Settings, High scores and Credits not saving VPX

[Skuta]

First time posting so go easy on me. Also I have searched with the most typical terms but nothing comes up that is helping.

Settings, High scores and Credits are not saving in VPX when run through Pinball X

If I run the tables through VPX directly it does everything right, also I installed popper front end and that works also but I much prefer the pinballx layout.  Any new table I download also has the same problem.

Things I have tried:

Run as administrator

Delete NVRAM

Check alternate.exe setup

Installed latest version of PBX today but still no change

and probably some other things that I can't remember right now

Hopefully one of you gurus can help me out. I'm fairly tech savvy but this one has me pulling my hair out. It's stopped me from enjoying playing. Thanks in advance for any insights.

PinballX.ini log.txt

[Skuta]

Updated with Log.txt and PinballX.ini

[scutters]

Can you post a log.txt after launching a table?

Also, have you tried VPX running as admin or just pinballx ?

Edit - and what is fix.exe, same issue with the launch after disabled?

[Mike_da_Spike]

I must say I have the same  only with 1 table. Stern's 24.

When I edit the rom for correcting the pricing it wont save the nvram when running on pbx.

Running it with vpx all is saved. Looks like that pbx kills the process before it saves the nvram

[Skuta]

Thanks Scutters,

Here we go, this is after bride of pinbot.

As for running VPX as admin, yes it is set to run as admin.

I disabled the fix.exe but that didn't change anything. Thanks for looking into it.

log.txt

Edited April 10, 2019 by Skuta
added details

[scutters]

If VPX is running as admin leave pinballx running as admin.

Bit stumped on the cause of the issue though if it's all tables not saving nvram through pbx.. sorry!. Maybe check you have latest vpinmame, vpx, freezy dll (if used) build etc, post back versions - maybe there'll be a clue in there. Seems like VPX doesn't exit gracefully through PBX for you.

Maybe @Tom Speirs will have an idea

 

[Skuta]

Just double checked and all are current except dmdext is 1.71 and the latest is 1.72, I'll update that and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions. 

[scutters]

I'd stay at 1.71 for freezys, from memory there was some issue with 1.72 (can't remember details).. regardless, i'm on 1.71 and don't have your issues so that can be ruled out anyway i think.

[Skuta]

Ok thanks for that. Yeah I might hold off on the update. 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Do you have it with all tables or some (also vp9)?

I will check bride of pinbott today too. Didn't checked that table.

I don't have a solution, but maybe this can help @Tom Speirs for troubleshooting.

I noticed that 24 didn't save the nvram file when running from pinballx.

 But when launching 24, made a high score, I pressed instead of my exit button on the keyboard the "q" key twice to exit the vpx table. Than the nvram file was written.

I checked on my cabinet a lot of tables, but nvram was written after clicking the exit button. 

What verion of vpx.exe you run ?

 

[Skuta]

Hey Mike, I'm pretty sure it's with all VPX tables, ACDC Luci, Scared Stiff, TAF etc. I'll double check VP9 but I don't think they're affected.

I'm running VPX 10.6

[Mike_da_Spike]

3 hours ago, Skuta said:

Hey Mike, I'm pretty sure it's with all VPX tables, ACDC Luci, Scared Stiff, TAF etc. I'll double check VP9 but I don't think they're affected.

I'm running VPX 10.6

OK... hmmm ... Just checked and Bride of pinbot is working for me as a charm. Still "24" has an issue on my cab .

I run all my tables (including pinmame) from an SSD disk. Maybe that is faster and can write all in time ?

[Skuta]

Yeah I'm SSD too. I'll try the QQ exit and see if that works for me.

[Mike_da_Spike]

3 hours ago, Skuta said:

Yeah I'm SSD too. I'll try the QQ exit and see if that works for me.

Just to see if it is a timings issue

[scutters]

Just tried Bride of Pinbot on my setup by throwing in some credits closing and going back in in pinballx to see if they're still there, it's working for me (but had me wandering for a moment - rom doesn't save 1/2 credits like some, need to add full credit to test)

@Skuta Not sure how it would or could affect anything, and i'm pretty sure you'd have mapped same buttons to same functions in both front ends as well,  but do you have exit emulator button 6 mapped to anything in visual pinball x key preferences?. I've tried to recreate the issue by mapping my exit emulator button to a few vpx things and failed to get the problem, but worth a check anyways.

Maybe it is something to do with alternateexe? i don't use it myself so not really familiar, i have vpx tables under their own system in 'other sytsems', could be worth trying for one table if you have some time over the weekend

@Mike_da_Spike i think i did have that issue with 24 at one time, pretty sure it was something to do with table script  -  try copying the script from here https://github.com/sverrewl/vpxtable_scripts (Thalamus's repository) and trying again (backup orig script to notepad file first so you can go back if required)

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

43 minutes ago, scutters said:

 

@Mike_da_Spike i think i did have that issue with 24 at one time, pretty sure it was something to do with table script  -  try copying the script from here https://github.com/sverrewl/vpxtable_scripts (Thalamus's repository) and trying again (backup orig script to notepad file first so you can go back if required)

 

You are my hero @scutters

The script fixed indeed my issue.

Strange thing I only had it when launching from PBX. 

Need to check if Thalusman has more scripts that I need

[Skuta]

2 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Just to see if it is a timings issue

Thanks Mike, Tried QQ and yes it saved settings and credits. Thank you, now to find out what is holding it up from saving to nvram.

1 hour ago, scutters said:

Just tried Bride of Pinbot on my setup by throwing in some credits closing and going back in in pinballx to see if they're still there, it's working for me (but had me wandering for a moment - rom doesn't save 1/2 credits like some, need to add full credit to test)

@Skuta Not sure how it would or could affect anything, and i'm pretty sure you'd have mapped same buttons to same functions in both front ends as well,  but do you have exit emulator button 6 mapped to anything in visual pinball x key preferences?. I've tried to recreate the issue by mapping my exit emulator button to a few vpx things and failed to get the problem, but worth a check anyways.

Maybe it is something to do with alternateexe? i don't use it myself so not really familiar, i have vpx tables under their own system in 'other sytsems', could be worth trying for one table if you have some time over the weekend

 

Thanks scutters, it does it either way, with half or full credits.

The kids are playing on the cabinet at the moment but I'll have a look tomorrow and see what they're set to.

Thank you both for your help.

[scutters]

@Mike_da_Spike No problem, Thalamus et al are the real heroes. Definitely check out those scripts if you're lag sensitive (most are fast flip enabled), or are using surround sound in the cab as they have improved positional ball rolling sounds in most cases. Just make sure the script matches the table version you're using.

@Skuta Just noticed your log file doesn't have a "C:\PinballX\vpauto.exe " immediately after table launch. Have you removed / renamed it due to another issue? (i know it can be recommended for focus issues). It might be a factor here as, as far as i know it deals with vpinmame nag screens at table launch so is rom related, albeit at start rather than exit of table. Normally it's between these two entries;

04:43:57.9  4/11/2019:  D:\Emulators\Visual Pinball\VPinballX.exe /play -"D:\Emulators\Visual Pinball\Tables\Bride Of Pinbot (Williams 1991).vpx"
04:43:57.1  4/11/2019:  VPX Full screen exclusive mode detected

[Mike_da_Spike]

@SkutaAlso not sure what the D:\Emulators\Visual Pinball\activate.exe is doing . It is running just before your table starts.

I don't have that in my log (don't have that exe file at all in my visualpinball dir)

[Skuta]

Hey Mike, I'm not sure what that or the fix.exe is. I bought the cabinet off another guy. I've got him on the case as well. I'll find out what the 2 exe's are. 

I mentioned that I thought it might be every vpx table but I do recall adding cartoons and it doesn't have an issue with the high scores, so there'll be others that work properly. 

[scutters]

7 hours ago, Skuta said:

Hey Mike, I'm not sure what that or the fix.exe is. I bought the cabinet off another guy. I've got him on the case as well. I'll find out what the 2 exe's are. 

I mentioned that I thought it might be every vpx table but I do recall adding cartoons and it doesn't have an issue with the high scores, so there'll be others that work properly. 

There's also fixups.exe at startup, worth checking on that too just so you know what's going on.. did you add them to popper front end when that worked?

I'd disable all three to see what if anything breaks (or starts to work!)

[Skuta]

1 hour ago, scutters said:

There's also fixups.exe at startup, worth checking on that too just so you know what's going on.. did you add them to popper front end when that worked?

I'd disable all three to see what if anything breaks (or starts to work!)

Just disabled all 3 and tried that on ACDC Luci but unfortunately it wasn't the problem, didn't try enough tables to see what broke either. I didn't add them to popper, I'll find out what fixups.exe is also.

[Mike_da_Spike]

What version of pinmame do you run ? 

And are the tables that doesn't save the nvram old versions or the latest?

[scutters]

For info worked out why vpauto.exe isn't running on table launch, it's  because bypass disclaimers is set to No in settings.exe (this line in the .ini file Bypass=False)

Tried disabling on my setup and didn't replicate issue so i think that can be discounted too.

 

[Skuta]

The guy that originally built it got back to me and said the 3 exe's are not used now, I think it was to do with some earlier versions of certain tables, he's still looking into it for me.

Mike 3.1 for pinmame. Tables are generally latest, I keep up to date fairly well with improved versions.

Scutters, thanks for testing.