Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Morning All, I am really hoping ( no begging ! ) for some help here please and I am now beginning to think that I have completely misunderstood what is going on with DMD's. I have a pinball cabinet setup, two screens. The portrait screen is for the table and the standard screen is for the backglass / dmd. I have VPinMame setup and Freezy is installed as well. Games play well - I am able to move the DMD ( set to use external ) and everything looks good. I can use the four based colours to change the colours of roms and have the altcolour folder, that two is working. What I would love to do is use a Rom Colorizations and specifically this one. I took a look at this video here as well as many other resourses and articles. Mame in a Box Video At the 7:22 point that is the type of colour I am looking to setup - but my system simply won't play ball here. I know he's running a vritual DMD as you can see the indicator on the bottom right hand side. This is now beyond frustrating as I am not sure if I am missing something so obvious and I don't expect anyone to wave a magic wand for me - but I am totally stuck and would dearly love some help please. Thank you ( and very hopefully ) for somebody to help an idiot like myself out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalamus Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 If you are enabling 'use external dmd' ( pressing F1 ) - and you have the alcolor subfolder inside vpinmame and the subfolder under there that matches the rom name, containing the two files in the download ( pin2dmd.* ) inside the folder and also have ticked use color. You will get the colors that is defined by the two files in question. It is not something you can really change without editing those files using pin2dmd editor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 8 minutes ago, Thalamus said: If you are enabling 'use external dmd' ( pressing F1 ) - and you have the alcolor subfolder inside vpinmame and the subfolder under there that matches the rom name, containing the two files in the download ( pin2dmd.* ) inside the folder and also have ticked use color. You will get the colors that is defined by the two files in question. It is not something you can really change without editing those files using pin2dmd editor. Hiya - yes - that is what I a ma doing - but I only get the four colours. What I am looking for is this... ...I am certain that this is a virtual DMD by the corner that I've circled. I've put the files from the download link from Lucky1 that I believe gives this - but - I only get the four colours like this. This is where I am really struggling and running out of ideas and thinks to look at - thought I'd finally ask for help to help a stupid old man like me ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalamus Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Read what I told you once again. About what needs to be ticked and what the subfolder inside vpinmame needs to be named. It is essential that those match exactly to the rom that you are using etc. Open table, open scripts - search for cgamename = <romname_is_here>. Then make sure that c:\vp\vpinamame\altcolor\romname_is_here - exists and contains the two pin2dmd files. If they don't - you will get what you are seeing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 Thanks for the reply - I had been doing that already and it just does not play ball. One of the key things is, Attack from Mars boots up with just a white DMD. Just to reflect some changes I could but different coloured pal files in and they would work in changing the base colours - but I was after this. Being able to change the basic colours showed me that it was reading the rom directories and I knew this from when Star Wars was made yellow when I changed that palette. The extended versions I was looking for. Just out of interest I removed the .VNI file and the palette did change and boot up with the white DMD, but there appeared to be glitiches and not working fully. The above picture without the .VNI file is now this. This shows that the directory is right, it is going out. I then replace the .VNI file and try again, back to this... This again proves that something is interfering with something else and not right. My settings are as follows. The config is here... [global] ; how to downscale SEGA 192x64 pixel games to smaller displays: fit, fill or stretch resize = fit ; flips the image horizontally fliphorizontally = false ; flips the image vertically flipvertically = false ; enable or disable frame-by-frame colorization (inactive in VPX bundle) colorize = true ; a DMD that renders with nice dots on a computer monitor [virtualdmd] enabled = true ; virtual dmd stays on top of all other windows stayontop = true ; hide the resize grip hidegrip = true ; ignore the aspect ratio of the rendered dots when resizing ignorear = false ; use VPM's registry values when positioning the virtual dmd useregistry = false ; x-axis of the window position left = 2282 ; y-axis of the window position top = 810 ; width of the dmd in monitor pixels width = 556 ; height of the dmd in monitor pixels height = 138 ; scale the dot size (set to 0.8 for same size as pre-1.6.0) dotsize = 0.8 [pindmd1] ; if false, doesn't bother looking for a pinDMD1 enabled = true [pindmd2] ; if false, doesn't bother looking for a pinDMD2 enabled = true [pindmd3] ; if false, doesn't bother looking for a pinDMD3 enabled = true ; COM port, e.g. COM3 port = [pin2dmd] ; if false, doesn't bother looking for a PIN2DMD enabled = true ; how long to wait in milliseconds after sending a palette delay = 25 [browserstream] ; if enabled, stream to your browser in your LAN enabled = false port = 9090 [vpdbstream] ; if enabled, stream DMD to https://test.vpdb.io/live enabled = false endpoint = https://api-test.vpdb.io/ [video] ; if enabled, writes frames to an .avi file enabled = false ; path to folder or .avi file. if folder, gamename.avi is used. path = [pinup] ; if enabled, send frames to PinUP. enabled = true Thank you again for trying to help - not sure what else I can do. I might be old, but not a complete idiot and this has me stumped. The conclusion that I have so far is that the .PAL file is not working correctly with the .VNI file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 If I can get this working - this site will get a decent donation from me to support. Don't believe in bribing - but where help is given and a problem is fixed, this is the only way I can give something back to the scene ! Hell, don't care even if it's one line in a config to change - it'll be worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outhere Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Make sure you close VP completely each time you test What version of Freezy are you using? Do not use the 64 bit Version — dmdext-v1.x.x-x64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slippifishi Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Outhere is right, fully restart VP for every single test, don't just restart the table. The download contains two pal files, which one are you using? Try using the other one instead! If you have renamed anything, check you haven't added a double extension (eg. if Windows isn't showing file extensions and you rename, then maybe you accidentally renamed it to "pin2dmd.pal.pal") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 31 minutes ago, outhere said: Make sure you close VP completely each time you test What version of Freezy are you using? Do not use the 64 bit Version — dmdext-v1.x.x-x64 Confirmed - VP is closed and restarted everytime I test and it still does it. The version I am using is dmdext-v1.7.2-x86. 14 minutes ago, slippifishi said: Outhere is right, fully restart VP for every single test, don't just restart the table. The download contains two pal files, which one are you using? Try using the other one instead! If you have renamed anything, check you haven't added a double extension (eg. if Windows isn't showing file extensions and you rename, then maybe you accidentally renamed it to "pin2dmd.pal.pal") Does it on both I'm afraid - I just don't get the Super Jet's as shown here and it looks not quiet right. No double extensions - checked that. Can anyone advise what the .VNI file is - am I meant to do something with that ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outhere Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 The 1.72 DmdDevice.dll Does not work right with color Roms Try the DmdDevice.dll 1.71 form here dmdext-1.7.1-mjr20190309-x86.zip https://github.com/mjrgh/dmd-extensions/releases Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 36 minutes ago, outhere said: The 1.72 DmdDevice.dll Does not work right with color Roms Try the DmdDevice.dll 1.71 form here dmdext-1.7.1-mjr20190309-x86.zip https://github.com/mjrgh/dmd-extensions/releases Thank you - tried that and still the same. At least the colours are changing - can I just check - am I doing something I should not be able to do ? Should I be able to get the DMD as shown on the video on my first post at the 7:22 point ? it show's especially well where the martian grabs the lady. I do not have a physical DMD, just running a virtual one on the PC - I am using just the standard roms that are adm_113b. Truely stuck here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outhere Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Did you check to make sure the file are not blocked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slippifishi Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 The VNI file contains replacement animations and colour masks that do a lot of the magic; to see the martian grabbing the woman at the 7:22 mark you will need the VNI file. Keep persevering, you will get there. Joking aside, maybe try a different pinball and project? It might help prove if it is isolated to this table and confirm the setup is working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outhere Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 You have the Freezy Files in the VPinMame folder and know where else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outhere Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 To make sure the ini file is doing what it should do set this to false and see If you're still get a DMD ; a DMD that renders with nice dots on a computer monitor [virtualdmd] enabled = true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 22 minutes ago, outhere said: You have the Freezy Files in the VPinMame folder and know where else Bingo ! There were some elsewhere in the VPinMame folder, I deleted all but the ones in the root of it and it worked !!! Thank you to yourself @outhere and @slippifishi and @Thalamus for your help / support. There is a very happy pinball player now. I am just off to donate - again - thank you for working this through with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 All donated as promised - again - thank you for great support - now off to enjoy this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outhere Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 That is Great News Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yakuzaronin Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 hello, having the same struggles and hoping someone will kindly point out my mistake background: installed baller installer 2104 which includes freezy 1.8.2 32 bit (installed ghostbusters pup pack which instructed me to install vpinspa in the process) table: attack from mars 2.0.1 script rom confirmed = afm_113b altcolor folder confirmed = afm_113b altcolor contents confirmed = pin2dmd.pal and x_pin2dmd.pal dmddevice.ini (in vpinmame folder) = [virtualdmd] enabled =true freezy file in three locations? (dmddevice.ini, dmddevice.dll, etc...) - visualpinball\vpinmame (from baller) - visualpinball\vpinmame\DMDExt (from baller) - visualpinball\VPinSPA (manually installed following directions for ghostbusters pup) I tried renaming DMDExt and VPinSPA something else to kind of 'delete' them and keep only the vpinmame freezy files but it didnt help. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yakuzaronin Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 Wasnt able to delete my question...so i'll just update that found the fix i had grabbed altcolor files from a discord pin but i'm guessing they're not for virtual dmd because i downloaded lucky1's on vpuniverse and it works beautifully thanks for this thread...feel i learned alot from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yakuzaronin Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 if this helps someone else, these are the files that worked for me: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roblipsett Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 Time for my turn at the problem. I installed using the pinballer setup to get my system running which put the freezy in and frontend and vpx. I downloaded the dmd extentions with pin2color and serum plugin zip file. dragged and dropped the x86 files into vpinmame. My system had a real dmd not a monitor that is color so I had to change the dmddevice.ini to say true for the pindmd3 or else I got no information to my dmd. I placed the pal files in altcolor for afm_113b and tafl7 in there respective directories and they are both named pin2dmd.pal. running setup I go into test mode for each rom and they come up colored and look good, of course this is when I had also set the options for the rom which is proved by having good color in test mode. the table though only displays the orange letters with the fake colored images not the true colored rom. maybe I am missing something with using a real dmd? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roblipsett Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 going down in flames now. put a saved version of my vpinball directory back in and now I lost the ability to see the color dmds in test mode Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roblipsett Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 erased and rebuilt the operating system and programs. when running setup test and having show dmd display checked as an option I get the colored roms on the real dmd and on the virtual dmd. The dmd that shows up when you have show dmd on the f1 menu though is the regular orange color dmd that I get when running the game. could this be a problem with the device config file, if so what could it be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roblipsett Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 (edited) found it. my tables had a backup directory of the vpinball directory. must have dropped that in there last year when I was trying to figure out how to get this thing together and wanted a safe backup which caused problems later on. ps I moved the stuff in my tables from a backup drive after my clean install because hey its only tables and backglasses right!!!!! Edited June 27, 2023 by roblipsett more info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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