DmdDevice.ini keeps being overwritten

[DJSpeedy]

Hope someone can help with this.

 

Using VPX 10.7.3 on a 2 screen setup.  Installed Lucky1's latest files (3/4/2022)

 

Was resizing a DMD and accidently selected "Save globally" instead of saving to the specific game ROM.  So then I deleted the ini file and recreated it.

 

But now it is creating a new ini file each time I run a DMD table, and it only includes the most recent table I ran.  Setting the file to read-only is not an option as I have

many more DMD's to resize yet, and I don't want to lose the work that I have already put in.

 

I also changed the entry deleteOldFileOnStartup from True to False in DmdDevice.log.config, but that didn't work either.

 

As well, the only entries that it is now putting in the ini file is

 

[virtualdmd]
ignorear = true

 

So, how can I fix this so that it goes back to the way it was before I deleted the ini?

[Tikimaster]

Did you try to use just the settings and the ini came with the installation?

[DJSpeedy]

I did try that.

 

Seems that it doesn't like me overwriting the file myself.  When I use the stock file, and add entries, my changes are saved.

 

So it appears that I might have to start from scratch.

[Tikimaster]

Ähm. did you unblock the files?

[Cliffy]

23 minutes ago, DJSpeedy said:

I did try that.

 

Seems that it doesn't like me overwriting the file myself.  When I use the stock file, and add entries, my changes are saved.

 

So it appears that I might have to start from scratch.

I had this happen to me a while ago and posted about it and it turned out to be a bad syntax line that was creating an improperly formatted .ini file, so it kept getting overwritten. Like you I learned the hard way to make a backup every once in a while. Nowadays I keep it open in notepad++ and minimized. Everytime a new change occurs notepad++ will tell you and I'll click save and then go to "save a copy as.." and save to a backup folder at the same time.  The key to it getting overwritten though is almost always bad syntax/formatting buried somewhere in there.

[DJSpeedy]

7 minutes ago, Cliffy said:

I had this happen to me a while ago and posted about it and it turned out to be a bad syntax line that was creating an improperly formatted .ini file, so it kept getting overwritten. Like you I learned the hard way to make a backup every once in a while. Nowadays I keep it open in notepad++ and minimized. Everytime a new change occurs notepad++ will tell you and I'll click save and then go to "save a copy as.." and save to a backup folder at the same time.  The key to it getting overwritten though is almost always bad syntax/formatting buried somewhere in there.

 

Will Notepad++ show me bad syntax?  Never used it so not familiar with it.

[Cliffy]

6 hours ago, DJSpeedy said:

 

Will Notepad++ show me bad syntax?  Never used it so not familiar with it.

To some degree, yes. It will highlight in red . Example B2sTableSettings.xml section below. See if you can spot the problem I created

<zof10>
    <HideGrill>1</HideGrill>
    <HideB2SDMD>0</HideB2SDMD>
    <HideDMD>1</HideDMD>
    <LampsSkipFrames>1</LampsSkipFrames>
    <SolenoidsSkipFrames>3</SolenoidsSkipFrames>
    <GIStringsSkipFrames>3</GIStringsSkipFrames>
    <LEDsSkipFrames>0</LEDsSkipFrames>
    <UsedLEDType>2</UsedLEDType>
    <IsGlowBulbOn>0</IsGlowBulbOn>
    <GlowIndex>-1</GlowIndex>
    <StartAsEXE>1</StartAsEXE>
    <FormToFront>1</FormToFront>
    <FormToBack>0</FormToBack>
    <FormNoFocus>1</FormNoFocus>
    <Animations />
  </zof10
</B2STableSettings>

[DJSpeedy]

There is no opening <B2STableSettings> 🙂

 

I even reinstalled the DLL's, and don't have settings saved into the registry.  Maybe I could try that?

 

I don't see anything obvious in my file.  I have attached it and maybe another pair of eyes can spot the problem?

Seems weird though, as it was working fine before I deleted it.

DmdDevice - Copy.ini

[lucky1]

The answer is in the dmddevice.log 

 

Duplicate section with name 'btmn_106' 

 

This makes the ini parser crash and a new ini file is generated.

[Cliffy]

Lucky nailed it and in fact that was exactly the problem with MY dmddevice.ini back then. Thanks @lucky1

But now you see what I was saying @DJSpeedy. It just takes one boo boo in the .ini and it will get wiped out so when you have it good BACK IT UP!

[DJSpeedy]

Unfortunately the dmddevice.log is not generating.  I removed the duplicate entry and my changes are still being removed.

[DJSpeedy]

So I have figured out a solution to fix my issue.  I am re-adding my old entries one at a time to the newly written ini file, and so far, so good.

 

I have also decided to alphabetize them to see if I had any other duplicates, like so:

 

; Attack From Mars
[afm_113]
virtualdmd left = 338
virtualdmd top = -226
virtualdmd width = 687
virtualdmd height = 213
virtualdmd style = IronMan

 

; Batman (Data East)
[btmn_106]
virtualdmd left = 236
virtualdmd top = -170
virtualdmd width = 806
virtualdmd height = 175

 

; Cue Ball Wizard
[cueball]
virtualdmd left = 315
virtualdmd top = -132
virtualdmd width = 737
virtualdmd height = 88
virtualdmd style = default

 

etc...etc...etc...

[lucky1]

9 hours ago, DJSpeedy said:

Unfortunately the dmddevice.log is not generating.  I removed the duplicate entry and my changes are still being removed.

 

https://github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions/#readme -> Reporting Bugs

 

 

[lucky1]

8 hours ago, DJSpeedy said:

Unfortunately the dmddevice.log is not generating.  I removed the duplicate entry and my changes are still being removed.

 

Next that comes up in the logfile  is

 

Duplicate section with name 'cc_13'

[DJSpeedy]

9 hours ago, lucky1 said:

 

Next that comes up in the logfile  is

 

Duplicate section with name 'cc_13'

 

Thanks for the help.  Shows that I need to be careful about adding entries manually, I guess.

 

But, I am re-doing my ini file one entry and a time to weed out any more possible duplicates.