My pinball setup and 'solution' to PA backglass

[pinballnoob]

I would like for you all to get a good laugh at my current pinball setup, but also to show my solution to the lack of backglass support in PA. After playing Future Pinball with backglass and working dmd, I got really sad looking at my bare second monitor, so I’ve been trying to find some answers, and is the main reason I came to learn about your forum.

I find my setup hilarious and enjoyable at the same time. It cost me nothing to put together, as I had all the components already. It may cost me $25 next month if I get hooked on the program I’m using to get the backglass in a decent enough shape to satisfy me. That program is Actual Multiple Monitors, and I’m currently on their 30 day free trial. Your mileage may vary with this program, but so far I am experiencing no lag or framerate issues, though this may change. If you guys know of a free alternative that works for you I would be all ears!

In this example my backglass just has a static image of Medieval Madness, with the mirrored scoreboard from the play field placed in the appropriate spot. The scoreboard is still on the playfield but luckily it is set up so high that I can push my monitor back so that I don't see it and it doesn't obstruct the game. For me to currently make this work for all of the pins I enjoy would require me to reset my back wallpaper each game and create custom setups in AMM for each DMD display size/location. I have also been enjoying the Big Shot table quite a lot, so I need to get a wallpaper and new setup for that pin for example. I haven’t tried hyperpin or other front end launcher yet, so maybe this would help? I don’t know. The whole setup could use some polishing and I haven't really experimented much with AMM, so maybe there is a way to more-prettify my display.

Anyway, I hope you guys get a good laugh at my setup. I know I chuckle every time I see it, though the wifey thinks I may be losing it. The kids love it though.

~ pinballnoob

-- Of course I play awful for video, haha.

Breakdown:
My computer could be boiled down to AMD-FX8350 chipset, AMD R9 270 Graphics card, 8g.Ram, 1TB Mechanical Hard Drive

Monitor 1: 23" Asus VH238 1080x1920
Monitor 2: 17" Dell who-dunnit 1280x1024

Burnett's Vodka box cut with boxcutter to house controllers. (And some tape.)
2 Logitech controllers that are basically xbox360 controllers.
1 NES USB controller (I have considered repurposing a flight stick for the plunger – the Z axis (throttle) flips up and down. I’ve yet to dig it out of storage to try).
(I use Joy2Key to program the buttons to flippers, plunger, coin insert, nudge, etc.)

Aiwa stereo from 1998 that won't die. Poor quality headphones.

4 big sized novels to lift and stabilize the two monitors. Diana Gabaldon books work well for this. I even have the set up so that the main playfield is sloping upwards.

 

[Heretic]

its not that bad man well done, gotta love abit of mcgyver pinballin! bonus points for the nest controller heh

 

[Pop Sergeant]

Welcome! I followed you here from your introduction post. Not disappointed, not even a little! I've already mentally tagged you as "MacGyver" -- and I'm trying to remember where I stashed the duct tape and snips as I type.

I like it.

Hey ...

Here's a couple of threads that might interest you, I know being new to the forum can mean a lot of hunting around, so just to get you started:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/10199-DOWNLOAD-Pinball-Arcade-Free-Camera-Mod

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/10244-Building-A-Virtual-Pinball-Cabinet

Again, welcome and thanks for posting the pics and the description.

 

[Kolchak357]

Looks pretty sweet. Nice job!

 

[pinballnoob]

Ah thanks! And thanks for the links. I came across the camera-mod thread and I haven't put aside the time or energy to experiment with it yet, but I certainly haven't seen the pinball cabinet L33 is working on. McGuyver... I can live with that! I'm a librarian by trade so I'm used to getting by with whatever is on hand. I originally wanted to re-purpose the computer I built in 2005 to do pinball emulation, in tandem with a 32" TV that is about as old, but I had so much fun learning how it all worked on my main rig that I decided to just scrap that idea and one day build a real cabinet. That might be quite a while though.

Oh, and I will think of you as 'Cid', haha. My 7 yo daughter and I loaded my PS2 & FF7 a few months back and have been chipping away at it ever since.

 

[FlippyFloppy]

Speaking of FF7, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kznek1uNVsg
I can't wait to relive it again!

 

[Robert Misner]

love it!
Welcome to the poor-mans world of Frankenstein'n together a virtual Pinball setup Its alotta fun

 

[Snorzel]

That's some ingenuity, looks like fun

 

[Kratos3]

I think it's pretty sweet!

 

[priested]

Hmmm...This is pretty interesting. I am currently using a program to change the back glass automatically but I can't display the DMD on the 2nd monitor. It looks like this program can do that but my questions relate to the automation.

Since the DMDs and scoreboards are different sizes and shapes, do you have to manually set this each time you play? How automated is your setup as far as changing the wallpaper and DMD display when you change tables?

Edit: OK in reading back over your post it looks like you haven't got this automated but do you know if this mirroring program can save the DMD size/placement for multiple tables? umfortunately, if this setupcan't be automated across multiple tables, then it wouldn't be useful for me but it does look cool though. Nice job!

 

[WhiteChocolate]

i think it looks brilliant!! a 'small man's' cab ain't no shame, lol ... i think that might be the best option certainly for home hobbyists wanting an affordable (read: "non-divorcible!" ;0) alternative to a full-sized virtual cab... there's gotta be a market for a "mini"!!! i'm quite envious now lol ... thinks 'that's my next goal in life'...

 

[priested]

Ok. I messed around with the AMM program a little this afternoon and I think it holds promise for my mini-cab setup! I have to start everything in a certain order or it breaks the backglass program I am using. BUT, provided I start AMM after starting up TPA and the backglass program, IT WORKS! I am able to display and change backglasses and DMDs on the 2nd screen.

Since Farsight always places DMDs in the same place (top/center) the partial screen mirroring works perfectly. Where things aren't so great are the non-DMD tables. If the scoreboard is in the center, then it works OK. The mirrored window is usually a bit larger than the score. If the scoreboard is off to the side, then it obviously doesn't work.

I now just need to automate things a bit by modifying my startup scripts and this should be very functional for 90% of the tables. Works great for me because I just bought a monitor where the dimensions will hide the DMD on the table and maximize my cabinet...similar to what you have done in your photo. I would not have been able to do this without the mirroring.

Thanks for posting this! By this weekend I should have a much improved mini-cab setup!

 

[pinballnoob]

Cool, I'm glad I posted my setup then! And, sorry for not catching these posts sooner. Good luck getting everything set up this weekend.

From the sounds of it you have already figured out as much and more about AMM than I have. I pretty much have only gotten the mirror working and have just left it at that... no cleaning up the windows, or trying to add that camera mod on top, or anything like that. But, to answer the question anyway... from what I can tell with AMM, you can create multiple different Mirror profiles... though I've been pretty lazy and haven't made any others... though judging by the name, Mirror1, I'm assuming I can make several preset mirror xy coordinates. I've also been pretty lazy and have just left my wallpaper set to Medieval Madness... haha, it looks a bit odd when playing say, TOTAN, but it gets the job done. I should probably just get a different wallpaper that just works for anything I plug there.

I've got to say though, even on the super amateur and new to pinball level that I currently am... I am pretty hooked on my free AMM account. I will be sad to see the 2nd monitor DMD screen go when my free trial runs out. I doubt I'll fork over whatever they want, however. When I first started mirroring programs I tried ultramon first and it was horribly laggy. I tried AMM second. There may very well be other mirroring programs that are free or cheaper.

 

[Carny_Priest]

I use ffmpeg to capture and stream in real-time to a second window via the localhost network feedback interface. All is launched and controlled with an AutoHotkey script that I wrote.

I have a Pinball 2000 style virtual cab. I developed the script for Pinball FX2. Although Zen does provide a way to move the DMD, I needed to vertically flip the image for projection onto the playfield. This solution wound up doing the job with very little latency.

This would still require figuring out the correct dimensions and location of the DMD per table so that you could tell ffmpeg where to do a screen capture. I have not gotten around to doing this for TPA yet. I don't have anything invested in TPA at the moment. I use VP. It's easier to just wait around for proper cab support, but even if/when the time comes, I anticipate that it will not come with the ability to flip the DMD image for a Pinball 2000 cab. I'll have to script this anyway. Ffmpeg and AutoHotkey are open source and freely available.

 

[priested]

Just a quick update. This solution wound up being nearly perfect for my setup. I ended up using the more robust Actual Window Manager software so I could not only mirror the DMD but also remove the window title and borders. This works very well for all but several tables that do not display the score in the top center. Thankfully those are very few and represent some of the worst tables I rarely, if ever play (Goin' Nuts, Genie, etc.) I will probably end up just using a hot key to move the mirror when I play those tables.

I can now automatically change backglasses and display the DMD on a second monitor. I might post some pics of my setup if it would help anyone. I think this goes most of the way toward what I would want in cabinet support anyway so I am no longer waiting in dismay for those features.

Thanks again for posting this. It really helped improve my setup. However, I don't know how well it would translate to other pincabs since you have to lose the top 4-5 inches of the display. You really need to be able to mask or cover the DMD on the play field to make this look good. While I look at it as wasted space anyway since it only contains the scoreboard, some might not wish to or be able to lose that display real estate.

 

[Robert Misner]

Priested that sounds awesome!
please do share pic's I'm doing a dual monitor and controller setup minus the pinball cabinet and would love to see what i can incorporate for a better interim solution.

I've been messing around with VP9 Physmod5 last week and wowi it is really cool, but, its also really deepened my appreciation for TPA. TPA with DX11 and NoEx camera mod and updated flipper physics are just at a different level.
Any way of Getting the dmd on the back monitor would really help

 

[pinballnoob]

Yes, pics! I started to ask myself, actually. I would love to see your setup. Thanks Carny for the info on ffmpeg and autohotkey. I will look into those when my AMM runs out.

Oh, and I did finally drag out my old flight stick to try for a makeshift plunger. It works pretty good, actually! I double wrapped a pretty hefty rubber band around the throttle and stick and set Joy2Key to use this as my plunger. It probably has too much resistance, but it is fun! At the very least it has a very satisfying snap back to the resting position. I just pull back with my thumb and release. I can make the skill shot on TOTAN using my NES pad A button as Spacebar nearly every time... but with my flight stick I miss it every time! So, what I make up for in fun I certainly lose in control. Maybe with some tweaking and practice I could get the hang of it. I doubt I will shave off the top part of the stick and place it in my vodka box, but, it is tempting! I've killed a couple of these controllers before on other makeshift projects but I haven't seen any at Goodwill in so long that I'm afraid that maybe I won't get many more chances to nab another.

 

[priested]

Ok. I will try to get some pics and possibly a vid to show what I have. It is modest but really quite functional and fun...for me anyway. Although I'm sure the hard core folks would laugh at it. The pin cab really does add a lot to the fun of playing this game.

Just a note on the AMM or AWM program. Don't buy it up front. When you go to uninstall, it offers a 30% discount! That makes AMM about $17 and AWM $35. For me, AWM is the way to go. It's really a shame because you need so little of the functionality of these programs. I tried getting away with just AMM but never could get my autohotkey script to remove the title bar and borders. If you could figure out how to do that, you could get away with just AMM. I figure I will get some use out of the AWM program on my personal computers too but even if I dont, the $35 is money well spent IMO.

I haven't really messed around with Noex's mod. I might do that next. Sounds like his mod might allow me to perfect the play field display. My fear with that mod is that it would put the DMD in different places for each table. If so, that would greatly complicate getting the mirroring to work correctly. Unlike many here, I don't really mind the more forward facing views Farsight uses for portrait. I also play Pinball FX2 and I don't like the extreme overhead views they chose. For my setup the ball is too small and it look much more 2 dimensional.

 

[priested]

I don't post photos much so hopefully this works. The first 2 show off my rig - modest as it is. This was built on the cheap. The the monitor and TV were old units I was no longer using elsewhere. The original TV was an old 26" HDTV (so old it did not have HDMI input - only DVI). This "mod" allowed me to swap it out with a 32" without upsizing the cabinet. The cabinet was made from a cheap black bookshelf bought from Walmart for $18 (you know, the Sauder type). For the controls, I tore apart a PC arcade controller I bought from GameStop and used it's buttons, joystick and control interface ($50). The cab is sitting on an old entertainment center I bought from a garage sale for $15. So, see, you don't have to be rich to build one of these things - only resourceful!

Anyway, the pics aren't great but hopefully you can see the backglass and DMD display. I took 2 more closer up. One is a DMD table (Cactus Canyon). The other is a non-DMD (Funhouse). You can see that both are very functional using pinballnoob's mirroring technique. Again, there are currently, I believe, 6 tables where this won't work because the score is not in the center. All others are fine. The DMD tables are perfect. The others - not quite - but good enough for me.

The design of my cabinet allows the top portion of the display that includes the DMD hidden. I only see the mirrored version on the backglass. My startup script places the mirrored window and I navigate the menus with the joystick. I am using another script for the backglass. It all works seamlessly now and I am very happy. Thanks pinballnoob!

 

[Carny_Priest]

My AutoHotkey script for PFX2 is here -

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic...-working-through-pinballx-launch/#entry144806

PinballX launches the script and is responsible for displaying backglasses.
ffmpeg captures, streams, and plays back the DMD image on the third screen and flips the image for my Pinball 2000 style cab
antimicro is a freely available, open source key mapper like xpadder
AutoHotkey instructions strips out the title and borders from the playback window and hides everything else

The script should be adaptable in some form for TPA. It don't cost nothing, anyway.