Bally Doctor Who (Bally,1992)

[JLou5641]

for information, VPX surpassed FP since the begining few years ago. Regarding this, i don't understand why some player and author continue with vp9....
Also, FP have some good side too, and some author like his "arcade" side and his easier way for some thing...
By analogy, Vpx is like Photoshop, FP like paint.net... some author with high skill can make awesome stuff that not possible in FP.... But FP is "friendly" and you can have some good result more easily...
Physics is an other subject.. As i already say, i prefer realistic physics and vpx is the best today for that, and vpx for overall things... But FP is funny and have some realistic side/feeling with old style flipper and some other stuff like and good original table
So question is not which is better than other, the question is only a taste question from each author.

 

[GeorgeH]

@GeorgeH if you convert I am certain you would be a huge asset to the VPX community.
It is very different but all the same, same.. just a little learning curve needed, cheers!

I have never really liked VP so I'm not really interested in changing. I prefer 3d FP to VP's 2d. I think Shiva's flippers aren't bad but the flippers on this table will be switchable between Shiva's and Gimli/Mine. ...So you can take your pick. JLou is working on some new dynamic flippers that may be better than both.

 

[JLou5641]

@GeorgeH , Now with vpx, is fully 3d. ( i speak for model and element. Not lighting )

 

[NitroNimbus]

nul

 

[xenonph]

@NitroNimbus
Ok I do remember Stevoz answering a question in shoutbox when somebody asked why you removed your tables, and saying Indian Giver.

My point is...
All they seem to be doing is trying to make flipper physics better. I am sure they are still working hard on this and trying to perfect it.
Some people will like the new changes, and some may not. No reason to belittle anyone or their work.
Constructive criticism is welcome!!

I hope you decide to share your tables and pinball knowledge here again Nitro.
Your work in this community is appreciated.
We are one big family my pinball brother.
I would do the same for you, if someone was doing this to you or your work.

Carry on.

 

[NitroNimbus]

@GeorgeH , Now with vpx, is fully 3d. ( i speak for model and element. Not lighting )
Yep!! I changed 3D models in VPX for Family Guy but only cabinet players would notice.
VPX lighting suxs!!!

* * abusive off topic content removed

@xenonph, sorry to disappoint your perception of how I am better than this, cheers!

 

[NitroNimbus]

nul

 

[xenonph]

I tried.
So be it.

 

[GeorgeH]

@GeorgeH , Now with vpx, is fully 3d. ( i speak for model and element. Not lighting )

My understanding is that it is not true 3d but I haven't played it in years.

 

[Wylte]

My understanding is that it is not true 3d but I haven't played it in years.

The editor is 2D and normal VPX uses a lot of static rendering, but it is 3D in-game. VR forces everything to dynamic, so it's the best way to see it:

The default lights are flat and dumb, though. VPE (Unity) is on the horizon with real lights and a 3D editor, but lots of talented people are still finding tricks and improving VPX:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/692112679954939995/981641899226038352/Comp_1.mp4

I still think FP is great and I'm looking forward to trying it with the new lights and physics ...someday

 

[GeorgeH]

The editor is 2D and normal VPX uses a lot of static rendering, but it is 3D in-game.

VPX does look better in 3D than I have ever seen it. Someone sent me this video as well:

 

[GeorgeH]

I have made the backglass switchable between the original art and the alternate art that NitroNimbus used on his version. All the lights switch back and forth between the two versions as well. I used both textures that JLou found. The speaker panel scan was faded and had many defects but I managed to fix it. The border on the speaker panel was messed up on the original table and the resolution was poor. It is much better now as you can see in the screenshots below. The translite JLou found is a bit larger than the texture I had and didn't need any adjustments. You can click on the screenshots below 2 times to make them larger so you can see the improved resolution.

You can't use any BAM lighting coding on the backglass. You won't get any errors if you add the coding to the script but it doesn't do anything. So I had to make adjustments to the 7 doctor's lights with just the FP adjustments. You can see that Doctor number 4 is lit in the second screenshot below. I could have made it look better if the BAM lighting worked but it doesn't look bad now. I'm sorry the screenshots are not perfectly square.

 

[GeorgeH]

I have added a HUD overlay that has photos of the first 7 doctors. The image I found actually had more doctors displayed but I cut them off because this table only has the first 7.

The author had another DMD that he moved above the table in the editor so it never displays. I think he must have used it to display data when he was testing because the script has several other data points that are remarked out. I have found that this DMD is needed when playing on a desktop with a single monitor. When you start a game with the ball still in the launch lane, you need to be able to select once of the doctors that is otherwise only displayed on the bottom of the backglass (which can be seen on the screenshots of the previous posting above). As you can see, doctor number 4 is displayed on the screenshot below. If you are not familiar with the game, each selection of the doctor has different rules. Once you play one of the doctors and the balls drains, that doctor is locked out so you can't play it anymore. The "# of Docs Spotted" tells you how many doctors are locked out. The author had 4 parameters displayed originally using smaller font. I reduced the parameters displayed to 3 and made the font larger so it is easier to read. The "Balls Remaining" is useful although it does display occasionally on the other DMD.

I added the coding to make the HUD toggle key work so you can turn the HUD on and off with the setting saved to the fpRam file.

I also completed the coding so you can switch between 3 and 5 balls per game before you press the start game key. It is set up so it displays the option you choose on the DMD. I could code it so it would try to change the balls per game after the game starts but FP does not allow it so I disabled it after the game starts so the DMD won't lie to you.

That completes objectives 3, 5 and 14 that are displayed on the first posting. Objective 20 was completed on the last posting. I check off the objectives when completed so I can keep track of the progress.

 

[NitroNimbus]

@GeorgeH as always your details and work is perfection!!
It is maybe little things to some, but it is a lot to a many.
Your eye for details has and must be commended...

@NitroNimbus

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[GeorgeH]

I found a nice texture to use on the game room wall.

I also found some additional textures to use on the table loading screen. So that completes two more itens on on objectives.

 

[NitroNimbus]

@GeorgeH sorry mate.
But good or bad content still gets interest in the project, cheers!

 

[GeorgeH]

I have tweaked the texture for the model of the Dalek on top of the table. I couldn't do much with it but it is slightly better.

NitroNimbus didn't like the wall of the game room so I created a second one and the end user can switch between the two.

 

[GeorgeH]

The DMD that was rendered on the backglass only had a static display of one frame. I added some coding that Flug used on Medieval Madness. Flug had 3 DMDs on Medieval Madness. The names of each DMD only appeared in 5 subroutines. All the calls to display something on the DMD simply added a call to run one of the subroutines. Up to this point, everyone just duplicated the script for each DMD which can be very time consuming. I developed a procedure to add this coding to any table. The procedure must have been pretty good because I hadn't used it in over a year and ended up with no bugs on it.

I decided to add a third DMD which only required adding one line of code to 5 subroutines. I thought some folks might want to be able to turn off the HUD overlay or the supplemental DMD on the right. ...So I provided the 4 options below plus being able to turn the whole HUD off.

 

[GeorgeH]

I kept getting balls lost during multiball and asked JP to look at it. I had noticed some other odd problems at the same time and had hoped that fixing the lost ball problem would fix it. Although the lost ball problem is fixed, I am sorry to report that there are more issues with multiball and it will take some time to resolve. The problems I saw are that the "Time Expander" (the big box at the back of the table) would go to the wrong elevation during some of the modes. JP says we will probably have to go through the rules and verify everything works right.

...So you will see fewer posts here for awhile. I plan on posting more of my guides that I had posted on GoPinball. Today I posted my guide on how to easily add DMDs to tables that only have one DMD which I discussed in the previous posting.

 

[GeorgeH]

JP and I are making great progress on the multiball script. JP made some significant changes to the multiball jackpots and re-lock. JP has been making the code changes and I test them. We have a little ways to go.

I had downloaded 14 different audio themes for this table and just looked through them. I was wanting to improve the quality of the voice quotes but all of them use the original sound for that. There are some unusual music choices. One plays music from Jimi Hendrix and another plays Rush music. There is a rather odd choice that plays the Dr Who theme but makes it sound like disco. So it looks like I won't be making any changes to the audio other than what I have done already. I am a big fan of the show and like the unchanged theme from the show though I like the modern version that NitroNibus added.

I can't adjust the settings for the Shiva flippers to perform the way I want. I am able to hit shots better with the dynamic flippers that Gimli and I developed with a flipper rotation speed chart. So it looks like I will be removing the Shiva flippers. JLou sent me the files for his version of dynamic flippers so I plan on trying them. I might use them if they perform well. My previous experience is that it is hard to switch between JLou's and the Gimli/George flippers but I will try it.

 

[GeorgeH]

I have found one instance where BAM is not my friend. I got a meditation error that referenced a line number in the script and the line had "eval" in it. The line number was clearly incorrect because it did not contain "eval". The line was referenced was in the script for Shiva flippers. So I decided to remove the Shiva flippers which I planned to remove anyway. I got the error again and it referenced a line in the dynamic flippers that Gimli and I developed. I ended up removing all the code for all dynamic flippers just to get the line number. Having the faulty code in hand, JP was able to expand the code out so there was no "eval" in the subroutine. I have expanded "eval" code before but this one was more complex than anything I have done so It was nice to have JP around.

Anyway, I played a video of this table on Pinball Arcade and noticed that they created a HUD that repeats the 7 doctors on the backglass. I figured out a way to add the same thing on this table, as you can see on the screenshot below. The HUD on FP does not allow you to add any lights so I created 7 textures of each doctor that looks like a light that is on. Then I added 7 more textures that looked like the light is off. I set the update interval on 7 HUD overlays to be the same as the blink interval on the lights on the backglass. The lights for the 7 doctors on the backglass has a 7 digit blink pattern like chaser lights where one is on at a time. I duplicated this after adding the 14 frames to the texture manager. When I added the textures to the image list for the overlay, I added the light on frame once and then repeated the texture for the off light 6 times. I set the frames in the script to run 1 to 7 and repeat. Of course, the on frame for the 1st doctor has the be first in the list, then the on frame for the second doctor has to be second in the list etc. Confused? It took me a while to think through it but it works.

 

[TerryRed]

Yes, the problem isn't "BAM", but the fact that FP itself doesn't know what BAM commands are. So if you have an error on the table, depending on what newer BAM based code you are using and how you are using it.... making a mistake in your own code means that FP can't report the error correctly, and more specifically, what line the error is on. It's not something BAM can get around. It just means we have to be more careful. I tend to save to a new table file when adding a bunch of new code to avoid this, so I can always fall back to the previous file in case I messed up something really bad.

 

[GeorgeH]

Yes, the problem isn't "BAM", but the fact that FP itself doesn't know what BAM commands are. So if you have an error on the table, depending on what newer BAM based code you are using and how you are using it.... making a mistake in your own code means that FP can't report the error correctly, and more specifically, what line the error is on. It's not something BAM can get around. It just means we have to be more careful. I tend to save to a new table file when adding a bunch of new code to avoid this, so I can always fall back to the previous file in case I messed up something really bad.

I tend to do that. In this case, the error was in the original script. It just didn't show itself until I started testing multiball. There was nothing wrong with either dynamic flipper code.

 

[GeorgeH]

I have replaced all the "eval" and "execute" functions in the script with the longer version of the code so it doesn't fight with the Defender antivirus. It seems to perform better.

JP is not available until September. I think there may be some additional problems that need to be solved that need JPs help. The table is in a playable state right now. I have decided to go ahead and publish it even though I have some additional changes planned. I am burned out on it right now and would like to move on to something else until JP gets back. The table has been improved dramatically and I think you will enjoy it.