So far so good on most. I played VPW’s bride of pinbot and it started to chug a little. I can see why they’ve gone the safe route to just turn off some of the higher demand settings. I want it cranked so I will definitely be replacing the gpu soon.

I posted this in the other virtual pinball thread so I'm sure to take a beating but I'll post it here too.

OK here's what I got among all my other software issues I'm trying to learn. When I try to add a full DMD, specifically the B2S with fullDMD that hauntfreaks posts up, They are always squishy. I need to make a table only change and not global.
99% of my tables that have decorated dmds work fine. His dmd readme text is greek to me and the link no longer works that is embedded.
I can download some stuff in the media manager like for Marty's M-I Limited Edition and it looks as it should for example.
Any help is appreciated. Link to a video on this specific issue would be awesome I've searched high and low and nothing yet.
Here's some pics. I need to make per table changes nothing that impacts games or setup globally. Thank you in advance. pics included of what I see.
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Mike

20230216_063749 (resized).jpg

20230216_070449 (resized).jpg

20230217_055004 (resized).jpg

You guys seem obsessed with wanting to make changes or make updates. There are so many games to explore and try and master-I have not even scratched the surface. More playing and less fixing is what I recommend.

I have an idea-how about we organize a weekly Ultra VP tournament. Once a week we choose a table and have one week to get our high scores in order. We can discuss the pros and cons of individual tables? Any interest?

Awesome Idea. Smaug(Marty) VPN does this. Last week was Gridiron. If you go to the other VP thread, he's pretty active and you can check out his weekly setup for an idea. Theres no sign up or anything. He just selects a game and you have a week to try and be the high score. The link in his YouTube video about 10 posts or so back has the link to the scoring site. I'll posy it up later but I'm heading to the Ice right now at stick time.
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Mike

I'm game. There is a weekly tournament that currently runs on Facebook's Ultra VP League group. I also think they run one on discord.

I know that group is big there-Roland recommended but I can't stand Facebook and not wanting to join

I hear you there. I actually just joined for that reason a month ago when i picked up my vpin.

Here is Marty's ( Smaug ) post on the weekly game challenge. No sign-ups and the link to the scoring is in the youtube description in the video. I like the way he does this with no sign up or having to join Facetime or Instapot or Myface. This week's table is a crazy Mars one. I think it's like Orbitor maybe? It's unsual for sure.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/virtual-pinball-club/page/70#post-7398160

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Mike

This will help you with updating POVs in VPX:

https://www.nailbuster.com/wikipinup/doku.php?id=emulator_vpx

Page down to 'POVEdit via cabinet keys in vpx 10.7.2'

Will save you a TON of time.

If the shutoff switches aren't working they likely aren't wired properly. Roland knowingly ships the machines with this possible defect and doesn't verify proper operation prior to shipping. He has a somewhat confusing video (due to vague terminology and camera angles) on how to rewire them on the RRW YouTube channel. I had to rewire mine to get them working properly/ as labeled.

Luckily this fix doesn't require you to remove the glass but it IS a bit of a PITA.

AMartin56 - Luckily, my other flip switches appear to work. I may eventually try to fix the one that doesn't.

@mikepcms - luckily the right magna save button issue has been resolved. The wire end was simply not on the button. It was just hanging down on the floor of the cabinet. It is working now.

They should really think about implementing a QA checklist of items to test and hand the list to the buyer.

One thing I have noticed is that the machine's wifi isn't great. When I ping the IP of my machine, I only get 1-2 replies and the rest time out. So it's very spotty. I plan on picking up a better usb wifi tomorrow at Best Buy. I want to be able to make a network share in the tables directory so I can copy newer table versions to it easier. With the spotty connection, that doesn't work very well. The table is less than a foot away from my wifi AP so I know that isn't the issue.

Sounds good to me. I am not on the social platforms-just here. My idea was to have a game chosen every week or two by a pinsider. We can rotate around and the pinsider chooses the table(no matter what it is). We all play around with rules and trying to get high scores and then post and discuss here on this thread. Participation is optional as peoples schedules will vary. We can call it 'The Ultimate Ultra Pinball Tournament'

Thank you! Eager to check it out.

My wifi adapter was a dud and caused a ton of network connectivity issues. Removed it and installed a wifi 6 adapter I had that has a usb cable so I can leave it outside of the cabinet. Much better connection now. I’d opt for something like it so you can keep the adapter out of the cabinet.

TP-Link AX1800 WiFi 6 USB Adapter for Desktop PC (Archer TX20U Plus) Wireless Network Adapter with 2.4GHz, 5GHz, High Gain Dual Band 5dBi Antenna, WPA3, Supports Windows 11/10 https://a.co/d/6TXIq8c

6A3FDFF2-6DD0-4450-BDBA-40B25B65C8D3 (resized).jpeg

Nice idea on the wifi adapter going out the back. I actually already picked up a Netgear usb wireless AC network adapter from Best buy earlier today. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-dual-band-wireless-ac-usb-network-adapter-black/6328665.p?skuId=6328665 It has fixed my connectivity issue. There are actually two usb ports right where the soft shutdown button is. So I plugged it and the keyboard into these ports as they are outside the cabinet. I find the keyboard that is provided is not good either. My mouse cursor just stops moving all the time and my keystrokes sometimes do not register. I ordered a wireless logitech from amazon earlier today. I am sure that will fix that issue.

I also installed VNC on the machine so I can control the pinball machine from my laptop. Works pretty well. That made it a lot easier to add around 5-6 VPW tables that have been updated or created since September 2022 that were not on the VP Ultra 6.0. The new XMen from VPW is vastly superior to the 3-4 xmen tables on there. Those VPW guys do amazing work.

I still need to check out changing the POV. Thank you for providing that link. Luckily the VPW tables have good POV from the getgo.

I went ahead and turned vertical sync (vsync) off and tested it. I'm not seeing any screen tearing or anything. I am mainly just going for the best input speed possible as vsync can cause input lag. I'm not sure if there really is any gain though as I couldn't see any input lag before. I know turning it off on my alp make a big noticable difference.

I was just starting to work on updating the DOF and love your tutorial. Thank you for this!! This is great for a DOF noob.

Wow. This is super useful. Thank you, AMartin56. I added the bat file and was able to select the POV option in the menu. I did it for Jurassic Park and so much better. Squeezed the playfield in. I love that it automatically opens the editor to allow you to make the change and when you're done, you go right back to the menu where you can select the game you just changed. Too easy.

Yes agreed, huge time saver, and makes it very simple to adjust POVs on the fly. I did this over the weekend as well. The bat file is already there, but is titled as "REMOVE". Just need to delete that, and edit the bat file as it's a bit different than what is provided on nailbuster's site.

Any tips on where folks like to start out their POV? I found someone suggesting to always start with this, and then tweak X/Y from there:

Inclination: 5
FOV: 35
Layback: 65
Adjust X and Y scale as needed (I usually won't fill the screen with Y axis on standard tables as it'll stretch the table too much. I probably use about 80% of the Y axis. Adjust Z offset (NOT SCALE) as needed.

I find this a good starting point, but always open to suggestions to make it look as realistic as possible.

POV is subjective so that's a good place as any to start. You can really get yourself in.trouble quick with pov. Good thing is delete and start again.

On that note if anybody wants to do a video on how to put that POV thing in BAT file whatever you're talking about, step by step, that would be awesome.
I went to menu and there is no POV option that I can see.
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Mike

1) Power on your UltraVP
2) Close pinup popper
3) Click your start button and type notepad. Open notepad once it shows.
4) Copy the information at the bottom of post into the notepad file.
5) Click File > Save as
choose to save here: C:\vPinball\PinupSystem\Launch
Save the name as: POPGAME_VPXPOV Edit.bat
6) Open pinup popper
7) Open the table you want to change the POV on
8) Open the menu with ;
8) Open Scripts and you'll see the new POV option
9) Magna save buttons switch to different settings. The flipper buttons alter the setting you're on. Start button saves the changed setting. Coin cancels and nothing is saved.

#####COPY BELOW HERE TO NOTEPAD FILE#####
@echo off
if /I "%~x2" NEQ ".vpx" goto end
CloseVPXEditor.exe
timeout 2
cd /d "..\..\visualpinball"
VPinballX.exe -play %2 -PovEdit
CD /d %~dp0
SendPuPEvent 15
:end

OK. I think I may be able to navigate these instructions. Thank you.
I'll try it tomorrow early morning and report back.
Thank you for taking your time in writing this all out.
Fingers crossed.
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Mike

It worked flawlessly. Thank you. I uploaded it on my laptop and put it on my portable ssd that I use to update games etc...
Then dropped the file where you told me. There was no way I would be able to type that all correctly and don't like to go on the internet with the ultra 6.0.
It's just easier for me this way.
Worked like a champ.
Thank you again.
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Mike

20230221_054950 (resized).jpg

Good deal. Glad you have it working.

Portable SSD works. If you ever want to make it easier and still have it off the internet, you could do the following:
-connect the ultra vp pinbal machine to your wifi
-turn off automatic IP (DHCP) on your wifi adapter and give it a static IP and subnet mask. Just don't give it a gateway IP and then it won't be able to connect to the internet.
-you can then share your visual pinball folder or C drive on the pinball machine. You may want to make another admin account and use it to connect to the share from your laptop

It probably isn't worth it though if you're not familiar with the steps above.

Unfortunately I never learned Latin in school.
I laughed out loud when I read this.
It probably means some stuff to a bunch of people but not this people.
Thank you for trying though and someone else will surely benefit from it.
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Mike

I think those are reasonable baselines but lately I just leave everything the table designer chose other than the scale and offsets alone...Never touch Z scale but Z offset is okay. Some tables seem to break if you change inclination too much. I had a ToM pov that wouldn't let the ball on plunge out of the 'launch wireform'.

And if you break it just delete the tables .pov file in the table directory and start over.

So I did some more testing on the POV option in the menu. My YScale changes seem to save but not my environmental emissions (darkness of table). However, if I close popper and open the table straight in Visual Pinball X and edit POV there, the environmental emissions do update. Strange.

I'd be curious if anyone else sees the same thing.

So I've read now that we shouldn't be altering the y scale or x scale individually. We should only change the x/y combined scale. They should be 1 for 1. They say that messing with just one will cause issues with the physics and possibly the ramps and such. Just FYI.

A few references:
https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualpinball/comments/sc2f3u/vpx_intro_to_advanced_settings/
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=39055

I am going to assume that the people that put these tables together changed the scaling and altered the physics. I just changed Indiana Jones X Scale to 1.004 and and Y scale to 1.006 and it plays better and looks better.

I can understand wanting to take the whole screen real estate up but not worth it.

I believe vpx7 changed that and allowed for adjustment of the x and y scale without changing physics, shots or ball size. At least that's what I was lead to believe. I'll play with that Indiana Jones table with your settings and give it a flip. Thanks for tip

It's pretty easy to get the back to where they should be. Just leave height (I believe X scale) as is and then change Y scale to match X. I settled with 1.004 & 1.006 for Indy but you can get them to match if you fiddle with it long enough.

It may depend on which Indy you're playing so I wouldn't use my exact numbers as reference. I'd just be sure X and Y match up.

Found another really really good post on the scaling if anyone is interested. I know that most are probably happy with using the full real estate but for those that prefer the original scaling, see this thread. Especially read pages 3 and 4.

https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=40643&page=4

Sounds like the way to go is to have x and y scaling at 1.0 each. Then use the z offset to zoom out so that it fits vertically. Using the 1.0 (or less) will fix any blurriness. Keeping the 1.0 matching for X and Y will also fix make all graphics look better. Unfortunately, there will be black bars on the left and right. It's really just a matter of preference which one matters the most to you, real estate or best visuals.

Take Pistol Poker for example. It looks cruddy. Most probably wouldn't touch it. Even if you changed X to match Y, it will look much better but it will have a blurriness to it. That is because it was scaled higher than 1.0. Bring it to 1.0 and then use the Z offset to fit the screen verticallly.

Batman (Michael Keaton version) is another good example on looking cruddy. 1.0/1.0 ratio with z offset makes it look really really good.

Funny you mentioned Pistol Poker as I changed the pov about 4 times this morning trying to find the combo to make the upper playfield joker hole and upper loop more accessible with the upper flipper. Nope. I'd like to see one of the vpx masters redo this one. Fun game and it's Smaug's ( Marty @ game club central) showdown game of the week this week. He hangs out on the other VP thread here.
POV is subjective so it's what looks right to you and what allows max function of the game. I can live with blurry stuff and haven't really noticed that to be honest. I'm always around X=85-90% of Y or thereabouts. There is definitely no "one size fits all here" and I've changed every table I've played. The closest dude is JPSalas and that Bigus dude so far, for a right out of the box look.
If anyone can figure out the best POV for Paragon I'm all eyes and ears. That table is a disaster. Ball looks like a marble. Plays great though. The new update for it, I reversed it. It made it worse. Physics are/were horrible. The creator is normally real decent so I don't know what happened there.
I'll check out your Batman scenario. I'm curious to see where I'm at and how it looks(xyz) before I mess with it.

Are you tall?
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Mike

Agreed, what looks best is definitely subjective.

I really enjoy Pistol Poker. Great table.

I just found one called Cyclone (the one with the black background opoosed to the white background one). What a great table. Fun music, sounds, and lights.

Paragon is already set to 1.0/1.0 and takes up the full width of the screen. That must have been a very wide table.

Heren are Batman, Pistol Poker, and Cyclone after updating the POV.

I'll check out Paragon.

cyclone (resized).jpgpistol_poker (resized).jpg

batman2 (resized).jpg

Those look good! I'll see if my brain will allow the screen not filled look. I just downloaded both those cyclones a week ago. He made a day version as well. JPSalas reworked games and then modded by another creator if I recall.
Paragon is a monster. Was one of my favorite games quite a few decades ago.
Thanks for the pics.
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Mike

One thing that I didn't like after changing my POV is that the preview of the table still showed the old table look. Luckily this can be overcome easily with the recording option in the menu. I noticed my recording option wasn't working properly though and ended up having to change the recordstart.bat to use ffmpeg. Then I could easily record the look to show up in the menu.

Hopefully someone comes along and creates a good Paragon that you can enjoy.

I had to change the command in the controls because the "record" is set to a German "u" with 2 dots over it. (Umlaut maybe?)
I went in to pinup popper setup under popper set up, controller set up and changed it to "r" and I update recordings for topper to playfield once I get the game set up. pic included.
Honestly this software is a mess. There's so much crap on there that isn't being used and just cluttering up the drive. For instance P-Roc. Is that even needed? I'm gonna clone a 4th drive and start screwing around and seeing what I can get rid of. It's a crap shoot right now trying to update systems like b2s server and vpinmame etc... I'm afraid I'll overwrite stuff so this new drive is gonna be my guinea pig. I updated vpinmame to 3.5 successfully but it bricked about 5 future pinball games for some weird reason. Mainly play vpx and fx3 so doesn't matter to me.
Half the fun of this thing for me is trying to navigate the software maze between the UVP6.0 platform and the VP community offerings.
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Mike

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hah.. same. I enjoy fiddling with it as well. I can only imagine what the software was like in the early phases. I am sure it has come a long ways and will continue to get better.

I actually did change record from u (whatever that was) to r hoping that would help. When on gpu (the default), I hit record and everything would freeze. Lights stopped and I couldn't launch the ball. I then changed it to obs, I'd hear the jeopardy go forever. I even did a very short record session. Fiinally I tried ffmpeg. It ended up being fine on that one. I just record the table with the lights flashing for a few. That's good enough for me.

Has any ultra owner on this thread successfully updated their B2S server without altering or breaking the functionality. I know that B2S 2.0 is on the horizon but wouldn't mind getting to 1.4 to see if I have a little more control. We are currently on 1.3.0.4 which is a long time ago in VP time.
I tried a while ago and it made all my backglasses and DMD's disappear.

What's the advantage of updating B2S? Are there certain backglasses that will only work with the newer software? I'm not sure why I'd want to update.

I may try to update the backglass on Friday. I have a new ssd coming tomorrow and want to clone my current setup first.

I'm anxiously awaiting your result. I'm not computer literate, just a little dangerous and curious. So.... any path someone smarter can carve, I'm grateful.
I'm about to get another ssd as well. I'm Samsung 870 EVO from here on out. Its what my main software is on now. The Vulcan spare Roland sent me is ok but there are horror stories. Also, the cloning machine that I got from Roland went in the trash the other day. It wouldn't do anything and it never did clone via stand alone method. Well it started acting up when I was gonna clone the other day. All the issues I was having are well documented all over the net. Lots of horror stories with corrupting disks and what have you. It wouldn't even connect to my laptop.(wasn't visible) Immediately threw it away after reading the reviews.
I bought 2 USB sata data/power connectors and I'll do it via Macrium Reflect through my laptop. Hope that works.
Pic included of sata cables I got.
Also pic of the offending cloning station that I tossed out.
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Mike
Screenshot_20230301_184329_Amazon Shopping (resized).jpgScreenshot_20230301_184946_Chrome (resized).jpg

I have successfully used the cloning station once. I also purchased a TeamGroup Vulcan per his recommendation and have that in my machine now. Originally it was a ColorTime drive which I cloned to my TeamGroup Vulcan SSD. My new one coming tomorrow is also a TeamGroup. I actually had never heard of TeamGroup until he had spoken about them. Hopefully it holds up but if not, at least I'll have a spare. I'm like you and am more familiar with Samsung and Western Digital. I just figured maybe I was too old school.

He had actually given me another ColorTime SSD as well. I tried to clone my TeamGroup SSD to it but it would not kick off. The four blue lights instantly came on and never would start. I just figured the ColorTime drive was smaller than my team group and thus failing.

I purchased an SSD adapter as well from Amazon and waiting for it to come in. Please let me know how your new cloning setup goes.

I'll keep you posted on the backglass. I need to read more about the upgrade process. Where did you get your files? I see them on Github. The link I found on VPforum is broken.

I've been in IT for a very long time so know the ins and outs of computers pretty well. Hopefully I can get it upgraded and give you the steps.

Exactly the same experience. Get rid of that cloning station. Next issue will be it not connecting to your computer or taking forever to become visible only to have your clone process fail for an i/o error. I thought the same thing about the colortime drive being too small, but it is actually the one successful clone I had.

B2S server is here:
https://github.com/vpinball/b2s-backglass/releases/tag/v1.4.1

I'll link you to the pinmame 3.5 and 10.7.3 system links later today.
I haven't tried the actual 10.7.3 upgrade either but did manage the pinmame upgrade. Bricked a few future pinball tables but overall it was a success. Smaug (Marty) has a pinmame video that worked for me. He doesn't have a backglass one though and I haven't gathered the nerve for a system upgrade to 10.7.3.
Maybe Roland should offer a free drive with windows on it and a screen setup and allow people the option of uploading the software themselves. I wouldn't change how I did it initially but now that I'm learning a little, I wouldn't mind building my own software. I'd never build my own cabinet though. I don't have time for that nonsense.
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Mike

Yes. Creator HauntFreaks stuff specifically. He makes some real nice b2s/fulldmd combos. I was just told on the other thread by Marty that that is my issue with his stuff not looking right when I upload it. There's a bunch more improvements as well. If you click the link in my previous post above, you can view the change log from our version to now.
Also, these guys are starting to use 10.7.3 and 10.8 to make their newest stuff. If we don't figure out a way to manipulate/upgrade our software on our ultra without global changes, we're gonna hit a wall. Only a matter of time before they start using newest b2s 2.0 as well.
That's why I'm cloning a 3rd and 4th drive to start experimenting and thankfully snoops is gonna try too.
I've figured out a bunch of stuff in the last month, with help and countless youtube videos, and I want to be able to contribute to our group when the questions come up.
I'm specifically talking VPX though. I'm happy where fx3 and zaccaria are and I'm not bothering with future pinball. I think it will all be vpx eventually.
If I was to start software from scratch I'd leave future pinball, p-roc, fx2, vp9, etc... out completely.
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Mike

Stand alone unit really not needed to copy a sata drive or ide drive. Try HDDRAW copy, it will copy the drive sector by sector. You can use the sata usb adapter shown above.

I am also interested in best way to copy my cabinet drive and had a look at HDDRAW information. It shows the following:

Supported OS: MS Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Server 2003, 2008, 2008R2

I am running Windows 10 so it looks like this is a limitation for this option.

I have a motherboard mounted M2 drive and have purchased a outboard physical cloner which has not been attempted yet. Removing and reinstalling this drive will be tedious just to attempt a clone. Therefore a plug and play type solution is more attractive.

It works fine with windows 10

Start: hddraw copy

Choose your source (the drive you want to copy)

NEXT

Choose location Target for the drive/image to be stored and name the file whatever you want.

START

Once done it will say "task complete"

Here you go.
https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/releases/tag/10.7.3

https://github.com/vpinball/pinmame/releases/tag/v3.5-217-bd54096

https://github.com/vpinball/b2s-backglass/releases/tag/v1.4.1

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Mike

I have the day off today and my drive is cloned. I'm going to go through the upgrades.

Thank you for the links Mike. I'll be doing these in separate posts. Here are the steps for the backglass.

1) Exit popper
2) Not required but best to backup these five files first. Right click each file and append/add .old at the end. Example, rename B2SBackglassServer.dll to B2SBackglassServer.dll.old. Here are the files to backup:
B2SBackglassServer.dll
B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe
B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe
B2SServerPluginInterface.dll
ScreenRes.txt
2) Unzip your new backglass files - B2SBackglassServer-1.4.1-97905d7-Release-win-x86.zip
3) Edit the screenres.txt file that you unzipped. You can either take the info from your old screenres.txt and use it to update the new screenres.txt file or use my info below to update the new screenres.txt file.

# This is a ScreenRes file for the B2SBackglassServer.
# From release 1.3.1.1 comment lines like this starting with a "#" are supported.
# If you use tools not supporting comments (or old releases), you need to remove these lines or let B2S_ScreenResIdentifier do it for you!
# Playfield Screen resolution width/height
3840
2160
# If StartBackground is active ("Small" Button in the Options) the Backglass settings are for the background!
# Backglass width/height (or background when StartBackground is active)
1920
1080
# Backglass Display Devicename screen number (\\.\DISPLAY)x for the Playfield or screen on position (@x) or screen index (=x)
2
# X/Y position for the backglass relative to the upper left corner of the selected screen (background when StartBackground is active)
0
7
# width/height of the DMD area in pixels - For 3 screen setup (DMD gets defaults when set to 0/0)
1825
496
# X/Y position of the DMD area relative to the upper left corner of the backglass screen - For 3 screen setup
1970
291
# Y-flip, flips the LED display upside down
0
# Backglass X/Y position when StartBackground is active, relative to upper left corner of the selected screen
100
0
# Backglass width/height when StartBackground is active
600
600
# C:\path\Frame = The path to the location where you have the background image or black if none selected.
#C:\path\my_bezel_for_EM_or_grill_for_dual_screen.png

4) Now that your new screenres.txt file is updated to the correct settings. Copy all the files you unzipped to your C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\Tables directory
5) Right click B2SBackglassServer.dll and select properties. Check "unblock" on the general tab
6) Right click B2SBackglassServerEXE.exe and select properties. Check "unblock" on the general tab
7) Right click B2SBackglassServerRegisterApp.exe and 'run as administrator'. You get a couple dialog boxes you'll want to say yes for each.

I think I got all the steps.

You're now ready to play some pinball and test. I'll continue testing but haven't had any issues thus far.

I checked my vpinmame and it is already 3.5. I had already updated it and VPX (to 10.7.2) soon after I got my ultra.

I had used this youtube at the time as a reference.

I actually had used his downloads that he linked in the youtube.

If I recall right and looking at the youtube, I think these are the steps:

1) Exit Popper
2) Download your vpinMame update
3) Unzip your files
4) Copy the files to C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME and overwrite the files there.
5) Run the setup.exe in that directory and click "Install"

You're ready to go.