What is a cabinet?
A cabinet is custom-built hardware for playing digital pinball games, especially Pinball FX & Pinball M. In most cases, it is a PC with multiple displays connected and placed in a case that resembles a real arcade pinball machine.
What is Cabinet Mode in Pinball M?
If you are planning to run Pinball M on cabinet hardware, you have to turn on Cabinet Mode. This allows you to set up advanced graphical options within the game like main display rotation, moving the Dot Matrix to a second screen (if necessary) and displaying a Backglass image (see later). We will now explain Cabinet Mode in Pinball M.
What are the requirements of Cabinet Mode?
Download Pinball M on the Epic Games Store or Steam. You can also rotate your screen on Xbox and PlayStation if you go to Options – Settings – Video, but this is not considered cabinet mode. On Steam and Epic Games Store: Go to Options -> Cabinet Support. Once in, there are 3 tabs General / Dotmatrix Window / Backglass Window. Let us tell you more about each one:
General
Here on the first tab, you can “Activate”/”Deactivate” and “Reload Configuration” for Cabinet Mode.
CabinetMode settings are stored in the “Settings.ini” file even if you edit the LCD Display Window or Backglass Window settings In-Game.
The Settings.ini is located in “/FolderWhereTheGameInstalled/Pinball M/PinballM/Mods/Cabinet/”
If you edit the Settings.ini while the game is still running, you can check your settings immediately with the “Reload Configuration” option in-game if Cabinet Mode is activated.
The Game Orientation option is now available in the general video settings, not inside the cabinet options.It is located in Options -> Settings -> Video Settings.
LCD Display Window
The LCD Display Window will be highlighted if this tab is active.
You can Enable or Disable the extra LCD Display Window for the game. If the window is disabled then the display will appear in the game where it would be without Cabinet Mode.
You can change the LCD Display Size in “Settings -> Gameplay -> LCD Display Size”.
Window Size:
You can customize the Display Window size in pixels. The new LCD aspect ratio is 16:9 generally.
Regardless of which Aspect Ratio and Resolution you choose the DMX will try to fit best to this window keeping its Aspect Ratio, so there should be no stretching of the picture or something other of the sort.
With the “Adjust Window Size” button you can adjust the size with the arrow buttons on the screen, or use Gamepad/Arrow keys on the keyboard.
Height and Width option name is identical in the Settings.ini
Warning: Width and Height can only be a positive number, the minimum is 1.
Window Position:
You can customize the LCD Display position in pixels. The position coordinates are entirely based on your personal setup and your display layout in Windows settings. Having a negative coordinate for some monitors is possible. These coordinates always indicate the upper left corner of your primary window. So if you change the size, you may have to change the position too.
With the “Adjust Window Position” button you can adjust the position with the arrow buttons on the screen, or use Gamepad/Arrow keys on the keyboard.
Warning: It is possible to move the window where it will be hard to find it again, if this happens just reset the position to 0-0 by hand.
Backglass Window
The Backglass Window will be highlighted if this tab is active.
You can Enable or Disable the Backglass Window for the game.
There are 2 image types. One, which you need to name PFX.png will serve as the default background of your backglass.
The other type is table-specific images. Each table has a number, and you’ll need to copy your desired backglass images of each table into the mods directory. Name them according to the table number, such as Table_147 for Wrath of the Elder Gods Director’s Cut. You can find a full list of table numbers below. The images must be in PNG format
Mod directory: “/FolderWhereTheGameInstalled/Pinball M/PinballM/Mods/Cabinet/”
Window Size:
You can customize the Backglass Window size in pixels.
Regardless of which aspect ratio and Resolution you choose the Image will try to fit best to this window keeping its aspect ratio, so there should be no stretching of the picture or something other of the sort.
With the “Adjust Window Size” button you can adjust the size with the arrow buttons on the screen, or use Gamepad/Arrow keys on the keyboard.
Height and Width option name is identical in the Settings.ini
Warning: Width and Height can only be a positive number, the minimum is 1.
Window Position:
You can customize the Backglass position in pixels. The position coordinates are entirely based on your personal setup and your display layout in Windows settings. Having a negative coordinate for some monitors is possible. These coordinates always indicate the upper left corner of the window. So if you change the size, you may have to change the position too
With the “Adjust Window Position” button you can adjust the position with the arrow buttons on the screen, or use Gamepad/Arrow keys on the keyboard.
Warning: It is possible to move the window where you will not see it ever again, if this happens just reset the position to 0-0 by hand.
Does Cabinet Mode support real DMD units?
Yes, Cabinet Mode is now compatible with cabs that are equipped with real DMD units. Huge thanks to freezy – a toolbox for digital pinball and dot matrix displays.
How to get the update:
1. Download the DMD Extension from freezy here: https://github.com/freezy/dmd-extensions/releases
2. During installation tick universal DmdDevice.dll will be installed on local hard drive
Can I start a table or game mode right away?
Yes, the command line start feature is now in Pinball M. You can now use these lines for starting specific tables or game modes right away. If you right-click on the icon of the game and open Preferences then go to the General tab, you can add these behind the file name. Or follow these instructions
For example: -Table 147 -GameMode Hotseat_2
You can find the table numbers below. And find the list of game mode commands here:
- Classic
- Hotseat_2
- Hotseat_3
- Hotseat_4
- Practice
- Challenge_FlipLimited
- Challenge_DistanceLimited
- Challenge_BallLimited
- Challenge_TimeLimited
- Challenge_Dread
- Challenge_Rescue
- Challenge_Survival
- Challenge_Madness
- Challenge_Shiver
Is Pincab Mode supported for all tables?
Yes, once unlocked Pincab Mode is available for every table in Pinball M.
List of Table Numbers:
- Wrath of the Elder Gods Director’s Cut – 147
- Chucky’s Killer Pinball – 171
- Dead by Daylight Pinball – 174
- The Thing Pinball – 175
- Duke Nukem’s Big Shot Pinball – 176
- System Shock Pinball – 183
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre Pinball – 180
- Camp Bloodbrook – 191