This Month in MPF May 2019

31 May 2019 - jab

What happened in MPF-land in May 2019? This post will highlight changes in MPF, MPF-MC, MPF monitor, documentation and the rest of the ecosystem.

News

• We added hardware platforms to the MPF Projects List. Please have a look if we got it right for your machine (or let us know if it is missing).
• Want to meet us? - jab
• Virtual Pinball (VPX) support - mfuegemann

MPF Projects

We collect a list of active publicly documented projects by MPF users. Some new projects which joined the list this month:

• ESCAPE!
• Zelda
• Mass Effect
• Archer
• Greek Gods
• Genie

We know that there are a lot more projects. Let us know if you want to be listed here as well (it does not matter in which stage your project is).

0.52 release

We released MPF 0.52.2 and MPF-MC 0.52.1.

Changes

• No changes

Bugfixes

• No changes

Dev release (future 0.53)

We pushed MPF 0.53.0-dev20 and MPF-MC 0.53.0-dev0.

Changes/New features

• Allow newer FAST firmware versions - jab based on problems with Firmware 1.05 by Brian Cox
• Support inverted switches and non-numeric drivers in Virtual Pinball - mfuegemann
• Extend README and add hardware rules to VPX Bridge and Test- mfuegemann
• Placeholders in credits mode - jab
• Placeholders in tilt mode - jab
• RGB LEDs and flashers in Virtal Pinball - mfuegemann
• Update asciimatics - jab
• Add –vpx commandline option to mpf and mc- jab
• Add VPX demo table with MPF config - mfuegemann
• Placeholders for StateMachine devices - jab
• Initial support for the Arduino Pinball Platform - jab, bontango and blackknight
• More debug in FAST platform and longer wait times - jab to support more FAST firmwares
• Generic System 11 A/C Relay handling (for APC and Snux) - jab
• Improve duplicate event handler message - jab as it caused confusion for Sepp
• Better error message when number is empty - jab based on report by Sepp
• Placeholders in show_tokens in show_player - jab to allow dynamic values in all widgets
• More useful and accurate validation errors in dicts - jab

Bugfixes

• Prevent shutdown glitches in FAST - jab with the help of Dave
• Prevent crash during early errors in P-Roc - jab based on report by Coleman
• Preserve curly brakets in string_to_list - avanwinkle
• Fix bug preventing access to settings in custom code - avanwinkle
• Properly implement disable_random event in random_event_player - avanwinkle
• Fix enable attribute for placeholders in devices - avanwinkle

Documentation

• How to use virtual env on Mac with Kivy - driskel
• Improve dynamic values example - MarkInc666
• How to add credits settings to service mode - jab
• How to add tilt settings to service mode - jab
• Document placeholders for StateMachine devices - jab
• Document state machine configs - jab
• Add more config links and document timer transitions - jab
• Fixes in the tutorial and more - ironspider
• Document LISY protocol - jab
• Update example links - GabeKnuth
• Fix Mac install instructions - GabeKnuth
• Typos, Bad English and more - ironspider
• Rotation is counter-clock wise not clockwise - colemanomartin
• Document game variables - cfbenn
• Improve tutorial and fix typos - soraxxo

Have a look at the dev documentation. Do you have an example which is missing there? Please send it to us!

Open PRs/Not landed yet

• Multiply volumes instead of overwriting them in sound_player and sound_loop_player - qcapen (breaking change)
• Multi display updates improvements - qcapen
• Add control events to counters - dziedada

Upcoming changes

• Stern Spike 2 support - wolfmarsh and jab
• Full support for LISY35 - jab and bontango
• Support for the APC platform - jab, bontango and blackknight

Do you want to contribute?

A list of things where we would love contributions (not exclusive):

• Pictures for the following devices: pop bumpers, incandescant bulbs, GI bulbs, GI LEDs, data east optos, dual wound coils, coils, orbits, kickbacks, kicking targets, accelerometer, playfield, flashers, flippers, score reels, diverters, trough with optos - please only send us picture where the rights belong to you
• Document asset pools such as video_pools, image_pools or show_pools
• Create an electronical drawing for mechanical switches in matrix and on direct inputs
• Document motors
• Add an example or howto for timed switches
• Add an example or howto for ball holds
• Add an example or howto for combo switches
• Add an example or howto for diverters
• Adding more devices to the built-in service mode
• Good first issues in MPF
• Good first issues in MPF-MC
• Good first issues in MPF-Monitor
• More TODOs in the documentation

Other contributions are welcome as well. Those are meant as starting point. Let us know in the forum if you want to work on something or got questions.

New contributors

Welcome driskel, mfuegemann, ironspider and soraxxo.

Did we forget anything? Please let us know! Discussions in MPF-Users.