[ON HOLD] Black Screen During Transition from PinballX to Visual Pinball

[Mike_da_Spike]

I've been encountering an issue with the transition from PinballX to Visual Pinball, where the screen briefly turns black during launch. While this doesn't happen every single time, it occurs most of the time, making the transition look rough and inconsistent.

After investigating, I noticed that VPinMAME does not appear to be fully loaded when PinballX switches to Visual Pinball. This may be causing the black screen delay before the table actually loads.

Normally, when using Scutter’s Loading Image Changer plugin, the transition looked much smoother. The playfield loading video was displayed during loading, and once Visual Pinball was fully ready, the system switched over seamlessly.

To illustrate this issue, I’ve attached three videos that show how the DMD is not displaying anything when PinballX transitions to Visual Pinball which properly causes the black screen

It's not the small black screen when launching the table, but the part after the loading video is gone and showed Visual Pinball

I don't know when this occurred for the first time and with what PinballX version this started.
I'm using the final version of Visual Pinball 64 bit. and use the DX version (only GL for VR)
tested with Full screen exclusive, and window mode and doesn't make difference

 

log.txtFetching info... PinballX.iniFetching info...

[Draco1962]

Not thst I will be much help on this, but it is only happening with Visual Pinball, not any others such as FX, Pinball Wicked, etc. correct?

Also, is it noticeable if you disable the plugin?

[Mike_da_Spike]

  On 4/10/2025 at 10:23 AM, Draco1962 said:

Not thst I will be much help on this, but it is only happening with Visual Pinball, not any others such as FX, Pinball Wicked, etc. correct?

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Each of those systems initiates a launcher program; however, VP is the only emulator I'm using that using loading videos before transitioning to the emulator itself.

  On 4/10/2025 at 10:23 AM, Draco1962 said:

Also, is it noticeable if you disable the plugin?

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I've disabled all plugins, but doesn't make a difference.

It appears that vpinmame previously displayed DMD frames before transitioning to VPX. Perhaps vpx 10.8 is slower, causing a delay in frame display on the DMD. But don't know how pinvallx de idea when to switch to vpx. 

 

[Tom Speirs]

My best guess - has issue playing the video. 

i am guessing you got new videos too.

[Mike_da_Spike]

The loading videos are not new.
I just checked it and it appears that, for instance, the Terminator video is from last year and the file size is only 400 KB. 

 

 

Terminator 3 (Stern 2003)_Bigus(MOD)1.0.MP4.zipFetching info...

[Tom Speirs]

My best guess is it is still video related. NetVideoPlayer.dll does the playback during loading.

[Mike_da_Spike]

  On 4/14/2025 at 7:39 AM, Tom Speirs said:

My best guess is it is still video related. NetVideoPlayer.dll does the playback during loading.

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And when or how does PBX 'decide' to switch from the video player to the visual pinball player?

Is there a timer or process that is monitored?

[Tom Speirs]

It doesnt stop playing the video, it just lets the emulator/system take over.

[Tom Speirs]

note i do see this in the log: Set Visual Pinball Player Foreground

Which is a newer change where it sets focus.

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Looks like my visual player isn't finished loading the table completely.

Is that something I can extend for a couple of seconds ? So it switch seamless again ?.

[Tom Speirs]

i will have a look for you buddy. Sorry though, please try and be patient, I am a bit behind.

[Mike_da_Spike]

  On 4/16/2025 at 10:30 PM, Tom Speirs said:

i will have a look for you buddy. Sorry though, please try and be patient, I am a bit behind.

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No problem Tom. It's not super important, as all is working,.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Just put this issue on hold.

I noticed that my complete cab is slow, compared with my pc.

Not sure what's going on, but a direct table launch from command line on my pc takes around 3-5 seconds and my cab around 19-21 seconds. Maybe that's causing why the  transition from loading videos to table has some black screen time. 

[Draco1962]

Compare your Windows startup apps and processes between your PC and cab as well as resource usage. 

[Mike_da_Spike]

I will do a deep dive on this. Both PCs have different purposes, but the hardware should be the same. Only my development PC has an OEM build on it. Something I will check in the coming weeks.