Details on PC Cabinet support for TPA

[SilverBalls]

Great stuff Robert. Will be interesting to see how it works with NoEx mod

 

[karl]

It has a Subforum here in the pc section called free camera mod

Thanks, mpad.

Now, how on earth did I miss that thread

 

[Heretic]

your too busy with my 10 or so pinball machines!

just sayin

go on i need paragon....update yer thread

 

[Robert Misner]

ok so heres what i got so far with a horizontal layout
in nvidia controls the backglass monitor is the top of the T centered with a resolution of 1600x1200(not native but trying to make dmd appear bigger).
The playfield monitor is 1080x1920
in TPA configuration I set the game back buffer to 1080 x 2160 and then stretched things best I could to fill screen and have dmd and "THING" show up on second display.
the bright yellow sides aren't seen on the playfield monitor thats screen edge but when ya printscreen in a t shape you end up seeing desktop their when ya really can't
I want to try editing a background image with a transparent hole where the TPA dmd is..i dont' think it will work since i think the game will end up in forground to play but gonna try.
if that doesn't work I think I might just go back to the print up a generic speaker overlay image and glue to foamcore and cut out the center section that is where the tpa dmd is and jsut set pinballx to have background images without speaker grill area above it.

 

[chinzman93]

Looks really good. However, the way things are going I am afraid that if things start looking to good FS will disable portrait mode.

Farsight is starting to remind me of something. Funny thing is, there logo is similar to Time Warner's as well....

"Awww...We're sorry that we can't offer cab support.....Awww....that's to bad....Awww...."

 

[mpad]

wow, and as simple as that !!!
Thanks Robert!
No you can use this actual window manager to hide the windows window border, right?

 

[Robert Misner]

ok more progress
found a cool little utility http://customdesktoplogo.wikidot.com/download
lets you scale a transparent image thats always ontop of your screen so used that and this image
as background i made transparent box approx where dmd is..i can refine so it looks seemless later
.. it does requires manual movement since the utility seems to always put it above where the taskbar is..but its a start.

http://1drv.ms/1O54FKM

I'll add in video link onces its processed.

heres table in action ..looks pretty good for an afternoon of Dr. Frankenstein'in things together

 

[chinzman93]

ok more progress
found a cool little utility http://customdesktoplogo.wikidot.com/download
lets you scale a transparent image thats always ontop of your screen so used that and this image
as background i made transparent box approx where dmd is..i can refine so it looks seemless later
.. it does requires manual movement since the utility seems to always put it above where the taskbar is..but its a start.

http://1drv.ms/1O54FKM

I'll add in video link onces its processed.

heres table in action ..looks pretty good for an afternoon of Dr. Frankenstein'in things together

The video is Very Cool! Nice work.

 

[SilverBalls]

One day and you cracked it Robert! Welldone. So I think you are using the Camera Mod to create a view, that results in the DMD not being over any important table stuff, that way you can overlap the play field screen onto the back glass screen to get the DMD there.

Thanks for your info. I will be back home in two weeks so will have a go at it. Cheers

 

[L33]

ok more progress
found a cool little utility http://customdesktoplogo.wikidot.com/download
lets you scale a transparent image thats always ontop of your screen so used that and this image
as background i made transparent box approx where dmd is..i can refine so it looks seemless later
.. it does requires manual movement since the utility seems to always put it above where the taskbar is..but its a start.

http://1drv.ms/1O54FKM

I'll add in video link onces its processed.

heres table in action ..looks pretty good for an afternoon of Dr. Frankenstein'in things together

Are these the sort of mods you can make once and every tables dmd will fit, or is it a case of having to make alterations for every table? Not able to try this till the new comp comes so I'm still on dx9 and can't use the Noex mod either.

 

[Spitfire]

Looking good Mate. I will need to see if I can get it to run on my virtual cab. As it doesn't look like we will Be getting cab support soon going off these Facebook message replays from The Pinball Arcade? Urghhh!! Asked for an update and if it would be released in 2015 they said they are working on it in their spare time and unfortunately they don't know when it will be complete!!

 

[Robert Misner]

One day and you cracked it Robert! Welldone. So I think you are using the Camera Mod to create a view, that results in the DMD not being over any important table stuff, that way you can overlap the play field screen onto the back glass screen to get the DMD there.

Thanks for your info. I will be back home in two weeks so will have a go at it. Cheers

yes I created a custom view that fills the screen like a cab best i can but left the area where the dmd is just above the top of the art from the back of the play field box so you don't lose anything.

Things are coming along nicely but its a compromise still, since your manually adjusting the window ect I'm not sure you'll ever be able to get as clean and sharp a display as full screen super sampling etc. Due to the elongated aspect ratio you end up seeing more of the lockdownbar as well. which can't be avoided as far as I can tell. But its something.

I figured out just turning off the taskbar on other displays fixed the overlay positioning issue.

I've edited someones(i can't remember where I got it originally) grill to fit over the screen perfectly with none of the background showing thru for standard DMD tables
its size is 1600x320 so if anyone has backglass images they want to use just size it 1600x880 and combine the two and it will fit perfectly.
I've created an example with creature..I'll probably just make them all but the source art files aren't ones i created so I hope no one gets offended for not giving proper credit to who ever originally created them.


Heres the grill and creature example for those that just want to experiment with this.

You will find you need to resize the game window and positioning to "fit" the DMD in the backglass hole..once positioned right the game remembers it for future launches and all tables dmd's will be in the same spot.

heres the DmD Grill http://1drv.ms/1M3ngao

and heres the creature backglass with the grill attached http://1drv.ms/1M3noqz

 

[Robert Misner]

Are these the sort of mods you can make once and every tables dmd will fit, or is it a case of having to make alterations for every table? Not able to try this till the new comp comes so I'm still on dx9 and can't use the Noex mod either.

The camera mod has a settings for each table that can be adjusted then saved.
The actual game windows positioning and stretching is remembered on further launches.
The thing to realize is that the two are independent. The game window stretching and positioning will ensure the dmd is on the second screen where you want it and will stay there. The camera mod lets you re-position whats in the game window so it fills the playfield window better but doesn't lose any of the table image under the dmd section of the window thats being stretched over to the second screen and the camera mod never moves the floating dmd graphic..just whats behind it.

I'm gonna retweek my camera files and update the shared zip..i'd just recommend starting with those and the sample creature backglass file.. tweak the window scaling and positioning till it fits right then go from there.

 

[Robert Misner]

I think this is a good start but what we're really gonna need now is someone with some programming skills to automate it all so it can be used in a front end like PinballX
If NoEx could incorporate this into the Camera mod it would be ideal,

 

[L33]

The camera mod has a settings for each table that can be adjusted then saved.
The actual game windows positioning and stretching is remembered on further launches.
The thing to realize is that the two are independent. The game window stretching and positioning will ensure the dmd is on the second screen where you want it and will stay there. The camera mod lets you re-position whats in the game window so it fills the playfield window better but doesn't lose any of the table image under the dmd section of the window thats being stretched over to the second screen and the camera mod never moves the floating dmd graphic..just whats behind it.

I'm gonna retweek my camera files and update the shared zip..i'd just recommend starting with those and the sample creature backglass file.. tweak the window scaling and positioning till it fits right then go from there.

Cheers for that. Will have to have a go soon.

 

[pinballnoob]

Hey Robbie, that's cool. Does that mean you would have to set up some kind of wallpaper in the background to like, totally immerse your game? I'm just curious, it looks like something I might try as well. Is it that you are stretching the playfield onto the second monitor, but then, above that, whatever? In your screenshot it looks like you were cruising the forums. This may be obvious but I can't quite figure out what I'm looking at!

In any case, I might as well bellyache some too. I am really new to all of this, but I took the visual pinball plunge this weekend. And, I just want to say, wow... how civilized. I spent a whopping 2 seconds clicking and dragging my DMD over to my 2nd monitor, placed it where I wanted it, and then I resized it. OMG. Hello extra 4 inches or so of playfield and, wow... so ridiculously easy.

Edit: I'm sorry! I missed an entire page of new forum posts where you cover more detail on this. FACEPALM. Anyway, nice job.

 

[NoEx]

I think this is a good start but what we're really gonna need now is someone with some programming skills to automate it all so it can be used in a front end like PinballX
If NoEx could incorporate this into the Camera mod it would be ideal,

Yes that would be a good thing to automate all the process, but ill need to chat with you on Skype or something, this way you could explain me exactly what you need.

 

[Heretic]

people powa, roll on boys

 

[Robert Misner]

Yes that would be a good thing to automate all the process, but ill need to chat with you on Skype or something, this way you could explain me exactly what you need.

Fantastic news! I'll PM ya with my skype info , gonna work on creating all the back glass image transparencies and tweak camera file settings for now.

 

[Jeff Strong]

This actually makes me want to start playing again.