Making a Virtual Pinball Machine Table - Zen's Cabinet Support

Cabinet Support for Zen's Pfx2 Virtual Pinball Tables was introduced on the 24th September 2015. Setup wasn't overly complicated...even I managed. :) Here's how I set mine up.
Intended use: visual pinball, zen pinball pfx2 and the pinball arcade
Equip: Maxicam CNC, Axminster AW10BSB2, Bosch GCM12GDL

[@moxxichannel5950]

READ THIS! I'm using Pinball FX3 in Cabinet Mode (I received the code to do this). I finally got the backglass and DMD to appear on my 3 screen setup. I am using a 43" 4K TV as the playfield, a 32" tv for backglass and 19" monitor for DMD. The backglass was appearing as black image with a filepath on it - but at least that meant something was happening on the backglass screen (display 2). If you're getting the black image instead of the backglass, go back into MY COLLECTION and cycle through the tables. Make sure the image is exactly the same name as the pinball game name and remember that it has to go into the same file folder as the pinball tables (much like VPX). I found a bunch of images online but they had a "1" after them, which would make them not show up, so I just renamed them and removed the 1. The backglass image SHOULD appear on the backglass when you go through MY COLLECTION in PinballFX3 and select a table that you own. From there start the table and you should be good to go. Here's some of the settings I used to get things to appear on my setup - which could work for you too if you have roughly the same size screen setup as I do (Note: you may have to trial and error the sizes to work with your setup): DOT MATRIX HORIZ POS: 5950 DOT MATRIX VERT POS 150 DOT MATRIX HORIZ SIZE: 1000 (resize to your liking) DOT MATRIX VERT SIZE 500 (resize to your liking) BACKGL HORIZ POS: 3840 BACKGL VERT POS: 0 BACKGL HORIZ SIZE: 1920 BACKGL VERT SIZE: 1080 Not sure if this was an issue but the backglass images I've found are 1280 x 1024 (I originally made a backglass for Black Rose to be the resolution of my monitor 1920x1080 - not sure if that was a deal breaker either to be honest). I hope that helps!

[@ChryslerKev]

After a lot of screwing around with the settings in windows and the settings of the nvidia card software I finally got it all to work! Thank you for all your help! Much appreciated. I also love all your vids on here of your build! Thanks again

[@Smugwood]

+Kevin Chrysler Good stuff :) Sometimes these games can take a fair bit of setting up but it's always worth it in the end. :)

[@Smugwood]

Very difficult to say really...are you on a 3 screen setup? I know that with mine, if there are no images in the folder I get the black backglass screen with the writing at the top saying the name of the file that should be there. Do you get that writing showing up?

[@red_zone_art]

Nnice to work it out but what is the problem you solved you dont explane nothing

[@hawker05]

Wow, This video helped me out so much. What a great idea to make it large to find it. Thanks for posting

[@Smugwood]

Glad it helped :)

[@Squigibo]

Tip: Once you get the settings, take a screeny of your settings for next time. In case you need to reinstall.

[@danw3735]

There's that music again lol, oh how i missed you :P

[@Smugwood]

Haha. I’m learning guitar now so my music is annoying a wider audience now 😂

[@Seraphim190.]

i came here just for the music!

[@Smugwood]

Haha...certainly one of my more talked about tracks 😂

[@teddymcginty6099]

Thanks!! Helped me a bunch.

[@Smugwood]

😊👍

[@MichaelPick1]

Hi There, Nice Video, By any chance would you know why when I try to open Cabinet Setup in PBFX2 I get " you must go online to continue" My network connection is fine and I have fire walls off on pc and modem. I am soo close to finishing my Cabinet except for getting DMD on my BackGlass monitor, I have also tried the dotmatrix.cfg trick but that doesn't work either. Thanks Mike

[@ChryslerKev]

I've decided to just use a generic wallpaper as a backglass for now, no matter what i do i can only get a full image on the screen. If i try to move it to the other side (full screen) i get half an image. Its like something on the right side of my screen is blocking anything from coming over onto it? Frustrating! Although i can put the DMD anywhere on that same screen which is super odd too but at least I've got that! I wish it was as easy as Future Pinball!

[@ChryslerKev]

Thanks for your advice and help! Your machine looks awesome! Also a question about your vinyl work. When you had it printed is there a certain grade of vinyl to ask for or is it simply the same as a car wrap?

[@Smugwood]

+Kevin Chrysler When I got the image printed I just told the guys what it was for and they went through what the best way to do it was and the best material. I can check to see what it was. Don't give up with setting up of the backglass...it's usually straight forward so it may just be really simple to sort out. Have you asked on the forum? It can take a while sometimes but try perhaps aiming your question at Zen... Barbiebobomb is listed as community manager...perhaps that's the person to ask but I'm not 100% sure. As mines a 3 not 2 monitor setup it's difficult to know what could be the issue...but it sounds like you're fairly close to getting it right.

[@jonathanjackson4500]

Do the coin doors work? And perhaps you can tell me Abit about it thanks

[@Smugwood]

It can be made to work (I think) but for now its all button controlled. Zen are apparently about to announce some changes so Ive been holding off doing anything until I know what these announcement are :-)

[@jonathanjackson4500]

@@Smugwood thanks!! Oh that sounds good hehe

[@ChryslerKev]

Hey, so apparently I'm having issues with displays! I've tried a different video card with the same results. I've tried future pinball and same thing. My main play field in zen and future is hogging part of the backlash screen for some reason and won't move! Scratching my head over here!

[@Smugwood]

+Kevin Chrysler I wish I could help more but computers and me don't mix well :) Have you tried the TPA forum...Im sure there is a Zen section...theres a pc section too and some top guys on there. Its obviously for TPA, but i see zen questions on there from time to time. Plus, I'm not sure if you use the noex mod for TPA, but it could be worth seeing if that works for you. There was a monitor setup for my GTX card and I can move and alter the position of any of the 3 monitors i have. Is this something you can do, and if so, are they in the correct positions to work with the softwares etc? I altered mine so they were showing in a straight line which made setup easier. Not sure if that option is available to you...or if it would make any difference, but it helped me a little. Another thing i remember changing was some ratio or something that had something to do with resolution...it was something that made everything on the playfield 50 percent bigger for some reason...are all you resolutions set right and is this something you can check in your card setup? Also, have you tried different monitors to see what happens?

[@ExploringNewEngland]

do you have a forum where I can find out more about software setup? please. love video man.

[@Smugwood]

Hi, a couple of forums I use are the Zen Pinball Forum...just google Zen Pinball Forum and it should be top of the list. And the other is for The Pinball Arcade, which is Pinballarcadefans dot com. Zens forum has official cab support...TPA doesn't. But there is a mod created by a member of the TPA forum which does allow cab play...thats under the heading of freecamera mod in the PC section...theres also a guide there to setting it up too. :)

[@ExploringNewEngland]

thanks I will look it up. I need to get moving on this project. :) great job

[@Smugwood]

Thanks...Good luck with your project.

[@petarpejcic3730]

What's the background music name?

[@ChryslerKev]

does it matter that I'm trying to put the backless and DMD on the same screen? I have a two screen set up....maybe i should try 3?

[@Smugwood]

+Kevin Chrysler Not sure to be honest...but it may be. Of all the setups I've seen they've all been 3 monitors...I'm not sure if Zens cab support is just for 3 monitors or not...I'd be interested in knowing myself. :) The only issue I had when setting up was working out that one of monitors required the numbers to be negative rather than positive because of how my monitors were positioned. What made matters worse was that you needed the numerical keypad to input the negative sign and at the time I didn't own a keyboard with the numerical pad...it took me a while to suss that problem out...but other than that it all went surprisingly well. As far as 2 monitor setups go...TPA can run on 2 using the mod, but Zens...might be worth checking for that info on the forum...but if ur computer can run 3 and you have all the bits to hand...definitely worth giving that a try and seeing if that runs ok.

[@Smugwood]

+Kevin Chrysler wasn't sure how to edit my last post...anyhow...Just had a look through some old notes from Zen...and I'm pretty sure it says that you can have the backglass and dmd on the same monitor. There's a bit of info I've just seen on the forum that states the same, so unless things have changed recently, 2 monitors should work.

[@handpuppe]

So this is about FX2. I have FX3. And FX3 does not recognize my second monitor. So Dot matrix and back images are not placed also. Any suggestions?

[@Smugwood]

Im currently doing an FX3 video as ive now upgraded the cab. There could be lots of reasons for issues...Ive found making the screen size massive helps locate them a bit easier...then once found its a case of fine tuning.

[@handpuppe]

Finaly got it to work

[@Smugwood]

👍👍👍👍

[@Petekazel]

I'm having the same issue with fx3, I can't get my second display to display anything. Any help would be appreciated

[@red_zone_art]

@D B me to i have black part where supose to be picture anybody help

[@ChryslerKev]

I'm getting a bit of progress. I can see a portion of the Backglass image on screen but when I move any values I see different parts of the image in the same location. Also I'm seeing part of a Windows border with the image name in the top left of the window. Very odd. I've tried messing with the screen resolution a bit and that seemed to have helped a bit. I guess I'll have to keep tinkering with it! What are your other (2/3) monitor resolutions set to?

[@Smugwood]

+Kevin Chrysler I can't remember what the resolutions are...I never messed with the resolutions of either monitor though. I remember i did originally create my images for the backglass at a different res to what the backglass monitor was and although I got it to fit, it just didn't look as good as it should. So I just altered the image res to suit the monitor. But when it wasn't the same, it still fit. Have you tried making the backglass image massive in the settings to see if it fills the screen...this is the method I used then I just adjusted the figures till it fit. Also, because of the way my monitors were set up, my positioning values required a negative value to be used. I've now altered my monitor positions so all the numbers are positive, but originally I had to use negative values otherwise the images wouldn't line up. Have you tried using negative values to see what happens? I'm guessing that if the images are showing on your screen, you can't be far off now... :)

[@ChryslerKev]

Just curious, did you have any trouble with moving the Backglass? DMD went well but the Backglass isn't working out.... It's just disfiguring my desktop wallpaper that's on screen. I've tried all variations of sizes and positions with no success. I've even tried a different image making sure the name is right. Any thoughts?

[@Smugwood]

+Kevin Chrysler Not sure...Ive definitely not had those issues. Its usually quite straight forward so something sounds like its not quite right. Usually the images can be distorted if the sizing and placing isn't quite right but thats usually sorted after playing around with the sizes which you can see change in realtime, so should be easy enough to see and adjust. When you say you tried a different image...you added the backglass images to the correct folder and renamed it as it should etc didn't you? I guess a way to check would be to keep the images folder as it was originally and when you load things up (provided things haven't changed since I set mine up) you should get a blank screen with a folder location at the top. If thats there (it was when I set mine up) then at least you know that it should be a case of simply adding the image file to the correct location. If i remember correctly, you don't delete any files in there...I seem to remember someone doing that and that messed things up. :) Not sure if thats of any help, but from the issues Ive seen people have, its usually because of not adding the images or not naming them correctly, or deleting some of the files in those folders. My computer skills are a bit limited (ha ha) so Im certainly no expert...but if I get really stuck, there are some good peeps on the forum who'd probably have a better idea. Sometimes on the Zen forum it can take a bit of time for a response (TPA forum is much quicker) but when you get a response its usually good advice.

[@jeffsim1987]

I know this is a old video dont lnow if you will respond im having big difficulty getting the dmd to another screen even by changing the numbers in real time nothing happens plz help thanx

[@Smugwood]

Try making the number ridiculously huge...and see if the screen changes...and try making the figure a negative number too if that doesn’t work. I just inputted massive number then lowered the numbers until I could see an edge. As I remember it could be a positive or a negative...try both.

[@jeffsim1987]

@@Smugwood thanx for the reply will do love your cabinet by the way thats what made me start my own budget 1 so I can at least get going

[@Smugwood]

No problem 😊 Good luck with the build 👍

[@Maggelito]

3 screens? One DMD?

[@Smugwood]

3 tv's at present...I have a dmd ready to install but i may be saving it for another machine :) Looking at building a scaled down version.

[@fredericpoupard1065]

thanks top =)

[@RalfDietle]

So do you have 2 monitors and a DMD or 3 Monitors setup?

[@Smugwood]

+Ralf Dietle it's a 3 monitor setup. In one of my other videos on here you can see it being installed. It's just an old LCD TV. The pinball games I play don't support real dmd yet, but it would be easy enough to change if they did.

[@RalfDietle]

+Smugwood I watched all now :) what a great job you´ve done: congrats!!! I bought today a empty Cab... so at the beginning of all. But like you i will use P FX2... so a 3rd Monitor will be my setup too.

[@Smugwood]

+Ralf Dietle good luck with the build. There can be a lot of work involved...but it's worth it. :) And now that pfx2 supports cabs it makes setting them up really easy.

[@RalfDietle]

Yeah.. i look forward to this. There will be a documentation on my site: www.dietle.de/projekt-vpin-virtueller-flipper/ But maybe you can help me with my first issue: wich size you used for the DMD frame (in the wood)? Greetings and a nice X-mas!

[@Smugwood]

+Ralf Dietle The size of the rectangular 'cutout' I used for the DMD is approx. 300mm long x 90mm high. Im not sure what the standard size is, but Im sure it'll be available on the internet somewhere. The good thing about PFX2 though is that you can alter the DMD size to suit.