Virtual Pinball: "Software" Essentials - Visual Pinball X (Bookmarks in description)

[@IRgEEK]

This was an incredibly useful post! I've been working on a virtual pin cab the last couple of months, and while I have learned a ton, there's still so much more I don't know in regards to using and tweaking Visual Pinball. Your post here pointed out several details I was unaware of and really helped to give me a more complete understanding of Visual Pinball. Thanks so much for sharing!

[@Scritley]

I had to come here and say that I cannot thank you enough for all you have shared with the vpin community. You and RandRComputers are the sole reasons I was inspired to build and configure my awesome vpin and I modeled everything after your amazing cabinet... 3 screens, split 3rd screen with DMD and topper area, lighting, etc. It came out great and it is all thanks to you and your selfless efforts to share your endless knowledge of the topic and tireless efforts to help test and debug great new enhancements. Sorry for the long winded response but I could go on and on. THANK YOU!!!!

[@neekzz]

I just had to come back here and thank you for this and all your other videos. I tried to set one of these up years ago but was in over my head so backed down to my arcade cabinets. A few weeks ago figured I would give it a go again and started with your guides. You had me installing stuff I had no clue about, but as I went deeper and deeper it all started to become clear how much time and BS you saved me from. Stuff I needed was already there when I needed It. I have at least 2 tables running on all the programs I am interested in. also worth watching these again after I have a clue what is going on, understood some stuff that went over my head the 1st time. I was expecting to use forums a lot more to get this done. Just..... THANK YOU!!

[@todd0holaday]

Adding my thanks. Yourself, Frenchy and MJR have made this complicated project so much clearer.

[@MichaelWilcoxenCSz]

You are an amazing asset to the virtual pinball community. I only wish I had found you sooner before I went down so many rabbit holes of information. Thank you so much for the great teaching (and for making us do the work ourselves so we learn!)

[@off-kiltervapors4634]

Thank you so much for making these videos for all of us n00bs!

[@davidhunt858]

Just wanted to say Thank you for taking the time to make and share this video and all the tutorials you make, keep up the great work.👍

[@tracymoon4437]

I cant thank you enough for this. Extremely helpful and I feel like I have learned a LOT!

[@courage0243]

Great job Terry! This is the GOLD STANDARD for Visual Pinball X setup.

[@christopherjacobs8715]

you are an absolute legend. thank you for taking the time to put these videos together, helped me immensely!!!! Thanks buddy!!

[@robertramirez1082]

I wish this video existed 3 years ago! I missed a lot of stuff. Thanks for sharing! Great Video TerryRed !

[@56rogerleopardi]

Thank you so much for all this info. I have a cab being built and I am looking forward to adding tables and functionality etc... These videos are really going to help as I am a MAC guy and have been for 25 plus years. Navigating PC is going to be fun (NOT) BUT...your videos are going to make it MUCH easier! THANK YOU!

[@shyrix]

Thank you, didnt know anything about vpin this am. watched essentials and this and now im up and running. love it

[@keithk888]

Thank you! think I'm slowly starting to grasp how everything is related... takes a long time with all the foreign terminology

[@BillBene67]

You never cease to amaze me Terry..well done!!!

[@cordsl1]

Terry thanks for these clear videos. I want to build a cabinet and i am testing things now. Because of this video Visual Pinball X works in one go! Now on to Future Pinball

[@jacropp]

I just want to say a big thank you. This helped fix a problem with rendering that I have been trying to figure out for 6 months. "AMD users click this button" I'm back to loving VPX! Thank you, thank you, thank you

[@MochaMan]

Always best to start with one table at a time table rom backglass dmd get it working then you will slowly start getting it....trust me I was so overwhelmed at first but totally worth it.

[@TerryRed]

Very true. Many ppl tend to jump right in....but if it's all new, best to start with only a few tables at first. That's why I mention to no "go crazy" at first. :)

[@mikein21061]

Should we still go through all of this now that baller installer is out there?

[@robinvangunst9895]

Great Video. If only it was available years ago. :)

[@park171]

thanks for you contribution. I am new to this.

[@GavinHaubeltMedia]

Thank you so much for your amazing videos!!!!

[@gast9374]

57:21 In Version 10.7. there is no table option button anymore. Where else can I get to that?

[@bernardscheuter4414]

Just what I was looking for, tnx !!!!

[@qbold7093]

Terry great guide you made. It helped me a lot getting started with my VPIN. Now eveything basic is set up and running and I want to go into DOF/Force Feedback. I bought a Freescape KL25Z board to run pinscape and now I don't know which output device would be best in combination. I am not going to add a lot of fancy lighing and stuff, but just want to have force feedback features. As far as I found out the overall best and most comprehensive solution is going with the pinscape expansion boards, but also one of the most expensive. The Sainsmart Relais Board seems to be a cheap solution and LEDwiz is somewhere in the middle pricewise but closer to the features of pinscape. Can you give a recommendation? Thanks.

[@jeffwertz2953]

Thanks so much for the video Terry. It would be very helpful if VPX would display the text overlaid on table further away from the screen edge. Like to do POV settings, most TVs have some over scan that causes the first couple lines on the left to be cut off so you can't see what axis you're adjusting.

[@macmaven5037]

Hey Terry. At about 24:00, you are testing the Roms once you put the new settings in. Yours shows a Freezy window when you hit test, and mine doesn't. It says that it is running the ROM, but I don't see a window. I tested a few and the same thing. I verified that I have the ROMs and that they are working. I also reinstalled the Freezy software, but nothing changes. Any idea why I can't see the window during test? Thanks.

[@mr-fo3or]

Yes - very helpful. Thanks

[@WayneCorp16]

Hey Terry, do you have an alternate video exclusively for cab users? I'm following along because im currently on desktop, but I plan to move my pc to a cabinet so I will need to change some things....thanks

[@TerryRed]

This video covers both for the main stuff. Cabinets have more things like real DMDs, FullDMD, and many other things that go beyond the scope of this video.

[@dinomike811]

Great video I keep running into tables playing opposite direction on cabinet. Is there a way to make 270 degree setting universal for all tables?

[@guitar_picks]

Thanks a lot for all this help .!!!!

[@the_scraggler]

I'm just starting out with a pinball cab and this is incredibly helpful. I've got Pinball FX3 running perfectly but now I'm ready to start getting a bit more complicated. One question: You say that both the table file and the rom file have to be downloaded for each table. Do all tables have a rom file that goes with it? I downloaded an Amazing Spider-Man Gottlieb recreation and I can't seem to find a rom file for it anywhere, it's not even mentioned in the installation notes. I downloaded a few other tables which don't seem to have roms either, they're mostly recreations of older tables which only had your score on the backglass and that's it.

[@TerryRed]

Gottlieb "roms" have been removed from the various vp sites due to a DMCA order. So you will have to find those "somewhere" else. Some "old" EM tables don't use any rom and are completely programmed in the table script and will work completely on their own.

[@the_scraggler]

@@TerryRed Fantastic, thanks for all of your work on this. It's making it much easier.

[@welshminty]

I have an issue, where tables loads great, I launch a ball and it just stops right at top part of table as if the table gravity is reversed if that makes sense

[@ClefCrescendo]

This has been very helpful.... but I am stuck. No matter what I do, I cannot get my B2S Backglass to appear. Every time I load a table, I keep getting the same error: "Object reference not set to and instance of an object." I'm at my wit's end because EVERYTHING else is working wonderfully. Please help.

[@stuartsherman5975]

Hi, this video and the virtual pinball software essentials starter video were fantastic. I really appreciate the easy to follow explanations. One question, I followed all of your settings, but when I try to run the test button using setup.exe in vpmame folder the screen goes blank instead of bringing up the table load menu. Any ideas what my issue is? Any light would be greatly appreciated.

[@stuartsherman5975]

I figured it out. There is a setting I forgot to set if you have an amd cpu. However, I can see the table and can hear the coin dropping, but can't start the game using the number 1 key. I'm making progress, but not there yet😊

[@balliswild]

Hi Terry. This has been super helpful! Thank you very much for making these videos. I have one quick question. I have a 4K desktop monitor, and would like to select a 4x3 window (not full screen) resolution for the main table higher than 1600x1200. Is there a way I can open up some custom resolution settings so I can make the game window a bit larger? 2000x1500 as an example. Or 1800x1350. Thanks for any advice on this!

[@TruestMusic]

How do you install this onto Launchbox? Any video tutorials out there for this?

[@macmaven5037]

Hey Terry. Really great video series man. Have an issue where the 4K playfield is on the backglass and HD Backglass on Playfield. Can't figure it out. The playfield is listed at #1 and Backglass #2 in Windows Display settings with playfield on the left and backglass to the right. Both have correct resolutions assigned. I've checked the screenres.txt file and looks correct with 4K res integers on top, HD res integers after that and lists 2 monitors. I think I see an issue in Visual Pinball in the 'Graphic Settings' tab, as I was running the 24 table. Display 1 is my HD backglass monitor (HD res) and Display 2 is my 4K playfield monitor. I'm thinking this is the issue. Anyway to change these to where the 4K shows as Display #1? Thanks for the help!

[@TerryRed]

Its a Windows bug where the DISPLAY ID can get mixed up and the Display ID for VP or FP won't match what is shown in Windows Display settings. You need to pick whichever Display # in VP "works"....it may not match what windows uses. This is a common Windows problem and not specific to VP.

[@macmaven5037]

@@TerryRed Thanks Terry. I noticed that whether I choose Backglass display 1, 2 or 3 in the VP settings, the resolution stays the same for all 3 choices. So, if i set Display 1 at 1920x1080, then Display 2 and 3 are also set at that resolution. So I can't have different resolutions for each display option. Is that what you are talking about when picking the display number in VP or in the ini file?

[@simretroracer7368]

@@macmaven5037 You probably figured this out by now, but for anyone else, in VP you only need to pick your main Play Field monitor and it's resolution from the list. It's not asking you to set the resolutions for all your other monitors.

[@macmaven5037]

@@simretroracer7368 Thanks for the reply. Yes, I figured it all out a couple of months ago. My cab is rocking! Thanks again and Happy New Year!

[@lespaulman67h60]

Hello Terry great instructional videos you have and awesome work on your pinball table and games. My question is ,my video properties I have 3 monitors setup like you say in your instruction from left to right, playfield,backglass, dmd monitor 15", here is my problem, the numbers are backwards to what you show, 3,2,1 I cant figure out how to change it. Can you tell me what I need to do? Thanks

[@TerryRed]

The "numbers" don't matter, as they will get changed up by Windows. As long as the "arrangement" of the monitors is correct, and the playfield is primary...that's what matters.

[@lespaulman67h60]

@@TerryRed Ok I have the games working great now. I have Williams widebody cab built from ground up. I am wanting to run the new pinupsystem.

[@julieguay9037]

Thanks so much for all this TerryRed! Just starting from scratch in this Virtual pinball universe :) I watch your Starter video and did everything you said, and I plan to watch this one as soon as. What is the best watch ''order'' for your videos for someone who is starting from scratch? I see a lot of them and I do not want to skip anything :) Many thanks again!!

[@TerryRed]

The "Start Here" video and then this one are good. After that can be any order. Use the Pinup Wiki Install guide, as that gets updated links, for most things.

[@julieguay9037]

@@TerryRed Thank you! One other question, Do you think that the fact that I have PFX3 and arcade pinball already installed from steam could cause any issues with Visual pinball and pinmame?

[@TerryRed]

@@julieguay9037 No, they have nothing to do with each other. No worries there.

[@julieguay9037]

@@TerryRed Ok!! Thanks Sensei :)

[@aussiejace8572]

can you do a video on pup packs for desktop mode please.

[@MrDeemann8]

If you ever had to go back to one of the previous Data Backup dates, how would you go about doing that once you are in the PUPBackup folder? I accidently highlighted a folder and was put in in DOC folder under visual pinball folder. Now no matter what table I try to play now , I get a script error " Cannot create Active X component ". Since I have no clue what I did or how to fix it, I need to get back to previous databack up date. Thanks

[@michelelindsley812]

I have 793 games Virtual x - FX- Future tables, my nephew wants to get my setting right- the playfield- DMD- backglass all set but doesn't want to loose my games, he says a thumbnail file would work?

[@macmaven5037]

Great series of videos Terry. Very helpful. In regard to the music file folder, do they have to be named the same as the table like the backglass, or do you just dump them into the Music folder as is and they are found automatically?

[@TerryRed]

No music support has to be added to the table script, and the files are normally provided with the table.

[@macmaven5037]

TerryRed Thanks. If the table comes with music files, do they need to be the same name as the table or just dump them into the music folder as is?

[@TerryRed]

@@macmaven5037 Normally in the Music folder as is. That folder does get messy with files after a while.

[@stillchasingcharlie9408]

First I want to thank you for your awesome videos as have been my savior as I update/expand my cabinet. I have watched the videos (several times) and searched/read many forums and I cannot solve my issue. Everything is working fine until I try to install freezy. When I launch a table I get an error stating "no external DMD driver found or DMD driver functions found". I have tried freezy 1.70, 1.71, 1.72, 1.8 and all get the same error message so I know it is not that. When I test the rom (Appolo13) I can get freezy to show up on the playfield, so I know its there. But, when I launch the table, or any table for that matter, I get the same error message. ANY input, thoughts or guidance would be greatly appreciated to this newbie.

[@Webshooters1]

How do I move the in-game window when a table is running? I can't for some reason.

[@cjoli955]

Thank you for this, I have a visual pinball table I built years ago and it has not been updated in a while, I am going to go through this and get things updated but one of the things that I have been really wanting to do is update to some the the new color DMDs, my cab currently has a virtual DMD using a LCD monitor I would love if you could do a video on setting those up, not sure if i need to buy new hardware to do that or if I can use what i have?

[@TerryRed]

I only use an LCD monitor for DMD. My recommendation is to goto VPU and ask in those forums. Or join the VP Junkies Facebook group and use their FAQ for more info.

[@RichTeaChannel]

Thank you Terry!

[@highon3d]

Help please. I watched few of your videos and cannot figure out where the section was about editing an ini for backglass size. One table I installed that the backglass is 'square' and the monitor is wide. It stretches the backglass. Thanks for the help.

[@TerryRed]

It's normal for a square directb2s backglass to be stretched to fill a 16:9 screen.

[@highon3d]

@@TerryRed Thanks. I didn't know if this was the case or there in fact was something to remedy this. I don't think I mind it, just was curious. Thanks for the fast reply.

[@iPodtouchFan2000]

Thanks 👍

[@stephensmith2671]

Terry . I can run all my vp9 tables on pinballx.. but when I try to add vpx tables they won't load..is there a way to put vpx on the different systems set up on pinballx.

[@stephensmith2671]

Buy the way my vpx tables are in the same tables folder as vp9

[@TerryRed]

@@stephensmith2671 That is how I have mine, and I never had a problem with VPX tables. Be sure the correct exe is being used. Yes, you can setup separate emulators for vp9 and vpx.

[@stephensmith2671]

@@TerryRed what is the correct exe to run vp9 and 10

[@off-kiltervapors4634]

Running Version 10.7.2 of VPX and I can not seem to find the options pallet to adjust brightness. Anyone know how to find that on the newer version?

[@off-kiltervapors4634]

Nevermind, the scroll wheel will do wonders if you'll just use it. ;-)

[@MrJaz8088]

I have a 2 screen set-up, and i do want to show Grill & Speakers, trying to get Freezy's Dmd to fit nicely inside is a Nightmare, The table your playing 24 try and fit the dmd in between the speakers, now change tables and the Grill is a different size, now i am lost as the dmd is set for 24, and way out of place for the next table, Is Freezy not for me in a 2 screen set-up ?

[@TerryRed]

I have never used a 2 screen setup...I've always had a screen just for the DMD. Freezy can work for 2 screen, but the positioning will need to be done for every backglass that is positioned differently. The settings for that are in the dmddevice.ini. More info on how to setup each table is found on freezy's dmdext web page.

[@MrJaz8088]

@@TerryRed That is what i thought, but there is only One DMDdevice.ini, not one for every table, So i guess it can not be done, or maybe in the Registry, I will Read Freezy's page now, Cheers

[@MrJaz8088]

Not every table uses a dmd that's one good thing

[@MrJaz8088]

@@TerryRed Its not a separate ini, it gets added to the dnd.ini [24] pindmd2 enabled = true virtualdmd enabled = true virtualdmd left = 2500 virtualdmd top = 800 virtualdmd width = 1024 virtualdmd height = 256 [baywatch] pindmd2 enabled = false virtualdmd enabled = false virtualdmd left = 2500 / or 0 virtualdmd top = 800 / or 0 virtualdmd width = 1024 / or 0 virtualdmd height = 256 /or 0 A bit of work, but the whole process of virtual pinball is a lot of work

[@MrJaz8088]

@@TerryRed Found a Quicker way - Show both DMD's, then drag and size then dmd's, then Right Click on the vpin-dmd bring up Settings and Untick Internal DMD, and Freezy's DMD will be positioned right RegEdit for the Tables that needed it was taking too long

[@Riiiiiiiiiiiiiip]

Question, But first thank you for this video and all your videos actually. My question is a little off the wall but here it is. On Super Mario Bros in Visual Pinball 10.. Its a great table, but unfortunately it gives you " Unlimited balls" to play with instead of 3. Is there anyway to change it from unlimited to 3 balls. I really like this table but it ruins the fun obviously. Thank you in advance dude!

[@dalestephens7634]

TerryRed how do you turn the screen on pinup popper on a single display the front end is like for a cabinet so it is horizonal

[@TerryRed]

You install the "Desktop" Theme. I have a video showing it on my channel.

[@stephanegibeau5734]

Wow it's so easy to setup everything with that video. Got one little bug, can't launch any table using UltraDMD, they all return the same error. (ActiveX can't create object UltraDMD.DMCObject) different line depend on the table but all the same "set UltraDMD = CreateObject ("UltraDMD.DMDObject"). Any idea what could be the trouble ?? Thinks

[@TerryRed]

I know a few had a similar problem...but I don't recall the solution. Try googling your exact error for ultradmd and see what comes up. www.google.com/search?q=ActiveX+can%27t+create+object+UltraDMD.DMCObject&oq=ActiveX+can%27t+create+object+UltraDMD.DMCObject&aqs=chrome..69i57j33.1043j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[@yakuzaronin7090]

Agree this is the gold standard of virtual pinball instruction. Everything was going great and got the first table loaded, but the ball physics is completely wacky. Travels in an S pattern or even makes random 90 degree turns. Pretty unplayable. My hardware is i5 6600K @ 3.5Ghz, 24Gb Ram, GTX 970 1Gb VRam and using a generic hard drive 7200 rpm. Is that too low of specifications or did I mess up the installation somewhere along the way?

[@TerryRed]

No... VPX normally has good physics. Did you by chance update to 10.7 beta? If so, I would stick to 10.6. I don't link to beta vpx until it's been established as stabile and no major bugs,etc. Also... not all tables asre made the same, and an older table may not quite play right was latest vpx,etc. Your hardware is more than fine.

[@yakuzaronin7090]

@@TerryRed thank you very much for the quick response!! i walked through this video & wiki just tonight, so the files used were visual pinball all in one 10.6 and then without anything else for the beta. I think tomorrow evening will be dedicated to your Future Pinball series and see how that plays. It's hard to imagine getting into pinball simulation without your guides. Thanks!!

[@yakuzaronin7090]

If you had a couple minutes I've uploaded 1min of gameplay from a couple tables. Maybe I'm just a newbie and this is me being a terrible player... *removed links*

[@TerryRed]

@@yakuzaronin7090 You probably have a controller connected causing the ball to move using analogue nudge. Disable any AXIS configured for your controls and see.

[@yakuzaronin7090]

@@TerryRed * bows * you're absolutely right. i had an xbox 360 controller sitting here on my desk plugged in while playing keyboard. confirmed the ball physics look much better. thank you very very much. I would never have found that fix.

[@garrettsmith2993]

Hi Terry. Great Video! I'm having an issue though when I try to load a table in VPX. I keep getting NVAPI_ERROR. It occurs while the table is rendering. Any ideas on what is causing that?

[@garrettsmith2993]

Just looked at the Windows Event Log and there appears to be an issue when VPX tries to access d3d9.dll.

[@garrettsmith2993]

Never mind. Found it was the 10.6 Beta. I am using the 10.5 Beta now and it's working. I may try the earlier versions of 10.6 and see what version the issue starts.

[@TerryRed]

@@garrettsmith2993 Update your GPU driver...DirectX....and also VPX 10.6 is now out of beta.

[@garrettsmith2993]

@@TerryRed, Thanks for the quick reply. I had already updated my GPU driver and Direct X downloaded during install, so that's up to date with DirectX 12. Neither of those solutions worked. If VPX 10.6 is out of beta, does that mean the update is out of beta or the update is included with the VPX all in one install?

[@TerryRed]

@@garrettsmith2993 It means that the new VPX AIO installer includes the newest and "final" 10.6 VPX. There isn't any 10.6 beta updates yet I think.

[@therealdjshal]

What do i do if pinmame is crashing at the test part?

[@therealdjshal]

VPINMAME setup i mean

[@michel903]

Thanks you for the video. I need some help, I follow all the steps and my DMD dont show dotted text, it shows smooth text/line, what am I doing wrong?

[@TerryRed]

What language? I think for some languages, you need to replace the period for dot size with a comma. So in dmddevice.ini ; scale the dot size (set to 0.8 for same size as pre-1.6.0) dotsize = 1.0

[@TerryRed]

change that to dotsize = 1,0

[@michel903]

@@TerryRed That worked, thank you!

[@pacodelgado9644]

Cant download registered, any link with all?

[@Machelloo]

Hi Terry, Great video's! I am following them but I have an issue in this one. It's about opening VPinMAME setup.exe file. When I double click it, nothing happens. Tried to run it as Administator but without succes. Do you have a suggestion to fix this? Thanks in advance!

[@TerryRed]

If you installed using the All in One Installer...then it should show up...make sure its the normal one, bot the 64 bit version (no one uses that). You could always try removing the VPinMAME settings in the registry and see if that helps. If it's not showing up...something on your system may be preventing it from displaying. Try Alt-Tab to see if the window ir running, but you just cant see it.

[@Machelloo]

@@TerryRed I followed your guide so far, so installed the All in One Installer. Not using the 64 bit version. I deleted all the register settings but still no succes. Did Alt Tabbing, it isn't running. Disabled Antivirus, still no succes :-( @extra question. Visual Pinball has 6 installers on VPForums. You install only number 5. I did just that. Can the other installers be ignored?

[@TerryRed]

@@Machelloo You would just install the latest version, similar to what I did in the video. the others are just different / older revisions. If you used to AIO installer...and setup.exe isn't running, I'm not sure how else to help you. Something on your system is preventing it from working.

[@Machelloo]

TerryRed Last wild shot: can it has to do something with the fact I installed it all on a external hard drive? If not, I will try to install from scratch again.

[@Machelloo]

Don't know what is blocking the setup. Tried on my arcade cab pc and there it is working perfectly. Strange, but I will continue on my arcade cab. Will look into my laptop issue later. Cheers!

[@itcamefromouterspace1889]

you didnt talk about how to get roms. i have tables like batman which require roms to play. i don't have them.

[@parabot2]

Can you do a Video on How to Install the Tables Rom and DMD setup and where to get the Tables and Roms ( Thanx )

[@PetaccaRoberto9355]

Mezza giornata per seguira la guida 3200 registrazioni 10000 download 64000 spostamenti 80000 settaggi 6000 collegamenti 50000 sovrascrizioni di file 20000 aggiornamenti...