Road Girls

The original BK ultimate 1.01 from Slamt1lt keeps the locks so you might want to take a peek and test with manual ball rolling. should be quick to check the behavior.

Unfortunately I did not think of that before I changed the behavior to match the real counterpart which do resets the locked ball states and now I'm not near my pc anymore to try and help.
 
Hi George,
Looking good mate can't wait to check it out!!
I can maybe help and add a simple DMD for cabinet users if your not doing one.
This is a great table to play on a cabinet and I like to have a DMD on all my tables, cheers!
 
I am not really a big fan of simple DMDs. The Zed version of this table has a simple DMD and I don't like it. It has some information that is useful but it divides your attention from the segmented display. That is why I added a third segmented display which adds the info that I thought was useful from the DMD. If we were to add a DMD, it would have to replace the existing 3 segmented displays.

I have figured out a fix for the 2 ball multiball issue that I discussed on message 25. When the ball drains, it now resets the diverter and lowers the 2 drop flags that hold the captive ball which allows the ball to drain. That will make it so the progress of the multiball won't transfer to the next player. I did add an option in the script where the end user can change the number of drop flags that have to be hit from 1 to 3. It is necessary to make it easier since the progress is not transferred to the next player anymore. The single ball player will however continue to play the table as it did with the progress carrying over to the next ball.
 
I have added a game room that has a floor and back wall. It is mostly for the VR headset guys. It can be set to be brighter if desired but I usually set it a little dark so it is not too much of a distraction from the table.

```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX).png
 
Now we need a nude version like Elvira and some others....:lol:
 
@Itchigo I will leave that up to you when I am done.
 
lol, I stink at graphics! Looks great though.:clap:
 
I have finished the new loading screen for desktop users. It fills the screen now. FP darkens the loading screen. I can't make it any lighter. This is it:

1596605615720.png
 
Last edited:
I have been updating the first posting with check marks on completed items. Only 5 more items to complete.

Does everybody like having the red segmented display? I made it red because it there were too many green displays. After I changed the segmented displays on the backglass to yellow, I am wandering if I should change the red display to green now. What do you guys think?
 
Hi George,

I'm sure that it will undoubtedly be a 'personal' choice, however - I am not a great advocate of the Red, although do believe that the information being highlighted is of interest; should you be in-between players / balls etc., and that the text should not necessarily draw the eye away from the main game information being displayed in the Green segment display (but as usual... just my somewhat 'limited' thought).

Perhaps a more subdued shade of the Orange/Yellow, as used on the Backglass / Loading Screen may be more suitable..?, but if not - then I personally would prefer them to be the same colour (Green).

Then again, the colour could always be customised by the 'User'; spoken in my best Tron voice... ?
 
What do the rest of you guys think?
```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX)2.png```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX)3.png
 
The 2 colour scheme is more up to my alley. But... From what I remember from the table green doesn't quite match the theme so *maybe* leave the red for highlights and the traditional orange for the rest is an option?

As a desktop player the backglass is something I don't see often. Even when I can use VR it's probably better the red green to contrast the information but I need to test that... one of these days...
 
@AnonTet There is a second display for desktop users on the backwall and the HUD has yellow segmented displays. See this posting:

 
I'm very limited at the moment regarding net access. I did not recall that post.
 
I agree with @AnonTet that the green doesn't match the theme and I think that @Gin would prefer one color for all three segments. So, I am trying a change of all three displays to red. It is a slightly different shade of red than I used before. I think I like though it is a bit of a shift from what it used to be if you have played it before. What does anyone think?
```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX)3.png

```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX)2.png

... Or an off white where I changed the color of the flippers slightly to match:

```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX)4.png

```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX).png
 
I have been playing the off white version of the seg displays and I like it. It seems to blend in better with the rest of the table. I experimented with the color a bit and made a subtle change but I don't think you will notice much difference:

1596773465158.png
 
I like the white version and probably the best choice to VR users just as well.
 
Thanks guys. I have decided on the off white which has a slight tint from pure white. I think it looks better than the original green. The original just used the standard green color from the presets on the color screen but I have worked the tint so it looks just right to me.

I have adjusted the start angles of both front flippers. I lowered the setting just one degree but it helps.

I have found that using the 2 web sites linked below help with colors. You can add a "complementary color" to a color to make it darker and the color looks richer than using the slider in FP. The "Color Scheme Generator" site identifies the complementary color and the "Color Blender" site will mix two colors.

Color Scheme Generator:

Color Blender
 
I added the BAM message. If you are not familiar with it, I add a screen that displays if the end user is not using BAM 267 or later (see screenshot below). This message is also displayed if BAM is not installed at all. The reason I use white text on black is that overlays are not completely opaque and the black hides the bleed through of objects on the table better. I can tell you this message has saved me a lot of grief because I almost never get complaints about things not working. I can create a tutorial on how to create this if you guys request it. I have been using this for quite a few tables now so I have everything set up and can add this to a table in about 15 minutes. Of course, if the end user has BAM 267 or later installed, they will never see the message.

```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX)3.png
 
@GeorgeH
I can create a tutorial on how to create this if you guys request it.

Yes please - it would be much appreciated.
 
@Gin I attached the file I use to create this that you can use until I get around to creating the tutorial.
 

Attachments

  • BamMessage.zip
    4.3 KB · Views: 89
I have made quite a bit of progress. I have added the coding for all the lighting modes, Day, Night, Dark Night, Night Glow and FP original. After I added the coding and played the table, I noticed all the lights were blown out bright except for the bonus multiplier and the SPEED lights which use lenses for the color. I ended up changing the hue of every light insert on the playfield except for the ones with lenses. Blindmankind did not have the ability to adjust brightness like I can in the script so I think he used the brightest possible colors. His colors don't work with the new lighting. I suspect he would have used different colors if he could have made them brighter. I posted a screen shot below with the Night Glow mode that everyone seems to like the best. I still need to adjust the brightness of some individual lights. I have added 4 nano flashers to supplement the lighting also. I created the Night Glow mode because I noticed many people tend to set their tables up with dark ambient lighting but very bright playfield light inserts. So I created my own version of it and call it "Night Glow" because the lights seem to glow in such low ambient lighting. Some folks reduce the ambient lighting so much that you can't see much of the playfield but I don't go there.

I never used the FP original lighting until @Gimli insisted it be added to one of the tables we worked on together so that those that have low end PCs can play the table. I have been learning more about it as time goes on. This time I discovered the front of the table tends to be brighter than the back so I turned off the nano flasher closest to the flippers for the FP Orig lighting. I think it makes it as close to the New Renderer settings as I can make it. I have previously found that I had to increase the 2 attenuation setting categories to make this mode darker.

```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX).png
 
No one seems to be using the illumination option that can be added to the script. I thought I would show you 2 screenshots of small area of the table. The screenshot below on the left shows the area without the illumination. The screenshot on the right has the party sign and the seven drop targets illuminated. To my thinking, the screenshot on the right is a dramatic improvement. It is easy to create. You just add the following to the script:

'[BAM] !texture = [sg_party]
'[BAM] !shininess = 0.1
'[BAM] !specularLevel = 0.37
'[BAM] !specularBalance = 0.01
'[BAM] !normalMapScale = 1.0

The sign below have a texture named [sg_party] that goes on the first line. !shininess is the value for how shiny you want the object to be. I set it low for the sign because reflections off of it would make it difficult to read. The value for !specularLevel determines how bright you want the object. The only way to get the value right is to try it. I never change the last 2 lines. I think this might help @TerryRed illuminate Darth Vader on the mod he is making to Star Wars.

```Road Girls V1.0  (DOFLinx MX) BeforeScriptLighting.png
 
No one seems to be using the illumination option that can be added to the script. I thought I would show you 2 screenshots of small area of the table. The screenshot below on the left shows the area without the illumination. The screenshot on the right has the party sign and the seven drop targets illuminated. To my thinking, the screenshot on the right is a dramatic improvement. It is easy to create. You just add the following to the script:

'[BAM] !texture = [sg_party]
'[BAM] !shininess = 0.1
'[BAM] !specularLevel = 0.37
'[BAM] !specularBalance = 0.01
'[BAM] !normalMapScale = 1.0

The sign below have a texture named [sg_party] that goes on the first line. !shininess is the value for how shiny you want the object. The value for !specularLevel determines how bright you want the object. I never change the last 2 lines. I think this might help @TerryRed illuminate Darth Vader on the mod he is making to Star Wars.

View attachment 15057


BAM Custom models (Darth Vader, his Tie Fighter, Millenium Falcon all are BAM Custom models) allow you to specify those kind of parameters in the model Importer, and they get included with the TGA model. You can make additional changes as needed in the table script at any time.

All the BAM Custom Models I used I have already adjusted in a similar way to brighten them up and make them look better than they originally did.


Those texture settings are very handy though if trying to brighten things in areas that are not as well lit.
 
"The Case of the Very Strange Light"

I felt like a detective in an Agatha Christie novel when I changed the the bulbs on the horizontal stop lights on this table. I am not sure why but Blindmankind used unrendered bulbs in front of the 2 horizontal traffic signal boxes but used 90 degree bulbs on the 2 vertical traffic signals. I liked the 90 degree bulbs better so I changed the horizontal traffic signals to use them. After I had it set up, I noticed that the red light on the horizontal traffic light on the right side of the table did not turn on during the first two strums of the guitar during the attract mode. It did however light during the following guitar run and it performed correctly at all other times. I thought I must have made some sort of unintended change in the script. I ruled this out when I changed an earlier version of the table where this light worked correctly and performed the same mod of horizontal lights to 90 degree bulbs and had the exact same problem. I simply moved the horizontal traffic light to a slightly different location and the red light worked during the guitar strums and everything. It is the first time I have ever had something like that happen.

By the way, I highly recommend that you save a copy of the table you are working on to different folder periodically. It really helps when you encounter a problem like this or need to troubleshoot a mistake and need to revert back to the earlier version.

I also learned something during all of this. I had not noticed that the horizontal traffic light used unrendered bulbs until I set the glow of the bulbs to 0. After I set the glow to 0, the horizontal lights never turned on. It is because unrendered bulbs are all glow. I discovered the housing on the bulb is the only part of a bulb that emits light that has no glow. I performed some additional tests to verify this.

Anyway, I set the glow on all the traffic lights to 0. This prevents the glow from bleeding through the traffic light housing. It looks good:

1597662240061.png

There is now no more bleed through of light through the light housing. It looks sharp. Also notice the whole signal is oriented slightly to the left of center to address the problem discussed above. It looks OK because the drop target is also positioned to the left of center of the two posts that support the signal.
 
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