[RESOLVED] Pinball FX2 does not display backglass while in PinballX

[oscarsalcedo]

Pinball FX2 refuses to display backglasses when browsing tables PinballX (but will display the backglass inside the Pinball FX2 application).

PinballX has no trouble displaying Pinball FX2 playfield images, wheel images, and playing launch sounds and table sounds...

 

Example entry in my c:\pinballX\databases\Pinball FX2\Pinball FX2.xml:

 

<menu>

   <game name="Western">

   <description>Wild West Rampage</description>

   <rom></rom>

   <manufacturer>Zen Studios</manufacturer>

   <year>2015</year>

   <type>Pinball OG</type>

   <hidedmd>True</hidedmd>

   <hidebackglass>False</hidebackglass>

   <enabled>True</enabled>

   <rating>5</rating>

   </game>

</menu>

 

I have an image named "Western.png" in c:\pinballX\media\Pinball FX2\Backglass Images\

Heck, I have actually even tried having several files with different possible names and extensions:

Western.jpg

Wild West Rampage.png

Wild West Rampage.jpg

I have checked the folder permissions and they match exactly those of the rest of media folders.

 

I read something about PBFX2 having trouble displaying a backglass if the size of the backglass was different to the backglass screen resolution. My Backglass monitor is a TV and at 1920 x 1080 it was overscanning, therefore I was tweaking the resolution in the NVidia Control Panel to make the backglass images work.

Today I set the TV to "PC Mode", which provides a native 1920 x 1080 resolution and removed the scaling options from the driver settings, but it still can't display Backglasses inside PinballX! Remember that PBFX itself can display backglasses; also, the three versions of VP that I have installed can show backglasses in PinballX!!!

 

I am not sure what could be going wrong

 

Here are copies of the config.ini, pinball fx2.xml and log.txt.

log.txt

Pinball FX2.xml

PinballX.ini

[Carny_Priest]

Backglass shows up for Visual Pinball tables but not FX2?

 

Are there any files in Media/PinballFX2/Backglass Videos ? I believe PinballX will try to display a video first if there are both a video and a static image

Try downloading a different image?

[oscarsalcedo]

Thanks @Carny_Priest!

No files in the Backglass Videos folder.

I tried a different image as well; I copied a VP10 Big Bang Bar backglass image that works fine in PinballX and renamed it "Western.jpg", but PinballX still wouldn't show it! I even converted the image to .png in case it required that extension, but nothing. I also resized them to be exactly the size of the backglass resolution to no avail.

[Carny_Priest]

Castlestorm, Zen Football, etc. show up in your wheel. You get a playfield image as expected but no backglass either? Or is it only Wild West Rampage that gives you a problem?

[oscarsalcedo]

I used Wild West Rampage as an example. All the games defined in pinball fx2.xml show up in pinballX. They all show wheels (including Wild West Rampage), they all show playfield images and play table and launch sounds. None of them show a backglass image!

They also all launch successfully, and once in Pinball FX2, they do show the backglass images. I know these come from a different folder, but I even copied them to the Pinball FX2\Backglass Images\ folder and they still won't load in PinballX (which sortof rules out the image file being the issue)

Thanks again!

[fuzgi]

Okay, here's a copy of a part of your PinballX.ini

Quote

[Display]
Monitor=2
rotate=270
windowed=False
windowwidth=900
windowheight=506
windowx=153
windowy=248
PlayFieldBrightness=230
WheelTextColor=ffffffff
WheelTextOutlineColor=ff000000
InfoTextColor=ffffffff
InfoTextOutlineColor=ff000000
FilterTextColor=ffffffff
FilterTextOutlineColor=ff000000
MenuColor=ffffa500
ShowExitImageFor=3
ShowExitImage=False
[BackGlass]
monitor=0
x=1920
y=0
width=1920
height=1980
AutoPositionB2S=True
UseB2S=True
[DMD]
Enabled=False
monitor=1
x=1920
y=0
width=1179
height=315
AutoPositionPinMAME=True
UsePinMAME=False

 

I see that you are using B2S in your frontend (with autoposition). That's good, because it makes your backglasses work for VP, even if your backglass settings are wrong.

Your PinballFX2 backglasses are not being displayed because your backgalss monitor settings are probably wrong. Indeed, they look a bit weird:

monitor=0 (are you sure you want this to be display 0? Never seen windows or a graphic card driver ennumerate like that)
x=1920 (why such an x-offset?)
y=0
width=1920
height=1980 (this one seems off too)

I'd try this next:

- Check windows "screen resolution" settings for display numbers
- Enter the right number in PinballX settings (may be 0, but unlikely; 2 or 1 are quite probable)
- Set the x-offset to 0
- Change height to 1080
- Report back

Good luck!

 

Major edit: Forgett about my comments about display number, becuase PinballX monitor numbers to not correspond with windows ennumeration. Value of 0 is correct if you use your backglass as primary monitor. With this in mind, the x-offset of 1920 you have there still makes no sense.

[Carny_Priest]

Go ahead and update to the latest version, 2.28.

Standard setup is to have playfield and backglass displays in landscape orientation. The backglass display is to the right of the playfield display. Top edges of the displays are aligned. How is yours set up?

[Draco1962]

I believe mine is set the same as Oscar's with the exception that instead of 1, the playfield is Monitor=0, Rotate=270 with Width=1080 Height=1920, and Backglass set to Monitor 1, Width=1920 and Height=1080. Mind you, this is for a pincab setup where the playfield is in a portrait orientation.

[oscarsalcedo]

Ok! Problem solved thanks to the fine folks in this thread!

It was a combination of things really, all pointed out by you guys above in one way or another:

• PF = 1920x1080 (landscape - hence the 270 rotation) / BG = 1920x1080 / DMD = 1280x1024. My monitors are all top-aligned
• Windows sees my monitors as PF=1, BG=2, DMD=3.
• The Nvidia utility sees them as PF=1, BG=3, DMD=2
• Pinball X sees them as PF=0, BG=2, DMD=1; that's in the .ini file, however the settings.exe refers to them as 1,2,3... quite confusing to say the least
• Upgraded to the latest version (which didn't really help my problem directly)

I was also confused as to the role of c:\visual pinball\tables\ScreenRes.txt and pinballX backglass and DMD positioning, the documentation IMHO is not clear as to how these play (or don't) together. I also removed the offset on the backglass X position and set it to zero; the DMD X position had to be adjusted for some of the DMD images.

PinballFX2 now works flawlessly, even with Backglass Videos! Now to fine tune DMD images, run PBX Recorder and wrap up the software side of things.

I'd love to see better documentation when it comes to some of the features and their effect on VP/PA/PBFX2/FP.

Thanks everyone again.

[Draco1962]

Glad you got it sorted. The documentation is user-driven and, unfortunately, dependent upon the users to keep up with the changes and update the documentation as functionality is added or changed. Also, documentation only should serve as a baseline as there are too many variables across all the various user configurations to be able to answer every issue, hence the existence of the forums.