possible cabinet mode in Pinball Arcade

[GAH1068]

Sorry for the delay.  Trying to get house stuff done and get my pool open so not much time to play.   For anyone interested here is my settings to lauch Arcooda pinball from PinballX.    This does NOT

start a table as expected but at least gives me a way to start the app from within.    This also has my DMD settings for my PinDMDV3.   I am waffling back and forth about replacing it with a third monitor instead.   For most tables in Arcooda is looks good but otherwise is a little washed out with the screen mirroring for old Non-DMD titles.    Maybe Freezy will update to make it look better so I will hold off.

Quick background of what I did.   I am still going to use FreeCamMod as well  so I saved a version of the dx11_settings.dat from TPAConfig.exe for both FreeCamMod and then one for Arcooda.    My AHK scripts will copy the configured file before starting up Arcooda or FreeCamMod so I can run both from PinballX.

 

 

Start_Arcooda.AHK  does the following.

1) Copy the DX11_Settings.dat file to put in Arcooda Mode

2) Rotate the screen 90 degrees

3) Start DMDExt with screen mirroring on my 3rd monitor

 

Run_Arcooda.AHK

Basically kills PinballX, throws up a black screen to hide the changover (for aesthetics only),  Starts Arcooda and then waits for escape key to kill the process.   It then rotates the screen back, kills dmdext and fires back up Pinballx.

Everytthing seems to be working fine for me using this configuration so far.   It has for normal Pinball Arcade so I am pretty confident this will work fine going forward as well.

 

 

 

 

Run_Arcooda.ahk

Start_Arcooda.ahk

[hlr53]

Many thanks! Look forward to playing with it after I get a key.

EDIT: I can use now (modified) to  launch the DX11 version.

Edited June 4, 2018 by hlr53

[GAH1068]

Yep, that is basically the same scripts I use for the DX11 version with FCM.

On an even more positive note another Cabinet mode update was just released and cabinet mode views are fully there!   It looks 100% better and barring any major bugs it was worth the 150.00 bucks

 

[hawkeyez88]

I just got my key - going to take a look at this again and see if I can get it working.

[hawkeyez88]

I got cabinet mode working - it's pretty cool - just trying to get my settings dialed in for my pin2dmd - i tried running the cmd prompt for dmdext mirror but it wasn't picking up the dmd display. Should it be set to certain resolution size like pinball fx?

[hawkeyez88]

Draco - you're probably aware of this by now - but just in case they are working on another release to fix the issue you're mentioning. It feels like they're going to be slamming things together during the rest of the month. I'm just  excited to have the cabinet mode option - just not sure I want to buy all the tables yet? I'm having a hard time deciphering if the tables will still be available after June 30 - or if it's just the software from arcooda. For me, once I get the dmd working I'm buying the season packs.

[GAH1068]

1 hour ago, hawkeyez88 said:

I got cabinet mode working - it's pretty cool - just trying to get my settings dialed in for my pin2dmd - i tried running the cmd prompt for dmdext mirror but it wasn't picking up the dmd display. Should it be set to certain resolution size like pinball fx?

I have it set to 1024x256 and it is working well.  I tried multiple sizes but with mirroring they all look about the same.   there is no required size though.    From there you Haut need to get the coordinates of where the window is. 

[hawkeyez88]

1 hour ago, GAH1068 said:

I have it set to 1024x256 and it is working well.  I tried multiple sizes but with mirroring they all look about the same.   there is no required size though.    From there you Haut need to get the coordinates of where the window is. 

Thanks Gah - I was looking at your script earlier - the coordinate piece was confusing me a bit, but after doing some more reading - I think I may understand it now. I'll let you know! Thanks!

[hawkeyez88]

11 minutes ago, hawkeyez88 said:

Thanks Gah - I was looking at your script earlier - the coordinate piece was confusing me a bit, but after doing some more reading - I think I may understand it now. I'll let you know! Thanks!

I tried to mirror what you had in the script just to test the DMD - i used dmdext mirror --source=screen --position -3207 21 1004 254 --destination=pin2dmd --no-virtual

 

with the pinball arcade screens in the configuration below - maybe I'm screwing something up there?

 

 

[GAH1068]

The position - 3207 and 21 are specific to where I have the dmd displaying on my 3rd monitor that I capture.   That number will be different depending on your systems so it was just more as example.   Here is a great utility for finding screen positions.   This will get you close and then just fine tune your numbers from there. 

http://pinballbulbs.com/files/pbfx2dotmatrix.zip

[Draco1962]

Unfortunately, if the software manufacturer is providing a solution, even if it means paying for it, then this is considered a hack and should not be discussed in the forums.

[jeverds]

4 minutes ago, Draco1962 said:

Unfortunately, if the software manufacturer is providing a solution, even if it means paying for it, then this is considered a hack and should not be discussed in the forums.

In my opinion, the files are there and I have paid for them.
I do not make any unauthorized modification except change their name, but if this implies any violation of the rules of the forum I have no problem in eliminating the post

[GAH1068]

That is a very interesting find indeed.    I don't care about the Kinect features but that menu layout is SO SUPERIOR in every way than the standard TPA.    Why on earth do we not

get that too?   We bought the Arcooda software,  why shouldn't we get the look and feel of it too?   I can understand not getting the toys and Kinect since that is the part that makes

it unique for Arcooda's hardware.   I am just happy to get the cabinet mode and backglass/dmd.

[tthurman]

5 hours ago, jeverds said:

In my opinion, the files are there and I have paid for them.
I do not make any unauthorized modification except change their name, but if this implies any violation of the rules of the forum I have no problem in eliminating the post

Obviously, you're entitled to your own opinion, however discussing ways to enable/disable or defeat features within other manufacturers coding work is not something we desire to have the PinballX forums associated with.  

 

[hawkeyez88]

Thanks gents, and understood. I'm hoping we can figure out how to get the tables to launch out of pinballx one day! As far as my issue with the dmd not showing up - I'll reach out to freezy, I'm assuming? Because the standard dmdext mirror works for the updated version of pinball arcade on steam not the cabinet version. I appreciate the help and knowledge of everyone in the community. Without these posts and discussions I never would've figured out how to get my pinball cab to an  easy functional stage of use for myself and guests to use! So again, thank you guys.

[hlr53]

I haven't purchased yet but DMDext should work per PinballArcadeFAns. Maybe source should be screen? 

[GAH1068]

DmdExt does work with Cabinet mode.   There is no direct command line option for it.   If you use the dmdext mirror -source screen  with the coodinates and size of your display it does work.    I had it up and running the same night as the release.      Renaming the PinballArcadeCabinet.exe to PinballArcade11.exe does let it work with the standard mirror -pinballarcade parameter as well.   This is cabinet mode working with my PinDMDV3

 

[hawkeyez88]

On 6/11/2018 at 5:21 AM, GAH1068 said:

DmdExt does work with Cabinet mode.   There is no direct command line option for it.   If you use the dmdext mirror -source screen  with the coodinates and size of your display it does work.    I had it up and running the same night as the release.      Renaming the PinballArcadeCabinet.exe to PinballArcade11.exe does let it work with the standard mirror -pinballarcade parameter as well.   This is cabinet mode working with my PinDMDV3

 

I must have screwed something up then - is the virtual dmd on your play field as well?

[hlr53]

That would be the reflection from the DMD panel. 

[GAH1068]

Yes it is.   I bought a piece of anti-glare glass but it did nothing to help.  Doesn't bother me as bad as before but  going to put a piece in there to block the reflection eventually.

[hawkeyez88]

6 hours ago, GAH1068 said:

Yes it is.   I bought a piece of anti-glare glass but it did nothing to help.  Doesn't bother me as bad as before but  going to put a piece in there to block the reflection eventually.

That was my next question if the anti glare is worth anything - thanks for sharing that! I guess I'm still confused about the position for my pin2dmd - it doesn't show up as a monitor in windows - so maybe that's my struggle of getting this working in cabinet mode - just odd the dmdext command works in the standard mode just not cabinet. Still tweaking away.

[hawkeyez88]

Apparently there's a request in to make this work with dmdext without tweaking any of the exe files. I'll wait for that and I guess purchase the tables before the 30th!

[hlr53]

20 hours ago, GAH1068 said:

Yes it is.   I bought a piece of anti-glare glass but it did nothing to help.  Doesn't bother me as bad as before but  going to put a piece in there to block the reflection eventually.

Trying this from my iPhone. I bought a DMD filter from Pinball Life in Huntley, IL and had to trim it to fit. It cut the brightness too much so now I have it laying flat at the back of the table glass. Zero glare when standing at the table. Some glare when sitting on a stool but very tolerable. I don’t even notice it being there now.

[hawkeyez88]

Thanks for sharing that HLR53 - that's a very interesting idea!

[hawkeyez88]

I'm sure everyone in here knows this - the new version of dmdext fixes any workarounds. Extremely excited about this! I tested it out and we're good to go!