Difference between new ball and extraball

[leeoneil]

Hello everyone,
I'm still trying to figure what is happening with my super long wait between 2 balls.
Sometimes the wait betweend 2 balls can go to 1 minute or 2 !
I've checked loooooots of thing, I can't understand what's going on.
It's specific to very very good scores, if we play badly, there is no wait between 2 balls.

When we have an extraball, there is no wait at all (even with super high scores !).

So, what can I check ?

What's the difference between a ball and an extraball ?

I'm still in 0.57.3, can't go in 0.8.

Thank's for your help !

[Alex L]

Interesting! Are there any events logging during this wait? If there is a big gap with no logging, what are the events right before and after the wait? Is this only with single player games? What happens with multiplayer?

I'm not great with .57, but I wonder if you have a bonus mode that is silently going through multiple delayed awards, but not showing anything, so it seems like nothing is really happening. This would be something I would expect to have grow alongside higher scores. But maybe bonus happens on extra balls as well. Hmm.

Another idea - extra balls start within the same player context as the previous ball (which earned it). Therefore there is (guaranteed) no player rotation, whereas ball 1-to-2 progression or a ball ending in a multiplayer game both do some extra handling of ending the current turn and starting a new turn, even if it is just a single-player game.

If you have a lot of player variables (or maybe more importantly, <x>_player event hooks listening for changes in player variables), maybe the value management is causing a lot of event processing, which delays the start process of the next ball.

You might dig around the default Game mode implementation to find more clues: https://github.com/missionpinball/mpf/blob/00460954febea09ae82d7b18412edd99fedf9260/mpf/modes/game/code/game.py#L95 . Notice that extra ball handling calls `_run_ball`, but normal turn progression also calls `_start_player_turn` and `_rotate_players`, which extra omits.

[Anthony van Winkle]

By any chance are you using a segment display? What is your hardware like and can you share a link to your repository?

[leeoneil]

Thank's.
I'm trying to understand how to share my code on github (creating a repository)

Actually everything is here : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11r_yReAPgv784EVpiqdJ36kgg8GsXdBx?usp=drive_link
But I don't know if someone can acess it.

Nothing change between 1 or multiple players (same problem).
I'm not using segment display, I'm with a WIN11 computer, pretty fast ( AMD Ryzen 7 5825U, 32 Go RAM DDR4).

[leeoneil]

Ok not very easy...
I think all my code is here :

https://github.com/Leeoneil-Vely/Cthulhu_pinball

I absolutley don't understand....

In the log there is nothing during the wait.

[leeoneil]

Sorry i'm talking to myself...

I made a verbose log and... I don't understand.

2025-10-29 14:00:25,913 : INFO : EventManager : Event: ======'player_turn_ended'====== Args={'player': <Player 1>, 'number': 1}

2025-10-29 14:00:52,857 : INFO : EventManager : Event: ======'game_will_end'====== Args={}

and

2025-10-29 14:00:25,814 : EventManager : Event: ======'slide_main_init_active'====== Args={}

2025-10-29 14:00:52,901 : EventManager : Event: ======'slides_play'====== Args={'settings': {'game_over_slide_3': {'target': None, 'background_color': [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0], 'priority': None, 'show': True, 'force': False, 'expire': None, 'slide': None, 'tokens': {}, 'action': 'play'}}, 'context': 'game_over', 'calling_context': "mode_game_over_started{current_player.game_over_number=='3'}", 'priority': 500, 'queue': '<QueuedEvent>'}

2025-10-29 14:00:52,901 : EventManager : Event: ======'sounds_play'====== Args={'settings': {'game_over_sfx_pool': {'action': 'play', 'priority': None, 'block': False, 'delay': None, 'track': None, 'volume': None, 'ducking': {}, 'pan': None, 'loops': None, 'start_at': None, 'fade_in': None, 'fade_out': None, 'about_to_finish_time': -1.0, 'max_queue_time': -1.0, 'events_when_played': ['use_sound_setting'], 'events_when_stopped': ['use_sound_setting'], 'events_when_looping': ['use_sound_setting'], 'events_when_about_to_finish': ['use_sound_setting'], 'mode_end_action': 'use_sound_setting', 'key': 'use_sound_setting'}}, 'context': 'game_over', 'calling_context': 'mode_game_over_started', 'priority': 500, 'queue': '<QueuedEvent>'}

This is an example of a long wait...
It was here on ball 3 before the end of the game, just after the bonus points.

And At some point during the game, the computer start to struggle with the shows.
Looks like a very new videogame on and old computer, the "framerate" for the show is very bad....

[leeoneil]

I get rid of all the highscores... And the problem still here.
Can be between 2 balls or after the third ball (so just before a game over).
So I guess the modes are not concerned...

[cobra18t]

Have you tried this memory leak search method?
https://missionpinball.org/latest/troubleshooting/debugging_memory_leaks/

That helped me find the source of my delay between game over and attract mode restarting. Basically I had thousands of event handlers that were not cleared until the end of the game because of how I was using segment displays. Maybe you have something that stacks up that is not cleared until a new ball (not extra ball).

[leeoneil]

Hello !
I tried it but I'm too dumb to understand I think (the result...)

So I press "d" at the beginning of my game, and "d" at the end (after a long wait).
I have some informations on my log but don't know exactly what to check.

There is a line with 1500 handlers but....
None of them seems particular.

The MC is here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lf8T95fMk4qD7JYTChy7W9iWa7NcHMXA/view?usp=sharing
And the other log is here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ac83twxIgmT5gfWqYpGCdyfJIR2EzNfJ/view?usp=sharing

Is it easy to find some clues on these files ?

Thank's for your help !

[Philip Dixon]

try changing max queue time from -1 (which is infinite)? In fact, try commenting out a line at a time and see if the delay goes away and if so, that line is your problem.

[leeoneil]

Maybe   
He spotted that my base game mode had this :

#config_version=6

mode:

  start_events: ball_started, base_start

  priority: 100

  stop_events: base_stop

So probably, the base mode was not shutting down between 2 balls.
He told me to put this :

mode:

  start_events: ball_started, base_start

  priority: 200

  stop_events: game_ended, ball_ended, game_ending, ball_ending

And it's nigh and days !
The wait sometimes could go to 5 or 10 seconds, on big scores.
Need to do more testing, but looks like he found something big !

Thank's again to  !!!!!!

[leeoneil]

Back to the beginning, the problem is still here.
It's crazy !
Yesterday, 15th plays, no problem.
This morning, one play, one good ball, lots of points.... Problem is back !
Aaaaaarrrghhhhhh !!!!!!