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Color DMD Images when browsing tables In the spirit of gStAv cool sound project I’d like to start a thread that compiles color dmd images when browsing your pinball X wheels. I will to give a special thanks to 32Assassin, freneticamnesic, and Jannek. A lot of the images where based off their work. I cleaned up some of the existing ones and also created new ones that were missing from my collection. The files is uploaded on the FTP - Other Uploads > bent98 > Color DMD Images These images should be placed in your PinballX>Media>System Name>Read DMD Color Images directory If you wish to have your dmd Image stay after the table is loaded you need to do the following: Keep in mind this will only work for tables that do not display a DMD like EM tables and SS tables that use the backglass to display alpha numberic. ALL tables need the following Setting: Make sure you have this entry in your database xml associated with the table you wish to display a image after loaded. <hidedmd>False</hidedmd> EM Tables After launching the table make sure you right click on the direct B2s backglass server setting for the specific table to Hidden for both B2SDMD and DMD. SS Tables that don’t use a DMD ie Xenon 1) After launching the table, Hover over the Backglass with your mouse. Next right click on the direct B2s backglass image so you get the B2s server setting menu to appear. Change the two dropdowns to Hidden for both B2SDMD and DMD. 2) Since solid State tables use pinmame to emulate them, they will display on your dmd and therefore block your color dmd image from displaying once the table is launched. To disable you must go into regedit. Becareful if you accidently chance or delete something related to Windows OS you can render your computer useless. I do not take any responsibility if you do. First hit the start button on your keyboard. Type regedit. Scroll to the following entry HKEY_Current_User\Software\Freeware\Visual PinMame\The rom name of the table you want to reactivate the DMD\showpindmd ----Change setting from 1 to 0 The wheels still disappear when launching even after I used your settings. If you are using the latest XDMD.dll’s from lucky that incorporate the new command line feature it will automatically send a clear command thus not allowing the frontend to keep the image up after launching the table. Revert back to the old XDMD.xll files that came with pinball install. Hopefully lucky and Tom can find a workaround. *update* If you wish to run the latest XDMD.dll's - Lucky created a hacked version of the devicedmd.dll in this thread until there is an official fix. http://vpuniverse.com/forums/forums/topic/2728-sam-build-with-modular-dmd-drivers-for-pindmd123-and-pin2dmd/?page=6 How do I create my own compliant wheel images? This can be done in most photo editing program. I will tell you how to do it in Gimp since it’s free to use. 1) First download gimp at https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ 2) Next select File>Open and browse to a existing wheel image. 3) Select Image>Scale Image 4) In the upper boxes where you see Width and Height. Uncheck the chain link next to the px drop down so the link images looks like the chain is broken. This doesn’t keep aspect ratio 5) Insert 128 for Width and 32 for Height. This will scale the image down to the correct DMD aspect ratio 6) Select Layer>New Layer 7) Change Layer Fill Type to Foreground Color 8) Select Layer>Stack>Reverse Layer Order 9) Select Image>Flatten Image 10) Select File>Export As>save filename and location of your choosing. Why do some images looked squished? If you have very tall wheel images and you stretched them out they will look that way. Wheel images that look more like a banner (long and wide) will display nicely vs. ones that are tall and narrow. Who do some of the colors like washed out or off? The Pin2dmd or Pindmd3 only have a limited number of colors they can display. Also when you change the pixel display intensity it can also affect how colors are represent and in turn throw off color mappings from what you seen on your screen. It would be great if someone came up with a color pallet for these screens so you can adjust images in your photo editing software to give a more optimized and vibrant look as they get translated to you pindmd screen. I am not a photo editing Guru so I will leave that to the experts. I think these set of images are a good starting point and it would be great if we can people from the community to tweak them further so ALL of them look sharp on our Color DMD displays.

.BAT file worked fantastic! Thanks a lot for whipping this up. Jason

Don't forget that some users will need to edit the location of PBX as we don't all have it living in the same place.

Enable a firewall rule to block PinballX from talking to the internet so we can play Pinball without getting the "Version Expired. Please Download New Version." error for those of us that already are running the newest version. Note: This is successfully tested on my Win7 Pinball cab, but I also tested the commands on Win10 and it does create/delete the rule there successfully too. Copy and paste the following command in a command prompt window if you don't want to mess with the Windows Firewall GUI. (Start > Run > CMD) -Please note, if your path to the executable is different, you will need to edit the path to the .exe. Also, some may be using PinballXLite.exe instead. Make the adjustments as needed. netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Block PinballX" dir=out action=block program="c:\pinballx\pinballx.exe" enable=yes Here's the command to delete the rule that was just created; when a fix as been rolled out and you want to return to normal. Again, copy and paste the following command in a command prompt window. netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name="Block PinballX" dir=out I attached the commands above in the form of batch files as well, if someone would rather use that. See attachments. Happy New Year everyone! Now go play some Pinball! Smoke.007 Unblock PinballX.bat Block PinballX.bat

Hang tight, I'm sure Tom will respond to this. Like many of us, he is enjoying the holiday.

in the meantime, block pinballx from trying to reach internet by adding a window firewall rule http://www.howtogeek.com/227093/how-to-block-an-application-from-accessing-the-internet-with-windows-firewall/

My sympathies, fellas + kudos to you all for doing the right thing. Just make sure you Get Drunk once in a while.

Maria's like a Phall curry. Bloody hot, but a bit much...

@Mike and friends, it's these things that make you a soldier, a knight, a force to be reckoned with. You wouldn't be as strong as you are without them. They knock you down, and build you up again, each time reinforcing your resolve. This is what makes you, this is what separates you from the humdrum, this is what makes you special. Don't you forget it.

I know that it is no consolation, but I am dealing with the dementia issues you mentioned with my mom for the last few years. I have a sibling that is living with my mom in her house now, but for the two years prior, they had a falling out and she had moved away. It was then that I discovered that she further along than I had known. My mom, before dementia reared it's ugly head, was demanding, passive aggressive, and sometimes mean. Dementia seems to amplify those traits, making it difficult to know when there are issues when she has been in rehab following several hospitalizations due to falls, UTIs, overdose of medications, etc. I have nearly lost my job trying to be there for her for appointments and all other related needs. Now I am dealing with my own health, depression and anxiety issues. It is a nasty disease and it takes those supporting along for the nasty ride. You and yours are in my prayers.

Only a suggestion, make sure you have "compatible games only" turned off in Touchscreen/Tablet options on Setup Wizard, and refresh the list... I'm pretty sure is the cause of your problems with roms in MAME....

Real DMD Video for "Batman Forever (Sega 1995)" Not perfect Scaled down from original Sega's 192x64 DMD Also uploaded to FTP server (Other Uploads/sigma415/...) Copy AVI file from ZIP into "C:\PinballX\Media\Visual Pinball\Real DMD Videos\" (maybe you have to rename the file according your needs) Batman Forever (Sega 1995) [REAL DMD VIDEO] 0.1 sigma415.zip