/b2s-backglass

B2S Backglass Server and Designer for use with Visual Pinball

Primary LanguageVisual Basic .NETOtherNOASSERTION

B2S.Backglass Server & Designer

System files to run and edit directB2S backglasses.

See the Changelog.txt for recent changes.

B2S.Backglass Server

Installation:

  • Unzip all files into a folder under your VisualPinball\B2SServer folder and overwrite already existing files with this new ones. It doesn't have to be installed in the tables folder! A better example would be C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\B2SServer.

  • Right click the B2SBackglassServer.dll and click on Properties. Maybe you'll find the following text on the General tab: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer. Click on the Unblock button. Everything is fine when you are not able to find this text.

  • Start the B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe in the folder and the server dll should be registered. IMPORTANT: With Win7 (and above) start the .exe as administrator. Old installations can be cleaned up using Nirsoft's RegDllView

  • On older windows machines, check the color depth of the backglass monitor. It has to be 32bit.

  • Also on older windows versions, the B2S backglass server requires .NET Framework 4 to be installed on your computer. It can be downloaded here.

  • You're ready to download and play some directB2S backglasses.

Backglass settings:

You can set, tweak and save a lot settings for each backglass. To get into this settings screen, please click the backglass with the mouse and press S on your keyboard. A dialog window opens.

In this settings dialog you're able to:

  • Hide or show the VPinMAME DMD, the B2S DMD and/or the grill
  • The setting Bring BG allows you to control which window comes on top. There are three states available:
    1. Standard setting (both FormToBack and FormToFront turned off) -> as it was in 1.3.0.6.
    2. FormToFront sets the flag Form.TopMost = True -> No other window can come on top of the backglass. The DMD is not present in the taskbar when it is drawn in the backglass
    3. FormToBack forces the backglass to the back and ignores any try to get them come forward -> the backglass stay in back. The B2S Server is not available in the taskbar at all.
  • Do some performance tuning, especially with the Skip ... frames settings
  • Do some LED settings
  • Setup the screenshot settings to create screenshots from the running backglasses with the Print or Print screen key
  • Do some VPinMAME data logging

Pretty important when you're having some stutter:

  • Check the color depth of the backglass monitor. It has to be 32bit.
  • Check the Start the backglass in EXE mode check button and restart the backglass. Most of the features will only work when run in EXE mode
  • Tweak with the Skip ... frames. Maybe start with Lamps 2 or 3, Solenoids 10 and LED 2.
  • Tweak with the LED type. Try to use the Simple LEDs.
  • Don't forget to save your settings.

ScreenRes files

The B2S Server uses ScreenRes files files. The default file name is ScreenRes.txt. When the B2S Server loads a backglass, it tries to find TableName.res and if not found it will revert to ScreenRes.txt.

The default filename can be altered by setting the registry key Software\B2S\B2SScreenResFileNameOverride

The B2S Server uses the Backglass Screen value on the fifth line from top (excluding comments). There are 3 different ways possible to describe which screen the backglass sits on:

  1. "2" means the screen with the device name = \.\DISPLAY2. This is the default way.
  2. "@1920" means the screen sitting on the x position 1920 measured from Point(0,0) on the playfield, in this example the screen right next to the HD playfield screen.
  3. "=2" means the screen sitting on index number 2 walking left to right.

From release 1.3.1.1 comment lines starting with a "#" are supported. If you use tools not supporting comments (or older releases), you need to remove these lines. (PinballX 5.55 has been updated for example.)

B2S_ScreenResIdentifier

The B2S_ScreenResIdentifier tool included in the package will help you alter your *.res files. You can even "throw" one of the res files on the execuatable and it will edit it for you (the first parameter when started on a command line is the filename to a res file).

B2S.Backglass Designer

The B2SBackglassDesigner is also available as a separate download here. It allows you to edit and create directB2S backglasses using a "WYSIWYG" editor.

Documentation is available in the package as htmlhelp but can also be watched online here