Pinmame focus problems with DirectB2S

[horseyhorsey]

Keep getting this now, well , been like it since the start on most tables.

When you start a table with directb2s I have to alt+tab to bring the pinmame window in front of BG. Dracula & shadow are two tables I know that this has to be done on. FPlaunch made sure this was always in front.

It maybe depending on whether the backglass is slower to load than the table on certain games. Vice versa.

I cannot be the only one with this problem. Speak up!

[MadBit]

You are not the only one. I also have this focus issue using DirectB2S. This happens on all tables in which the DMD from pinmame is used on the B2S grill section. You can see it load in sequence. Play field, then pinmame, then B2S...which then hides pinmame.

[horseyhorsey]

Yep, getting a bit annoyed with it now. I'll see if I can knock up a small ahk script that brings to front for us later.

[MadBit]

Alt-tab was getting really annoying. I did find a better solution. After everything loads and the direct B2S is hiding the DMD hit F3. This resets the ROM and brings it to focus.

[Tom Speirs]

Ill have a look at this later and bring out a test version.

[horseyhorsey]

Alt-tab was getting really annoying. I did find a better solution. After everything loads and the direct B2S is hiding the DMD hit F3. This resets the ROM and brings it to focus.

Yeah that would be another way, but ideally best to not be pushing any keys apart from Flippers & start.

Cheers Tom

[Tom Speirs]

Try the attached. When it looks for PinMAME for high score purposes after 18 seconds it will bring the window to the front if it is not the foreground window.

PinballX.zip

[horseyhorsey]

Well slight problem here.

18 seconds really is a bit way too long imo and the Visual player window needs to be activated again after the mame window is focused.

[MadBit]

It does bring the DMD into focus but I have to click on the playfield to play a game.

Thanks for looking into this.

[Tom Speirs]

Try this. It sets it topmost but does not focus it. It will also start trying to find the window from 5 seconds.

PinballX.zip

[Tom Speirs]

What does FPLaunch do?

EDIT: I expect it does the same thing and set the TopMost flag on the window. I can't see any other way to do it. The attached above should work and fix the issue. Let me know.

[horseyhorsey]

Nah we lost it again.

If I remember all FPLaunch does is keep checking for when pinmame is loaded, moves to front and clicks playfield. I actually don't even have any copy of FPLaunch on this pc, which is strange but haven't used it in so long now.

[Tom Speirs]

I dont have direct2bs setup but that works for me in in my testing. PinMAME is always the topmost window even when alt tabbing to other things. Did you see that? I did notice PinballX needs to be running as admin.

Its not too reliable sending mouse clicks so I don't want to do that. Also if you Alt Tab out of the player then to PinMAME you get the same effect without this fix.

[Tom Speirs]

As I said, it does not seem to work if PinballX is not running as admin. Don't know if that is relevant.

[Tom Speirs]

I don't think it was always setting it topmost. Try the attached it seems more reliable.

PinballX.zip

[horseyhorsey]

You mean by order the pinmame would be first in that list?

Still have to alt+tab it i'm afraid mate, it was good on the first one apart from the time it took to show & activating VP again.

[Tom Speirs]

Please try the attached.

PinballX.zip

[Tom Speirs]

Please try the above first and if it works see if this version works.

PinballX.zip

[horseyhorsey]

Sorted! Perfect cheers!

[MadBit]

Yes! This is great. Thank you.

[jupiter]

With 1.56 focus problems are fixed. Thanks

I noticed with a b2s exe or a directB2s table hitting exit goes to the pause menu but quits the backglass too. Is there a way around this anyone?

[Tom Speirs]

With 1.56 focus problems are fixed. Thanks

I noticed with a b2s exe or a directB2s table hitting exit goes to the pause menu but quits the backglass too. Is there a way around this anyone?

It should resume the backglass when you return to the table. Does it not do this? Do you have hide backglass set?

[jupiter]

It should resume the backglass when you return to the table. Does it not do this? Do you have hide backglass set?

I found a fix. My cabinets Exit button was mapped to ESC. What happened was when I hit Exit button the PinballX menu showed 'Exit/Resume' but when clicking resume the backgkass never returned. In the task mgr I could see that the backglass exe is killed the moment I hit Exit. This is because the ESC keycloses the b2s exe. I reprogrammed my iPac to make the cabinet Exit button use 'E' and changed the PinballX INI file. I also needed to remap my Jukebox, etc.

The problem may have existed before however I probably never resumed a game before.

Thanks

[Tom Speirs]

I need to regression test this for the latest version to make sure its still working. If you had the issue could you please help me out and see if the attached still works. Thanks.

PinballX.zip

[jupiter]

Hi Tom
Just tested it and this version seems to work well with B2S, DirectB2S and DMDs. I noticed you can exit a table after just launching it a lot earlier now (rather than after a few seconds) which is great.

Cheers