312 replies to this topic

[atarian]

 

 Interesting. So we all agree that on the virtual DMD it's chopped the same way it is on the real DMD?

 

Yes it seems to map 1:1.

I do not know how well the area mirrored in the "screen" option maps onto the virtual DMD - guess that I could set everything to 128 x 32 and put a known 128 x 32 image under to test if needed?.

 

 

 

Actually I just did another test and I don't think that is the case (for me at least).  Here is a screenshot to illustrate the differences of using the recommended DMD size and a smaller one.

The pictures show the Virtual DMD and PinDMD1 DMD side by side for the two DMD size settings.  I hope this helps explain.

 

Setting DMD size in the Pinball FX cab options to the recommended of 1040 x 272

 

- the dmdext Virtual window captures the DMD output perfectly.

- the PinDMD1 DMD shows nothing (completely blank)

 

Screenshot:

 

 

Setting DMD size in the Pinball FX cab options to the a smaller 800 x 200

 

- the dmdext Virtual window captures the DMD output BUT here is some messed up pixels, etc  but I guess that is expected as the DMD is smaller?

- the PinDMD1 DMD shows some captured stuff, but not the same as the virtual DMD.  The bottom half is a close match though

 

Screenshot:

 

 

 

Cause?:

Is the issue that when using the recommneded DMD size, dmdext has an issue 'transforming' it to the format for the PinDMD1.

In other words the Virtual DMD looks perfect at the recommended 1040 x 272 size, it is just the PinDMD1 shows nothing at all.

Edited by atarian, 25 April 2016 - 06:07 PM.

[freezy]

Thanks Atarian, I'll release a new build with more settings to tweak later.

[Slydog43]

WOW, thanks for such an incredible project.  (I hope to see other systems use this).  Great job

[freezy]

Version 1.1.0 released.

 

Not gonna paste the changelog, it's right in there.

 

PinDMDv1 guys (@atarian & @rockyrocket): Try playing with the --dmd-crop parameter to see if you get better results. If you don't then there might be really something wrong with the PinDMDv1 implementation. You might want to try the app which I've included this time, where you can change these params with hot keys instead of re-launching the command line tool each time.

[Comicalman]

Just gave this a try on a different rig.  The virtual DMD seems to be working on this slightly better machine!!!  I did notice some columns of pixels were almost 'white' compared to the Pinball FX2 DMD.  Anyone see this before?  Tried --gray4, but it didnt seem to help.  Any other suggestions I can try?

 

I will try with my Pin2DMD later this week - and post results - for a minimum system requirements.

 

Thanks much freezy!   

Edited by Comicalman, 27 April 2016 - 01:48 AM.

[atarian]

PinDMD1 test - It works!

 

I loaded the app, hit 'a' to change the crop left to 11, and it worked!   No other adjustments needed.

 

I tested launch it with the dmdext exe passing

     --dmd-crop 11 8 8 12

and can confirm all is good.  Such as simple thing in the end .

 

 

Many thanks again freezy.  The additonal params and app helped a lot.  If it works for rockyrocket too, maybe when you detect a PinDMD1 you can adjust the default 'crop left' param to 11.  Or just document it.

 

It transforms the game - so good to see everything on a real DMD - thanks for all your work on this.

 

Cheers

Edited by atarian, 27 April 2016 - 05:39 PM.

[howlingmad]

Was last days a little bit busy and testet with the new version and starting out of PinballX (V2.15).

 

Most of tries I'm not able to start it out of Pinball X. Rarely it starts, and I see the Pinball FX2 DMD on my PinDMDv3.

If a start dmdext seperately before I start Pinball X (without -q Option), it works, but it's blocked from access through Pinmame.

 

To localize the problem, i createt a batch-file, that writes an short log entry and testet it with launch before option (c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /k testbatch.cmd). My idea was, that pinballx triggers not every time the dmdext. But in this try, every table I start via PinballX, triggers the batch-file.

 

So i make a new batch-file for triggering the dmdext with some parameters, so that the window with the output from patch was still opened:

 

Errormessage:

C:\Windows\System32>C:\Games\DMDext\dmdext.exe mirror -s pinballfx2 --no-virtual -d pindmdv3 -q
 [1] 2016/04/27 21:24:56.516 DEBUG | PinDMDv3 device not found.
 [1] 2016/04/27 21:24:56.516 ERROR | Device PinDMDv3 is not available.

 

I try to start the batch from an seperate directory and inside PinballX-Folder, every time same error (but only out of Pinball X)

 

Any Ideas ?

 

A second issue in Pinball FX2 with the commandline dmdext.exe:

i have a blue line in 4th and 12th line.

 

I havew this issue with Version 1.0 and 1.1  (with old 0.3 i have not this error)

[Hos_Nos]

Wow guys...I have been away for some time and just stumbled on this.  Can't wait to give it a go.  This is a wonderful surprise!!!

 

Thanks Freezy !!!!

 

Nos

[rockyrocket]

Thanks for the update!, will have a play when I get some time.

Oh and thanks for supporting V1 in the first place  - a product with such a small user base .

[freezy]

@atarian: That's great, I'm probably more surprised than you are. Did you try other settings? Does 10 8 8 10 work too for instance? or 11 8 8 11? With PinDMDv3 it doesn't seem to make a difference, so I might as well change the default values.

 

@howlingmad: So you're saying that with v0.1.3 it worked but with v1.0.0 it stopped working? Or was that about the blue line? Can you create a GitHub issue for each problem and describe the exact steps how to reproduce? Geht auch in Deutsch.

[russdx]

Could the launch problem be some sort of timing issue between pinballx releasing the comport / freezy opening it again?

[rockyrocket]

Ok so just had a quick lunchtime play with the new update and now have some output on my DMD - yay.

I do though only seem to be getting the really bright shades showing and all the dimmer ones are just black?.

 

In testing I first started with atarians settings (thanks) and it worked as above so I then messed with some others 12 8 8 12, 10 8 8 10 worked as did 12 9 9 12 and some others.

Using higher numbers resulted in the black DMD again, I then tried without using any crop parameters at all and still had an output on the DMD.

@Atarian are you getting a clear image with all the shades showing?.

I realize this could be due to hardware limitations on the V1 but hope otherwise.

[freezy]

To be honest, I'm not sure what exactly @howlingmad is doing. It doesn't matter which you start first (Pinball FX2 or dmdext). Obviously if at the same time you're running PinMAME, then you're in trouble, but the -q option should avoid that. Maybe PinballX runs the pre-launch stuff before releasing the DMD and that causes problems. Will check with Tom.

 

@rockyrocket: It shouldn't be a hardware limitation, PinDMDv1 can render 4 shades and I counted only 3 in Pinball FX2. Did you try playing with the --shading-intensity and --shading-brightness parameters? E.g. if intensity is too high, all dots will result in 100%... I haven't played much around with those because they are fine on my RGB display, but they might end up wrong on a 4 shades display. Try freezing (alt-tabbing) Pinball FX2 while all of shades are displayed (check on the virtual DMD), then you can re-launch dmdext with different parameters to see the result. Or use the app, the hotkeys for intensity are Q and W, for lightness they are E and R.

 

Now I'm looking at the code, I notice that the shading options are actually deactivated for non-RGB displays. So download v1.1.1 that fixes this.

 

TLDR; Version 1.1.1 released.

Edited by freezy, 28 April 2016 - 12:08 PM.

[freezy]

@Comicalman: Yes depending on the color that white effect happens. Try turning down the --shading-brightness option a bit.

[rockyrocket]

Sweet thanks!, downloaded but it is most likely going to be sunday before I can try it.

 

EDIT: So I found the time and this version nailed it!!.

I have have to admit that I thought the gui app was still broken so have not tried it upto now but the latest version worked almost out of the box with just some smalll tweaks to shades ect.

Loads and closes down perfectly from pinballx too.

 

 

 

 

 

The screen option is going to be damn useful.

 

 

Edited by rockyrocket, 28 April 2016 - 04:29 PM.

[atarian]

Timezone differences mean long delays to respond
I had the same as Rockyrocket with regards to the light shades but sounds like it is sorted now! Thanks again freezy and russ. I am away from home for couple of days so will try as soon as I am back.

@rockyrocket - like the Timeshock shot, gonna try the screen mirror option with that too .

Edited by atarian, 28 April 2016 - 05:15 PM.

[freezy]

Cool! Care to share your settings?

Also I've implemented an anti-distortion filter for timeshock, but didn't have the time yet to determine the perfect parameters.

[russdx]

Tom has found a bug in the pinDMD.dll where if you fire rgb frames at it to quickly it will cause a memory leak. I will be looking into this shortly. This will effect pinDMD3 users only. I think the serial usb coms cant keep up with the traffic and starts erroring packets or throwing them away, not sure yet.

[howlingmad]

To be honest, I'm not sure what exactly @howlingmad is doing. It doesn't matter which you start first (Pinball FX2 or dmdext). Obviously if at the same time you're running PinMAME, then you're in trouble, but the -q option should avoid that. Maybe PinballX runs the pre-launch stuff before releasing the DMD and that causes problems. Will check with Tom.

Simple: I had the problem, that dmdext not worked out of pinballx as pre-launch for Pinball FX2, and I tried to find out, where maybe the error is located. And my long text was to retrace, what steps i done to find the reason.

I used PinballX 2.15.A few minutes ago, I dated up to PinballX 2.16 and dmdext launched as expected, display the Pinball FX2 and quits after closing Pinball FX2.

Maybe an error in PinballX 2.15.

 

For my other issues with the two blue lines, I will test some parameters first. If i cannot solve with the parameters, i will create an GitHub issue.

[rockyrocket]

Cool! Care to share your settings?

Also I've implemented an anti-distortion filter for timeshock, but didn't have the time yet to determine the perfect parameters.

For Pinballx?, sure the attached image should be self explanatory although I have just discovered that the crop settings can be left out of the string.

The timeshock image was just a test and as you noted noise is an issue at the moment.

 

 Capture.PNG   6.49KB   9 downloads