Real PinMAME DMD in PinballX - Beta Attached

[Tom Speirs]

I've been working with FreeMason from VPForums who's friend allowed him to pass on code to me that allows the actual PinMAME DMD to display in PinballX when browsing tables.

I've got it working on my end and its pretty slick.

I am providing a Beta Install:

http://www.spesoft.com/PinballXSetupTest.exe

[updated 2014/08/23 9:50PM EST]

[Now release candidate]

You should be able to easily replace it with the current version at any time without a problem.

There is a new setting under display settings to enable the feature and the games list databases have been expanded to include an additional rom field.

The game list manager has been updated and if the new feature is enabled you can select the ROM there.

This Beta contains the following new features and enhancements:

- Real PinMAME DMD support when in front end.

- New feature for custom systems to emulate and work like Future or Visual Pinball. eg. Multiple VP Exes.

- New feature to mute audio when in the screensaver. So your cab is not annoying if you leave it on.

- New feature "One Click Launch" to skip the game detail menu and immediately launch the table when selected.

- PinballX Download Service. Automatically import media in the gamelist manager from the FTP.

- Auto Frame Skipping.

- Shows System Logo in desktop mode.

- Per system custom underlay and overlay images.

- Performance enhancements.

- Faster media matching, faster startup, faster game list manager.

- Adds keyboard volume controls.

- Faster startup and fixes losing focus when starting with windows.

- Ability to enable/disable the default filter searches by popular decades and manufactures.

- Now skips startup video on key/joy press.

- Confirm exit game with countdown feature.

- Smoother animations.

- Maximum amount of other systems increased by 10 to 20.

- Fixes in game list manager when game descriptions contain invalid file characters.

- Fixes Game List Manager truncating large lists.

[open6l]

Tom - the first thing I've noticed - the ROM selection button is available in Game Manager under the main Visual Pinball menu but if you have an additional Visual Pinball under [system_1] etc it does not have the ROM feature in Game Manager.

Aside from this issue it works exceptionally well. Even works with the ColorDMD build of vpinmame

Running Windows 7 64bit here.

[zeenon]

Setup was easy enough but I noticed you can only have one or the other. For example, if I just want to turn on the new ROM feature for 3 tables, it turns the videos off on all the other tables. I think it should check in this order:

1) Do you have the ROM switch on in GM, if so use the vpinmame ROM

2) Do you have a custom DMD video, if so use that.

3) Lastly, if nothing use the generic PBX DMD video.

Running Windows 7 64 bit also.

Z

[Tom Speirs]

Setup was easy enough but I noticed you can only have one or the other. For example, if I just want to turn on the new ROM feature for 3 tables, it turns the videos off on all the other tables. I think it should check in this order:

1) Do you have the ROM switch on in GM, if so use the vpinmame ROM

2) Do you have a custom DMD video, if so use that.

3) Lastly, if nothing use the generic PBX DMD video.

Running Windows 7 64 bit also.

Z

Are you referring to Real DMD?

[zeenon]

Yes, a Vishay DMD. It works...it just does the ROM's or the DMD videos, so if I turn on this new feature, only the tables that I link a ROM to in GM display something on the DMD, the rest are a blank DMD.

Z

[RNunez187]

Working good so far. Some roms are displaying on the DMD without me needing to specify which to run

[jadflat]

is there a quick way to assign the roms?

at the moment i've been using the test function of pinmame to see what the rom name is for each table, but with 270 tables it will take a long time...

using pindmd with a vishay dmd

[FreeMason]

Thanks for the super fast implementation Tom. Happy to help! Looking really good for a first version!

[sigma415]

Tom, thank you !

Fantastic result for such a quick beta version. Runs "out of the box" with my PinDMD v2 + Vishay, Win7 x64.

This is also a solution for the non-DMD tables which use segment LED displays.

For a release version I would have the same wish as zeenon some post above: There should be a possibility to specify, if the ROM or the Real DMD Video file should be used.

Maybe it would be possible to have a special entry in the ROM buttons list, where "Real DMD Video" or something else could be choosen instead of the ROM's name.

Or empty ROM name in the XML could mean: use Real DMD Video.

Because SAM emulated Stern ROMs with arngrims VPinmame.dll seems not to be supported by this implementation, this would be very helpfull.

And also, to be honest: for some tables I like my selfmade Real DMD Videos (see the other RealDMD Video thread) better than the standard sequences out of the ROM

[Tom Speirs]

Wow, you guys are very critical for a test release! Its all good though and I have just published a new version.

It addresses everything discussed as far as I can see but we still have the windows 8 issue. I am going to need some external help with that. It may even need an update to PinMAME.

[imagamejunky]

Thanks for this Tom. Great idea.

I can get this to work about 1/3 of the time with my set up. What I mean is that about 1 out of 3 tables shows the DMD from the rom while in the PinballX frontend. I can't figure out why all of them aren't showing up. The ones that work take about 10-15 seconds to show up also.

I'm using crappy windows 8 by the way.

Thanks again man

Junky

[Tom Speirs]

I got round the VPinMAME.dll issues so I should be able to test on my cab shortly and fix any bugs. If your running win 8 or win 8.1 use the VPinMAME from VPUniverse. In fact its probably a good idea to use that build regardless.

[Tom Speirs]

Im just uploading a newer version now by the way folks.

The improvements in this one and the one released earlier today are that you can select via the game description in the game manager and its built to switch between videos and pinmame for both Real DMD and Monitor. Its mainly just bugs now and I will be getting it running on my cab shortly.

Please still test and report.

Thanks.

Tom.

[RNunez187]

Thanks for adding the Game Name at the ROM selection screen! Makes it much easier to find the correct ROM.

Real DMD videos work great until PinballX comes across a game assigned a ROM to play, then all Real DMD videos no longer play.

So far no issue with any ROMS not working when assigned, only through about 10 though. SAM roms working so far also, at least 24 does.

[gtxjoe]

Just tested today's 6pm beta version and it is not working for me. If I launch PinballX, it starts to display the first table but display and audio freezes for about 10 seconds, DMD monitor is black, and then it resumes (TAF in this case). I can then cycle through tables but no pinMame DMD works. I do get the PinballX video for Abracadabra (no ROM or DMD image avail) and my static DMD image for T2 (dmd image in Media folder). Tables with DMD rom selected just show a frozen image of the previous DMD image or Pinballx video. If I launch PBX on a non DMD game first, like Abracadabra it comes up fine with Pinballx video, then when I switch to TAF with DMD ROM selected, it freezes for 10 sec, no pinmame dmd and then resumes with same behavior described.

vp cabinet.dll. 3 monitor cab with 180 tables. win7 x64. My DMD monitor is landscape orientation, so I have to set ROL=1 if that matters. I reduced it to 5 tables to troubleshoot. No FP tables, but I have a second VP system setup with the T2 table only

19:16:18.0  7/17/2014:  PinballX - Version 1.8619:16:18.0  7/17/2014:  Loading Settings19:16:18.0  7/17/2014:  Launching Startup Program: ledset.bat19:16:18.0  7/17/2014:  C:\PinballX\LEDWizMod\ledset.bat 19:16:18.1  7/17/2014:  Initialize Component19:16:18.2  7/17/2014:  Initialize Display19:16:18.2  7/17/2014:  Loading PlugIns19:16:18.3  7/17/2014:  Created DirectX BackGlass Window19:16:18.4  7/17/2014:  Created DirectX DMD Window19:16:18.5  7/17/2014:  Hiding Cursor19:16:18.5  7/17/2014:  Hiding Taskbar19:16:18.6  7/17/2014:  Load Game List19:16:18.6  7/17/2014:  Loading Database: Visual Pinball19:16:18.6  7/17/2014:  Loading Database: Visual Pinball DX719:16:18.6  7/17/2014:  Finding and matching artwork and videos19:16:18.7  7/17/2014:  Loading Game Statistics and Scores19:16:19.7  7/17/2014:  Initialize Audio19:16:19.8  7/17/2014:  Set Keyboard Controls19:16:19.8  7/17/2014:  Initialize Joystick19:16:19.9  7/17/2014:  No Joysticks Attached19:16:19.9  7/17/2014:  Started19:16:31.1  7/17/2014:  Launch System19:16:31.1  7/17/2014:  Waiting for threads19:16:31.1  7/17/2014:  Disposing display19:16:32.9  7/17/2014:  C:\Visual Pinball\VPinball.exe /play -"C:\Visual Pinball\Tables\The Addams Family Gold_VP92_FS_Updated_Jan_1_2014.vpt"19:16:33.0  7/17/2014:  C:\PinballX\vpauto.exe 19:16:38.3  7/17/2014:  Found PinMAME ROM: pinball.nv19:16:46.9  7/17/2014:  Hidden Visual Pinball Editor Window19:17:31.6  7/17/2014:  Exit System Control Pressed19:17:34.9  7/17/2014:  C:\PinballX\LEDWizMod\ledset.bat 19:17:35.1  7/17/2014:  Created DirectX BackGlass Window19:17:35.1  7/17/2014:  Created DirectX DMD Window19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  Exiting19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  Showing Taskbar19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  Unhiding Mouse Cursor19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  Launching Exit Program: ledoff.bat19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  C:\PinballX\LEDWizMod\ledoff.bat 19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  Disposing Plugins19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  Saving Settings19:17:52.2  7/17/2014:  Waiting for Online Thread 

xml file

<menu>	<game name="AbraCaDabra_FS_B2S">		<description>Abra Ca Dabra (Gottlieb 1975)</description>		<rom></rom>		<manufacturer>Gottlieb</manufacturer>		<year>1975</year>		<type>EM</type>		<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>		<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>		<enabled>True</enabled>		<rating>0</rating>	</game>	<game name="TAF VP91X FS 2.0.1">		<description>Addams Family (Bally 1992)</description>		<rom>afv_l4</rom>		<manufacturer>Williams</manufacturer>		<year>1992</year>		<type>SS</type>		<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>		<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>		<enabled>True</enabled>		<rating>0</rating>	</game>	<game name="The Addams Family Gold_VP92_FS_Updated_Jan_1_2014">		<description>Addams Family Gold (Bally 1992)</description>		<rom>afv_l4</rom>		<manufacturer>Bally</manufacturer>		<year>1992</year>		<type>SS</type>		<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>		<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>		<enabled>True</enabled>		<rating>0</rating>	</game>	<game name="WCS94_VP91x_v1.2FS">		<description>World Cup Soccer 94 (Bally 1994)</description>		<rom>wcs_f62</rom>		<manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer>		<year>1994</year>		<type>SS</type>		<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>		<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>		<enabled>True</enabled>		<rating>0</rating>	</game>	<game name="zzMedieval-Madness_VP91x_2.4.3FS">		<description>zzMedieval Madness 2.4 (Williams 1997)</description>		<rom>mm_109</rom>		<manufacturer>Williams</manufacturer>		<year>1997</year>		<type>SS</type>		<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>		<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>		<enabled>True</enabled>		<rating>0</rating>	</game></menu>

[open6l]

Latest update works fine for me. I am able to select ROMS in alternate VP systems in game manager and they display fine.

Running Windows 64 bit and VPinMame v1.9. Videos and static DMDs play fine along with the actual roms.

[zeenon]

Real DMD videos work great until PinballX comes across a game assigned a ROM to play, then all Real DMD videos no longer play.

Same issue here, once you hit a game assigned ROM, the real DMD videos stop and only the game assigned ROMs work.

Win 7 64 bit, VPM 1.9, Vishay plasma DMD

[Carny_Priest]

If I "Add Game" in Game Manager, the new set of fields that is displayed does not have a ROM button to select a table name and ROM. 6:00 EST release

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks for the feedback guys. New version just released and it should be pretty stable now. It should address everything mentioned. Same link in first post.

[Tom Speirs]

Okay, right now its not stable for me and I don't see I can do much else. It will run for about 20 minutes in the screensaver and then hard crash.

It has the performance and functionality now it is just not stable. I am assuming its down to PinMAME.

What results do others have?

[sigma415]

Tom,

I also get an app crash now.

It's reproducable when switching between tables with ROM DMD and with DMD video.

Using your latest "Beta PinballXSetupTest_20140718 500AM EST.exe"

The debug output says something about LAVVideo.ax.

Some problem with the codecs ? (I did not update the codec package for a long time)

My config:

• Win7 x64 German
• PinDMD v2
• arngrim's "VPinmame SAM/PINDMD/UNITY unified version 1.9"
• anything else you need ?

Beschreibung:  Stopped workingProblemsignatur:  Problemereignisname:	APPCRASH  Application Name:	PinballX.exe  Application Version:	1.0.0.0  Application Timestamp:	53c8fd97  Fault Module Name:	LAVVideo.ax  Fault Module Version:	0.58.2.0  Fault Module Timestamp:	5248593f  Exception Code:	c0000005  Exception Offset:	0005a623  Betriebsystemversion:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3  Gebietsschema-ID:	1031

log.txt:

19:16:33.1  18.07.2014:  PinballX - Version 1.8619:16:33.1  18.07.2014:  Loading Settings19:16:33.1  18.07.2014:  Launching Startup Program: ledblinky Audio start.bat19:16:33.1  18.07.2014:  C:\PinballX\ledblinky Audio start.bat 19:16:33.1  18.07.2014:  Initialize Component19:16:33.2  18.07.2014:  Initialize Display19:16:33.2  18.07.2014:  Loading PlugIns19:16:33.3  18.07.2014:  Created DirectX BackGlass Window19:16:33.3  18.07.2014:  Hiding Cursor19:16:33.3  18.07.2014:  Hiding Taskbar19:16:33.4  18.07.2014:  PinDMD2 Intialized19:16:33.4  18.07.2014:  Load Game List19:16:33.4  18.07.2014:  Loading Database: Future Pinball19:16:33.4  18.07.2014:  Loading Database: Visual Pinball19:16:33.4  18.07.2014:  Loading Database: Jukebox19:16:33.4  18.07.2014:  Loading Database: Windows Media Center19:16:33.4  18.07.2014:  Finding and matching artwork and videos19:16:33.5  18.07.2014:  Loading Game Statistics and Scores19:16:34.5  18.07.2014:  Initialize Audio19:16:34.5  18.07.2014:  Set Keyboard Controls19:16:34.5  18.07.2014:  Initialize Joystick19:16:34.6  18.07.2014:  1 Joystick Attached19:16:34.6  18.07.2014:  Started19:16:40.3  18.07.2014:  Exiting19:16:40.3  18.07.2014:  Showing Taskbar19:16:40.3  18.07.2014:  Unhiding Mouse Cursor19:16:40.4  18.07.2014:  Launching Exit Program: After_PbX.bat19:16:40.4  18.07.2014:  C:\PinballX\After_PbX.bat 19:16:40.6  18.07.2014:  Disposing Plugins19:16:40.6  18.07.2014:  Saving Settings

[sigma415]

Update: I also got the app crash when switching between two ROM DMD tables.

But also with the LAVVideo.ax error

LAVVideo.ax sits in C:\Program Files (x86)\Shark007\Advanced\filters and has file date "09.10.2013 15:00" and file size 1,43 MB (1.501.184 Bytes).

[Slashbot]

Thnx for implementing this feature pretty cool i think

[zeenon]

I haven't seen PBX crash, but if I switch tables the next table has no sound. Looking in VPM the sound option gets checked off. I can reproduce it every time.

Z

[sigma415]

Update: I also got the app crash when switching between two ROM DMD tables.

But also with the LAVVideo.ax error

LAVVideo.ax sits in C:\Program Files (x86)\Shark007\Advanced\filters and has file date "09.10.2013 15:00" and file size 1,43 MB (1.501.184 Bytes).

Additional info:

- I still have the original Shark007 32bit codecs 4.2.8 from the PBX site installed

- After the app crash window, I can continue to cycle between tables in PBX (with the crash window on top of playfield video),

-- playfield video still running

-- Real DMD still running (Video AND ROM)

-- but backglass video stopped