Williams SS Recreation BAM FP Tales of the Arabian Nights (Williams, 1996) v1.9 BAM

[fourbanks]

Bob,

Thanks for your help!

Is there a way to make the ball be released from the magnet more randomly? I have noticed on the videos of real tables, the magnet releases the ball in more directions than it does on this one. There is a kicker saved to the same location as the the magnet. I tried adding a solenoid pulse that seems to affect the ball when it is released immediately but doesn't work when one of the longer quotes plays.

Moving the ball to the left will help.

George

the ball from the magnet in the other colours now hits the outer tip from the flippers the same as in the zen table. it could still do with a more random selection if possible?

 

[fourbanks]

for changing ball color, I am not certain about smoke's code...but I notice this:
at line 479

Class Fake_xBAM_BallCreationInfo
    Public Property Get Red
        Red = 192
    End Property
    Public Property Get Green
        Green = 192
    End Property
    Public Property Get Blue
        Blue = 192
    End Property
    Public Property Get BallNumber
        BallNumber = 0
    End Property
End Class

So you can change from 192's to whatever you wish.
The color numbers can be obtained from any color box in the FP table editor...click on a color and look at the numbers

for instance Red is Red = 255, Green = 0, Blue = 0


Also if I recall correctly you can in most tables change ball color as follows:

'KickerName.CreateBall number, number, number'
'example
Plungerkicker.Createball 255,0,0

thanks bob for any further advancement to this table and the same to you George :)

 

[Gimli]

Bob,

Thanks for your help!

Is there a way to make the ball be released from the magnet more randomly? I have noticed on the videos of real tables, the magnet releases the ball in more directions than it does on this one. There is a kicker saved to the same location as the the magnet. I tried adding a solenoid pulse that seems to affect the ball when it is released immediately but doesn't work when one of the longer quotes plays.

Moving the ball to the left will help.

George

There would be a way to release ball from magnet using a very minimal random pulse , that goes in random direction....otherwise just switching off the magnet will always be the same...unless ball is still oscillating when you switch magnet off...

 

[fourbanks]

i can see George updating this table in the near future

 

[Gimli]

Hmmm....another way to get a random direction
Is as follows:

1. Put a hidden target as marker on the playfield where you wish magnet: (like I believe smoke did)
2. Assign magnet to Target location (like I believe smoke did)
3.Grab target in a "miniplayfield"
4.Add random rotations to target then switch magnet off and maybe ball will have slightly different trajectory

 

[fourbanks]

i spoke to soon. the ball does hit the outer tip of the flippers' but it also drains down straight through the centre of the flippers on a random basis

 

[GeorgeH]

I'm not really sure what you mean by "hidden target as marker" but I will give it a try. I am working on a tutorial right now.

 

[fourbanks]

I'm not really sure what you mean by "hidden target as marker" but I will give it a try. I am working on a tutorial right now.

don't stress too much George my jitter has now gone by a change of colour to the ball. just try if you can to get that magnet to move the ball anywhere but straight down between the flippers

 

[Gimli]

It is a conveniant coding convention of BAM

BAM automatically knows the location of all table object even if you uncheck "render object" in table editor. (oops only some objects like triggers and kickers do this, but the are ways with any object....)

Here are some examples. Lets say we add a non rendered target or trigger named "George2" anywhere at all on table.
We can assign Textures, Miniplayfields and Magnets to that target . This is easier than determining the x, y cordinates.
We just place George on Table and BAM does the rest

Dim GENIEMAGNET
Set GENIEMAGNET  = xBAM.CreateMagneticField(George2.X, George2.Y,   -10,   100,       0.5)

Dim Arrow
Set Arrow = xBAM.CreateModel("ArrowTGA",    George2.x,     George2.y,       100,     100,       0,       0,      -0, False, False)

Dim miniplayfield_1
Set miniplayfield_1  = CreateMiniPlayfield(George2, 0, 100)

So with Genie Magnet above I am placing it on top of the hidden George. And then I am making it a MP which I can then rotate randomly if I wish.

For the Miniplayfield shortcut to work , you also have to include this in the code:

Function CreateMiniPlayfield(ByRef item, Z, H)
   Dim X, Y
   X = item.X
   Y = item.Y
   Const e = 0.2
   Dim MP
   Set MP = xBAM.CreateMiniPlayfield(X-e, X+e, Y-e, Y+e, Z-e, Z+H+e, X, Y, Z)
   MP.MoveTo X, Y, Z, 0,0,0, 1, 0
   Set CreateMiniPlayfield = MP
End Function

 

[Gimli]

Here is a demo.
if you load table using F9 (debug mode) it will show the rotation value.
But when I set it to zero rotation it makes no difference.

Press "B" on keyboard to turn magnet on and off.
What determines randomness is oscillations I believe.

 

[Gimli]

@GeorgeH

 

[fourbanks]

zen has got back to me with regards the ball jitter and will update you when they reply back to me as to their findings

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

zen has got back to me with regards the ball jitter and will update you when they reply back to me as to their findings

I guess I missed something, but what did the Zen version have to do with this version, anyway?

I never quite got the reference, or connection.

 

[fourbanks]

I guess I missed something, but what did the Zen version have to do with this version, anyway?

I never quite got the reference, or connection.

the connection was the ball had a tendency to jitter from the top magnet on both tables. I have changed the ball colour and that jitter has now stopped. i will let you know if there was anything on a technical level when zen get back to me. it's properly very small and would go unnoticed by many people playing on new equipment?

 

[GeorgeH]

@fourbanks

What changes did you make to the ball color?

I am finally in the mode of fixing this table. I am thinking I may just delete the ball color code in the script. An RGB of 192, 192, 192 is just a gray color which would make the ball darker. I think that Smoke may have added this code before we could adjust ball brightness with BAM.

 

[fourbanks]

@fourbanks

What changes did you make to the ball color?

I am finally in the mode of fixing this table. I am thinking I may just delete the ball color code in the script. An RGB of 192, 192, 192 is just a gray color which would make the ball darker. I think that Smoke may have added this code before we could adjust ball brightness with BAM.

I went for black George but the other colours play just as well. by all means, you can add some additional colours red would be nice? if that's possible? the table plays very well with the right balance on the flippers. if you would like me to test the final table then just ask.

 

[GeorgeH]

Here is a demo.
if you load table using F9 (debug mode) it will show the rotation value.
But when I set it to zero rotation it makes no difference.

Press "B" on keyboard to turn magnet on and off.
What determines randomness is oscillations I believe.

I tried this test table but whenever I pressed "B", the ball basically followed the trajectory that it was going when I pressed the "B" key to release the ball. The Z rotation didn't seem to make any difference. When I waited for the ball to stop moving completely and pressed the "B" key, then the ball always dropped straight down.

I did however have success adding the -10 to the magnetgenie.X code. It did make the ball move a bit more to the left so it can be hit by the left flipper when there was no movement of the ball by the magnet at all. The ball has no movement at all when it is released after the genie has a long voice quote. There are times in the game when there is not a long voice quote and the ball has not stopped moving when released by the magnet. Then the ball moves in the same trajectory from when it is released. The ball does look a little odd because the -10 setting makes the ball held by the magnet so it is not in the center of the magnet but I think we can live with it.

 

[Gimli]

Sound good. As I am sure you realize you can of course use - 5 or whatever.

 

[GeorgeH]

It is a conveniant coding convention of BAM

BAM automatically knows the location of all table object even if you uncheck "render object" in table editor. (oops only some objects like triggers and kickers do this, but the are ways with any object....)

Here are some examples. Lets say we add a non rendered target or trigger named "George2" anywhere at all on table.
We can assign Textures, Miniplayfields and Magnets to that target . This is easier than determining the x, y cordinates.
We just place George on Table and BAM does the rest

Dim GENIEMAGNET
Set GENIEMAGNET  = xBAM.CreateMagneticField(George2.X, George2.Y,   -10,   100,       0.5)

Dim Arrow
Set Arrow = xBAM.CreateModel("ArrowTGA",    George2.x,     George2.y,       100,     100,       0,       0,      -0, False, False)

Dim miniplayfield_1
Set miniplayfield_1  = CreateMiniPlayfield(George2, 0, 100)

So with Genie Magnet above I am placing it on top of the hidden George. And then I am making it a MP which I can then rotate randomly if I wish.

For the Miniplayfield shortcut to work , you also have to include this in the code:

Function CreateMiniPlayfield(ByRef item, Z, H)
   Dim X, Y
   X = item.X
   Y = item.Y
   Const e = 0.2
   Dim MP
   Set MP = xBAM.CreateMiniPlayfield(X-e, X+e, Y-e, Y+e, Z-e, Z+H+e, X, Y, Z)
   MP.MoveTo X, Y, Z, 0,0,0, 1, 0
   Set CreateMiniPlayfield = MP
End Function

I decided to try using this code but FP crashed. TOTAN has one occurrence in the script for CreateMiniPlayfield but not able to figure out if it is related to the GenieMagnet or not. Smoke's coding is like something I have never seen. Oh well. I guess I will just use the other method.

 

[GeorgeH]

GeorgeH updated Tales of the Arabian Nights with a new update entry:

Tales of the Arabian Nights

*** Version 1.8 ***

One of the guys had a problem when the magnet for the genie releases the ball from the magnet for the genie that it would fall between the flippers and drain. Gimli and I Iooked at it and the best solution was to move the magnet for the ball slightly to the left. It looks a bit odd but it performs well. I added an option to the script named "AdjustMagnet" where you can change the values if desired.

Gimli found some existing code in the script that changed the...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[fourbanks]

thanks, guys it now plays much better. :D

 

[GeorgeH]

thanks, guys it now plays much better. :D

I made a small change after you downloaded the file. One of the guys noticed that the swing of the right flipper is different from the swing of the left. I posted a small update. You could download the file again but it would be easier to open the FP editor for the table and click on the left flipper and change swing to -60 in the right pane.

 

[fourbanks]

I made a small change after you downloaded the file. One of the guys noticed that the swing of the right flipper is different from the swing of the left. I posted a small update. You could download the file again but it would be easier to open the FP editor for the table and click on the left flipper and change swing to -60 in the right pane.

hi George
I have downloaded
1.8.7z ok and will let you know how that plays asap
many thanks for all your hard work
nick

 

[GeorgeH]

@fourbanks

I made another mistake. I don't seem to do anything right today. I said the right flipper but I actually changed the left flipper.

 

[fourbanks]

@fourbanks

I made another mistake. I don't seem to do anything right today. I said the right flipper but I actually changed the left flipper.

it plays fine George. I like fast flippers. I have most tables across all developers and future and vpx are the best in that area of play I find. the zen tables also are very fast but apart from that the goings hard on the other tables