scutters

I've updated the attachment in the first post with the latest version & fixes (same version you already have so no need to update again). Thanks for your help!

Ok.. thanks for the extra info. The stats plugin showing later than the clock on game exit but then staying on when the clock doesn't may be the clue i'm looking for. Last test version for the day so hope this works, i've re-jigged some of the event code ordering on game exit.. (still not sure why i can't reproduce the issue but i guess it's just different hardware causing different processes to take different times)

Interesting, i can't see anything obvious in the logs or settings - and i'm unable to reproduce the behaviour. Even stranger that the stats plugin works ok for you! (it's very similar code for the display logic). Anyway, here's another version to try with another attempted guess fix; If that doesn't work then can you let me know what C:\Pinball\Scripts\VisualPinball\VPXKill.bat does (just if it does anything that might affect focus in windows)?. I guess it's just killing / cleaning up processes like b2s / pinup on game exit, but worth confirming. Please also try with the stats plugin deactivated in plugin manager just in case that's a factor somehow too, and also confirm if the behaviour affects all systems on table exit (FX2, FX3 etc) Thanks

Not seen that before.. can you attach your pinballx\config\pinballx.ini & pinballx\log\log.txt files along with the pinballx\plugins\PBXClock.ini and pinballx\plugins\PBXClock_log.txt files (all after running pinballx, exiting a game and seeing the issue). By the sounds of it you have the clock located on the playfield screen and PinballX 'covers' it after returning from a game, can you confirm that as well (press ALT+TAB and see if the clock is still running just behind another screen). Edit - Can you give this version a go as well (just extract and replace the file in the pinballx\plugins folder). Think i may have found something but i'm guessing a bit, and it would only be a factor if you're running the plugin with a 'rotated' option.

Looking at the image, not sure - but are you just hitting a limit of visible 'list' entries (like this feature request), and the VP*** just happen to be the last alphabetically so they are the ones that get missed out?

I've given the scenario a bit of thought and i tend to agree. As far as i can see the easiest way to achieve what @PcTeknic wants would be to use 'groups' of systems (pinballx\databases\groups). So adding each single table exe as its own system with its own launch parameters and launch before/after etc, but that would show still all the individual systems in the 'systems' list and the 'group' would only be visible from the 'lists' menu.... so the feature request would be to add an option / tag in system setup / xml to hide or show individual systems in the systems wheel, and then a similar tag in the database group xml to make that group visible in the systems wheel (and also hide it from the lists menu). Think that would work and be fairly flexible (it would work with other systems that aren't single table too), but there might be a better way i haven't thought of and i've no idea how many changes it would need in PinballX. Edit - one problem with the above i hadn't considered would be what to do about database group media (wheel image etc) if they were to be used as a system, where would PinballX store it?

So you want one 'system' that has multiple different single table executables? I think you'd have to use the alternateexe flag in the database xml to set the alternate executables for all but one game (which would use the default system exe). There's details in the pinballx documentation about the <alternateexe> flag. Sorry if i've misunderstood..

I think Tom would need an example video (and any custom loading gif files you might have added) if you wanted the problem on your setup with 'use playfiled images' looking into. But if you're happy with 'use loading folders' then i guess it's resolved for you

My gut feeling is that it's the path change to B2S server that is the problem - but that was changed before you saw the issue. So as a test you could try copying just screenres.txt and B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe back to the Tables folder (don't re-register B2S or anything, just copy those files for a test so they can be removed later without changing anything else), and see if that makes any difference in PinballX. Not sure what else to suggest unless you have experience using procmon to see what's happening under the hood when you run PinballX and the calls to vPinMAMELauncherx86.exe that PinballX uses to launch B2S files.

I don't normally use B2S in PinballX, but i just tried it with V5.94 and it worked for me I'm using V2.0 of B2S Server, with vpinmame 3.6beta (i forget the revision), and B2S is still installed in the Visual Pinball\Tables folder. Any chance you updated B2S server at the same time you updated PinballX, and/or did you move B2S to a new location (this was added as an option in V2.0 i think) - i'm not sure if PinballX assumes B2S Server is always located in the Tables folder as it always used to be.

PinballX allows you to have custom media (images or videos) for the tables as you browse, for most people they're just images or videos of the games playfield so you can view it before launching. It is that media i'm talking about (but you might not have got that far in your setup yet)

Is this using B2S Server in PinballX instead of backglass media?, can you attach your PinballX Log.txt & PinballX.ini files and let us know what version of B2S Server you're using. Thanks.

Good to know. Interesting that it causes such a slow down on your system, are you using a long 4k playfield video as media in pinballx or something? Maybe it is something @Tom Speirs can look at as it definitely causes an issue in your case. Not sure on that, don't know if the loading images are cached or not when extracted from playfield videos. I don't use that option either.

There does seem to be a delay in the log file after 'set plugin data', before the actual launch 09:17:51.62 2023/04/24: Set Plugin data 09:19:13.68 2023/04/24: D:\Future Pinball\Future Pinball.exe /open "D:\Future Pinball\Tables\Batman Joker Edition ULTIMATUM 1.04.fpt" /play /exit /arcaderender One my setup this step only takes 1 sec, and i have several plugins enabled. I'm not sure what PinballX is doing during that period on your setup, but a guess is maybe that's when it grabs a screenshot before table launch to use as a loading image. So one thing to try is in Settings.exe under General Settings -> Table Loading Media Mode change to 'Use Loading Folders' as a test. This would use a default loading image instead of a screenshot / video frame. If that doesn't help then as your hardware isn't high spec then maybe running 'PinballXLite' might be worth trying instead of PinballX.exe. (and yes, your FP launch parameters still need updating)

I don't have FP installed these days, but i think you need to check you configuration in PinballX Settings; Recommendation these days is to use the 'BAM' FPLoader.exe to launch Future Pinball rather than the Future Pinball.exe itself, and you should also have the /STAYINRAM option added to the launch parameters. Have a look at this post; https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/18508-guide-how-future-pinball-should-be-setup-for-bam-doflinx-pinball-x/

@laios Can you also attach your PinballX\Log\Log.txt file (if you have one) and PinballX\Config\PinballX.ini file.

Thanks Tom, looks like it's fixed in V5.83

Hi Tom, I think the NOT / ! use in active filters has thrown off some of the other filter functionality. Games with a description containing a '!' in the name are always returned with a filter on description. Eg filter to return only tables containing 'star' in the name; [Filter] Comment Year_from=0 Manufacturer Category= Description=*star* Author Theme System=all systems Year_to=0 File When used the filter returns the tables containing 'star' in the name as expected, but also includes tables like 'Jaws!', 'Mousin Around!' and 'Jokerz!' log.txt PinballX.ini

@Tom Speirs Think it might be a bug. Log shows 'Setting DMD position' despite Auto Position DMD being set to False, think this can then show the pinmame dmd. (might not affect all tables depending on the script controller.hidden setting i guess)

Strange. Is the 2nd dmd a dmddevice / external dmd window or a pinmame dmd display? (If you ALT+TAB is the window title 'virtual dmd' or the rom name, 'virtual dmd' is a dmddevice window, romname is a pinmame window)

Do you have virtualdmd enabled = true in dmddevice.ini? (just wondering if the 2nd dmd is always there, but when starting from vpx direct it appears behind the backgalss) One other thing to check, make sure 'auto position dmd' is set to No in PinballX display settings.

Unfortunately, as a lot of things have been updated it could be just as many things causing the fps issue, or it could simply be that you were running on the edge before and one small change has had a larger impact. What i'd do in order is this (testing after each step for impact on FPS with the same table [one that uses a pup pack] and using only 32 or 64bit vpx and always launching from PinballX), all these steps are easily 'reversible'; As you don't remember what winactivate does, disable that as a launch before process for visual pinball. Very unlikley that's the issue but it's just as unlikely to actually be needed (if it does cause an issue you can just reenable it) Check defender / AV exclusions are applied to all pinball related folders. In PinballX select to hide the topper and backglass for that table launch (easy to set back later) Disable the pup pack (just rename the pup pack folder in pup videos so it isn't used), if the pup pack isn't running then VLC won't be used. You installed VPX 10.7.4.400 which includes inbuilt ball shadows (possibly using more CPU). Try an older version of Visual Pinball, 10.7 or 10.6, no need to reinstall.. just use a renamed .exe file to test the impact. If the FPS is better then try VPX 10.7.3.395 from github (last before the ball shadow code). Try raising the CPU process priority for visual pinball. While the game is running in task manager go to the Details tab, right click on the vpinballx.exe process select Set Priority and set to High (this will only affect the running instance of VPX, it will be set back to normal when you run it again when changed this way) Others would probably troubleshoot differently, but like i say it's what i'd do.. Hopefully one or more of those will help and point to something.

What Backglass and Topper (your DMD) media do you use in PinballX, vidoes or images? Might be worth setting them to 'hide' for one game to see if not using that media during games helps at all. My understanding of pup packs is that they use mainly CPU, so also check FPS on a table that does not have a pup pack (not sure if your AFM does). I know you tried setting pinup to false in dmddevice.ini before but that's just turning off pup rom triggers, so try a table with no pup pack at all. Not sure why you'd be seeing an issue in both 32 & 64bit after the updates, did you update windows at the same time (did defender turn itself back on, or drivers get updated?). Can't see anything much in the config ini files (and they're probably as you had them before the updates), but what is WinActivate.exe you use on table launches in PinballX?

Damn, i'm already out of date. I'm on VPX 10.7.3.395, the rest of my versions match yours and i'm not seeing an FPS drop (32 or 64bit) - but i do have slightly higher spec hardware. Fully understand if you want to restore from backup and get back to playing, but try and post those files first (and confirm if it affects 32 and 64 bit VPX versions). Maybe there'll be a clue somewhere. Fwiw, i'm sticking to 32bit VPX as my default anyway (see https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=51054&page=2#entry516690)

Sorry, no more ideas from me either at this time.. just requesting more info. For some reason one or more of your cpu cores is probably getting maxed out now (and pinaffinity makes the issue worse by limiting the cores available to VPX to use), this can be confirmed in task manager, performance tab, CPU option. Can you attach your pinballx.ini & log.txt files, along with the dmddevice.ini file Please also confirm if both 32bit & 64bit visual pinball exes are affected (at the end end of the video i think you say both are), and versions of VPX, Vpinmame and dmddevice/freezy (or is it lucky's version?), i guess all were updated at the same time with versions suggested here - https://github.com/vpinball/b2s-backglass/wiki/64bit-VPX-Pincab-Setup-Guide