[RESOLVED] Colour ROMS Pinball FX3 - Anyone Got Working?

[Fiery Phoenix]

Hi all, 

making my way through FX3 (after backglass issue sorted thanks to you guys) and I had a go at this.  I have colour roms working on normal VPX tables (using virtual DMD I should add) but hitting a brick wall with this.

I am sure I have followed the instructions correctly and tested and appears to work (see pics) and when I enter dmdext mirror --source=pinballfx3 --no-virtual - the large external virtual DMD loads up (although not in colour)

I thought you would add the above comannd line in PinballX settings for FX3 (launch before) so will auto load and there is a PinballX section in Freezy's instructions - states to copy the DmDevice64.dll to the PinballX installation folder and delete / rename PinDMD.dll - then activate DMD output output through the settings app.

This is where I am stuck (apart from why are the Williams colour Roms that work in VPX not appearing in FX3?) as soon as I add the DMDevice64.dll to the installation folder, PInballX crashes on startup.  Obviously done something wrong - maybe about activating the DMD output in settings (is that in the display section?)

Has anyone got this working successfully? Am I missing something about why they are not being colorised even when I run the test CMD prompt?  I cannot right click in it either for additional settings

Freezy DMD Instructions

[Mike_da_Spike]

Try these parametrs : 

Quote

mirror --source=pinballfx3 --virtual-stay-on-top --fps 60 --virtual-position 2195 580 805 130 --colorize ----pac-key xxxxxxxxxxx

(Change the virtual if you have a real one, and use a pac key )

I trsted this months ago. There is a VPU thread, but could not find it

[Fiery Phoenix]

I will have another go later. I don't have a real DMD, just a basic 2 monitor screen cabinet

I will try that parameter Mike....noob question....what a pac key where you would enter in the xxxxxxx section?

Guessing related to the colourised ROMs as they are pac files? You enter the name of the PAC file ROM?

If correct, guessing would need to change this parameter every time in PinballX settings to play a different colourised ROM in FX3?

[scutters]

If you don't have a real DMD then you want to use the --virtual-stay-on-top parameter not the --no-virtual option like Mike says,  also i don't think you should place dmdevice in the PinballX folder either when using a virtual DMD (i use virtual DMD on a 3rd screen and i haven't)

I don't use FX3, but i assume the pac key is the same as the vni.key (see first post https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/9051-new-release-v220-final/), and what i think is the discussion Mike mentioned is in the beta testing thread posts around here, https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/8845-new-release-v220-beta2/?do=findComment&comment=74143

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

Ok will have a mooch.

Pic of backglass is when I run the test CMD prompt before I run the game in FX3, get a large virtual DMD and can move it around but no right click options.

The middle PinballX DMD can be right clicked and has the usual options but stays on PinballX logo. Editing the DmDevice.ini does change this (can be flipped, etc

Bottom one is standard FX3 DMD

Read a few bits,stated change altcolor folder to table number (133) for it to obtain the colourised ROMs (didnt work) turned dot matrix off in cabinet settings and set height and width of DMD to 520 / 146 as requested also. No joy

 

 

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

 

6 hours ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

Bottom one is standard FX3 DMD

Read a few bits,stated change altcolor folder to table number (133)

Fx3 altcolors folder name isnt 133. You should use the tablename, so for IJ it is WMS_INIDIANA_JONES

and on File level :

see https://github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions#game-names for all names for TPA, FX3 and FX

IJ is the only table I didn't bought for FX3 (too expensive for 1 table), but here's a video I just created from TOTAN on FX3

 

 

Hope this helps

[Fiery Phoenix]

Ok man. Will try later this morning, although sure I renamed an alt colour folder than name when trying (with .pac file in there)

Makes sense would be that name as same with the backglass. I think the table 133 was just for Pinball FX, not FX3, my error

[Fiery Phoenix]

Tested with Fish Tales and Indiana Jones renaming the alt colour folders to their FX3 names. No luck

I tried putting the text in below in settings as per the link above, again no luck 

dmdext.exe mirror --source pinballfx3 --colorize --plugin "C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color.dll" --plugin-passthrough

I also copied and pasted the ;load plugins paths into my DmDevice.dll along with the ;vni key. Again no luck 

Also amended the PAC key to my own FX3 cabinet activation code....that's correct isn't it? Still no joy

[Mike_da_Spike]

 

55 minutes ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

dmdext.exe mirror --source pinballfx3 --colorize --plugin "C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color.dll" --plugin-passthrough

don't use the pin2color.dll as parameter.
PIN2color is part of the latest dmdext , thats why you should add the ----pac or use the dmddevice.ini (you can point it to the dmdevice.ini that you use for pinmame)
The following is exactly what I use (its a real DMD setup)

dmdext.exe mirror --source=pinballfx3 --no-virtual --quit-when-done -d pindmdv3 --colorize --use-ini "c:\pinball\visual Pinball\Vpinmame\DMDdevice.ini"

 

55 minutes ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

Also amended the PAC key to my own FX3 cabinet activation code....that's correct isn't it? Still no joy

not sure what you mean by that.

If none is working, check your DMDdevice.log and check whats the error (you can post the log here as well and maybe someone is able to help)

[scutters]

I can't help with the dmdext mirroring stuff, but;

11 hours ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

The middle PinballX DMD can be right clicked and has the usual options but stays on PinballX logo

On a two screen setup you can disable the DMD screen again in PinballX settings, i don't think it'll add anything for you except add a bit more GPU/CPU overhead. In game the DMD and backglass can use the same screen, then PinballX can record both together when creating a backglass video for use in the front end.

[Fiery Phoenix]

I have this in my parameters -  correct?  Unsure about that PAC code number - I just copied and pasted it from the link above from VP Universe

mirror --source=pinballfx3 --virtual-stay-on-top --fps 60 --virtual-position 2195 580 805 130 --colorize ----pac-key f0ad135937ffa111c60b24d88ebb2e59

The thread also states:

To use the plugin, it must be enabled in DmdDevice.ini. Example:

[global] ; load plugins plugin.0.path = C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color.dll plugin.0.path64 = C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color64.dll plugin.0.passthrough = false

For the internal PAC colorization to work, you have to provide the key:

[global] vni.key = f0ad135937ffa111c60b24d88ebb2e59

The above are not in my DMDevice.ini - so I pasted them in there at the top - correct?  I amended the path to reflect my own

I then ran PinballX frontend again, tested using Fish Tales - the external DMD loads up automatically (good) but not in colour (bad) and also does not close down when I exit the table (bad)

Cannot locate the log, but copied and pasted the info below from the dmdext.exe error screen

 [5] 2023/10/27 13:42:55.783  INFO | Process found, starting capturing...
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:42:55.783  INFO | Reading DMD data from Pinball FX3's memory at 60 fps...
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:42:55.783  INFO | Frames coming in from Pinball FX3.
 [1] 2023/10/27 13:42:56.027  INFO | Creating FBOs for 128x32
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.551  INFO | Found Pinball FX3 game: WMS_Fish_Tales
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.551  INFO | [serum] No colorization found at C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME\altcolor\WMS_Fish_Tales...
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.551  INFO | [plugin] No colorization plugins configured.
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.551  INFO | [vni] Loading palette file at C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME\altcolor\WMS_Fish_Tales\._pin2dmd.pal...
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.551 TRACE | [vni] PAL[1] Read version as 0
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.551 TRACE | [vni] PAL[3] Read number of palettes as 1302
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.563  WARN | Error initializing colorizer: Unable to read beyond the end of the stream. System.IO.EndOfStreamException: Unable to read beyond the end of the stream.
   at System.IO.__Error.EndOfFile()
   at System.IO.BinaryReader.ReadByte()
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.Palette..ctor(BinaryReader reader)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile.Load(BinaryReader reader, String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile..ctor(String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.VniLoader.Load(String vniKey)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.ColorizationLoader.LoadVniColorizer(String gameName, ScalerMode scalerMode, String vniKey)
[17] 2023/10/27 13:42:59.563  INFO | Switching Converter (Passthrough) switching to Passthrough
[15] 2023/10/27 13:43:09.500  INFO | Terminating DMD data capture from Pinball FX3
[15] 2023/10/27 13:43:09.500  INFO | Frames stopped from Pinball FX3.
[15] 2023/10/27 13:43:09.500  INFO | Waiting for Pinball FX3 process to start...

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

I tested Fish Tales in PinMAME setup / test and was not in colour.  So re-installed the plugins - tested and confirmed working in colour.  Made sure DMDevice had additional text in from above too.  However issues remains the same in FX3 - pasted below

I also tried amending passthrough = false to true.  No difference

 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:32.470  INFO | Process found, starting capturing...
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:32.470  INFO | Reading DMD data from Pinball FX3's memory at 60 fps...
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:32.470  INFO | Frames coming in from Pinball FX3.
 [1] 2023/10/27 13:55:32.665  INFO | Creating FBOs for 128x32
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.115  INFO | Found Pinball FX3 game: WMS_Fish_Tales
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.115  INFO | [serum] No colorization found at C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME\altcolor\WMS_Fish_Tales...
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.115  INFO | [plugin] No colorization plugins configured.
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.115  INFO | [vni] Loading palette file at C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinMAME\altcolor\WMS_Fish_Tales\._pin2dmd.pal...
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.115 TRACE | [vni] PAL[1] Read version as 0
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.125 TRACE | [vni] PAL[3] Read number of palettes as 1302
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.125  WARN | Error initializing colorizer: Unable to read beyond the end of the stream. System.IO.EndOfStreamException: Unable to read beyond the end of the stream.
   at System.IO.__Error.EndOfFile()
   at System.IO.BinaryReader.ReadByte()
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.Palette..ctor(BinaryReader reader)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile.Load(BinaryReader reader, String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile..ctor(String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.VniLoader.Load(String vniKey)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.ColorizationLoader.LoadVniColorizer(String gameName, ScalerMode scalerMode, String vniKey)
 [5] 2023/10/27 13:55:36.125  INFO | Switching Converter (Passthrough) switching to Passthrough
[17] 2023/10/27 13:55:47.172  INFO | Terminating DMD data capture from Pinball FX3
[17] 2023/10/27 13:55:47.172  INFO | Frames stopped from Pinball FX3.
[17] 2023/10/27 13:55:47.172  INFO | Waiting for Pinball FX3 process to start...

[Fiery Phoenix]

Update

Tried Indiana Jones as it's a .PAC file and Fish Tales wasn't

And Indiana works!

So that's a start....must be something files that are not PAC?

Just need to work out how to close the window when exiting....another parameter? When I closed Indiana I had 3 X DMD screens staying open 

 

[Draco1962]

A batch file with a command line launched via Launch After a using taskkill command to shut down the process? 

I do not use the feature so not sure if this is preferable or possible.

[Mike_da_Spike]

1 hour ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

Just need to work out how to close the window when exiting....another parameter? When I closed Indiana I had 3 X DMD screens staying open 

 

Give the parameter  --quit-when-done and dmdext will close on fx3 exit

1 hour ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

So that's a start....must be something files that are not PAC?

Pac is working as well.are you using latest freezy ?

In my video from this morning, I used Totan pac file with 64 colors. 

[Fiery Phoenix]

Thanks Mike - that worked a treat in closing the DMD's down!

Some of the other ones which are not .pac work now (like Whitewater) so progressing, but Circus Voltaire and a couple of others won't work - unsure why, but no deal breaker

I have noticed that since adding that original parameter, some games do not directly launch now in the PinballX frontend for FX3 (Aliens & Attack from Mars being 2 I have noticed) does anyone else get this error?/ 

Noticed some bits missing on the colorized roms, no big deal, Multiball Madness not shown in Medieval Madness for instance and some wording in Indiana Jones missing - normal?

[Mike_da_Spike]

40 minutes ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

Aliens & Attack from Mars

Mars (fx3 table) and attack fromars always been an issue to launch from command-line.

You need to rename the mars file to mars_ and you can launch it.

Can you post your dmdext line and a dmddevice.log with pac file ?

[Fiery Phoenix]

I will post on Sunday night, so don't close thread yet. Just away from machine until then

Where do I rename them? Rename the .PBX file on the Steam folder?

[Mike_da_Spike]

Yes indeed. Only rename mars to mars_ and change your table name(DBM can pickup this name automaticly)

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

Does that go for Attack from Mars / Aliens too? Or any game that won't launch in front-end? 

Just add an underscore to end of it, amend in DBM or GM and let it update automatically?

One quickie. The external DMD showing the PinballX logo auto launches at startup....how do I stop that? Looked in settings / display and turned off what looks like anything that may trigger it, external DMD, etc, but still appears

[Mike_da_Spike]

7 minutes ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

Does that go for Attack from Mars / Aliens too? Or any game that won't launch in front-end? 

Not seen issues with alliens.

Only wit attack from mars and the mars table.

Whats the issue wit alliens ?

8 minutes ago, Fiery Phoenix said:

One quickie. The external DMD showing the PinballX logo auto launches at startup....how do I stop that? Looked in settings / display and turned off what looks like anything that may trigger it, external DMD, etc, but still appears

no, when no dmd video is found for a table or system, the "no dmd.avi" will be showed from the media\videos directory.

Or .. if it is only on start, you have a dmd.avi in the "startup videos" folder

 

There are some good dmd/topper videos for fx3 that you can use to display

[Fiery Phoenix]

Cheers will double check tomorrow evening. I think Aliens just loads up to the FX3 menu page (like Attack from Mars) but will re-check

[Fiery Phoenix]

XDMDlog.txtDmdDevice.log.config

Not sure if these are what you need.  The PinballX DMD continues to auto load up when I launch PinballX, appearing in the top left

I am guessing it thinks I have a Real DMD? (I don't) but can't see anywhere in settings to stop this appearing at startup

[Mike_da_Spike]

Sorry,
English is not my native language and I don't understand what you try to accomplish.
Do you want to remove the PinballX DMD during Frontend ?
That should be this setting :

Or do you have the pinballX video during game ?
Thats this settings :

 

or in gamemanager

I hope this helps, if not, can you tell me what you exactly want to change (maybe show with a video)?
And sorry, it's properly because I'm Dutch that I don't understand
 

[scutters]

57 minutes ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Do you want to remove the PinballX DMD during Frontend ?

That one . It's a two screen setup so disable the DMD (3rd screen) option in PinballX Display Settings