321 replies to this topic

[Thalamus]

Great, have to try it at the evening !

 

And i only have to put the Files to ... ? And use the new DMDext Files ?

 

Regular procedure. Update dmddevice.dll - and well, look through dmddevice.ini ( has pup stuff added to it so if you use that as well ). create vpinmame\altcolor\<romname> and put those files I mentioned above into the folder. As before. Enable external dll and tick color-support after pressing F1 when table is loaded. Or, do it via setup.exe of course.

Edited by Thalamus, 21 June 2018 - 12:23 PM.

[STAT]

Really great
Now i only Need to know, how can i save DMD Position and Size for "what i actually can see" - there isn't anything like "SAVE" ?
I know, i can add Parameters to the .ini, but if i try to add this, i never get the Position and Size, what i want.

 IMG_20180621_180052.jpg   185.36KB   7 downloads  IMG_20180621_180227.jpg   169.95KB   5 downloads

[Thalamus]

Then you need to try harder I guess ? It uses the default values from *.ini and if you need to override the best way is probably by telling it exactly where and how big you want it. Having it in the ini file has its advantages. People when taking backup of VP seems to forget to export important registry entries so dmd position(s) gets lost if installed on a new machine. Most people seem to remember though to take a regular backup of their VP installation.

[STAT]

Of course, and will do, Backglass Screenshoot and measure Position and Size what should be …

Edited by STAT, 21 June 2018 - 04:27 PM.

[freezy]

You can also try setting useregistry = true in the .ini, which will take VPM's positioning saved in the registry.

Edited by freezy, 21 June 2018 - 04:47 PM.

[STAT]

Thanks freezy, sounds good, i will give it a try

[robwaade]

where do you find  download for term 2 and attack from mars cant find files

Edited by robwaade, 21 June 2018 - 09:48 PM.

[Draifet]

Thanks! Now my Attack From Mars and T2 dmd's looks better than ever, I hope this serves as motivation for more color releases being finished soon (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Getaway...).

Edited by Draifet, 21 June 2018 - 10:15 PM.

[TerryRed]

EVERYONE absolutely NEEDS to upgrade to DMDExt 1.7!

 

This is the answer to everyone’s prayers! First, we get FULL colour support for virtual and real DMD users! (It looks excellent on virtual now).

Real DMD and virtual users ALL use the same DLL, and so does PinUP System (Popper and Player)! There is no more worrying about installing the correct DLL with Pinup System installs, etc….as it’s now part of this new dmddevice.DLL that EVERYONE will use!!!

 

Some very helpful info to those who have Pinup System installed and use Popper or Player and have updated to DMDext 1.7 (and we ALL should update to this).

 

PLEASE READ AND MAKE THE REQUIRED CHANGES!

 

First: install the new Freezy dmdext 1.7 files (32 bit ONLY!!!) into your VPinMAME folder. Make sure you delete, or copy over any other versions of dmddevice.dll that you have elsewhere on your system! Also, if you have a file called Libdmd.DLL in your VPinMAME, you need to delete that file, or dmdext will crash!

 

Important changes that needs to be done with Popper and PuP for everyone who upgrades….

 

===============================

 

For VPX, you need to edit the dmddevice.ini

 

The section should now be disabled (it was enabled for PinUP before). It should look like this:

 

; if enabled, writes frames to an .avi file
enabled =false
; path to folder or .avi file. if folder, gamename.avi is used.
path=

 

Now you add a new section for Pinup Player’s PuPCapture:

 

[pinup]
enabled=true

 

Note: only enable this if you have Pinup System installed!

 

===============

 

Also, if you have a “DmdDevice.log.config” file, you need to edit that file and make sure that if the <rules> section looks like this:

 

<rules>
<logger name=”” minlevel=”Trace” writeTo=”console” />
<logger name=”” minlevel=”Trace” writeTo=”file” />
</rules>

 

…it needs to be changed to:

 

<rules>
<logger name=”” minlevel=”info” writeTo=”console” />
<logger name=”” minlevel=”info” writeTo=”file” />
</rules>

 

Same with the “dmdextlog.config”. The <rules> section should look like:

 

<rules>
<logger name=”*” minlevel=””info” writeTo=”console” />
</rules>

 

This is to disable logging for when colouring is being used. Apparently it can cause performance issues for some people. It’s only needed for those who are colour modding DMDs and are troubleshooting.

EDIT: changed to "Info" as per Freezy's suggestion.

 

=================================

 

For FX3, you need to change the PuP portion of the command line for launching in Popper and PBX! It used to be:

 

-o PINUP\[GAMENAME] (this was 1.6)

 

It is now is replaced with:

 

–pinup PINUP\[GAMENAME]

 

An example for Popper launch script for FX3 is:

 

start /min "" "dmdext.exe" mirror --source=pinballfx3 -q -d auto --virtual-hide-grip --virtual-position=3400 5 400 --pinup PINUP\[GAMENAME]

 

Note, 1.7.1 changes, with new memory grabber method the new default for FX3: 

 

I have found that you need to have both dmdext AND FX3 run as admin for this new FX3 memory grabber version to work properly with the new method it uses. If both aren’t run as admin, then the first FX3 table launched will work with dmdext fine…but the second table launched wont work.

 

Or…if you dont want to deal with running either as admin…and want the original method…then just add --fx3-legacy to your dmdext command in the launch script.

 

start /min "" "dmdext.exe" mirror --source=pinballfx3 -q -d auto --fx3-legacy --virtual-hide-grip --virtual-position=3400 5 400 --pinup PINUP\[GAMENAME]

 

For now guys….if you are using FX3 PuP-Packs or Fx3 PuP-SSF, I would recommend using the Legacy Method by adding in --fx3-legacy to your dmdext command line in Popper’s FX3 launch script…and NOT running either dmdext or fx3 as admin. The reason being that running dmdext as admin causes the Aliens (and possible SSF) FX3 pup-packs to not close out when exiting the table.

 

=================================

 

Another big plus for VPX PuP-Packs! You can now choose any colour (or coloured) DMD you want! You no longer need to set a specific colour for the DMD thanks to DJRobX’s wizardry!

 

=================================

 

A BIG thanks to Freezy, Lucky, and DJRobX for putting in the work to bring this miracle to the community!

Edited by TerryRed, 16 July 2018 - 10:45 PM.

[STAT]

robwaade, go to \/PU Page - Forums - Pin(two)DMD - Pin(two)DMD DMD Colorization Works in Progress ...

Edited by STAT, 22 June 2018 - 05:34 AM.

[robwaade]

stat thanks appreciate help

[freezy]

Thanks Terry for the detailed instructions! I've noticed that I got the new PinUP syntax wrong in the changelog and will update. Then would you mind explaining what's up with LibDmd.dll? Did Nailbuster provide a separate DLL that replaces dmdext's internal one? In this case this should be in the changelog as well.

 

Lastly, you should be fine with Info logging. Only Warn will display nearly nothing and in this case you might as well drop the log config completely and log nothing at all.

 

We've fixed at least one PinUp related bug, so there might be v1.7.1 on the horizon soon.

 

Cheers!

[marie]

Absolutely great time to have Vpin as a hobby. All these great improvements lately: SFF, PinUp, FFlips and now even more colored roms!!! Thank you all for all these developments!

 

As for this latest DMDext 1.7: Got it up and running fastly, just got a question

 

On Github it was advised to alter <logger name=”” minlevel=”Trace” writeTo to "Info" and a few post up @Terryred suggested "Trace"to "Warn"

Is there any preference or difference regarding to performance?

 

And a tip for other Non-English Windows (7) users:

If you want to reduce the dotsize be aware using , (comma) instead of . (point) in the ini file

 

; scale the dot size (set to 0.8 for same size as pre-1.6.0)

dotsize = 0,8

 

it might help you as well as it took me some time to figure out why the dotsize didn't change 

Edited by marie, 22 June 2018 - 07:33 AM.

[freezy]

Good catch about the comma. See my comment above about the log level. The problem with the Warn level is that if people post logs with it, it will be borderline useless for us to debug anything.

Edited by freezy, 22 June 2018 - 07:39 AM.

[TerryRed]

Thanks Terry for the detailed instructions! I've noticed that I got the new PinUP syntax wrong in the changelog and will update. Then would you mind explaining what's up with LibDmd.dll? Did Nailbuster provide a separate DLL that replaces dmdext's internal one? In this case this should be in the changelog as well.

 

Lastly, you should be fine with Info logging. Only Warn will display nearly nothing and in this case you might as well drop the log config completely and log nothing at all.

 

We've fixed at least one PinUp related bug, so there might be v1.7.1 on the horizon soon.

 

Cheers!

 

DJRobX mentioned that Libdmd.DLL was from possible previous beta testing (I assumed of PinMAME) at some point...probably long ago. Most people won't have it, but I did on both my desktop testing PC and my cabinet.

 

I will make the change to "Info " as well....thanks.

Edited by TerryRed, 22 June 2018 - 10:40 AM.

[Thalamus]

Thanks Terry for the detailed instructions! I've noticed that I got the new PinUP syntax wrong in the changelog and will update. Then would you mind explaining what's up with LibDmd.dll? Did Nailbuster provide a separate DLL that replaces dmdext's internal one? In this case this should be in the changelog as well.

 

Lastly, you should be fine with Info logging. Only Warn will display nearly nothing and in this case you might as well drop the log config completely and log nothing at all.

 

We've fixed at least one PinUp related bug, so there might be v1.7.1 on the horizon soon.

 

Cheers!

 

FYI : I have a PC at home that gets very distorted sounds if logging isn't lowered. Haven't tried it with only Info. yet. Will do later and report back if that is a ok level.

[freezy]

Thanks Terry, I've updated the release notes about LibDmd.dll.

 

About logging: The TRACE level logs everything coloring-related during animations, so yes that's a big performance impact. It's information useful for us devs and also palette creators, but not so much for the end-user. The INFO level just logs the usual stuff when starting up, so that shouldn't affect performance but is important for anyone in general when stuff goes wrong apart from colorization.

 

INFO should be the default level.

[TerryRed]

Note, 1.7.1 changes, with new memory grabber method the new default for FX3:

 

I have found that you need to have both dmdext AND FX3 run as admin for this new FX3 memory grabber version to work properly with the new method it uses. If both aren’t run as admin, then the first FX3 table launched will work with dmdext fine…but the second table launched wont work.

 

Or…if you dont want to deal with running either as admin…and want the original method…then just add --fx3-legacy to your dmdext command in the launch script.

 

start /min "" "dmdext.exe" mirror --source=pinballfx3 -q -d auto --fx3-legacy --virtual-hide-grip --virtual-position=3400 5 400 --pinup PINUP\[GAMENAME]

 

For now guys….if you are using FX3 PuP-Packs or Fx3 PuP-SSF, I would recommend using the Legacy Method by adding in --fx3-legacy to your dmdext command line in Popper’s FX3 launch script…and NOT running either dmdext or fx3 as admin. The reason being that running dmdext as admin causes the Aliens (and possible SSF) FX3 pup-packs to not close out when exiting the table.

Edited by TerryRed, 16 July 2018 - 10:59 PM.

[DKong]

I’m going through setup steps on my new system and I have freezy’s dmdext working for color roms when running through VPM test. However when I launch tables with the same roms I have successfully tested, I can’t see the DMD at all.

 

I had freezy’s dmdext working well on my old system and once I was able to successfully test color roms from VPM Setup, freezy’s program then worked well when I launched tables.

 

I'm stuck this time as I thought it was a focus issue, so I made the playfield size extra small to see if the DMD was hiding somewhere on any of my 3 screens. I can’t see it on any screen.

 

If I press Alt+Tab, I can see a Virtual DMD window, but when I select that, nothing happens and I still can’t see the DMD window.

 

Any help is appreciated!

[TerryRed]

This is to show what is possible thanks to dmdext's support for Pinup Player!

 

 

 

Aliens FX3 PuP-Pack! DOFLinx, SSF, and optional Movie Soundtrack!

 

I've updated my Aliens FX3 PuP-Pack to have more videos, use newer PuP features, and it has optional SSF (Surround Sound Feedback) and Movie Music!

 

 

Video preview:

 

 

 

 

This FX3 table can run on a cabinet and have excellent hardware, lighting, and surround sound feedback, and an active video backglass using the combination of the following programs:

 

- DDH69's DOFLinx will trigger all cabinet feedback related functions. This includes solenoids, shaker motor, blower fan, RGB flashers, RGB undercab, strobes, beacons, MX leds,etc . It also will trigger the Pinup Player SSF (surround sound feedback) actions.

 

- Freezy's dmdext (DMD Extensions) will render the FX3 DMD to real DMDs or a new virtual DMD window with nice clean "dots". It will also output the DMD images to Pinup Player for PuPCapture.

 

- NailBuster's Pinup Player will create an active video Backglass and Topper. It monitors the dmdext DMD output and will play videos on your Backglass or Topper screen when it sees specific DMD images. It also plays movie music tracks in the same manner. For PuP SSF (surround sound feedback), it relies on DOFLinx to tell Pinup Player when to play the SSF sounds.

 

-TerryRed is the poor sap who created this Aliens FX3 PuP-Pack.