VP9 in MA

[premier]

Hey guys, just wanted to ask if anybody has successfully managed to get Visual Pinball 9(908) to work in MA?
It seems to boot but stay in the background. Ive tried all the window state options to no avail!
can anybody shed some light on this?

[premier]

Ive got vp9.08, vp9.02 and also vp8.9506.
Funnily enough, even when trying to play a table regularly (not through MA), I do the usual; run VP(editor), open a table, push F5 to play, and still the player boots behind the editor, requiring ALT-TAB to bring it to the front!, just like in MA!
All three verions of VP do this too!

[BobA]

Deleted wrong pinball program

[premier]

Well ive tried another older VP and it works fine now.

if anybody has any idea how to get VP9 to boot in maximus please let us know!

[BobA]

Tried it in Maximus with VP set for XP S2 compatability.   It plays but has one major problem.  When the screen shows I need to click on it with the mouse to get the focus set to VP and then all the controls work and the game plays properly.   Running W7 64 bit.

[SephYuyX]

I tried many a times to get VP9 to work, or any other verion for that matter. After a day of screwing with it I found "Visuall Install Pack 8.1" which worked for me.

[lrdicon2000]

Tried it in Maximus with VP set for XP S2 compatability.   It plays but has one major problem.  When the screen shows I need to click on it with the mouse to get the focus set to VP and then all the controls work and the game plays properly.   Running W7 64 bit.

I am also having the same type of problem for VP 9.08 running on XP 32bit SP2. The table will stay in the background until I click on it with the mouse, then the table loads fine with all of the lights flashing and allowing coins. But that isn't a satisfactory fix as I won't have that option once I put the unit in a cabinet as I won't have a mouse to click the tables.

If somebody has a work around for this particular bug it would be very much appreciated!

[tchiacch]

I wrote a script using AutoIT (free software) that gets executed when you launch VP9 from MA.  All it does is count 10 seconds and then executes a couple mouse clicks.  I do not have it here, but when I get home I can post it.  It really works very good.  You create a .au source file and then compile it to a .exe. Then call the .exe file from MA.  It was very easy to create and compile.  I'll let you know.

[BobA]

Sounds like just what is needed. 

[tchiacch]

Create a source script for autoIt similar to this:


Sleep(8000) ;delay eight seconds
 
; Double click at the current mouse pos
MouseClick("left")
MouseClick("left")

I named source file the following name
mousedelay.au3


You may need to play around with the number of seconds to get it just right for you slowest loading table
I cannot remember what my final second delay I ended up with as I did this on a different machine.

But once you have the file and have downloaded/installed the free autoIt utility simple do start-> programs -> autoIt v3 -> compile script to .exe

follow instructions if 64 bit or not etc. give it a name like mousedelay.exe

Then you call this from Maximus arcade during VP execution.  It works really good for me.  I'm running with windows 7 64 bit and it is stable.

[tchiacch]

AutoItV3 link

AutoIt v3 is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI and general scripting.

http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/index.shtml

[Rick]

Close to the bottom of this thread in the VPForums, there seems to be something similar, which also fixes *some* nag screens that might appear.  (The ones that say "Are you legally allowed to play this game" seem to disappear, but the PinMAME one stays.)  I'm going to try it out now, as I am also having similar issues with MA and VP9.  Don't try the last link (rapidshare, from a user with a single post) as it is dead.  I'm working on the second-last link, from a user named "HGPinball", who is an Admin, it seems.

Here are the contents of the ".AU3" file:

Code: [Select]

; Just a variable that's used repeatedly in dialog boxes, etc.
$title = "Visual Pinball Assistant"

; TESTING
Opt("TrayIconDebug", 1)

; Show oure little balloon
TrayTip($title, $title & " started.", 3, 1)

; Make sure they see it
Sleep(2000)

; Hide our little balloon
TrayTip("", "", 3, 1)

; Search by title exact or class name
Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 4)

; Now we go into an infinate loop until the user exits from the tray
While 1
; Look for VPinMAME window
If WinExists("Please answer and press OK...") Then
; Found VPinMAME

; Select Yes radio button
ControlCommand("last", "", 228, "Check", "")

; Click OK button
ControlClick("last", "", 1)
EndIf ; VPinMAME window check

; Look for Visual Pinball Player
$Player = WinGetHandle("classname=VPPlayer")
If Not @error Then
; Player found. Check to see if options dialog is open using a partial match anywhere
Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)
$Options = WinGetHandle("Options Menu")
Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 4)
If Not @error Then ; Options menu is open
; Close options menu by clicking on the OK button.
ControlClick($Options, "", 1000)
EndIf ; Options menu check

; Check to see if player is active
If WinActive($Player) Then ; Player is active
; User is playing. We don't need to do anything else, but we'll sleep for an extended period
Sleep(4000)

Else ; Player is NOT active
; While the player is not the active window, try and make it so
While Not WinActive($Player)
; If not active, sleep for a bit in case it's actually loading the table
Sleep(1000)

; Try and activate it
WinActivate($Player)
WEnd ; Trying to make the player active

EndIf ; Player active check

EndIf ; Visual Pinball Player Check

; Let the system breathe before we loop.
; This slows down VPM detection but doesn't steal as much of the CPU.
Sleep(1000)
WEnd
Configure the executable in the MA Preferences under "Configuration" for "Visual Pinball".  In the "Pre-launch" tab, you setup the program to run, and in the "Exit" tab, you select "Close all additional processes started during launch".

(I might just remove a few lines of code from above and recompile it - the 'TrayTip' popup and silence routines aren't necessary if you're using a front end.  There's a quick 'blink' from it as you start up, and you don't need to see it in action.)  I think it does work, as I didn't have to use the mouse to do anything...

Now, the only 'new' issue I seem to have is that I'm getting a 'Windows has encountered an issue and needs to close' every time I exit a table.  Hurm.  It seems to only happen when running VP9 through MA, as I just tried running VP9 directly, and didn't have the issue.  Edit: A-Ha!  Thanks to an old post on the MA forums, it looks like my using "Esc" to exit wasn't a good idea.  There's more than a single mapping to exit the VP program, so using "End" works very, very well.

So, that solves that problem.  Everything is working well for me now.

[BobA]

I used the short script posted by tchiacch and it works fine for the mouse click problem.  No other problems encountered.

[Rick]

I used the short script posted by tchiacch and it works fine for the mouse click problem.  No other problems encountered.

Do you still get the "permission" pop up? If not, how did you bypass it?

[BobA]

No permission screen as I have already played the table in VP to check it before using it via Maximus.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I actually played every pinball table on my arcade (painstakingly clicked on all the legal nag screens).  They only show up once for the first time you played them.  Then I backed up the portion of my registry which contained the Pinball info.  Now when I do a fresh install whenever I re-format my arcade machine, I simply double click on my registry backup and voila, no more nag screens.

D