Zablon

Can't remember if we covered this before, are you running Nvidia or ATI and single or multiple monitors? Was thinking this issue was strictly Nvidia...but..

If you are using win7 it won't work for you and you need different methods to screen cap. I've covered what works for me in an earlier post in this thread.

BTW the jukebox thing is a really cool addition

As to not threadjack, I have created a new instructional thread in the HyperDMD forum with instructions on how to add HyperDMD to Hyperpin and FPlaunch. http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?23641-Instructions-Custom-Animations-Screens-in-Hyperpin&p=224888#post224888

This is an example of what I'm working on. Sorry the cam sucks, the screen is a real DMD. The process for it is completely different from displaying it on a 3rd screen because of the time it takes to communicate with the PinDMD. Basically what it does is loads an animation scene when Hyperpin boots, and plays it until you choose a table. Then it loads another scene(in this case static picture), until the game loads. If the game is rom based, you see the pinmame / fp output. If it is not, then you just see the pic you loaded. These 2 are working examples in in VP and FP. When you exit the table it loads the main animation back. The scrambling you see with the FP table is common to the dll used (it might be fixed in the next release). The issue I described in my last post is with B2S tables.

Blur, I've hit a wall with HyperDMD. Calling anything to it via command line is slow (as BBB noted) but I'm not experienced enough to know how to work with the .dll however, I made everything work just great, but when you push your button to start a game, whatever is displaying when the -kill command is sent stays there until a rom starts, or if the game has no rom, or is not B2S, it just stays that way until you exit the table. While this works, it's not ideal, so I played with adding commands that add a static image of your choice to the DMD right before it kills the feed. This worked great except for 1 table that I can't for the life of me figure out why (there may be more, but I tested many tables to be sure). The game Diner will NOT load it's B2S DMD when I do this. I figured out it's a timing issue from when HypderDMD releases control and when B2S tries to takeover, so I played with sleep commands and that fixed Diner, but broke other B2S tables that weren't having problems prior. So long story question is, what determines when a B2S table tries to call a ROM and output, and in the rosve B2S routine, what is the sleep 200 at the end of it for? Since only B2S tables go through the if routine (and all tables go into the Rosve routine) it seems to be something in how different B2S tables are coded and how long it takes them to process. I messed with changing the value in that subroutine with no success as well as adding a sleep command just before the b2s.exe call. It's quite peculiar that one table reacts completely different from the rest.

I managed to get HyperDMD - using PinDMD working perfectly with Hyperpin, VP and FP (finally). I ended up using an external executable to load HyperDMD and Hyperpin (via Horseys instructions) and exits when Hyperpin closes. Finding the correct places places in FPlaunch to put the changes was interesting because FP's timings for things and when they happen are very delicate. I think I have them in the best places now. I'll paste the code and exe in here tomorrow. I have one more line I want to add, but need to make something first to test it. I'm just happy I finally figured it out.

Nice setup! Your video just reminded me to check on updates for LEDBlnky. Long ago I asked for PacLED64 and Hyperpin support and I see that at least there is PacLED64 support now (and looks like Hyperpin too! Time to do some experimenting

Blur just to clarify - PinDMD itself requires nothing to be put in FPlaunch. HyperDMD is what changes that and can be either PinDMD or just displayed (like pinmame). I understand what you are saying and the question is should each of those offshoots be in FPlaunch as a single script, or should they be branches of FPLaunch (which gets confusing)? Or should they just simply be a completely separate thread ahk that people with those items can download? Like what I"m working on with HyperDMD, it works in tandom with PinDMD - however not everyone with a PinDMD will use it. This is why I was trying to make it work as a separate ahk outside of FPLaunch.

Acid, you should see plug molex or pins with +5 0 -5 (or +12 0, 0, +5)b etc by each pin similar to this spot on the bottom right: You need to plug that into a power connection from your PC (same connectors you would plug external fans to or old IDE drives (the big 4 pin ones). As I dont know if yours is 12v or 5v, you need to be very careful because you only want whichever volt is required...not all 4 wires (unless 12v)

Yes but I don't think he understood what I was asking, because he repeated what I had already said and the code is for working with HyperDMD in tables, not FPlaunch. There was confusion because I was talking about pinDMD and the other person was talking about just a 3rd screen which require different methods.

I'm actually working on that now (for use with PinDMD). I'm having difficulty making it work from only within FPLaunch though. For some reason if you start it anywhere in the FPLaunch script, it doesn't start HyperDMD. I even tried putting it in the very first line. If you start it externally (from another ahk script that calls hyperpin) it works within Hyperpin, and works flawlessly with Visual Pinball with just -kill / -start commands entered into the FPLaunch script ( but it works GREAT). -kill location for HyperDMD in Visual Pinball ;Run Minimized was the best way I could hide the vp editor and ;play loading screens as WinHide didn't seem to find them sometimes Run, C:\Hyperpin\HyperDMD\HyperDMD.exe -kill -start location for Visual Pinball CloseVP: toLog("CloseVP Called") Hotkey, %exitScriptKey%, Off Run, C:\Hyperpin\HyperDMD\HyperDMD.exe -start Future Pinball on the other hand is another story. It appears to require a complete -exit of HyperDMD and then a reload of the program when dropping back into Hyperpin. It's not really an issue by itself it works pretty good and not much slowdown, however when combined with Visual Pinball's calls to HyperDMD, it gets unreliable. It probably is that I'm not putting the commands in the exact right spots, or a matter of the program running through those commmands one after another when it shouldn't be - but I've tried lots of scenarios with no success. (I just spent 6 hours straight trying to hash it out). I put the -exit call for Hyper DMD in this line for Future Pinball Run, "%emuPath%\%executable%" /open "%tablePath%\%tableName%.fpt" /play /arcaderender,,Min UseErrorLevel Run, C:\Hyperpin\HyperDMD\HyperDMD.exe -exit And the restart of it here: CloseFP: toLog("CloseFP Called") Run, C:\Hyperpin\HyperDMD\HyperDMD.exe -set Attract -scene Attract -start -silent These locations do not appear to be correct as I one by one eliminated all HyperDMD commands and saw odd behavior where it would be running in the background when it shouldn't have been or wouldn't start up when it should have. Other times it would. I also tried controlling all of it from a differen't ahk, but not really having luck there, tried doing loops, if's/ elses, etc..and no luck. Again, noob at this Unless Blur could add a setting to the settings.ini to toggle if you want to run HyperDMD and if you have a PinDMD or a 3rd screen, it might be best to have this self contained, but I'll let the pros decide that. It's just a fun little time trying to learn some scripting ;p (sorry for the book)

Blur...I have a really noob question. With FPLaunch.exe and FPlaunch.ahk - are they the same script? Or does FPLaunch.exe call on things within the .ahk file. I'm kinda new to the whole ahk thing and have been editing the .ahk file thinking it should be taking changes, but I'm not seeing it happen Am I supposed to edit the ahk file and then recompile it and replace the FPLaunch.exe? EDIT: Just tested this theory and made some progress...now to work out the kinks

When I say taskbar, we're talking about the same thing, on mine, when Hyperpin loses focus I can see the edge of the task bar, where normally I can't, however I believe I use hidden task bar, so I'll try w/o next time I have the issue. So far with the latest fplaunch, hasn't been an issue. I figured out how to screen cap FP after messing around with Monopoly and FlashVP. I know, thats VP you say...but I figured out you could force FlashVP behind the table and the table would run flawlessly. All the "issues" we see appear to simply be layering priorities due to the way VP/FP interact with windows and other windows (including Hyperpin)..or at least..that's my take on it. To screen cap FP tables from within Hyperpin here is what I have found works: 1. Open Paint Progam (I keep 2 open for this, one for BG one for PF) 2. Open up a windows explorer window - just so you have one open as it makes it a bit easier for this to work 3. Run Hyperpin/Run table 4. Alt-tab 3 times in a row (this takes focus off the table, however table is still only thing visible) 5. Press print screen 6. This is where it can get tricky the first few times you do it. You have to force all Hyperpin/Table graphics to the back, which sometimes takes a few tries since they are coded to force themselves to the front. Alt-tab a few times, but setting it so focus is on either a folder, or HPGlass, anything but Hyperpin/FP tables programs (when you alt-tab you can see the icons for the different programs that are running). Eventually, you'll end up with another window on top. If you have trouble, you can also hit the Windows key to help. Once you have a window on top you can bring your paint program to the front (by alt tabbing or clicking on taskbar) and Ctrl-V your cap into the paint program. If when you paste you see black instead of the playfield, try again by bringing focus back to table and alt-tabbing a few times. 7. Click table to bring focus back to table 8. Exit table (goes back into Hyperpin 9. Alt-tab to paint program you pasted into. You will have both PF/BG in the same image, so you have to manually edit them. I cut BG out and paste it into the 2nd paint program. Like I said, it's a bit more complicated, but it does work and doesn't take as long as it might seem from the # of steps and you can do one table after another pretty quickly because you never leave Hyperpin. Not sure how you could automate this, but maybe you can devine what is causing this behavior if you play with what I've shown here and work around it if we're lucky

Yes and no. Part of it is just how Win 7 handles priorities, but the actual focus issue is when you exit a table and and can no longer control Hyperpin because it is no longer in the front -- instead you can see your task bar. Which means you have to either have a mouse to click Hyperpin to the front, or shutdown and reboot. The black screen you see when pausing is normal in Win 7 and currently no workaround that I'm aware of. It is also the reason that the built in screen cap doesn't work in Win 7 -- however I have found a workaround for that, it's a bit more complicated, but it does work from within Hyperpin. All of these issues are related to the focus issue, however only the taskbar part is really annoying.