PinCabView2D : Most old DOS Pinball Games in your Pincab!

[kds70]

@Aubrel

 

Very nice and thanks for you effort - love it 😍

 

By the way ... i´m testing with "pinball fantasies" (DOS version) at this time.

 

But i think i missunderstood your screenshots (maybe). pinball fantasies can´t be played as shown here? my playfield keeps scrolling up and down.

 

So i think this screenshot should be an playfield overview only? or am i missing something? Thank you

 

Or should i use pinball dreams deluxe to get a full playfield view in cabinet mode?

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by kds70

[Aubrel]

10 hours ago, kds70 said:

@Aubrel

Very nice and thanks for you effort - love it 😍

By the way ... i´m testing with "pinball fantasies" (DOS version) at this time.

But i think i missunderstood your screenshots (maybe). pinball fantasies can´t be played as shown here? my playfield keeps scrolling up and down.

 

Glad you like it

I think the solution is in the readme:

Quote

Side notes :
- Some game's resolutions should be set as expected to work :
*Pinball Illusion should be set in default "VGA 360x350"
*Thomas The Tank Engine's Pinball should be set in "Small"
*Absolute Pinbal should be set in "VGA High"
*Others should be set in "High Res" when available

*Others should be set in "High Res" when available

for this game it's available in the options (F5)

 

I hope it helps

 

[kds70]

34 minutes ago, Aubrel said:

 

Glad you like it

I think the solution is in the readme:

*Others should be set in "High Res" when available

for this game it's available in the options (F5)

 

I hope it helps

 

 

It works ... how amazing ist that? cooooool thank you 🥰

 

[Aubrel]

You're welcome

I'm glad to see it's used and appreciated. thanks for your support 🥰

[Aubrel]

Just a side note for information: doing these 3 PinCabView patchs (including the shader) was by far the more deep computer project I did (and I did a few big ones before...).

As a comparaison it took me more time than I ever spent on VPX including the incredible big amount of time I spent to build 3 full tables and 2 mods.

 

But having these games working in my pincab has no price!!

I love so much Big Race USA, Fantastic Journey, the original Timeshock and Pinball Dreams/Fantasies/Illusions, SlamTilt...

I played them a lot in the 90s when I was teenager and I was so disapointed until now to be not able to play them again in my pincab...

For me a pincab is somehow like an mamecab : a very good and nice way to remember and recover the games we loved in the past.

 

I'm also pleased to have had the opportunity to bring my own stone to the virtual pinball community and even more when I see others enjoying it.

I spent so many years to only use the hard work from the nice people here without bringing anything in return 😜

 

[kds70]

3 hours ago, Aubrel said:

For me a pincab is somehow like an mamecab : a very good and nice way to remember and recover the games we loved in the past.

 

Yes. The love to those old memories took me into a start of a "stones n bones" VPX project. But i ran out of time (work) and i don´t know know all the rules of this table.

So i don´t know if this project will ever continue.

 

You have a PM.

 

Greetings, Kai

 

 

[kds70]

it´s so funny ... once more thanks 🤩

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by kds70

[sirlee]

I just visited vogons.org to see if there were any question about my aspect ratio patch for DeXteRrBDNs Pinhack DosBox...

 

...only to discover that the whole thing was taken to the next level! It is truly amazing to see what our little project over at Vogoons has turned into now. I would have NEVER EVER imagined that it was possible to actually remove the DMD from the main screen! (as well as all the other fancy improvments you implemented)

 

@Aubrel Thank you SO MUCH for for your effort! I love it!

[sirlee]

 

I am trying to mirror the DMD to my Pin2DMD device. It works and is readable, but could be improved. As you can see the blue-grey "unlit" dots from the game are translated to a pretty bright grey on my real-dmd.

 

I am trying to find a way to improve this and get rid of the background pixels and only mirror the yellow ones / or above some RGB minimum values.

 

Does anyone have a good idea on how to accomplish this?

 

 

 

I think shaderglass with a shader that boosts contrast a lot might do the trick. Like this:

 

 

As you can see this increases the contrast dramatically. However I could not get it to work alongside pincabview2d so far...

 

Any other ideas?

 

[Aubrel]

24 minutes ago, sirlee said:

 

I am trying to mirror the DMD to my Pin2DMD device. It works and is readable, but could be improved. As you can see the blue-grey "unlit" dots from the game are translated to a pretty bright grey on my real-dmd.

 

I am trying to find a way to improve this and get rid of the background pixels and only mirror the yellow ones / or above some RGB minimum values.

 

Does anyone have a good idea on how to accomplish this?

 

 

 

I think shaderglass with a shader that boosts contrast a lot might do the trick. Like this:

 

 

As you can see this increases the contrast dramatically. However I could not get it to work alongside pincabview2d so far...

 

Any other ideas?

 

 

Thanks for your feedbacks   I'm glad you like it

Nothing would have been possible without DosBox PinHack build

 

The full things will be updated soon with many improvements.

But for the brightness/contrast, did you tried to lower the DMDBrightness in reshade's UI?

I did set +0.45 by default and it's probably your issue?

 

[sirlee]

Thank you for your reply!

 

Do you mean this one? https://reshade.me 

 

I can't seem to find it in the installation directory of pincabview2d.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aubrel]

No!! don't change reshade and don't install reshade over pincabview.

Just set the Brightness in "PinCabView" shader UI ingame using "home" key

 

 

[sirlee]

Yeah, just found out!

 

Thank you!

[Aubrel]

4 minutes ago, sirlee said:

Yeah, just found out!

Thank you!

You are welcome

 

Yep you can set the brightness of the table, of the DMD and also the backglass here (using home key)

 

And you can also remove the CRT effect, remove the curvature effect, remove the frame... And your settings will be saved for each game

[sirlee]

Definitely an improvement!

 

I will play around a bit with this. Thank you for your support.

 

So the whole "magic" with removing the dmd and putting it onto another screen is done using reshade?

 

 

 

[Aubrel]

5 minutes ago, sirlee said:

So the whole "magic" with removing the dmd and putting it onto another screen is done using reshade?

it is done by the reshade shader "PinCabView/ArcCabView" I wrote for these pinball games and a launcher 

[sirlee]

I have found a simple shader "levels.fx" which does get rid of the grey background pixels. Unfortunately since it is not part of your shader, it will do it for the whole pinball. 

Sharpness is still a problem but I think has to do more with mirroring and scaling using dmdext than the shaders.

 

Here is a comparison of the results i get on my real DMD:

 

Without the levels.fx shader and DMD brightness set to maximum:

 

 

And with the levels.fx applied in addition. Now it looks like a DMD!  It looses some crispness, though...

 

[Aubrel]

If I had such configuration, I think I would add an hidden 3rd screen (a small and cheap USB one for example)

Then I would be able to display the dmd on it and to mirror on  Pin2DMD device

(that whay the DMD won't be shown anymore on the backglass nor on the table)

[Oroborus77]

Thanks a lot for your work guyz (Ducon2016,Aubrel). Its amazing to rediscover this old gems with a perfect display on pincabs. Thanks again, really appreciate.

[sirlee]

On 4/17/2022 at 4:18 PM, Aubrel said:

If I had such configuration, I think I would add an hidden 3rd screen (a small and cheap USB one for example)

Then I would be able to display the dmd on it and to mirror on  Pin2DMD device

(that whay the DMD won't be shown anymore on the backglass nor on the table)

 

Thats what I am currently trying to do. I have such a screen installed. I will post it if I have success with mirroring it.

[Aubrel]

According to your configuration (backglass ratio of 16:10 or higher) , the DMD should be displayed fullsize on your 3rd screen by default (with DMD Positions and Sizes at "0" in PinCabView2D.ini)

so if you set your mirror to your full 3rd screen size and position it should work directly

[sirlee]

Yes, that is how it is setup. I installed this screen to be able to hide the DMD from Pinball Wicked and still mirror it to my DMD. Only problem is I could not get the 3rd screen shaded, before mirroring it to the DMD. Without any shader it works fine.

[Aubrel]

No because I fear Reshade doesn't support multiscreens...

So every reshade effect you will add will be applied to the full game (everything if applied after PinCabView, or Table and DMD  if applied earlier)

BTW the level.fx code is very small so I should be able to put it in PinCabView... I will check

 

[sirlee]

Yes I was aware of the Problem with reshade. Thats why I was trying to use "Shaderglass" in addition for the DMD window. However, since the Dosbox uses exclusive fullscreen, the DMD display is also in fullscreen or in front of the shaderglass window. Shaderglass will only mirror the desktop but not the DMD on top of it.

 

If i put Dosbox in window mode by write-protecting the Dosbox.conf, the DMD is no longer shown. (It seems there is a reason for your solution to overwrite all these settings )

 

If course, you putting in this shader would be really awesome. I have checked if I could integrate it myself and even watched some HSLS tutorials but found it too difficult.

[Aubrel]

12 hours ago, sirlee said:

Yes I was aware of the Problem with reshade. Thats why I was trying to use "Shaderglass" in addition for the DMD window. However, since the Dosbox uses exclusive fullscreen, the DMD display is also in fullscreen or in front of the shaderglass window. Shaderglass will only mirror the desktop but not the DMD on top of it.

 

If i put Dosbox in window mode by write-protecting the Dosbox.conf, the DMD is no longer shown. (It seems there is a reason for your solution to overwrite all these settings )

 

If course, you putting in this shader would be really awesome. I have checked if I could integrate it myself and even watched some HSLS tutorials but found it too difficult.

 

In fact I just added a filter for the DMD and made the DMD Brightness more powerfull. I hope it will be enough

I let you check and test it but I hope everything will be ok for an official release

Please keep me informed!

 

Here is the new 3.1 version of PinCabView2D :  https://www.mediafire.com/folder/5ttx0loy7lzfy/ArcCabView

 

Changelog 3.1

- Updated to work with last ArcCabView/PinCabView shader version 2.3 (CRT effect and Performances are improved)
- Updated to work with last official dgVoodoo 2.78.2 ddraw dll (used by SlamTilt only)
- DMD Filter option added in the shader to crop DMD colors below the filter value
- The launcher can now be killed safely to close the game
- Performance mode added and general performances should be improved too
- Game Selection and Settings Menu added when launched without commands
- Option CRT_Effect On/Off/Custom added in ini file and start UI
- Option Curvature (and Frame) On/Off/Custom added in ini file and start UI
- Option Full_Stretch On/Off added in ini file and start UI
- Option Rotated_180 On/Off added in ini file and start UI
- Some small changes, fixes and cleanups

Enjoy!!