B2S PRO Server Setup

Thanks a million for all the crazy work you've put into not only a new designer but a new b2s server as well! 

Before I dive into this with both feet I need to ask a question or three.

Lets start with the b2stablesettings.xml. Is the new Pro server compatible with my miles long b2stablesettings.xml or will I need to start over as new?

Secondly is it safe to assume the new Pro server handles the plugins the same, ie, locations same? 

Lastly, for now, does it honor custom settings like B2S window punch used in .res files?

How Do we install? 
Copy over, or just execute?
Can I do a backup first? If yes, which files need backup prior executing the .exe?

If anything goes wrong, go back?

Scary, but definitely want to try it! 
Thank you 😀

Thanks for clarifying for me @Wildman. 

I installed to a separate folder (as I did with original b2s server), copied my b2stablesettings.xml into the new B2SPro folder and everything works as it should. Awesome!

I will say the installer asks for the vpinball folder location but when you click the icon to browse it's expecting an exe instead of the folder.  I just typed the path to the folder instead.

The second line to change to a new folder for the server worked fine, however the text below that showed it was going to install into my vpinball folder. In other words the text notification didn't change to the folder I selected/created. I took a chance and clicked install anyway and thank goodness it did install to the folder I created

Just a couple things to look at regarding the installer

Installed and working fine.

👍

Thank you!

I tried with 3 Backglasses:

1. NBA Fastbreak -> Superb - but obviously the FUllDMD is missing.

2. Terminator 3 -> not starting the Backglass. I don'T know why.

3. Big Guns -> this one is perfect! (If you don't have backglasses with FullDMD)

Question:

Can I run the old directb2s side by side with the new pro version backglasses?

And choose the backglass from .pro file and the dmd from .directb2s file?

Very cool new addition to the pinball world! 👏

58 minutes ago, qwerter18 said:

NBA Fastbreak -> Superb - but obviously the FUllDMD is missing.

looks the old way to edit backglass files still works, at list for this basic test, here is a copy with a DMD screen

NBA Fastbreak (Bally 1997) 1.0.1.B2SPro

here is a registry import to default open the new (and old) backglass files and adds an Edit option to the right click.

change your path as you need before importing.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.Backglass]
@=".B2SPro"
"FriendlyTypeName"=".B2SPro"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.Backglass\DefaultIcon]
@="\"D:\\vPinball\\B2SPro\\B2SPro.exe\",0"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.Backglass\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.Backglass\shell\edit]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.Backglass\shell\edit\command]
@="\"D:\\vPinball\\B2SProDesigner\\B2SPro.exe\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.Backglass\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.Backglass\shell\open\command]
@="\"D:\\vPinball\\VisualPinball\\B2SServer\\B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe\" \"%1\""


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.LegacyDirectB2S]
@=".directB2S"
"FriendlyTypeName"=".directB2S"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.LegacyDirectB2S\DefaultIcon]
@="\"D:\\vPinball\\VisualPinball\\B2SServer\\B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe\",0"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.LegacyDirectB2S\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.LegacyDirectB2S\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.LegacyDirectB2S\shell\open\command]
@="\"D:\\vPinball\\VisualPinball\\B2SServer\\B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.LegacyDirectB2S\shell\edit]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\B2SPro.LegacyDirectB2S\shell\edit\command]
@="\"D:\\vPinball\\B2SProDesigner\\B2SPro.exe\" \"%1\""

@Cliffy Just to clarify, you created a separate B2SPro folder under this file path?

c:\vPinball\Visual Pinball\B2SPro (or whatever folder name you chose)

And the file path in the second line matches?

Thanks in advance for clarifying.

I tried this and omg the lag... for some reason this new version lagged the heck out of every table. The ball would skip around and everything was basically unplayable.. Im, running an I9 with 32g ram btw which shouldnt have any lag period. I switched back to B2SServer-2.1.6.392-5494a8a-win from 8 months ago ( the latest version of b2s server before this) and everything is butter smooth again.

Anyone else have this problem??

3 hours ago, calexan1 said:

@Cliffy Just to clarify, you created a separate B2SPro folder under this file path?

c:\vPinball\Visual Pinball\B2SPro (or whatever folder name you chose)

And the file path in the second line matches?

Thanks in advance for clarifying.

Not quite. The first prompt is looking for your vpinball (or for some folks Visual Pinball) folder. In my case it is E:\vpinball so that's what I typed in.

The second prompt is asking where you want to install B2S Pro server. I've always kept the server folder separate from the tables folders so in my case I installed it to E:\vpinball\B2SPro\ 

Once installed I simply copied my old b2stablesettings.xml into the new folder

2 hours ago, Autopsy said:

I tried this and omg the lag... for some reason this new version lagged the heck out of every table. The ball would skip around and everything was basically unplayable.. Im, running an I9 with 32g ram btw which shouldnt have any lag period. I switched back to B2SServer-2.1.6.392-5494a8a-win from 8 months ago ( the latest version of b2s server before this) and everything is butter smooth again.

 

Anyone else have this problem??

 

B2SPro tables:

- NBA Fastbrake runs perfectly smooth.

- 300 I had a feeling it was laggin'

----

Others without B2SPro:

- ACDC with and without PUP

- John Wick with PUP

- all seem to run perfectly fine.

----

i5 - 16GB RAM - 8GB graphics

6 hours ago, calexan1 said:

@Cliffy Just to clarify, you created a separate B2SPro folder under this file path?

c:\vPinball\Visual Pinball\B2SPro (or whatever folder name you chose)

And the file path in the second line matches?

Thanks in advance for clarifying.

Got the same problem but it was my error. When you launch a table, right click on backglass and check if you really are using B2S 3.07.

16 hours ago, iwantpinball said:

looks the old way to edit backglass files still works, at list for this basic test, here is a copy with a DMD screen

NBA Fastbreak (Bally 1997) 1.0.1.B2SPro 55.06 MB · 8 downloads

Great! Looking nice! Thank you.👍

Any chance to explain, how to get an DMD image image imported into a B2SPro file?

I instalkled B2SPro Designer and loaded the 300.B2SPro backglass.

I imported an random 300-Screenshot .png I created.

I saved and "built the backglass".

When testing it won't appear... only the normal backglass without DMD starts up.

What step am I doing wrong, or am I missing?

Thank you guys for your great work, all over the place!👏

1 hour ago, qwerter18 said:

Great! Looking nice! Thank you.👍

Any chance to explain, how to get an DMD image image imported into a B2SPro file?

I instalkled B2SPro Designer and loaded the 300.B2SPro backglass.

I imported an random 300-Screenshot .png I created.

I saved and "built the backglass".

When testing it won't appear... only the normal backglass without DMD starts up.

What step am I doing wrong, or am I missing?

Thank you guys for your great work, all over the place!👏

You need to go to File, Settings and use the dropdown to select where the dmd will go.

Just curious about the future vpx 9 (currently 8.1 ) having this as plugin.
Yes, no...?

After a lot of testing, I could say it works perfectly on all these new b2S and no problem with the other ones. Thanks a lot, Wildman! The only B2S which doesn't work anymore for me is Scared Stiff.

2 hours ago, Wildman said:

replace these 2 files in your server folder and tell me if it works ,,,i did find a issue, 

B2SBackglassServer.dll 927 kB · 1 download B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe 783 kB · 1 download

Scared Stiff works perfectly with those files, thanks

However I found a few more tables with issues (with those files and the precedent ones, the same) :

Walking Dead from Flupper, script error

All the tables with puppack on the backglass, Tron, Transformers, Master of Universe, Stranger Things
The puppack starts but the table lags A LOT, unplayable

@lonchaney @Wildman I may have a clue for you. If you run a table with a res file but with no b2s the table and everything lags to a crawl. I noticed this with X Files since I was using a pup pack and therefore no b2s. Same thing with Tron Legacy excepth with Tron even when do do add the b2s the pup pack never loads but at least the table runs normal speed.

In fact I just tries simpsons pinball party with b2s loaded but positioned off screen and the pup pack will not load. 

as an update to my post above I discovered we need to copy the contents of the plugins and plugins64 folders from our old b2s server folder into our new b2spro folder. Voila. pups work again.

Of course if you simply installed the new b2spro server into your previous b2s server location you should have no problems with the plugins.

Having an issue with the left flipper locking up when using b2spro. It will lockup anout 20 seconds into game and if you push the left flip button 12 or so times you might get 1 flip. Tried this with fastbreak & terminator 3. Uninstalled b2spro and went back to b2s 3.0. No problem. What the heck? I wanna use these new backglasses!!

5 minutes ago, rvaughn said:

Having an issue with the left flipper locking up when using b2spro. It will lockup anout 20 seconds into game and if you push the left flip button 12 or so times you might get 1 flip. Tried this with fastbreak & terminator 3. Uninstalled b2spro and went back to b2s 3.0. No problem. What the heck? I wanna use these new backglasses!!

same here.. but the ball itself was lagging for me also. So bad that i couldnt play anything.  Flippers would stick right sometimes, left it seemed always like this... but the ball skipping was just too much.. it would lag so hard for me it would be at the top, then out of the middle before it reappeared just before it went out. I closed everything behind it also... didnt help. Swapped back to the B2s server before this and it works great, just doesnt load any of the new backglasses that require this.  I love wildman, but this should really have been polished a LOT more before release.. im sorry

I am having the same issue with major lag too. About 20 sec into the game all motion freezes locks up. Except for fast break and catacomb running your b2spro files (used the dif file) catacomb was amazing! NBA Fast Break was amazing too!
Every other game with OG backglass or PUP has that huge lag. 
I tried copying the plugins as Cliffy suggested and that still didn't fix it.
The installer did create the "B2SPro" folder in "program data" folder. Not where I told it my b2s server folder was located. My original B2s Server folder was still named "B2s Server" with what I assume is now where the B2S Pro server exe lives. not sure if that matters. 
Lastly, I'm running 144hz refresh rate (not sure if that matters either)
That being said it's really amazing and I'm excited to see how it shapes up. The restoring function works great and everything back to normal.
Is there a way to install it alongside the OG b2s servier and have a custom launch perameter launch b2spro for the games that use it?
Thanks for this.