Support File BAM Future Pinball and BAM Info Guide by TerryRed

TerryRed said:
By default there is no default.cfg on a fresh new install. That's normal.

BAM creates default.cfg when its first run (if one doesn't exist), or it overwrites the current default.cfg when you save your BAM settings ("Save as Default" in the BAM menu while playing).

So when I say to not replace the default.cfg I gave you (after you installed it), that is meant for only after you already had a working setup and don't want to replace it with the default.cfg from an update zip (as you will not be using the settings I setup for you in BAM).

Does BAM and FP run for you at all?
Click to expand...
It runs and does not create a default.cfg file in the Bam folder in the FP folder. Still just a fresh install. Of note, the settings I put in yesterday in the Bam install on a coin ops build on an external HDD are there on every single fresh install i do of Bam and FP on my internal back up HDD that i'm doing the fresh install on over and over. That default.cfg file is present on the coinops build and is in the emulators folder>FP>BAM.

Edit: I must be doing something wrong. When I click on the Bam shortcut on my desktop it brings up a window i thought was Bam, it's not evidently as it's clearly labeled at the top Future pinball. When i just ran a demo table with no real tables installed it started a generic table then i exited out and surprise, there was the default.cfg file in the bam folder. This is really, really confusing and annoying.

And now that I've updated Bam and prevented that default.cfg file from being over written i put it back into the bam folder because the updated Bam didn't create a new default.cfg file. Anyway... So now I'm moving on and you want me to replace the default.cfg file i was supposed to protect with a new default.cfg file you created from a link at the bottom of the thread? ok. lol
 
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The problem here is... Coin Ops. Whatever that setup has done is the problem.

You need to run "FuturePinball\BAM\FPLoader.exe"

NOT "FuturePinball\FuturePinball.exe"

Don't double-click on a table file, as it may also open with FuturePinball.exe

The shortcut icon is most likely using FuturePinball.exe, which won't use BAM.... hence no default.cfg.



I added this to the guide for clarification...


  • DON’T use FuturePinball.exe to load FP or play tables!
  • don't double-click on a table file, as it may also open with FuturePinball.exe (which won't use BAM)
  • the shortcut icon and start menu icon most likely use FuturePinball.exe (which won't use BAM)
  • always use BAM (FPLoader.exe) to launch / play / edit tables
 
I'm going to start all over again. Those old settings have to be erased. How do i do it because i've made 3 fresh installs on a drive that doesn't have coinops on it and the external that does have it is turned off. The settings magically appear in bam every time. There's settings logged in somwhere on my C drive with windows yes? when i do a fresh 2in1 install i have never installed tables or started them. If that BAM desktop shortcut isn't a BAM shortcut why is it labeled BAM? Just curious.
 
You can use the uninstaller for FP...and then remove the entire FuturePinball folder. Then if you really want you can remove the entire FP entry in the registry if it's still there (I show it in the guide).

Then reinstall following the guide.
 
TerryRed said:
You can use the uninstaller for FP...and then remove the entire FuturePinball folder. Then if you really want you can remove the entire FP entry in the registry if it's still there (I show it in the guide).

Then reinstall following the guide.
Click to expand...
I used the FP uninstaller. Installed again and the installer is telling me there's a FP folder in there and i'm looking right at the folder open and there's nothing of the sort in there... and the settings still pop up. So, where do i find you uninstall guide? Your guide is massive.
 
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Yah, guides are big when you cover a MEGA amount of content.

Remove the entire FP folder...as in delete the FuturePinball folder. Maybe reboot. try again.

The only other thing is what's in the registry. If you don't understand what that is or how to use it... then don't do that step. The uninstaller should have removed it anyway. :)

Beyond that... not much else I can tell you.
 
TerryRed said:
Yah, guides are big when you cover a MEGA amount of content.

Remove the entire FP folder...as in delete the FuturePinball folder. Maybe reboot. try again.

The only other thing is what's in the registry. If you don't understand what that is or how to use it... then don't do that step. The uninstaller should have removed it anyway. :)

Beyond that... not much else I can tell you.
Click to expand...
k i'll reboot as i've deleted the whole folder 4 times now.
 
Ya know, I have quite a bit of patience but I"m at my wits end with this thing. I just finished adjusting all the settings in the menus to your advised settings. Made a few of my own, night mode and then as soon as my first ball dropped in the hole all the lights came right back on again. I made all the settings again, saved them as default. First ball drops, lights all come on again. I same every way i can see to save the presets and they literally change right as I open up the menu to check on them. New renderer just changes to old as i look at it. Back and forth back and forth. Nothing is straight forward with this software. Nothing. I can see why people download packs that are simply drag and drop. No muss, no fuss. Everything works properly the first time. I've wasted an entire day on this. Gone.
 
Bye Bye.

If you think "packs" will change anything and help with what you don't understand... you are very wrong. If you think you can do what you specified on all tables that are preset up in a pack, you are wrong. Many tables have hard coded preset lighting that can't be changed.... but you didn't even take the time to read the FAQ which addresses this very thing..... or ask anyone here who could have helped you. You gave no info... didn't specify what table you are running... what setup you are using (cabinet / desktop).

You are rushing into software you know nothing about and want instant results. If this is your level of patience... then yes this isn't for you. 1000's of others have had no issues at all because they took their time to understand.

@shiva ...and this is exactly what I've been referring to. Explain to me why I should waste time helping someone with this attitude?
 
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So why are you so resistant to other solutions that help fix or at least minimize this problem Terry?

Dreamstate, don't use Coin-Ops. It's horrible, completely out of date, and has tables 10 years old that don't even work. It was done by a Monkey, and not a trained one at that.

Your best bet is to just grab the complete FP/BAM installer (which is the newest version, the coinops one is very very old) from Ravacades website, and work from there. All the FP tables are free, you are already a member, so you can download them. You will get the latest versions plus a whole bunch of new great tables. You will find that Terry's guide will work far better.

I suggest get Revo Uninstaller (it's free), use that to remove any trace of FP
- run the uninstaller through revo, when it's done,
- make sure you select advance for the scan afterwards as opposed to moderate.
- Hit the scan button
- It will show any registry items left over. click the select all button and then the delete button. answer yes
- next it shows the left over folders and files. do the same, Select all and delete, then answer yes

Your system is completely clean of fp. Remove the rest of Coinops manually if it's not a installed program.

Now you can reinstall with a fresh copy. As you can see from Revo, a lot of junk is left behind with the basic windows uninstaller, and that could be your problem. There may be a file written after the installation that could be corrupt or wrong. On top of it, the program you used could have written in something to the registry as well, so the best solution is to not use it and start over from scratch. I've had to manually dip into my registry and delete these programs, but that is quite scary for most people.
 
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I'm not resistant to helping at all with other solutions. I've done it for 100's of guys, who never had bad attitudes. They didn't give up and throw a hissy fit after the very first day they joined a site like this.

The very first thing I said was that CoinOps is the problem... and like I said before... I've seen these problem so many times from CoinOps and other packages and installers that it gets old very quick when someone comes here asking for help who has no idea how FP or BAM works... and they don't care to. They just want someone to fix it for them. I'll be damned if I'm going to waste "more" of my time on someone who can't be bothered to help themselves to some level, or at the very least attempt to help us to help them.

His problem isn't the install of FP based on what little he told us. It's either a Windows security restriction that may not allow BAM to run correctly or save cfg files (some people may need to run as admin or reduce UAC level), his GPU may be old / intel or needs a driver update, or the table itself is hard coded to change the lighting during gameplay (if we even knew what table he even tried).
 
That's fine Terry. As a staff member, that's what I am here to do, try and help people. Not your job, me, after 22 years, I'm use to it.

My new computer is having problems with cabinet mode crashing. I'm a lot more advanced than other people, but none of your guide helped. I even changed from Trusted Installer to admin, didn't seem to work, so I just did a reinstall of windows and will try again, maybe a new install will be better.
 
What does your computer have? Is it a laptop? What GPU? Does it have a cpu with integrated gpu?

If you read in my guide, I say that the DISPLAY ID's in windows will not always match what FP shows. Your Backglass monitor may be 2 in Windows display settings, but will actually be a completely different number in FP. Sometimes its a process of elimination until you find the one that works.

You can "try" to change the registry keys, but it most likely won't help as FP will probably change it back if it doesn't understand what DISPLAY # you give it.

1617596535851.png

Also, in Windows Display settings, you MUST have your Backglass monitor positioned to the RIGHT, next to your playfield (like I show in the guide) with the playfield monitor being primary, and your Text Scaling should be 100 for all monitors.

Also, if you have your Backglass monitor connected to your motherboard video ports that also can cause a problem.

Make sure you have Direct X updated (yes even on a new win 10 install)... and make sure you have ALL the Visual C++ packages installed. Install latest drivers for GPU, and audio and reboot. It matters.

For what it's worth. Steve Paradis had similar issues... and was ready to give up, but then he got it working when I persisted on him doing what I mentioned. :) (though his PC was a work computer that had more restrictions)
 
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I also had some dickhead create a fake account on FB pretending to be me (to direct people to a shady vp site)... so this weekend has been pretty crappy and has lots of people getting a bit testy. :p
 
Oh, forgot to mention the new computer.
Alienware m15 r3 - 300 mhz monitor
i7-10750H
16 g ram
1.5 tb ssd
Nvidia RTX 2070 Super (not maxq)
Windows 10 home

Full bore on the power (no throttling in other words to reduce heat) for the cpu and gpu.
I think it's a security thing more than anything. A few exe files were not working and PE refused to add shortcut keys to the start menu or start the frontend. Went on the net and did everything. I could find on it. I even replaced "trusted Installer" with my admin account for permissions, and hacked the registry. It may be a dell issue, or some stupid Microsoft thing.
As to cabinet, I'm not really worried, all ready decided to use my gaming computer for cabinet. This new computer will be for my development, but this still bugs me.

Oh, I did have that monitor problem with the old gaming computer. I found using Nvidia's display settings worked far better than Windows. It ended up being a simple solution, with 2 screens, My primary screen on the left. What I did was move the primary screen down a bit, and then moved the 2nd screen down to match, and both monitors snapped back to 0,0 and 0,1920, and the problem solved. Windows display systems are so bad. worse with windows 10 as you can only clone monitors if they have the same resolution now.
 
Yup. That pic in my guide shows how they need to be lined up with no negative X or Y position values! This is super important especially with older apps like FP, VPX, and VPinMAME.

I also agree and always recommend to use nvidia control panel (or AMD equivalent) to line up your monitors, as Windows Display settings won't snap them in place right, and you can be off by just a few pixels (and it doesn't tell you the x and y position either).

....oh, don't forget Windows Defender! It can be a royal pain and may block scripts or something that may prevent tables from working.

Be sure there aren't blocked files either. Installers are usually better to avoid that, but you never know.
 
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Had windows Defender completely off first time. Malwarebytes as well seems to cause problems. I use Glary instead of ccleaner, but that shouldn't affect it. As I said, just annoying. Put in FP with the regular installer, as just using Desktop mode and I want to use my ultrawide monitor for when ever I feel like touching fp again.

Oddly enough, only had issue with fp, vpx worked fine first go for some reason. Have to research this admin permission thing and why windows decided I'm a user and not a admin. Hate having to change the files manually in properties/security. Bloody microsoft
 
Have to admit. real nice to play Jungle Girl full bore settings at 200 fps. :)
 
Because it's a 300 hz monitor, no gsync. also no discrete graphics (switched off) or Intel Octane either. Trade off I guess.
Yeah, night and day with this new one. Hopefully M$ will finally fix the problem with multiple resolutions if you have 2 monitors unless they want all the content producers to switch to apple.

Oh the funny thing... JG is at 200 fps with 790 objects, the base new table template only runs at 169. :)
 
I did not know gsync would be off at 300Hz!

I always used nvidia surround for triple screen solutions (simracing before VR :) ) as leaving the monitors "discrete" to let the software take care of it never quite worked for me.

I can only imagine the headaches of setting this for pinball on old software before someone actually shared what works!

Just another reason why a MEGA tutorial is needed instead of a simpler one for pinball :)
 
simpit2.jpg

I too was a simracer before VP. Guess where two of those screens went to? Yup my cabinet. Still using the smaller monitor for my backbox...but now have a 43 inch 4K playfield and 19 inch middle FullDMD monitor.

I still have the simpit, with simvibe (like SSF for racing), but only a single 21:9 monitor and VR.
 
and here I am, trying to finish my button box after 6 years or so :D

I need a man cave :D
 
IMG_20150614_123607.jpg

I never got around to finishing a button box either. so I wound up using a tablet button panels solution. Works well... but no good for VR racing, whereas a button box is useable.

Honestly... I was more a casual sim racer (Codemasters, Project Cars, NFS, etc), so never used more than I had on my wheel and shifter anyway. The old G25 is replaced with a newer Logitech G920. again... causal... no direct drive wheel here. :)
 
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I'm returning to the hobby slowly... Lets just say I was more than a casual racer.

On GT5 for PS3 I actually did the 24h races and remember, there was no save option back then. DFGT and G27 are missed dearly (recently sold)

On pCARS1 alone I have over 1000h and that's only after it was published on Steam! Was part of the community since day 1. Learned quite a lot there. Amazing people.

Trying to return slowly as i'm very rusty, now on ACC and rF2... maybe AC. I also returned to my 1st team after this long hiatus. Who would have though?

I did invest on Fanatec over the years though. All is mounted on a GT Omega structure I bought 7 years ago it's old but it's still holding at least until I get a DD base... maybe :)
 
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