PinballX not recognizing ROM name in statistic.log file [RESOLVED]

[gpstevens]

I saw that DNA_Disturber upgraded his PINemHI Leaderboard plugin recently, so I decided to give it a try.  I can get it to work, but only on a few tables. After some research DNA_D and I figured out it has something to do with PinballX and how it is reading ROM names from vpinmame.   I have configured my PBX environment to use the Visual Pinball system type to run vpinball.exe, and then use other Systems for launch other versions of VP tables. For example I have System6 configured in PBX as a Visual Pinball system type (System Type = 1) that runs my Visual Pinball X tables (executable = vpinballx.exe).  Similarly, I use the "Other System" feature in PBX to run my VP991 tables and VPpm5 tables.

The problem I am having is, when I look at the PBX log.txt file, I get the following lines about half way down the log...

     12:38:23.4  4/7/2018:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Pinball\Vpinball991.exe RunWait, /STAYINRAM /play -"C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Pinball\Tables\Black_Rose_LoadedWeapon.vpt"
     12:38:24.2  4/7/2018:  C:\PinballX\vpauto.exe 
     12:38:29.5  4/7/2018:  Found PinMAME ROM: pinball.nv

Notice the Found PinMAME ROM: pinball.nv?   PBX is not recognizing the ROM name for this table.  If I go to the statistics.ini file, I see this same problem repeated for nearly every VP table I have. I have attached a copy of my statistics.ini file.  The strange thing is, PBX does recognize all my Future Pinball ROM names, and also a select few of my VP tables (like Nascar, Incredible Hulk, No Good Gofers, Monopoly WOW, Harlem Globetrotters, Gladiators, Flash, Meteor, Black Pyramid,).  Could it be because when I load a new table I rename it to match the B2S file?  For example,  the latest iteration of the Riverboat Gambler table from VPForum is called "Riverboat-Gambler_VP9_rob046_Mod_FS_v1.1.vpt". I would rename this to match the B2S file called "Riverboat Gambler (Williams 1990).vpt.

I believe PINemHI plugin uses this info to properly work within PinballX to show highscores under the Information Page of the front-end.  I am having problem with it showing highscores as well.  I think the problems are related.

I am currently running PBX 2.36 and vpinmame 3.0.

Any insight would be most helpful.
 

Statistics.ini

[Tom Speirs]

PinballX gets the rom name to match from PinEmHi.ini. Take a look at the file and see what has changed.

 

PS: Why are you using such an old version of PBX?

[gpstevens]

I thought PinEmHi got the ROM name from the PBX log file.  My log.txt file is attached and it shows that when I ran the table Black_Rose that PBX "Found PinMAME ROM: pinball.nv".   So this pinball.nv reference is actually coming from the pinemhi.ini file somehow?

Is there any specific question I could ask DNA_Disburber to help him understand this problem?  He directed me to pose my problem to you. :-)

 

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

I am guessing the ini file format has changed in the latest release? I do plan to look at this all soon.

[Tom Speirs]

I just had a quick look. Its working well for me. I just overwrote all the files from DNA`s zip in the root of PinballX and it seems to work great.

[gpstevens]

I can get it to work just fine on all my tables where the ROM file is recognized in PBX.  It's only those tables where it doesn't recognize the ROM where it isn't working.  If I run pinemhi.exe at the command prompt and type "pinemhi.exe afm_113b.nv", the high scores for my Attack From Mars table are saving correctly. This works for every one of my tables. But for whatever reason, inside PBX it's not associating the .nv file to the table that I select and play within the PBX interface.  Instead, it returns that weird "pinball.nv" value as shown in the stastistics.ini or the log.txt files I sent you.  Any suggestions on where I could look next?   

BTW, I upgraded to the latest version of PBX. It is by far the best virtual pinball frontend out there.

[Tom Speirs]

I'm not sure I follow you. So its working for some tables but not others, or do you always get "pinball.nv"?

Also, you've got a strange command line for VP.

I only tested with VPX myself.

[gpstevens]

It’s working for some tables, but not others.  For example my Black Pyramid VPX table works, but my Attack From Mars doesn’t.  Most of my tables are returning the pinball.nv entry. There are only a handful that return the correct ROM name. That is what is so strange— it is working some of the time.  It must be how the ROM name is determined, based upon the table that is being played. Is there any magic in how that is done?

[gpstevens]

On 4/7/2018 at 8:21 PM, Tom Speirs said:

I'm not sure I follow you. So its working for some tables but not others, or do you always get "pinball.nv"?

Also, you've got a strange command line for VP.

I only tested with VPX myself.

Tom, I'm going to try to uninstall PinballX completely, then re-install and reconfigure. After re-install I will also update pinemhi to the latest version that supports vpinmame 3.0.  I'll let you know if things start to work after that.  Thanks. 

[Tom Speirs]

It may well be something I need to fix. Right now I cant see how it would happen though. Pinball.nv is not even in the ini file. If you can let me know what roms are affected I can try to duplicate.

[gpstevens]

I found the problem to my setup and everything seems to work great now in PBX.

I tried searching for "pinball.nv" in the pinemhi.ini file to see if somehow pinemhi was indirectly returning "pinball.nv" from the ROM pretty names.  Sure enough, I found an entry that was returning pinball.nv.  It was in the pinemhi.ini file as follows:

   ...

   Pinball Magic (Redemption)=pmv112r.nv
   Pinball Magic=pmv112.nv
   Pinball Pool=pinpool.nv
   Pinball=pinball.nv
   Pink Panther (7-digit conversion)=pnkpntr7.nv
   Pink Panther (sound correction fix)=pnkpntrs.nv
   Pink Panther=pnkpnthr.nv
   ...

I don't have a VP table installed on my setup that uses pinball.nv, so I just deleted this line from the pinemhi.ini file.  And low and behold, everything started working!  PBX now started returning all proper ROM names for all my VP tables from all the different system types I set up in VPX.  I am now getting high scores showing up on the Information pages in VPX and high scores are getting sent to DNA's LeaderBoard site as well.

I can't explain why this was happening to my setup, but I wanted to share this with the community in case others are having a similar problem. I posted a similar response to DNA over at VPForum.

Thanks Tom for spending the time to help me track down my issue. ISSUE RESOLVED!