I verified that adding an AHK script as the launch after process with a short delay (I used 200 ms) gives dmdext enough time to release the dmd. Up to Tom if this is a big enough deal to fix in the launcher itself.
Pause.ahk
I've noticed what appears to be a race condition where PinballX tries to resume control of the DMD before dmdext has detected that FX2 has exited and shuts down. The upshot is that DMD videos won't reappear in PinballX until after you launch a table from another engine - e.g. VP or FP. This probably requires some coding in PinballX to fix, and I've brought it up on Tom's forum. A minor irritation at worst - since I migrated from the old AHK approach to launching FX2 and added dmdext as my start program, things work wonderfully!
This is with a pindmd2 on Windows 7. I'm guessing that the pinballx process regains focus at the same time as fx2 starts to shut down and kills the DMD handle. Tom might need to insert a short delay on piping attract content to the dmd on return from fx2 or PBA. I will try inserting an ahk script with a short timer as the exit process from fx2 to see if that fixes it when I get a chance.
I did run across a similar behavior when jumping between Pinball FX2 and Virtual Pinball tables. Specifically when using dmdext with the -q option. I suspect there's a race condition between dmdext and pinballx where dmdext doesn't detect that FX2 has exited and relinquish control of the dmd quickly enough. When you return to pinballx the dmd is blank in attract mode, but jumping to a vp table grabs the dmd ok and pinballx is again able to write to it on return. Only a minor annoyance because everything works great otherwise.
Somethng to consider if there are plans to better integrate dmdext for FX2 and PBA...
If you read Zeenon's installation and setup guide, you should get it to work. The AHK script may need to be edited based on the tables you have installed, but if you follow his directions it's not too hard to get working.
Sigma - Those video files look gorgeous! Starting to make some custom DMD files for my cab. Fun! I have noticed an issue when I cycle through tables fairly quickly. Sometimes a real DMD video will get "stuck" on repeat until I hit another table with a DMD video. The default Pinball X video doesn't take over when I switch tables once a video gets stuck. This never happens when Pinball X is cycling randomly. I'm using Tom's latest exe on top of a 1.82 install.
The latest update to Pinball FX2 expanded the width of the selection grid to 7 tables, so AHK scripts will need to be updated accordingly. Four new Star Wars Tables coming soon, and you can move the DMD to a 2nd or 3rd monitor now!
I know that, it's why I said "Alas, I have a PinDMD2" - I know I can't use it. I could put it on my BG display, but it would look dorky. It's really cool - I'll just have to wait til Zen offers some sort of official support.
Thanks for the media. Looks great on my cab! Quick Q for FX2 Football players. Anyone else have problems with the sides of the table being cropped? I've cycled through all of the camera modes, and the mascot and player just barely show up on screen. This is the only FX2 table I have this problem with. All the others fit my cab like a glove.
No sweat! Let us know how it goes! MAME on a cab is pretty cool. I need to get a stick set up on mine so I can play more than Space Invaders, Galaxian, Galaga, and Mappy.
Still doesn't work for me. Additional comments: 1) "Recommended Games" is misspelled on the game card site. 2) Is it possible to create a symbolic link on the FTP site for PinballFX2<>Pinball FX2? The file naming on my cab is slightly different.
Okay. Well my game card isn't updating. The beta ran fine, and seemed to connect okay. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'll try the new version tomorrow to see if that makes a difference.