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Pin2DMD Editor


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I think we could use a better tutorial for how to start creating the colorizations.  I have read the editor information here:  http://pin2dmd.com/editor/ . It does a great job of describing the items in the editor, but trying to follow along for virtual use, I couldn't get very far.

I first grabbed the specialty vpinmame.dll with dump functionality from here:  http://vpuniverse.com/forums/files/file/4179-vpinmame-sam-for-pin2dmd-editor/.

For testing I just ran the Setup.exe for vpinmame and selected the Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends ROM rab_320.

The first error I received was that "PinDMD not found".  I clicked ok and let the attract mode run through. A rab_320_dump.txt file was created.  Opening it looks like an ascii graphic conversion of the animations on the DMD.

The first question: is gzip specifically required to .zip the txt file? Is there something special about it?  Would 7zip or built in windows compression work?  I have both and tried creating a .zip with both, but neither seemed to work.

For the editor (found here: https://bintray.com/sker65/pin2dmd/Editor/latest/view#files)  I started with x64 version.  That opens fine, although I can't load the animations from the .zip file.  When I select it, nothing happens.

I tried the 32bit version of the editor, but it only shows the splash screen and won't open.

Do I need a license to have the editor work?  How does one get a license?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks

-Mike

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Since version 2.8 the needed dump functionality is integrated into the official pinmame source. So the latest version should work as good. Generate a dump fsubolder called "dmddump" in your vpinmame folder and activate "Use external DMD" and "Show DMD Window" together.

You also can use 7zip but you need to set gzip as Archiveformat. 

To work with the editor you don´t need a license. Only to export files for the use with pin2dmd technology.

 

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I have a 2.9 version of vpinmame.dll and I have the boxes checked, But no .txt files get created with it. I'm not sure what you mean by "generate a dump subfolder".  I tried creating a folder called "dump" and tried creating a folder of the same name as the ROM.  I also tried creating a folder in the 'altcolor' folder as well.  No .txt files were created.  Is there a setting I am missing?

Also here is a bit more detail on creating the archive file (for others).  It seems that you MUST name the file  romname_dump.txt.gz.  I didn't have the .txt in the file name and it would not work.

Thanks!

-Mike

 

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please post here any information that you find could be useful to others. I am trying to color my MM real pinball and I am working the editor with a pin2dmd aside my computer as well as a pin2dmd in my MM pinball machine but its not obvious how to get the color mask, pallet switching and animations to work. Im almost there so any advice would be great. I will try to post some too. Here are some things im struggling to understand:

1. When I cut an animation, it seems to change the timing of it. Im not sure how this affects the final animation but I think it screws it up.

2. Rather than cutting any animations, is it just better to cut each frame that you want to color? If so, how many frame sequences and key frames can you have(this would end up in thousands im thinking)?

3. If you mask only a portion of the screen, I know it only takes those areas into account for the checksum but when viewing it, does it only replace those areas as well(leaving the dynamic content alone with the default pallet)? if not then this is only good for pallet switches rather than replacement content...

4. How do you do a color mask? I see what it says on pin2dmd.com but its hard to figure out.

 

Anyway, good luck and lets get good at this so we can grow the community!!!

-Tom

 

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1. timing is exactly copied from the source.

2. Yes that is also possible. VBobrusev used this on many frames. He ended up with about 300 keyframes which is not a problem.
If you color a scene you can cut it later into single frame, so I would start with coloring the complete scene.

3. The Mask is only for detection and to blank out areas which should not be used for detection. The checksums are then used as a trigger point for a palette switch, replacement scene or ColorMask.

4. 4 shade machines send out 2bit of information = 4 colors. Wit ColMask you add another 2 bit = 16 colors. To start with this you need to cut a scene / frame. Check the ColMask checkbox for the scene. Assign color 4,5,6,7 in the palette and draw a rectangle with color 5. This should give you a impression how it works. The colored area then takes color 5,6,7,8 with existing pixels from machine dump. The same with 9,10,11,12 and 13,14,15,16.
 

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23 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

1. timing is exactly copied from the source.
 

I downloaded the current editor. It seems like the timing of a cut scene ends up being the same value as the first cut frame rather than changing through the scene. Hard to describe but if I cut a scene at a frame that has a long timing, the whole cut scene ends up playing very slow(at least in the editor it does). It uses the same timing for all of the frames, not the original timing which seems dynamic.

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9 hours ago, tjc02002 said:

I downloaded the current editor. It seems like the timing of a cut scene ends up being the same value as the first cut frame rather than changing through the scene. Hard to describe but if I cut a scene at a frame that has a long timing, the whole cut scene ends up playing very slow(at least in the editor it does). It uses the same timing for all of the frames, not the original timing which seems dynamic.

I just checked it and it is working as expected. 

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  • 6 months later...

Hello everybody,

 

Sorry for asking but I want to know  two things :

- if it's possible to use colorization for those who don't have a pin2dmd... i know that works with Stern ROM, but I mean for the others (wiliams, bally, data east etc..)

- And secondly, how can I apply my mod to use it in my Virtual Pinball (i've got a pin2dmd )

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For those with no pin2dmd it is not yet implemented in freezys dll.

To use your colorization you simply export your project for virtual pinball and place it the pal and vni file in the vpinmame/altcolor/*usedROMnamefolder*
eg vpinmame/altcolor/t2_l8 (terminator 2 example)

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12 hours ago, Rappelbox said:

Where did you export it? Look into that folder?
Was your error message about not releasing copyrighted material or something else?

I 've looked into the good folder... but no *.pal was created. I tried several times yesterday... 

And you are right, the error message is about not releasing copyrighted material ;)

 

Otherwise, could you confim me that we can just use  9 palettes (0 to 8) because when I test with "live preview", all palettes after the n°8 can't be use by my PIN2DMD (updated to 2.41, can't update anymore , it's a PinballSP DMDST32).

Thx

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23 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

Who told you that ?

PinballSP himself :)

I tried to update to 2.43 and that didn't work, so I contacted him to find a solution, i've got a problem on a dip switch I repaired, then I could flash my pin2dmd but i can't put to 2.43, only on 2.41 ;)

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