PFME - Updates and New Releases

[BarXQueen]

@lotechking89 You're not doing anything wrong. I've looked into it, and it's PFME's layout editor getting the size wrong, not your pictures. Upscaling them was the right thing to do.

There are two things going on. When you put a picture on the cabinet surface (the background), PFME stretches it to fill the space that's already there, whatever shape the picture is. A single-player layout is roughly square and your picture is the shape of your screen, so it gets squashed from the sides. That's the distortion.

The second one is the postage stamp. When you then insert another picture, PFME works out its size from how much it had to shrink the background picture. That's meant for pieces cut out of the background photo, so they drop back exactly where they came from. With a very high resolution background the shrink is big, so every picture you add afterwards gets shrunk by the same amount and squashed the same way. On a three-player cabinet it's worse, because a picture on the top box ends up setting the size for the player stations as well.

I'm fixing this for the next release. A picture you insert will keep its own shape and fit the machine you put it on.

Until then, this should get you going:

1. Click the cabinet surface. In the panel on the right, change Fit from Fill to Uniform. Your picture keeps its proper shape instead of being stretched (you may get a strip down the sides where the shapes don't match).

2. For each picture you insert, type the Width and Height you want into the same panel instead of trusting the size it arrives at. Keep the two numbers in the same proportion as the picture itself, or it will squash again.

3. If you'd rather it filled the space exactly, crop your pictures to the shape of the space before you import them. A single-player machine is close to square, each station on a three-player is a bit wider than it is tall (about 6 wide to 5 high), and the top box is a long strip about 6 times wider than it is high.

[BarXQueen]

PFME v0.3.10 New

• Hi-Tech machines now get much further. They pair with their coin mech, hopper and note reader and take coins, they play sound, and their buttons and lamps show the names the game itself gives them. Hi-Lo Hi-Lo now takes credits and plays. For Hi-Lo Hi-Lo, point your layout at `hilohilo_nondata.s19`: the other build stops on DPACK ERR because it wants a Datapak, which PFME does not have.
• If you line up a machine's reels or rename its symbols and then save the layout, those settings now go with the layout. Anyone you share it with sees the reels where you put them, not where they sit on your own PC.

Fixed

• On a cabinet with more than one player, each station can now use the same keys. Before, a key taken by one station was refused on the others, and a cabinet built by copying a station would not accept any keys at all. The Key Mapping window now groups its rows by station.
• A picture you insert or change no longer comes out squashed or stretched. On a cabinet with several stations, it now fits the station you are working on instead of the whole cabinet.
• If you swap a stretched background picture for one of a different shape, PFME now fits it without distorting it, and tells you how to stretch it again if you want to.
• The hopper now pays out at about 5 coins a second instead of 2, so a full bank no longer takes two minutes to empty.
• Hi-Tech reels no longer stop with a REEL ERROR during play or in the machine's own reel test.
• A Hi-Tech coin mech no longer stops answering after the machine restarts, which used to leave it showing NOT SET TO DES OR UNPLUGGED.
• A machine whose layout lists fewer reels than the board has now starts. Before, it sat at 0 MHz and never ran.

Worth knowing 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. Give it a minute to come up; after that it resumes as normal. Reported on the forum by players of the Hi-Tech and multi-player layouts. Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip

[fruitsnappa]

Many thanks for the update.

[lotechking89]

@BarXQueen, thank you for the update, there are two new bugs I have noticed regarding Key Mapping,

a) when I use Key Mapping off the menu at the top, it does not pick up your keys you press when mapping it to a button, I had to go into each button per base machine and map it in there which works aok.

b) When I map £1 Coin shortcut to 0 the 0 is kept in mapping, but after changes been saved I click 0 and no £1 coins are credited into the plays. But when I click on £1 mech it works! Could you look into this please?

All other shortcuts now successfully stored by doing each button individually, but you cannot do this via the easier route of the key mapping menu.

Cheers again! :-)

[andy-1]

PFME v0.3.10 New

• Hi-Tech machines now get much further. They pair with their coin mech, hopper and note reader and take coins, they play sound, and their buttons and lamps show the names the game itself gives them. Hi-Lo Hi-Lo now takes credits and plays. For Hi-Lo Hi-Lo, point your layout at `hilohilo_nondata.s19`: the other build stops on DPACK ERR because it wants a Datapak, which PFME does not have.
• If you line up a machine's reels or rename its symbols and then save the layout, those settings now go with the layout. Anyone you share it with sees the reels where you put them, not where they sit on your own PC.

Fixed

• On a cabinet with more than one player, each station can now use the same keys. Before, a key taken by one station was refused on the others, and a cabinet built by copying a station would not accept any keys at all. The Key Mapping window now groups its rows by station.
• A picture you insert or change no longer comes out squashed or stretched. On a cabinet with several stations, it now fits the station you are working on instead of the whole cabinet.
• If you swap a stretched background picture for one of a different shape, PFME now fits it without distorting it, and tells you how to stretch it again if you want to.
• The hopper now pays out at about 5 coins a second instead of 2, so a full bank no longer takes two minutes to empty.
• Hi-Tech reels no longer stop with a REEL ERROR during play or in the machine's own reel test.
• A Hi-Tech coin mech no longer stops answering after the machine restarts, which used to leave it showing NOT SET TO DES OR UNPLUGGED.
• A machine whose layout lists fewer reels than the board has now starts. Before, it sat at 0 MHz and never ran.

Worth knowing 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. Give it a minute to come up; after that it resumes as normal. Reported on the forum by players of the Hi-Tech and multi-player layouts. Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip

Many thanks for the update BXQ, didn't realise you were working on hi tech Pluto games, hopefully DOND hotbox will work if we have the Pluto roms and not the scorp 6

[lotechking89]

@BarXQueen quick question, Wow cabbed Astras for example do not self detect reel mapping for images on pfme. However some of us layout creators know where these images go. Reels always have same number of symbols which start from a home position. Would it be able/or could you create an update for those layouts without self detect reels for us to manually put in a symbol per box against each reel?
Thank you again

[BarXQueen]

@BarXQueen quick question, Wow cabbed Astras for example do not self detect reel mapping for images on pfme. However some of us layout creators know where these images go. Reels always have same number of symbols which start from a home position. Would it be able/or could you create an update for those layouts without self detect reels for us to manually put in a symbol per box against each reel?
Thank you again

That will be in the next version

[lotechking89]

Amazing!

V1.02 Treasury has a reel lamp stuck as unnamed in row 15 column 31, I use this route to type it in the reel 1 top lamp position but it doesn't recognise the lamp? Is there a way around it I can add this rouge lamp into reel 1 top?

Thank you

[BarXQueen]

Amazing!

V1.02 Treasury has a reel lamp stuck as unnamed in row 15 column 31, I use this route to type it in the reel 1 top lamp position but it doesn't recognise the lamp? Is there a way around it I can add this rouge lamp into reel 1 top?

Thank you

You've hit a gap in the editor, not something you're doing wrong.

A layout can only bind a lamp that has a name in that machine's lamp list. Treasury's list is read out of its own program, and row 15, column 31 isn't on it, so the reel lamp box won't take it, whether you pick it, paste it or type it in. The lamp grid still shows unnamed cells so you can find a lamp by watching it flash, but at the moment there's no way to bind one, and I'm afraid there's no workaround in the current build.

I'll add a way to bind an unnamed cell by its row and column, so a lamp like this one can go straight onto reel 1 top.

Before then, could you tell me what that lamp does on the machine? If it lights with the top position of reel 1 every time, that also tells me Treasury's lamp list is missing an entry, and I'd like to find out why.

[lotechking89]

Amazing!

V1.02 Treasury has a reel lamp stuck as unnamed in row 15 column 31, I use this route to type it in the reel 1 top lamp position but it doesn't recognise the lamp? Is there a way around it I can add this rouge lamp into reel 1 top?

Thank you

You've hit a gap in the editor, not something you're doing wrong.

A layout can only bind a lamp that has a name in that machine's lamp list. Treasury's list is read out of its own program, and row 15, column 31 isn't on it, so the reel lamp box won't take it, whether you pick it, paste it or type it in. The lamp grid still shows unnamed cells so you can find a lamp by watching it flash, but at the moment there's no way to bind one, and I'm afraid there's no workaround in the current build.

I'll add a way to bind an unnamed cell by its row and column, so a lamp like this one can go straight onto reel 1 top.

Before then, could you tell me what that lamp does on the machine? If it lights with the top position of reel 1 every time, that also tells me Treasury's lamp list is missing an entry, and I'd like to find out why.

Hey
Thanks for your interesting reply. Yes i believe it is an odd bit of programming. The named lamp r1 top, lights etc in test but doesnt light on real mode. But the one I listed to you yesterday acts and lights to how it should for reel 1 top. So I am not quite sure what's happened it may be an Astra programming error?

[lotechking89]

@BarXQueen I am having regular crashes with pmfe, when editing lamps on a top box, when sizing them to 16x16 whether panel or bulb. It is crashing nearly every other bulb.

Using the latest build. Could you take a look into this please buddy?

Thank you

[BarXQueen]

@BarXQueen I am having regular crashes with pmfe, when editing lamps on a top box, when sizing them to 16x16 whether panel or bulb. It is crashing nearly every other bulb.

Using the latest build. Could you take a look into this please buddy?

Thank you

@lotechking89 Thanks for reporting this, and sorry it's been crashing on you. I've found it and fixed it, and the fix will be in the next update.

It isn't the 16x16 size or the top box. It happens when you type a size into the Width or Height box and then click the next lamp straight on the layout. The size box still has the cursor in it at that moment, and PFME falls over when it swaps the properties panel over to the new lamp. That's why it only got some of your lamps, not every one.

Until the update arrives you can avoid it by picking the next lamp from the elements list instead of clicking it on the layout. Clicking anywhere on the elements list first, then on the next lamp, works too. Your typed sizes still save either way.

[BarXQueen]

PFME v0.3.11 New

• Banknotes now work. Most machines with a note reader take £20, £10 and £5 notes, and the layouts that come with PFME have a £20 note slot. To add one to your own layout, open Edit Mode and click Note in the toolbox (or Insert, Note Slot); pick another value from its Action list.
• You can now enter a reel's symbols by hand when PFME cannot read them from the game (the Astra WOW games, for example). Open Edit Mode, then Edit, Reel Symbols and Strips, and pick a reel. A symbol with no picture yet shows as a coloured tile with its name. This changes only what you see; the machine still plays and pays on its own reels.
• A reel can be drawn from one tall picture of its whole band, as in MFME. If the scan does not start on the home symbol, set Band start on the reel. Cut band into symbols turns the picture into separate symbols if you prefer.
• Reels can now run sideways (Orientation: Horizontal), turn the other way (Reversed), or be drawn as a disc with its own picture (Style: Disc).
• Lamps can be RGB LEDs: a new RGB LED item in the toolbox, a Flat lamp shape, a No outline option, and a colour for each combination of lines on a blended lamp. The lamps behind a reel can now be any number of rows, each with its own LED colour.
• You can put a lamp on any square of the lamp matrix, even one the game has no name for. Click it in the All tab of the lamp picker, or right-click it in the Lamp Matrix window and paste it onto the lamp.
• Settings, Visuals has a new Frame rate card: Automatic (the default), Full rate, or a fixed limit.
• In Desktop Machine, once the window fills the screen the mouse wheel zooms into the machine.
• Hi-Tech data builds, and other machines' Data cards, get past DPACK ERR and EDC TIMEOUT, so Hi-Lo Hi-Lo no longer needs pointing at the non-data file.

Fixed

• PFME runs much faster on older and two-core laptops, multi-player cabinets especially.
• Changing a lamp's size and then clicking the next lamp no longer crashes PFME.
• A machine reopened where you left it no longer sits on "Booting" until START is pressed.
• On a multi-player cabinet, paid-out coins now drop in each station's own tray, and the service keys and the Doors and Keys window work on the station you have selected.
• Cabinet, Key mapping now records the key you press, and a key mapped to a coin slot inserts the coin.
• Chase The Ace now sees its doors and gets past OPEN BOTH DOORS.
• New Layout no longer fills the layout with a grid of lamps, and Hi-Tech buttons are named from the game.

Worth knowing

• A layout that uses any of the new reel, lamp or LED features needs this version or later. An older copy refuses to open it and says it needs updating; from this version on, PFME offers to fetch the update.
• Machines that now take notes start up from their own memory the first time you open them after updating. Give them a minute; after that they resume as normal.
• A PT Double Decker station asks for START twice after it is switched on. That is the real machine, not a fault.
• If you give a reel a different number of symbols from the real machine, PFME warns you and stretches your strip round the reel. The symbol on the win line may then not be the one the machine pays on.

Thanks to everyone on the forum who reported problems and asked for these features. Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip

[lotechking89]

PFME v0.3.11 New

• Banknotes now work. Most machines with a note reader take £20, £10 and £5 notes, and the layouts that come with PFME have a £20 note slot. To add one to your own layout, open Edit Mode and click Note in the toolbox (or Insert, Note Slot); pick another value from its Action list.
• You can now enter a reel's symbols by hand when PFME cannot read them from the game (the Astra WOW games, for example). Open Edit Mode, then Edit, Reel Symbols and Strips, and pick a reel. A symbol with no picture yet shows as a coloured tile with its name. This changes only what you see; the machine still plays and pays on its own reels.
• A reel can be drawn from one tall picture of its whole band, as in MFME. If the scan does not start on the home symbol, set Band start on the reel. Cut band into symbols turns the picture into separate symbols if you prefer.
• Reels can now run sideways (Orientation: Horizontal), turn the other way (Reversed), or be drawn as a disc with its own picture (Style: Disc).
• Lamps can be RGB LEDs: a new RGB LED item in the toolbox, a Flat lamp shape, a No outline option, and a colour for each combination of lines on a blended lamp. The lamps behind a reel can now be any number of rows, each with its own LED colour.
• You can put a lamp on any square of the lamp matrix, even one the game has no name for. Click it in the All tab of the lamp picker, or right-click it in the Lamp Matrix window and paste it onto the lamp.
• Settings, Visuals has a new Frame rate card: Automatic (the default), Full rate, or a fixed limit.
• In Desktop Machine, once the window fills the screen the mouse wheel zooms into the machine.
• Hi-Tech data builds, and other machines' Data cards, get past DPACK ERR and EDC TIMEOUT, so Hi-Lo Hi-Lo no longer needs pointing at the non-data file.

Fixed

• PFME runs much faster on older and two-core laptops, multi-player cabinets especially.
• Changing a lamp's size and then clicking the next lamp no longer crashes PFME.
• A machine reopened where you left it no longer sits on "Booting" until START is pressed.
• On a multi-player cabinet, paid-out coins now drop in each station's own tray, and the service keys and the Doors and Keys window work on the station you have selected.
• Cabinet, Key mapping now records the key you press, and a key mapped to a coin slot inserts the coin.
• Chase The Ace now sees its doors and gets past OPEN BOTH DOORS.
• New Layout no longer fills the layout with a grid of lamps, and Hi-Tech buttons are named from the game.

Worth knowing

• A layout that uses any of the new reel, lamp or LED features needs this version or later. An older copy refuses to open it and says it needs updating; from this version on, PFME offers to fetch the update.
• Machines that now take notes start up from their own memory the first time you open them after updating. Give them a minute; after that they resume as normal.
• A PT Double Decker station asks for START twice after it is switched on. That is the real machine, not a fault.
• If you give a reel a different number of symbols from the real machine, PFME warns you and stretches your strip round the reel. The symbol on the win line may then not be the one the machine pays on.

Thanks to everyone on the forum who reported problems and asked for these features. Download https://www.dadsfme.com/ec/pfme/PFME-Setup-latest.zip

WOW @BarXQueen this is a whopping update looking forward to testing and trying all this out!!
Thank you again! :-)

[lotechking89]

@BarXQueen thank you for latest update got reel editor to work really easily huge plus! The 7 seg display however is lighting in lamps like a Diva would but it isn't linking to the 7 seg reader? Is there something I can do to make it work or would this need your magical touch with?

Thank you again !