PFME - Updates and New Releases

[BarXQueen]

@BarXQueen, good afternoon.

First of all massive thanks ref the Winwall screen the other day - this has been sorted out perfectly! A massive huge thanks there.

Secondly, I had already done the steps you have suggested regarding Divas top balloons, and same with the reels, for some reason it doesn't seem to be detecting them. I have ensured not on any subdued or bingo modes too before I added in the lamps. I did this via the top box, insert lamp then went into here and selected the lamp in this case 400 - but also 401 and 402 etc and still completely dead. Can you tell me if the setting I have shown a photo of is the correct way I have done it? If I haven't I am very sorry, I am still learning and you are my teacher at the moment until I get the hang of this new PFME :-)

Best Wishes

Thanks for the photo. Your settings are right: top box board, lamp bound through the picker as L400. I checked this morning on a clean install of 0.3.5 and the balloons on the shipped Divas layout do light, so the problem is on your machine, not in your layout.

My earlier advice was wrong on one point. An old copy of the Divas program file still lists L400 in the picker, so you will not see "not on this machine". What it lacks is the table that says which output line the lamp is on, so the bulb never lights.

Quick check: hover over the l400 row in the picker. If the tooltip says "output line 0" the file is fine. If it gives a row and "column 0", it is the old copy.

Fix: close PFME, open %LOCALAPPDATA%\PFME\programs in File Explorer, move F9B1E841DCF2F738.json to your desktop, and open the layout again. Hover over l400 once more and it should now say output line 0, with the balloon lit. The top reel lamps L408 to L416 are cured by the same move.

If the tooltip already says output line 0 and the bulb is still dark, send me a screenshot of that tooltip and the version from Help > About.

[lotechking89]

@BarXQueen  Mate it works! It works! moved the json file to desktop and they all light up now!
I shall forever bow to your amazing talents on how you know how to fix things so promptly! :-D

Legend thank you :-)

[BarXQueen]

PFME v0.3.6
Fixed

• Opening a layout with a large picture in it could make PFME judder, pause mid-game or freeze in edit mode. Pictures are now loaded at the size your screen can show, so big layouts open and play smoothly. Settings has a new Artwork detail option if you want them sharper or at full size.
• On a layout whose backdrop is drawn at its own size, the recommended artwork setting could shift the backdrop so every lamp sat off its glass. Lamps and glass line up again on every setting.
• Clicking a station on a multi-player layout could select the wrong one, so the keyboard stayed stuck on station 1. The station you click is the one you play.
• Game Configuration changed only the station on screen, so one station could pay 94% while the others stayed on 84%. It now sets every station alike, with a tick box to turn that off.
• The Deluxe machines never raised their top awards during play. They do now, with their sweep and heartbeat sounds. A layout with a saved Game Configuration keeps its old switch settings, so change it there if yours still does not.
• Pure Gold Community layouts drew a top box the real bank never had. The controller now sits in the base of station 1, as it does on the real machine.
• Bound reel lamps made the reel artwork look washed out when lit. Reels with a lamp bound are dark until the machine lights them, then show the artwork as it is.
• Spinwall stations never joined their top box and it sat on COMMS INIT. The stations now play and link up.
• A board with two screens stacked them one above the other, so each was tiny. They now sit side by side.

New

• Round bulbs: a lamp set to Bulb shows its pictures through a circle, and its glow follows the circle.
• Merge Lamps (Ctrl+Shift+M) joins several lamps into one shaped lamp, and Split Merged Lamp takes them apart again.
• Key out a colour: pick a colour on a lamp or button picture and it becomes see-through.
• Chaser bulbs: Arrange > Make Chaser turns a set of lamps into a chaser border that runs one bulb at a time, like the separate 12 V chaser boards some cabinets had.
• The win line can be drawn as a single line across the reels instead of boxes, with a thickness you choose. With nothing selected in the editor, look under Layout.
• File > Save Artwork writes every picture in a layout back out to a folder, reel symbols included.
• A screen's Output can be chosen in the property panel, for boards that drive two screens.
• PacDrive lamp boards are supported. Turn it on and map the sixteen outputs in Settings > Emulation.
• The toolbar is in the same order as EFME's.

Known

• The Spinwall top box's round screen stays dark. No software for it has been found, so its lamps work and its screen does not.
• The chaser bulbs, round and merged lamps, keyed colours, the win line option and PacDrive have been checked by test, not on screen or with a real board. If one looks wrong, say so.
• On an upright (Casino) strap a sit-down layout's top-glass legend lamps stay dark or look stuck on. That is how the real board behaves; an upright layout needs upright glass.
• Export pictures at 8-bit. A 16-bit file only makes the layout bigger and slower to load.

Reported or asked for by re-emulated, lotechking89 and others on the forum.
Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip

[BarXQueen]

PFME v0.3.7
Fixed

• Some machines, Bee Rich among them, came up with 8.1 CCT COIN FAIL every time you reopened the layout, and a RAM clear did not stop it coming back. PFME was not saving part of the machine's link to its coin mech when you closed it. It does now. The first time you open each layout after updating, the machine starts up from its own memory instead of carrying on exactly where you left it, so give it a minute to come up.
• In edit mode, a large picture over the top of a layout (a glow, or a frame round the reels) caught every click, so nothing underneath it could be selected, and Send to Back did not help when there were several. Clicking a see-through part of a picture now selects whatever is under it. Click the visible part of a picture to select the picture itself.

Reported on the forum by the author of the Bee Rich DX layout.
Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip

[fruitsnappa]

Many thanks for your continued hard work.

[lotechking89]

Hi @BarXQueen
The Reels look amazing since the update when lit - massive thank you.

I was looking to try use the merge lamps tool, for example sometimes 10 different lamps light a logo up, but the tool says only one lamp with same number can be used to merge?

And could I ask how do you create a reel overlay to place over the reel masks, as I cant get the reel mask to go transparent to place over the reels, like @DAD does with his layouts, would one of you be able to explain how to please? Many thanks again - loving the work!

[BarXQueen]

Hi @BarXQueen
The Reels look amazing since the update when lit - massive thank you.

I was looking to try use the merge lamps tool, for example sometimes 10 different lamps light a logo up, but the tool says only one lamp with same number can be used to merge?

And could I ask how do you create a reel overlay to place over the reel masks, as I cant get the reel mask to go transparent to place over the reels, like @DAD does with his layouts, would one of you be able to explain how to please? Many thanks again - loving the work!

Merge Lamps: that message is deliberate. A merged lamp is one lamp of the machine made of several pieces of glass, like an L-shaped legend or a ring of segments that all sit behind the same bulb. Because it is one lamp, it can only light from one lamp number. If ten different lamp numbers light parts of a logo, the ROM is switching those parts on and off separately, so they need to stay as ten separate lamps. Cut each part of the logo that one bulb lights as its own lamp and bind it to its own number, and the logo will light up the way the real machine does it, zone by zone. If two or more pieces do share a number, those are the ones you can merge. Ctrl+G will group the ten so you can move them around together while you are editing, but the group isn't saved with the layout.

Reel overlay: PFME can't cut the reel windows out of a picture for you (the "Key out a colour" option is only on lamps and buttons), so the see-through part has to be made in a paint program first. Take your reel glass artwork into something like GIMP or Paint.NET, select the areas where the reels should show through, delete them so they go transparent (the chequered background), and save it as a PNG. A JPG can't hold transparency, so it must be PNG. Then in the editor add it as a Static image, put it over the reel windows, and use Arrange > Bring to Front so it is drawn on top of the reels. The reels will show through the holes and the rest of the glass sits over them. If you want a bit of glass shine across the reels as well, a Glass overlay does that, and it has its own opacity slider. It also never takes a click, so it won't block the buttons underneath.

Hope that helps, @DAD may be able to assist more. I will look at updating the app so you can add a transparent colour key to a static image in PFME.

[DAD]

Hi @BarXQueen
The Reels look amazing since the update when lit - massive thank you.

I was looking to try use the merge lamps tool, for example sometimes 10 different lamps light a logo up, but the tool says only one lamp with same number can be used to merge?

And could I ask how do you create a reel overlay to place over the reel masks, as I cant get the reel mask to go transparent to place over the reels, like @DAD does with his layouts, would one of you be able to explain how to please? Many thanks again - loving the work!

H

Hi @BarXQueen
The Reels look amazing since the update when lit - massive thank you.

I was looking to try use the merge lamps tool, for example sometimes 10 different lamps light a logo up, but the tool says only one lamp with same number can be used to merge?

And could I ask how do you create a reel overlay to place over the reel masks, as I cant get the reel mask to go transparent to place over the reels, like @DAD does with his layouts, would one of you be able to explain how to please? Many thanks again - loving the work!

Reel overlay: PFME can't cut the reel windows out of a picture for you (the "Key out a colour" option is only on lamps and buttons), so the see-through part has to be made in a paint program first. Take your reel glass artwork into something like GIMP or Paint.NET, select the areas where the reels should show through, delete them so they go transparent (the chequered background), and save it as a PNG. A JPG can't hold transparency, so it must be PNG. Then in the editor add it as a Static image, put it over the reel windows, and use Arrange > Bring to Front so it is drawn on top of the reels. The reels will show through the holes and the rest of the glass sits over them. If you want a bit of glass shine across the reels as well, a Glass overlay does that, and it has its own opacity slider. It also never takes a click, so it won't block the buttons underneath.

Hope that helps, @DAD may be able to assist more. I will look at updating the app so you can add a transparent colour key to a static image in PFME.

ope that helps, @DAD may be able to assist more. I will look at updating the app so you can add a transparent colour key to a static image in PFME.

That explains it pretty much but on Hot to Drop I didn't make a reel overlay as separate image.  This time I cut out the reel windows from the main background and made it transparent then sent the reels to the back, so not only could I have the tube effect I had the reels showing through the transparency too and saved myself the job of making an overlay image for the reels at the same time.

See pic! - This is what it looks like in Photoshop before saving as a PNG.

[martinjpeters1985]

Hot to drop reels are still wrong for me

[DAD]

Hot to drop reels are still wrong for me

OK we're working on a fix for this one - hold tight!

[BarXQueen]

PFME v0.3.8
Fixed

• Hot to Drop's reels now sit on the win line. The top box was two symbols out and the bottom reels sat a little low. If you lined them up yourself using the forum guide, there is nothing to do.
• If you moved Hot to Drop's bottom reel windows on the layout to line them up, move them back after updating.
• Lining up a reel or renaming a symbol yourself no longer stops later fixes to that machine from reaching you.

New

• When PFME corrects a layout as it opens, the notice at the top offers Keep in file, which saves the correction into your copy of the layout. It is also on the File menu.
• Each reel in Edit > Reel Symbol Artwork has a Reset button that puts it back on PFME's own settings.
• Single community machines can now start the community game.
• Editor: Cut out the reel windows makes a picture or glass overlay see-through over the reels, and Key out a colour now works on pictures and glass overlays too.
• Editor: groups are saved with the layout.

Known

• The Hot to Drop 1-05.00 DATA program stops with EDC TIMEOUT. It expects a data-capture unit PFME does not have; use the Std Slave or Community Deluxe program instead.

Reported on the forum by players of the Hot to Drop DX layout.
Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip

[BarXQueen]

PFME v0.3.9
Fixed

• Community machines no longer show NO COMMS TO MASTER after you close and reopen them. The first time you open each layout after updating, the machine starts up from its own memory instead of carrying on where you left it, so give it a minute to come up.
• Hot to Drop DX's top box reels now sit on the win line. The fix in 0.3.8 did not reach the layout when PFME opened it.

Reported on the forum by players of the Hot to Drop DX layout.
Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip