Playboy se

[shiva]

first, wanted to see if the site problems messed up the account, and also to show off the latest screenshot for my latest project, Bally's Playboy. A big favorite of mine (like Star Trek) and I felt it was time for a new version.

Still odds and ends to do with the graphics, at the stage where I'm improving things, but progress is pretty good so far, and expect the game to be finished febuary or so.

Once I finish playing around, then it's backdrop and then scripting (ugg), but of course, things are subject to change with me.

http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pb1211051qc.jpg

 

[tiltjlp]

Really looks good Big Blue. I'm glad to see you staying busy with VP, and still working on some projects. Kind of hard to get it out of your system completely, isn't it?

John

 

[StevOz]

Looking mighty fine, most impressive, played this one a heap myself in the good ol' days, always good value, with replays a plenty. :)

 

[marv75]

Looks great Shiva! Good to see you around...Have a Happy Holiday Season!:)

 

[davidsss]

Looks fabulous, always liked this machine. Can't wait to see this one.

DS

 

[bob]

Looks great! Are you sure you're not using FP and VP together?



I'm off to try and find that Star Trek table, I'm a little behind in my playing, I've been spending too much time just goofing off.

 

[shiva]

Thanks, been working on my list of improvements, and getting them done one by one. I will post a new screenshot once Joxer gives his approval. :)

(Joxer has the best set of eyes for the smallest detail of anyone I know, and he's real fussy, so if he's happy, then I know it's okay)

Good luck finding Star Trek. Site is gone, and though I said it was okay for other sites to put it up, they never bothered. Guess somethings never do change.

 

[Petri]

Looks great,Shiva. :thumright:
Way to go,man.
Looking forward it.

 

[vpin_2000]

Glad to hear from you shiva! I was wondering if you could send me that tutorial table you made before your site went down? vpmaster2004@gmail.com

 

[shiva]

What tutorial table?

Hoped to have a backglass shot by now, but ran into the usual problem with the 3rd and 4th player scoring display at the bottom, and covered up by the table. I noticed scapino's solution with the backglass, but he has only one scoring display as well, and I found it rather distracting, or else I would have done something similar. I think I have come up with a very nice solution, but damn, a lot of work for the last 2 days. lots of clean-up as well, the image for the backglass just plained sucked.

Still have to finish it, light render it, do the decals etc, so we will see how fast I am, maybe tomorrow, with the latest graphic changes to the playfield

 

[davidsss]

Maybe vpin 2000 means Shivaengine?

DS

 

[kristian]

Looks beautiful Shiva...

Nice to see you coming back... I hope all is well.

 

[shiva]

thanks

Anyway, here we go. Before I show you the next screenshot, all I have to say is just how much of a piece of crap VP is...
Because of the scale of the backglass, I forgot one of the VP bugs (so sue me, there's so many to have to remember after all) with lights and decals on the backglass, so I am forced to use *shudder* reels for the scoring. Should be fun, as I only used a reel once for a image display, and everyone complained because it didn't display properly.

Needless to say, gonna be fun. Never did reels before, so not sure of the tricks needed to get it to work properly. Some suggestions would be nice, unless someone feels like scripting it for me...

Screenshot is progress so far. Some changed pf graphics, and a "slightly modified" backglass...

http://img236.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pb1214050ji.jpg

 

[scapino]

Looking really good, shiva! I like your shade of "pink" better then mine. :)
I'd be happy to get your score/credits/bip displays working for you, if you wish.

Let me know.

Kurt

 

[shiva]

Thanks Kurt. It's not even scripted at all at the moment, completely blank except for walls drop code. Might have to take you up on it, as it will save me a few days and some fustration. Have to name my objects first though. :)
I'm a man, I'm suppose to hate that pink color. :)
But it looks kind of right for the theme, I never could get the exact hue from the various images available, so it was one of those happy little accidents.

 

[scapino]

Still looks great!

I'm here when your ready. :)

Kurt

 

[shiva]

I would be, if ***** VP actually saved the table properly. Stupid bloody program, lost 3 hours of work. Had it working and playing as well.

I will have a shot at it first, assuming the bloody thing actually saves, only way I learn. Strange thing is the script saved, but not the table itself (???)
Rebooted, and now the damn thing saves properly, but I think a break is in order. Bill Gates is the spawn of the devil...

 

[scapino]

Its good that you want to take a crack at it yourself. It IS the only way to learn!

If you have any questions about how I do it (how the process is), let me know.

Kurt

 

[destruk]

oooh...we're talking about the 'process' now. :) Awesome Scapino!

 

[PacDude]

3 hours? You should save more often. I usually save about every 10 minutes.

 

[marv75]

You can never have enough of Playboy themed tables, in my opinion! The more the merrier....Hmmmmmmmm a 3D rendered 35th Anniversary or Stern's Playboy would be neat also!

 

[shiva]

No, I forgot to use the Save as command when I saved my table. For some strange reason, VP won't save a table on my computer using the normal save command, something with XP and it's settings. I noticed my settings slipped in XP, restored them, and now straight save works again. Don't ask, it's just something that seems to happen with my computer.

Of course, it wasn't a problem, because of the Auto save feature (duh) so restored that, and fixed it back up. Basic script, single lights,with a switch debugger added etc, so it all works. Just have to remember to use the save as command in future. I haven't done my custom code yet, so maybe I will fire off the basic table for play balance to get it "Bally" like with a couple old timers like me who have played the game a lot.

Anyway, it plays and all fine. The reels, well, there's enough examples out there, I noticed PacDude uses the reel code from scapino as well, and it works great, so a natural assumption would be it's 100% solid code. Only concern I have is the image portion of the reels themselves, as that's what causes the white reel problem.

Okay, two questions then, and I will do it here instead of a PM, so maybe other people can input. if I remember correctly, it's the dimensions of the total reel image that causes the problem? Or is it the seperate FRAME dimensions that make up the total image that could cause the problem. I haven't decided the amount of frames yet (11 more than likely) but should the image be set to a certain height/width ratio, or should the frames within the reel?

I also remember that no matter what, it appears that someone will have a problem with reels. Now, we can turn on or off the standard display from VPinMAME quite easily, using a variable within the menu system, but is there a way to turn off the reels from displaying completely, so if people do have the reel problem, they can change the display in the F6 menu, and have the reels turn off so they don't see those ugly white blocks?

My reel height is 32, the width is 24 BTW, in case it makes a difference.

 

[scapino]

The individual frames of the reel image should be multiple of 8 pixels wide, in your case, if the original image had digit frames 24 pixels wide, that would be fine. 3x8 = 24. 32 would work as would 40 and so on....

I have never seen the white reel image problem myself, but it might be due to trying to use transparency. I never use transparency on my tables. If I want the reel to "disappear", I make a frame for the reel image that is the same size and shape of the background the actual emreel covers. That way all you have to do to make it disappear is to setvalue to that frame.

Kurt

 

[shiva]

ah, okay. so if each of my frames are 24 pixels wide, and I use 11 frames, then it's 24x11=264 for the image width. Since the new version of VP has greater resolution, just have to expand the basic image to take advantage of that, so using 48, that's 48x11=528 width and so on.

Good idea with the background, will try that. It's just the display anyway, so a back background on the image means a black frame at the end (guess that means 12 frames doesn't it?)

Oh, reels work fine, took only a few minutes. Now it's just setting the layout for the shots the way they are suppose to be (Damn curve at the right, VP is so fussy with those kind of shots) and to do what you suggested. Thanks.

 

[PacDude]

I used "disappearing" reels on Firepower (for both disabling the reels and for getting rid of the 7th digit when using 6-digit roms), but some people with ATI cards in 32-bit color mode would see a white box instead so I've switched to just blanking out the displays when disabled and showing a black-bar box for the 7th digit (like there's a cutout area in the backbox there but no plasma digit installed there).