Color DMD with PAC files No longer Works for me in VPX 10.8.0

[BentonQuest]

I have been using the 3 methods (pal, pac and serum) on my Full screen Virtual DMD for a couple of years and until a recent update to VPX 10.8 final it has worked well.  I am not sure what caused the problem and after about 8 hours of troubleshooting  I am here. 
My configuration is:
VPX 10.8.0, I am running tables with the 64 bit exe, Vpinmame 3.6  (installed both 32 and 64 bit), 
Freezy DMD Extensions 2.3.1 (installed both 32 and 64 bit) (preserved my dmddevice.ini)

 

I then followed the instructions from Lucky’s post for the PAC files in this post.

https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/7504-new-version-dmd-extensions-with-pin2dmd-coloring-plugin-and-pac-file-support/. (preserved my dmddevice.ini)

 

The problem that I noticed was VPX was shutting down very slowly and most times would stop responding in task manager.   The table would play just fine until I exited and then VPX would hang.  I am running standalone (not in popper) VPX on Windows 10 in a cabinet exclusive mode but also changed to windowed and no difference in VPX behavior.  I then reinstalled Freezy DMD Extensions and did not copy the dmddevice64.dll or dmddevice.dll from Luck’y post and VPX shuts down just fine but  only pal and serum color DMD files work (which makes sense).  I also noticed if I used Lucky’s DLLs that the new VPW Goldeneye table with the Serum color dmd would appear to crash VPX. The goldeneye  table works fine with basic DMD and Freezy. Bottomline if I just use Freezy’s DMD Extensions I am good but I can’t use the PAC DMD color files.

 

I also followed this post and added the lines to the dmddevice.ini like the key for PAC support and no change. https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualpinball/comments/18oj7f2/having_trouble_with_serum_in_64_bit/

I am wondering if anyone has seen this issue and whether the DLLs copied from Lucky’s share are causing issues.   
I am trying to avoid a slash and burn reinstall of the cabinet but if I am the only one having the issues there is probably some problem with my install.  I might also just view PAC file support as a legacy feature and move on.  Sorry though to the folks that spent a lot of time making the PAC files.  

Great hobby and I have enjoyed for years.  Thanks to everyone that makes it happen. 
 

Edited August 5, 2025 by BentonQuest

[BentonQuest]

I solved my problem.   I had the vni.key is the wrong place in the DMDDEVICE.INI file.

 

This thread helped me.  

 

[pizzajon]

This post, linking to that reddit post, helped me solve the same problem! All of my color DMDs are working perfectly now.