Backglasses appears darker with newest B2S version

[mandermannen]

Backglasses appears to be darker with newest B2S version 2.1.2. Am i doing something wrong? 

[mandermannen]

for so far i checked, not all the table appears darker. If i focus on the VPW tables it are:

 

bad cats

police force

haunted house

judge dredd

Ripley believe it or nog

[mandermannen]

And also  

Transporter the rescue
Golden eye
Maverick
Black rose

 

Appears darker

[Tikimaster]

@mandermannen Do you feel the whole backglass is darker or do you mean that the light effects on top are darker? ... investigating...

To prove this someone has to make screenshots on the same machine, same settings, same table and backglass file, with an older and the newest backglass server.
Could you please show us your backglass-menu settings? (right click on backglass) What Version exactly did you run before the update? Are you on cab (2-3 Screens) or on Desktop?

Edited August 31, 2024 by Tikimaster

[mandermannen]

Ok i started with:

 

VPX 10.8 RC4

B2SServer-2.1.1-2e001ca-Release-win-x86 (a test  release from JARR where i think he put the bulplights on)

VPinMAME-3.6.0-998-a77c2d2-win-x64

 

When i focus on bad cats, version 3.1 stays dark but version 3.0 stays light. And this with the same versions of vpx, b2s and vpinmame. By dark and light i think i mean that the startlights from the backglass don’t start. The lighteffects work on boths version. I have a cab setup with 3 screens and a real dmd. Maybe it also has something to do with PWM support from vpinmame that VPW uses? I dont know. Hope you can help

[Cliffy]

latest is 2.1.2 https://github.com/vpinball/b2s-backglass/releases/tag/v2.1.2

But yes I'm also seeing unusual lights on Bad Cats glass. For me the feature lights are flashing very fast (jackpot, barbeque, others)

The main GI lights seem to come on with certain ball hits which also seems backwards to me. Will have to search some videos of real; bad cats to see what is expected as normal

 

edit- ok this video shows the lamp board insert lighted in a couple places, both very briefly so you gotta pay attention. Particularly in the 26 minute and 27 minute marks. You can see two states of teh attract mode, one with static GI and the other shows the flashing feature lamps. One thing to note is the GI is always on, unlike our b2s here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVIDOtuVohY

 

Edited August 31, 2024 by Cliffy

[mandermannen]

Yes it looks like the main GI doesnt go on with Version 2.1.2 of B2S. I think it also counts for the other tables i mentioned. Maybe the b2s-files had to be updated to the new Version of B2S or the problem lays somewhere else

[mandermannen]

I think it has something to do with this new PWM. In the script of bad cats i changed:

 

Const UseVPMModSol = 2 to Const UseVPMModSol = 1

 

and then de backglass lights up normal again

[jarr3]

Hi,

 

I now know what is going on... since VPM now has PWM support ( see wikipedia-Pulse-width_modulation )

It means that VPM does not tell if a light is on or off, but rather gives VPX and B2S a value between 0 and 255 to make a gradient change in light brightness.

 

Since B2S only knows about lights being either on or off, there is a threshold hard coded to 64 and if the PWM value coming from VPM exceeds 64, the light will turn on... 

see B2S Release 2.1.1 :
 

Quote

Add support for PWM modified tables, the light turn on values > 64, if it is a PWM activated table

Thanks @mandermannen (this is the "@" sign, directly adressing someone in the forum) for finding this, none has noticed this so far...

 

I will re-open your issue, but we need to change it to something like "Add possibility to change the PWM threshold value instead of hard coded 64) 

What do you think, do we need to be able to change this value for each table?

Edited August 31, 2024 by jarr3
Added a link to the issue on Github

[mandermannen]

If VPM only gives levels instead of on or off, than who knows at which levels a GI in the backglass has to go on? Are those the tablemakers or the ones who makes the backglasses? If these levels are known and not the same per table, then there has to be a PWM threshold per table i guess. But im really ignorant about this subject    

[mandermannen]

Or maybe B2S can use the same gradient in light that VPX uses?

[jarr3]

I was told to use 64 as a value, but it seems it does not fit with what VPM used as threshold internally to trigger a light.

To really solve this one would have to try with transparency on the lighted pictures and change the transparency level depending on the PWM value. Though I have no idea if it would look right.

[jarr3]

3 minutes ago, mandermannen said:

Or maybe B2S can use the same gradient in light that VPX uses?

VPX uses a full 3D library where things like this can be made, for B2S it would mean a full rewrite.

But of course, it would be possible.

[mandermannen]

Thanks for your eplanation! If i can help in anyway i would love to, but i think i can't. I hope there will be a solution, the tables that VPW now delivers with this PWM-lightning are awesome. But really simple thought: why 64 and not 1 as the value? On is on i think

[jarr3]

Well, if B2S would turn on a lamp already (on full brightness) when it is almost not even lit at all, you will see too much light...

Since B2S still only has the binary on/off, we need to decide when a PWM value should mean the light to go on... 

[mandermannen]

Ok that was to simple thinking of me

[mandermannen]

Hauntfreaks just post a update of bad cats backglass that works with B2S 2.1.2! He says that the GI where inverted