[REPORT] Bug Reporting / Issues

NoEx · Feb 28, 2016

Obviously it won't work properly if you haven't downloaded the latest build of the mod, as soon as a new table support is added into it, you must re-download the mod, it's clearly specified in the download thread...

Docrings · Mar 2, 2016

Thank you! This DMD offset problem was my headache, too: DMD was showing only half of it properly (resolution on Main Display was set to 1440x2560 in portrait mode). Setting the resolution to 1080x1920 solved the DMD centering problem, and then bumped up the PBAConfigDX11 setting to 2160 and 4400 Back Buffers.

Robert Misner said:
looks like your using the original media pack with the transparency holes in it.. and using the T Formation for your setup, you don't' need to use that pack anymore..just use the 1600x1200 with grill one. and position the floating DMD where you want it. Still off a couple pixels...but close enough, now! Lovin' it.

Play field display resolution of 1080x1920 is the only one supported atm tho your back buffer can be higher in the Dx11 config utility

LockeCole · Mar 6, 2016

Slowdown with the mod running...

First, Thanks to NoEx for making the mod since PA seem unlikely to give us anything now...

I've got an issue and I THINK I might know why but I thought I would ask advice before doing anything drastic.

I have a table (3 monitor setup) that I bought for my wife a few Christmas' ago and am trying to run the mod.

I installed the mod and set it up using Robert's guide (thanks Robert). When I run Pinball Arcade windowed without the mod it runs at 60fps but with the mod it halves the framerate. I'd thought it might be a Vsync issue so I went into the Nvidia settings and turned the global settings to Vsync off. No help at all.

I had noticed Robert ask people a few times if their monitors are on the same video card while troubleshooting here and I'm wondering why and if this is my issue...

The cabinet has two video cards and the backglass and DMD are on one (Nvidia GeForce 210) and the table itself is on the other (Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti). Is the fact that the DMD portion is running on a different card the issue here? If I can move the DMD monitor onto the GTX would that fix the issue (with the backglass remaining on the 210)? I admit I'm a bit wary of changing things around without knowing that this is probably the issue as I don't want to mess up Pinball FX which works okay...

If this is not the issue does anyone have an idea what might be causing this?

Here are my specs:
Intel G3258 3.2GHZ
4GB Ram
Nvidia GeForce 210
Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Thanks for reading this.

Robert Misner · Mar 6, 2016

tho there is a minor performance hit running the mod(it runs the game @ a higher resolution then default) it shouldn't have that big a performance issue on its own.
can you check a couple things please?
1. Make sure in the dX11 settings you turn off MSAA to 0 and quality to 1, as well make sure your backbuffer is 1080x2200
2. make a new 3d settings for pbafreecamermod.exe as well as pinballarcade11.exe and make sure they all match and set anti aliasing is off for both, vsync is off for both ect.
As well try running the backglass monitor at a lower resolution of 1280x1024
as well you could try disabling cabinet mode in the settings.ini to turn off the backglass images completely and see if that helps.

[Cabinet]

; Enable cabinet mode, dual monitor display with backglass & DMD.
CabinetMode=0

..dont forget in game you can disable backglass and floating dmd with menu.

as well turn on the fps overlay in steam and see what the numbers say

LockeCole · Mar 6, 2016

Stumped...

Robert Misner said:
1. Make sure in the dX11 settings you turn off MSAA to 0 and quality to 1, as well make sure your backbuffer is 1080x2200

They were like this but I double checked for piece of mind.

Robert Misner said:
2. make a new 3d settings for pbafreecamermod.exe as well as pinballarcade11.exe and make sure they all match and set anti aliasing is off for both, vsync is off for both ect.

This didn't help but was a good thought that I hadn't tried figuring the global settings would override everything.

Robert Misner said:
As well try running the backglass monitor at a lower resolution of 1280x1024
as well you could try disabling cabinet mode in the settings.ini to turn off the backglass images completely and see if that helps.

..dont forget in game you can disable backglass and floating dmd with menu.

as well turn on the fps overlay in steam and see what the numbers say

I was using FRAPS but I turned on the steam FPS counter instead just in case that might matter.

I had previously tried moving the DMD box to the playfield monitor but that didn't affect anything. I tried changing the resolution on the backglass, no change. I then checked the floating DMD setting and it was set to on... it was so I turn it off. Then the framerate/speed kicked back up making me think I had fixed it, but that's when I realized the DMD box had fallen behind the playfield. That's when I started playing with turning the DMD on and off on the fly. That is definitely where the issue lies in why my framerate drops so dramatically...

However, I don't think it is the real culprit and this is the part that is frustrating me to no end. The framerate was always either 60 or 30 the whole time and I didn't see any screen tearing. That would point to Vsync right? I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out how/why Vsync is still running despite the global settings being set to off, and both applications being set to off in the Nvidia control panel. Searching online I couldn't find anything about Vsync being on despite the Nvidia settings so I am officially stumped.

I can run it without the DMD but I'm really disappointed because the DMD was the main reason I wanted the mod. The backglass is nice and the being able to lock the playfield at a certain angle will be great but it really was the moving the DMD to the backglass or DMD monitor that I was looking forward to.

Robert Misner · Mar 6, 2016

it is weird that your finding the game going from 60 to 30, i usually see it drop to high 40's or 50's when things were overtaxed.
have you tried running the dmd off the gtx 660 as a secondary display with the playfield?
I ran this as a two monitor setup off of a gtx 570 with no issues.

LockeCole · Mar 7, 2016

Robert Misner said:
it is weird that your finding the game going from 60 to 30, i usually see it drop to high 40's or 50's when things were overtaxed.
have you tried running the dmd off the gtx 660 as a secondary display with the playfield?
I ran this as a two monitor setup off of a gtx 570 with no issues.

Okay, I finally gave up the software portion and started swapping cables at your suggestion.

Since both the backglass and DMD were on the 210 I tried moving the backglass to the GTX but that didn't fix it. The DMD is a VGA and I don't have any VGA to DVI or HDMI cords so that couldn't be tried on the GTX. I did however try removing the DMD from the equation entirely... It ran just fine. I tried plugging the DMD again and turning the resolution of that down, no change. Then it occurred to me to try unplugging the DMD but returning the backglass to the 210... and there is was again, same issue... Apparently somehow the 210 is causing the issue. I'm curious if it's just the fact that there's 2 video cards at all that is causing it or if it's just that the 210 is woefully underpowered. I wish I had a VGA converter because I'm curious now if I would actually get better performance running 3 monitors off the GTX and just scrap the 210 entirely.

Thanks for all the help Robert, I really appreciated all the suggestions, not sure there's anything left to try other than figure out if it's the 210 bringing everything else down... I'm off to Amazon to order a converter now.

L33 · Mar 26, 2016

Hi...just switched on the machine...the mod updated automatically (nice touch) and I loaded up TPA. However, as soon as I try and play a table...it crashes. Tried it on several games...all the same. I can play without the mod and it works...but with the mod it crashes every time. Anyone else having this issue? Playing the games without the mod sucks!

hounds64 · Mar 27, 2016

First post...and before I start in on my troubles I want to thank noex and Robert for the excellent work to get the most out of pba.

Also having some problems with newest update.

Purchased and tried to fire up Rescue 911 and got a dmd error through the Mod...and then both can mod and pba crashed.

Now can get into pba through mod but tables don't auto load to saved views and my dmd and backglass files appear to be missing. Can load and play saved playfield cam files only with no dmd. Can't see new tables to load their files...all folders are there, just empty.

Similar troubles? Any help?

Joey2001 · Mar 27, 2016

L33 said:
Hi...just switched on the machine...the mod updated automatically (nice touch) and I loaded up TPA. However, as soon as I try and play a table...it crashes. Tried it on several games...all the same. I can play without the mod and it works...but with the mod it crashes every time. Anyone else having this issue? Playing the games without the mod sucks!

Same here. FCM updated automatically. Everytime I start PBA, it crashes. That's the same with every table.

Robert Misner · Mar 27, 2016

try re downloading it again perhaps
its working for me atm

L33 · Mar 27, 2016

Robert Misner said:
try re downloading it again perhaps
its working for me atm

No luck...deleted the updated mod and replaced it with the mod which you can now download. Game starts, but when a table is selected it says pinballarcade11.exe has stopped working and that a problem has caused the program to stop working correctly.

(Windows 10)

Robert Misner · Mar 27, 2016

i'm on windows 10 too
your not perhaps trying to run the game offline are you?

L33 · Mar 27, 2016

Robert Misner said:
i'm on windows 10 too
your not perhaps trying to run the game offline are you?

No...all hooked up to the net

Ive tried every possible combo...ive deleted all previous files and tried all new files, deleted old ini file, ran new ini file, auto run...no auto run...hide HUD just incase...same problem. It instantly crashes when starting a table. (game loads up and lets me select a table...but crashes when loading the table). Never come across this issue before. The game works without the mod, and Zen works ok too...so I guess it has to be something on the mod but I have no clue what. There seems to be a couple of others with the issue too.

Not sure what I can do to help suss the problem out, but if it helps...

Windows 10
3 monitor setup
GTX 960 or 970 (cant remember) Graphic card

If anyone else is having problems, it may be helpful to see if there is a common setup issue perhaps? Thats about it as far as my knowledge goes Ha Ha

EDIT - Until the table is selected, the game runs. Pressing on the leaderboard tab also has the same affect of crashing the game for some reason...hope thats of help.

Robert Misner · Mar 27, 2016

let me ask a silly question did you perhaps put files from latest media pack in the wrong places? some of the files are for pinballX as well as the mod..
just curious
go right click on the pinballarcade11.exe and make sure its not blocked and you have admin privileges to run too

L33 · Mar 27, 2016

Robert Misner said:
let me ask a silly question did you perhaps put files from latest media pack in the wrong places? some of the files are for pinballX as well as the mod..
just curious
go right click on the pinballarcade11.exe and make sure its not blocked and you have admin privileges to run too

There are no silly questions when it comes to me and computers

However...only the camera file is taken from the media pack and a resized .png to suit my setup. TPA isn't blocked and is run with admin privileges. Its strange because the game boots up and will stay booted up until either a table is selected to start, or the leaderboard tab is selected. I can scroll through the list of tables and I can select the tournament tab to see my last placing. Ive tried offline, online, old mod, new mod, different ini's...I'm hoping that as a couple of others have had issues that perhaps theres more than meets the eye here.

Perhaps if anyone else is having or isn't having issues it could be helpful to know to see if the issue is just with one or two or many etc.

EDIT- Just tried running the game without the mod to see if TPA works ok...and its fine. Played 911 and checked the leaderboard and everything went ok...so Im guessing there is a conflict with the mod and my setup somehow.

Robert Misner · Mar 27, 2016

ohh!! last week the game was crashing and someone put up a firewall rule to fix it..you didn't by chance leave that active did you?

one last thing to check..right click pinball arcade in steam go to the local files tab and click verify integrity of game cache

L33 · Mar 27, 2016

Robert Misner said:
ohh!! last week the game was crashing and someone put up a firewall rule to fix it..you didn't by chance leave that active did you?

one last thing to check..right click pinball arcade in steam go to the local files tab and click verify integrity of game cache

Well...ive absolutely no idea what clicking integrity of the game cache does...but the game seems to work now because of clicking it!

However, there seems to be a couple of things different...when I select the table to play and it loads, the screen looks different. Im sure it used to be a camera panning round the table, but now its a still image of some kind. Not sure why. But once I select play everything seems normal...although for some reason my new backglass image is in the wrong place...again...not sure why.

Gotta say Robert...appreciate your help on this...wouldnt be playing this game without yourself, no ex and this forum. Stuff like this baffles me...I'll stick to woodwork I think!

Hopefully I can sort out the other issues above...but the game seems to be working now. Perhaps with my limited knowledge I'm best not knowing what the firewall rule is

EDIT. Just clicked free camera mode and that fixed the funny image issue...Im learning

2nd EDIT. Clicking free camera mode fixed funny image view...but screws up the table cam and dmd...seems like I'm not learning after all

Robert Misner · Mar 27, 2016

Heres what my settings.ini looks like red is comments

[Settings]

; Auto launch the game when the mod starts.
LaunchGame=1

; Path to the game executable.
GamePath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\PinballArcade\StartPA11 ;I use a custom shortcut with skipwhatsnew after so it works with pinballx

; Overlay is hidden when the game starts.
StartHidden=1

; Opacity of the overlay (0 -> 1.0 / 0.1 range).
Opacity=0.5

; Enable/disable the mod.
FreeCameraMode=1

; Auto hide the ingame HUD when you click START button.
AutoHideHUD=0

; The cam values are applied to the sliders when you click START button, otherwise sliders value are applied to the cam.
AutoCamToSliders=1

; Check if a *.cam file exists for the current table and automatically loads it.
AutoLoadCamFile=1

; Enable/disable Hotkeys.
HotKeys=0

; The key (constant) defined in the game to manually hide the ingame HUD (default key: H)
; Keyboard scan code constants list: http://goo.gl/rvrMS9
; Take the hex value in the table (0x48) and convert it to an integer (72);
HideHUDKey=72

[Cabinet]

; Enable cabinet mode, dual monitor display with backglass & DMD.
CabinetMode=1

; Backglass monitor number (as displayed in Windows/Nvidia/Ati display settings).
BGMonitor=2 ; your monitor maybe different number

; Game window stretching value (to the second monitor) in pixels.
WindowStretch=293

[DMD]

; ### DMD Settings (position is ignored when a table specific DMD file exists) ###

; DMD monitor number (as displayed in Windows/Nvidia/Ati display settings).
DMDMonitor=2 ; your monitor maybe different number

; DMD Default X Position.
DMDXPos=334

; DMD Default Y Position.
DMDYPos=775

; DMD always on top of all windows.
DMDTopMost=1

; DMD position is locked by default.
DMDLockedPos=1

; DMD size is locked by default.
DMDLockedSize=0

; ############################# HOTKEYS NOTE ###############################
; # For a complete list of usable keys, please visit: http://goo.gl/0blPF6 #
; # NumLock key should be ON to use NumPad keys. #
; # 'PageUp' key is also known as 'Prior' for backwards compatibility. #
; # 'PageDown' key is also known as 'Next' for backwards compatibility. #
; ##########################################################################

[HotKeys]

HideShowOverlay=NumPad0
XTranslation+=Multiply
XTranslation-=Divide
YTranslation+=Home
YTranslation-=End
ZTranslation+=Insert
ZTranslation-=Delete
XRotation+=PageUp
XRotation-=PageDown
YRotation+=Numpad6
YRotation-=Numpad4
ZRotation+=NumPad1
ZRotation-=NumPad3
FOV+=NumPad5
FOV-=NumPad2
PFShift+=Subtract
PFShift-=Add
BGShift+=Numpad9
BGShift-=Numpad7
CamSpeed+=UP
CamSpeed-=Down
SetCamView1=F1
SetCamView2=F2
SetCamView3=F3
CycleViews=C

[Info]
CurrentVersion=1.6

L33 · Mar 27, 2016

Robert Misner said:
Heres what my settings.ini looks like red is comments

Thanks Robert...I'll check it over. I think I may have messed around with a few of the settings and not put them back as they were. Appreciate all your help as usual

The game is running now...just needs fine tuning.

[REPORT] Bug Reporting / Issues

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