mace

I've been repairing real pinball machines for years, sadly in that time I've received threatening legal letters for running an FTP site with repair tips (copyright theft for quoting manuals), making and importing no flickering LED's (use of trademarks in a website) and making replacement plastics. I've even been moaned at for making a WindowsPhone App (yes well, we all go for the wrong platform some times). From the moment I saw TPA I knew that their licences would balk at pincabs, FX2 gets around this as they own the IP of the tables. Once Farsight signed with Stern that was the final nail in the coffin, I can well remember discussing the need for home software with Gary Stern at the Brighton Slam some years ago and he basically said that he could never allow user access to their code or any mods as they could get sued in turn if the modder then released the code. I was also trying to point out the home market needed deeper rulesets, now we have pro, LE and premium table I'd like to think that maybe he did listen to that audience. I love my pinbcab and I'm keeping TPA because it's an accurate model and that's very handy if you repair these things, it runs fine with PinballX, LEDblinky and DMDext even though the new menu is awful, and poorly coded to boot - see next post. Gary would probably have a fit if he could see the LE AC/DC machine in my workshop at the moment, it's been modded out to the max by the owner. Ironic as the v1.68 code is still bugged and unfinished.....

IO Cheers, I am but I'm also running it stat on the cab and the same issue affect each unfortunately

On a slightly different it may be my PC set ups but after finishing a game I can enter a high score but after that its impossible to start a new game on the table without the mouse i.e. the buttons all lose focus. no great issue but it does mean closing and reopening the table. I've passed the info to FarSight as it affects non cab versions too.

I've had similar issues, to get over the selection for now I've been testing TPA table selection as a standalone system and using <SendKeysOnStart> command in the database .xml to pick the games, here's an example: <menu> <game name="Addams Family"> <description>Addams Family (Midway 1992)</description> <rom>taf_l7</rom> <manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer> <year>1992</year> <type>SS</type> <hidedmd>True</hidedmd> <hidebackglass>False</hidebackglass> <enabled>True</enabled> <rating>0</rating> <SendKeysOnStart>"^%{Up}"{sleep 6000}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Up}{Right}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Enter}{sleep 3000}{Enter}{sleep 500}{Enter}</SendKeysOnStart> </game> </menu> It's pretty crude (the initial "^%{Up}" is the rotation the rest is self evident. The issue seems to be that the new interface is wildly sensitive to button presses sometimes the commands above jump two spaces. I'm no programmer so if anyone knows a way to speed up AHK key commands I think it could help for now.....

Just stick a space in the Tables box Andy

Thanks Tom, makes sense

OH FFS! Sorry for wasting your time, just got that now I've popped a space in the 'Tables' section and renamed the groups database to add 'Tables' onto the end of the pinball groups which took all of two minutes. While I have your attention though, is there a way of obscuring the Pinball Arcade loading screens with a custom 'loading please wait' image? I only ask as kids don't realise they have to ignore the 'push any key' while PinballX automates the loading. Embarrassed Mark

I apologise if I've missed it, I've had my cab a while now and I've tried making new filter .xml's and so on with no issues other than the 'tables' appended every time.......so if there is a simple way please embarrass me by pointing it out.

Hi Tom, Would it be possible to remove the function in PinballX which appends the word 'Tables' to all menu items both standard and customised please? I know it's a small thing but 'Jukebox Tables' and 'Arcade Tables' look a bit out of whack. Thank You Mark

All slow <alternateexe> tagged vpinball exits have now been fixed by Tom in 2.12

Hi Jupiter, It was flagged before, I mentioned it here: http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/15762-pinballx-enhancementsfeatures-requests/page-13#entry141143 and Sir Cheddar noticed the same thing. Dave's auto hockey solution here: http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/14632-multiple-exe-for-vp/ works really well, it offers a new tag for alternate versions of VP which means if Tom does have time to fix the issue reverting back to the programs tags would be very easy. Mace

Finally got around to writing up my PinballX build as I promised some members quite a while back: http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=32481​ There's a lot of thanks in there too.....happy to help with questions if I can.

My issue with the button not coming into focus appears to be fixed with the latest update to 1.41.11 - yay!

When I close my app I have a TASKKILL command to shut every ruunning program associated with whatever it is VP etc., for PinballX I slam the door on around 14 programs - easy command to use in a batch file it ignores programs that are not running even if you list them too. I've had to use that to stop TPA since it went to the 1.4x.xx versions. Just make a text file add in as many lines as you need and then rename it to a .bat file, here's my TPA.bat which I use PinballX to run when I hit exit: @echo off taskkill /t PinballArcade.exe taskkill /t NukePA.exe taskkill /t "Actual Windows Manager.exe" REM put quotation marks around processes with spaces in their titles REM use task manager to determine running programs to add tot he list above I have a similar start file which activated the Actual Window Manager program when TPA runs to mirror the display to the back monitor. It uses resources so this way it only runs when its absolutely needed. Let us know how it goes with 1.93 Frodus

AWM = actual Window Manager from Actual Tools........set a profile for a program, drag a crosshairs to the window, tick four boxes and that window will be border less - I also use it on the TPA main window as well as the DMD displays.

Yep cheers, I have Pinball FX2 running fine, DMD on separate monitor and AWM removing the border :-), I've also got AWM mirroring the DMD to my DMD display resized with no border on TPA with AWM too I was using the AHK solution but AWM is more elegant (at a cost)

Yep, I can get DX11 v1.40.9 to launch and it does shun NukePA :-) But this is not the Safecracker bug as my version has this fixed, this is the 'only damn well exists on my cabinet' bug where for some reason as you click through the interminable screens when you finally get to the selected tables screen with the big yellow button (the one where the table scrolls in the background) none of the controls are highlighted and they only come into focus with a left or right arrow press. It does not do this on my desktop, there it behaves immaculately so it would be good for someone else to tell me if I have an odd issue with my cab or my desktop is the only place where its working............ And AMEN to command line launches - if they allow for a separate DMD to save me mirroring the screen area to my second monitor that would be cool too...... And maybe even they may allow us to adjust the screen position natively, after all free cam mod does that now..... I'm beginning to sound like the kids, want, want, want.....that's it I'm sending myself to bed ;-)

I've not managed to get anything past 1.40.x working correctly, its not NukePA though for some reason on my cab when the selection gets to the table the large yellow start button in the middle of the screen is not selected - it only will go live if the right key is pressed. Gawd knows why that is, the older 1.3x.x version works fine and the new 1.40.x versions seem to behave on our desktop - who knows.... As for the DX11 build well that just ignores most of the keystrokes, you can hear the ding as they go in but plainly the window is not in focus so they are not being seen.... This is playing up my OCD no end.....

Hmm, as a point of interest try running just VP and dragging the window onto your backglass screen. Then close it and run VP and see if that makes any difference - I seem to remember a post on that a while back.

No idea I'm afraid - there's nothing in your files that I can see as an error and if its just four tables (assuming you have others installed :-) ) it's probably the table and related files rather than the main programs or nothing would work I guess. Let me know if taking out the error selection helps.

Jannek, sorry you said a few tables were not working - this affected all of my tables so I assumed as you had some working yours issue may have been a little different.....see if the setting helps. Looking at your files the entries look fine - are the non working backglasses confined to one VP system enry of the three you are using?

I think that's it Dave, I'm running it from the VP entry section so the system type will be hardcoded to "1" by default - I just ran it up with TaskManager visible and VPauto is definitely running all the time the table is open along with Virtual Pinball.exe (obviously) and your VisualPinballExchanger.exe too. They only close when the table is exited. It's not slow loading, its really slow exiting, for some reason if you use Tom's <alternateExe> tags if another version of VP is used other than the default the tables hang for 23 odd seconds on close back to the selection menu. That's why I use your script, it shuts in three seconds and that's with my kill all script running hot on its heels too.

Right managed to sort out my issue properly by modifying Horsey's script which is linked in #2 above, it needed a couple of lines REM'ed out - don't ask me why though as I said earlier I'm no script expert but I am a patient fiddler - here's the modified script:- #Include, %A_ScriptDir%\xpath.ahk default_exe = VPinball991.exe PinballX_Config = C:\PinballX\Config\PinballX.ini ;Read PinballX config for paths IniRead, WorkingPath, %PinballX_Config%, VisualPinball, WorkingPath TablePath = %1% TableName = %2% SplitPath, TableName, ,, ext,, ; Add extra check rename for VP10 If ext = vpx { StringReplace, table, TableName, .vpx,, All } else { StringReplace, table, TableName, .vpt,, All } ; Read exe tag from xml, if no tag use default_exe databaseFile = C:\PinballX\Databases\Visual Pinball\Visual Pinball.xml xpath_load(dbXML, databaseFile ) ; need to read the existing xml otherwise xpath deletes all existing nodes exe := XPath(dbXML, "/menu/game[@name= . table . ]/exe/text()") If exe = { exe = %default_exe% } Run, %WorkingPath%\%exe% /Play -"%TablePath%\%TableName%" MouseMove, 200, 100 ;WinWait,ahk_class VPinball ;WinHide WinWait, Visual Pinball Player WinWaitClose, Visual Pinball Player ;WinClose, ahk_class VPinball ExitApp It looks like some form of delay??? Anyhow my tables now running flawlessly again and the script is once again allowing my tables to exit in 3 seconds rather than half a minute. Now if I could only work out how to mark these posts with [Resolved] :-) M

Hi Jannek, You can get that error with old .b2s backglasses and when there is no .dir3ectb2s file available - the first thing is to double check that those backglass files are named exactly the same as the table files that correspond to them. The second is to uncheck the error box in the setting I've indicated in the image attached (right click on the backglass to access these), it's a good idea anyway as it prevents tables without B2Server backglasses not running. M

Excellent point CP - it would help if I explained a bit more. You're right PinballX has nothing to do with the issue, in fact to solve it I'm using the default <\alternateExe> tag which TYom introduced in version 1.96/7 and it works perfectly apart from the hugely irritating 23 second exit delay whenever an alternative version of Virtual Pinball is called with the <alternateExe> tag.......which is the reason I was using Horseys script in the first place <sigh>. This one is a bit weird as using Horseys script as long as the plugin box is not selected in the B2Sserver settings the animated backglasses are displayed perfectly, but the second you tick that box the DirectB2S backglasses do not get displayed as the usual backglass image from the selection window remains stubbornly in place. I've even set the 'Use B2S in front end' flag in PinballX and that results in the B2s backglass being shown up until the table starts and then its back to the static one again. I'm not having much luck tracking this down at the moment, I'm no AHK script guru so it all plod and poke stuff - I'm guess it may be a timing thing. Would you share your script, it may help a bit... My VirtuaPlunger board died this week too, no reason just stopped working suddenly and when I went to reset it I found that it was red hot :-( Lucky Paul is sending me a replacement board at a reduced price (mine was out of warrenty) which is decent of him....