[RESOLVED] Led Zeppelin Pinball 2.5 Not Loading When Selected

[bushav]

Long time user of PinballX and really love it.  I have an isolated problem.  One table (that I know of) is not loading properly when selected.  It goes into the loading screen and after about sixty seconds my main playfield just goes dark.  B2S and Topper keep playing,  I have to restart computer to continue.  All other tables seem to be loading properly (I haven't tried all 256).  I just downloaded the new version of Led Zeppelin Original and no change in performance.  The log just stops with the loading command.  I can not find any logs showing a crash or fault.  I will attach my logs.  When I open Database Manager and open from there the table launches fine.  If I launch PinballX and try to open from the wheel it gives me the loading screen but then the main monitor just goes black.  If I use "control+alt+tab I do not see the table running.  So somehow it is dumping the load of VPX at some point.  I tried using an alternate exe (VPX86) but still no good.  Any help is appreciated.  Here is link to table https://vpuniverse.com/files/file/5940-led-zeppelin-pinball/

I am running VPX 10.8.0, PinMame 3.7.0.46 all in 64 bit but have tried the 32 bit exes also.  

Going through my wheel I found another table with same issue-"Beat The Clock".  I am attaching that PinballX log because it shows me loading several tables and then getting to the bad load.  It is more obvious where the load is hanging up.  It does seem that if I hit control+alt+tab I can see VPX editor running.  I tabed to it and if I hit the play button the table will load.  So could the process be getting interruped before the table finishes loading?

log.txt [SETTINGS].log PinballX.ini

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

That is an odd one. i cant see anything really wrong in your log. To help troubleshoot can you please disable the plugins?

Thanks,

Tom.

[bushav]

34 minutes ago, Tom Speirs said:

That is an odd one. i cant see anything really wrong in your log. To help troubleshoot can you please disable the plugins?

Thanks,

Tom.

I wasn't sure how to disable all plugins so I removed the following dll's from the plugin folder.

DirectOutput PinballX

PBX LoadingImage

Pinballx Direct Output

PlugInLED

PlugInSpeech

QuickLaunch(PinballX Edition)

No change to the fact that some tables hang up while loading.  But PinballX itself is sure loading faster!  I need to research which of these PlugIns are outdated and not needed anymore.  I'll include the new log file.

log.txt

[Mike_da_Spike]

5 minutes ago, bushav said:

I wasn't sure how to disable all plugins so I removed the following dll's from the plugin folder.

Just a fyi :
Launch  

Uncheck the plugins you want to disable and click Exit.

[Mike_da_Spike]

Quote

23:27:45.84  6/22/2025:  Set Plugin data
23:27:47.40  6/22/2025:  C:\Visual Pinball\VPinballX.exe /play -"C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Led Zeppelin Pinball 

Although it should be backwards compatible, the official commandline paramter to launch a game is :

-Play [filename]

you still use /play -[filename]

Is PBX in a hang state at the moment ? Is the table loaded if you alt-tab to it ?

 

[bushav]

10 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Just a fyi :
Launch  

Uncheck the plugins you want to disable and click Exit.

Very cool!  Thanks for the tip.  I placed them all back in the plugin folder and disabled as per your instruction.   It looks like the DOF plugin is the only one I really need active.  PinballX funcions like I expect with only that one plugin active and sure loads a few seconds faster.  I did not solve my root problem however.  Leaving for a five day work trip in a few hours so I'll be AWOL for a while.  I'll implement any suggestons on my return.

log.txt

[Mike_da_Spike]

I downloaded the table and added to my (test) system
It launched without any issues 
the only difference is, I use PinMame 3.6.0.1227 
 

Edit: updated to pinmame 3.7.0.46 (it's a pre-release with some fixes for roms) but still launching correctly
Edit2: Also played Beat the clock and launches correctly fine and exiting)
So not sure whats gogin on. Pretty curious if PBX is hung at the moment

log.txt

[bushav]

6 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Although it should be backwards compatible, the official commandline paramter to launch a game is :

-Play [filename]

you still use /play -[filename]

Is PBX in a hang state at the moment ? Is the table loaded if you alt-tab to it ?

 

I'll fix this.  Could you take a screenshot of your visual pinball paths in the PinballX setup manager?  I am not sure exactly how to format the executable to match your suggestion.  When I click on the help menu to the right it doesn't show [filename] as a readable option.  It only shows [tablename] and some others.  It is interesting to see your log attached above and see how you are managing your setup.  I've got to check out the statistics plugin and I see you are loading the ini files with the table.  If I don't have that command is PinballX preventing the ini files from being loaded when the table is loaded?  I think VPX 10.7 introduced those files to control the POV and I have saved some but not set PinballX up any differently.  Also, while sleeping I remembered seeing in the documentation that the example setup had an additional 30 second wait for table opening.  I don't have an additional wait set in my system.  Maybe PinballX isn't giving the table enough time to load in my system.  I'll change when I get home.

[MulletLife]

Not sure if you stated specifically, have you confirmed that the issue is NOT there when you load direct from VPX?  In Game Manager, is it selecting the correct version of VPX. It will potentially hang if its pointing to something that doesn't exist (ie a typo).  Have you tried to launch table direct from Game Manager?

 

My 2 cents

[bushav]

7 hours ago, MulletLife said:

Not sure if you stated specifically, have you confirmed that the issue is NOT there when you load direct from VPX?  In Game Manager, is it selecting the correct version of VPX. It will potentially hang if its pointing to something that doesn't exist (ie a typo).  Have you tried to launch table direct from Game Manager?

 

My 2 cents

I have confirmed. If I launch directly from VPX they work. Also if I launch from Database Manager they work. I am eager to get back home and set a 30 second delay for buggy tables option. Maybe my PinballX just isn’t waiting long enough on slow loading tables. 

[Mike_da_Spike]

DBM uses the launch table option of pinballx. So is actually launches with pinbalkx.

Can you launch the table from dbm and if successfully post your log ? Maybe that will help tom to identify the issue 

[bushav]

1 hour ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

DBM uses the launch table option of pinballx. So is actually launches with pinbalkx.

Can you launch the table from dbm and if successfully post your log ? Maybe that will help tom to identify the issue 

I can launch from DBM. When doing that I see PinballX initialize and then the table successfully launches.  I’ll post the log when I get back from my work trip. 

[Mike_da_Spike]

17 hours ago, bushav said:

Could you take a screenshot of your visual pinball paths in the PinballX setup manager?  I am not sure exactly how to format the executable to match your suggestion. 

Apologies, that was my mistake.
The section I posted was merely from the GitHub instructions on running from the command line and does not include the variables used in PinballLX.

This is what I have:

I use an INI file to configure different systems with slightly varying settings, such as for Kinect and VR.
As I mentioned, it is not a fault and will not change anything, but perhaps in the near future, the parameters you use may become deprecated.

  

38 minutes ago, bushav said:

I can launch from DBM. When doing that I see PinballX initialize and then the table successfully launches.  I’ll post the log when I get back from my work trip. 

Thank you. Please also capture a screenshot of your VPX video and graphic settings, as I am interested in knowing the configurations.

[scutters]

Just a note, the Led Zeppelin and the Beat The Clock issues may (or may not) be unrelated.

There's a difference in the log entries;

Led Zeppelin ends with;

20:31:14.56  6/22/2025:  C:\Visual Pinball\VPinballX64.exe /play -"C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Led Zeppelin Pinball 2.5.vpx"

And Beat The Clock ends with;

21:07:09.76  6/22/2025:  C:\Visual Pinball\VPinballX64.exe /play -"C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\Beat The Clock (Bally 1985) VPW v1.0.vpx"
21:07:15.57  6/22/2025:  Visual Pinball Player Foreground
21:07:15.57  6/22/2025:  Visual Pinball Player window foreground: 5
21:07:21.93  6/22/2025:  Found PinMAME ROM: beatclc2

 

I'd suggest changing the launch parameters for Visual Pinball as Mike has suggested and then retest for both tables.

If still an issue;

For Led Zeppelin check you aren't using a full album track or something as launch audio, this would delay the table launch considerably (and i suspect when launched through DBM, PinballX would not play the launch audio). Also try the non pup pack version if you are using a pup pack for the table.

For Beat The Clock as the table appears to try to launch (vpinmame starts as seen in PinballX log) it may be resource related or an issue in VPX itself where the launch fails and VPX quits back to the editor window. Check windows event viewer for anything suspicious at the time of the attempted table launch.

 

[bushav]

Guys thanks for all the help.  I changed my loading parameters, no change in performance.  I let PinballX sit unattended for three minuites while loading Led Zeppelin and voila it loaded finally after a long pause on the black screen.  I deleted the loading audio and voila it loads after about five seconds.  So consider this thread solved, closed, resolved.  

Is there any chance we could get PinballX to close the loading audio after a short play and therefore eliminate this issue in the future?  On my trip I had noticed @scutters helped another user with the same problem so I suspected for the last few days that the loading audio was my issue.  I am certain that some of my other tables have a loading audio long enough to be slowing down the load.  In fact Led Zeppelin loads so fast now that I may consider just removing all my loading audios until a solution is found.  I have another quirk that I have noticed on the newest release but will start a new thread for that issue.

Many thanks to @Mike_da_Spike, @scutters and @Tom Speirs.  You guys are very much appreciated.

[Mike_da_Spike]

This issues was already on the bullish

https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/27935-bugs-tracking-thread/