It would great if down the road you would release how many software kits sell for some of the rare games like 24 and CSI. Didn't they make very few 24's?

For those of us that have LCD + pi + licensed pinball browser/smart DMD software, will there be a way to buy the dot package? I'm interested in the game specific packages too but I already have 2 lots of hardware installed in two of my Sterns. For the few of us that have this, I'm guessing we'd be happy to pay $50 for the coloured dots

First off, great work guys! All of this is just a reminder to me a new screen is on its way from Stern which will make dots seem out dated without color.

Great!!!
I am waiting so long for Star Trek and especially Avatar to be colorized
I own 8 Color DMD's but i have still left Pins which are not supported by them.

So BIG ThX for doing this work and for releasing the list of Games you will support.

It don't like the big secrets Color DMD is always doing and can't understand why they don't say which Games are in Line or what will be new to their Product.

Will you have a retail site to order from

The thought of all the Stern SAM games being colored is amazing - even oddball titles like Stones!?! Awesome !!!!

Great work guys... Keep it up! Well done indeed. I can't wait to see the finished product in person!

I will definitely buy Stones SmartDMD, so please make it compatible with the LE code

Is it me, or does ACDC seem like it doesn't have that much for custom dots compared to other games like MET for example? When you look at the images in pinball browser, it's like at least half of them are digitized concert footage and most of that I have never seen used in the game.

Rob

Looks awesome. I'm pretty sure you're going to sell a ton of these.

looks nice.

Awesome

Stop the press!
When can we see this "smart audio system" and 24" back glass display?
I want!!!

How about now? Is it ready now? Can I have it... NOW!?!

It's going to be a purchase for sure. Now it's just a race of who does Simpsons first.

image.jpg

SEGA SEGA SEGA!

I have like 10

Hey PinballMikeD... what about our good friends Tommy & Axel (GNR's)?

So a question:

It seems like any time there's a full screen color (anything not black) the upper left 8 pixels are missing.

I'm thinking the number 8 is probably a clue, does SmartDMD store some kind of palette info in the address for those pixels? Is that how it's going to look for the final release?

See the upper left missing blue on the train for example:

smartdmd-acdc.jpg

For full color, SmartDMD uses data stored in the actual rom. With anything not Stern, you just get palette swaps with the brightness levels.

When you get to the Whitestar lineup, please add RBION to the list.

Sorry if I missed this, but are these going to work on W/B games? If so, will the profile fit in a CV? That is one game BEGGING for color that ColorDMD is just not able to accommodate.

yes please! this game would look great in color!

So wait, that's not really much of an answer. Are all the games going to have this issue? Because it makes it look like you're selling a display with a bunch of dead pixels. I assume it's a software problem, not hardware, isn't there something that could be explored to make it not look so broken?

Maybe those 8 pixels could take their color from the 9th pixel? On solid color stuff it would hide it perfectly, though I guess under some circumstances it could introduce a weird color glitch. But better than just always black and dead.

smartdmd-corner.jpg

It looks like you could trivially improve that on most screens by simply replicating the dots from the line below. Slightly more work, but also more accurate, would be to replace the first 16 bits, rather than 8, and look up the missing dots in a table.

@aurich

yes this is how it works at the moment or forever

Ok once you notice the lines it's very hard to ignore them.
Just like a dead pixel in a lcd monitor.

I guess it helps that you aren't looking at the dmd all the time while playing. Curious about the technical requirements that caused this ?

what i know is.....

colordmd =
at the panel controller(pc) is a special version that knows this is for example AC DC

this technical way is patented by colordmd

smartdmd=
with this pixel the pc knows which palette should be now displaced
this is not a game specific thing or there is no game firmware at the pc
so no law problems but this dead pixels

That would drive me crazy. I am careful with dead pixels on a monitor a couple these really gets to me also.

Yeah, I have a dead pixel on my Retina 15" Macbook. Tiny pixels, just a little dot in the right hand side of the screen. And yet it drives me nuts.

This is at least a software problem, not hardware. But I'm getting the sense there's not going to be a fix for it.

It would take literally minutes to try it with the second row copied up, or the 9th dot copied over. Also, if there's really only 32 different palettes then it should be easy to modify to only destroy 5 pixels, rather than 8.

EDIT: Sorry to sound like such an ass, it's still really cool, I just think this issue would be easy to mitigate.

Please tell us how to do it if it's so easy?

Which part?

Choosing between 32 palettes requires 5 bits of data, so 5 dots could be used rather than 8 and leave the 3 as they originally were.

The data of the colorized picture is sitting in some array or memory block, where it is trivial to copy either the data at index 8 or the range from 128-135 to blocks 0-7. Or keep using the 3 bits from before and it could choose from the next row down, the 9th dot, the BG color, the FG color, or a mirror image of the last 8 dots in the other corner on a case by case basis.

Great, problem solved then, thanks!

:/

What gives you that idea?

This is a mod that is purely cosmetic, and you have a competitor that colors those 8 dots. If I were in your shoes, I'd at least attempt to come up with a solution. Ridiculing critics that are trying to help you improve your product does not strike me as good practice.

Looks like those 8 dots are colored there.

Yeah, I don't really understand the attitude here. The video clearly shows the flaw, it's not like it's some hidden secret. Every single full screen animation in the video shows it. And yet Mike just seem really dismissive of me asking about it. "What you see is what you get." Okay?

It's a software problem, surely there's a solution. There have been suggestions in this thread for at least covering it up more so it doesn't look like the upper left hand corner of the displays is broken.

But I guess it's love or leave it.

No, that yellow is the "transparent" color, you can see that in the palette. Not the actual background color, you won't see that yellow. I haven't used the software, but presumably you set a color that the program marks as transparent, and if there are other backgrounds or whatever the snake would appear over them.