Development Updates

[cja272]

22 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

Aah I see - these anti-virus false positives are a such a pain     It's because the anti-virus programs use 'heuristics' to essentially guess if a file that they do not recognise is a virus.  It's a somewhat safe approach but it does cause issues like this...

I guess this started happening with the latest patch as the dll file is now significantly different...

At this stage the best I can think of is to exclude the Arcade Simulator folder from your antivirus - for me, the folder is:

C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Arcade Simulator

For you the path will be the same, but John will be your Windows username.  I found a how-to guide here:

https://www.lifewire.com/exclude-files-from-norton-antivirus-scans-153348

That should at least stop Norton blocking the dll (it gets recreated each time at Arcade Sim startup).

Sorry it's being such a pain on your system man! 

Once I think the dll is 'done' for now, I'll submit it to Norton to request they whitelist it to stop the flase positives.  I can't do that yet, as I still may have more work to do depending on if it's now working for other users or not.

I'll also have a tinker tonight, to see if I can make the dll appear less 'suspicious' - it is now self-contained (which is essential really), and also writes a test file to signal it works (which is non-essential).  If removing the code to write the test file is enough to stop it being flagged, I guess I could remove that functionality.

Edit: I tried removing the code to write the test file, and it's still identified as suspicious by Symantec (Norton) scanning engine.  Man what a pain - this dll stuff is needed to control MFME as it's just a closed source .exe, not required for MAME...

Not sure whats happened now as when the arcade simulator loads it freezes and the screen goes black and cant even get as far as playing machines now , i dont think my system is up to this even though its a fairly new laptop , thanks for all your help but i think im going to have to wait till i upgrade 

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, cja272 said:

Not sure whats happened now as when the arcade simulator loads it freezes and the screen goes black and cant even get as far as playing machines now , i dont think my system is up to this even though its a fairly new laptop , thanks for all your help but i think im going to have to wait till i upgrade 

Ah sorry to hear that bud... it's more a case that this software is still in early development and has bugs, than you needing an upgrade, as it used to work on your machine (when you ran as Administrator).

I have more to do on this sort of stuff, that will probably mean it will work again for you after another couple of updates.

I might ping you in a a couple of weeks or so it that's ok, just to try it one more time - as then it should have worked past these issues.
 

(For tech info - the work planned is deleting the Unity registry on boot of the Updater as it's caused issues to me and other users, and also getting the .dll registered with a couple of virus companies who are identifying as a false positive.  I could also do with figuring out how to do a full automated uninstall via Windows Installer).

[johnparker007]

A new patch is uploaded  

Again this is fairly boring but essential stuff, hopefully the last of these compatibility/stability tasks, as I'm keen to get back to working on the actual fruit machines!

Tech info:

Now if a user doesn't have adequate graphics hardware (low end integrated CPU graphics, or a very old graphics card) to render the machine lamps/displays etc, they will get this screen and it will not continue to install:

This should avoid confusion for new users without the necessary graphics hardware.

Also, as I've had a report of a black screen, I've done some extra work to flush the Arcade Simulator display registry entries at start up.  It was possible before for these to get corrupted, and while I made it force full-screen mode, this will work as a second line of defence, as the defaults are always good, so no point in having potentially corrupted entries causing the black square screen issue.  (it does the equivalent of the end user deleting the ArcadeSim and ArcadeSimLaunch registry entries through regedit that don't relate to my UserSettings system).

Also, I've submitted the two .dll files to the virus killer companies that are identifying them as malicious, as I've not had any reports of further problems, so I feel that work is done and the .dlls are hopefully 'final' (for now, there will be more to do, but in a long time from now).

Microsoft have already approved them, just waiting on Norton (Symantec), Max Secure, and SecureAge...

Fingers crossed I can start looking at actual fruit-machine related stuff next, it's been quite a while getting these various compatibility issues sorted.

Thanks to everyone who has provided information about those compatibility problems, you guys have stepped up and helped me with information, and it's a lot more robust now as a result  

[Reg]

Upgraded and worked perfectly on mine.

No issues at all.

Thank you.

[johnparker007]

6 minutes ago, Reg said:

Upgraded and worked perfectly on mine.

No issues at all.

Thank you.

Great news, thanks for letting me know  

[Dave King]

No joy for me.

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, Dave King said:

No joy for me.

Ah buggers  

Could I ask you to run it again please, and move the mouse to the very top-left corner and click quickly three times (after it's gotten stuck)?  You should then get a screen pop up that looks like this:

If you could post a screenshot of that in here please, it might have a clue to help me figure out why it's got stuck.  We'll definitely be able to get you going again, but it'd be good if I could perhaps figure out a proper fix for this issue  

Edited August 7, 2021 by johnparker007

[cja272]

I get a black screen when it try's to load and as you know before it would run as administrator 

[johnparker007]

4 minutes ago, cja272 said:

I get a black screen when it try's to load and as you know before it would run as administrator 

Thanks for the video   This latest patch did have a potential fix in for a black screen issue, but it seems like yours is different (I think it may be down to Norton antivirus).

I am slightly hopefully it might  work for you in a week or two, as currently it tries to create those 'dll' files at the point where the black screen appears - and currently Norton antivirus misidentifies them as malware.  I have submitted these dll files to Norton, and should hopefully have them accepted next week.  So then once your Norton antivirus program updates its definitions (I don't know how frequently it does this, but I expect at least once a week), it will no longer fight with Arcade Sim when it tries to create the dll files.

So that is my plan for your issue just now - is to wait for a week or two, then see if it has fixed the issue.  Hang in there  

[Dave King]

1 hour ago, johnparker007 said:

Ah buggers  

Could I ask you to run it again please, and move the mouse to the very top-left corner and click quickly three times (after it's gotten stuck)?  You should then get a screen pop up that looks like this:

If you could post a screenshot of that in here please, it might have a clue to help me figure out why it's got stuck.  We'll definitely be able to get you going again, but it'd be good if I could perhaps figure out a proper fix for this issue  

That's solved the issue, how do I add my fruit machine please?

[serene02]

You can’t add your own arcade yet,  this is a beta version of arcade simulator that John is working on.   As the software evolves extra features will become available.
 

J

[cja272]

1 hour ago, johnparker007 said:

Thanks for the video   This latest patch did have a potential fix in for a black screen issue, but it seems like yours is different (I think it may be down to Norton antivirus).

I am slightly hopefully it might  work for you in a week or two, as currently it tries to create those 'dll' files at the point where the black screen appears - and currently Norton antivirus misidentifies them as malware.  I have submitted these dll files to Norton, and should hopefully have them accepted next week.  So then once your Norton antivirus program updates its definitions (I don't know how frequently it does this, but I expect at least once a week), it will no longer fight with Arcade Sim when it tries to create the dll files.

So that is my plan for your issue just now - is to wait for a week or two, then see if it has fixed the issue.  Hang in there  

Right , its definitely Nortan , ive had a play about with it and ive managed to get the arcade working again!! so up and running 

[davep180]

Updated. All good here. I was a bit worried as my machine is just an old business pc with a cheap gfx card added. Thanks JP

[johnparker007]

lol i'm kinda drunk, but awesome this is all great news in terms of getting this thing more reliable guys  
 

5 hours ago, Dave King said:

That's solved the issue, how do I add my fruit machine please?

Great stuff, thanks for letting me know   - I realized I'd took an iffy shortcut on the patch server so I re-uploaded everything again to get the coherent copy from my machine, and it sounds like this fixed the corruption that i had inadvertently introduced in an earlier patch)

 

5 hours ago, cja272 said:

Right , its definitely Nortan , ive had a play about with it and ive managed to get the arcade working again!! so up and running 

Brilliant news, thanks for letting me know  In a week or two, hopefully Norton will no longer identify the .dll files as a virus - thanks again for letting me know it was just down to the anti-virus  
 

4 hours ago, davep180 said:

Updated. All good here. I was a bit worried as my machine is just an old business pc with a cheap gfx card added. Thanks JP

Ah nice one, looks like that cheap gfx card just scrapes in with those Compute Buffers    thanks for letting me know  

Edited August 7, 2021 by johnparker007

[Zippy]

Amazing how you keep everyone and everything up to speed, the markings of a truly great developer just like Chris.

Nice one JP.

[johnparker007]

5 hours ago, Zippy said:

Amazing how you keep everyone and everything up to speed, the markings of a truly great developer just like Chris.

Nice one JP.

Just been trying to keep up with all these bloomin' bug reports lol!  ...so everyone can enjoy a working arcade sim   It's no good if it's crashing all over the place  

[Zippy]

4 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

Just been trying to keep up with all these bloomin' bug reports lol!  ...so everyone can enjoy a working arcade sim   It's no good if it's crashing all over the place  

Hey John you are doing me a favour, you know how much I've saved in my swear jar, the longer you take with AS the more I save, I win either way

[Damici]

wow @johnparker007 I just installed the arcade simulator and I want to thank you for your great work!! Well done and it runs also very smooth.

Hope there will be an option in the future to also add the Dutch machines. And if you need any info or whatever bout the dutch machines, I would kindly help you with that.

I havent read all 56 pages in this topic yet, but will do before I ask more questions :D

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, Damici said:

wow @johnparker007 I just installed the arcade simulator and I want to thank you for your great work!! Well done and it runs also very smooth.

Hope there will be an option in the future to also add the Dutch machines. And if you need any info or whatever bout the dutch machines, I would kindly help you with that.

I havent read all 56 pages in this topic yet, but will do before I ask more questions

Great stuff, thanks for letting me know worked ok  

There will be lots more machines (including Dutch layouts) converted in the future, I am hoping to get back to working on that side of things next week, provided there are no more issues with it not working on people's PCs.

[johnparker007]

Been having a play around with an idea of doing the unmasked outlines on reel symbols where the light leaks through  


 

 

[serene02]

Yes please John   Nice work

[johnparker007]

4 minutes ago, serene02 said:

Yes please John   Nice work

Just a little bit of preliminary tinkering at the moment   reckon I'll end up doing it though when I actually come to writing the reel shader, should look nice in conjunction with reel lamp effects  

[Vangen]

Works great on my computer. Thank you for making this

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, Vangen said:

Works great on my computer. Thank you for making this

Glad to hear, thanks for letting me know it worked ok  

[Mrbeanstreak]

When will this be released ?