.pac files - why use the new export format for V-Pins

[lucky1]

The new export for V-Pins in the latest pin2dmd editor, is single file export for colorizations (.pac) instead of .pal/.vni combination.

It easier to upload and to make sure only the working combination of pal and vni is installed on your vpin. It also addresses some technical drawbacks of the vni format which should lead to quicker processing and makes sure that real pinball .pal files don´t get mixed up with vpin .pal files.

 

Aside from the technical reasons an additional reason is that there are individuals out there trying to take advantage of the 100th of hours of work of others without contributing anything noteworthy to it.

After some clever businessmen had the idea to sell displays including colorizations without giving credits to the colorization authors, I was asked from the authors if I could do something to prevent this. Together with Steve45 I introduced the real pin export which is bound to the hardware ID of the pin2dmd device.

 

Just recently there were attempts to use vpin exports together with GPL code from freezy for real pinball machines, which was a slap in the face of the colorization authors who invested 100s of hours to create these colorizations and published them as VNI/PAL  for VPIN USERS ONLY.  The .pac format allows the authors to prevent such misuse and continue their work as motivated as before and to provide their vpin exports for free.

 

The .pac format is fully supported on virtual dmd, pindmdV3, pixelcade, PuPlayer and of course Pin2DMD by this dmdevice.dll

https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/7504-new-version-dmd-extensions-with-pin2dmd-coloring-plugin-and-pac-file-support/

 

 

[MikePinball]

Given that PAC is supported on virtual DMD and PinDMDV3 as well as Pin2DMD, why not add ZeDMD as well?

 

If the Pac encryption is tied to the hardware ID of the Pin2DMD device, how does it work for a virtual DMD or PinDMDv3?

 

Right now Lucky's version of the DMDExtensions package is in direct violation of the GPL license which says that all source code changes must to be published. Lucky has closed the source code in order to hide the decryption key. This is understandable given his implementation but it is simply incorrect to put keys in open source. A better approach is to use a digital certificate.  The PAC files can be signed with a digital certificate which can only be used on Windows.  The DMDExtensions code decrypts the file using the digital certificate that has been previously downloaded into Windows certificate store.

Edited July 12, 2022 by MikePinball

[lucky1]

Here is the new version , which uses the coloring API approach recommended by Freezy.