PBX set-up questions

[Erzak]

Hi folks,
I have some questions about how to set-up things in PinballX.  I have a 3 screen set-up: playfield and backglass are standard monitors, DMD is a PinDMD3.  When I launch a game from VPX or VP9, the DMD works (after I configure VPinMame to use the external DMD).  If I put a .db2s file in the tables directory, it shows up when I play the table.  So that part I have figured out, and it makes sense.

Now, when using PinballX, I am getting somewhat confused.  I have 10 VP tables loaded into PinballX.  When I aml scrolling thru the tables, two of them (Attack From Mars and Austin Powers) display the table-specific videos on the DMD, and if I look in C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Real DMD Color Videos, I see those two .mp4 files.  The other tables show the default PinballX color video.  There are some videos and images for other tables in the C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Images and C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\DMD Videos directories, do those not show up because these files would only be used if the DMD was being displayed on an LCD monitor?

For the two tables that have real DMD color videos, I have the 'Hide DMD' box unchecked in Game List Manager,is that correct?  I know that if I don't check it for a game that doesn't have an associated video, I then get the "pindmd v3 not found" error message when I launch the game thru PBX.  Or should I have that checked for all tables?  But if so, then what is that option for?

However, when PBX is in attract mode, I will sometimes see the DMD displaying stuff for Medieval Madness (which I have installed) but do not have a DMD video file for.  And it doesn't necessarily play when Medieval Madness is the table being displayed.  Where is that coming from?  Is that PinMame doing something?  I know there is an option to use 

Regarding backglasses, should the 'Hide backglass' box be checked in general?  Doesn't seem like the 'Use B2S server' option is doing anything.  I think that the backglass images/videos are being taken from the C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Backglass Images and C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Backglass Videos directories. 

What does the 'Import ROM' function do?  I've tried that, but when I go check my .xml file, all tables still say <rom></rom>, as if I didn't make a selection, or it didn't save the information in the xml file.  I thought I read somewhere that if you point to the ROM and have 'Use PinMame in frontend' on it will run the ROM image/video on the DMD, but I haven't gotten that to work.

I did install the 64-bit version, haven't tried the 32-bit version to see if that fixes (or changes) things.  Since I see there is a new version out (3.23), so perhaps I'll try that tonight and install the 32-bit version, assuming that won't mess things up to go from 64-bit to 32-bit.

Sorry for all the quesions.  I have read thru about ~1/3 of the posts in this forum, and while I did find some good information, I am still confused.  I was hoping to find a newbie set-up guide, but did not.  I did find 'PinballX_S2F_Documentation rev 1.3.pdf' but it's from an older version of PBX, and some of the newer features aren't covered at all, and others are just glossed over.

Thanks,
Eric

[Tom Speirs]

The Hide settings refer to showing images/videos after launching a game. Hide is normally the correct method.

DMD images/videos is for a regular monitor. Real DMD imagesvideos is for a real dmd display. Color for recent DMD devices unless you set the option to make the DMD a single  color in the settings then it uses the non color real DMD folder.

[Erzak]

I downloaded the latest version of PBX and installed the 32 bit version, but it won't run. Do I need to uninstall the 64 bit version first? If I do, do I need to back-up my .in or .XML files or will they be left alone during the uninstall process?

[Mike_da_Spike]

I always make directory backups of my pinballx and visual pinball directories.

Just a robocopy to another drive. With this you can easily go back to a previous version, or restore your database files (after crasing.my db file with a couple of hunderd tables in it, you are not happy)

But with the latest versions of gamemanager the tabledbwill automaticly be added...