[APP] PinballX Database Manager 24.09.06.0 (supports Touch Play as well)

[Mike_da_Spike]

Version 24.06.07.0 has been released.

This major update has kept @scutters and myself occupied for an extended period. Last year, we upgraded DBM from the .NET Framework 4.0 to 4.8, which only caused us minor headaches.

I had been suggesting to @scutters that we should upgrade to .NET, but the migration path seemed too extensive. However, last month we began some tests and migrated our 'legacy' .NET Framework code to .NET Core code.

Even though Microsoft offers a helpful migration assistant, it wasn't sufficient for our needs. We had to change a significant amount of code and forms, and acquire new NuGet packages to get everything working again. But now, the final result is here!

We have successfully built a version based on .NET 8! What does this mean for you as a user? The application launches faster, and overall performance should be improved. Moreover, .NET 8 includes security enhancements, such as improved memory safety and mitigations against common vulnerabilities. With .NET 8's cross-platform compatibility, we may be able to support new platforms if PinballX does as well.

We have also restructured the installation folder:

- The INI file has been moved to the config folder.
- Additional files have been placed into the resources folder.
- PDFs are now located in the documentation folder.
- The number of DLLs in the parent directory has been reduced.

As always, a big thanks to @scutters. Without his help, we would never have been at this point (even though he was hesitant to take this path and upgrade to .NET 8). Thanks, mate, buddy, friend, for everything!

[Mike_da_Spike]

@Topspliff discovered the first "bug" without realizing it. He's having trouble accessing the FTP server, and I've observed that the icons for revealing the password (the eye symbol) in the settings dialog are not displayed. Hovering over the area reveals the password, but the icons (for visibility/invisibility in both dark and light themes) are missing.

We will wait here for his issue to be addressed.

EDIT: You mentioned receiving a 504 error. Typically, a 504 error indicates a timeout when connecting to the remote server (for instance, see 'What is a 504 Gateway Timeout error, and how to fix it? - SiteGround KB). In our program, we have set the timeout limit to 15 seconds.
Could you try connecting to the FTP server using a program like FileZilla? If that works, does it take longer to log in to the server?

[Topspliff]

Hi

I will try an ftp program, but as I said it connects no problem using game manager. 

 

Very strange! 

[Mike_da_Spike]

I thought that game manager uses http to connect. We connect directly to the ftp server.

 

[Topspliff]

OK I tried WINSCP and it connects perfectly, along with Game Manager. 

So I'm completely stuck as to why the database manager software does not connect 

😕

[Mike_da_Spike]

Your not the  only one, but we need to check what's going on.

Can you reproduce your issue and post the log file of databasemanage ?

What OS are you using ? 

As we just move to a complete new dotnet version, can you try the previous version ? The part for ftp access is the same, but just wanted to know if that is working , as all works from scutters and me.

In the program we connect with TLS to make it more secure. Is TLS enabled or disabled within your OS ? 

Sorry for all the questions, but just want to figure out why this isn't working for you, but works for others

[robertms]

On 6/6/2024 at 11:30 PM, Mike_da_Spike said:

Version 24.06.07.0 has been released.

Hey @Mike_da_Spike and @scutters! Many thanks for modernizing this project, indeed the performance seems improved. I am however now getting the following error using the Create Videos function (no videos are recorded):

ERROR INFO    :    CreateVideos    ServiceController enables manipulating and accessing Windows services and it is not applicable for other operating systems.
 

Also, the button font sizes are not uniform, range from micro to full size.

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

8 minutes ago, robertms said:

ERROR INFO    :    CreateVideos    ServiceController enables manipulating and accessing Windows services and it is not applicable for other operating systems.

Thanks @robertms. I noticed this yesterday as well. On my DEV machine all works, but not on my cabinet. We will find a fix and rlease it

9 minutes ago, robertms said:

Also, the button font sizes are not uniform, range from micro to full size.

This is because you can resize the form. As Microsoft changed the font (and size), our resize script will resize the text to the button size (with some margins. It's not too micro, right ? Or do you use a language that makes it very micro ?

[Mike_da_Spike]

quick fix release 24.06.09.0 for creating videos
Also a small fix where downloading from FTP could result that the primary key was not found
And not to forget, password field i nsetttings -> GameEx online 

If you still receive the following error with version 24.06.09.0 , uncheck in the option to stop teamviewer in the general settings tab (and close team viewer yourself)

ERROR INFO    :    CreateVideos    ServiceController enables manipulating and accessing Windows services and it is not applicable for other operating systems.

As this is a quickfix, we ( @scutters and myself) will investigate further why some PC's get this error

 

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

released Version 24.06.09.1 with another fix : Multilanguage is fixed 
 

[robertms]

22 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Thanks @robertms. I noticed this yesterday as well. On my DEV machine all works, but not on my cabinet. We will find a fix and rlease it

This is because you can resize the form. As Microsoft changed the font (and size), our resize script will resize the text to the button size (with some margins. It's not too micro, right ? Or do you use a language that makes it very micro ?

Thanks for fixing the video recording! Regarding the varied font sizes, I'm just running English. Perhaps it's my cab setup, I'm running 4K playfield and 1366x768 backglass. Here is what I'm seeing regardless of which screen or window size:

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

1 hour ago, robertms said:

Thanks for fixing the video recording! Regarding the varied font sizes, I'm just running English. Perhaps it's my cab setup, I'm running 4K playfield and 1366x768 backglass. Here is what I'm seeing regardless of which screen or window size:

thanks for your feedback about the latest version
@scutters is checking and found something that would show the font better. 
In your screenshot is shows different as in mine

But we need to test it further (and modify all windows).

 

[scutters]

@robertms It looks like you have the form maximised, is that on the backglass monitor in the screenshot, and do you have any scaling set in windows for the screens, or all at 100%?

Edit - a bit of late idea on this (and it might sound a little crazy ), but can you run dbm unmaximised, then drag the bottom right corner to shrink the form size down as far as possible, then close dbm and reopen it.  Any change?

[robertms]

16 hours ago, scutters said:

@robertms It looks like you have the form maximised, is that on the backglass monitor in the screenshot, and do you have any scaling set in windows for the screens, or all at 100%?

Edit - a bit of late idea on this (and it might sound a little crazy ), but can you run dbm unmaximised, then drag the bottom right corner to shrink the form size down as far as possible, then close dbm and reopen it.  Any change?

Both screens are set to 100% scaling, however my playfield runs 4xDSR full time, so this is likely what's causing the issues. I bet if I was running native 4K everything would look uniform. I tried all your suggestions but in my case they made little difference (unmaximized screenshot attached). 

I remember a short while ago the font sizes were all out of whack after some update, but you guys managed to fix it in subsequent releases. I get why this may not be possible going forward for non-standard users like myself, since you've enhanced window sizing capability and that's more important anyway. It's no big deal, just a cosmetic issue that I can live with. I very much appreciate the continuous improvements to the software, and I can honestly say your DBX Manager is the reason I have kept Pinball X as my frontend.

 

[scutters]

@robertms Thanks for that.

Mike has experimented a bit and may have found the cause.

Under accessibility settings have you changed the Text Size from the default 100%?

Can you check with the setting at 100% to confirm on your setup... if that's it then we can fix it 

[robertms]

10 hours ago, scutters said:

@robertms Thanks for that.

Mike has experimented a bit and may have found the cause.

Under accessibility settings have you changed the Text Size from the default 100%?

Can you check with the setting at 100% to confirm on your setup... if that's it then we can fix it 

You're right, my accessibility text size was set to 175%, I forgot that was an option in Windows 10. I guess it's been a while since I messed with that.. If I change it to 100% and run DBM, indeed the button fonts become more legible. Unfortunately I can't leave it at 100% because text in all other windows on my playfield TV becomes very difficult to make out. 

[Mike_da_Spike]

6 hours ago, robertms said:

You're right, my accessibility text size was set to 175%, I forgot that was an option in Windows 10. I guess it's been a while since I messed with that.. If I change it to 100% and run DBM, indeed the button fonts become more legible. Unfortunately I can't leave it at 100% because text in all other windows on my playfield TV becomes very difficult to make out. 

Thanks for testing. We found the root cause and we can play with it. @scutters found a properly solution for this, but needs a lot of adjustments. Stay tuned !

EDIT :  you can also leave the font to 100 and adjust the DPI/SCALE
I've set my DPI/SCALE to 150% and I can read all !

[robertms]

5 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Thanks for testing. We found the root cause and we can play with it. @scutters found a properly solution for this, but needs a lot of adjustments. Stay tuned !

EDIT :  you can also leave the font to 100 and adjust the DPI/SCALE
I've set my DPI/SCALE to 150% and I can read all !

Thanks Mike, I appreciate you guys trying but not sure if it's worth the extra effort. Unfortunately changing the dpi/scale messes up my pup packs. No worries though, I can definitely live with it the way it is.

[Mike_da_Spike]

5 minutes ago, robertms said:

Thanks Mike, I appreciate you guys trying but not sure if it's worth the extra effort. 

Indeed, it needs to be addressed. You might be the only one experiencing this issue, but we aim for customer satisfaction!  

6 minutes ago, robertms said:

Unfortunately changing the dpi/scale messes up my pup packs. No worries though, I can definitely live with it the way it is.

are you using VPX 10.8 with latest B2Server ? I thought VPX10.8 is fully DPI aware now. 

[robertms]

11 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

are you using VPX 10.8 with latest B2Server ? I thought VPX10.8 is fully DPI aware now.

Hmm, indeed I am. I'll have to test it again.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Version 24.06.19.0 has been released.
This minor update addresses a bug that caused an extremely small font when the Windows Text Size was set above 100%. Special thanks to @robertms for reporting and assisting with the testing of this issue. again. @scutters and I could not determine why these two values were right-aligned.
Additionally, @robertms found that the Search button in the advanced form for the US language was mistakenly labeled 'Rechercher' (French), which has now been corrected.

It was discovered that "Played Time" and "Count" had been right-aligned for years; they are now aligned to the left

Some unused code was also removed, which should marginally increase the application's performance (though the improvement is measured in milliseconds).

A big thank you to @scutters for his contribution again to this release!

[bushav]

Let me join in and say how much I am enjoying this Database Management Tool.  I had taken a break from my cabinet after VPW creators switched to 64 bit. 

Last week I decided to take a day or two and upgrade to a 64 bit/32 bit install.  Of course that led to installing a dozen new tables and various other upgrades.  The Database Manager Tool was a part of those upgrades.  You fellows have produced an excellent tool.  It performs the designated job in an elegant and simple manner.  Thank you so much for your contributions.

Lane

[Mike_da_Spike]

7 hours ago, bushav said:

Let me join in and say how much I am enjoying this Database Management Tool.  I had taken a break from my cabinet after VPW creators switched to 64 bit. 

Last week I decided to take a day or two and upgrade to a 64 bit/32 bit install.  Of course that led to installing a dozen new tables and various other upgrades.  The Database Manager Tool was a part of those upgrades.  You fellows have produced an excellent tool.  It performs the designated job in an elegant and simple manner.  Thank you so much for your contributions.

Lane

Hi Lane,

Thank you for your kind words.
This is exactly what Scutters and I created it for: to make things easier for people.
And your words really touched me (yes, I'm a sensitive person on some days of the year 😛 ).

 

[bushav]

I've run into a problem today.  With database manager I am not getting a backglass when I "create videos".  I'm creating a video for a single table and getting the DMD and playfield but not the backglass.  The log states "no backglass mp4".  I've tried it with GPU capture and without GPU capture.  I believe this has been working for me last week.

DBManagerLog.txt log.txt PinballX.ini

[bushav]

I also tried recording a video using pinballx in game feature.  I selected game in PinballX and started playing.  I hit the "C" key and it started "capturing video - please wait - this may take a few minuites".  Then it closed game.  You can see from the log it realized there was a playfield and DMD video.  It never tried to record the backglass.  I must have a setting incorrect somewhere.

Also, where does Database Manager place "old" files?  I did have a backglass video for this table at one time but I renamed the table and had Database Manager remove old files. 

log.txt