Discussion thread about the FreeCamera Mod

Ah thanks. I already knew that workaround. I thought you had magically solved it another way.

Ok I think I'm finally tired of waiting for FS to fix the 10:16 cameras so I'll crank this. Thanks for making an alternative to the regular cameras available NoEx. It's much appreciated.

NoEx said:

[MENTION=4070]mpad[/MENTION], make a copy of PinballArcade11.exe file and rename it to PinballArcade.exe (delete or rename original PinballArcade.exe DX9 file).

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strange ! tried the rename trick and autolaunch feature, but the free cam mod doesn't seem to work anymore.
dx11 version starts fine, but no overlay shows and cam settings don't work.
yes I changed exe name in the settings.

when I rename everything to default and manually start TPA it works fine...

That's because by default it injects itself in "PinballArcade11.exe" process, with the rename trick, the launched process is PinballArcade.exe, the mod doesn't find the process and abort the injection.

*confused* *feeling dumb*

So, how do I get everything to work ?

mpad said:

*confused* *feeling dumb*

So, how do I get everything to work ?

Click to expand...

This is going to sound crazy .... So numpad '"0" is overlay HUD on / off ... you have num lock on while running MOD? right?

I say this because I actually use num lock for my nudge key. When I have to go back to edit Cam, alot of the time have to hit my numlock to get the HUD to show again...

First off NoEx, thank you for the mod - great work!

I am also confused about the current state of things with Steam, DX11 and your app.

There is currently no way to have your app launch the DX 11 version, right? The rename trick involves changing the process name, which is what you are keying on. Seems like with the Steam/PBA issue "can't launch DX 11 version directly by default", we need an option where we can tell the mod what exe process name to look for?

The mod works by going into Steam client and starting and selecting DX 11, however the ideal for me is to launch to PBA directly so things work smoothly with my front end/launcher.


One more unrelated enhancement request - your mod detects the current table that is playing - is it possible to add some kind of simple hook/exit system so we can script some additional action at table load/unload? I am specifically thinking of the ability to throw an table backglass image up on the second screen/backglass on my cabinet. I would be happy with something as simple as "look for a script/ahk/exe with the same name as the table"

Thanks!
Matt

As you said it isn't working properly at the moment because the process name is changing, i'm currently thinking of a way to fix that, an option in settings.ini file to specify the process name to look for or game patching method to force it to launch DX11 version directly even if the game exe isn't renamed, an update of the mod should come soon.

About the hooking system, somebody (SilverBalls?) already requested a similar feature to display a backglass image, it was on my todo list but not of the top of it because of the things i needed to fix before, since almost everything works properly now, i'll focus on this feature asap, i just need to think how this could be implemented.

Is the source code for this available?

NoEx said:

About the hooking system, somebody (SilverBalls?) already requested a similar feature to display a backglass image.

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Yes I did suggest for that in a PM when I was Alpha testing . I also thought a simple hook which an AHK can pick up would be good enough. Maybe write table name to a .txt file, unless you plan something more sophisticated of course.

BTW - thanks again NoEx for the auto offset update build. I got sent away from home last short notice by my work, so won't be able to try it for a while. Cheers

thx for the quick update NoEx!
any word on the ability to trigger off a renamed dx11.exe(just so front ends like PinballX would work with your camera mod and dx11)

I'm in vacation for 2 weeks atm, this is why i've made a quick update before leaving, i'll see what i can do about that when i'm back @ home.

thx for the quick updates NoEx! Its greatly appreciated

NoEx what are the chances your camera mod could add a setting to stretch the image vertically?
I was messing around to test my camera view files to see how they'd work if the DMD could be displayed on another screen.
Currently due to the angle i use to maximize the screen view while still being able to see the front of the sides of objects( vs being a true top down view) the table image is abit squashed.
I took a screencap of it currently and clipped off the top 220 pixels of the DMD and stretched the image and I think the result is really good.
The middle of the table is more proportional.
For now it might be nice to clip off the bottom of the table while leaving room for the dmd while still having better proportions.
Anyways just an idea
heres a pic showing the comparison

If it's just about stretching the screen vertically, it won't be possible to do it with my mod because it only takes control over the ingame camera. Isn't it possible to achieve this by tweaking the vertical screen resolution?

Apart from that, i'm back at home, could you guys please summarize the things that you wanted to see implemented in my mod, some people have posted here and there and i can't remember everything.

- External hook with loaded table name for backglass support?
- A way to specify the processname to start? (to be able to start Dx11 version directly)
- ...
- ?

Thanks!

Ok I wasn't sure if was doable..No biggie it was a wouldn't it be great kinda thing.
And no my native res of the display is 1920x1080 so you can't stretch the display inherently to change the proportions If you pick a different aspect ratio the game clips the bottom and top and adds black bars to maintain the proportions

I think the number one request for all front end users is to be able to trigger the mod off of the dx11.exe being renamed to pinballarcade.exe since the default exe that runs from the steam version is the dx9.exe but if you back that up and rename the dx11.exe to the same pinballarcade.exe it will launch the dx11 version. but the camera mod currently doesn't trigger off it ..
a line in the ini file that lets us add the names of exe's to trigger off of would be awesome.

I'm not sure specifics but if when the mod loads a table camera file it triggered a background pic to load on a full screen on a second monitor that matches the name of the camera file (HighSpeed2 triggered Highspeed2.png or Highspeed2.mp4) would be amazing.
even just a scripted external hook that launched MPC-HC with commandline arguments for/path /fullscreen /monitor N /play "table name" since its free open source and anyone can get it.
I'm not sure what other request were out there other then those two

Noex are you familiar with ravarcade's BAM plugin for future pinball? Whats stopping the use of something like freetrack to communicate with your mod to change the camera values in realtime in accordance to the players head in relation to a base point on the monitor? sorry if this is a bad question I just cant imagine why farsight hasn't done this themselves....

Here are a couple of photos of the CamMod/CabMod running in my cabinet. I played TPA more today than in the past 3 months altogether .








The PinDMD is idle for TPA atm. Hopefully Farsight will implement support for it one day.

This looks killer!
Can't wait to get back to the cab and try this stuff out.

SilverBalls said:

The PinDMD is idle for TPA atm. Hopefully Farsight will implement support for it one day.

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I put a litte switch to the power supply cable of the pindDMD, didn't like the extra refelction on the playfield. For VP etc. I switch it back on...

Hello. I've successfully configured my 3 monitor system to support 2 monitors (playfield and backglass) and am now trying to attempt to get the 3rd monitor (for DMD) to work. I thought I had it but have been having problems with the resolution. My 17" DMD screen is 1366x768 which at full resolution makes the TPA DMD look too small. I'm able to change my resolution on that screen to 1024x768 and it gets better but still doesn't fill up enough of the screen. I then went down to its lowest standard resolution of 800x600 which looks good from a TPA standpoint but I've struggled getting the PBAFreeCamMod software to display an image on that screen at that resolution. For some reason it wants to move it to the other screens when I go that low of resolution. If I up my resolution to 1024x768 or higher, it displays the image just fine. I've tried different image sizes (640x480 and 800x600) those don't seem to make a difference. Any chance this is something that could be in the PBAFreeCamMod code?

Second quick one.... If I can get this to work, then that means I can truly have a 3 screen experience. I would use the FreeCamMod software to display the DMD and a surrounding bezel in the DMD monitor and right now I'd use another utility (ShowBackGlass) to display a normal backglass image on the backglass monitor.. What I would really like is the ability for the FreeCamMod utility to display one image on one monitor and another image on a different monitor. That way, I could have my DMD Bezel on the DMD screen and my Backglass image on the Backglass screen using just this one tool. Any chance this feature can be added?

Really awesome utility - it has made TPA much more enjoyable on my cab. Thanks!