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[Tesla]

I am trying to take my 3-screen VPX cabinet to the next level and finally get the Instruction Cards working.

 

While I suppose some people have a way to add a 4th monitor to their setup … here in my game-room, I don’t really have that luxury with my little cabinet. Plus, I already have 3-monitors, so I was hoping to be able to use PinballY’s feature to temporarily overlay the Instruction Card onto one of the existing monitors. In PinballY-Options, I selected the larger Backglass monitor to use for this purpose.

 

My current software is as follows:

 

VPX v10.8.0 (32/64 bit)

vPinMame v3.6 

DMDextensions & FlexDMD

B2S-Server v2.1.4

DOF [MJR 7-2025] (32/64 bit)

- Pinball-Y v1.1.0 (Beta 10) Build:10086 (x64 20241103-1939)

- Windows-11 Pro (64 bit) v24H2

 

For this evaluation, I am running no main.js (ie, no additional Javascript Addons) to prevent any possible conflicts.

 

I noticed that whether you are still inside PinballY (on initial game-select menu) or game is running (on Pause-Menu) the Instruction-Card menu item only appears when there is an Instruction-Card for the VPX-Table in question. Using this menu option seems to be the same as pressing the keyboard button you have setup for Instruction-Cards. This is all as expected.

 

The problem is that while it works while still just running PinballY (like browsing Selector-Wheel), it DOES NOT work from the Pause-Menu after the game is started. Also, when you try to use it from the Pause-Menu, PinballY starts to de-rail, makes some strange beeping noises, and is generally having trouble from then on (until the game is Terminated). I suppose I should also mention that I regularly use the Pause-Menu and it normally behaves just fine (I can Pause, Resume, Terminate Game ... all without a problem).

 

I’ve tried these things to get it working (but they did not help)

- Turned off Exclusive Full-Screen Mode (went to Windowed-Mode in VPX)

- Turned on Punch-Thru in B2S-Server (thinking maybe PinballY was relying on it for this feature now-days)

- I changed PinballY-Option/Buttons/Instruction-Card/Key from I to C to prevent a conflict. I can’t tell if B2S-Server is using I for ScreenShots or if this is PinballY trying to do its thing.

 

Any help would be appreciated. As far as I know, I’m just trying to using an existing provided PinballY feature. I can’t tell if I’m doing something wrong or if maybe one of the other programs changed to the point that this feature is now prevented from working?

Edited by Tesla, 11 December 2025 - 12:20 AM.

[Tesla]

Looks like my determination to get PinballY's "built-in functionality" to display Instruction-Cards (while the game is Paused) has paid-off.

 

I was able to get it to work by targeting the PlayField monitor (instead of the Backglass monitor) in PinballY's options for Instruction-Cards. Since when the game is Paused the Playfield is blacked-out anyway, it doesn't really matter where the Instruction-Card is displayed (as long as it appears for reading).

 

This also indicates that something is now blocking the built-in functionality from using the Backglass monitor during a Paused game (I'm assuming it once worked). I don't know for sure, but my guess is that it has something to do with recent versions of B2S-Server. Maybe this blocking-condition could be resolved at some-point, so full-functionality of PinballY can be restored (and users can again optionally target the Backglass as designed and allowed).

Edited by Tesla, 11 December 2025 - 05:49 PM.