[RESOLVED] Directoutput in Visual Pinball not working when launched from PinballX?

[Wimpie]

My parameters to launch Visual Pinball X are 

Quote

/play -"[TABLEPATH]\[TABLEFILE]"

My tables load just fine, there's no issue with that. But my led strips (DirectOutput) aren't working!

When I create a batch file and launch Visual Pinball X with the exact same parameters, my led strips are OK. 

Am I missing a setting somewhere?

[Mike_da_Spike]

Well, i think your batch file is not the same as launching from pinballX.

Visual pinball and direcrb2s are responsible for your dof  output.

Please posy your pinballx.ini and log.txt file to check your configuration.

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Can you reproduce your issue and post your log.txt a d pinballx.ini, so we have an idea how your pinballx configuration is setup

[Wimpie]

As you can see on the screenshot, my PinballX command to launch Visual Pinball X seems to be identical to what I'm using in my batch file.

Table launched via PinballX -> No DirectOutput active

Table launched from Batch file -> DirectOutput works

It's a mystery!

I can post the full contents of my settings file when I have internet access on my pinball, but the relevant part about Visual Pinball can be seen in the screenshot.

Image

[Draco1962]

As previously requested, please attach copies (no copy and paste or pictures) of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files. Also attach a copy of your batch file referenced. Thank you.

[Wimpie]

All three files are attached to this post. Thanks for looking into this issue!

log.txt PinballX.ini test.bat

[Mike_da_Spike]

Thanks wimpie.

All looks good.

Although, i don't  use auto poistion directb2s, but that should not cause the issue.

Can you test something ?

Enable mouse pointer within settings.exe (makes it easier to troubleshoot)

Launch Flintstone again, when vpx is launch, click on the backglass with your right mouse button.

A settings dialog will show.

Check if "activat plugins" is checked and click on the plugin settings button.

Your dof plugin should be showed and should be ok.

I think something is fuzzy in these settings, vut unable to explain why this is working from command line and not from pbx.

Don't forget to hide mouse again from settings.rexe

[Wimpie]

When table is launched from PinballX: Plugin settings is activated, directoutput plugin is active. Yet no functional leds. When launched from the batch file, the plugin settings are identical and the LEDs work.

How on earth is this possible?

[scutters]

Do you have any compatibility settings set for PinballX.exe (via right click->properties,->compatibility, e.g. compatibility mode, run as admin etc, )?

[Mike_da_Spike]

can you check your directoutput.log as well you launched a table from Pinballx ?

1 hour ago, Wimpie said:

How on earth is this possible?

good question, but hope we can find it for you !

 

 

 

[Wimpie]

As you can see in the attached files, COM3 seems to be blocked when the table is launched by PinballX.

DirectOutput Batch.log DirectOutput PinballX.log

[Wimpie]

Well, this one can be marked as solved, although it IS a bug in PinballX (I have no idea how to contact the author to tell him this).

The solution is to create a pinDMD.ini in the PinballX folder with an unused COM port:

[communication]
comport=COM5

Without ini file, COM3 is used, which has my Teensy and NOT a pinDMD. And there seems to be no way to tell PinballX NOT to use a pinDMD interface - it's ALWAYS opened and COM3 is ALWAYS blocked, even if you don't have a pinDMD. So this is a workaround. The best solution would be to add a Yes/No setting to tell PinballX if you have a pinDMD.

[Draco1962]

2 hours ago, Wimpie said:

Well, this one can be marked as solved, although it IS a bug in PinballX (I have no idea how to contact the author to tell him this).

@Tom Speirsis the author and owner of the forums. I am sure he will see this. 

You may also want to suggest your change here:

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

6 hours ago, Wimpie said:

Well, this one can be marked as solved, although it IS a bug in PinballX (I have no idea how to contact the author to tell him this).

The solution is to create a pinDMD.ini in the PinballX folder with an unused COM port:

[communication]
comport=COM5

Without ini file, COM3 is used, which has my Teensy and NOT a pinDMD. And there seems to be no way to tell PinballX NOT to use a pinDMD interface - it's ALWAYS opened and COM3 is ALWAYS blocked, even if you don't have a pinDMD. So this is a workaround. The best solution would be to add a Yes/No setting to tell PinballX if you have a pinDMD.

Nice catch.

Sounds a bit the same as the issue I had with the following from a couple of years ago

 

Its good that we followed the complete trail of possible logs.

[Wimpie]

Indeed. The log files clearly showed what was going wrong.

[Mike_da_Spike]

I think Teensy and PinDMDvx uses same hardware (and can be used for addressable leds). 

It was for me also a hard time to figure this out a couple of years ago, but wasn't aware that it could also touch users without a real DMD.
I will add it to my own FAQ for people that have the issue in the future.
Thanks !