Hi folks,
I've had a go at pimping the DMD rendering over two years ago - but it turned out to be too expensive for the CPU. Now, thanks to Vincent (author of FlexDMD), we present a second attempt - this time entirely rendered on the GPU.
Vincent's contributions allow deep customization. Besides two different glows, you can customize the dot shape, boost brightness, change gamma, set an overlay texture with ambient blending, and add a frame.
The feature is going to be in the upcoming 1.9 release of dmdext. Like for the alphanumeric rendering, we use reusable styles that can be easily shared. So we thought hey why not ship the release with a bunch of awesome styles made by the community!
So, how does this work?
Well, grab the 1.9 beta here and install it. We have included a "dmdext" folder that goes into your VPM installation folder. It's where we keep the textures. If you're using the installer, it will also copy those. There are already a few for you to play with.
Then head over to the documentation page and have a quick look. In a nutshell, if you run a game with VPM, right-click on the DMD and choose "Customize Style", then you'll get a panel like this:
Now play with the settings, try different textures or create your own, and make sure it looks good also when playing the game (not just in the preview window).
If you think you have a nice looking style, give it a name and save it. Then open dmddevice.ini, look for your created style, and paste it here in this thread. For example, the default style of the screenshot above looks like this:
style.default.dotsize = 0.85 style.default.dotrounding = 0.85 style.default.brightness = 0.95 style.default.dotglow = 0.3 style.default.backglow = 0.4 style.default.gamma = 1 style.default.unlitdot = #00000000 style.default.glass = style.default.glass.color = #00000000 style.default.glass.lighting = 0 style.default.glass.padding.left = 0 style.default.glass.padding.top = 0 style.default.glass.padding.right = 0 style.default.glass.padding.bottom = 0
If you're using custom textures, post them here too, so we can test it! Then don't forget to add a small preview video. Screen2Gif is a great tool for capturing. You can save it as animated gif and just paste it at imgur.com, or you can attach it to your post directly (or maybe that depends on your forum status, I have never figured out how to attach stuff). But if that's too much effort, post a screenshot at least.
Lastly, click the like button on the posts you like most! The five (or more) most liked styles will be included in the next dmdext release.
Happy styling!
PS: Vincent submitted this PR already a few months ago, but we've refactored and added a lot the last two weeks. So if you encounter bugs or issues, don't hesitate to post them here as well.
Edited by freezy, 05 March 2021 - 06:04 PM.