vpauto vs Visual Pinball v0.8.9506?

[mightypeniz]

Is anyone running the latest Visual Install pack from http://www.vpforums.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=43177 ? I just installed it, and noticed that vpauto.exe doesn't appear to be closing VPinball.exe.

Anyone else get this?

Cheers,

Brett

[Nologic]

Give this a try...your welcome to hack on it as I've kind of walked away from it at this point.

Update

All configs & loaders can now be found in the 101 reasons thread.

[mightypeniz]

Ahh thanks mate, will give it a bash when I get home from work tonight.

[mightypeniz]

That does the trick mate, thanks!

for anyone else with the same problem: grab abovementioned file, extract 2 x .EXE's into your Visual Pinball folder (ie, where vpinball.exe lives). Usage is just "vpinball_loader.exe [path\table.vpt]", so your GameEx config will now be:

vpinball_loader.exe "[RomPath]\[RomFile]"

Remove vpauto.exe from the "also run" field too..

Cheers,

Brett

[headkaze]

I knew it was worth asking Nologic to write a wrapper for VP

[Nologic]

Possibly but the original thread drove me nuts...hehe sometimes I wish you didn't have your hands so full so you could do some of these...but hey you make some damn cool toys.

[headkaze]

Possibly but the original thread drove me nuts...hehe sometimes I wish you didn't have your hands so full so you could do some of these...but hey you make some damn cool toys.

Yes I think we'd all like to forget that thread

[Nologic]

hehe point made.

[chriss]

visual pinball drives me nuts!

i get so many weird errors so i ended up trying the wrapper, but since the files were removed and i can't find the exe in the 101 thread i'm stuck!

i get an autoit error message "unable to execute external program"

i guess i'm missing the 2nd exe file which name isn't mentioned...

help!

[headkaze]

The vpauto wrapper is included with GameEx

[chriss]

thx for the quick answer!

but i think vpauto.exe is causing the problems... when i try to launch a game with visual pinball AFTER exiting from Gameex (8.11) i get the error message that some vbs files are missing. so i did a research on these vbs scripts and i have the most recent version at the right dir

now the weird part:

if i restart the cab and don't launch gameex but only visual pinball everything works fine, all the tables, everything

my guess is that vpauto.exe somehow is not comaptible with the new vpinball version and messes things up

so i now wanted to try it with the vpinball_loader.exe to get it to work

but i get the error message unable to execute external program

am i missing a file?

i just found out that if i launch vpinball_launcher.exe via cmd it still gives me the error message but the tables load correctly and everything works!

[chriss]

that's it. i'm giving up!

first time actully

i tried to get it to work for four hours now! damn what a waste of time

[Tempest]

that's it. i'm giving up!

first time actully

i tried to get it to work for four hours now! damn what a waste of time

Don't give up, I had the same problem, and I got it working....If I could just remember what I did!

Post your config, and tomorrow I'll compare it to mine, and see if we can get it working.

[Brian Hoffman]

Can you post your config please.

[chriss]

hi brian

i used your config and checked it a couple of times.

i guess it has something to do with vpauto.exe and the new version of vpinball.exe (8.1.1)

now I only get a black screnn with the vpinmame displaying up in the left corner and vpinball crashing (microsoft error)

i got it working once but only for one game. i guess because i have this disclaimer for every game i start where you have to press yes and then ok. maybe thats why the screen stay black. window mode stangely displays the same (black screen, maybe hideos?)

now I decided to only setup future pinball. It looks better anyway and it worked from the beginning on

thanks anyway guys! i appreciate your helping efforts

btw, i just set up Pro Evolution Soccer 6 via cabinet! works great! that's gonna be a lot of fun during the uefa cup (if you guys know what i'm talking about !

Unfortunately the X-Arcade can't be used as two seperate controls (only one keyboard support) so i'm writing a batch script for ppjoy today.

[mightypeniz]

Its definitely a case of vpauto.exe vs later versions. Curiously, I reinstalled GameEx a while back, and hadn't got around to setting up VisualPinball again until I tried it upon reading your post the other day, and I had the same problem with the vpinball_loader.exe version of the wrapper.. If I made my working directory the location of the Visual Pinball install, and made my command line "..\..\loaders\vpinball_loader.exe "[rompath]\[romname]", it still gave me the "unable to execute external program" error message, but it still successfully loaded the table... Will look into it more later..

edit: can't find the .au3 file for this wrapper.. tried to decompile it, but it looks like AutoIT disabled the decompilability of their compiled .exe's a few versions back..

the lazy side of me just wants to write a wrapper just to answer that error message, haha.

[headkaze]

Noone should be using VPinball_Loader.exe anymore anyway as it's a loader written by Nologic and he asked us to remove it. AFAIK the reason it's not working is because it can't find Kill_Child.exe.

Having a look at the two pinball configs both Visual Pinball and VPinMAME should only require vpauto as far as I can tell. I have a few versions of vpauto as well as the source to VPinball_Loader.exe. Looking at the source it's so basic I could knock up a C++ equivalent in a couple of minutes. But the point is you shouldn't need it.

I've never had problems with vpauto.exe so I've never bothered writing a new wrapper for it. Perhaps you need to rename your VP's exe to VPinball.exe?

EDIT: Just tried vpauto.exe with Visual Pinball 8.1.1 and VPinMame 1.60 and it works fine

[Tempest]

Noone should be using VPinball_Loader.exe anymore anyway as it's a loader written by Nologic and he asked us to remove it. AFAIK the reason it's not working is because it can't find Kill_Child.exe.

Having a look at the two pinball configs both Visual Pinball and VPinMAME should only require vpauto as far as I can tell. I have a few versions of vpauto as well as the source to VPinball_Loader.exe. Looking at the source it's so basic I could knock up a C++ equivalent in a couple of minutes. But the point is you shouldn't need it.

I've never had problems with vpauto.exe so I've never bothered writing a new wrapper for it. Perhaps you need to rename your VP's exe to VPinball.exe?

EDIT: Just tried vpauto.exe with Visual Pinball 8.1.1 and VPinMame 1.60 and it works fine

I think Mightypeniz was on to the problem...

You need to set your working path to your Tables: C:\Emulators\Visual Pinball\Tables

set also launch to: [apppath]\vpauto.exe (vpauto.exe should be in your Gameex root directory)

your command line should be: ..\VPinball.exe -play -"[ROMFILE]"

It does not work if you set the working path to your Visual Pinball directory.

Edit : I should add...You will have to make sure the paths are correct, and that the command line has the correct name for your visual pinball.exe

[chriss]

thats what i did...

vpauto starts correctly i assume because the system tray icon shows up

i just have my path set up to d:\games\vpinmame\Tables

does that make the difference?

vpinball plays games on its own without issues. but through gameex i only get a black screen and the vpinmame displaying in the up left corner. sometimes i get a message that vpinball.exe crashed

i also set it up in another directory without any change

command line works as well

[headkaze]

thats what i did...

vpauto starts correctly i assume because the system tray icon shows up

i just have my path set up to d:\games\vpinmame\Tables

does that make the difference?

vpinball plays games on its own without issues. but through gameex i only get a black screen and the vpinmame displaying in the up left corner. sometimes i get a message that vpinball.exe crashed

i also set it up in another directory without any change

command line works as well

You shouldn't have your working folder set to tables, only your rom folder. Here are my settings and they work.

Enabled=True
STARTPAGENAME=Pinball (Visual Pinball)
TITLETEXT=Pinball
StartPageLogo=VPin
ROMFilter=*.vpt
RomPath=C:\Emulators\Visual Pinball\Tables
SnapPath=D:\Artwork\Visual Pinball\Snaps
WorkingPath=C:\Emulators\Visual Pinball
AlsoLaunch=vpauto.exe
Command=VPinball.exe -play -"[ROMPATH]\[ROMFILE]"
configFile=Visual Pinball V2
DATABASE=VISUALPINBALL

[Tempest]

thats what i did...

vpauto starts correctly i assume because the system tray icon shows up

i just have my path set up to d:\games\vpinmame\Tables

does that make the difference?

vpinball plays games on its own without issues. but through gameex i only get a black screen and the vpinmame displaying in the up left corner. sometimes i get a message that vpinball.exe crashed

i also set it up in another directory without any change

command line works as well

it sound like you have it running... Except for the crash that is... I would suggest running the "Run Last Game" batch file in the GameEx menu under the Start menu. It should give you an error for you to decipher. If it flashes by before you can read it, add 'pause' to the end of the batch file.

Set "show desktop" to "true", and make sure you have the setting in visual pinball set to run fullscreen.

BTW: This would have been easier if you had posted your config as I, and then Brian asked!

[mightypeniz]

Allow me to share the following red herring I just caught in my toilet : vpauto.exe now works for me. Same version of VP as before (when it wouldn't end the vpinball.exe process, and never self-closed the wrapper itself (leaving 20-30 copies of it in memory)..

I've done a complete OS reinstall (over the top of the one I had when I migrated to a different PC in my cab). Something was obviously amiss in my old PC..

[headkaze]

Allow me to share the following red herring I just caught in my toilet : vpauto.exe now works for me. Same version of VP as before (when it wouldn't end the vpinball.exe process, and never self-closed the wrapper itself (leaving 20-30 copies of it in memory)..

I've done a complete OS reinstall (over the top of the one I had when I migrated to a different PC in my cab). Something was obviously amiss in my old PC..

There is a well known bug in XP that when you run a program that minimizes to icon tray, and when you exit that program, the icon can stay around. I still have that bug on all my XP machines. I notice it happens with the directshowlib filter icons, and I notice it with AutoIt scripts as well. To find out if the program has really exited, move your mouse over the icons and see if they disappear. If they do disappear the application has exited and the icon is lingering because of the bug, or if it stays there it hasn't exited. Just thought I'd let you know because there might not have been a problem with the wrapper exiting at all.

[mightypeniz]

There is a well known bug in XP that when you run a program that minimizes to icon tray, and when you exit that program, the icon can stay around. I still have that bug on all my XP machines. I notice it happens with the directshowlib filter icons, and I notice it with AutoIt scripts as well. To find out if the program has really exited, move your mouse over the icons and see if they disappear. If they do disappear the application has exited and the icon is lingering because of the bug, or if it stays there it hasn't exited. Just thought I'd let you know because there might not have been a problem with the wrapper exiting at all.

Yeah, I know about that bug (although this is the first time I've heard someone else acknowledge it) - its been happening to me for years. My problem(s) were that vpinball.exe processes were left in memory after hitting esc, and as a result (in a chicken/egg kinda way) the vpauto.exe's stayed in memory also (not just the tasktray icons).

[gorgeousjorge]

Hi all

I´ve had some problems also a few months ago,what i`ve done was copyed the exe file to the tables folder and then point in the paths to that location in gameex advanced config.

Both of them,rompath and working path.

It worked

Best regards