Non PinMAME tables (GOT/CCC) - Focus issue

[grunger]

Just getting around to playing with GameOfThrones, and all works fine on a direct launch from VPX
Launching via PinballX and I end up with the wrong screen in the editor screen displaying on the playfield monitor so I need to alt tab to get it back to the VisualPinball player, the table is loaded - it's just tabbed to the editor. I had this issue with CCC, and never really looked in to it.
I seem to recall many years ago I did solve it for CCC on my old cab, I think I added a delay and alt+tab using an AHK script, but rather than going down that road I figured I'd ask and see if anyone had a better solution.

All the PinMAME based tables launch fine - it's just the two don't that cause me issues.

I've tried the FullScreen Hack option in the settings (which just gives me the loading screen, but with the table loaded under it) and the delay start option at 5 seconds

I do run VPX in excusive full screen.

Running latest and greatest of both VPX and PBX.

Any ideas?

 

[scutters]

Please attach your pinballx.ini and log.txt files (log file after launching the GOT table).

You shouldn't get the focus issue with VPX set to fullscreen exclusive so not sure why you are. Is it always the VPX editor window that has focus? - if so make sure you have the '-minimized' flag in the PinballX VP launch parameters, that should minimise the editor window when launching tables. 

[grunger]

Will do - just powered the cab down, so will be a job for tomorrow

It's a strange one, and like I say it's *only* with non ROM tables, the 86 tables that use a ROM are all perfect.

It does seem to be the editor with focus in both cases - I either get that or the 'loading' splash depending on the 'Full Screen Hack' setting in PBX.
TBH I've not done much fiddling with PBX for years, although since I've been through the settings today I'm pretty sure I don't have the -minimised flag, just the /play - so I'll give that a shot

Otherwise I was thinking 2x ahk lauch scripts with a wait and keystroke send and a separate 'emulator' for the 2 tables - but that just seemed like overkill

Your name and avatar seem familiar - are you on VPU with the same - I think we both had and fixed the same issue with ACDC's DMD positioning in the script if so.

[scutters]

50 minutes ago, grunger said:

It does seem to be the editor with focus in both cases - I either get that or the 'loading' splash depending on the 'Full Screen Hack' setting in PBX.
TBH I've not done much fiddling with PBX for years, although since I've been through the settings today I'm pretty sure I don't have the -minimised flag, just the /play - so I'll give that a shot

Hopefully it's that simple!

50 minutes ago, grunger said:

Your name and avatar seem familiar - are you on VPU with the same - I think we both had and fixed the same issue with ACDC's DMD positioning in the script if so.

Hah, yes that was me with same issue & fix. What were those VPW guys thinking?, the amateurs!!! . It is a great update though, i really didn't think the original needed any updates until i played the new one 

[grunger]

Had a bit of a look into this and I now know what the issue is.
I grabbed the launch params it's going to use to start CCC and stuck them in a batch file.
Launching it produces the same result as launching via PBX (unsurprisingly) - DB2S and DMD present and correct, but no playfield (although I *think* the playfield does have focus) until you alt tab all the way back to the player.

However, if I switch off Excusive Fullscreen in VPX it launches correctly fine, so its an issue in that area not PBX.

So that's the issue isolated, but I'm not really sure how to resolve it - I want to use EFS and it's a global reg key if memory serves.

[grunger]

To reply to my own comment

I can work around this -DisableTrueFullScreen in a batch file for the two non PinMAME tables will do the trick and just set them up as a different emu in PBX.

A bit hacky though

TBH I'm a bit out of touch with the current best practices - I though EFS was the go to option and I've had it set like that for years.
My cab is not exactly running the latest hardware - i5 2500K, 8GB RAM, and a GTX970 - but I've got (and have always had) the settings pretty much maxed out (BruteForced 4X AA etc) and I don't suffer much in terms of performance issues so in a lot of ways I've not really kept up with new developments other than keeping the software, B2S and PinMAME current. (It is due a 1070 when I get around to replacing that out of my primary PC)

What is surprising me is that more people haven't had the same issues - I'd assume there are a bunch of people getting FlexDMD tables running via Frontends and I'm not seeing a huge amount of info on issues - which leads me to believe it's my config in some way.
I'm more of a purist when it comes to pinball so I've not really worried too much about UltraDMD or FlexDMD / non-ROM based games until GOT, so I may be missing some knowledge that is really basic on that side of things though.

 

[grunger]

And one final update
I was being dumb - created a pair of exe converted AHK scripts to launch the two tables, before figuing out I could of course just call the params via PBX under a different emulator name which is much simpler
(Just got used to using AHK to do custom calls when I built my driver MAME cab with GameEX as the front end)

All working now, but still wonder if I've got something done in an old way which is why I have the issue in the first place....

[Mike_da_Spike]

3 hours ago, grunger said:

What is surprising me is that more people haven't had the same issues - I'd assume there are a bunch of people getting FlexDMD tables running via Frontends and I'm not seeing a huge amount of info on issues - which leads me to believe it's my config in some way.
I'm more of a purist when it comes to pinball so I've not really worried too much about UltraDMD or FlexDMD / non-ROM based games until GOT, so I may be missing some knowledge that is really basic on that side of things though.

I run VPX in EFS as well, and the GOT, CCC (p-roc) are working like a charm for me. I do not have issues with focus or something. 

I run flexdmd with the modified Lucky1 dmddevice.dll. but before that, I had just freezy's dmddevice.dll running without issues.

[grunger]

11 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

I run flexdmd with the modified Lucky1 dmddevice.dll. but before that, I had just freezy's dmddevice.dll running without issues.

I'm wondering if this is my issue - I've followed the instructions for Flex/P-ROC and they're working just fine - on the right screens in the right place, but I've not done much in the way of messing with the DMDDevice stuff - I assumed most of it (Freezy's stuff) was for running output to a real DMD, but I get the impression things have changed in this area and its now being used to output to a 'virtual DMD'?

To be clearer I'm not sure it is a focus issue - it looks like the correct window has focus (and the buttons work) but I don't see the playfield I see the desktop/VP Editor in EFS mode (no taskbar, no mouse cursor etc) but until I alt tab all the way back to the VP Player and then it shows up, but I *think* VP Player does have focus.

Its weird.

I've worked around it for now, all tables in EFS apart from those two, but I might give it another look.
For now I'm going to go play CCC - I've missed Cowboys Vs Aliens

[scutters]

On 12/31/2022 at 3:57 PM, grunger said:

I've followed the instructions for Flex/P-ROC and they're working just fine - on the right screens in the right place, but I've not done much in the way of messing with the DMDDevice stuff - I assumed most of it (Freezy's stuff) was for running output to a real DMD, but I get the impression things have changed in this area and its now being used to output to a 'virtual DMD'?

Freezys stuff can output to a real or virtual dmd (it can be enabled for 'rom' tables in vpinmame settings by to 'use external dmd', in which case you'd probably then also disable the default vpinmame dmd 'show dmd display window' option unless you want two dmd displays).

Flex DMD actually uses freezys dmddevice to output to a display (real or virtual). Ultra DMD uses the the alternate XDMD libraries to display to a DMD (again real or virtual). 

P-ROC is then another entirely different thing again, not sure if that renders on real dmds or just on virtual dmds. 

On 12/31/2022 at 3:57 PM, grunger said:

To be clearer I'm not sure it is a focus issue - it looks like the correct window has focus (and the buttons work) but I don't see the playfield I see the desktop/VP Editor in EFS mode (no taskbar, no mouse cursor etc) but until I alt tab all the way back to the VP Player and then it shows up, but I *think* VP Player does have focus.

It's a strange one alright.. i have both tables and can launch into VPX EFS from PinballX with no problems on a 3 screen setup (DMD is virtual). My guess is it's down to how the tables displays are initialised in the script and differences in cpu speed on different systems affecting the order of when each screen is actually rendered, but i have no way of testing that.

I guess you tried the 'minimize' flag in the launch parameters without success before moving on to set up an alternate system for those two tables?

[Draco1962]

There was another similar issue that was tacked onto this, but due to other issues with rotation noted and length of triage, I split it into its own thread.

@grungerhas this issue been resolved or do you require further assistance?

[grunger]

Sorry hadn't checked in for a bit.

It works the way I have it above with the seprate call to run the tables in Non-EFD, and I don't have any performance hit so it's fine that route.

One thing of note it is limited to DMD tables where PinMAME isn't used, so PROC and FlexDMD are problematic, but IronMaiden (Which uses PUPPack) is fine.

But its not a PBX issue though as I can replicate it launching the table off the command line
I have a feeling its' somewhere in the 'external' dmd settings which I've not kept up with.... somewhere, and I've not really run into it before as I only have 3 tables which don't use PinMAME, and only 2 of those are causing issue.

[Mike_da_Spike]

On 1/27/2023 at 2:52 PM, grunger said:

Sorry hadn't checked in for a bit.

It works the way I have it above with the seprate call to run the tables in Non-EFD, and I don't have any performance hit so it's fine that route.

One thing of note it is limited to DMD tables where PinMAME isn't used, so PROC and FlexDMD are problematic, but IronMaiden (Which uses PUPPack) is fine.

But its not a PBX issue though as I can replicate it launching the table off the command line
I have a feeling its' somewhere in the 'external' dmd settings which I've not kept up with.... somewhere, and I've not really run into it before as I only have 3 tables which don't use PinMAME, and only 2 of those are causing issue.

I had some issues running vr tables that looses focus, what causes that the screen in vr was freezing (until the screen was focussed).

For this, I created a small light weight program that is running in the background and wil focus 'visual pinballx' and 'visual pinballx gl'. This fixed for me a lot of issues when playing in vr (and should help you as well).

Drop me a pm if you want to test it