Real PinMAME DMD in PinballX - Beta Attached

[Tom Speirs]

Has anyone had a chance to try the new version yet? Its been running for days here without issue.

I think I may just release it but it would be nice to be sure.

[rockyrocket]

Has anyone had a chance to try the new version yet? Its been running for days here without issue.

I think I may just release it but it would be nice to be sure.

Just had a quick play, and it does not work with a pindmd v1 but that is expected behavior isnt it?.

What does happen is that after closing a table the static image that would normally be displayed is replaced by the last frame from pinmame persisting.

I can fix this by using the "hide pinmame" option in settings.

[Tom Speirs]

I am not really sure. Did the previous version work?

Folks should use the hide PinMAME setting (On my Cab it is turned on) unless they are in the situation where they have a topper or are not using a Real DMD. ie off if a Real DMD display AND a third monitor or off if no Real DMD Display.

However, I can't replicate this issue. I am using the unified PinMAME version here and a Real DMD with PinDMD 2.

Could you remind me of your setup please?

[rockyrocket]

I am not really sure. Did the previous version work?

Folks should use the hide PinMAME setting (On my Cab it is turned on) unless they are in the situation where they have a topper or are not using a Real DMD. ie off if a Real DMD display AND a third monitor or no Real DMD Display.

However, I can't replicate this issue. I am using the unified PinMAME version here and a Real DMD with PinDMD 2.

Could you remind me of your setup please?

Sure;,

PinDMD V1

Real dmd

VPinMAME_3497_SAM_PINDMD1_UNITY_1.2

Normally have hide dmd ticked but unticked just to see what would happen (even when ticked I still need to hide the pinmame window in the table script).

Game manager shows the rom for each table and all is turned on in settings so IDK?.

The earlier version did not display anything either, but I never tested with the pinmame window non hidden.

Not using the table sounds so can not comment on that sorry.

Seems to be stable and with the hide dmd box ticked works just the same as the vanila pinballX, so for me its not broken - just has one less feature.

[Tom Speirs]

Just realised yeah it won't work with PinDMD v1 as it currently checks if you either have another monitor for DMD or PinDMD v2.

I can fix that though.

[Tom Speirs]

Here, try this Rocky.

PinballX.7z

[Tom Speirs]

Although you really should get a V2

[RNunez187]

I've downloaded the new beta but have not had a chance to mess around with it yet.

[rockyrocket]

Although you really should get a V2

Yeah I know me and my trusty V1 are a thorn in your side .

Think I will one day, but am trying my hardest to get my mortgage paid off in the next two years.

I can not speak for the other V1 owners but this feature is really not a big deal for me, I am testing this more to check for stability/bugs.

So the test exe you gave made displays my static image as expected on tables without a rom set for them, and VP/Pinmame works just fine.

When navigating the wheel to a table that does have a rom specified PinballX minimizes to the taskbar (win7 64) - and the dmd is blank and stays that way until pinmame is restarted with a table.

the log shows nothing remarkable that I can see?....

15:39:28.3 15/08/2014: Load Startup Video: C:\PinballX\Media\Startup Videos\Intro.mp4

15:39:28.6 15/08/2014: Started

15:39:58.0 15/08/2014: Created DirectX BackGlass Window

15:40:11.4 15/08/2014: Created DirectX BackGlass Window

15:40:17.4 15/08/2014: Launch System

15:40:17.4 15/08/2014: Waiting for threads

15:40:17.4 15/08/2014: Disposing display

15:40:18.9 15/08/2014: C:\PinballX\scripts\\sTART xp.exe

15:40:19.4 15/08/2014: C:\Games\Visual Pinball\VPinball.exe /play -"C:\Games\Visual Pinball\Tables\Attack_From_Mars_NIGHT MOD_VP920_v3.5_FS_3-WAY-GI.vpt"

15:40:19.5 15/08/2014: C:\PinballX\vpauto.exe

15:40:24.7 15/08/2014: Found PinMAME ROM: afm_113b.nv

15:40:24.7 15/08/2014: Hiding PinMAME Window

15:40:24.7 15/08/2014: Setting DMD position

15:40:25.8 15/08/2014: Hidden Visual Pinball Editor Window

15:40:37.5 15/08/2014: Created DirectX BackGlass Window

15:40:39.4 15/08/2014: Exit System Control Pressed

15:40:50.7 15/08/2014: C:\PinballX\ledset.bat

15:41:01.2 15/08/2014: Created DirectX BackGlass Window

15:41:10.5 15/08/2014: Created DirectX BackGlass Window

15:41:18.7 15/08/2014: Exiting

15:41:18.9 15/08/2014: Showing Taskbar

15:41:18.9 15/08/2014: Unhiding Mouse Cursor

15:41:18.9 15/08/2014: Launching Exit Program: Stop PinballX.exe

15:41:18.9 15/08/2014: C:\PinballX\scripts\Stop PinballX.exe

15:41:18.9 15/08/2014: Disposing Plugins

15:41:18.9 15/08/2014: Saving Settings.

[sigma415]

@Tom:

I started to test the [updated 2014/08/13 5:00AM EST] 1.86 Beta version today.

First of all: I did not see app crashs related to LAVVideo.ax anymore :-) (Shark007 codecs still the original ones from your site, not updated)

But I recognized some other strange "effects", which are not really reproducable and which I could not clearly assign to what is really happening (up to now).

1.) Sometimes my cab buttons do not react during PBX table selecting (I use an iPac2 keyboard controller connected via USB).

In one case I heared windows sound messages (bing), like "Keyboard buffer full".

2.) Sometimes PinMame DMD on PinDMD stopps for all ROM selected tables, only standard PBX Real DMD video is played. After restart of PBX the sequence from ROM is back.

3.) In one case I imagine, that the PinMame sound entry in registry was deleted again (but I'm not really sure)

4.) Had also some PBX crashes, where PinDMD was locked after. Had to switch off machine and power up again.

All these negative effects disappear, when I disable "Use PinMame .." in PBX settings.

Maybe these effects are due to my configuration, but I think this is a quite common config for cab users.

But I cannot state the 1.86 Beta as very stable, sorry :-(

I will continue testing for the next days. Maybe I find some correlations.

Using Win7 x64, VP 9.90, unified PinMAME 1.92, PinDMD V2 (Real DMD), I-PAC 2 button controller, Ledwiz with DOF R2, Nanotech Plunger

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks, Ill take another look. Do you have the hide PinMAME setting, on or off? Can you try with on?

[Carny_Priest]

Kind of doubt that its a bug, but PinballX does overwrite existing dmd_height and dmd_width settings in the registry with the dimensions defined in PinballX.ini. It's a problem for me as I add 3 pixels to the height and width over the PinballX settings to account for the border that VPinMAME places around the image. Because I keep ddraw off, trimming those three pixels off causes the display to shrink to about half the usual size. I can try to make the same 3 pixel adjustment in the PinballX settings, but there are tables (Frankenstein, Baywatch, etc.) that do not use the usual 128 x 32 display. These require custom settings in the registry to display correctly.

By the way, I have a third LED display, and I do not use PinballX to automatically position the VPinMAME window. Might be the right move if the "Position PinMAME" option is "No" just use the existing registry settings for both position and size?

[Tom Speirs]

Ive just updated the installer. I fixed some issue and this version restores the PinMAME DMD size and position the same as it does for sound.

[Carny_Priest]

Using the installer - 2014/08/16 5:30PM EST

As soon as a preview for a table defined with a PinMAME ROM comes up, the playfield screen goes to the desktop. The PinballX process is still executing but presumably it is minimized; the Explorer taskbar is hidden. The backglass still stays up. PinMAME is displaying on the third screen. None of the navigation keys work except for Enter. With Enter the playfield and menu display for a split second before going to desktop again. I can hit Enter quickly twice to launch the game. I can Exit PinballX if I launch a game, Quit, and hit Escape really quick to bring up the exit menu before the screen goes to desktop again. Easier to kill with the Task Manager.

I seem to always an issue that no one else seems to report where I have focus issues when I try to have PinballX launch a system other than VP or FP. I have to write a script to launch the system and then I have PinballX launch the script. Is it related?

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/13919-unity3d-pinball-alpha-and-pinballx/page-3#entry129053

Attached ini and log. I killed the session with the Task Manager.

Also, restoring the registry after re-writing doesn't solve the display problem for me. If PinballX is writing over the dmd_width and dmd_height keys then the display will look half the size while playing back within PinballX previews. It's easy enough for me to change the width and height in PinballX to be the same as what I typically use for VP. It will work for the vast majority of DMD tables. There are a handful that use 194 x 64 resolution or 128 x 16 resolution displays, and a few where the emulation is not working correctly. The usual setting will not work as well for these. Such is life.

PinballX.ini

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

Just curious, why aren't you using DirectDraw?

Also what PinMAME and OS?

But yeah I can see why its minimizing. Fixed shortly.

[Tom Speirs]

Okay, new version available that should fix the focus issues.

[sigma415]

Okay, new version available that should fix the focus issues.

Tom, I'm confused with your Beta version numbering in post #1.

Is this the version from Sunday morning 17 Aug 2014 ?

I am providing a Beta Install:

http://www.spesoft.c...lXSetupTest.exe

[updated 2014/08/01 1AM EST]

[Now release candidate]

(says something like 01 Aug , 01:00h ???)

[Tom Speirs]

Sorry, yes.

[sigma415]

OK, thanks. I will give a try for [updated 2014/08/17 1AM EST] later on.

But first of all some more results for the [updated 20140813 500AM EST] (crazy version names, some beta number would be easier ;-)

But I recognized some other strange "effects", which are not really reproducable and which I could not clearly assign to what is really happening (up to now).

1.) Sometimes my cab buttons do not react during PBX table selecting (I use an iPac2 keyboard controller connected via USB).

In one case I heared windows sound messages (bing), like "Keyboard buffer full".

2.) Sometimes PinMame DMD on PinDMD stopps for all ROM selected tables, only standard PBX Real DMD video is played. After restart of PBX the sequence from ROM is back.

3.) In one case I imagine, that the PinMame sound entry in registry was deleted again (but I'm not really sure)

4.) Had also some PBX crashes, where PinDMD was locked after. Had to switch off machine and power up again.

#1 remained as my main problem (#2 - #4 were not reproducable)

As soon as VpinMameLauncher started the communication between Vpinmame and PinDMD, keystrokes were lost, also from standard keyboard (but only for tables with ROM enabled, videos were still fine)

Posted Yesterday, 09:19 PM

Thanks, Ill take another look. Do you have the hide PinMAME setting, on or off? Can you try with on?

Hide PinMAME was set to "off".

Setting it to "on" seems to resolve the keystroke problems

Can you tell me what happened ? Did I have a virtual (screen) DMD hidden in the background of the playfield which steals focus ?

But now I saw another problem: after starting and then exiting ROM enabled game, only standard video was shown back in PBX, later on PBX crashes.

(log for this crash see attachement)

But before we go into deep, I will try the new version from today.

log - Kopie.txt

[Carny_Priest]

Just curious, why aren't you using DirectDraw?

Also what PinMAME and OS?

But yeah I can see why its minimizing. Fixed shortly.

Here's some discussion about fine tuning the DMD in VPinMAME:

http://vpforums.org/index.php?/topic/26901-Optimal-Pinmame-settings

I'm using the latest unified version of VPM. I think it's 1.92?

Win 7 x64

[EDIT] - a better link for PinMAME settings:

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=26901#entry254437

[Tom Speirs]

New version:

- Performance improvements

- New feature to mute audio when in the screensaver. So your cab is not annoying if you leave it on.

- New feature "One Click Launch" to skip the game detail menu and immediately launch the table when selected.

As previously mentioned:

- New feature for custom systems to emulate and work like Future or Visual Pinball.

[sigma415]

Tom, I tried your newest version [updated 2014/08/17 8:50AM EST]

Unfortunately the lost keystrokes are back now, but I'm pretty sure knowing better now, what's happening.

It looks like, that when the problem appears, the keystrokes are send to the desktop. Sometime I can see popups of the comment field of the properties of my desktop icons overlaying the PBX playfield video.

They wander from one icon to the next, when I press the left or right button. (I have assigned Cursor left/right to my flipper buttons and also to the PBX left/right keys)

And when cursor focus reaches one end left or right of my desktop, the keystrokes will be processed again by PBX in the right manor. Switching back in reverse direction, problem comes back.

Mostly PBX crashes after several of these unsuccessfull keystrokes without app crash window. VPinMameLauncher still running and I had to kill this process manually.

Also sound entry of the tables was reset in registry.

So for me it looks like some kind of strange focus problem.

Config file and log attached (but log doesn't really help. Can it be configured to be more verbose ?)

BTW: I also tried to change PBX config to "Windowed full screen", but this does not change anything.

PinballX.ini

log - Kopie (3).txt

[Tom Speirs]

I can't duplicate those issues at all but just provided a new version.

Can you proved more details on when it hits the desktop. Such as loading a rom, unloading, LedWIZ etc.

Cheers.

[sigma415]

.....

Can you proved more details on when it hits the desktop. Such as loading a rom, unloading, LedWIZ etc.

Cheers.

That's exactly the problem: it's hard to determine what's going on and when, because all is happening in the "underground" of PBX ....

I will try the latest version

[connorsdad]

Just updated to the latest beta from 1.85, seems slower to cycle through the tables and open up the menu or is it me ?

Also, when I exit a vp table my leds are still lit.

I have assigned roms to all my tables and yet only the first one I assigned is working (displaying)