So You Want to Move Your DMD

Firstly, if you're not well versed in pinball-speak, DMD is Dot Matrix Display. It's the part of the table where you see your score and see all those flashy updates during your game.



In the new update, the fine folk at Zen made it so we can move the DMD to another screen. That is awesome news. The not so awesome news is that it's not just a click of a button in the menu to get it to work. The awesomest news though, is that while there is no universal system settings for everyone, I am here to guide you in the right direction.

I know there is a thread stickied to another forum about this subject, but it really is lacking in a "how-to" approach. Hopefully this thread will clarify any questions people might have.



In order to get this to work, you have to have a second, or third monitor. You could do it if you had four or more, I'm sure, but that would be madness. And this is pinball, not Sparta.

First, you should go into your PBFX2 settings in your steam folder. For me, it is in "Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/common/Pinball FX2". Yours will vary depending on your Operating System. Inside the PinballFX2 folder should be a file named "dotmatrix.cfg". If there isn't one, you will have to create it.

Here is where you are going to make the file, as well as put in the default paramaters you need to get started.

Open notepad and copy/paste (or type, your choice) the following:



x=

y=

height=

width=



Don't put any values in there just yet, just save the file and place it in the Pinball FX2 folder. Now you need to make it a cfg file, not a txt file. In order to do that, just rename the file "dotmatrix.txt" to "dotmatrix.cfg". **this part assumes you do not have your file extentions set to hidden in windows. If you do, google-fu how to disable this in order to rename the file properly.**



Now that you have the file, keep it minimized, as you are going to be messing with values for this file in a minute. Next, start PBFX2 and go to your settings. Under "video" there is an option for "DMD size". Set this to "off." Exit the menu and open up a table. At this point, you should see no DMD and this is where the fun begins.



Now is when you are going to place values in your dotmatrix.cfg file. This is going to take some trial and error, and thankfully you can experiment even with PBFX2 running, saving time and frustration.



The values for the above file are as follows-



x/y is the position of the DMD. So, having x/y at 0/0 would be the top left corner of your screen.

height/width is exacly what you would think. How tall and wide the DMD is going to be.



I have my height/width set to 200/400. That seems to work for me.

I have 2 monitors, the main one in portrait mode for pinball, and the second one is landscape, where I now have the DMD. My x/y position is at 1700/350, and so far that works. Like I said, depending on your setup, these numbers will be different. Just start messing with vaules and saving the file after you change them. The DMD will update it's position every time you save new values and re-enter a table.



The only thing I don't know how to do is getting the windows border off the DMD. If anyone knows how to do that, I'd appreciate it.



A big thanks to Zen for making this happen for us. You guys are the bestest.

