And yeah FP does a lot of stuff bad, but man the dot matrix was so easy. You can just drop an image or text into it and it just displays it effortlessly. Idk why whoever created VP couldn't have just integrated it like that. I get that it's not just a simple click click done, but my point is that's one thing FP is way better at. Also animated toys and a ready-to-go high score system and better ramp mapping and more integrated models etc etc. But yes overall VP is better. I designed a table in VP in a fraction of the time because it's so... mutable I guess? Like being able to change so much in the code like kicker directions is just amazing.
If I somehow integrated Flex into my table and then tried to excise it out to use a normal Flasher instead, will there be remnants of FlexDMD in there that will make it impossible to play without Flex being installed? That would be very bad news. Idk much about this and idk if I need to somehow remove code that I can't see that I somehow contaminated the table with when I tried to use Flex.
Except FP is incapable of displaying anything out to an actual DMD screen
Only it's internal backglass, which is fixed
VPX has no internal backglass (normally**), unless you count the desktop backdrop, which can display a DMD fine without flexDMD
VP once had integral backglasses, it was accomplished by spanning screens.
It only worked in WindowsXP
And like FP, you were stuck with the backglass the table author gave you
XP was a dead OS, and spanned tables were dropped
Independent backglasses were used instead, there were 2 different platforms, but only DirectB2S remains.
This was superior to embedded backglasses because one could choose and backglasses could be created and updated entirely independently of the table
For ROM and custom user created DMD's, which could be properly displayed on ANY setup, including cabs with real DMD's
You got Freezy's DMD extensions and UltraDMD
Both of which could do what FP could not, which was to properly place the DMD anywhere, regardless of setup, regardless of backglass used, or no backglass at all.
UltraDMD was unfortunately closed source and it's author quit working on it
It was replaced by flexDMD (which is in the VPX all in one installer IIRC?)
But VPX still retains the ability to display both a backglass and a DMD with no external help, in the form of FSS (full screen single screen)
should the table author desire to create the table that way (most do not)
But like FP, FSS is not terribly flexible, you get whatever the table gives and that is it, and you are limited in media types you can use.
VPX opts to be more modular and flexible, with the end goal being to replicate a real machine as much as possible, will still allowing the user to use as little as possible
(you can run VPX with no b2s server, no vpinmame, no dmd extensions or flex DMD, you just have to stick to appropriate tables)
As far as doing a table with flexDMD and then having someone without flexDMD run it, that is simple
Dim UseFlex 'do you want to use flexDMD?
UseFlex = 1 or 0
then just do your table like
if UseFlex = 1 then
do flexDMD stuff
else
do the non flexDMD stuff
The table can do both
folder but I don't really know how it got there or what it does.
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