New release: v2.2.0 FINAL

[freezy]

Dear community,

 

After months of work, I'm happy to finally present the 2.2.0 release. It was a long and frustrating journey, and in the end, it didn't turn out what I imagined it to be: a less fragmented platform, where everyone can publish and consume colorizations, and where most fractions are happy.

 

As most of you probably know, PAC files are now banned on VPU. I suspect that the trigger for this reaction was that lucky1 managed to screw it up last minute by locking his plugin binary to a specific dmdext build, which will break everyone's setup on every dmdext update.

 

Personally, I take this as a selfish attempt to continue gate-keeping our DMD ecosystem. Apart from being extremely user hostile, this approach is also against my ethics as a software developer, to let others virtually bundle my software with proprietary, DRMed programs.

 

Now, I have gotten internal PAC support working in dmdext several months ago. It was never my intent to actually publish it, but given the events in the last days, I think it makes sense now. If we can't come to a solution through communication and compromise, we'll need to steer it through technology.

 

So, if you happen to have PAC colorizations on your system, just updating to this release will make them work. If you were using lucky1's fork, they will keep working. If lucky1 releases a plugin for this release, the plugin will take precedence over the internal implementation. If you update to a new dmdext version (which will break that plugin), dmdext falls back to the internal implementation. This is for both PAC and VNI/PAL. If you don't care about PAC but want to use the plugin for VNIs, lucky1 released an unlocked plugin without PAC support (pin2color_vni_only.zip).

 

Now that's out of the way, let's get to the changes.

 

This last phase since BETA2 mainly served for fixing bugs, so I'll provide only a small summary of what happened since 2.1.2. If you need more details, check the changelog or the BETA1 and BETA2 threads.

 

• Official support for Pinball FX
• Better performance due to frame de-duping
• A new plugin system for colorizations
• Internal PAC colorization support, as fallback
• Many bug fixes

 

To use the plugin, it must be enabled in DmdDevice.ini. Example:

[global]

; load plugins
plugin.0.path = C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color.dll
plugin.0.path64 = C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color64.dll
plugin.0.passthrough = false

 

For the internal PAC colorization to work, you have to provide the key:

[global]

vni.key = f0ad135937ffa111c60b24d88ebb2e59

 

Download, as usual, here.

 

Lastly, there's been a bit of progress on the Scorbit front: We now have a working Windows binary of the Scorbitron code, and are now working on integrating it properly with dmdext.

 

Enjoy!

 

    -freezy.

 

 

EDIT: Personal conclusion at the end.

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by freezy

[LynnInDenver]

Congratulations on the new release. I will be updating before Wednesday this week.

[freezy]

Oh, and in case that it wasn't clear: The real-pin colorizations are still protected. You guys can still sell them to real-pin owners. PAC applies only to v-pins.

[tabascoman77]

46 minutes ago, freezy said:

Dear community,

 

After months of work, I'm happy to finally present the 2.2.0 release. It was a long and frustrating journey, and in the end, it didn't turn out what I imagined it to be: a less fragmented platform, where everyone can publish and consume colorizations, and where most fractions are happy.

 

As most of you probably know, PAC files are now banned on VPU. I suspect that the trigger for this reaction was that lucky1 managed to screw it up last minute by locking his plugin binary to a specific dmdext build, which will break everyone's setup on every dmdext update.

 

Personally, I take this as a selfish attempt to continue gate-keeping our DMD ecosystem. Apart from being extremely user hostile, this approach is also against my ethics as a software developer, to let others virtually bundle my software with proprietary, DRMed programs.

 

Now, I have gotten internal PAC support working in dmdext several months ago. It was never my intent to actually publish it, but given the events in the last days, I think it makes sense now. If we can't come to a solution through communication and compromise, we'll need to steer it through technology.

 

So, if you happen to have PAC colorizations on your system, just updating to this release will make them work. If you were using lucky1's fork, they will keep working. If lucky1 releases a plugin for this release, the plugin will take precedence over the internal implementation. If you update to a new dmdext version (which will break that plugin), dmdext falls back to the internal implementation. This is for both PAC and VNI/PAL. If you don't care about PAC but want to use the plugin for VNIs, lucky1 released an unlocked plugin without PAC support (pin2color_vni_only.zip).

 

Now that's out of the way, let's get to the changes.

 

This last phase since BETA2 mainly served for fixing bugs, so I'll provide only a small summary of what happened since 2.1.2. If you need more details, check the changelog or the BETA1 and BETA2 threads.

 

• Official support for Pinball FX
• Better performance due to frame de-duping
• A new plugin system for colorizations
• Internal PAC colorization support, as fallback
• Many bug fixes

 

To use the plugin, it must be enabled in DmdDevice.ini. Example:

[global]

; load plugins
plugin.0.path = C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color.dll
plugin.0.path64 = C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\pin2color64.dll
plugin.0.passthrough = false

 

For the internal PAC colorization to work, you have to provide the key:

[global]

vni.key = f0ad135937ffa111c60b24d88ebb2e59

 

Download, as usual, here.

 

Lastly, there's been a bit of progress on the Scorbit front: We now have a working Windows binary of the Scorbitron code, and are now working on integrating it properly with dmdext.

 

Enjoy!

 

    -freezy.

 

 

Congrats, dude. And you have the patience of a saint.

 

It ain't complex, either. Lucky's burned so many bridges, he's pretty much on an island now.

 

The fact that he even finally managed to piss off Dazz says a lot.

 

And I have to say, his fork is junk. The PAC colorizations are something I don't understand. While I appreciate them and think highly of the artists who spent countless hours making them, they run like shit on that fork. The VNI stuff looked far better and it ran better with no mis-coloration or bleeding or weird color issues when scenes would transition back to the scoreboard on the DMD. Your fork seemed like you were in it for the hobby.

 

Serum is amazing and I hope we get more of that.

 

I hope that you continue to work to make things better.

[okerra]

I'm sorry that you had to waste so much time and patience trying to find the best solution for the final Vpin user, which was none other than that everything was under the protection of dmdext. Thanks for your efforts!!!.

[lafester]

Everything seems to be working as expected including pac... Thanks freezy! 

 

I see pac files are still available to download, is that going to change soon?

[MikeDASpike]

Congrats with this (painfully) release. 

I'm very happy that you still release this version and that you took your time to fix issues (especially my pindmd3 hardware one)

 

I hope we can use and enjoy for many years with this version. 

Great works and thanks again for all your hard work for the community.  

 

EDIT: Just tried a PAL/VNI for WCS , but doesn't color

[16] 2023/08/15 07:48:41.151  INFO | Loading palette file at C:\pinball\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\altcolor\wcs_l2\pin2dmd.pal... 
[16] 2023/08/15 07:48:41.151  WARN | Error initializing colorizer: An item with the same key has already been added. System.ArgumentException: An item with the same key has already been added.
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource)
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile.Load(BinaryReader reader, String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile..ctor(String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.VniLoader.Load(String vniKey)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.ColorizationLoader.LoadVniColorizer(String gameName, ScalerMode scalerMode, String vniKey)

But running for example Who dunnit with also a vni and pal, works fine
 

https://github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions/issues/400

DmdDevice_WD.log DmdDevice_WCS.log

Edited August 15, 2023 by MikeDASpike

[lucky1]

@NetzZwerg @X3r2A6@vbobrusev@MydknyteStyrm@jpajmo@Redrum@elicend@slippifishi@President@Beaster@Terranigma@Lucxor@Endprodukt

@TNZ

@jedimastermatt

 

Sorry to all the pin2dmd colorization authors ! I tried to protect your vpin exports from it being used on anything else but vpins, but freezy has decided on his own that it is not worth to be protected. Since I know that most of you made their colorizations for their own real pins and you would never had the idea to publish them for vpin, if I hadn´t asked you to do so, feel free now to remove your vpin files from the download section. It seems your work is not respected and safe here anymore.

 

[Wylte]

35 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

@NetzZwerg @X3r2A6@vbobrusev@MydknyteStyrm@jpajmo@Redrum@elicend@slippifishi@President@Beaster@Terranigma@Lucxor@Endprodukt

 

Sorry to all the pin2dmd colorization authors ! I tried to protect your vpin exports from it being used on anything else but vpins, but freezy has decided on his own that it is not worth to be protected. Since I know that most of you made their colorizations for their own real pins and you would never had the idea to publish them for vpin, if I hadn´t asked you to do so, feel free now to remove your vpin files from the download section. It seems your work is not respected and safe here anymore.

 

 

8 hours ago, freezy said:

Oh, and in case that it wasn't clear: The real-pin colorizations are still protected. You guys can still sell them to real-pin owners. PAC applies only to v-pins.

 

[NetzZwerg]

Hi guys, 

Please clarify, because I am getting really confused... As I understood freezy all sounded good except of the pac files wouldn't be supported by vpu anymore. Does that mean they will get deleted? Sorry but I feel kind of lost currently. 

[lucky1]

@Wylte

 

Yes but since the vpin format is not protected against unwanted usage anymore and the code how to read it is public, it can be implemented into other hardware project like AlphaDMD which demonstrated this with vni files already which in the end lead to pac together with the legal threat for the forum.

 

On 8/13/2023 at 1:51 PM, slippifishi said:

Indeed, usul is over on pinside talking about how alphaDMD can run VNI files; he's running my one of my VNI projects on his DMD or so he claims.

 

On 8/12/2023 at 4:52 PM, slippifishi said:

As usual the other PIN2DMD artists are silent, but if they aren't going to speak for themselves then I will and I will say we don't care either way, the ones who do it for money will still get the same money from the real pin users, and while we lose a great tester base from the vpin users, we also lose the fear of alphaDMD or anyone else stealing our hard work for their own gains. It will certainly reduce the number of new PIN2DMD artists we see, but that's definitely not your problem. Many of the (vocal) vpin users made their feelings well known 18 months ago (eg. see the previous post) so some of us already feel that the vpin community abandoned our work, so there is no love lost from our side; you will notice that the PIN2DMD forums are much quieter these days than they used to be.

 

[lucky1]

47 minutes ago, NetzZwerg said:

Hi guys, 

Please clarify, because I am getting really confused... As I understood freezy all sounded good except of the pac files wouldn't be supported by vpu anymore. Does that mean they will get deleted? Sorry but I feel kind of lost currently. 

 

Freezy has put the decryption code for pac into his latest release so we are at the same point as before with vni. 

He made the source code available to use your colorization on other hardware projects. See post above.

So obviously it is not against his ethics as a programmer to crack code to overcome copyprotection of other programmers.

Very noble !

 

Maybe he also received free ZeDMD hardware from shop owners like other ZeDMD developers and promised them PAC support in exchange. Maybe he promised PAC colorization support to ZenStudios PinballFX3 and that is why he asked me to change the license to BSD-3 from my dmddevice API to allow commercial usage. https://github.com/vpinball/pinmame/pull/110

Or it was just his ethics as a programmer 😂

 

We will never know, but who cares.

[lucky1]

Oh and about it all is and has to be opensource in this hobby ...

 

If you read through the usage list from dmdext you will recognize that this is not true

From https://github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions#usage

 

Pinball FX2 - CLOSED SOURCE

Pinball FX3 - CLOSED SOURCE

Pinball FX - CLOSED SOURCE

The Pinball Arcade - CLOSED SOURCE

Pro Pinball Ultra - CLOSED SOURCE

Visual PinMAME - !!! OPEN SOURCE

Future Pinball - CLOSED SOURCE

Pinup Player - CLOSED SOURCE

PinballX - CLOSED SOURCE

 

It is all FUD

 

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_Uncertainty_and_Doubt

[coolball]

THanks for the final.

[freezy]

@lucky1 Apart from your hurting ego, I really don't see the problem here. FSQ is still protected. It's pretty naive to think that usul/AlphaDMD didn't already crack PAC a long time ago. I mean, he spent weeks, probably months, re-implementing the VNI algorithm, and then just stops at PAC, which took me under two hours to get running? Come on...

[slippifishi]

NEWSFLASH: Open source developer is surprised and upset when he discovers that allowing third party software mods (or "plugins", depending on your semantics) means he necessarily loses control of said third party software. 

 

Will you expose some of Scorbits IP later on when they don't play ball with your grandiose vision too? I mean why not, come on, it's pretty naive to think some hacker won't do it eventually if they haven't done it already, right?...

[freezy]

Haha, you should become a journalist!

[Dazz]

5 hours ago, lucky1 said:

@NetzZwerg @X3r2A6@vbobrusev@MydknyteStyrm@jpajmo@Redrum@elicend@slippifishi@President@Beaster@Terranigma@Lucxor@Endprodukt

@TNZ

@jedimastermatt

 

Sorry to all the pin2dmd colorization authors ! I tried to protect your vpin exports from it being used on anything else but vpins, but freezy has decided on his own that it is not worth to be protected. Since I know that most of you made their colorizations for their own real pins and you would never had the idea to publish them for vpin, if I hadn´t asked you to do so, feel free now to remove your vpin files from the download section. It seems your work is not respected and safe here anymore.

 

@lucky1  This wasn't done to hurt you, but to hopefully open your eyes to the world around you.  I've always had and enjoyed my Pin2DMD, but I despise all of the drama that's surrounded this hobby ever since. It has been going on for toooooo damn long. You've artificially added too many hoops for the vpin users to jump through, and locking the files to specific builds is something that the hobby does not need. This site is dedicated to the vpin aspect of the pinball hobby and you lost that long ago. 

Personally, I would suggest that these wonderful creators continue creating however they so desire.  We may no longer be accepting or approving .pac files, but please consider using one of the other less hostile formats.  I believe that .pac files can be converted by a couple people, so please consider having your .pac file converted.

 

[Dazz]

10 hours ago, lafester said:

Everything seems to be working as expected including pac... Thanks freezy! 

 

I see pac files are still available to download, is that going to change soon?

No, the already submitted ones will stay. We just will not be approving new submissions. 

[lucky1]

5 hours ago, Dazz said:

This wasn't done to hurt you, but to hopefully open your eyes to the world around you. 

 

I think you still don´t get it. PAC was NOT created for me, it was created to protect the work of the colorization authors and protect YOU from  legal threats from PPS or ColorDMD. The only thing that hurts me is that the vpin community most likely looses some good colorization artists. Like I said most of them made the colorizations for their own real pinball machines and did not care about the vpin community before I asked them to make an export for vpin of their projects (I regret that now). One of them contacted me because he heard that someone (usul27 with his alphadmd/dmdreader project) wants to use VNI colorizations for his real pinball machine and the artist asked me if I can do something about it because the simply don´t want that because it is respectless. Their projects were "safe" again when pac was introduced. Of course usul27 was pissed about this and teamed up with freezy (btw both from switzerland) to bash against pac (End of Era / Beginning of a new Era drama queen bullshit) with FUD arguments like DRM to monetize vpin colorizations and open source is the only religion because what if I get hit by a bus. Now the real pin artists will most likely not export for vpin at all and definitely not convert to serum, because they simply don´t care. No problem for me as my vpin hasn´t been turned on for more than 2 years now and most likely will never be again and my my real pin collection is already equipped with a pin2dmd and already all my machines are colorized. Some of them even with HD graphics which unfortunatelly now will never make it to the vpin community.

[coolball]

Works very good, thank you so much.

[okerra]

1 hour ago, lucky1 said:

 

I think you still don´t get it. PAC was NOT created for me, it was created to protect the work of the colorization authors and protect YOU from  legal threats from PPS or ColorDMD. The only thing that hurts me is that the vpin community most likely looses some good colorization artists. Like I said most of them made the colorizations for their own real pinball machines and did not care about the vpin community before I asked them to make an export for vpin of their projects (I regret that now). One of them contacted me because he heard that someone (usul27 with his alphadmd/dmdreader project) wants to use VNI colorizations for his real pinball machine and the artist asked me if I can do something about it because the simply don´t want that because it is respectless. Their projects were "safe" again when pac was introduced. Of course usul27 was pissed about this and teamed up with freezy (btw both from switzerland) to bash against pac (End of Era / Beginning of a new Era drama queen bullshit) with FUD arguments like DRM to monetize vpin colorizations and open source is the only religion because what if I get hit by a bus. Now the real pin artists will most likely not export for vpin at all and definitely not convert to serum, because they simply don´t care. No problem for me as my vpin hasn´t been turned on for more than 2 years now and most likely will never be again and my my real pin collection is already equipped with a pin2dmd and already all my machines are colorized. Some of them even with HD graphics which unfortunatelly now will never make it to the vpin community.

Should what you say apply, or don't you think it was unfair to deny support for zedmd as a device before serum existed and then include serum in your dll solutions to make them work on pin2dmd? Seems a bit hypocritical to me

[slippifishi]

6 hours ago, freezy said:

Haha, you should become a journalist!

 

I don't want to be a journalist, I want to be a DMD colour artist whose hard work, which is already given away freely, isn't repurposed for someone else's profit - thanks for making that a reality again for all of us, really appreciate it. 

 

Your defence of exposing PAC as "someone would have done it eventually" tells me all I need to know about your ethics as a software developer that you allude to in the OP. You should become a software pirate! Oh hang on, you kind of already are...

[arnoz]

9 hours ago, lucky1 said:

Maybe he also received free ZeDMD hardware from shop owners like other ZeDMD developers and promised them PAC support in exchange.

Dear Drama-queen, please stop telling shit...

 

Love ❤️

[Cliffy]

15 hours ago, MikeDASpike said:

Congrats with this (painfully) release. 

I'm very happy that you still release this version and that you took your time to fix issues (especially my pindmd3 hardware one)

 

I hope we can use and enjoy for many years with this version. 

Great works and thanks again for all your hard work for the community.  

 

EDIT: Just tried a PAL/VNI for WCS , but doesn't color

[16] 2023/08/15 07:48:41.151  INFO | Loading palette file at C:\pinball\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\altcolor\wcs_l2\pin2dmd.pal... 
[16] 2023/08/15 07:48:41.151  WARN | Error initializing colorizer: An item with the same key has already been added. System.ArgumentException: An item with the same key has already been added.
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource)
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile.Load(BinaryReader reader, String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.PalFile..ctor(String filename)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.VniLoader.Load(String vniKey)
   at LibDmd.Converter.Vni.ColorizationLoader.LoadVniColorizer(String gameName, ScalerMode scalerMode, String vniKey)

But running for example Who dunnit with also a vni and pal, works fine
 

https://github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions/issues/400

DmdDevice_WD.log 116.7 kB · 2 downloads DmdDevice_WCS.log 4.84 kB · 2 downloads

Verified. wcs_l2 pal/vni no longer colorizes