Synchronizing multiple shows
One thing you might notice in professional pinball machines is that all the lights flash in sync with each other. But in MPF, if you have lots of separate shows, then you'll notice they all sort of start randomly when they start, and it looks bad because they're not all perfectly aligned with each other.
MPF solves this by incorporating a "sync_ms" setting when playing shows. When you add this setting to a show and then play it, MPF will not start the show until the next exact multiple of that number from zero.
For example, if you have sync_ms: 500, then MPF will start a show at
the exact second or half second. (e.g. the seconds value of the current
time will either be .0 or .5).
If you have sync_ms: 250, then shows will be delayed and start at the
nearest quarter second, either .0, .250, .5, or .750 past the second.
You only need to use the sync_ms setting for the specific shows you want to keep in sync. Typically this would be used for light or LED shows, as new shows starting should align nicely to existing shows that are already running.
The value of sync_ms you should use should be one complete "cycle" of
the show. For example, if you flash your lights or LEDs at a rate of
250ms on / 250ms off, then you should use sync_ms: 500 to ensure every
show starts at the nearest 500ms point, thus ensuring that all lights
will be "on" or "off" at the same time. (If you set sync_ms: 250
in this case, then your shows will be in sync but they might be offset
from each other.)
If your show is 200ms on / 200ms off, set sync_ms to 400. If your show is 400ms on / 250ms off, set sync_ms to 650. Etc.
If you're wondering whether sync_ms is bad because it delays a show start, and you don't want a show to be delayed, don't worry about it. The main use for sync_ms is when you have lights or LEDs that are flashing repeatedly, and in those cases, there's so much other stuff happening when they start flashing that no one is going to notice a delay of a fraction of a second when the show starts. (This is how is has to work anyway since you want the lights to be in sync.)
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