Skip to content

How to Show a Slide on a Display

Once you have your slides created, you need to decide which slides you show when. (Just remember you can test slides and widgets interactively using Interactive MC (iMC).)

Using the slide_player

The most common option is to use the creating_slides section of a config file. This can be in either your machine-wide or in mode-specific config files. (Like all mode settings, slides in a mode-based config file will only play when that mode is active.)

The slide player is based on MPF's events system, meaning that you basically say, "play THIS slide when THAT event happens".

For example, if you want to play a slide named "good_job" when the event "left_lane_hit" is posted, you would set your config like this:

#! slides:
#!   good_job:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: "GOOD JOB"
slide_player:
  left_lane_hit: good_job
##! test
#! post left_lane_hit
#! advance_time_and_run .1
#! assert_text_on_top_slide "GOOD JOB"

You can have as many event/slide combinations as you want, like this:

#! slides:
#!   good_job:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: "GOOD JOB"
#!   ramp_champ:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: "RAMP CHAMP"
slide_player:
  left_lane_hit: good_job
  right_lane_hit: good_job
  left_ramp_hit: ramp_champ
##! test
#! post left_lane_hit
#! advance_time_and_run .1
#! assert_text_on_top_slide "GOOD JOB"

The above examples are what we call the "express" config option since each event specifies a slide name, but no other options. (It just uses the default options for showing each slide. But instead of putting the slide name after the event name, you can also create a sub-entry with the slide name, then another sub-entry with additional options, like this:

#! displays:
#!   dmd:
#!     width: 128
#!     height: 32
#! slides:
#!   ramp_hit_slide:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: Ramp has been hit
slide_player:
  right_ramp_hit:
    ramp_hit_slide:
      expire: 2s
      target: dmd
##! test
#! post right_ramp_hit
#! advance_time_and_run .1
#! assert_text_on_top_slide "Ramp has been hit" dmd

You can mix-and-match all of these in a single config, like this:

#! displays:
#!   dmd:
#!     width: 128
#!     height: 32
#! slides:
#!   ramp_hit_slide:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: Ramp has been hit
#!   good_job:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: "GOOD JOB"
#!   ramp_champ:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: "RAMP CHAMP"
slide_player:
  left_lane_hit: good_job
  right_lane_hit: good_job
  left_ramp_hit: ramp_champ
  right_ramp_hit:
    ramp_hit_slide:
      expire: 2s
      target: dmd
##! test
#! post right_ramp_hit
#! advance_time_and_run .1
#! assert_text_on_top_slide "Ramp has been hit" dmd
#! advance_time_and_run 3
#! assert_text_not_on_top_slide "Ramp has been hit" dmd

In the example above, when the event "left_ramp_hit" happens, the slide "ramp_champ" is shown. When the event "right_ramp_hit" happens, the slide "ramp_hit_slide" is shown, but with the additional options of setting the slide to expire (to be removed) after 2 seconds, and for that slide to show on the "dmd" display target instead of the default display.

There are many options for the slide_player in addition to the "expire" and "target" options shown above. Refer to the creating_slides section of the config file reference for full details.

Adding slides to a show

The slide_player is one of MPF's many creating_slides (so called because they use a "config" section to "play" things). Config players can be used in a config file (as shown above) and also in a show step. To use the slide player in a show, you add a creating_slides section to a show step.

For example, if you want a slide called "happy_face" to play in a step in a show, you can do it like this (this is a snippet of a single step in a show):

#! slides:
#!   happy_face:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: "Happy Face"
#! show_player:
#!   play_show: my_show
##! show: my_show
- duration: 3s
  slides: happy_face
##! test
#! post play_show
#! advance_time_and_run .1
#! assert_text_on_top_slide "Happy Face"

Again, you can use the sub-entry format to specify additional options:

#! displays:
#!   playfield_screen:
#!     width: 200
#!     height: 300
#! slides:
#!   happy_face:
#!     - type: text
#!       text: "Happy Face"
#! show_player:
#!   play_show: my_show
##! show: my_show
- duration: 3s
  slides:
    happy_face:
      target: playfield_screen
##! test
#! post play_show
#! advance_time_and_run .1
#! assert_text_on_top_slide "Happy Face"

Creating new slides in the slide_player

Both of the options we've show so far (using the creating_slides section of a config file and using the creating_slides section of a show) have used existing named slides that you would have already defined in the creating_slides section of a config. You also have the option to define new slides directly in each of these sections. See the How to create slides section of the documentation for instructions on how to do that.

Something missing or wrong? You can fix it!

This website is edited by people like you! Is something wrong or missing? Is something out of date, or can you explain it better?

Please help us! You can fix it yourself and be an official "open source" contributor!

It's easy! See our Beginner's guide to editing the docs.

Page navigation via the keyboard: < >

You can navigate this site via the keyboard. There are two modes:

General navigation, when search is not focused:

  • F , S , / : open search dialog
  • P , , : go to previous page
  • N , . : go to next page

While using the search function:

  • Down , Up : select next / previous result
  • Esc , Tab : close search
  • Enter : go to highlighted page in the results