Installing MPF on Windows

MPF can be used on Windows 7, 8, and 10, in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The installation process is pretty much automated, and the whole thing should only take a few minutes.

Here are the steps:

1. Install Python (3.5, or 3.6)

MPF is written in a computer language called “Python”. This means you have to install Python first before you can use MPF. Luckily this is just a one-time install, and you don’t have to install it again if you update MPF later.

On Windows platforms, MPF requires Python 3.5 through Python 3.7 (Python 3.8 and newer are not currently supported). While MPF will run on Python 3.4, some of our dependencies dropped support for 3.4 and can no longer be installed. It is recommended you use the newest supported version of Python available when you are setting up your PC (Python 3.7 as of the time this document was last updated). You can download and install it from the Python website. (Keep reading for links)

Note

Python 3.5 and 3.6 support for Windows were added in version 0.50. Prior versions of MPF did not support Python 3.5+ on Windows.

There are two versions of Python, a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version, and you need to pick the one that matches the version of Windows you’re using.

To find out whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit Windows, open a command prompt by right-clicking on the Windows button and selecting “Command Prompt” from the menu:

../_images/windows_command_prompt.jpg

Then inside that window, type the following command and press Enter:

echo %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%

If it prints x86, that’s 32-bit. If it prints x64 or AMD64, that’s 64-bit. (Note that it might print “AMD64” even if you have an Intel processor.)

Here’s an example of running this on a 64-bit Windows 10 machine:

../_images/check_windows_processor_architecture.png

Then go to the Python website download the version you need. (Note that the final digit in the Python version number is the “patch” number, so 3.6.4 is a version of Python 3.6.) Or use the direct-download links here:

Installing Python is pretty straightforward. It’s a normal Windows installer.

The only thing you should change from the defaults is on the “Customize Python 3.x.x” screen, we like to select the option “Add python.exe to Path”. That way you can run python from any folder, rather than having to specify the full path to it. (Also make sure the “pip” option is selected, but that should be selected by default.)

../_images/python_win_pip_path.jpg

Note that you have to log out and then log back in for the path to be updated once you install Python. If you don’t, then you’ll get an error about Python not being found when you try to install MPF.

After you log out and log back in, (or just restart your computer), open a command prompt again and type the following command, then press ENTER: (note there are two dashes before the word “version”)

python --version

That should print which version of Python is installed, like this:

../_images/windows_python_from_command_prompt.jpg

Make sure the version is Python 3.5.xx. If you see a version number that starts with 2, that means you also have Python version 2 installed. (This is ok. You can have Python 2 and Python 3 installed at the same time.) However, if this is your case, you need to use a different command to start Python 3. See the Note for running Python 2 and Python 3 side-by-side page for details.

2. Upgrade pip and setuptools

Python includes a utility called “pip” which is the name of the Python Package Manager. Pip is used to install Python packages and applications from the web. (It’s kind of like an app store for Python apps.) Pip references another package called “setuptools” that is used to download, build, install, upgrade, and uninstall Python packages.

So the next step is to update the “pip” and “setuptools” programs to make sure you have the latest versions. It’s not really important to know exactly what this means right now, just run it.

pip install pip setuptools --upgrade

This command will upgrade pip and setuptools to the latest versions.

Note that if you’re running the command prompt without admin rights, you might get some red text and a permissions error. Launch the command prompt by right clicking and selecting “Run as administrator”.

You can run the following command to show the versions of pip and setuptools (and the other packages you have installed) like this:

pip list

That will print out something like this:

C:\Users\username> pip list
Package    Version
---------- -------
pip        19.3
setuptools 41.4.0
C:\Users\username>

Notice that pip is now version 19.3 (as of October 2019)and not the older version that came with Python 3.6.8. Setuptools has also been updated to version 41.4.0 (as of October 2019).

4. Activate your Virtual Environment

To keep itself isolated from other programs, your virtual environment only activates when you tell it to. You can enable the virtual environment with a batch command from the command prompt:

## Command Prompt: use the bat file
C:\> C:\Users\username\mpfenv\scripts\activate.bat

## PowerShell: use the ps1 script
C:\> C:\Users\username\mpfenv\scripts\activate.ps1

Note

You may want to write this step down, as you’ll run it every time you open up a terminal window to work on MPF

You’ll know you’re in the virtual environment because the console prompt will include the name of your venv in parenthesis.

C:\> python --version
Python 2.7.10
C:\> C:\Users\username\mpfenv\scripts\activate.bat

(mpfenv) C:\> python --version
Python 3.7.5
(mpfenv) C:\>

Warning

By default, PowerShell is not allowed to execute scripts. If you encounter the error activate.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system, you need to enable scripts.

Open a PowerShell window as Administrator and run the following command: ` set-executionpolicy remotesigned `

5. Install MPF

In case you previously had MPF/MPF-MC 0.52 or earlier installed you need to uninstall some kivy dependencies because their naming changed with Kivy 1.11 (you can skip this on a new install):

pip3 uninstall kivy.deps.sdl2 kivy.deps.sdl2_dev kivy.deps.glew kivy.deps.gstreamer

Now that Python is installed and pip is up-to-date, it’s time to install MPF! To do this, run the following command from the command prompt:

pip install mpf mpf-mc

This command is telling pip to install a package called “mpf-mc”, which is the Mission Pinball Framework - Media Controller package. When you run this, pip will connect to the internet and download MPF-MC from the Python app store and install it onto your computer.

Note

If you want to install the development version of MPF you need to add –pre at the end which tells it to get the latest “pre-release” version. Normally, you do want the stable version unless you depend on a new feature or bugfix which is only in the dev version yet.

Pip packages can include dependencies, which means that when you run this command, you’ll see a bunch (like 20 or so) packages get downloaded and installed. The total size of all these will be almost 200mb, and they include multimedia libraries, graphics engines, codecs, and a bunch of other components that MPF needs.

The MPF MC package will also download and install the MPF game engine package.

Here’s an example of what this looks like from the command prompt. (Note that the exact versions and sizes might not be the same as what you have, but this should give you a general idea. Also this may take a few minutes to run on your computer.)

C:\Users\username>pip install mpf mpf-mc
Collecting mpf-mc
  Downloading mpf_mc-0.50.0.dev5-cp34-none-win32.whl (6.4MB)
    100% |################################| 6.4MB 176kB/s
Collecting pygments (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading Pygments-2.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (841kB)
    100% |################################| 849kB 1.0MB/s
Collecting kivy.deps.gstreamer==0.1.12 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading kivy.deps.gstreamer-0.1.12-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl (121.0MB)
    100% |################################| 121.0MB 6.7kB/s
Collecting kivy.deps.sdl2-dev==0.1.17 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading kivy.deps.sdl2_dev-0.1.17-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl (3.1MB)
    100% |################################| 3.1MB 322kB/s
Collecting psutil (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading psutil-5.2.2-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl (187kB)
    100% |################################| 194kB 2.7MB/s
Collecting mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading mpf-0.50.0.dev11-cp34-none-any.whl (863kB)
    100% |################################| 870kB 996kB/s
Collecting kivy.deps.glew==0.1.9 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading kivy.deps.glew-0.1.9-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl (170kB)
    100% |################################| 174kB 1.9MB/s
Collecting pypiwin32 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading pypiwin32-219-cp34-none-win32.whl (7.9MB)
    100% |################################| 7.9MB 140kB/s
Collecting kivy>=1.10.0 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading Kivy-1.10.0-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl (3.5MB)
    100% |################################| 3.5MB 316kB/s
Collecting kivy.deps.sdl2==0.1.17 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading kivy.deps.sdl2-0.1.17-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl (3.1MB)
    100% |################################| 3.1MB 315kB/s
Collecting ruamel.yaml<0.11,>=0.10 (from mpf-mc)
  Downloading ruamel.yaml-0.10.23-py3-none-win32.whl (69kB)
    100% |################################| 71kB 2.6MB/s
Collecting pyserial>=3.2.0 (from mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading pyserial-3.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl (189kB)
    100% |################################| 194kB 2.2MB/s
Collecting typing (from mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading typing-3.6.1.tar.gz (66kB)
    100% |################################| 71kB 1.9MB/s
Collecting asciimatics (from mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading asciimatics-1.8.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (73kB)
    100% |################################| 81kB 2.5MB/s
Collecting pyserial-asyncio>=0.3 (from mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading pyserial_asyncio-0.4-py3-none-any.whl
Collecting Kivy-Garden>=0.1.4 (from kivy>=1.10.0->mpf-mc)
  Downloading kivy-garden-0.1.4.tar.gz
Collecting docutils (from kivy>=1.10.0->mpf-mc)
  Downloading docutils-0.14rc2.tar.gz (1.7MB)
    100% |################################| 1.7MB 243kB/s
Collecting ruamel.base>=1.0.0 (from ruamel.yaml<0.11,>=0.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading ruamel.base-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
Collecting Pillow>=2.7.0 (from asciimatics->mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading Pillow-4.2.1-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl (1.2MB)
    100% |################################| 1.2MB 744kB/s
Collecting pyfiglet>=0.7.2 (from asciimatics->mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading pyfiglet-0.7.5.tar.gz (767kB)
    100% |################################| 768kB 925kB/s
Collecting wcwidth (from asciimatics->mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading wcwidth-0.1.7-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Collecting future (from asciimatics->mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading future-0.16.0.tar.gz (824kB)
    100% |################################| 829kB 930kB/s
Collecting requests (from Kivy-Garden>=0.1.4->kivy>=1.10.0->mpf-mc)
  Downloading requests-2.18.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (88kB)
    100% |################################| 92kB 2.9MB/s
Collecting olefile (from Pillow>=2.7.0->asciimatics->mpf>=0.50.0-dev.10->mpf-mc)
  Downloading olefile-0.44.zip (74kB)
    100% |################################| 81kB 2.6MB/s
Collecting certifi>=2017.4.17 (from requests->Kivy-Garden>=0.1.4->kivy>=1.10.0->mpf-mc)
  Downloading certifi-2017.4.17-py2.py3-none-any.whl (375kB)
    100% |################################| 378kB 1.7MB/s
Collecting chardet<3.1.0,>=3.0.2 (from requests->Kivy-Garden>=0.1.4->kivy>=1.10.0->mpf-mc)
  Downloading chardet-3.0.4-py2.py3-none-any.whl (133kB)
    100% |################################| 143kB 2.2MB/s
Collecting idna<2.6,>=2.5 (from requests->Kivy-Garden>=0.1.4->kivy>=1.10.0->mpf-mc)
  Downloading idna-2.5-py2.py3-none-any.whl (55kB)
    100% |################################| 61kB 2.0MB/s
Collecting urllib3<1.22,>=1.21.1 (from requests->Kivy-Garden>=0.1.4->kivy>=1.10.0->mpf-mc)
  Downloading urllib3-1.21.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (131kB)
    100% |################################| 133kB 3.3MB/s
Installing collected packages: pygments, kivy.deps.gstreamer, kivy.deps.sdl2-dev, psutil, pyserial, typing, olefile, Pillow, pyfiglet, wcwidth, pypiwin32, future, asciimatics, pyserial-asyncio, ruamel.base, ruamel.yaml, mpf, kivy.deps.glew, certifi, chardet, idna, urllib3, requests, Kivy-Garden, docutils, kivy, kivy.deps.sdl2, mpf-mc
  Running setup.py install for typing ... done
  Running setup.py install for olefile ... done
  Running setup.py install for pyfiglet ... done
  Running setup.py install for future ... done
  Running setup.py install for Kivy-Garden ... done
  Running setup.py install for docutils ... done
Successfully installed Kivy-Garden-0.1.4 Pillow-4.2.1 asciimatics-1.8.0 certifi-2017.4.17 chardet-3.0.4 docutils-0.14rc2 future-0.16.0 idna-2.5 kivy-1.10.0 kivy.deps.glew-0.1.9 kivy.deps.gstreamer-0.1.12 kivy.deps.sdl2-0.1.17 kivy.deps.sdl2-dev-0.1.17 mpf-0.50.0.dev11 mpf-mc-0.50.0.dev5 olefile-0.44 psutil-5.2.2 pyfiglet-0.7.5 pygments-2.2.0 pypiwin32-219 pyserial-3.3 pyserial-asyncio-0.4 requests-2.18.1 ruamel.base-1.0.0 ruamel.yaml-0.10.23 typing-3.6.1 urllib3-1.21.1 wcwidth-0.1.7

C:\Users\username>

If you want to make sure that MPF was installed, you can run:

mpf --version

This command can be run from anywhere and should produce output something like this:

C:\Users\username> mpf --version
MPF v0.54.0

(Note that the actual version number of your MPF installation will be whatever version was the latest when you installed it and might not match the version above.)

6. Download & run the “Demo Man” example game

Now that you have MPF installed, you probably want to see it in action. The easiest way to do that is to download a bundle of MPF examples and run our “Demo Man” example game. To do that, follow the instructions in the How to run “Demo Man”, an MPF example game guide.

There’s another example project you can also check out if you want called the “MC Demo” (for media controller demo) that lets you step through a bunch of example display things (slides, widgets, sounds, videos, etc). Instructions for running the MC Demo are here.

7. Install whatever drivers your hardware controller needs

If you’re using MPF with a physical machine, then there will be some specific steps you’ll need to take to get the drivers installed and configured for whatever control system you’ve chosen. See the control systems documentation for details. (You don’t have to worry about that now if you just want to play with MPF first.)

Running MPF

See the section How to start MPF and run your game for details and command-line options.

Keeping MPF up-to-date

Since MPF is a work-in-progress, you can use the pip command to update your MPF installation along with the pip and setuptools packages.

To to this, run the following:

pip install setuptools --upgrade
pip install mpf mpf-mc --upgrade

This will cause pip to contact PyPI to see if there’s a newer version of the MPF and MPF MC (and any new requirements). If newer versions are found, it will download and install them.

Warning

If you are upgrading from MPF 0.33 to 0.54+ you will need to manually perform several migration steps to modify your configuration files or they will not work in MPF 0.50. Please refer to Migrating from config version 4 to 5 of MPF for step-by-step instructions.

Install the dev version

To install the latest dev release (not generally recommended) which allows you to try bleeding-edge features run:

pip install mpf mpf-mc --pre --upgrade

To downgrade (or install a specific release x.yy.z) run:

pip install mpf==x.yy.z
pip install mpf-mc==x.yy.z

Next steps!

Now that MPF is installed, you can follow our step-by-step tutorial which will show you how to start building your own game in MPF!

What if it did not work?

In the following we list some common problems and solutions. If you got another problem please ask in our MPF User Forum.

YAML error on first start

You might see this error on startup when installing/upgrading to 0.54+/dev from an older version:

pkg_resources.VersionConflict: (ruamel.yaml 0.15.37 (c:\users\robert\appdata\local\programs\python\python36\lib\site-packages), Requirement.parse('ruamel.yaml<0.11,>=0.10')

What happened? You probably got incompatible versions of MPF, MPF-MC and/or the MPF-Monitor installed. We used to install ruamel 0.11 and switched to 0.15 in MPF 0.53+. MPF cannot start with two yaml libraries. To fix this check your versions pip3 list and check mpf, mpf-mc and mpf-monitor. Remove the wrong version and install the right one. All versions need to match (for instance all 0.54+ or all dev).

The following command will remove all three and install the latest release:

pip3 uninstall mpf mpf-mc mpf-monitor
pip3 install mpf mpf-mc mpf-monitor

Permission errors on update

If you installed Python as Administrator you might get permissions error when upgrading packages using pip:

pip install pip setuptools --upgrade
Collecting pip
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/d8/f3/413bab4ff08e1fc4828dfc59996d721917df8e8583ea85385d51125dceff/pip-19.0.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Collecting setuptools
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/d1/6a/4b2fcefd2ea0868810e92d519dacac1ddc64a2e53ba9e3422c3b62b378a6/setuptools-40.8.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Installing collected packages: pip, setuptools
  Found existing installation: pip 9.0.1
    Uninstalling pip-9.0.1:
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\program files\python36\lib\shutil.py", line 544, in move
    os.rename(src, real_dst)
PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'c:\\program files\\python36\\lib\\site-packages\\pip-9.0.1.dist-info\\description.rst' -> 'C:\\Users\\XXX\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-81ah1j9u-uninstall\\program files\\python36\\lib\\site-packages\\pip-9.0.1.dist-info\\description.rst'

Run your console as Administrator to fix this. This can be done by right clicking on the console (in the start menu) and selecting “Start as Administrator”. Re-run the command and it should work. If not let us know!