jsm174 / vpxds

VPX Display Server

This is a very small app I put together while working on my Visual Pinball Standalone cabinet.

Background

I have a 2010 PC with 1060 NVidia graphics card running Batocera x86_x64.

It has three television screens:

• 46" Sharp Aquos LC46D65U LCD TV
• 30" Philips 30PF9946D LCD TV
• 15" Dynex DX-15L150A11 LCD TV

When the computer is turned on, the ATX power supply turns on a 12v relay, which energizes a surge protector that all three screens are connected to.

After 10 seconds, a Pinscape controller sends IR commands to turn on each tv.

After Batocera finishes launching, EmulationStation displays on the playfield screen.

Next, the custom.sh script is launched which uses xrandr to enable and extend the display to the backglass and dmd tvs:

   xrandr --output DP-1 --auto --output DP-2 --right-of DP-1 --auto  # enable backglass screen
   xrandr --output DP-5 --auto --right-of DP-2 --auto  # enable dmd screen

After the desktop has been extended and the screens are enabled, the vpxds app is launched which creates windows for the backglass and dmd.

The settings for these windows, such as enabling and positioning, are controlled by vpxds.ini:

[Settings]

ESURL=

TableWidth=1080
TableHeight=1920

CachePath=/userdata/roms/vpinball/vpxds

Backglass=1
BackglassX=1080
BackglassY=0
BackglassWidth=1024
BackglassHeight=768

DMD=1
DMDX=2104
DMDY=0
DMDWidth=1360
DMDHeight=768

When a game is selected in EmulationStation it executes game-selected scripts.

I have custom game-selected.sh scripts here that send messages to the vpxds app and changes the backglass and dmd images if they exist:

curl -S "http://127.0.0.1:8111/update?display=backglass&path=/userdata/roms/vpinball/<table>.vpx" > /dev/null 2>&1
curl -S "http://127.0.0.1:8111/update?display=dmd&path=/userdata/roms/vpinball/<table>.vpx" > /dev/null 2>&1

For more information on custom EmulationStation scripts, refer to this wiki.

If you would like to clear the backglass and dmd windows, you can use the reset command:

curl -S "http://127.0.0.1:8111/reset" > /dev/null 2>&1

Shoutouts

All the great people at the Batocera team, especially @dmanlfc and @maximumentropy!