin table (one backglass, one playfield) running Windows 7 (and previously Windows 10), and I had been trying everything I could think of it solve this issue.

 

When I was running VPX6, everything was fine. The moment I upgraded to VPX7, those special DMDs on the games mentioned above stopped working. At the time, I posted a question here asking for help on this issue, and I got a bunch of "gee, it works for me, are you sure you've updated everything? Is everything registered?" I tried looking for updated drivers and code. I tried wiping discs, changing operating systems, fresh installs of VPX7, updated Freezy's code, all with the same result. I was thinking that maybe a bit was flipped somewhere and I just needed to check the right box.

 

This morning, I was working on my VPin table again, looking through every command and log file I could find. And then, opening DmdDevice.ini, I saw it...

 

 

See that? See that setting somewhat circled in red? IT WAS SET TO FALSE BY DEFAULT! For three [expletives deleted] years I had been looking for that elusive flipped bit and I finally FOUND IT! When I set it to true, all those lovely DMDs that had vanished when I upgraded to VPX7 popped back into existence.

 

You have no earthly idea just how badly I've been struggling with this issue (I was happy-crying for a good 5 or 10 minutes after I found it worked). Oh... and I suppose I should also flip that "virtual dmd stays on top" setting to true as well. Couldn't hurt. I never checked that file before because I thought it wasn't a text file, and I hadn't done much in the way of bit-twiddling since my Amiga days.

 

I really just wanted to post this here in case other people might have the same problem and give them another place to look. I couldn't have been the only one with this problem... could I?

Edited by PunkTiger, 26 March 2023 - 02:04 AM.

[wiesshund]

Your image didnt attach.

 

I am going to guess these lines maybe?

 

; a DMD that renders with nice dots on a computer monitor
[virtualdmd]
enabled = true


; virtual dmd stays on top of all other windows
stayontop = True

 

[PunkTiger]

Yes, that was the exact one (and the second one as well). That thing had been haunting me for friggin' years. How it got flipped to false, or why it was set to false by default in VPX7 is beyond me. Probably causes less headaches for other, more advanced setups than my no-frills two-screen table.

 

As for the image, it's hosted here -- http://www.cloverton...er/FOUND_IT.png -- I'm not sure why it's not displaying for you.

 

EDIT: Ah! There was an exclamation point in the file name. I think the forum was gagging on it. I removed the offending point and, hopefully, it'll display properly now.

Edited by PunkTiger, 26 March 2023 - 02:07 AM.

[wiesshund]

You host does not allow linking of images, that is why it doesnt appear

[Jewer76]

I do see the picture in the OP and also did so yesterday. Am I not supposed to be able to?

[PunkTiger]

As a side note to this thread, that second line I had bit flipped (virtual dmd stays on top of all other windows = true), DON'T FLIP IT! Keep it false.

 

For some weird, unintuitive reason, when that setting is set to true, it does the exact opposite of what it says, and pushes that lovely colourful DMD behind the backglass screen. I was chasing my tail for a while today trying to figure out why I can position the DMD, but as soon as I activate the playfield, the backglass immediately obscures the DMD. Setting that command back to false fixed that issue.

 

No, I don't understand it either.

[wiesshund]

As a side note to this thread, that second line I had bit flipped (virtual dmd stays on top of all other windows = true), DON'T FLIP IT! Keep it false.

 

For some weird, unintuitive reason, when that setting is set to true, it does the exact opposite of what it says, and pushes that lovely colourful DMD behind the backglass screen. I was chasing my tail for a while today trying to figure out why I can position the DMD, but as soon as I activate the playfield, the backglass immediately obscures the DMD. Setting that command back to false fixed that issue.

 

No, I don't understand it either.

set B2S server to default to form to back and it wont do that.

Reason it does that, i think is if it it something other, like form to front, it does not really want dmd on top of it
but sort of depending on who arrives 1st it may not notice it
until DMD attempts to actively put itself in front and then the fight starts, and B2S wins

 

Same thing will happen if you go touching the DMD also
You go and resize it etc and POOF the B2S eats it (Sometimes B2S eats it's own DMDs also)

If i set form to back as the default for B2S, the fight ends.

Works for me anyways, you might give it a try.