PinballX v2.19 Visual Pinball Installation

[Umpa]

@Draco1962 you might have a calibration issue with whatever your using for your accelerometer.

I was using a UHID nano for buttons and the accelerometer and had issues in Windows 10 after I upgraded

Now I'm just using the Zebsboards plungers button encoder/nudge controller with the latest firmware world of difference lost the problem

 

Look at this manual it has a section on calibration that universal. Has to be right in windows first

http://www.u-hid.com/u-config/u-hid Manual.pdf

Can you share your vpx nudge settings?

[skpManiac]

I just upgraded and now my DMD's do not work in PinballX :/

Any ideas?

Thanks

(I am on a 3 Screen PinCab)

Sorted it, I had to PBX to use screen 2 for DMD and Backglass - evem though DMD is on screen 2 ??

[Draco1962]

On 6/2/2016 at 11:46 PM, Carny_Priest said:

Nope. You set your buttons in VP Preferences -> Keys. Analog nudging and plunger should be supported in VP automatically but you may have to do some tuning.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for the tip! I am not certain but now the nudge is not working at all even with it enabled. Not a deal breaker and I will probably tinker with the settings at a later time. I just scored 182M+ points playing Doctor Who! YAY! Onward to other tables!

A few more things:

First, is there any way to supress the view of VP program from loading over the playfield or backglass? It goes away after the table loads but would look better if it did not show over the snaps or videos. Got this sorted as well. Had to open VP on the playfield and close it outside of PinballX. I had previously opened/closed on the backglass.

Second, I noticed a bit of a delay (10+ seconds or so) after exiting the table back to the wheel menu. Is this normal for VP? This is kind of a derp question. It only seems to occur upon the first opening of the table. Subsequent openings seem more normal.

Third, is there a way to set the tables to globally load credits or is this something that will require editing each table's script?  Got this one sorted. Had to select Override Default Layout and assigned my extra flipper buttons to Credit 1 and Credit 2. This was necessary as the default layout had the same button set that PinballX uses to exit as the Credit Button when loading directly from VP. Also had to make a minor tweak in the PinballX Joystick settings.

[Carny_Priest]

You are using a VirtuaPin controller, right? I found that I had to map my Exit game button to something else to avoid conflicts with PinballX. I use antimicro, an opensource xpadder sort of solution, and setup a hotkey when I launch VP. Kind of kludgy but it works well. 

[Draco1962]

So far so good. Each table has its quirks. Some you have to delve into the scripts, others are handled by making adjustments in the Backdrop Options for proper sizing and rotation. No two are alike and I spend a lot of time "googling" what the virtual pinball gurus have provided.

Definitely learning a lot along the way. Once I get a decent selection going I may start delving into creating custom playfield, backglass, and DMD vids for my system for better consistancy across the board. Getting rid of the BG vids with grills will be a step in the right direction since I have 3 monitors and a real grill/DMD area.

Thanks Tom, Carny, and everyone else for the help and advice!

[CHASER]

@Draco1962

You need to check out  a tool called setdmd http://www.pinballbulbs.com/files/setdmd.html

Change your DMD to snow its so much better than orange

General options:

• Anti Alias - Sort of sets the sharpness / blur of the DMD. Default is 50%. I like lower.
• Border - puts a border on the DMD. No idea why you'd want it.
• Title - puts a title on the DMD window. No idea why you'd want it.
• Scanlines - puts CRT style scanlines on the DMD. Probalby also best off. DMD's were plasma and had no scanlines.
• DMD Only - this is a default setting. Without it, the pinmame window pops up. Probably want this checked.
• Intensity - The DMDs work on 3 levels of on and off for each pixel. This sets the intensity value for each. Sorry, but my preview cannot handle changing these values. You would have to change them and run a game.
• Rotation - For cabinets you probably want none. This is the window rotation. Note that this is a registry setting but many table scripts have this hard coded. You would have to also edit those tables and search for the ror or rol = 1 settings and remove them for this tool to have impact on those tables.
• X pos, Y pos, Width, Height - This is the DMD window location and size.
• Change color - If you check this, all the tables will be updated to the color you have selected. This is useful if you want all your tables to be a standard color. For some reason many tables are often in different color DMDs. While these looked neat, they were not authentic, so hence this switch. The checkbox is present so that if you do not want your DMD colors changed you can uncheck this and it will not be impacted.
• Set Default - This will load the default PinMAME color.
• Click to change - you can set the color you want, can be any RGB (red, green, blue) value.

Some of the other buttons at the bottom::

• Load MAME Defaults - Loads into the form from what I can tell were the defaults pinMAME uses.
• Load First MAME ROM Values - If you have already configured your tables, or you just want to first manually configure one table and then use this tool to apply to the rest, then this button is for you. You can click this and it will load the first configured MAME ROM value from the registry into the form. The ROMs are stored in the registry in alphabetical order. You can open the registry if you want and find the first ROM or maybe look in the ROMs directory on your disk.
• Save As Default - Should save the current values in the form as a default that is loaded next time you load the app.
• Install ROMS and Update - This will scan for ROM files in your ROM path that you specify (in the next box that pops up) and will add a registry entry for each of these. It will set the default values you have in the form to each of these added ROMs. It will also mark each game as "Played" so you do not get that super annoying box asking if you legally have the right to run the ROM. I assume that if you load this tool, you have that legal right to run the ROM. This will not update all other ROMs with current settings. Only new ones that it scans and finds.
• Update All Installed ROMs - You should use this each time you want to make a change across all your ROMs. This is sort of the "save all" button.

 

[Draco1962]

I will definitely check it out! Thanls for the tip!

[TerryRed]

Yes, I also used setDMD to set ALL of my DMDs for VP.  It will set the size, position, and colour of ALL of your DMDs. You may have to mess with certain settings to get it right.  Just understand that if you do change something, and apply those changes, it may do it for ALL of your DMDs.  Some DMDs need to be rotated, and it has to be done in the registry. (rol = 1 or ror =1 for that table's rom)

I learned the hard way.... get ALL of your tables setup first. Then setup your default DMD colour, size and position, etc for what you will like for ALL of your tables.  Then apply the changes.  Then do the DMD rotation changes for the tables that need it LAST! If you decide to do some kind of change for all of your DMDs "after" changing the rotation for some tables.... setDMD will reset that rotation setting for those tables!   I had to re-do the rotation settings for over 40 tables...blah!

Some tables have larger DMDs, and digital scores, etc that may need to be adjusted for size afterward as well.

[TerryRed]

I'm also uploading to the FTP (other uploads/TerryRed) my collection of Visual Pinball Media for you Draco.  It has updated backglass (no grill) and playfield videos. A few backglass's have still pics because they didn't animate on the table, so I just used a still pic. I didn't include my DMD videos because they are useless for anyone because they are formatted for my "2 display" middle screen. I also included the normal wheel images I currently have (in case you need them for your mega images), and the table audio I used.

I have 3 system folders. Visual Pinball (this is VPX), Visual Pinball 9, and Visual Pinball PM5 (Physics Mod 5). All the media is sorted into each system according to what type of table it is.

It may take a while to upload. Hope its helpful...

 

[Draco1962]

Thanks very much for sharing your media and advice! I appreciate the assistance from everyone. It is a great reminder of what a great community we have in that most everyone is willing to share to ensure that all are successful. 

[TerryRed]

Another thing I did, was having a separate mapping program (like what Carny said, I use Pinnacle Gaming Profiler) that would map my EXIT button to run a "taskkill" .BAT file to taskkill ALL possible instances of VP (even if they weren't open, ie VPX, VP9, VPPM5 all included). 

I don't have Pinball X's EXIT key function mapped to make any of my emulators exit, as it can have weird issues where it may only close part of what was running, etc...

I use Pinnacle Gaming Profiler to make my EXIT button close each emulator as needed for that system. Some, will close with alt-f4, others (Pinball Arcade) required a taskkill command from a BAT file. VP also worked better with a taskkill BAT file.

MAME... I use Rocket Launcher's hotkey to close MAME.

[TerryRed]

Files are up now Draco. I had around 155 VP tables with all 3 systems combined.  I got what seemed to be the most popular.

If you are deciding to go the d2bs route, then you will need to get that all setup as well. You would get the d2bs backglass file to match your table (with matching filename), and then you need to enable it in the table script. This is assuming you have the d2bs server setup. (I just used the VPX all in one installer which took care of the d2bs server for me.)

If you don't want to setup d2bs backglasses, then just have Pinball X play these backglass videos / images while you play your VP tables.  Good luck!

[Outhere]

On 6/5/2016 at 0:44 PM, TerryRed said:

Yes, I also used setDMD to set ALL of my DMDs for VP.  It will set the size, position, and colour of ALL of your DMDs. You may have to mess with certain settings to get it right.  Just understand that if you do change something, and apply those changes, it may do it for ALL of your DMDs.  Some DMDs need to be rotated, and it has to be done in the registry. (rol = 1 or ror =1 for that table's rom)

I learned the hard way.... get ALL of your tables setup first. Then setup your default DMD colour, size and position, etc for what you will like for ALL of your tables.  Then apply the changes.  Then do the DMD rotation changes for the tables that need it LAST! If you decide to do some kind of change for all of your DMDs "after" changing the rotation for some tables.... setDMD will reset that rotation setting for those tables!   I had to re-do the rotation settings for over 40 tables...blah!

Some tables have larger DMDs, and digital scores, etc that may need to be adjusted for size afterward as well.

What I did after I re-did my hard drive and loaded all the software
After loading the first game with a DMD I went into the Rom area in the registry and I Added the DMD Location
 to the Default Area and after that it sets itself up automatically for each game

I always change the rotation in the game script that way it's permanent if you have to redo your windows for some
 reason it will always be right

[TerryRed]

Yes, what i meant was that the default location, size,etc is set in pinmame and setdmd first, then you run your tables and make any changes per table afterward...

I tried changing the rotation in the scripts, but there were alot of tables where it didn't work, so I had to do it in the registry. 

You can always back-up your registry entries for your pinmame settings just in case.

 

[Draco1962]

Where in the registry can you find these settings? 

[TerryRed]

I do believe its:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Freeware / Visual PinMame

You should see an entry for every  PinMame rom in there. Select your rom, then look for the "rol" and "ror" settings and try changing their value to 1, for changing the rotation.

 

[Umpa]

Oh is that where everyone changes it I just look in the table script for rol

[TerryRed]

1 hour ago, Umpa said:

Oh is that where everyone changes it I just look in the table script for rol

 Yah, I tried changing rol in the table script, but it wouldn't work for most of my tables that needed rotation for the DMD.

[Draco1962]

Also you can set the DMD length & width in the registry as well. I haven't tried setting the location on the 3rd monitor that way but I am sure it is possible. 

[TerryRed]

The idea is that you can use setDMD to setup a good default size, position (on whatever screen), colour, etc... and have it save that to all of those pinmame rom settings in the registry, so you don't have to do it yourself for every table..... even tables you don't have installed yet!  Then when you run a table, even for the first time, it will be setup for you. The only thing setDMD won't do is the rotation setting change.

It's only the non-standard (large dmd, dmds to be rotated, digital segments, etc) that need any changes afterward.

It was a little confusing at first, but once you understand the settings, it makes your job much easier....especially when you are dealing with hundreds of tables!

[djrobx]

Hey Tom!    Soooo...

I upgraded the processor and video card in my pincab.   I figured VPX had been out for a while now, and there were some new tables that were taking advantage of the new features, but why not go for max quality?    All was going pretty well.   Then when playing around with the Addams Family table, it suddenly decided it couldn't open the ROM.    Checked the rom file.   Not a zip.  Huh?   That file hasn't been touched in ages.   So I reboot.    I'm then greeted with an ominous warning on all 3 of my pincab's screens that my hard drive had been encrypted, and that to get my files back I'd have to give up some bitcoin.   I burst out laughing.   Somehow during the process of locating and downloading the latest video drivers, a cryptolocker virus came along for the ride!      Not that big a deal, I have a semi-recent backup.  

Cool story bro, I know.  Point being this was an opportunity to try out that automatic installer you mentioned over on VPU.   This finally got me motivated to move to PinballX.    Overall it went pretty smoothly.    But since I just completed installing everything from scratch, some observations:

1) One of the most painful aspects was getting my 3 displays configured correctly.    It would be great if there was a more interactive method of configuring them in the PBX setup wizard.   The DMD positioning was especially difficult to get right.    I think PBX is now writing the ScreenRes.txt file, but it isn't configuring VPM.  I had to find SetDMD for that. 

2) The VP install itself seemed to work fine, but only sets up VP 9.9.2.   It looks like there's now a similar, "full blown" VP install over on VPForums that installs VP9.9, VP9 PhysMod, B2S, UltraDMD, and VPX.    Perhaps you could use that installer? 

3) PBX created a secondary "system" for VPX, but not PhysMod5.   I had strange problems trying to get PhysMod5 to work, it didn't like the name I picked for some reason.  It worked in Game Manager, it didn't show up in PBX's UI.   Renaming the system name and folder to "VPinball PM5" took care of it.   Anyway, going back to #2, if you auto-install VP, VPX, and VP9 PhysMod it would be great if PBX also created that category for you.   I think it's going to be a while before PhysMod5 goes away. 

4) The joystick button configuration in setup is a bit confusing.   There's "Quit" "Exit Emulator" and "Pause/In Game".    I'm guessing "Pause/In Game" is what most people would want for the exit button, as the first option on the menu that pops up is to exit the game, but that's not obvious.   The (?) help hover-over doesn't really describe what these options do.

5) It would be nice if the auto-installer would include Direct Output Framework.   Could leave B2S's plugin disabled, but leave the DOF files in the right place in the plugins folder.    DOF is probably one of the most difficult things to set up that I've ever seen next to Oracle on Linux, so any head start you can give users is probably a good thing, and it seems to be a pretty standard part of this hobby.  

6) I did have a backup, so I started with my HyperPin DB as a base.    With HyperPin there is only one DB, so all my VPX, PhysMod and VP9 tables are in the same XML and identified only by a vpexetables text file.   Having them in separate places in PinballX is wonderfully better, but it would be helpful if Game Manager had the option to MOVE a table (and its associated artwork) from one DB to another.    I imagine people might want to do this as they upgrade their tables too. 

7) The ability to pull down wheel images and such from Game Manager is amazing.  

8) It would be nice if Game Manager had keyboard shortcuts and navigation (i.e. typing M goes to games that start with M).  When working on my cab the mouse is really painful to use. 

That's about it!   The point of all this is just to share my "fresh install" experience, not to nitpick or nag.    You know me well enough to know I truly appreciate all the hard work you've put into this.   Thanks for giving us this fantastic front end, and for sticking with this emulator front end thing for so damn long.   Looking at my profile here I've been a member since 2005.    11 years ago?   Good lord.  

Cheers.

-- Rob 

[Tom Speirs]

Sorry about the PC but otherwise - welcome to the free world

I appreciate the feedback. Always good to hear when it is constructive.

As for number 2 it should install all three versions of VP. Are you sure it didn't? I know it doesn't set them up in PBX but they should be there?

Cheers.

Tom.

 

PS: I promoted you to contributor earlier in the day since you helped a lot all those years ago. We didn't have that back then. I still remember though.

 

 

 

[Xantari]

Which physmod5 .exe is included with the pinball x install? Is it MJR's version that splits out the registry into a seperate location so that the nudge settings that are specific to physmod5 work properly? Or is it the one that includes the same registry entrys as regular visual pinball (and thus causes nudge sensor setting conflicts)?

[RCAerobat]

Hey guys, I need some help and advise. I have been building my system and have around a hundred different VP games loaded and playing fine (9.91, PM5 and VPX). My next part of this was to setup the front end and I decided to go with PinballX. I am running Windows 7 and everything is still running and playing fine after installation of PinballX, with one exception. The resolution of my back glass display has changed and I can't figure out where the change has happened. I set the resolution in the setup of PinballX to match what was on the monitor, but now it doesn't fit on the screen vertically (it's cut off at the bottom) and there is a black bar on the right side. The monitor is set at 1366x768. I am running a B2S server for the back glasses. 

Help! It's not a big deal, but it's just aggravating. 

Also, I haven't yet started to load the games using the game manager. Is it difficult to point the different games to the correct version of VP (9.91, PM5 and VPX)?

thanks again!

[RCAerobat]

 

OK, I finally found the culprit. Apparently, I have two B2S setups in my visual pinball folders. I have one in the main visual pinball folder and that one had the correct resolution. Then I decided to look into the other folders and I found a B2S editor under the table folder. When I clicked that one, the resolution was wrong. I put in the correct values and it fits the screen properly again! Yeah!

My question is, should I have that B2S editor in both folders?

Thanks