B2S Server Update broke all Pup Packs

[gregmmurray]

I've been slaving at my cabinet for weeks. Reading and learning about how the various components work together. I probably had 24+ tables + Pup packs up and running on my 4 screen (playfield, backglass, fullDMD, topper), ALP modified cabinet. I had Addams Family, Goonies, Tron, Minions, GotG, and many more working perfectly. Yesterday, I tried to install "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and discovered that it required an update to B2S Server. After I downloaded and installed the 1.4.1 B2S package, most of my Pup-enabled tables don't work. I get nothing on the backglass, no background on the fullDMD and no topper. No other changes. 

 

I can load the Pup pack successfully using Pup Pack Editor and fire events works perfectly. I can load tables in VPX, natively, and play them without in game Pup Media. But, when I launch a table through Popper, my backglass, topper and DMD background are all showing my desktop. 

 

I've confirmed that my PuPMedia folder names match the ROM/cGameName title (which makes sense, since I didn't make any changes). I've confirmed my screens.pup settings and Screen config in Popper setup. 

 

Before I do a complete wipe and start over, does anyone have any suggestions?

[BallStuck]

don't wipe and start over, just figure out what went wrong. did you replace your customized screenres.txt file with a default one?

[gregmmurray]

Thank you. I looked at my screenres.txt and it definitely wasn't correct. I ran B2S_ScreenResIdentifier.exe, as administrator, to generate a new, corrected one. This didn't resolve Pup not showing on backglass, however. I wouldn't have expected that it would, based on my understanding. Don't Pup videos adhere to the screens.pup locations? I was under the impression that B2S Server (and screenres.tst) was only used when I had a .directb2s file in the tables directory ... straighten me out, if that's wrong. 

[Cliffy]

23 minutes ago, gregmmurray said:

Thank you. I looked at my screenres.txt and it definitely wasn't correct. I ran B2S_ScreenResIdentifier.exe, as administrator, to generate a new, corrected one. This didn't resolve Pup not showing on backglass, however. I wouldn't have expected that it would, based on my understanding. Don't Pup videos adhere to the screens.pup locations? I was under the impression that B2S Server (and screenres.tst) was only used when I had a .directb2s file in the tables directory ... straighten me out, if that's wrong. 

thats correct. its the pinupplayer.ini that you use to specify all the different pup screen locations.  

[gregmmurray]

Thanks for confirming my understanding. However, that makes the issue all the more confounding. The relationship between B2S and Pup videos isn't clear to me and I suspect thats a piece of the puzzle. When I load a table that has a .direct2BS file, click on the backglass and press "S", there is a check in the "Activate Plugins" box, but the Plugin Settings option is greyed out.

 

In my VPX Tables folder, I have a subfolder named, "plugins"

Plugins has a subfolder named, "PinUPPlayerB2SDriver," which contains two files - "B2SServerPluginInterface.dll" and "PinUpPlayerB2SDriver.dll" - both are unblocked by Windows security. 

Any suggestions?

[Tikimaster]

1 hour ago, gregmmurray said:

Plugins has a subfolder named, "PinUPPlayerB2SDriver," which contains two files - "B2SServerPluginInterface.dll" and "PinUpPlayerB2SDriver.dll" - both are unblocked by Windows security. 

Any suggestions?

delete the content of your plugin folder. open PinUPSystem\, copy the PinUPPlayerB2SDriver folder , put it in your pluginfolder as a SHORTCUT. try again.
This is the standard procedure for installing pup player. this plugin folder must be in the root of your b2sserver, wherever you installed it.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Retsamikit

[Rappelbox]

where's your current b2s server installed? is it really /tables folder or possibly visual pinball root folder?

what i've seen over the last couple of weeks lot's of people face issues because the new vriant installs into vpx folder instead of /tables and therefore not finding the /plufins folder as it still is inside /tables...

make a copy of plugins folder and move that to visual pinball main folder, then try again

[Tikimaster]

@gregmmurray Please, could you describe how did you trapped in this? What installer/zip did you use and how exactly did you "update"? I would like to find out exactly how this error occurs to help prevent it.
could you please link your installer?

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Retsamikit

[gregmmurray]

@Retsamikit Happy to explain if it helps others. 

 

I downloaded, "B2SBackglassServer-1.4.1-97905d7-Release-win-x86.zip" and extracted the files. Within that was a file named, "README.md." I followed those instructions to the letter. They read,

 

"### Installation:

- Unzip all files into a folder under your VisualPinball\B2SServer folder and overwrite already existing files with this new ones.
  **It doesn't have to be installed in the tables folder! A better example would be C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\B2SServer.**
- Right click the `B2SBackglassServer.dll` and click on `Properties`. Maybe you'll find the following text on the `General` tab:
  `This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer`. Click on the `Unblock` button.
  Everything is fine when you are not able to find this text.

- Start the `B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe` in the folder and the server dll should be registered.
  **IMPORTANT**: With Win7 (and above) start the .exe as administrator. 
  Old installations can be cleaned up using [Nirsoft's RegDllView](https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/registered_dll_view.html)"

 

I did not have a folder VisualPinball\B2Server, so I created one and unzipped the B2SBackglassServer-1.4.1-97905d7-Release-win-x86.zip archive into that folder. Obviously, I did not overwrite anything, as I'd just created the folder. I unblocked the B2SBackglassServer.dll and ran B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe as an administrator. 

 

This is when things went sideways. The MST3K table still wouldn't run and none of my Pup-enabled tables would load their media. 

 

After searching, it seemed that the issue was that I had two versions B2SBackGlassServer.dll registered. I used the Nirsoft RegDllView to confirm that was the case. I removed both the 1.0.0.0 and the 1.4.1.0 versions and repeated the installation steps above. I can confirm with RegDllView that B2SBackGlassServer.dll version 1.4.1-97905d7 is installed and registered (I've attached an image of what's registered)

 

When I launch a table that has a .directb2s file, my playfield, backglass and DMD all work. When I click on the backglass and press "s," Activate Plugins is checked but Plugin Settings is greyed out.

When I launch a table that does not have a .directb2s file and should render the backglass found within the PinUpSystem folders, my playfield and DMD work, but the backglass shows my desktop. 

 

@Rappelbox B2SServer is installed/registered in C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\B2SServer. This is what is specified in the README.md that came with the 1.4.1 package and that can be confirmed in the screenshot. Per your guidance, copied the folder c:\vPinball\VisualPinball\Tables\plugins to C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\B2SServer\plugins.

 

After I did that, when I launch a .directB2S-enabled table, "Plugin Settings" is no longer greyed out. When I open the settings, I see that PinUpPlayer Display Driver (V: 0.5.7023.26826 as of 2019.03.25 02:54) is listed as "Active."

Also, now, when I launch a Pup-Enabled table the Pup Media is playing. Most (all?) of the Pup-enabled tables seem to have lost some of the configuration that I'd done on what should play where and what is background vs. foreground. I suspect that this is due to changes I made to pinupplayer.ini, when I was investigating whether that was the issue. If I were smarter, I would have made a backup of my original before I started messing with it. 

 

But, for the most part, this is fixed without a scrape and rebuild!!! Thank you, all, so very much for your assistance and support to this community. I hope the details, here, help others. 

[Tikimaster]

Good to read that you found it out. The description was misleading in this way.  @jarr3 updated the description and is working on updating the files.

[jarr3]

9 hours ago, gregmmurray said:

@Retsamikit Happy to explain if it helps others. 

 

Also, now, when I launch a Pup-Enabled table the Pup Media is playing. Most (all?) of the Pup-enabled tables seem to have lost some of the configuration that I'd done on what should play where and what is background vs. foreground. I suspect that this is due to changes I made to pinupplayer.ini, when I was investigating whether that was the issue. If I were smarter, I would have made a backup of my original before I started messing with it. 

 

But, for the most part, this is fixed without a scrape and rebuild!!! Thank you, all, so very much for your assistance and support to this community. I hope the details, here, help others. 

If you talk about B2S configuration, the B2S tablesettings.xml has to stay in the tables folder (in the 1.4.1 version, the beta 2.0.0 it also searches in the application folder). So if you have moved this file, you can but it back or merge with the new smaller version...

 

Glad you got it working! The latest release coming soon will simplify usage a lot.