[RESOLVED] Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope...!

[ComputerMan]

Hi all, newbie here... Bought a used VP setup, was working ok, very old version of PBX (3.2ish). Took the cab apart, it was the worst piece of bodged junk you could imagine... Anyway, replaced crappy old pc (old i3 / 4Gb / Radeon something-or-other with 2Gb vram) with a new board / SSD / Nvidia GTX1080 GPU etc, all worked perfectly first time! Did some other upgrades usb soundcard, mini amps & exciters, tidied up cabling a bit etc... still everything worked perfectly.

Today, I replaced the playfield monitor (an old HP 24" which was connected to the gpu with a HDMI to DVI cable) with a new(ish) LG, the idea being faster refresh rates etc. However, the playfield image appeared on the backglass and vice-versa. After much messing around with the setup wizard, fiddling with the .ini file etc I managed to get it looking ok, but whenever I launch a table the backglass image now appears on top of the playfield image, mostly obscuring it.

Nothing else has changed (I did however try and download the latest version, realised I needed to sign up to be a patreon, so did all that, did the upgrade... no change. Reverted back to old version - same issue.

Can't help but think it's something very simple - found some other posts on display numbering, tried a few things but nothing solved it.

Now getting to the point of throwing it out of the window (it's only a small table so it would fit).

Any clues? Suspect it's a newbie gotcha, and there will be a post somewhere that says 'If you change a monitor out you must do this', but I cant find it. Thanks!

[Draco1962]

Please ensure you have the lastest version and attach copies of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files.

Hopefully these will provide a clue for assistance in resolving your issue.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Not sure what emulator you use, but my guess is VP. 

I think you need to set your screenres.txt in your table ditectory, matching your new monitor setup.

 

You can use b2sserver_setup.exe and copy the file to your tables dir.

Bit. It would be handy to ppst your pinballx log and settings file, so we known how your setup is

[ComputerMan]

Thanks for the replies - the cab is in a room where there is no ethernet, so I'll have to copy the files to a USB stick and bring them to my desktop, will do this later. I do have an image of the original drive as it came with the machine, and I've extracted the .ini file and log from that (before I changed the monitor in other words). I'll grab the current ones later this evening.

 

I appreciate the help -

PinballX.ini log.txt [SETTINGS].log ScreenRes.txt

[scutters]

If the screen locations are correct in PinballX, and the issue is only with the backglass after launching a table then that points to an issue with the screenres.txt file (changing monitors around messes with windows id's).

From https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=tutorials&article=136, this is what the screenres files contents mean;

1920 <-- Playfield screen X resolution (width)
1080 <-- Playfield screen Y resolution (height)
1280 <-- Backglass screen X resolution (width)
1024 <-- Backglass screen Y resolution(height)
2    <-- Display number for the backglass monitor
0    <-- offset for the backglass on the selected display (normally left at 0)
0    <-- offset for the backglass on the selected display (normally left at 0)
600  <-- Width of the DMD area in pixls
200  <-- Height of the DMD area in pixels
1280 <-- X position of the DMD area relative to the upper left corner of the backglass screen
0    <-- Y position of the DMD area relative to the upper left corner of the backglass screen
0    <-- Y-flip, flips the LED display upside down

The bottom few entries aren't relevant to you as you have a 2 screen setup without a dedicated DMD. The 3rd,4th and 5th entries are the ones you need to check / change (mainly the display number - try 1 first, but the backglass resolution set in PinballX is 1280x1024 but 1366x768 in your screenres file).

[Draco1962]

Best to include the latest files from the latest version. 

[ComputerMan]

OK, here's the current (but not working correctly) versions. Found a WiFi USB adapter, connected it up, disabled Windows Update Service (just in case it might break anything, seemed like a good idea) and installed my remote management / connection stuff, so I can get to the box from anywhere now. WooHoo!

I see that there is also a copy of screenres.txt in C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\VPxPUP, C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\VPX and C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\VP - they all look to be the same as each other, but different from the one in C:\Visual Pinball\Tables. Does the one in the \tables folder over-ride the ones in the sub-folder, or vice-versa? Or is only one required? Unfortunately I jumped into this with something pre-built so I've no knowledge of what has been done to it, added, modified etc...

Next step once it's all working is to learn how to add / replace / delete tables. It seems to have Visual Pinball, Visual Pinball X, Future Pinball, VPXPuP (?), Pinbal FX2 and Pinball FX3, all with different settings and configs no doubt... bit of a learning curve but given the help I've had already (most grateful), I'm sure there are some tutorials to be followed!

This is what it looks like (easy to screengrab remotely - playing remotely... not so good!)

 

@ scutters (I'm only 20 mins from Leeds so if I need some help you might the first one I ask!!! (Only joking - remote access is available! 🙂 )

One thing I've just realised - when I'm flipping through the 763 (!) tables available, the backglass appears where it should do - it's only when I select the table that it 'jumps' to overlay the playfield...

ScreenRes.txt PinballX.ini

[ComputerMan]

WooHoo! @ scutters - many thanks for the clue. Changing the screenres file in just the \tables folder made no difference... but changing it in each of the VP, VPX and VPXPuP sub folders did the trick!!! Fantastic, pint owed!

 

Now to put the thing back together, rationalise the wiring, and then work out why the exciters only work on some tables...

Thanks again!

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

4 hours ago, ComputerMan said:

WooHoo! @ scutters - many thanks for the clue. Changing the screenres file in just the \tables folder made no difference... but changing it in each of the VP, VPX and VPXPuP sub folders did the trick!!! Fantastic, pint owed!

Well, maybe because I'm Dutch, but thats the same as I try to say 

On 1/31/2023 at 4:14 AM, Mike_da_Spike said:

I think you need to set your screenres.txt in your table directory, matching your new monitor setup.

And with table directory, I mean the path where your table files exists...

But glad that Scutters is speaking the same language as you and that it is solved (Did you know that scutters can understand my Denglish?)

[scutters]

3 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Did you know that scutters can understand my Denglish?

It's the fat fingered Denglish when you try to type on your phone that i struggle with! 

7 hours ago, ComputerMan said:

Next step once it's all working is to learn how to add / replace / delete tables. It seems to have Visual Pinball, Visual Pinball X, Future Pinball, VPXPuP (?), Pinbal FX2 and Pinball FX3, all with different settings and configs no doubt... bit of a learning curve but given the help I've had already (most grateful), I'm sure there are some tutorials to be followed!

Ok, so a 2nd hand cab with tables and software preloaded by the previous owner then, in which case yes there will be a learning curve if you want to keep things updated and add/remove stuff. For your systems Visual Pinball is VP 9 so can maybe be disabled as most tables are now available in VPX (VP 10) and will look and play better. VPXPup is probably just VPX tables that use  'pup packs', where videos are played on the backglass during game play. 

All the systems will have their own settings and configs as well as PinballX. Sorry, lots to learn and even more stuff to tweak!

My advice would be to concentrate on VPX first as it has most tables available (and many people would say is also the most realistic pinball emulator). 

7 hours ago, ComputerMan said:

@ scutters (I'm only 20 mins from Leeds so if I need some help you might the first one I ask!!! (Only joking - remote access is available! 🙂 )

Always good to have more Yorkshire on the forum!