DMD mirroring in default portrait TPA camera

[codinghorror]

After messing around with the camera mod for a long while, I decided I actually preferred the default (and, yes, sometimes moving even when locked) portrait TPA camera for a variety of reasons.

So I basically use FreeCamera as a simple backglass switcher, and it's fine. But I kept wondering, even though I preferred the DMD on the main playfield (ala Cirqus Voltaire), could we mirror the DMD to the DMD display as well?

Thanks to [MENTION=5267]NoEx[/MENTION] and [MENTION=591]freezy[/MENTION] this is now possible!

Just download https://github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions and use these params

dmdext mirror --source=pinballarcade --fps=30 --virtual-hide-grip --virtual-position 3200 0 800

Of course you'll want to change the position to match your monitor layout, but it works beautifully. Be sure to start the .exe with admin rights and before you launch TPA and it just works.

(The only caveat is that the Frankenstein table has a non-default DMD resolution so it's not currently supported.)

 

[freezy]

Cheers, thanks for the screenshot

So your virtual cab's DMD cutout comes with a different aspect ratio than 1:4? Why would they do that? Are the DMDs in your other games stretched as well?

 

[NoEx]

Thanks a lot [MENTION=3350]codinghorror[/MENTION] (you know why)! It encourages me to keep going on my virtual pinball dev projects, if I got some free time I'll look into Frankenstein DMD support.

 

[codinghorror]

So your virtual cab's DMD cutout comes with a different aspect ratio than 1:4? Why would they do that? Are the DMDs in your other games stretched as well?

Yeah the others (Timeshock Ultra, FX2) just size the DMD to whatever dimensions you give it. If you make it ridiculous looking, well, that's on you the user

That said, I don't think 1:2 is that distorted in practice.

I think the DMD display is a function of whatever small PC monitor size you can find. You could crop it with physical material of course as needed in the backbox. I'm not aware of any PC monitors that have a 1:4 aspect ratio, but if you know some, do share!

 

[Pike13]

So, trying this extension out and it works great for what I'm trying to do. I'm using FCM for backglass switching as well as locking in a camera view directly over the playfield. Then using FCM to hide the game HUD and DMDExt to mirror it on my DMD using this instead of setting up individual table DMD views. I'm using this command line:

dmdext mirror --source=pinballarcade --virtual-position 2360 0 790 470 --virtual-hide-grip --fps=30

The position parameters don't seem to be respecting the Height. Based on my setup and screen resolutions, it shows up in the right x,y coordinate and then the width is set to just fill up my DMD (I have VirtuaPin mini - not sure what actual DMD it is) but the Height parameter seems to be ignored. Am I interpreting this correctly as being a pixel height or is it something else?

If I leave the grip in I can resize how I want and the output scales appropriately. Just not from the get go.

 

[codinghorror]

Height param was only added to recent versions of dmdext (as a way to override fixed ratio), so make sure you have latest on that.

 

[Pike13]

I believe I have the latest - 1.4. Timestamps of 12/23.

 

[Pike13]

Following up on this one, freezy did respond with an update that fixed the problem. More info here:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/11472-Real-DMD-support-available

 

[codinghorror]

Hmm, I belatedly realized pressing H (as in "H"ide UI) in the default TPA keyboard shortcuts hides the DMD! So this way you don't have to see the DMD repeated on the screen by the dmd-extensions program, just launch the game, press H, and you have the DMD only on the third monitor.

Duh, not sure why I didn't realize this months ago..

(I also replaced my 7" USB DMD monitor with a 10.1" IPS DMD monitor which fits perfectly between the speakers. Much more proportionally correct than the 7" even in mini size..)

 

[codinghorror]

Pic of the 10.1" DMD in place.

Note that both backglass and DMD monitors are now IPS, I replaced both.. which is why the colors are better on the right compared to the left. Friends don't let friends TN LCD.. so bad.

 

[Pike13]

That is what I'm doing, basically having FCM turn off the playfield DMD but by using dmdext to mirror, the mirrored DMD still shows up on the third monitor. Although the playfield DMD still shows up when you have to enter a high score, not a big deal.

Where did you get your IPS DMD? Did you have to do any 'hardware' modifications (i.e. with a saw) to the cabinet?

Until recently I haven't been doing too much with TPA since it was impossible to launch from PinballX (trying to go with the 'realistic' turn the pinball machine on and play with no mouse or keyboard route) but with the recent FCM release and some scripting, got everything working. Well almost everything, now going through all my TPA tables and fiddling with FCM to get them just right.

 

[codinghorror]

Details are in the comments on my blog entry. https://blog.codinghorror.com/your-digital-pinball-machine/

 

[curtis]

I'm playing around with this DMD extension program. So far, I like it. However, it's not bright enough. The DMDext dots for TPA are very dim. Any ideas/ suggestions?