scutters

The default behaviour in pinballx is to show a black screen for DMD & backglass when a table is selected, and then the table backglass & dmd load over the top. I have my DMD's all the same size for games that use them (i'd never seen Mr Game's Motor Show before so not sure how i'll handle that one if i add it) so don't have your issue but i think what you could try is uncheck Hide DMD in Game Manager so that the black dmd screen is not shown in pinballx and the actual DMD loads over the top of the DMD video/image instead. So long as pinballx has a DMD video / DMD image in use in the front end that is full screen and includes the 'border' to edge of screen that should work. In this workaround the background (front end) video would continue to play (behind the actual dmd) though so may add some load to the system though. ... but i may be misunderstanding the issue!... if so add a couple of pictures to help, thanks.

You'll probably need to post your pinballx.ini and log.txt files, but my guess is you need to go to settings.exe -> Display Settings, and then adjust DMD Height and Width to match your 'visible' dmd area.

Thanks for confirming. I'll update the first post to reflect the jpg issue for now. Guess i'll be opening up the code to add jpg support! Watch this space for v1.0.2..

@qcol Thanks for the info..ignore that 'adummyvalue' line in the log - it's because it's the first table loaded so the last loading image used is not yet populated. I'll revisit that log entry if i open up the code again. Back to the issue... i had previously thought pinballx only used png & gif files for loading images, but your screenshot gave me a clue, it looks like pinballx can also use jpg files as loading images, i'm not sure if this is a recent change or if it's always been that way. The plugin doesn't handle jpgs so i'm guessing the random image you get displayed is one of the jpg files. Can you remove the jpg's (plus any other non png format files) and try again to prove this is the cause of your issue? Thanks

Yep, that's exactly what the plugin should do. Can you post your PBXLoadingImage_log.txt file from the plugins folder along with the pinballx.ini and log.txt files? (after launching a table and exiting) thanks.

There's a few things in the log.. 1/ Your issue - you're running pinballx lite, so no backglass / dmd. Run pinballx.exe instead 2/ You're also running the 64bit version - you're probably better off reinstalling the 32bit 3/ Error initializing flash engine - Do as suggested in the log file, Please try deleting flash.ocx in the installation folder and then reininstall PinballX.

I've also tried copying the MAME.xml to another pinballx\databases folder... that does partially recreate the issue if it was copied in error - both items appear in the Lists, but unfortunately doesn't fully match the symptoms of 1st post as MAME tables is still there after deleting the MAME.xml only from the MAME folder. Try disabling the DirectOutput plugin just in case that makes a difference. After that i don' t know.

I assume nothing shows on the backglass at all in the front end? Have you tried using monitor numbers 2-5 for the backglass?

That looks ok too, weird. You do have an error in log for DirectOutput PinballX Plugin, but i can't see that being a factor, so nothing much in there either. Maybe a windows locale language thing somehow?.. from your version and files your pinballx setup looks just like mine so i don't know what else is different.

You'll probably need to post your pinballx.ini and log.txt files. In the meantime have a look at Outhere's post here and check the settings highlighted..

Nothing in wrong the ini file that i can see. Log file shows other custom databases, the 'music' one isn't in your earlier screenshot - is that one not working, or is it one you added later? If that's not working try removing it (and maybe the kids one too) to see if that has any effect on MAME.

Also tried the files, only mame arcade shows for me too. Also running 32 bit v3.38. Maybe some other config option, probably worth posting the pinballx.ini file

As xdmd is distributed with pinballx could it be used on non dmd games to display table name / year / company logo (also already distributed with pinballx) / hi scores etc on a virtual or real DMD screen in a DMD style? At the moment for non dmd tables i have a static company image logo on my virtual dmd (which i prefer to the "no dmd" default image/video), but it would be nice if pinballx could populate a dmd type screen with the information it has in the database files and loop through that instead - bonus if it scrolled / transitioned nicely!. The display would be automatically populated for any tables where no DMD media is found (like for [and instead of] the "no dmd" screen now) and could be left running after table started by leaving the "hide DMD" option unchecked as now. Hope that makes sense! Thanks.. Edit 17/07/2019 - No longer needed for me. I now use DMD videos see;

Are the videos recorded on your machine or downloaded media, and what is their native resolution (your backglass would appear to be HD 1080*1920 from the ini) ? Also, when you tried different formats did you remove the older format file first (i.e. if you copied the files directly you could have the same filename with two different format extensions in the media\..\backglass videos\ folder in which case i don't know which pinballx would pick up)?

I'm light on ideas now... hopefully someone with more knowledge of LAV/CODEC settings will chip in. One other nvidia setting to check in nvidia control panel is what is showing for the backglass under Adjust Desktop Color Settings, Application controlled or Nvidia for how colour is set?, try toggling that along with Digital Color Format drop down values (if available) If they make no difference my suggestion for a workaround would be to use backglass images instead of videos, i guess they won't have the issue - but'd depend if you're happy with that. Out of interest is windows media player washed out too on backglass?

Ok.. Next up, set LAV as shown in this post https://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/20816-pinballx-267-black-screen-resolved/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-178455 Not sure on K-Lite impact (if any). What player is it that shows the video on backglass ok?

Try this; NVIDIA Control Panel -> Video -> Adjust video color settings -> Select Backglass Display -> Select "With the NVIDIA settings" -> Advanced tab -> Dynamic Range "Full (0-255)"

If "QQ" works for a graceful exit in pinballx then this might be worth a try; in visual pinball map Exit Game to button 6 (same as exit emulator in pinballx), then when exiting game press and hold the exit button (visual pinball should accept that as quit and exit, hopefully cleanly). You can test it by launching visual pinball outside pinballx. It'll just depend on whether VPX exits before pinballx closes it, so this is a long shot as i suspect pinballx will get in first. Also check the button 6 isn't mapped to anything else in VPX key prefs.

As Draco1962 suggests please attach the ini and log files. Check you have installed LAV filters (follow link on https://www.pinballx.com/) and confirm format of backglass videos (mps or f4v etc), are they the same format as the playfield videos, what tool created them, when you say lower quality do you mean less contrast / brightness or lower resolution, and what is the native resolution for the backglass? Thanks

For info worked out why vpauto.exe isn't running on table launch, it's because bypass disclaimers is set to No in settings.exe (this line in the .ini file Bypass=False) Tried disabling on my setup and didn't replicate issue so i think that can be discounted too.

There's also fixups.exe at startup, worth checking on that too just so you know what's going on.. did you add them to popper front end when that worked? I'd disable all three to see what if anything breaks (or starts to work!)

@Mike_da_Spike No problem, Thalamus et al are the real heroes. Definitely check out those scripts if you're lag sensitive (most are fast flip enabled), or are using surround sound in the cab as they have improved positional ball rolling sounds in most cases. Just make sure the script matches the table version you're using. @Skuta Just noticed your log file doesn't have a "C:\PinballX\vpauto.exe " immediately after table launch. Have you removed / renamed it due to another issue? (i know it can be recommended for focus issues). It might be a factor here as, as far as i know it deals with vpinmame nag screens at table launch so is rom related, albeit at start rather than exit of table. Normally it's between these two entries; 04:43:57.9 4/11/2019: D:\Emulators\Visual Pinball\VPinballX.exe /play -"D:\Emulators\Visual Pinball\Tables\Bride Of Pinbot (Williams 1991).vpx" 04:43:57.1 4/11/2019: VPX Full screen exclusive mode detected

Just tried Bride of Pinbot on my setup by throwing in some credits closing and going back in in pinballx to see if they're still there, it's working for me (but had me wandering for a moment - rom doesn't save 1/2 credits like some, need to add full credit to test) @Skuta Not sure how it would or could affect anything, and i'm pretty sure you'd have mapped same buttons to same functions in both front ends as well, but do you have exit emulator button 6 mapped to anything in visual pinball x key preferences?. I've tried to recreate the issue by mapping my exit emulator button to a few vpx things and failed to get the problem, but worth a check anyways. Maybe it is something to do with alternateexe? i don't use it myself so not really familiar, i have vpx tables under their own system in 'other sytsems', could be worth trying for one table if you have some time over the weekend @Mike_da_Spike i think i did have that issue with 24 at one time, pretty sure it was something to do with table script - try copying the script from here https://github.com/sverrewl/vpxtable_scripts (Thalamus's repository) and trying again (backup orig script to notepad file first so you can go back if required)

I'd stay at 1.71 for freezys, from memory there was some issue with 1.72 (can't remember details).. regardless, i'm on 1.71 and don't have your issues so that can be ruled out anyway i think.

If VPX is running as admin leave pinballx running as admin. Bit stumped on the cause of the issue though if it's all tables not saving nvram through pbx.. sorry!. Maybe check you have latest vpinmame, vpx, freezy dll (if used) build etc, post back versions - maybe there'll be a clue in there. Seems like VPX doesn't exit gracefully through PBX for you. Maybe @Tom Speirs will have an idea