Before Asking For Help, Please Read This!

[swisslizard]

Hi folks

 

Please read the following points before asking for help with DOF issues:

 

General

• 
  As always RTFM!
  I know, reading manuals is maybe not the most interesting thing to do, but it often helps!
  • DOF R2 Documentation: http://directoutput.github.io/DirectOutput/
  • Latest DOF WIP Documentation: http://pinball.weilenmann.net/docu/DirectOutputWIP/index.html
    In particular please make sure you read the pages on Installation and Configuration, Cabinet Configuration, Built in Toys, Built in Output Controllers. They contain a lot of sample xml structures which you can use for your own configs and there are explanations on most settings as well.
  • Last but not least, here is a tutorial on the XML basics: http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

DOF Installation Problems

If DOF doesnt work, please check if it is installed correctly. Here are a few things to do:

• Double check your installation
  Instructions are on http://directoutput.github.io/DirectOutput/installation.html
  Make sure you really follow these instructions step by step.
• Check if DOF is visible for the B2S.Server
  Go to the B2S.Server settings screen and click the plugin settings button. This will open a new window, which should list DOF. If DOF is not visible there, check if DOF is in the right place (as explained in the installation instructions) and if the right B2S.Server instance is called (see next paragraph).
• Check B2S.Server installation(s)
  If the B2S.Server is working (backglass visible), but DOF is not visible in the settings window, your problem is probably that you have more than one B2S.Server instance on your machine and that VP calls a different B2S.Server instance than the one you think it is calling.
  Visual Pinball doesnt find the B2S.Server by its location in the filesystem (it is actually not relevant where you install the B2S.Server). Instead VP is looking up the B2S.Sever by its COM object name (that is the Createobject("B2S.Server") thing in the table scripts). This name is resolved by the system using a bunch of registry lookups, which will finally return the path to the B2S.Server dll file. If this path doesnt point to the B2S.Server which has DOF configured as its plugin, DOF will not be called.
  To fix this, try to reregister the B2S.Server instance for which you have installed DOF. Dont register any other B2S.Server instances on your machine.
  As a general rule of thumb, there is no reason to have more than one B2S.Server installation one a machine. IMHO it is bet to get rid of all duplicate installations if you have any.
• Unblock the files
  This is another typical installation problem, depending on how you put the DOF files into their installation dir, windows thinks that they might be dangerous (becaus you have downloaded them) and will block access to the files. This will stop DOF from working.
  Check if all DOF files are unblocked. Details can as usual be found here: http://directoutput.github.io/DirectOutput/installation.html#installation_unblockauc
• Enable Logging / Create a Global Config file
  For installations which only use a ledwiz or some other automatically detected controllers a global config file is not mandatory. However, if you have problems with your installation you should create a global config file, so you can enable the logging function of DOF. Instruction for global configs are overe here: http://directoutput.github.io/DirectOutput/globalconfig2.html

 

Cabinet Configuration problems

• Most problems with config xml files are caused by a bad file structure resp. So before calling for help, please make sure your file contains valid XML.
  To check this open your xml file in Firefox, Chrome or even Internet Explorer. All those browsers are able to show properly structured xml in a nicely formatted fashion and even allow to expand and collapse parts of the file. If there are structural problems present, the browsers will not show the nicely formated structure and a error message (more or less helpful) is displayed.
  Use a tool which knows about XML to edit your files (plain text editors usually dont know xml by heart). There are quite a few XML editors available on the internet (I'm using Microsofts Visual Studio, but that is a full development IDE). These editors will help you to produce valid xml structures and typically they will also produce nicely formated files (which makes them much easier to read).
• Try to reduce the number of potential problems.
  E.g. if you try to extend your cabinet config for ledstrips and a Teensy controller get rid of everything you dont need to get that new stuff running (remove all ledwiz configs, all ledwizequivalent toys whiche are not related to the teens controller and so on) or start a new config file from scratch. This will make it much easier to detected the cause of a config problem. Once you have your new toys working or fixed the problem you can put all the other stuff back in place.
• If you still have trouble with your config files, please upload them to dropbox, Google drive or any other service you like and post the links instead of the file content! Dont post lengthy XML structures to the forums directly.
  It is much easier to just download a file and open it in a suitable xml editor instead of scrolling through long xml structures which are in many cases no even formated nicely.

 

Posting help requests

• Dont ask for help using PMs
  Everybody should be able to learn from problems that occured earlier. For this reason I kindly request, that ask for help in the forums instead of private messages.
• Create your own thread
  Create your own thread with a decriptive name (e.g. Pinballwizard Ledstrip Config Problems) instead of reusing/hijacking another thread. It much simpler to keep track of things if they are in their own place. Threads where problems of several users are dicussed are becomming hard to follow pretty fast and it is more benefitial to concentrate on the actual problem solving than on trying to keep track of several different topics in one thread.
  Only reuse another thread if you have exactly the same problem as the one described in the thread first. "DOF is not working" is probably not the same problem for you as for someone else.
• Explain what you have tried
  Please explain in detail what you have tried already and what the outcome was. This will make it much easier to narrow down the possible causes of problems and will save us a lot of questions.
• Dont post lengthy file content
  It is much easier to just download a file and open it in a suitable tool, than to scroll through many pages of data in the forums. Therefore, please upload anything thats more than just a bunch of line to dropbox, google drive, one drive or any other service you like and post the link instead of the file content. If uploading several files or putting serveral file in one zip file, please give them a meaningfull name (Screenshot{Number}.jpg isnt a helpful name, B2SServerPluginSettings.jpg would be a good name).
• Be patient
  Everyone who is trying to help is only doing this a a hobby and we all got real life jobs and other duties as well. Therefore answers do sometimes take a bit longer. Nagging will not improve response times!

 

Thanks and all the best

 

Tom / Swisslizard