# Installation

PinballY tries to make installation mostly automatic, but there are a few details that you might have to take care of manually, involving interactions with other, third-party programs. The PinballY Setup program is intentionally designed not to make any changes to any other programs on your system, since that's the source of so many problems in other installers, but the trade-off is that you might have to perform a few manual steps after installing.

PinballY requires Windows 7 or later. It won't work on Vista or XP.

## Microsoft DirectX

If you're running Windows 7, it might be necessary to upgrade to the latest Microsoft DirectX components. If so, PinballY will display an error box complaining about missing DirectX components when you try to run it. If you see such an error message, you probably really do need to update DirectX, even if you already have DirectX 11 installed. Microsoft released several updates to DirectX 11 after Windows 7 was released, so the "11" you have might be one of the older ones. Update instructions can be found on the Microsoft website:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/179113/how-to-install-the-latest-version-of-directx

That shouldn't be necessary if you have Windows 8 or later, since all necessary DirectX components are built into the operating system.

## PinVol

If you're using PinVol, you should update to version 1.2 (July 2018) or later. PinVol added recognition for PinballY in that version to make the two programs work better together.

## DOF (DirectOutput Framework)

If you're using DOF for feedback devices in your pin cab, a few extra steps might be required.

- For the 64-bit version of PinballY, you'll need one of my DOF R3++ releases dated 2018-09-04 or later. Earlier versions of DOF don't work with 64-bit programs.
- Go to your Direct Output install folder, and open the Config folder. Make a copy of the file GlobalConfig_B2SServer.xml and name it GlobalConfig_PinballY.xml.
- If you haven't refreshed your DOF config files from DOF Config Tool lately, you should update them now. Log in to the site in your browser, and generate and download a fresh set of .ini files. That will ensure that your DOF settings include the new effects for PinballY.

## Real DMD

If you're using a real DMD (dot matrix display) device, such as a PinDMD or Pin2DMD, you might need to update your copy of DmdDevice.dll (the system component that accesses the DMD device).

DmdDevice.dll is normally installed as part of your Visual Pinball setup. If you used the VP installer, it should have placed a copy of DmdDevice.dll in VP's VPinMAME subfolder. That might be an older version, though. For best results, make sure you're using one of the following:

- An official dmd-extensions release, version 1.7.2 or later, available at github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions/releases
- One of my patched versions (1.7.1, 1.7.2), available at github.com/mjrgh/dmd-extensions/releases

Version 1.7.2 (even my patched 1.7.2) has a known bug that prevents it from working with ROM colorizations, so some people are still using my 1.7.1 patch for the time being, until that bug is fixed in the official release branch.

If you're not sure which version you have installed, open the file properties (from the Windows desktop) for the file DmdDevice.dll, normally found in your Visual Pinball\VPinMAME folder. Check the Product Version under the Details tab as shown at right.

## Real DMD + 64-bit PinballY

The 64-bit version of PinballY requires the 64-bit version of DmdDevice.dll. It's safe to install both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the DLL at the same time. The trick is to make sure the 64-bit version is named DmdDevice64.dll, so that it can coexist with the regular 32-bit DmdDevice.dll without creating a file naming conflict.

## Adobe Flash Player

No longer used! As of version 1.1 Beta 5, PinballY can render SWF files directly, without Flash Player or any other external software. In the past, PinballY required an Adobe Flash Player plug-in to display Instruction Card files that were prepared in the SWF format. Adobe made Flash Player obsolete at the beginning of 2021 and pushed an update that disabled existing installations. PinballY addressed this (as of 1.1 Beta 5) by adding its own built-in mini-renderer that can display simple SWF files without any plug-ins. If you were keeping Flash Player installed just for PinballY's sake, you can delete it.