Jump to content

Creating dmp files from a real pin?


cb3

Recommended Posts

  • 6 months later...

Necrothread! So @thebarto has been creating some dumps for me on his real TNG, but there are some weird artefacts in the dumps he has sent me, for example:

image.thumb.png.369c866bfbd0bbe50f20e93625e0e122.png

For want of a better description, it's like a v-sync issue or a timing problem. Does anyone have any suggestions for how we might solve this? Could this be a relic of running the frame dump, or an indication of a problem with the PIN2DMD setup? I will add that he is also experiencing some issues where my coloured scenes are not firing reliably, even though I'm 99% sure I have key framed every possible hash that can exist in that sequence. When I view the associated dumps from that failed scene, sure enough the frames are mixed similar to the above...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Content Provider

The USB connection is unfortunatelly too slow to capture all frames from a real pin which come at 120Hz refresh rate. The artifacts are due to that fact. If you have 
a problem with triggering you should use raw dumps which allows you to select each of the subframes. STTNG also uses random dots for scenes with stars which makes it a little harder to trigger these scenes. Choose a plane for your hash which does not contain these random dot´s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks lucky; when you say raw dumps, do you mean use the .raw file over the .txt file? Or explore the rom using WPCEDIT for example and exporting the frames through there?

I am aware of the stars as being a possible cause for hash differences (I even have a column in my working spreadsheet where I track all the scenes for cutting called "Beware Stars?" :)), but thebarto is experiencing issues in scenes with no stars. He is running the l5 rom rather than the l7 and I guess this could explain some differences, but when I try and use his dumps to add additional keyframes around the problem areas, I am seeing the above artefacts (in both raw and txt files I hasten to add) and I fear I could be adding keyframes for eternity/they are not consistent. There is no l5 rom readily available for vpinmame that I can find.

I think thebarto is hoping to upgrade his rom to l7 so we may see if we get any difference after that, watch this space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Content Provider

The current pinmame and pin2dmd tool version creates 2 dump files. One with the ending .txt and one with .raw. when you choose
AlvinG, WPC or Gottlieb as device mode. The .raw files contain the image data like it comes from the machine. The.txt
format contains the image with calculated brightness levels. These brightness levels in most cases can be calculated back into the
raw data, which is needed to calculate the hash, except those three machine types. That is why I introduced the raw dump format.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Content Provider

If it has to be L5, I haven't tested but you might try swapping out the code rom file in the L7 set available here at VPU with the LX-5 file available at IPDB.org. Rename as trek_lx7.rom, set game settings to "Ignore ROM CRC error". Then see if VPM will load and execute. I think it might.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lucky that is very interesting and informative, and helps connect some of the dots I have got in my head having spent some time analysing the text files to try and auto-calculate scene cuts.

2 hours ago, CarnyPriest said:

If it has to be L5, I haven't tested but you might try swapping out the code rom file in the L7 set available here at VPU with the LX-5 file available at IPDB.org. Rename as trek_lx7.rom, set game settings to "Ignore ROM CRC error". Then see if VPM will load and execute. I think it might.

This worked great, thank you very much! I confirmed the same scenes are triggering fine through VPX on that ROM set and my PIN2DMD, so this does suggest maybe an issue with the other PIN2DMD I guess...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Content Provider

Honestly, default palette not working and some scenes not triggering. I hope he doesn´t use a hacked pirate copy of a old pin2dmd firmware a spanish guy once created. I recommend he should upgrade to the latest version before continuing .

I also have a real STTNG. If you want me to test something, just let me know. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I sent you a PM lucky. Only barto can confirm for sure, but curiously we did look at some dumps he made previously from his real star wars pin and they don't exhibit the same problem, so could be down to a loose connection or weak signal perhaps; I think he plans to check everything at the weekend when replacing the rom, I will recommend he check the firmware version too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Content Provider

DataEast does not have the transition frames like WPC which means if a frame changes from one to another WPC mixes the first 
and the second frame and generates one or two frames in between. DataEast simply switches from one frame to the other without mixing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
  • Create New...