Lagging/Irregular Plunger and Flippers...

GSGregg

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...on any session but the first (!?).

After a startup or restart, VP and VPM play normally (once I wait out the updates and/or scans that insist on stealing a few minutes of processor time), no matter whether I play a single game or a dozen or more. I play desktop VP8 and 9, mostly VPM tables, as non-VPM can't submit scores to PINemHi Leaderboard (which also acts as a front-end). Control is a conventional keyboard (Corsair K70 LUX w/ Cherry MX Red mechanical switches).

When I terminate the session, I can access the Internet, Windows Explorer, regedit, Control Panel, etc. and all is tolerable (if one tolerates a single-core AGP-8X comp running XP in this day and age). If/when I choose to begin another pinball session, however, things look normal until I press Start (#1); when I pull back the plunger (Enter) and release it, the ball may not launch for 3 - 5 seconds. When it does, it eventually approaches a flipper, which may not respond to a keypress for a second or more, then sticks open for a similar span, by which time I have slapped both keys numerous times to hit the ball. This activates a mind-of-its-own response in which it cycles open and closed at about twice per second until possibly exhausting its memory of my flailing presses. If the second flipper is cycled, it may or may not respond for several seconds.

The only way out of this is to Restart the computer, then open VP/VPM/PINemHi before doing anything else.

The only time I had this previously, I had changed my NVidia GeForce 6200 for my current ATI HD4670 1GB---suddenly I could no longer play the FullTilt! version of Space Cadet, or Pro Pinball Timeshock! The 4670 was and is the only AGP-8X vidcard made with 1GB of memory, and if it hadn't played VP satisfactorally, it would have been returned TOOT-SWEET!

Does anyone remember having this, and was there a remedy? Thanks, all!

Gregg
 
Shiva might have a good answer for you.

I used to write FAQ's and guides upon this stuff, but that was years ago. Before AJ pulled the plug.

TBH I guess your best bet is to copy-paste this query to VPF.ORG.
 
Hi. Been a long time since I touched VP. Reasons...

Can't really answer the question anymore, to many changes have been made to VP so it's now unrecognizable. Check task manager, see if it's in fact another program running that is taking up too many resources. Maybe you have a setting in the video manager that is causing this, just switch everything to it's lowest settings and work from there.

I just installed VPX myself, and the usual bugs happened of course. I would uncheck the higher graphics quality stuff first, Ambient is off, turn all the way to the left the details slider, and set the texture dimension to 1024 or 2048. I have to enable vsync on my computer because everything plays at lightspeed with older versions of VP. I believe in the code geeky way we all have been fostered with, you have VPdev type in 1. Forcing the FPS may make it play better, I have no idea what other things do, apparently the instructions require a rocket science degree just to be able to understand what is written in there.

Oh, the old standby, because even after 15 years, they still haven't fixed this bug. This I have to do to prevent VP/VPX from crashing, so it's the first thing you do, is right click the vpx icon, select properties,compatibility, and check "disable display scaling on high DPI settings" If I remember correctly, this helped with lag as well. Been many many years though.

Off the top of my head, hope it works out.
 
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Left out of the overly-long opening post:

When the flippers and plunger are acting up, the ball, bumpers and slings , as well as VPinMAME, are fine. Can't say the same for the Lock keys, though; since my left-flipper fingers often graze the CAPS LOCK key, it is turned on - then off - almost constantly.....but when things are haywire, the CAPS LOCK key is sluggish turning on, then even more so turning off, etc., until it stays on - even after the close of the session. The other LOCK keys (Scroll and Number) are non-functional when CAPS LOCK is compromised. Then, as with the plunger and flipper keys, the only way out is a restart.

Playing VP without going through PINemHi, I can close a table without closing the Editor (an option one doesn't have when a front-end has its automatic routine), select another table, and have normal play continue. Closing the Editor, though, and opening it a second or additional time, brings on the malfunction.

I formatted this HDD and installed XP from CD in March and selected Bitdefender Free from a menu; later they put out a product called Security for XP and Vista and registration got me a six-month free license July 30 (I figure to have updated my comp to W8.1 32-bit by the time it expires). Trying to remember what may have been added since July 30 (as that seems to be the last time things behaved normally) , all I come up with is Catalyst Control Center, a reload of the GFX driver from CD (just in case), an update for Flash Player.....and my download history prior to Oct 6 has been scrapped?! Oh, well...thanks for reading. :guitar:

Gregg
 
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Over two months, huh? I'd type more, but I'm slow on the keyboard and Georgia-vs-Alabama (College Football Championship) starts in less than an hour. For the moment, suffice it to say that the computer really upchucked later on...and waiting for back-ordered memory from Crucial hasn't facilitated my long-awaited upgrade at all.

Hope all are experiencing a merry-happy, etc.

Gregg
 
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Unless I've forgotten how to count, Monday will mark twelve weeks since my last post...and a whole lotta nuthin' has transpired since. After ordering a replacement motherboard (for my intended first-stage upgrade) and new Asus 1050Ti 4GB Dual-fan video card for the PCIe 3.0 x 16 mobo (for the eventual REAL upgrade) online December 10th, I went on the web more and more seldom as the computer froze and crashed with equally greater frequency.

In early February, I think, I became aware that my web service had gone out, but since the computer would no longer boot into Windows, it couldn't go online anyway and I spent increasing amounts of time trying to nail down the problem; installing W8.1 on the formatted harddrive in place of my beloved XP didn't happen because the computer couldn't even get to the point on the CD where the repair, install, or quit(?) option is selected. I decided to save the existing hard drive as another backup, and install a brand new half-terabyte drive instead. (Don't go; it gets better... ) :trippy:

So, I put a used Pentium D945 on the new motherboard, but when I fired it up, the only sign of life was the spinning of the PSU and case fans. Out came the mobo & CPU, but as I was trying to pack the board for RMA shipment, the protective cap for the CPU socket sprang(?) out of place and bent/twisted three of the LGA (Land-Grid-Array) socket pins---and they're so small that even with a ten-power jeweler's loupe I can't tell which way they were twisted. Gonna have to wait until I arrange for a larger magnifier...once I get the time to do so.

A neighbor bought a new computer for his business some years ago, but it never came out of its box, and is stored in a commercial building that he rents out. As soon as he can arrange things with the tenant, he's going to retrieve the computer and give it to me, and he's reminded me for about six months (sort of like, "I'll pay you back when I get my tax return...") while mine has gotten worse and worse.

On March 12th, I finally pulled the trigger and hit Newegg for a refurbished HP Compaq Elite 8000 small-form-factor PC with a Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0GHz, 8GB DDR2 ( or 3?) RAM, and a PCIe expansion slot into which I will put the four-gig 1050Ti card I mentioned earlier. I got the 'new' computer on the 20th, began calling about my internet service the next day, and eight days, ten phone calls and a technician's visit later...I'm Back!!

Maybe now I can pop in and say hello once in a while, and get in on the fun being had by others with Visual Pinball Ten (VPX).

To those who read this, you have my sympathies...

Gregg :pinball: :cheers: :guitar:
 
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I've been messing around with VP955 and a little bit of VPX lately. Got a newer machine too, since my old guinea pig-powered one crossed the rainbow bridge.

Most lag I've seen seems to be on DT tables. I'm not sure a single FS table has lagged, yet. Possibly that's because DT tables have a lot more visual interpretation going on, while FS tables are more of a 'one-to-one' rendering thing, graphically.

VPX is also nice because when you hover over graphic options, it will give you some helpful info and even a little advice...
 
Howdy, Ike!

Howd'ya like O'Bama's trip to the 9th-circuit 'Anti-Trump Injunctions While You Wait' window? The Mexico side of San Diego's south limit is sure gettin' hoss-style...

In other news,I installed VPX (version 1.0, I think) back around when gtxjoe started his Game of the Week at VPF.O, but my 2008 XP desktop was making up ways to keep me from getting into it, finally popping the cyanide in February. After more than a month waiting on a promised free/still-in-the-box tower, I bought the HP Compaq Elite 8000 (July 2009, refurbished in June 2016) which turns out to be one model too low to utilize the GTX 1050Ti that I suppose I'll have to sell, settling for a GT730. The freebie finally appeared in May or June, but it's even older than my neighbor remembered; Gateway GM5639E with an Athlon 64X2 4200+ at 2.2 GB/s, 17.5% slower than the Celeron single-core in the old box, and packaged in Oct 2007...with VISTA! How's that for modern utility?!

So, I'll stick with the HP; believe it or not, the onboard GeForce 6150 GFX (17 GB/s) is doing the job in VP 990 with no lag or stutter, and if VPX requires more, the GT730 is good for 40 GB/s with the PCIe slot's running at x8 being compensated for by 2GB of GDDR5 memory.

So, VP99x is up to version 5, huh? I've never needed to update beyond v1, I suppose because my 1024 x 768 doesn't demand much?

Congrats on your new rig...lemme know if you want to talk stats and specs, as my seldom-taxed frontal lobe is atrophying.


Gregg
 
Haha, most of the 'stats' from my end would just be details about how to get the tables running better, Gregg. I mean, lag is a battlefront issue, but in the rear it's all about logistics.

So yeah, after getting the DMD set up correctly on full screen tables over here, it's mostly about obvious physics tweaks. Truly, it kind of blows my mind how table authors will put incredible amounts of work in to polishing a plastic object or a flasher effect, but then swing and miss so badly on setting a realistic slope, flipper power or angle. You have to think a lot of these guys haven't played the actual table for years, or just as often, never did.

So do you have a rotatable monitor or a cab to run the FS stuff? First thing that blew me away with the newer VP's was how much better the playing experience is with FS over DT!

Also I should note-- PC stats are kinda meaningless to me these days. Because you know, I started in the era of 1mhz processors, then followed the various advances for the next 15-20 years, and then life came calling somewhere along the line. Also, too many standards and details learned along the years, which ended up belonging in a museum. I mean at a certain point, the reality of that kind of fact gets received and acted upon.

For me, it's all about the Sherlock Holmes principle-- i.e., your brain is finite in scope, so try not to stock too much unneeded crap. Diamonds or rubbish... it all fades together if it's not useful. :p

...

Anyway, hmm... not sure what Barry's up to these days. On the politics side, these days I'm mostly involved in The Great China Watch. Without question, that country's the biggest political shit-show on the planet right now. Plenty dangerous too, unfortunately. :(

I noticed that Trump whined earlier today that he deserved to be Time's Man of the Year again, but in reality it should go to Emperor / dictator Xi JinPing (i.e. "Winnie the Pooh" if you've been following along), or possibly Putin or Mueller.
 
Sorry for the nonresponsive 37 days...numerous non-computer-related craplets have demanded time or otherwise obstructed progress...I have done nothing involving VPX, for instance...Shiva suggested 'Disable Display Scaling on High DPI Settings' over a year ago, but I haven't even checked on what that is - thanks again, Shiva)

So do you have a rotatable monitor or a cab to run the FS stuff? First thing that blew me away with the newer VP's was how much better the playing experience is with FS over DT!
Desktop has always been my only option, due to lack of space, but I have been and still am content with it; if 2 tables have uniform dimensions and strength/power/friction/etc. settings, the only difference is point-of-view and gameplay is unchanged (except when top rollovers are partly obscured and bonus multiplier is harder to build as a result).

Anyway, hmm... not sure what Barry's up to these days.
I think former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino is on to something, and has written a book on it...if you]re interested, here is a link to The Conservative Treehouse's article and the video to which they refer...

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/11/23/dan-bongino-presentation-of-spygate/

When the tables are eventually turned regarding who's investigating and who's BEing investigated, I wonder whether the Reds or the Blues will have the higher body count.

I noticed that Trump whined earlier today that he deserved to be Time's Man of the Year again, but in reality it should go to Emperor / dictator Xi JinPing (i.e. "Winnie the Pooh" if you've been following along), or possibly Putin or Mueller.
I'll bet Jamal Khashoggi (sic?) regrets what he went through to earn the award. As far as 'Winnie the Pooh' is concerned, I'm afraid I missed all of that...
 
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