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New version: dmd-extensions with pin2dmd coloring plugin and pac file support !


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Posted
7 hours ago, bandicoot said:

Hello , it'm trying to the 2.3 working but got a big lag problem

With the files on first post no problem it's work great but doesn't have serum V2 support so , trying Dmdext 2.3

Now serum V2 works but DMD running totally slow 

My pin2dmd is an XL one , hope Lucky can found a way to make it works ;)

Thanks

This is exaclty issue i have but for a PIN2DMD XL.

 

The person who made this video decided to upgrade to a ZeDMD, which then made it run super smooth.

 

Can't lie I recommend it too especially if you have HD displays. 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Can anyone, anyOoooone help the hell out of me from this hellish mess..

I've been trying to run .pac and .pal/.vni properly with @lucky1 dmdext for months but dmd shows only buggy scenes and and unusual colonization. It wasn't like this until I updated to vpinmame 3.6. Last update of lucky1 dmd extension  is dead and incompatible and freezy's won't  work for .pac for sure... so what's exactly happening? Why isn't there any update anymore? AND if  dmdext 2.3 versions of @freezy  are said to replacement for lucky1, why can't they run .pac and .pal/. vni properly.. some get me understand at least.. most the altcolor section in this website is seen as broken because of this...

Posted
On 5/18/2025 at 7:19 PM, PastorLUL said:

The person who made this video decided to upgrade to a ZeDMD, which then made it run super smooth.

 

Can't lie I recommend it too especially if you have HD displays. 

seems you're right ^^ , i try zedmd code but not working ath this momemt for my 3 64x64 panels but i can flash it for 2 64x64 panels for try and yes with a s3 and zedmd code , no lag .

I stand for an update of this ;);) to manage my config if Lucky doesn't do an update 

  • Content Provider
Posted

 I just uploaded a pin2color.dll plugin for release version 2.3.1 from freezys github

to my repository. You might want to give it a try by adding 

plugin.0.path = pin2color.dll
plugin.0.path64 = pin2color64.dll
plugin.0.passthrough = true

to your dmddevice.ini and copying the dll files from the zip into the same directory as dmdevice.dll v2.3.1

https://github.com/lucky01/PIN2DMD/tree/master/integration/pinmame

Posted (edited)

it's working but lagguy on PIN2DMDXL firmware

If i flash a non xl firmware there's no lag ^^ perhaps something to look at this ( nucleo board)

 

But the pack on the first page working great without lag

Edited by bandicoot
Posted
On 6/4/2025 at 1:38 PM, lucky1 said:

 I just uploaded a pin2color.dll plugin for release version 2.3.1 from freezys github

to my repository. You might want to give it a try by adding 

plugin.0.path = pin2color.dll
plugin.0.path64 = pin2color64.dll
plugin.0.passthrough = true

to your dmddevice.ini and copying the dll files from the zip into the same directory as dmdevice.dll v2.3.1

https://github.com/lucky01/PIN2DMD/tree/master/integration/pinmame

Thanks, works great on my 128x32 Pin2dmd, colors look way better on XL DMD like Baywatch, Batman Forever... 

  • Content Provider
Posted
On 6/7/2025 at 8:53 AM, bandicoot said:

it's working but lagguy on PIN2DMDXL firmware

If i flash a non xl firmware there's no lag ^^ perhaps something to look at this ( nucleo board)

 

But the pack on the first page working great without lag

 

If you have a real pin2dmd you may use 
enabled = native

instead of

enabled = true 
in the pin2dmd section of the dmddevice.ini

This gives you better performance.

FlexDMD and Serum tables might need pin2dmd enabled = true either in the table specific settings or globally

  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)

Hi @lucky1

Is it possible to have an update to PIN2DMD firmware to support color rotations ? 

I know ZeDMD can handle these color rotations and as many Serum colorizations use them it's a bit annoying cause some scenes are flickering on PIN2DMD. 

Thanks ! Regards. 

Edited by Dicentim
  • 2 weeks later...
  • Content Provider
Posted
On 7/19/2025 at 1:29 AM, Dicentim said:

Hi @lucky1

Is it possible to have an update to PIN2DMD firmware to support color rotations ? 

I know ZeDMD can handle these color rotations and as many Serum colorizations use them it's a bit annoying cause some scenes are flickering on PIN2DMD. 

Thanks ! Regards. 

 

I just tested with the latest DMDExt and color rotation worked without a problem. Maybe a USB issue ? Make sure your pin2dmd has a dedicated USB port .

Posted
1 hour ago, lucky1 said:

@lucky1

I just tested with the latest DMDExt and color rotation worked without a problem. Maybe a USB issue ? Make sure your pin2dmd has a dedicated USB port .

Sometimes they seem to work fine and next time they flicker.
How well do these work for you
Truck Stop and F-14
I'm on firmware 4.53

Posted

Hi, yes I can confirm for F-14 and Truck Stop. 

You can also see the flickering issue with latest serum color of Ghostbusters : when adding credits (or when there's no credits and you push start) the Pin2dmd is flickering. 

 

I had another issue and I had to remove pin2color.dll and pin2color64.dll plugins, they don't fit Pinball FX external DMD use, the colors become aways red and with very low luminosity. 

  • Content Provider
Posted

I tested with Scared Stiff and Tron which worked without a problem. If the problem is table specific it is most likely a colorization or software issue and must be fixed by the author. 

  • Content Provider
Posted
On 7/29/2025 at 9:22 PM, outhere said:

Sometimes they seem to work fine and next time they flicker.
How well do these work for you
Truck Stop and F-14
I'm on firmware 4.53

 

Both are colorizations for Alphanumeric machines. Most likely the author did not catch all display frames for his work.

Depending on the sync point pinmame starts with the display output, it produces slightly different frames. That also explains that it sometimes works and sometimes not. Can´t be fixed from my side.

  • 1 year later...
Posted

Hello, 

I am not new to Vpin... But a freshman, I guess...

I started colouring my DMDs... Addictive and beautiful! Thank you guys for all your work! 😘

 

I think I figured out a lot, with the help of a couple of members... Also thank you everybody! 

 

Now I am stuck at one point.

 

I had all pal/vni colours working before...

I recently installed some newer .cROMc files and got those working as well.

Some days ago a realized, that all of my pal/vni colours stopped working... ???

So I did some research and I think it has to do with Freezy - Lucky1 .dlls .... (I guess)

<- no idea what I am actually takling about...

 

I struggled to get this working: The Simpsons Pinball Party- 64 Colors - PAC

And I made it work with:

dmdext-v2.5.1-CORE-r9-x64 (I think it's Freezy?)

 

[Problem]

I think, somehow the older .pac and .Pal/.vni do not work anymore.

Only cRZ, cROMc and the Simpsons .pac do work.

 

[Question]

Is there a way, to make all the older (2019 ish pal/vni + pac) work, and

also have cRZ, cROMc and new V2 .pac working at the same time?

 

Best regards and again:

BIG THANK YOU TO YOU!!! 👏

 

 

Posted
9 hours ago, qwerter18 said:

Hello, 

I am not new to Vpin... But a freshman, I guess...

I started colouring my DMDs... Addictive and beautiful! Thank you guys for all your work! 😘

 

I think I figured out a lot, with the help of a couple of members... Also thank you everybody! 

 

Now I am stuck at one point.

 

I had all pal/vni colours working before...

I recently installed some newer .cROMc files and got those working as well.

Some days ago a realized, that all of my pal/vni colours stopped working... ???

So I did some research and I think it has to do with Freezy - Lucky1 .dlls .... (I guess)

<- no idea what I am actually takling about...

 

I struggled to get this working: The Simpsons Pinball Party- 64 Colors - PAC

And I made it work with:

dmdext-v2.5.1-CORE-r9-x64 (I think it's Freezy?)

 

[Problem]

I think, somehow the older .pac and .Pal/.vni do not work anymore.

Only cRZ, cROMc and the Simpsons .pac do work.

 

[Question]

Is there a way, to make all the older (2019 ish pal/vni + pac) work, and

also have cRZ, cROMc and new V2 .pac working at the same time?

 

Best regards and again:

BIG THANK YOU TO YOU!!! 👏

 

 

Here is a quick overview of how to correctly set up the coloring plugins and formats in your DmdDevice.ini for DmdExtensions (Freezy).

 

1. PIN2DMD Coloring Files (.pac / .vni)

To use custom PIN2DMD color files, add the following lines under the [global] section.

[global]
colorize = true
vni.key = [YourHexadecimalLicenseKey]
plugin.0.path = pin2color.dll
plugin.0.path64 = pin2color64.dll
plugin.0.passthrough = false

 

 

  • plugin.0.passthrough = false: Keep this on false for regular gaming. Setting it to true disables the custom coloring database and falls back to standard monochrome (orange) DMD data.
  • File location: Make sure pin2color.dll and pin2color64.dll are located in your C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\ folder.
  • Windows Block: Right-click both .dll files, go to Properties, and check "Unblock" if visible.

2. Serum & cROMc Files (.cRZ / .cROMc)

The plugin.0 settings do not affect Serum or cROMc files. Modern versions of DmdDevice handle Serum files natively.

To use Serum/cROMc, you only need the main coloring flag enabled under [global]:

[global]
colorize = true

 

3. VPinMAME In-Game Settings

For all color formats to work, press F1 during gameplay to open the VPinMAME menu, and ensure the following options are checked:

  • Use external DMD (dll)
  • Colorize DMD (altcolor)

 

Required Downloads

To make this setup work, you will need to download and place the following files into your C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\ directory:

 

DmdExtensions (Freezy) --> Download the release zip and copy DmdDevice.dll and DmdDevice.ini to your VPinMAME folder.

PIN2DMD Color Plugin (pin2color.dll) --> Extract both pin2color.dll and pin2color64.dll into your VPinMAME folder.

Serum Runtime (serum.dll) --> Copy the serum.dll (and 64-bit version if applicable) into your VPinMAME folder.

 

(the above was made with the help of Gemini, but I followed it and it worked for me)

 

Hope this will help you,

Cheers, PopArt71 🙂

Posted

Thank you ! I think I did all of the above, at least I have all the files and entries in the right places.

I checked further and it seems that some .pac s work fine and some don't.

I also found  several .pal/.vni s working as well... and some don't.

The newer the files, the better the chance, that they work...

Maybe it is just a compatibility issue...

I redownloaded most colorization files I could find and reinstalled them.

Also there... most work fine, but some don't.

 

Posted
22 hours ago, qwerter18 said:

Thank you ! I think I did all of the above, at least I have all the files and entries in the right places.

I checked further and it seems that some .pac s work fine and some don't.

I also found  several .pal/.vni s working as well... and some don't.

The newer the files, the better the chance, that they work...

Maybe it is just a compatibility issue...

I redownloaded most colorization files I could find and reinstalled them.

Also there... most work fine, but some don't.

 

Make sure you place the files in the vpinmame/altcolor map under the correct rom name.

Also, take a look at your .pal/.vni files and make sure you rename them to pin2dmd.pal and pin2dmd.vni:

 

📁 Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\altcolor\[romname]\

📄 pin2dmd.pal

📄 pin2dmd.vni

 

If this doesn't help, please let me know which tables are giving problems.

Posted (edited)

Yes. I think I did all that.

I reinstalled all the necessary files once more today and checked my dmddevice.ini.

One thing I do not have, are older "serum.dlls" in the VPinMAME folder!

I thought those had to be deleted - do to compatibility problems?

 

But still most (or all cRZ and cROMc) do work.

Most pac do work.

But most pal/vni do not.

 

Here is a quick list, of what is currently working (or not working)

I don't know if that is helpful, but maybe it narrows the porblem down?!

Thank you for your effort to help! 👏🙂

 

NOT WORKING - Examples in pal/vni and pac:
[x] austin - Austin powers               11.04.2026           4,35 MB - NOT WORKING 
    [D] Pin2DMD.pal                              27.12.2019           0,02 MB
    [D] Pin2DMD.vni                              27.12.2019           4,33 MB

[O] baywatch                                          11.04.2026          16,97 MB - Not WORKING
    [D] pin2dmd.pal                               08.04.2020           0,02 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.vni                               08.04.2020           9,35 MB

[O] btmn_106  - Batman                   11.04.2026           0,00 MB - NOT WORKING
    [D] pin2dmd.pal                               26.12.2016           0,00 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.vni                               26.12.2016           0,00 MB

[O] cv_20h  - Circus Voltaire            11.04.2026           0,00 MB    - NOT WORKING
    [D] pin2dmd.pal                               26.03.2019           0,00 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.vni                               26.03.2019           0,00 MB

[O] godzilla - godzilla                         11.04.2026           2,27 MB - NOT WORKING
    [D] pin2dmd.pal                               15.02.2020           0,01 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.vni                               15.02.2020           2,27 MB

[O] rs_l6 - Red Ted Road show        11.04.2026           0,00 MB- NOT WORKING
    [D] pin2dmd.pac                               26.12.2016           0,00 MB

[O] dw_l2 - Dr. Who                              11.04.2026           1,22 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.pac                              25.02.2026           1,22 MB - NOT WORKING


WORKING - Examples in pal/vni:
[O] xmn_151hc - X-Men                       11.04.2026          33,03 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.pal                                  14.03.2019           0,01 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.vni                                  14.03.2019          14,24 MB

[O] lah_113 - Last Action hero            11.04.2026           0,00 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.pal                                  04.04.2020           0,00 MB
    [D] pin2dmd.vni                                  04.04.2020           0,00 MB

 

Edited by qwerter18
Posted (edited)

I will have a look at these tables in my set-up later. For now, you may download the serum file for Dr. Who:

 

 

Edited by PopArt71

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