How to Change Resolution Settings in PBX?

[lees1964]

So I've watched roughly ten THOUSAND videos on improving the look of the playfield (the videos and screen shots I see out there always look SO amazing, then I go to my cabinet and it looks flat and dull, or too sharp or too unrealistic - as you can tell, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is a major difference between what I see in most videos, and my screen).  I spent most of the morning looking at new TV/monitors to see what might fit my cabinet (it's an old school cab and is quite narrow, so that , alone, limits me).  This led me to finding out that my Nvidia graphics card could actually change the resolution of my playfield from 1368 X 760 to 1920 X 1080, and it DEFINITELY made a big difference (still not exactly what I have been seeing in the videos, but enough of a difference that I want to keep it at this resolution).  I went into VPX and changed the resolution (and it appears as though I'm gonna have to move and resize every DMD, but that's no big deal), and played through VPX the games look good and fit the screen correctly.  When I fire up PinballX, the backglass is still good (because I didn't change the resolution on that one), but the playfield is a small box in the center of the screen.  Clearly PinballX still thinks I'm at the old resolution, so I sent into settings and checked everywhere I could think of, but no option to change the playfield resolution.  I know I'm just not looking in the right place, but I'm not sure where the right place IS.  Oh, and if any of you have any suggestions for any settings that might give that screen a deeper, more realistic feel, I'd LOVE to hear them.  I've dabbled with the POV stuff, with limited success.  Mostly use it to widen some tables, and a little on the layback.  I'm not a fan of the inclination as it feels like wasted space at the top left and right.  Anyway, thanks for reading another one of my longwinded posts!   

 

[Draco1962]

Please attach copies of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files. Also, a screen capture of your Windows display settings with monitor arrangement may be useful.

[scutters]

49 minutes ago, Draco1962 said:

Please attach copies of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files. Also, a screen capture of your Windows display settings with monitor arrangement may be useful.

A screenshot of the 'playfield as small box' might also be useful - i thought pinballx scaled up whatever media it has found to fill the screen / pinballx window. Might just need setting to run in windowed mode in display settings rather than full screen, and then maximising the pinballx window when opened.

3 hours ago, lees1964 said:

Oh, and if any of you have any suggestions for any settings that might give that screen a deeper, more realistic feel, I'd LOVE to hear them.  I've dabbled with the POV stuff, with limited success.  Mostly use it to widen some tables, and a little on the layback.  I'm not a fan of the inclination as it feels like wasted space at the top left and right.

I don't like empty corners on the screen either (i don't like to see a lot of the backs of flippers either). Normally when adjusting pov i end up with inclination around 5,  FOV around 30 and layback around 60 and then fill the screen (using z offset and x and y scale) for SS tables with ramps, but there isn't a POV that suits all tables and some tables you just have to live with some black corners.

[Mike_da_Spike]

3 hours ago, lees1964 said:

but the playfield is a small box in the center of the screen

Can't  you set that to full screen by double click on the tittle bar of that window?

 

[lees1964]

log.txt PinballX.ini

[lees1964]

Thank you for replying, guys!!!  I've attached all of the files you asked for and screen shots (let me know if I missed anything).  I'm also having trouble with some of the pup pack backglass stuff, even though the standard directb2s stuff still fits nicely.  I've also noticed that my desktop sizes are quite wonky.  The windows (like when you open a folder) are sometimes so big they stretch beyond the edge of the screen, which is odd since I have always known the windows stuff to get much smaller with the higher resolution (obviously).  After spending the day away from the pinball machine, then playing it again, I'm not totally convinced that I'm gaining that much in the overall look of the playfield (hard to say).  I'm SURE that I have at least SOME of the graphics setting wrong, so that could account for it as well. 

[Tom Speirs]

Ive only had a quick look at this post but some apps have issues with scaling. i see youve got it set at 150%. I realise that is what you want but for compatibility try 100%

[lees1964]

Hi Tom!  Thank you for answering!  I set it at 100% and no luck.  I'm fairly familiar with PCs in a general sense, and there was something WAY out of whack with the playfield monitor at the res.  My icons were huge, desktop screen was overflowing the borders, just a mess.  I switched back to the native 1300X768 and tweaked some color settings, but it's back to (mostly) normal now.  I'm honestly trying to determine if swapping out the playfield monitor with a true HD 1080p would make enough difference to warrant the money and effort.  Sadly, I'm restricted to 1080p because the 4K 40" TVs that would fit my narrow cab are scarce and expensive.  In fact, I'm using this one as a tester for another old cabinet (Stern 1979 - essentially the same size) that I will be converting to a virtual pin cab this summer, and the "look" from that playfield is ALMOST as important as the feel/play, in the overall scheme of things, so I want to be SURE before I start buying components   And hey, thank you for answering! 

[lees1964]

Scutters, I'm trying your POV settings and that FOV setting blows my screen up like I'm looking at my foot with binoculars, LOL!!!  I cranked it back to normal with the X/Y setting and gonna give it a play and see how she feels!  (yeah, it's a "she" )  Thanks, brother! 

 

[lees1964]

Mr. da_Spik, I moused around ALL OVER that screen and couldn't find a single place to pull, stretch, right click on or move in ANY way :/  Thanks for the suggestion though, definitely makes sense, but apparently not an option on my screen.  I appreciate you! 

[Mike_da_Spike]

22 minutes ago, lees1964 said:

Mr. da_Spik, I moused around ALL OVER that screen and couldn't find a single place to pull, stretch, right click on or move in ANY way :/  Thanks for the suggestion though, definitely makes sense, but apparently not an option on my screen.  I appreciate you! 

If you set within settings.exe windows to yes? Are you able to resize the window? My cabinet is in maintso not able to check anything 

(And thanks to call me Mr )

[lees1964]

I'm not totally sure what you mean when you say "If you set within setting.exe windows to yes?" but I THINK the answer is "yes", lol. 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Sorry. Its 4 am here 

There is an option to set window/fullscreen. You have it to full screen. Try setting it to window and resize the window. Clise pbx and set fullscreen again

Also make sure that full screen windowed is set to yes.

 

Btw. Tom mentioned about dpi. I recommend to set all screens to 100 dpi. If pf is 150 dpi, some backglasses and puppacks will not show correctly

[scutters]

13 hours ago, lees1964 said:

Not sure if you've changed resolution back now, but that looks like VPX isn't running fullscreen (so not Pinballx?). Check the monitor res selection in VPX video preferences menu if that's the case.

9 hours ago, lees1964 said:

Hi Tom!  Thank you for answering!  I set it at 100% and no luck. 

Make sure you leave scaling at 100% whatever res you use!

13 hours ago, lees1964 said:

I'm also having trouble with some of the pup pack backglass stuff, even though the standard directb2s stuff still fits nicely.

I think pup packs work on relative position, so changing res of the playfield would mean you need to adjust pup positions, think you'd need to run PinUpPackEditor in your pinupsytem folder and then click on config display locations.

9 hours ago, lees1964 said:

Sadly, I'm restricted to 1080p because the 4K 40" TVs that would fit my narrow cab are scarce and expensive

@Mike_da_Spikeknows that problem only too well! 

9 hours ago, lees1964 said:

Scutters, I'm trying your POV settings and that FOV setting blows my screen up like I'm looking at my foot with binoculars, LOL!!!  I cranked it back to normal with the X/Y setting and gonna give it a play and see how she feels!  (yeah, it's a "she" )  Thanks, brother! 

Hah, yes FOV can blow it up quite a bit..  i normally zoom back out using the z offset and then fine tune with x and y scales (just make sure you leave z scale at 1)

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

5 hours ago, lees1964 said:

Sadly, I'm restricted to 1080p because the 4K 40" TVs that would fit my narrow cab are scarce and expensive. 

I have a 4k samsung tv if you want 

You need to pick it up in the Netherlands

[lees1964]

I think I might try it again over the weekend when I have more time, mostly because it KILLS me to leave out of here for work if it's not "right" (the idea being that I could come back home and walk right up and play it - which, so far anyway, I NEVER do, because I've gotten into tweaking PBX and especially the specific games I like )  It's funny how quickly I went from "There are THOUSANDS of games I can put on this machine!" to "Delete, delete, tweak, delete, delete, delete".  I guess that an easier way to say it would have been quality over quantity, lol.  I've realized that it doesn't matter HOW "cool" a game is, if the game play doesn't grab me... DELETE, lol.  (Have I mentioned just how much I LOVE this new hobby?  lol)  Have a GREAT day, guys!  (or morning, or maybe a good sleep??  Not sure what time it is where you are!) 

[Draco1962]

I prefer 1 at a time myself. Saves my sanity!

[MrGrynch]

What are your settings in VPX?  I had a similar issue and realized I forgot to set the screen resolution to match the screen in the Graphics preferences