Real DMD support is here!

[sigma415]

Real DMD Video 128x32 for "X-Files (Sega 1997)"

X-Files (Sega 1997).zip

[randr]

sigma415 is the man! thanks so much!!!

[randr]

ok getting some strange behavior of dmd on shop cab. I imaged cab from home and used this to image shop cab and

dmd animations will not work unless I start a table and then quit back to pinball then it plays dmd movies but very sluggish to update dmd. Tom any ideas?

Small update:

wont play pinball video on "imaged" cab unless I quit out of pinball and re load. then it works fine maybe adding a delay will fix issue I will try that and report back

update again:

added a timeout to bat file and does work fine now. STRANGE!!! see below on new line I added timeout command increase the 5 for longer or may work with just 1 sec for you but this does fix the problem. So weird

timeout /t 5

start "" c:\pinballx\pinballx.exe

[sigma415]

@randr:

Do you start PBX immediately with or after windows start ?

I guess the PinDMD v2 together with it's USB driver needs some time to initialize.

Timing depends on speed of PC and also the whole configuration of the machine, i.e. what other drivers, servicesand whatelse have to be loaded after startup.

On my cab I start PBX earliest when all other drivers and services has settled, this is at least 5 sec or more.

So I think your 5 sec delay solution is not the badest ...

[randr]

Yeah the timeout /t 5 solved my issue just odd it just started to need more time but i think your right, more time is just needed to initialize.

Are you working on a dmd video pak 3

[sigma415]

Are you working on a dmd video pak 3

Not really

I'm thinking about a good solution for the tables which only has 7 segment LEDs. We will see ...

[sigma415]

BTW: Up to now I only created Real DMD videos for the tables I have installed on my cab.

Maybe I have missed one or the other good FS table

So if you need Real DMD videos of other tables (which support 128x32 DMD) then let me know.

I think I could help you as long as the ROM's are available

[randr]

twister is one i recall missing..

[imagamejunky]

Since you asked...

How about Whirlwind?

Thanks for all the work Sigma. The other day I started messing with a few. I can get them to work on my cab but the contrast is all wrong. For example the areas that are supposed to be black are an orange color. I tried the video editing program that you recommended in your readme text. If I can figure this out I will edit some and share of course.

Thanks again.

Junky

[Zeiram]

If the image is heavily orange, you need to decrease the brightness just a bit.

[imagamejunky]

I tried to upload some dmd's but I can't. It says I don't have permission to upload this type of file???

[randr]

Sucks to hear that! FTP or forum? you can always do a link to a dropbox.

[imagamejunky]

Ok, here's

Gilligan's Island

Judge Dredd

Lethal Weapon 3

No Fear

and Sopranos

All of these are too orange on my Vishay DMD and I haven't been able (or had the time) to figure out how to change them. They do work but need to be edited to look perfect. If someone wants to edit them and repost then GREAT.

Junky

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iot3a1g2rzctj4s/AABNE_HKuxpdtOOApvAazaPma

[randr]

I see 2 differences with yours as the are orange on my DMD also.. yours are color .mp4's and the others are B/W and in .avi format..hmmm i think all they need is to be converted to B/W

[Zeiram]

I have those running fine on my cab. I'll try to upload them tomorrow night if no one has beaten me to it...

[sigma415]

Here is the Real DMD video for Twister

Twister (Sega 1996).zip

[randr]

Thank you

[sigma415]

...

How about Whirlwind?

...

Whirlwind is one of the tables which doesn't use graphics on the DMD but only segment characters.

I did several trials to capture DMD videos out of the ROM with VPM setup, but the results were disappointing.

1.) the matrix resolution of the on screen DMD is weird and I didn't find a good way to resize it to 128x32 (I suppose these tables use some fixed fonts)

2.) what will be shown is not very exciting: only text characters (the most amazing is the phone number to order Twister t-shirts ;-)

So we have to find something better for the segment DMD tables (even it's a static graphics like a logo, but something animated would be better)

So if someone has a good idea, how to get 128x32 b/w graphics or animations, with 16 gray levels for the remaining tables please let me know.

[randr]

I played with a couple wheel images and converted for dmd..they are ok..at least it ties table to dmd..but would rather it be animated

[sigma415]

Hi randr,

do you wanna share them ?

[randr]

Sure. I'll up one it's not great and static

[randr]

well i tried to do static in AVI and it works but quality is not good at all on dmd. someone tell me what i am doing wrong see link

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6vnb64dpuumde56/lightning%20ball.avi

[sigma415]

Hi randr,

welcome to the club.

I also had to experience, that it's not so easy to create good DMD's as long as you have only 128x32 pixels available. (even if only static ones)

My tipps:

1.) Crop or create your starting media (picture or video) to a format which can be divided by 32 (best would be multiples of 128x32).

Because then the resizing algorithms in Tom's XDMD (or Russ' PinDMD firmware, don't know which one) has a much easier work (@Tom: Am I right ?)

Ideally it has the generic 128x32 format.

2.) Reduce colours to grayscale, best would be only 16 levels (4bit). PinDMD can only display 16 levels.

3.) Don't use all those modern video compressors, I have made the best experience with Microsoft Video 1.

4.) If you want to make .AVI's, install (and learn ;-) Virtualdub 1.10.4. I also had first to learn working with it, but I did all my capturing and video editing for the last DMD's with this freeware tool.

5.) If you only want to make only a static DMD, you don't have to make an AVI. Putting a PNG or BMP or JPG in the PBX folder "Real DMD Images" does the same.

But the graphics file should follow the same rules as in 1.) and 2.)

I made a quick and dirty "processing" of your lightning ball file. (It's far from being a good result...)

In the attached ZIP file you can see, what comes out by Virtualdub processing.

I also have included the VirtualDub processing setting file (randr_lightningball.vdscript) which you can load and see the different filters I have used. (in "Video ...Filters ...)

But again, it's a little bit try and error to get good looking DMD's (with the tools I have found up to now)

But to test them, Tom has made a exe file which you can call to send the video or picture directly to the PinDMD, which makes life much easier.

See: http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/14689-how-to-send-videos-or-png-to-xdmd-via-command-line/#entry124523

Now let's go on, we need more Real DMD's

randr_lightningball.zip

[sigma415]

BTW: I have started to make some static Real DMD Images and have uped the first 3 to the FTP server.

But as I said, it's far away from being really good ....

ftp://ftp.pinballx.net/-PinballX-/Other%20Uploads/sigma415/Real%20DMD%20Images

[randr]

not bad sigma145...not bad...thanks for the tips. and new images!