JP Salas come back!

[Hanson2]

Hello friends, I think JP should make more tables and updates for VP8 !
What do you think about it?
Please vote!
Thank you!

 

[sportvater]

Definetly! His Tables are the BEST!!!!

Has he stopped making tables?!? Hopefully not!

 

[sleepy]

I think JP should be enjoying his vacation. It's only a hobby, right?
His tables are among the best, but given the number of tables that he's put out, give him a break. I say any more tables from JP requires payment for his services!

 

[Phoenixx]

I tend to agree with sleepy.

More quality tables are of course always good, but JP has been working like a machine for a long time so who could blame him for wanting some R&R for a change,...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Hanson2, get off your lazy ass and start making some tables.
(how do i translate that to german?)

why do you beg for gifts when you could be making them yourself?

 

[faralos]

maybe you can afford to pay him, alot of us cannot! While I do appreciate all he's done, I just started a job today after being unemployed for 6 months. But hey, be my guest with that payment plan to him. I am not going to vote, he DOES deserve a much-needed break, voting sounds like you are forcing him to reconsider, when all he wants is some time off. I'd be a little put-off if people were to vote and try to force me into doing something I said I would not do anymore (or make me feel guilty by holding a poll in the first place) look at all those pins he's done! Yes, he's a genius at doing them, but give him a break, maybe he'll actually miss creating them and come back, but not if you force the issue! and he didn't say he'd quit completely he just said no more with vp8, so that's kind of an incentive for the vp9 coders to get their butts in gear and make vp9 more workable so he CAN come back to coding!!
Sure, I'd love him to come back too, but I'm not going to try to force him into it with a guilt trip, and we DO have others here who are great in their own rights, too (scapino, Destruk, and I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of others, but those two names stuck with me, no offense to all you other great builders out there) so let him be for a while and let's see what happens...
And what's stopping you from building? Hmmmm? :)

 

[bob]

I'm on strike until JP returns!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

wow, i definitely have new respect for bears.

 

[m4paws]

I think you guys have all missed the point. JP has apparently decided to abandon VP8 in favor of VP9, that's what Hanson's question was about. No one would deny that JP deserves a break.

 

[Hanson2]

Hanson2, get off your lazy ass and start making some tables.
(how do i translate that to german?)

why do you beg for gifts when you could be making them yourself?

Hi nicolas.b, I only want to start a poll to see the opinion of the VP-Community, that's all! I don't want to force JP to come back!
Cheers.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

okay, and sorry about that post above.

i was sloshed from green beer. D:

 

[Hanson2]

It's ok nicolas.b :)! I don't have the talent and the knowledge to build tables like JP, but I wish I could!

@m4paws: Thank you, you've got me right!

 

[Hanson2]

Statement by JP Salas at JPG-forums:

Thanks TheMcD and Flying Dutchman! At last! A few who shares my point of view! :)

As I wrote before, I'm taking a rest making tables until I get a new computer. For me VP9 is good enough like it is, but it should be better with a little more compatibility with more graphic cards and with some fixes. I actually don't care if the reels get fixed like in VP8 (they work now in VP9 like they did in VP7), since I'm not going to use reels in my future tables.

In VP9 there are many more options for authors to make the tables the way they want and to do things that wasn't possible to do with the older VP. Now I can make tables which fills the screen the way I want, for 4:3 screens, 16:9, and on vertical screens.

So just now I'm learning a little more about programming so later I can write better scripts. I'm also testing VP9 and seeing what it can do and how I can use the new options (even if I can't turn on hardware acceleration due to my computer being too old). I'm also taking lessons about 3DsMax, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to use it in VP I'm also waiting for windows 7 to buy a new computer. So, things take time, so don't wait for a new table from me in the near future. In the meantime just play the hundreds of tables available for VP8 and the new tables that are coming for VP9. It is true that it is easy to convert a table from VP8 to VP9, but do you really want to do that, and miss all the new options?

JP

Thank you JP and we all accept your decision!

@Adm.: Can you please close this poll?
Thank you!

 

[StevOz]

The reels do not work in VP9 as they did in VP7 or VP6 for that matter, fact...

Some tables can never be converted to VP9, try and convert a scapino table, good luck with that.

All that aside great to here from JP and all the best, love the tables, though in all honestly I've yet to have any belief in certain rumours or VP9 for that matter. It is a hacked version of VP7, with many omissions and designed to run on specific hardware for commercial use, the nudging for starter is just plain wrong, various other rendering aspects are also completely screwed up as well.

Now the ideal would be a true update of VP8 to change it's Direct X 7 calls/libraries and functions to OpenGL, including tweaks to the flippers and physics or at worst a proper convervsion to Direct X 9.

 

[faralos]

wow I see you are excercising your right to arm bears! cool pic there! I totally resepct those bears hanging around the dumspters in the state parks now! who knew that not only could they read but write as well! And here I thought Yogi was the only one (ok maybe Smokey, too and possibly Gentle Ben, but that's it!)

 

[yogiholzer]

And here I thought Yogi was the only one (ok maybe Smokey, too and possibly Gentle Ben, but that's it!)

Yes, I can read and write in English, but it's always a nightmare to understand and translate!

 

[destruk]

I have three converted tables from Scapino for VP9/16:9 display as well. They look and play fine. I'd have to ask him if they're ok to distribute though. Never is a really long time StevOz.

 

[mattstryker25]

JP's coffee break ....

JP please don't stop making your super quality tables .......

We need you and depend on you for the next greastest tables to be released for us .........

Have a short break for sure but please don't stop your incredible gift of the JP tables we've grown to know and love ....

looking foreward to your quick return,


Matt :)

 

[StevOz]

I have three converted tables from Scapino for VP9/16:9 display as well. They look and play fine. I'd have to ask him if they're ok to distribute though. Never is a really long time StevOz.

Perhaps it still does not change the fact that reels are not rendered the same as they were in VP7 or VP6.

 

[ANDROID]

Howdy guys, here is a copy of an email between JP and myself. We have a good working relationship from him implementing my ideas into the Disarm-a-geddon table. I have two more originals I have drawn up with lots of drop targets but with more of a modern feel including ramps jackpots shots, music etc. He originally was thinking of doing those tables, but decided to wait for the following reasons. I am posting it here as I am sure he would not mind. We also discussed emulating newer sterns eventually and what I thought. Clearly not alot is new news, but might help clear up some things:

Hey Andy:
VP9 is already a very nice emulator, since it is the same code that was in the Ultrapin machines, which is an updated VP7. Randy made a few fixes in VP8.1, like the reel bug in th Ati boards, the reel transparency and the colour of the slingshots. He tried to add some of the UC changes but I guess it was too many of them, so they never worked good enough. So I guess that as soon as the reels are fixed in VP9 then it will be as good as it can be just now. There are many things that could be better, like better support for other graphics cards than the Nvidia ones (the ones used in the Ultrapin machine). But the best things in VP9 are the new transparency of objects and many other things aimed to the authors. There are so many new things that for me VP8 is dead.
The tables in VP8 play quite well, but to build them was a nightmare.
Now in VP9 you can turn off the ball collision against walls and ramps, which will make things much easier.
I have an old Nvidia card and a modern Ati card, but any of them work with VP9, this is why I need to buy a new computer. I will not a cabinet/pc like the Ultrapin, but a normal PC, just like the one I have (but more modern of course :) ). VP9 can be used just like VP8 in a normal PC with a screen of 4:3, but it can also be used in a 16:9 and it can be also rotated as in those cabinets. When I'll start making tables again, I think I'll make them completely angle independent, so they can be rotated and use at any angle you want. They won't look as pretty as with using reels, but it will be able to use them in any size or angle, rotated or not.
I want to wait for Window 7 to buy a new computer, so I guess it will be at the end of this year or the next year. I'm not in a hurry. I made over 60 VP8 tables, and I think it is time to do something more creative again. Making vpm tables was nice but it became too easy and I started to get bored (I could make a table in 1 week or 2). So now until I get a new computer I'll learn more how the programming in a pinball game works so I can write better scripts. I learned a lot in Disarmageddon, and I saw all that I did wrong. The script worked, but it could have been much better and easier to expand. I'll need to build a basic table first which will be easy to add modes, combos, etc.
About Stern: the story was like this: a few years ago the pinmame group had emulated all kinds of pinball machines. Later when Stern bought Data East got in contact with the pinmame group and tried to make them stop emulating the Data East machines. Since pinmame was open source it was not possible to stop it, so they became agree to do not emulate any new pinball during the first 3 years until Stern moved unto another kind of machines. This is why the vpinmame was not open source until the last of the old Stern machines was emulated. Now it is again open source. The new SAM system will not be emulated until Stern has moved on to another system. There is no more 3 years rule, it is just a "never" rule until Stern decides to make a new kind of system. Stern was make it clear that it is forbidden to emulate the rom of a SAM table. Until Stern make a new system there won't be any new pinball emulated, only older ones like Petaco. But it is possible to write a new pinball using only VP, without
rom emulation Then Stern has nothing to say. And this is what I
want to do
My first table will be Stern's Spiderman (I always liked Spiderman, and I use to read those comics when I was a kid). I think I have a good idea about the rules of the table, from the http://www.pinballnews.com/games/index.html site. They are easy to understand but maybe not so easy to implement. My table won't be like the original, but it will use the same layout, similar graphics and a similar set of rules. I was thinking in using a simple dmd made with a font, similar to Disarmageddon. I think this will keep me busy for a long time . I haven't a clue about the sounds and music of the original table, but the most important for me is to make all those rules work in a table. Graphics and sounds come later.
Well, talk more another day.

JP


I am just as anxious as the rest of us, but he needs to wait and do it right the first time, or second LOL.

 

[destruk]

Sure it's easy when you have a full manual, graphics, and everything waiting to be typed in....