mace

Good news! it’s fixed and works perfectly 👍 Thanks so much for your guidance, can’t express how much it helps to work these challenges through with other folk. The issue in short was that I am a bloody idiot, the longer explanation was to create the GlobalConfig_PinballX.xml file I dragged and dropped the GlobalConfig_B2SServer file and in doing so I accidentally created a shortcut. I then renamed the shortcut to GlobalConfig_PinballX.xml. That may have been possible to spot if I didn’t have a ‘hide shortcut arrows’ program running. So the plug-in could not see it but every time I checked it with a double click it remotely opened the GlobalConfig_B2SServer.xml which, being identical, looked fine <sigh> what are the odds…… Now all I have to do is find all the hair I tore out and stick it back on again 😆

Hi Mike, My GlobalConfig_PinballX.xml is just a copy of the GlobalConfig_b2sserver.xml which I generated with the tool, they are both in directoutput/config folder and there is another copy of the GlobalConfig_PinballX.xml in the pinballx/plugins folder (although it does seem to get overwritten if the plugin manager is run). Since posting last I've reflashed the Teensy (just in case with a new verified 4.0 build) tried all the com ports, double checked all the .dll's are unblocked. No change, it's really odd that the only thing that will not drive the MX Leds is the PinballX plugin, I do wonder if this is a Teensy 4.0 thing? It would be good if someone who has the 4.0 build up and running under PinballX could confirm thta it works for them. GlobalConfig_B2SServer.xml DirectOutput PinballX Plugin.xml

Good catch, thanks Draco log.txt

Thanks for helping out, I've disabled Doflinx, sadly I still have the same issue I do have the files you mentioned in my directoutput/config folder I've attached them along with the directoutput.log file. The Plugin config window reports all is well too. This is a poser.... DirectOutput PinballX Plugin.xml Cabinet.xml DirectOutput.log

Hi Folks, Hoping that someone can cast a light on an issue I've been unable to fix, even with a full reinstall. I have a three screen cab with all the usual toys and I recently added L & R playfield MX effects strips power by the usual Octo and Teensy 4.0 using the forked Arduino build for that device. They work perfectly in all games, inside and outside of PinballX (props to TerryRed and Mike DS for their guides), they also work perfectly with my MAME and Jukebox SUP.ini files. So the issue that is driving me nuts is the MX effects do not work with the PinballX plugin (v1.0 & 1.4) while browsing the menus, I think they should as they are defined in the DOF tool and I recall seeing them in one of TerryRed's videos. To be clear the plugin works fine, my five flashers scroll and blink as they should but no up/down MX chaser lamps in yellow, nada, nix, nothing? This is the third cab I've build so I have had a good go at fixing this for some hours over the last month, my files all live in the right places and are present an correct so I'm hoping this is one of those odd ones that someone may have seen before. Here are my logs: DOFLinx.log PinballX DirectOutput Plugin.log PinballX.ini PinballX.log

I had the same issue, my system had the 32 bit Direct Output installed in a ‘DirectOutput’ folder and the 64 bit version in ‘Directoutput64’ the issue occurred when I registered the 64 bit version (which is not necessary). At that point the PinballX plug-in would only find the DirectOutput64 path which causes the plug-in to fail. I fixed this by: 1. Making a full copy of the DirectOutput64 folder and renaming it ‘DirectOutputPlugin’ 2. Going into the DirectOutputPlugin folder and running the DirectOutputCom registration tool 3. Deleting the entire contents of the DirectOutputPlugin folder 4. making a copy of the contents of the DirectOutput folder into the DirectOutputPlugin folder This fixes the issue as the registry now sends the PinballX Direct Output plugin to the DirectOutputPlugin folder which has the working 32 bit files. It retains the original Direct Output folder structure which, as they are called by VP from the VP 32 and 64 bit plugin folder shortcuts, is unaffected. A few notes: - You will only get this issue if you run the 64 bit Direct Output Com registration tool, If that has not been run you have a different issue. It’s easy to check by simply running the PinballX Direct Output plugin configuration and seeing which version of Direct Output the plugin is pointing to. - Make sure that you have a working VP installation first that’s calling the right 32/64 but version of Direct Output - Back everything up first, just in case, please. - When you have finished you can delete the majority of files and folders from the DirectOutputPlugin folder if you wish, you really only need the Dll, Com object, the five DirectOutput files downloaded from the online tool and the ‘Config’ folder. You don’t need to do this but I am OCD driven and like a tidy setup. - It’s a good idea to update the Plugin to Mike’s rather excellent tweaked version which is in the download section. Hope this helps out.

I've done a complete rebuild using the XP and 32 bit version 18.29 in x64 mode and the issue is consistent, the 'select sounds' during the resume vary in frequency between resumes - the log below shows a particularly bad one. I believe they are linked to the 'Device Change' entry in the log.log.txtlog.txt

Tried on x64 and x32 both will resume but still with multiple 'select sounds' during which there is a long pause where the screen appears frozen, blanks and then finally resumes. This is very similar to Running the GameEx .Net 6 x64 version with 'Run as Admin' and 'Disable Full Screen Optimisations' checked in the programs compatibility settings. GameEx Lite 18.29 x64 and the old GameEx 16.97 x64 do not exhibit this behaviour and resume immediately with the videos running. log GameExSetup_XP_and_32bit installed as x32.txt log GameExSetup_XP_and_32bit installed as x64.txt

Righto Tom, GameEx Lite works fine (see earlier comment). I've also reinstalled the latest .Net (6.0.1.0) that made no difference, then I managed to find an old version of GameEx (16.97) in my backup folder which predates the 17.22 change to .Net 6 - and that worked perfectly so it looks like it could be .Net 6 related. I've attached the 16.97 log for comparison. log.txt

I've found that GameEx has started crashing if it's asked to resume from sleep (S3) - I can replicate this on both my Mame machines which have different hardware and video cards/drivers. A few notes (and the usual files attached) During resume from sleep there are a number of 'select sounds' audible, at least two sometimes many more, that the sound you get when you select a game or item from the menu Forcing GameEx.exe to run as admin and disable full screen optimisations will allow the program to sometimes resume from sleep but there are still errors. I've tried disabling videos, reinstalling the LAV support, changing many of the video settings but with no joy. GameEx Lite works with no issues. Any help would be appreciated. GameEx.ini log.txt

It's only fault was that it was *tiny* on the screen, teeny, miniscule :-)

That's an odd one :-) I've renamed the .exe to remove the space for now. Always knew Microsoft hated pinball after the horrible free 'Space Cadet' game!

Here are the files: The original pre update file (Gameex(before).ini) shows that the emulator settings have a space in the program name in the command line ("Pinball FX2.exe" & "Pinball FX3.exe") After the 15.68 update to Gameex, those emulators do not run, the reason appears to be that the spaces have been stripped from the GameEx.ini file (Gameex(after).ini) No errors apparent in Log.txt (also attached) Running the setup wizard shows the spaces have gone (FX2aftergameexrun.PNG & FX3aftergameexrun.PNG) I corrected the commands in the wizard by adding back spaces (CorrectedsetupFX2.PNG & CorrectedsetupFX3.PNG) and checked verify performed correctly (verify.png). HOWEVER checking the GameEx.ini file still shows spaces are missing. Reopening setup wizard at this stage still has the correct command line with spaces still shown? This is repeatable. Finally manually editing the Gameex.ini to add the spaces back does not work as they are stripped our again once Gameex is run. So as far as I can tell the setup wizard does not appear to be correctly updating the .ini and Gameex v15.68 seems to be stripping out spaces from the emulator command lines when run. Sorry for the information overload but I wanted to cover the bases. GameEx(before).ini GamEx(after).ini log.txt

Just updated to Gameex 15.68 and after running I noticed my Pinball FX3 games would not run. Checking I found that part of the Command Line entry in the Emulator setup tab had changed from "Pinball Fx3.exe" to "PinballFx3.exe". Changed it back, closed and checked the config.ini and all was well however after running Gameex once again my Pinball FX3 games would not run. Checked the config.ini again and it had dropped the space and reverted from "Pinball Fx3.exe" to "PinballFx3.exe" again. @Tom Speirs I noticed that you mentioned that there have been some changes (performance improvements) to ini file processing so I am guessing that the space stripping may be something to do with that.

Rats. I *thought* I had managed to solve this by editing the CustomMenu.ini file in the GameEx Config folder but unfortunately that reverted so it still seems to be that if an 'item' is chosen as MAME it behaves like a folder.

Really simple request, could we have an 'All Mame Games' option in the menu editor application that's accessible from the start menu please? The menu editor is a great tool but I have a flat menu structure setup where each item on the start menu opens a list of games. Unfortunately the MAME item opens what is effectively a folder if you have everything apart from 'All Mame Games' disabled, So the MAME item opens another screen with 'All Mame Games'. There is already a 'All Games' item that does nearly that but it includes every emu's games. Cheers Tom

Just realised that I forget to mention a couple of tips to other touch screen users.... - It's vital to set Arcade Mode to off on touchscreen builds - Some of the themes will not work on touchscreen builds. So if you can get the click animation and see the touch working but nothing selects the open your theme folder. Find the theme.ini file and make sure in its 'General' section there is the following entry: ArcadeMode=False - If you want your touch screen to work in Mame then add the -mouse switch to the Mame settings command line section Hope this helps someone.

Blast , I owe Carny_Priest for help on my pin cab build, so a BIG thank you goes out to him as well. Yep, I started from the same viewpoint, in my case it went 'if I made it smaller would it fit in the.....' All running on Gameex, Mame dictated that platform in the end and the lists work far better on the vertical (I tried both). Here's the gameex.ini you requested as promised: GameEx.ini

No worries, one other member who is a good friend also saw my cabinet in its raw state and decided to build his own cab from the same base, he did not go down the touchscreen route but added a DMD and a Backglass mini monitor. I've attached images of my cabinet before I started the build and his before and when it was nearly complete too. Jukedock deserves credit for getting his build completed well before me too, especially as he started after I did. I loved his PIN2DMD but as you can't really see it during game play I decided to drop it from my build after initially installing one. One interesting point is I also found full screen pinball tables felt a bit 'odd' on an upright so I leaned all mine back. Hopefully these images will help you track down an old Skillball or Hook a Duck cabinet they are built by Nova as the Four Seasons. I will say that they are well built, the steel base plate is 6mm and cutting through it to lose the unneeded side part was a royal PITA. As for the details of my build the 32" monitor runs at 768x1280 so not many horses are needed under the bonnet to get things running. It's a basic A8-3750K PC running Win 7 x64 with 4Gb of ram and an Nvidea GT 1030 card running DVI to the display. The card was chosen as its low profile, low cost and so frugal on power I was able to use the PC's existing PSU to drive it. The controller is a Kade and when the lower door is opened many of the buttons remap to simulate the arcade service buttons, this is indicated by a change of lighting on the LED's in the buttons. Everything Is held on a 120Gb SSD with a 540Gb HDD for the music and SSD backup. It also has a Bluetooth dongle so you can use the cabinets 2+1 audio (Stereo and Sub Woofer) as a stand alone amp. There's WiFi, control panel illumination and an external USB port too. A 5v feed from the PC is used to drive a switch board which supplies mains power to the Amp. The touchscreen is custom, made by visualplanet, a friend's business, although it should be easy enough to put in another make, it's really for he Jukebox software but it does makes programming a breeze to be able to move the cursor by touch too. I didn't worry about a real plunger this time or nudge sensing as I installed extra buttons for those functions. The build was all sourced from eBay, used parts mainly, and after finding money in the cabinet and selling off its original coin mech the whole hardware part of the project has come in under 250 :-) The software installed is: - Gameex - Mameplus64 - Daphene - Pinball FX2/FX3 - Pro Pinball - The Pinball Arcade (tables called through TPAFreeCamMod) - Zaccaria Pinball (tables called through a modified AHK script I found on the forum, that may have been yours Draco) - Visual Pinball 10 - Ultimate Jukebox They all run as administrator, under an Aero theme except for Visual Pinball 10 which has the desktop composition disabled to help stop micro stuttering. Everything is run full screen for speed, even The Pinball Arcade, although it does prevent adjusting the TPAFreeCamMod settings this way. Hope this helps, I'll pop up the .ini in my next post..... My original cabinet with its missing PC & door: Jukedock's build based on the same cabinet style:

Hi All, Thought that I would post up a video of my latest project, up until now I've only used PinballX for Pinmame cabs but having bought an old Skillball cabinet with a vertical display I thought that GameeX would be the way to go. Here's a video of the complete project: ...and a few pictures too. I need to make the usual thanks, particularly to Jukedock for the controller and jukebox knowledge, Phil for making the bespoke plastics and Mike for making me the touchscreen. This time I managed to get through this by reading the forum and I didn't need to ask any questions - that's a tribute to the group. As for Tom's work and inspiration from posts by Draco and many others, well you all know that you are legends, thank you.

Not sure if this was down to my post on the subject a few days ago but it's awesome community support. You all rock.

I'd buy that person a beer!

Thanks Draco, reliable as ever. I grabbed that .xml, it's just a shame that GameEx and PinballX don't have an export option.

Hi All, I've been using GameEx for some time on my upright and now I have a bit of time I would like to transfer the upright roms to my PinballX set up. I can easily sort the vertical games out but to save a lot of time fiddling is there an easy way to get GameEx to export a mame.xml file for PinballX I have Googled to no avail...

Hi Tom, The shutdown issue we discussed and you worked on here: Seems to be present again under Win10. I've started a new build using the latest version of Windows 10 and so far its giving me far better results in term of video performance. However any attempt to run a program in the PinballX 'run before exit' option seems to stop the shutdown completely regardless of the 'wait before end' setting. Exit works just fine it just seems that there needs to be a longer delay on the shutdown execution. Alternatively (and probably simpler) would be for the shutdown selection to simply bypass and ignore the 'run before exit' option.