6.3 Display Effects

Display effects are defined in the [deffs] section of the machine configuration file. Both foreground and background deffs are defined here. Each deff has an implementation function, a priority, and one or more of the following properties:

• D_QUEUED

  Says that if the effect cannot be started now, to queue it and keep retrying. This flag should be set on higher priority messages that really ought to be seen by the player.

• D_TIMEOUT

  Only applies to D_QUEUED deffs. Says that they should timeout eventually if they cannot be started.

• D_ABORTABLE

  Says that pressing both flipper buttons will abort this effect.

• D_PAUSE

  Says that while this effect is running, ball kickouts are paused. This flag is typically set on important instructions or on big scoring effects to allow the player to pause and celebrate.

• D_SCORE

  Says that this is a score award effect; the value of the last switch score is made available to the effect via the score_deff_get() API.

• D_RESTARTABLE

  Says that if the effect is started when it is already running, that it will be restarted (normally, the second call would do nothing). This should generally be set on D_SCORE effects at least.

deff_start

Starts a foreground display effect.

deff_stop

Stops a foreground display effect.

deff_exit

Exits from the currently running display effect.

deff_nice

Change the priority of the currently running display effect. If it drops below the priority of something else waiting, this will cause it to be preempted.

deff_update

Update the background display effect.