Code change to enable SAM LE driver board support

[umpa]

OK, that is pretty far, I'll guess it's just my computer..  I think mine is during a multiball, can't ever remember (I think metallica multiball ((ramps)).  But it's always when I hit the right orbit and the ball hits that top right orbit switch thats when it stops and crashes. I'm out of town for the weekend. but when I get back I'll try to get it to happen again and save the crash dump stuff.

@Umpa are you getting any errors when you launch the table?  Like a missing b2s perhaps?  Things that disrupt the load of the table can cause sticky flippers.

-Mike

Not that I notice. I will check though again.

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[umpa]

don't keep a copy of some files in the same folder, in my case it loaded the copies so not the new files

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So I did some cleaning up in my VP/tables folder. Can someone confirm if these files are the correct versions. I noticed that since I removed duplicate older b2s files my flipper issue is almost gone. These are the files I have in my tables folder, b2s_backglassserver.exe 11/2/13, B2sBackglassserver.dll 12/22/16, b2splugininterface.dll 12/21/16.
Thank you.

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[umpa]

So I did some cleaning up in my VP/tables folder. Can someone confirm if these files are the correct versions. I noticed that since I removed duplicate older b2s files my flipper issue is almost gone. These are the files I have in my tables folder, b2s_backglassserver.exe 11/2/13, B2sBackglassserver.dll 12/22/16, b2splugininterface.dll 12/21/16.
Thank you.

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Just wanted to add I'm pretty sure it's b2s causing this issue. If I run the tables with no DOF then no issues with the flipper. Sorry to hijack this thread. I noticed it has been hijacked before. Lol

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[DJRobX]

 

2 hours ago, umpa said:

Just wanted to add I'm pretty sure it's b2s causing this issue. If I run the tables with no DOF then no issues with the flipper. Sorry to hijack this thread. I noticed it has been hijacked before. Lol

I've already declared that I officially approve hijacking of this thread.

At least we know it's a performance issue.    Are you running B2S in EXE mode? 

[umpa]

 

I've already declared that I officially approve hijacking of this thread. [emoji4]

At least we know it's a performance issue.    Are you running B2S in EXE mode? 

Just an update reinstalled latest B2S server and still have same issue with the flipper! Driving me nuts. When I remove the b2stablesettings.xml from the tables folder then I have no issue with the flipper but of course I don't have DOF then either!

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[umpa]

 

I've already declared that I officially approve hijacking of this thread. [emoji4]

At least we know it's a performance issue.    Are you running B2S in EXE mode? 

Yes running in EXE. mode

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[DJRobX]

 

10 hours ago, umpa said:

Just an update reinstalled latest B2S server and still have same issue with the flipper! Driving me nuts. When I remove the b2stablesettings.xml from the tables folder then I have no issue with the flipper but of course I don't have DOF then either!
 

If you disable DOF (maybe rename the plugins folder to plugins_hold) do you still have the issue?   Sounds like you're getting closer to narrowing it down.

By "latest" B2S, did you update the B2S and DOF with the ones in the first post of the thread?  SwissLizard hasn't merged anyone's pull requests so the latest "official" doesn't have the tweaks needed for modern VPM.    I don't think that would cause this issue though.   

[umpa]

 

If you disable DOF (maybe rename the plugins folder to plugins_hold) do you still have the issue?   Sounds like you're getting closer to narrowing it down.

By "latest" B2S, did you update the B2S and DOF with the ones in the first post of the thread?  SwissLizard hasn't merged anyone's pull requests so the latest "official" doesn't have the tweaks needed for modern VPM.    I don't think that would cause this issue though.   

So I did as you said removed the plug-ins folder and the flipper issue did not happen. I reinstalled the files from first link moved plug-ins folder back and same issue. Only with left flipper. I will check my leaf switch but it just seems strange only on Mustang and TWD LE versions do I have this issue.

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[DJRobX]

Yeah I don't think your physical switch would be the problem.     DOF only receives events, so if the table behavior is different with DOF enabled, it must be causing some kind of performance drag. 

You can try changing "UseVPMModSol" to 0 in the table scripts.   That will change the way VPM sends events to DOF.    You won't see flashers on these tables though, but it would be interesting to try.    I think that's the difference between the LE versions and the non-LE versions.    If that works, then it might indicate that the DOF update from the 1st page didn't get installed correctly 

[TerryRed]

28 minutes ago, DJRobX said:

Yeah I don't think your physical switch would be the problem.     DOF only receives events, so if the table behavior is different with DOF enabled, it must be causing some kind of performance drag. 

You can try changing "UseVPMModSol" to 0 in the table scripts.   That will change the way VPM sends events to DOF.    You won't see flashers on these tables though, but it would be interesting to try.    I think that's the difference between the LE versions and the non-LE versions.    If that works, then it might indicate that the DOF update from the 1st page didn't get installed correctly 

Would changing the modulated solenoids "frames" or the led "frames"  (I may have the wording wrong)  in the B2S settings help at all with this?  I know that for some B2S files changing the number of frames rendered helped alot with some tables....   (my wording may be off, and I don't have access to my cab atm)

[DJRobX]

11 minutes ago, TerryRed said:

Would changing the modulated solenoids "frames" or the led "frames"  (I may have the wording wrong)  in the B2S settings help at all with this?  I know that for some B2S files changing the number of frames rendered helped alot with some tables....   (my wording may be off, and I don't have access to my cab atm)

Those settings definitely help when the .directb2s backglass animations are dragging down performance.   But those settings don't affect what's sent to DOF.   In his case, DOF seems to be triggering the performance issue.   It might help if the issue is a combination of both a .directb2s performance drag plus DOF though (entirely possible...).

 

[TerryRed]

Maybe having a setting in VPMame, per table (in the gui), which would allow for the choice of PWM flashers and PWM solenoids.... or the choice of the older non PWM flashers and solenoids method?

It sounds like the newer PWM flashers and solenoids on those tables (the LE tables) may be causing some other issues though.....

....but some people may want the "option" in case it's also a performance drain on their system? Don't know if this is doable...just throwing this out there....

An option to chose ddraw=0 per table (in the gui) would be lovely as well...

[umpa]

Yeah I don't think your physical switch would be the problem.     DOF only receives events, so if the table behavior is different with DOF enabled, it must be causing some kind of performance drag. 

You can try changing "UseVPMModSol" to 0 in the table scripts.   That will change the way VPM sends events to DOF.    You won't see flashers on these tables though, but it would be interesting to try.    I think that's the difference between the LE versions and the non-LE versions.    If that works, then it might indicate that the DOF update from the 1st page didn't get installed correctly 

I made the change in the script but flashers still worked and no difference to flipper. I guess will have to live with it it's just annoying when trying to catch ball with left flipper sometimes.

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[umpa]

I made the change in the script but flashers still worked and no difference to flipper. I guess will have to live with it it's just annoying when trying to catch ball with left flipper sometimes.

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It's just Mustang Le and TWD le. Star trek le. No problems! So what's different! Lol I will have to look at each script I guess.

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[toxie]

2 hours ago, DJRobX said:

By "latest" B2S, did you update the B2S and DOF with the ones in the first post of the thread?  SwissLizard hasn't merged anyone's pull requests so the latest "official" doesn't have the tweaks needed for modern VPM.    I don't think that would cause this issue though.   

Is the svn of B2S not up-to-date? Cause for this i also made an official build for the VPX installer and a standalone package, too.

[DJRobX]

3 hours ago, toxie said:

Is the svn of B2S not up-to-date? Cause for this i also made an official build for the VPX installer and a standalone package, too.

For B2S, SVN is up to date and I haven't made any updates in a really long time.    So if you've updated the official build, I can update the first post to reference that instead.   DOF still needs a manual update though, since Swisslizard hasn't merged pull requests yet. 

4 hours ago, umpa said:

It's just Mustang Le and TWD le. Star trek le. No problems! So what's different! Lol I will have to look at each script I guess.
 

I know ST:LE uses modulated solenoids too.   So I'm running out of ideas as to what could be different.   The only thing I know that those two tables have in common is that they were both made by Dozer.     

[sliderpoint]

Alright, here is my crash.dmp files.  Can someone look at this and let me know if this is a VP or VPM crash?    This was during 'snake multiball' and when I hit an orbit shot.

crash

Thanks

-Mike

 

[DJRobX]

7 hours ago, TerryRed said:

Maybe having a setting in VPMame, per table (in the gui), which would allow for the choice of PWM flashers and PWM solenoids.... or the choice of the older non PWM flashers and solenoids method?

It sounds like the newer PWM flashers and solenoids on those tables (the LE tables) may be causing some other issues though.....

....but some people may want the "option" in case it's also a performance drain on their system? Don't know if this is doable...just throwing this out there....

An option to chose ddraw=0 per table (in the gui) would be lovely as well...

PWM flashers are not really a resource intensive thing.    It's really just a matter of passing a value along to the tables.   It's the mechanics of making this feature backwards compatible to old tables, B2S and DOF that make the whole thing more complicated than it ought to be.

It actually should be LESS intensive than the fading light script routines that table authors use to work around the lack of PWM flashers. 

All that said, PWM flashers are optional, and default to off.   The table script is what turns it on.   It's easy for a table script to implement supporting both ModSol=1 and ModSol=0 if the table author wanted to have it as a performance option.   That has to be handled table side, not VPM side.   

In this case I'm just trying to narrow down the cause of Umpa's problem.  If all the updated peices are in place, PWM and non-PWM flippers should work exactly the same way. 

 

[umpa]

PWM flashers are not really a resource intensive thing.    It's really just a matter of passing a value along to the tables.   It's the mechanics of making this feature backwards compatible to old tables, B2S and DOF that make the whole thing more complicated than it ought to be.

It actually should be LESS intensive than the fading light script routines that table authors use to work around the lack of PWM flashers. 

All that said, PWM flashers are optional, and default to off.   The table script is what turns it on.   It's easy for a table script to implement supporting both ModSol=1 and ModSol=0 if the table author wanted to have it as a performance option.   That has to be handled table side, not VPM side.   

In this case I'm just trying to narrow down the cause of Umpa's problem.  If all the updated peices are in place, PWM and non-PWM flippers should work exactly the same way. 

 

Yeah thanks for trying! I posted on the vpinball forum under download support for Mustang Le as well. Someone over there posted same issue. Hopefully can get this sorted. But at least they are still playable. (mostly)[emoji3]

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[grunger106]

On ‎31‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 9:54 PM, sliderpoint said:

OK, one more table to test.   I am getting crashes on my machines when I play for a while.  I need a couple others to play and see if they have issues or if it is just my computers.

Metallica LE

-Mike

Had a few games on this - looks awesome.
No crashes, but the ball movement is slightly jerky when rolling down the playfield and I have very high CPU usage in comparison to other tables.
90%+ load on this, and less than 40% on Fren's orginial version
Tried the PM DB2S and the Pro to see if that made any difference
Looks like there is a ball in a kicker under the apron? (I saw while the flashers were going off on multiball start)

Specs:

i3 (Sandybridge Gen) 3.1Ghz

8GB RAM

GTX 760 2GB

SSD

running VPX 10.2.1, VPM 2.8 (B02) and B2S 1.6.02

[sliderpoint]

yeah, based on feedback, it seems it's definitely just my machine that crashes.  I posted a dump a few posts up. Hopefully one of the devs can point me in the right direction to get it sorted out.  For the ball under the apron, are you saying that you can see it through the apron?  maybe I need to adjust the material.  Not sure on the performance stuff, I don't normally check any of that, but I don't get the stutter you are talking about.  I'll see if CPU is up on my computer as well.

-Mike

[sliderpoint]

yeah, based on feedback, it seems it's definitely just my machine that crashes.  I posted a dump a few posts up. Hopefully one of the devs can point me in the right direction to get it sorted out.  For the ball under the apron, are you saying that you can see it through the apron?  maybe I need to adjust the material.  Not sure on the performance stuff, I don't normally check any of that, but I don't get the stutter you are talking about.  I'll see if CPU is up on my computer as well.

-Mike

edit:   OK, I just did a quick test to monitor CPU.  It does not run high on my computer.  Actually it averages lower than Fren's PRO.

Try re-downloading from my link above.  I've made changes at random times and you may have an older version of the table.
Also, this is the backglass from Wildman that I use for this table, try that to see if it changes anything.:  

 

 

[DozerAUS]

Happy New Year folks.

I can't reproduce the Mustang or TWD issues on my cabinet sorry Umpa so I have no idea what may be causing this.  The solenoid calls are standard in the script so it's weird.  I actually had an opportunity to cradle the ball in both games when the light show was going crazy (which in turn was thrashing two ledwiz boards and a serial LED strip controller and it never double triggered.

Mike, I'm not sure if this is the cause of your crash but whilst playing Metallica LE I had a crash to desktop as well.  I looked at my crash.txt and one of the faulting modules was an Nvidia dll on my cabinet (Cannot remember exactly which one).  My drivers were a year old so I updated them and have not had an issue since.  I looked at your crash.txt which doesn't mention anything but vpinballx.exe but might be worth trying a driver update if you haven't done one for a while.

You may have already fixed this but that snake jaw mech on your LE Met (on the version I have) isn't working properly.  It did my head in trying to figure out how that worked but there is no need to drop the invisible wall for the jaw when the ball hits it using a "hit" event.  The solenoids for the mech should do that automatically.   Here is the code below that seems to make it work as intended.

Sub SolSnakeJaw(enabled)
If enabled Then
snakejawf.rotatetostart
JawLatch.isdropped = 1
Controller.Switch(56) = 1
End If
End Sub

Sub SnakeJawLatch(enabled)
If enabled Then
JawLatch.isdropped = 0
snakejawf.rotatetoend
Controller.Switch(56) = 0
End If
End Sub

Sub JawLatch_hit()
PlaySound "Target"
Controller.Switch(55) = 1
me.timerenabled = 1
End Sub

Sub JawLatch_timer()
Controller.Switch(55) = 0
me.timerenabled = 0
End Sub

Take the event for switch 55 out of the entry currently in your table.

Sub sw54_Hit:Controller.Switch(54) = 1:Playsound "kicker_enter_center":controller.Switch (55) = 1: End Sub
Sub sw54_unHit:Controller.Switch(55) = 0: End Sub

and comment out 

Sub JawLatch_Hit:JawLatch.isdropped = 1:playsound SoundFX("target",DOFContactors):controller.Switch(56) = 0:SnakeJawF.RotateToStart:End Sub

When you then hit the jaw when it is closed, it should drop automatically.

[umpa]

Happy New Year folks.

I can't reproduce the Mustang or TWD issues on my cabinet sorry Umpa so I have no idea what may be causing this.  The solenoid calls are standard in the script so it's weird.  I actually had an opportunity to cradle the ball in both games when the light show was going crazy (which in turn was thrashing two ledwiz boards and a serial LED strip controller and it never double triggered.

Mike, I'm not sure if this is the cause of your crash but whilst playing Metallica LE I had a crash to desktop as well.  I looked at my crash.txt and one of the faulting modules was an Nvidia dll on my cabinet (Cannot remember exactly which one).  My drivers were a year old so I updated them and have not had an issue since.  I looked at your crash.txt which doesn't mention anything but vpinballx.exe but might be worth trying a driver update if you haven't done one for a while.

You may have already fixed this but that snake jaw mech on your LE Met (on the version I have) isn't working properly.  It did my head in trying to figure out how that worked but there is no need to drop the invisible wall for the jaw when the ball hits it using a "hit" event.  The solenoids for the mech should do that automatically.   Here is the code below that seems to make it work as intended.

Sub SolSnakeJaw(enabled)
If enabled Then
snakejawf.rotatetostart
JawLatch.isdropped = 1
Controller.Switch(56) = 1
End If
End Sub

Sub SnakeJawLatch(enabled)
If enabled Then
JawLatch.isdropped = 0
snakejawf.rotatetoend
Controller.Switch(56) = 0
End If
End Sub

Sub JawLatch_hit()
PlaySound "Target"
Controller.Switch(55) = 1
me.timerenabled = 1
End Sub

Sub JawLatch_timer()
Controller.Switch(55) = 0
me.timerenabled = 0
End Sub

Take the event for switch 55 out of the entry currently in your table.

Sub sw54_Hit:Controller.Switch(54) = 1:Playsound "kicker_enter_center":controller.Switch (55) = 1: End Sub
Sub sw54_unHit:Controller.Switch(55) = 0: End Sub

and comment out 

Sub JawLatch_Hit:JawLatch.isdropped = 1:playsound SoundFX("target",DOFContactors):controller.Switch(56) = 0:SnakeJawF.RotateToStart:End Sub

When you then hit the jaw when it is closed, it should drop automatically.

Thanks for checking Dozer! Great tables! Thank you again!

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[sliderpoint]

10 hours ago, DozerAUS said:

You may have already fixed this but that snake jaw mech on your LE Met (on the version I have) isn't working properly.  It did my head in trying to figure out how that worked but there is no need to drop the invisible wall for the jaw when the ball hits it using a "hit" event.  The solenoids for the mech should do that automatically.   Here is the code below that seems to make it work as intended.

When you then hit the jaw when it is closed, it should drop automatically.

Hey Dozer, thanks for the suggestion.  I just updated my video drivers last night.  I'll try it again today and see what happens.  For the snake jaw, thanks for the code.  I felt it wasn't quite right, but I couldn't figure it out exactly,  I knew it was mostly working, but during multiball with one locked I felt the jaw shouldn't come down but couldn't figure it out.  I'll try this out.  

Thanks!
-Mike