VP8 Williams SS Recreation Sorcerer V1.0 Released

Solid State Machines

PacDude

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The table is attached to this release message.

I've also uploaded Sorcerer (PD) V1.0 to AJ's. It is available here:

http://www.vpforums.com/vptables/tables.php

I've also uploaded it to Shivasite. It is available here:

http://www.shivasite.com/modules.php?modid=1&action=cat&id=4


Please consider making a donation to a reputable and worthwhile charity in your area if you enjoy this table. I'd like to see my efforts in table making come to some good and if everyone contributes even a little, it can add up. Thank-you. :)

NOTE: If you have a slower computer (say less than 2GHz), you may want to turn off the fading effect for the GI lights as they're pretty CPU intensive. Even with fading off, they might cause some choppies when flashing like crazy on some machines (16-bit color is a good idea and also can help with reel problems on some ATI cards). You can access individual fading control for table lights, flashers and GI lights all from the F6 option menu during the game.

I will post the table notes (found in the Table Info section) in a reply to this post for anyone that cares to read them while downloading or whatever so they know what options are available, etc.

Note that the demon flasher only works when using the "Back_Glass" backdrop (If you select the "Back_Room" backdrop, it will disappear).

Note also that I'm aware the Sorcerer lights don't exist on the real game (those lights drive lights that illuminate little dragons/demons, but that was not feasible here so it makes a nice alternate effect).
 
These are the Sorcerer V1.0 Table Notes from the Table Info section of the actual table:


-Press F6 for Options Menu during the game

-I recommend if you feel this table is worthwhile to play and that you'd probably pay money to play it if it were commercial or if you'd like to thank the author, that you consider making a donation to a reputable charity. Remember that not everyone is as well off as you are to have a computer to play games on. Some people don't even have basic needs in this world like food and shelter. Obviously, this is just a voluntary request by the table author who'd like to see some good come out of his time that he donated for free to recreate this table for the pinball community. Even if you don't like the game, consider donating anyway. You'll feel better about yourself.

Table Notes:
==========

-This table is a brand new version of Sorcerer, unrelated to any other versions of Sorcerer for VP. V1.0 is the first public release of this table. Note that like with all VPM tables, you should have legal copies of the rom sets to actually play the table. These do not come with the table and should NEVER be distributed with it. Use this product at your own risk. The author assumes no responsibility for this product's use or misuse thereof.

- There are two backdrops available in the game. The default is "back_glass" and is based on the backglass for the actual pin. The other is "back_room" and shows the table in a dark brick-wall type game room type environment. The demon backglass flasher only displays on the "back_glass" backdrop.

- There are alternate cabinet rails and lockbars included as well. Select the side rails in the table editor in turn (e.g. select the left rail's image and change it from "Left Rail Dark" to "Left Rail Medium" for instance) and change the images for them and then the lockbar decal image to match (there are currently dark and medium rails available with matching dark and chrome lockbars). It helps to have basic editor skills to make these changes.

-Mods are allowed (as usual with my releases), but please label your tables as such, both in this table info section and the table and zip file names and leave my credits intact. I'd prefer you keep your own RevHistory file with a different name, but including the previous entries prior to your mod.

Note: This table uses VP "Reel" objects for animation and some lighting effects. They are known to sometimes not display correctly on some graphics cards and/or certain drivers. I've got such a card and have taken steps to work around this VP bug, but I can't be certain it will work for all PCs. Disabling DirectDraw acceleration in the Direct X prefs panel in Windows often solves the problem for most people, so you might want to try that if you see major glitches. Just remember to turn it back on when you are done or other programs may perform poorly. Using 16-bit color sometimes helps as well and usually results in smoother play anyway.

-The table looks best at 1600x1200 resolution, but may perform unsatisfactorily on slower PCs at that resolution. although disabling wall lighting effects (or eve sound) can help regardless of resolution.

Operator Menu
------------------------
This is a VPM based set of controls to adjust game settings as described in the manual for Sorcerer. If you open the table script, you will find a quick summary of the controls to use the operator menu and a list of the bookkeeping and adjustment functions available and their settings right at the top of the script. For more information, please see the manual for Sorcerer (available at the Internet Pinball Database: http://www.ipdb.org ).

Sorcerer VP Table Options Menu Settings:
------------------------------------------------------------------
This menu is accessed by pressing F6 during the game and controls actual VP table related options I've provided.

Disable Menu:
----------------------
All Lights - This will disable all lights and should help with slower computers since it requires less CPU power (although it's also not much fun without them). It disables all lights including GI lights and flashers.

LED Panels - This will disable the LED-style scoring displays on the backglass and enable the VPM scoring window instead. Unchecking it again will restore the backglass style scoring displays.

GI Lights - This will disable the game's ability to turn the table's GI (general illumination) lights off and on during the game. If the lights are off at the time this option is selected, it will force them all ON (unless the disable ALL lights option is enabled) and they will stay on until the option is unselected at which point the game will have control of the lighting again. Disabling the GI lights can also help prevent choppy ball behavior that can occur on slower computers when the lights are flashing.

Fading Light Effect - This turns off the fading light effect the table normally uses for most lights to simulate incandescent bulb cooling. Lights will immediately go dark instead of fading out. It will also use a bit less CPU power so the table should run a bit faster.

Fading Flasher Effect - This turns off the fading flasher effect the table normally uses for the flasher lights to simulate incandescent bulb cooling. Lights will immediately go dark instead of fading out. It will also use less CPU power so the table should run a bit faster.

Fading GI Effect - This turns off the fading GI (general illumination) effect the table normally uses for the general lighting to simulate incandescent bulb cooling. Lights will immediately go dark instead of fading out. It will also use less CPU power so the table should run considerably smoother during flashing GI effects on slower computers. If you get choppy ball action during flashing, enable this option and/or disable the GI effects entirely.


Yield Time - Turns off the Yield Time check in the script whereby Vpinmame 1.20 or greater gets yield time applied to it, which helps smooth the gameplay on most computers. Other (usually faster) computers will perform worse with it on and so it should be disabled if you get choppy gameplay. This requires an exit and restart for it to take effect. If you get choppy gameplay with it on and off you probably either have a slow computer or something else is wrong in your setup. The default yield value is 1 and can be found at the top of the table script. A setting of 2 sometimes works better on some computers, particularly if the computer is fast enough and there are sound hiccups.

Rev History:
==========
V 1.0 - First Public Release
 

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Very nice recreation PD plays rather well, I have reduced the slope a little I feel this is more acurate. Like to donate though I am a charity, $10 in my bank balance ATM and that's going to have to see me through the next week.

Actually it runs at 100 to 160 fps here most of the time, I did turn off the GI effects, they really caused the stutters when clearing the top target bank.

Thanks.
 
Wonderful idea

Dude, I really like your idea about making a donation. After the 1st, I'll make an overdue one to the Local Big Brotheres/Big Sisters. I was a Big Brother for about 20 years, and even served on their board of directors for 7 or 8 years. And I plan to add a similar statement to any tables I release for now on. Another side of the Dude is revealed, and I like what I see.

tiltjlp
 
Steve, the table slope is an operator controlled variable (like any table option) in the real world. "Accuracy" is thus in the eye of the player. It is fully adjustable, though.

What type of computer do you have, Steve? I'm getting around 1000 fps most of the time on my 1GHz PIII. But I'm in 1024x768 in 16-bit color to get that. The GI effects do cause a little stuttering here and I leave fading OFF for the GI effects. 2+ GHz machines should have no problems with everything turned on, though.

...

John, I've been including the charity thing in my table releases (it's in the Table Info on each table itself too) for like a year and a half now. I was feeling like maybe I wasn't accomplishing anything with my time in this hobby that might be better spent elsewhere when it occurred to me that a lot of people were offering to send me gifts of appreciation (even entire computer systems here one more than one occasion) and I thought, hey I can direct these people to do something for charity instead and with 50,000+ people registered at VPF alone, I thought even $1 on average would make more of a difference than I could afford to give myself, maybe even over a lifetime. I'm not saying I believe that it's that effective, but you never know and it doesn't hurt to try. Plus if these tables circulate for years to come, you never know what the long-term effect could be. Plus it makes me feel better about spending my time this way. :)
 
Yeah, I bet it can add up. I'd like to suggest that you post your idea ealsewhere, because if even a few authors added it to their table information, it course make an impact. I know I have good intensions, but I need a reminder once in a while. What I like best is that you don't make any suggestions as to any particular charity, leaving that up to the player.

tiltjlp
 
Actually I thought you would remember PD, 1333 Athlon, W98se, though here's the crunch 256MB ram and a rather weak 32MB GF2 MX400 graphics card. I'm fairly sure its a lack of memory issue. I run VP at 1024x768x16 bit, though I run the desktop at 32 bit and I can run most MAME games full speed hardware stretch, triple buffering and 75% scanlines, including titles such as KOF2001 and Metal Slug 3, just for reference. Actually turning off the fading lights makes zero difference, who knows, more then likely some driver quirk and believe me I have tried all kinds of drivers and bios settings.
 
Sorry Steve, I've had so many people tell me their computer setups. I know Steve Ellenoff had huge number differences between his laptop and his desktop with Big Bang Bar. Even though the laptop sounded like it should have run faster than my desktop, it could barely get over 100fps and even then only with some code changes to the table at the time. I'm not sure I trust the numbers anyway. It's still reading over 800fps here when the GI lights flash, but the ball movement clearly gets a little choppy while it happens (and is unplayable if I use fading with the GI lights). But non-fading on the regular lights has virtually no impact at all. The size of the drop walls makes a huge difference, I guess.
 
Try to get any other bug reports or suggestions in today. I plan to release a V1.1 update later tonight or tomorrow to address some issues brought up at AJ's.

So far, I've added the missing switch 43 to the table (lamp change), although it doesn't seem to get hit too often, so I'm not sure how much difference you'll actually notice. I've altered the elasticity of the mentioned posts to compromise between the old 0.45 and the newer 0.6 and put them at 0.52.

I've also edited the apron images (which were from another game) so they look like the Sorcerer ones (the left apron shouldn't say lane change and the right side should only say 'lane change' and 'right flipper' on it. There is no status report (if there was, it might have told me about switch 43 ;) ).
 
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