codinghorror
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- Aug 13, 2013
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I have a 3 monitor (playfield/backglass/dmd) pincab, but when it comes to TPA, after messing around with the mod a lot (which is awesome), I decided that I wanted the DMD to remain on the playfield monitor for a variety of reasons:
1. Not having to hackily adjust the playfield up to "hide" or "shift" the DMD to another monitor makes life a whooole lot easier
2. I kinda like the DMD on the playfield itself, ala Cirqus Voltaire, I do think this is ultimately easier to read and a better experience for the pinball player than having the DMD on the backglass where you have to constantly look "up" to read it while playing.
3. In 16:9 portrait mode you have so much room at the top of the playfield that overlaying a DMD up there really does not really obstruct any playfield table items you're actively looking at.
4. The mild movement of the table camera in default TPA portrait is kinda useful in that you no longer need to compromise the view to make sure the plunger is visible, etcetera. And you can lock the view with the default TPA portrait camera as well, so movement is minimized during gameplay.
That said if TPA ever introduced native multiple monitor DMD support I would use it in a heartbeat of course!! I use native multiple monitor support in FX2 and TimeShock ultra to great effect.
Anyway, here's how to use FreeCamera Mod as a dynamic backglass changer only:
In settings.ini set the following values:
(Where X is your backglass monitor number of course!!)
This essentially disables all camera controls, so what you end up with is a nice dynamic backglass changer, and the default TPA portrait camera.
(Don't forget to populate the cam mod /backglass folder with backglass images at the desired monitor resolution, per-table)
1. Not having to hackily adjust the playfield up to "hide" or "shift" the DMD to another monitor makes life a whooole lot easier
2. I kinda like the DMD on the playfield itself, ala Cirqus Voltaire, I do think this is ultimately easier to read and a better experience for the pinball player than having the DMD on the backglass where you have to constantly look "up" to read it while playing.
3. In 16:9 portrait mode you have so much room at the top of the playfield that overlaying a DMD up there really does not really obstruct any playfield table items you're actively looking at.
4. The mild movement of the table camera in default TPA portrait is kinda useful in that you no longer need to compromise the view to make sure the plunger is visible, etcetera. And you can lock the view with the default TPA portrait camera as well, so movement is minimized during gameplay.
That said if TPA ever introduced native multiple monitor DMD support I would use it in a heartbeat of course!! I use native multiple monitor support in FX2 and TimeShock ultra to great effect.
Anyway, here's how to use FreeCamera Mod as a dynamic backglass changer only:
In settings.ini set the following values:
Code:
FreeCameraMode=0
AutoLoadCamFile=0
CabinetMode=1
BGMonitor=X
WindowStretch=0
DMDMonitor=1(Where X is your backglass monitor number of course!!)
This essentially disables all camera controls, so what you end up with is a nice dynamic backglass changer, and the default TPA portrait camera.
(Don't forget to populate the cam mod /backglass folder with backglass images at the desired monitor resolution, per-table)
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