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Pin2DMD Basic Colouring

@lozpeters , @jack burton

This thread describes the basics of using the Pin2DMD editor to change the default palette used throughout the game, then to progress you (preferably) capture DMD screens to colour direct from your machine (or using playfield.dev as described above). Work on the most commonly displayed scenes first (scoring, ball launch, ball drain etc) for the biggest bang for your buck as you proceed.

As homework I recommend (at least) these resources;
Video tutorial -
Written tutorial - https://pin2dmd.com/chapter-1-getting-started/

I'm happy to help progress it further, just reserve a couple hundred hours of personal time :thumbs:
 
Just been reading over this post, great info much easier to understand than the info on the pin2dmd forum!! Hopefully will all make sense in my head when I start a project :)
 
lozpeters said:
Just been reading over this post, great info much easier to understand than the info on the pin2dmd forum!! Hopefully will all make sense in my head when I start a project :)
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. It's not that complicated once you get the "hello world" basics working you're away!

1. Use the Pin2dmd.exe "Tool" (https://pin2dmd.com/tool/) to capture screen dumps of what is displayed on your real pinball machines Pin2DMD to your USB connected laptop
2. Import the dump recordings into Pin2DMD Editor and colour away in a project
3. Export the colouring from Pin2DMD Editor to real pinball files on the Pin2DMD microSD card
4. Insert Pin2DMD microSD card to review colouring on real pinball machine
5. Goto 1. :D
 
domlouis said:
Anyone looked at playfield/dev recently? The emulator doesn't seem to be working properly for me... Anyone else with the same problem?
Click to expand...
I seem to be having an issue too the DMD/pf display at the bottom of the page looks like it is not wiping the previous data!20210204_163410.jpg
 
What do you mean Phil? Is there more than one version of the website playfield.dev? One for mac and one for PC?
 
Is ok for me running in Chrome - Windows / Browser version specific maybe :hmm:
 
Weird, I tried on my phone (android) and it is fine.
I'll look at other browsers. It was on chrome on 3 different laptops.
 
lozpeters said:
I seem to be having an issue too the DMD/pf display at the bottom of the page looks like it is not wiping the previous data!
Click to expand...
domlouis said:
Yes thats my problem too. So it isnt just me thanks.
Click to expand...

Strange, I have several Windows PCs here and can only reproduce the garbled display problem on a newer AMD laptop running Windows 10/Edge, my older Intel laptop running the same is fine :hmm: Even with the garbled display I would guess the DMD capture output is ok but I find it better to work with real output (from real machine or VPX) for proper colouring work.
 
astyy said:
Strange, I have several Windows PCs here and can only reproduce the garbled display problem on a newer AMD laptop running Windows 10/Edge, my older Intel laptop running the same is fine :hmm: Even with the garbled display I would guess the DMD capture output is ok but I find it better to work with real output (from real machine or VPX) for proper colouring work.
Click to expand...
Yeah mine is a AMD Windows 10!

But yeah the DMD capture works fine, just hard to push switches etc. I am going to go the route of recording from my machine anyway as it does look a bit easier if it is up and running. Started watching that video you posted up astyy, much easier to understand the colouring process watching his video
 
So I have watched the homework video that astyy posted its quite long but it really helps you understand the process well worth a watch if you are planning on colouring a file.

I have made a DMD dump of my JD not sure if I got everything but the score was massive by the time I finished.

I started colouring the attract scenes as I think that is a good place to start to check everything is working. Next steps is to finish the attract mode and test it out in my machine :D
 
There is a 64 colour version of Editor and Firmware in the delivery pipeline :thumbs:

1612952511009.png
 
Ooo that looks interesting, is that adding more colour options to the basic 4 shade colour mask?
 
lozpeters said:
Ooo that looks interesting, is that adding more colour options to the basic 4 shade colour mask?
Click to expand...
Yeah, supports 64 simultaneous colours on a frame, so (if I understand correctly) in mask mode 4x 16 for newer games (sam/spike?), and 16x 4 as demonstrated above for older games. Newer 16 shade games can now be coloured in Pin2DMD Editor rather than only Pinball Browser as previously.
 
So I started colouring the attract sequence for JD and I think the process makes sense. I compiled it for a real pin put it in my JD and it works but I have some issues with strange colours appearing in certain scenes. ( colours where they shouldn't be, flashing up of other colours & some frames for a split second not coloured)

It seems to me my recording might be missing some frames, does this happen? If so what is the best setup to get a full recording?? I have used a amd 64 bit windows laptop. I am gonna try colouring the attract mode from the playfield.dev dump to see if that is the issue.

Would someone be willing to check out my project to see if that is the issue? And also give a quick check over of it to see if I am making any major mistakes before I tackle the actual gameplay?? And give me any usefull pointers etc?
 
Many thanks to astyy for having a look at the project, gave me some really good pointers and started to get the attract scene looking good. I then started making changes to colours as going thru this I understand the process better and thought of better ways to colour parts but some how really managed to mess up my files/editor had issues with replace and mask scenes not appearing on the machine, pallet colours stuck on 4 colours!! I think I messed the files up and had a java crash or fault

Does anyone know can you wipe/reset a cut scene back to the original 4 shades? Or does it mask colours over masked colours etc?

Anyway got annoyed and decided to start again in the new 64 colour editor! Made a few replace scenes which worked well so will continue with this new file. Hopefully will have the attract done soon and start on the gameplay
 
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