Opinions on my Cab plans + PC hardware:

[Dipkid]

Hi guys! Old lurker here. Middle aged videogame fanatic & DIY fan. First post here, so please be gentle..

Back in 2018 i built a low budget 2 screen cab, out of an old 32" samsung tv and my old imac. (you can see some crappy pics of it at my link below)

But now I have more room, (a mancave-ish basement and a freakin garage even) and a wee bit bigger budget, so here are my plans / blueprints for my upcoming 3 screen 4k 43" PF build.

So far I got  buttons, Williams legs, pf screen, materials, Zero Delay encoders and some led lights sorted. A Plunger and the kl25z pinscape board are on their way..  

Just throwing it out here to hear if you see any big no-no's with my build, and would also really appreciate your opinions on the pc specs. (Im aiming for 4k at 60fps)

I know close to nothing about pc hardware; Im a console player & I've mainly built DIY arcade cabs with SBCs before..

Im goin to be running Pinup Popper, VPX and PFX3 (and hopefully the new PFX coming out..)

Im eager to get going on this project, and thanks for looking!

 

Some of my old builds and DIYs: mattiaskullberg.blogspot.com

 

 

[pritch33]

Looks like your off to a good start. I'm just wondering why or your using the zero delays for? The KlZ  is capable of running it all. Look at Baller Installer as it will make thigs a lot easier. I would also suggest a 16.9 ratio DMD if going fullscreen as it will make setup of media a lot easier a. Im sure you've seen the recent tables using fullDMD an all the underlays  that allow you to set your DMD to a 4.1 ratio  are done at 16.9. Good luck there is plenty of help available. just noticed also your timber is 8MM or should that be 18mm?

[Dipkid]

@pritch33 Thanks for the input!

I have a bunch of zero delay encoders and buttons lying around and I wasnt sure how advanced the wireing of the buttons are on the kiz board (soldering etc?)

I mainly ordered it for the easy nudge solution. But will absolutely ditch the zero delay if thats an easy option.

Regarding the 4:3 dmd I was thinking of use it as both a dmd and a topper, with a removable list separating the screen, similar to what Iv seen TerryRed and others have. 

Maybe thats going a unneccesary hard road?  *Edit* I actually havent seen any new fullDMD tables, ive been out of it for a while. (2 year old kid at home). will research and might go for a 16:9 then.

And yes, im going for 8mm. The Valchromat we use at work is a premium mdf with about 60% higher density than regular mdf. I like that i can get them colored and my CNC handles them nicely. 👍

 

[LegoYoda]

The 1070 MIGHT struggle at 4k with PFX (especially if it has ray tracing feature which that card wont support)...  should be fine for VPX tables at 4k60 though. I guess theres no issue in waiting and seeing though! and def ok for PFX3

[Dipkid]

@LegoYoda Sounds good to me! I barely know whats those specs mean, I just copied them over from an ad on my local buy/sell site. (he wants ca 600 bucks?)

[LegoYoda]

600 for that spec computer is "sensible" in todays market (there's a graphics card shortage, prices are horrible). Worth getting IMO.

EDIT: assuming it's for ALL the listed components.... if that's 600 JUST for the 1070, dont!

[Dipkid]

@LegoYoda oh no, thats for the whole thing: ssd, case, powersupply etc, a full computer.. And the best thing is, that the seller lives 200 m from me.. 👴

[pritch33]

9 hours ago, Dipkid said:

@pritch33 Thanks for the input!

I have a bunch of zero delay encoders and buttons lying around and I wasnt sure how advanced the wireing of the buttons are on the kiz board (soldering etc?)

I mainly ordered it for the easy nudge solution. But will absolutely ditch the zero delay if thats an easy option.

Regarding the 4:3 dmd I was thinking of use it as both a dmd and a topper, with a removable list separating the screen, similar to what Iv seen TerryRed and others have. 

Maybe thats going a unneccesary hard road?  *Edit* I actually havent seen any new fullDMD tables, ive been out of it for a while. (2 year old kid at home). will research and might go for a 16:9 then.

And yes, im going for 8mm. The Valchromat we use at work is a premium mdf with about 60% higher density than regular mdf. I like that i can get them colored and my CNC handles them nicely. 👍

 

Terry  ripped is center piece out along with a lot of other people to make it 1 full screen, Check out Batman 66 and Terry;s Pinevent Tables although there FP. The Underlays are used by many now with FULLDMD these are a couple I have done but the Creator/Author Andrew Walsh who come up with the concept has a huge collection. The topper Style was not as popular but there are some available and also just a generic style if you want to run a topper and DMD

[Dipkid]

Yeah Im convinced. I'll be goin for a single 16:9 third screen instead. Greatly appreciated. (I probably looks better aswell, less clustered.)

[pritch33]

1 hour ago, Dipkid said:

Yeah Im convinced. I'll be goin for a single 16:9 third screen instead. Greatly appreciated. (I probably looks better aswell, less clustered.)

If you don't like it, Its easier to block in a 16.9 or a 4.3  or widen one than having a backboard designed for a std size DMD at least .

 

[Dipkid]

Maybe a stupid question, but you recommend to go for a 16:9 screen instead of a 4:3 in addition to removing the "divider"?

Id guess its more practical when setting software up in relation to fullscreen settings etc? 

(reason I ask is, cuz I have a cute little 14" 4:3 screen lying around..) 

[LynnInDenver]

You can make things work on a 4:3 screen, but a 16:9 screen will be much, much less work over the long haul, because 99% of the media is set up specifically for that ratio.

[Dipkid]

Yeah, i suspected that, and got it confired when I just now downloaded a collection of Underlay videos. 

[LegoYoda]

I did a 4:3 screen beause it was closer to the original ratio of all the  machines BUT I quickly found out...

- They top out at 21.5 Inches so they aren't rally big enough to fill that backbox space in any cab that is bigger than 65%-ish size (so 27" playfield 21" backbox screen). Now my main playfield is 32" and the backbox isnt full. This annoys me EVERY DAY....

- As said above, a lot of the artwork ahs been redone for 16:9 and looks great (although I have found a load of 4:3 stuff so that's moot)

 

I'll be building "version 3" this summer... it'll have a widescreen display in it..

[Dipkid]

Oh I can understand the frustation. I had large, ca 2 inches, bezels on both my old  PF and the backbox, and the thing looked like those cabs from Arcade 1up. I hated it.

Im designing this new one to have as little "edge"  as possible..

[DBrown67]

I think the 1070 might be OK. I have a 4K mini cabinet running 27" playfield with a 1080p DMD and an older 1600x1200 res backglass monitor (4:3 ratio).

But my CPU and motherboard was weak... very weak in comparison to yours. I had a few tables that caused issues, but in the main less than 10% of the 300 I installed manually. 

So I upgraded the 1070 to a 1080ti and just about all the tables giving trouble were now fine. Still one or two stragglers though.

So I upgraded the MB and CPU to a Ryzen 5 2600X. Everything is super smooth with all the bells and whistles on in VPX (Still don't use brute force AA though)

 

Now if I'd upgraded the CPU before the GPU I might not have needed to upgrade GPU. Dunno, but I'm still glad it;s done.

When you mount the KL25Z put it on some foam or old packing material. I had mine screwed to the wood through rubber grommets and when I upgraded the 2.1 system for the backbox the ball was nudging from sound.

A simple piece of packing foam solved that.

 

Regarding the artwork for backboxes.... it annoys me intensely when i see artwork in the wrong aspect ratio. And you can easily tell by looking at circles. The clock in Diner is a perfect example. That clock is supposed to be perfrectly circular.

If I'm a bit undure of a backbox "look" I always go to ipdb.com and look at what the real backglass was like. Gives an idea of how sqaure or "widescreen" it should be.

 

But the good news is you can adjust any of these images using .res files. Basically just your screenres.txt file with the extension changed to .res and renamed to the same as your table. Then just alter the resolution in that file.

.res files always take priority over screeres.txt. Yes you will get bars down the sides of some (60s Gottlieb backglasses that are taller than they are wide) and top bottom for others. But I prefer that to awfully stretched out hideousness.

[Dipkid]

@DBrown67 cheers dude, good info. I bought the pc today, so crossing my fingers it will run smoothly for atleast a year or two.. Nice tip on the nudge board 👍. regarding the back boxes, I'll probably redo a few of my own and maybe dip my toes into making B2s. made alot of splash videos, wheel art, themes and video game boxes over the years, (my day job is graphic designer at a printhouse so I spend alot of time in Adobe CC). 🍻

[Dipkid]

A little follow up question here, regarding audio..;  Without going SSF with exciters, amps etc.., is it still worth it to go for a 5.1 surround system instead of a regular old 2.1 system?

Googleing if VPX supports 5.1 surround I mostly finds guides on SSF, force feedback etc.

 

(I will do SSF and probably DOF / LEDwiz etc, but thats future projects..)

[LynnInDenver]

It's best to just plan on it being (eventually) 7.1 from the start, and stick with 2.1 if you're not installing SSF right away. I don't think VPX is optimized to use 5.1 in a hybrid or non-SSF way.

[Dipkid]

2 hours ago, LynnInDenver said:

It's best to just plan on it being (eventually) 7.1 from the start, and stick with 2.1 if you're not installing SSF right away. I don't think VPX is optimized to use 5.1 in a hybrid or non-SSF way.

aaah darn. I was hoping I at least could get the sounds to come from the "right sides" of the cab with 5.1. they don't really make 7.1 pc speaker setups anymore, I think. better cake out on a decent 2.1 then.. 

[LynnInDenver]

I think part of the issue is that the two expected solutions for surround sound are spatial sound through headphones, or it's part of a home theater setup, and not anything in the middle.

 

You can build a 7.1 solution... I know they sell USB devices to provide 7.1 and that can "break out" the sound into several plugs, because that's what I use. The one I have comes with 4 headphone jacks, one for each "pair" - Front LR, Side LR, Rear LR, and Center/Sub. From there you just feed it into 2-channel amplifier boards that then feed the exciters.