Silent-Service-II Posted March 16 Posted March 16 Hello, first of all I'd like to say hello to this forum and that I'am completly new in "Virtual Pinball" because my first contact was in January when get a fully installed machine. And I'd like to add that I came from Germany so sorry for my writing. Like said before I hava a virtual machine with 2 screens - playfield and backglass wich also is used for DMD. Installed is a system (popper) that started automaticly and give my the option to start VPX, Future Pinball and Mame Arcade games. Best [and only] used is VPX and I managed to get first steps with changing options, DMD and now even install new tables and backglasses (latest I'am happy installing first tables with PUP packs 😀). But now I have the question - most of the new tables start with a warning that I have an "old" version of Visual Pinball X (I think that i have a version with 10.7) and I should udpdate to 10.8. I like to ask how to to this without damaging the system running and starting? Will all tables that are installed already work with the newer version? What is the safest way to update to the newest version? Thanks for any help and tips!
deadmanworking Posted March 16 Posted March 16 Welcome to the forum - however you will quickly notice that it's not very welcoming for people selling or buying pincabs cause this goes against the ethos of the content and software creators.. so you'd best first familiarize with the machine and software by yourself. First backup everything - for updating (if you don't rely on Chatgpt or Gemini) the best guide on this site is probably this one.
Tikimaster Posted March 16 Posted March 16 (edited) The bad news for newcomers or people who’ve bought a pre-built cabinet is that you’ll need to invest some time to understand the basics of the various systems that work together. Visual Pinball is pretty much the opposite of “click and go.” - VPX settings, key bindings, and screen settings - VpinMame ROM and DMD settings - Backglass settings and configuration - DMDex -DOF -Frontend settings I might sound like a jerk when I recommend that you keep your hands off your newly purchased cabinet for now. Practice on your desktop. Get a decent computer, install just VPX first, learn how to configure it, then install VpinMame, learn how to configure it, ... and so on, until you finally install PupPlayer and a FrontEnd and learn how to configure all of that. - Once everything is working, make a full backup of your cab and start your updates. There’s no way around the learning process. But you can decide whether you want to deal with all the problems at once or learn one step at a time. What you'll need: Stamina Patience The ability to follow a 15-step list of instructions with focus all the way through. A low frustration threshold. It took me a few weeks to do this. Visual Pinball looks free - but you have to pay this price. Edited March 16 by Tikimaster
Silent-Service-II Posted March 17 Author Posted March 17 Shure, this I found out already. And: There is a lot to find out and if I had one problem solved there are at least three new questions ahead. It would be fine if something like a "Starter Guide" can be found....
Tikimaster Posted March 17 Posted March 17 (edited) 53 minutes ago, Silent-Service-II said: It would be fine if something like a "Starter Guide" can be found.... Oh yes. I could not find a all-in-one starter guide fitting for everybody. When I started I watched a lot of youtube movies and read a lot of pages. If you follow the step by step plan, you can check component by component to understand settings and functions. So you can understand if your problem is caused by your backglass-server or from inside Popper for example. If you use a all-in-one Installer you will have all problems - all-at-one-time. Start is here: "If you want to install Visual Pinball from scratch, please download and install VPX8setup.exe." Install it to D:\Visual Pinball set your screen(s) get Vpinmame, register it 32and64 bit get Backglasserver, register it. Learn to understand screenres.txt - tablename.res and how to manage backglass files. get flexdmd. - get dmdext - learn and read... and so on. You can always come back to this forum and ask ... https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/releases/tag/v10.8.0-2051-28dd6c3 Edited March 17 by Tikimaster
Silent-Service-II Posted March 17 Author Posted March 17 On 3/16/2026 at 9:39 AM, Silent-Service-II said: Will all tables that are installed already work with the newer version? This question is still in my mind. 32 minutes ago, Tikimaster said: learn and read... Sure .. but 2 things make this difficult for me a little bit - first of all there is a lot of information from what I must check out what is really important & most of it in english. Second is : I never used Windows based computers in the last ~ 20 years. And before installing and working on a different PC with VPX for testing and learning ... I must simply have one. And get in contact with windows again (last home used used Microsoft Operation system was Win XP). Makes it not easier....😉 Sometimes "learn and read" is including more barriers than people think of.
deadmanworking Posted March 17 Posted March 17 I recommend you go step by step and get some handholding from an AI agent, Gemini is pretty good at figuring stuff out for VPX, even though it still makes up non-existant functions 😅 but for a general headstart it's hard to beat, just tell them your starting point scenario and let them give you guiding as detailed as you need it, you will come quite far this way. You could even accompany this by logging everything and all your sources in Notebook LM, this way you'll always have a log of what you changed and where an issue might come from. Strong tool! Most important, tackle only one issue at a time and also before installing any new version or updating files, always zip the exisiting files as a backup, it's a good idea to create daily or weekly backups of each configuration part while you're working on them. (for example, when you update B2S to 2.1.5, check which files are being replaced and zip them beforehand and name the archive with the version number and date) As for the older tables, yes they will run in VPX8 and in the rare case they don't, the installer provides all older versions VP versions as exe as well.
Tikimaster Posted March 17 Posted March 17 1 hour ago, Silent-Service-II said: Sure .. but 2 things make this difficult for me a little bit - first of all there is a lot of information from what I must check out what is really important & most of it in english. Second is : I never used Windows based computers in the last ~ 20 years. And before installing and working on a different PC with VPX for testing and learning ... I must simply have one. The cab you bought runs on Windows, right? - So if you want to manage it yourself, you’ll have to learn how to do it. Or you could just hire someone who’s already learned how to do it for you. English isn't my native language either. I know exactly what you mean. But unlike a few years ago, when I first started, there are now plenty of videos and texts available in different languages. Back then, there was no automatic translation on YouTube, and Deepl couldn't translate texts for me yet. Be brave!
Silent-Service-II Posted March 27 Author Posted March 27 After making a complete copy of the Vpinball folder incl. al tables and a complete backup of the hard drive today I followed instructions carefully by a video from GameClubCentral / Vpinhub.com and first backed up the complete vpinball folder (exclude tables) and replaced it with 10.8 latest version "Main.Download.Minimal.-.VPinballX80_Minimal". After testing it on a few tables it seems everything was successfull at all.👍 Some tables look better than before, some (seems mostly older) rund not so smooth like before. And in some cases the backglass server seems stopping loading... I have to check this out. This brings me to 4 questions - First is there now automaticlly a need for making other updates? VPinMAME, e.g.? I see that there are different versions of vpinballx.exe in the folder (32 bit, 64 bit, GL...). When I look starting different tables I see sometimes 32 bit Directx version seems running, on an other table other version. Can I, or should I choose a standart version working best? Or is this starting automatically? I see one guy in a video changing name e.g. vpinballx64.exe into vpinballx.exe? First running a table it looks not so nice because of pixels, so I see in graphic options that the settings are for "Low PC" at minimum. Changing it for a "Fast PC" has the result for a not so smooth gameplay. My system seems somewhere in between. Is there a tipp for a good "medium" setting? For a few tables I changed some details in brightness and size/view. This seems all gone or resettet after updating to version 10.8? Where are these changes saved?
Tikimaster Posted March 28 Posted March 28 (edited) 15 hours ago, Silent-Service-II said: First is there now automaticlly a need for making other updates? VPinMAME, e.g.? No. Normally, you should stick with the latest released versions until new tables explicitly require updates. It’s not necessary to always update every component to the latest beta versions. I know some people do that, but—as is always the case with beta versions—it carries risks. 15 hours ago, Silent-Service-II said: This seems all gone or resettet after updating to version 10.8? Where are these changes saved? General Settings: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\VPinballX - VPinballX.ini Settings by Table are saved in a tablename.ini My system seems somewhere in between. Is there a tipp for a good "medium" setting? For me it was trial and error. Your settings are individual. What looks good for others might be nasty for my system. So there is no general "looks good" everywhere setting, I guess. Edited March 28 by Tikimaster
sho Posted March 28 Posted March 28 I would, keep 10.7 as is. Install 10.8 as vpinball108.exe (or somesuch, just make sure you overwrite the scripts folder with 10.8 scripts). then use Popper’s alternative launcher function to only run 10.8 for tables that need it. At leat this is how I do it.
Silent-Service-II Posted March 29 Author Posted March 29 First, the best news – after some trial and error, I solved my main graphic/speed problem by setting the option: USE ALTERNATIVE DEPH BUFFER PROCEDURE. Pixels and texture blocks were visible before and have now disappeared; the rest was just fine-tuning. All tables now run equally well and quickly. Visually, they're better than before. Newer tables have also gained new features. So far, so good! However, occasional backglass errors remain (the backglass isn't loaded, but an old, previously used one from another table remains visible). Not often, only sometimes. Of course, I haven't tested all the tables yet, but it seems that some now fail to start due to script errors. For example, "Back to the Future" by DATA EAST or the "Psycho" table. These errors remain when I use older 10.7.2 version manually. I've also noticed that my hardware "real" ball detection via gyroscope (i.e., when I move my table, the ball moves) no longer works under 10.8. If I manually load the previous version, 10.7.2, and start a table from there, it works again. So I strongly suspect that a setting is missing. Perhaps someone has an idea about this; I'm not quite sure where or how to look for it. In fact, all tables appear to be back to their "original" visual settings (lighting, distance, size), but this is almost always correct and can be quickly changed using F12.
deadmanworking Posted March 29 Posted March 29 If you updated B2sserver then the b2s files now need to be named identical to the table files. Also, for nudging to work you need to set correct settings for analog nudging in Settings / Configure Keys Nudge DOF, have a look at your 10.7 settings first, might be you haven't got the right axis selected, or the gain is too low etc, try the Nudge test table on both versions until you have gotten back to your old setup.
Silent-Service-II Posted April 4 Author Posted April 4 On 3/29/2026 at 3:17 PM, deadmanworking said: If you updated B2sserver... Also, for nudging to work you need to set correct settings for analog nudging in Settings / Configure Keys Nudge DOF, have a look at your 10.7 settings first, might be you haven't got the right axis selected, or the gain is too low etc, try the Nudge test table on both versions until you have gotten back to your old setup. No, I didn't update the BGsserver. I only updated vpinballx to 10.8 from 10.7.2. But. thank you so much for your tipp looking into old and new settings for Nudge.. I have only to check the option "Enable Analog Nudge" - and everything worked now like before. 👍 The is a new option also called "Analog N. Input is velocity" underneath it, should this be choosen, too? Or what is it good for? I have no more Backglass problems now - it seems that only the BG from Apollo 13 caused the trouble. I overwrite it with an othe version - problem solved. 👍 Back to the Future table was replaced by a newer version - starting and running now. 👍 Only table I can't fix the scripting error is "Psycho" - and there is no other version of it. So, now with almost every problem solved I have installed a few more tables, BGs and even a few PUPs and added them to my Popper when starting without problems. A few newer tables warned me because of "low memory" and that I should use 64-Bit version...
deadmanworking Posted April 4 Posted April 4 Now that you switched to 10.8 there's not really a reason to stay on the 32bit versions, so recommend you use the Vpinballx64 or Vpinballx64-GL versions. Not sure what you refer to by Analog input is velocity, there is another option called Nudge filter which you might try out when using a acceleratomator board.
Silent-Service-II Posted April 7 Author Posted April 7 On 4/4/2026 at 2:08 PM, deadmanworking said: Now that you switched to 10.8 there's not really a reason to stay on the 32bit versions, so recommend you use the Vpinballx64 or Vpinballx64-GL versions. Thanks for your support. So - I rename the 64 Bit version into vpinballx.exe in the main vpinball folder and standart 32-Bit version into something like vpinballxOLD.exe? Is there an advantage or disadvantage using 64 Bit or 64 Bit GL? I started a few tables manually in both cases and see nothing different to be honest. (I see that some of the tables have to start in 64 Bit already even in my older 10.7.2 settings - it is already set as a start function in some cases in the popper.)
deadmanworking Posted April 7 Posted April 7 You don't need to rename anything per se, just define the 64 GL exe as the default app to run VPX tables. As you have seen complex tables need to adress more than 4gb of memory to function so that's why you need to use the 64bit version. DX vs GL, I don't see much difference on my system there either but GL supposedly performs a hit better.
Silent-Service-II Posted April 8 Author Posted April 8 18 hours ago, deadmanworking said: just define the 64 GL exe as the default app to run VPX tables. Okay. Where exactly has it to be defined, in the popper?
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