VP9 Williams EM Recreation Blast Off (Williams, 1967) VP921 by Emkaah 2021-11-13

[Furio]

Furio submitted a new resource:

Blast Off (Williams 1967) VP9.21 - One of Williams' best from this era.

Blast Off (Williams 1967)
Emkaah
IPD No. 320

Read more about this resource...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Such a wonderful re-creation. :D

Note-- based on the screenshot, it looks like the reels used to simulate the flippers might need to be resized or somethiing. IIRC, this also might be linked to the VP9 version used.

 

[Furio]

In Italia su un pinball simile ho giocato per circa 3 ore.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Attached is a closeup of the reel issue.

I haven't gone in to the editor yet. Just noticed the issue from the screenshot.

 

[Popotte]

I just played Appolo (a long time ago), the replay version, and I liked it!

 

[Furio]

Non capisco il problema

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Non capisco il problema

Look closely again at the picture I attached and the screenshot you provided. You should be seeing obvious interlace problems where the special EM reels display against the full playfield.

In any case, I'm trying to research this stuff.
Let's see what I can find...

.

Btw, one OTHER issue that seems to come up, moving from VP921 to VP995, is that the ball image now becomes hidden by backdrop details.

For example, in the attached image, I've moved the huge table backdrop decal's X-location from 500 to -100 in the editor.

And then play-testing the game, as you see in the pic, I'm cradling the ball on the left flipper, such that you can see what it looks like held against both a decal and an EM reel. Notice that?

In other words, you can only see the extreme upper-right of the ball image, where the pink arrow is pointing.

Like I say, I'm trying to research why this stuff changed in VP995, and why the EM reels re-sized themselves moving from ~VP7 to VP9?

Ho senso con questo?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

@druadic,
Ah, forget to tag you there, matey, but this is the shizzle I was referring to tonight. Specifically, it's two different graphics issues in VP9, as described above.

Unfortunately, Mistress Google can be a cruel bitch... :/
(excusez mon français!)

 

[druadic]

Looks like the EM reels need to be removed. I can assume VPX can now handle those issues. I would go through the scripting and remove those lines that control the reels then remove the EM reels themselves. It's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head Ike. I've used EM reels like these in the past via VP9 so that may be the only solution.

PS: I've found issue after issue with each new update with VP and have no explanation for them unless it's due to the programmers playing around with the VP software to make room for improvements. It is pretty sad when things like this crop up and ruin an otherwise perfect table.

 

[Furio]

Non credo che i problemi illustrati dipendano dalla versione di VP. Il difetto di visualizzazione dei flipper era presente in VP8. Ho cercato di migliorare la visualizzazione del flipper di sinistra, vi invio l'immagine.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Looks like the EM reels need to be removed. I can assume VPX can now handle those issues. I would go through the scripting and remove those lines that control the reels then remove the EM reels themselves. It's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head Ike. I've used EM reels like these in the past via VP9 so that may be the only solution.

I don't disagree, although in that case the whole table would basically need to be remade for VPX.

The genius of this particular table is that Emkaah custom-built that beautiful full-table backdrop & animated reels. Losing those things pretty much brings the project back to square zero.

PS: I've found issue after issue with each new update with VP and have no explanation for them unless it's due to the programmers playing around with the VP software to make room for improvements. It is pretty sad when things like this crop up and ruin an otherwise perfect table.

Yeah, I think that's hitting the nail on the head. They were willing to break -whatever- in order to reach for a higher plateau, so to speak. But IMO the whole thing would have been improved by creating some wikis or master documents describing all the script & editor differences going from VP8 to VP9, and from VP9 to VPX. It wouldn't have been terribly hard work if done in step with VP's development, and it could have helped a whole bunch of older tables and authors.

Instead, it was almost like there was a conscious or unconscious effort to 'un-include' older tables & authors such as to encourage a wave of new authors who didn't have to worry about the old methods. TBH, it makes a certain amount of sense, and has indeed worked out pretty well, I'd say. Just that it kinda sucked if you were an author who tried to faithfully adapt and grow with the project from VP8 to VPX. I think that covers 2008 - 2015, or thereabouts. I mean, if you were a full-time author like JPSalas, it probably wouldn't have been too bad. But that probably doesn't describe most authors, especially the older ones.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Non credo che i problemi illustrati dipendano dalla versione di VP. Il difetto di visualizzazione dei flipper era presente in VP8.

Take a look at the screenshot, Furio. That's from VP8.1. Everything looks good, no?

Specifically, the reel issues are not present, and you can see the ball is now visible on top of the backdrop decal. This directly indicates that something changed in VP9.21 (or earlier) to break the old sizing of the reels, and then something changed in VP9.95 to break the ball showing up through backdrop decals.

I also looked to see if 'full table decal' authors like Kristian and Scapino used that technique in VP9, but it seems that they basically stopped developing around that time. Perhaps not a coincidence, eh?

Ho cercato di migliorare la visualizzazione del flipper di sinistra, vi invio l'immagine.

Yeah, it looks like the reels need to be resized and repositioned.

It might be worth trying to measure as exactly as possible what the differences are with one of the reels, because then it could perhaps be applied to the other animated reels on the table. Instead of doing it all by hand, if you follow me.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

@Furio,
I took a closer look at how the table appears in VP921, and for some reason it's strangely different from the pic you attached in the resource entry. Did the screenshot in the resource really come from VP921, or another version?

Compare the one below with the one in the resource entry to see what I mean. Notice how the flippers in the one below look almost correct, while the ones in the other screenshot look way off.

Not much point in putting the work in to repositioning a bunch of reels, only for it to look messed up in someone else's version.

Then again, the table looks identical (as below) in both VP921 & VP995 on my machine, which gives me some confidence.

 

[Not Registered]

Furio updated Blast Off (Williams 1967) VP9.21 with a new update entry:

Blast Off ( Williams 1967) VP9.21 1

Blast Off ( Williams 1967)
Emkaah
IPD No. 320

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Furio]

Blast Off ( Williams 1967) VP9.21 1 è la configurazione migliore che ho realizzato.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Blast Off ( Williams 1967) VP9.21 1 è la configurazione migliore che ho realizzato.

The reels are still lined up strangely in my VP921 version.

I don't understand why that is if you're using the same VP version.

Guess I'll just add a note to the entry, asking for feedback. Maybe with time we'll figure it out.

 

[Furio]

Blast Off (Williams 1967) VP9.21.2