VP8 Williams SS Recreation Taxi (jpsalas) 1.9 released v5.0 2020-01-28

[jpsalas]

I wanted to released a new version of Taxi at the same time as VPM 1.53. But since Taxi 1.9 is finished, so here you have it.
It has the same gameplay as the old one. All the changes are only on the graphics side.

New in 1.9:

- Added PacDudes fading lights (that was a hard photoshop job, I never thought that they where so hard to draw. I had to draw many of the lights by hand since I couldn't made them from the pictures I have).
- New bumpers and flippers (flippers look now more like the williams flippers of that era).
- New graphics in general: backdrop, playfield, some plastics...
- Added the missing flashers (not that they are very visible, you won't get an epileptic attack by playing the table, but if you look you will notice the new flashers)

I haven't added the transparent ramps, since all my efforts ended in unplayable ramps. The transparent ramps made of many thin ramps doesn't work too well when there are large curves. The ball just stops in the midle of the ramp. And yes, I have added walls in the right places, I even added extra walls the separate the bottom of the ramp and the sides made of many ramps. Maybe I'll add them later if I can get them to work.

You will notice that the table is a little bit darker, but not too much. I made it like this to be able to see better the fading lights and flashers. By the way the flashers just flash the clothsof the figures, and the lights unlighten their faces. I do not know how it is in the original, but it doesn't look so bad.

The table is still fully angle independant, so if you like better the older view of 45x45 instead of 49x44, then just change it.
There are no reels, all the fading lights are made with dropwalls, so it should work on any graphics board. By the way, it seems that Nvidia has sorted out the problems with directx, since I haven't had any more problems with reels with any of their latest drivers.

Enjoy

JP

 

[Shockman]

The ramps are indeed a pain. qwerkie at best. RG is giving me a fit. They have to be butter, just have to be, or framerate plunges.
There is so many rules to using them and triggers don't work well with them. Taxi's will work with this method though.

The flashers are great. The plunger is great. a bit slow imo.
Thanks.

 

[jpsalas]

I find out that a trigger or a kicker that sits on a ramp works better if the ramp's name is different than the standard "ramp1" or similar. Just rename the ramp and then you can set the trigger on the ramp, otherwise it just stays on the floor.

And I agree with you the ramps are a pain in the #¤% :).

Yes, the plunger is a bit slow, but after trying over 100 times with different values I thought "it works now, don't touch it anymore". I wanted the plunger to be able to shoot the skillshot, and to be able to do it so it ended like it is now.

 

[Shockman]

Thanks I'll look into the naming of ramps, just what I needed though, another rule.

I'm getting FPS drops with Riverboat Gambler, but I have the right ramp on your latest version of TAXI working smooth as can be without any FPS drop. Might come first. Looks good, looks transparent anyway. I'll keep you posted. I've been trying to get them to grant me access to the VPM archive again, I hope it's not just a waste of time. I can't believe they would care enough about if I could get tables or not. At least yours is here as well. Funny I gave up my slot for TAXI at VPF, for your more complete version for the sake of everyone ELSE, and they think I did something bad enough that I should never be able to get it from there.

 

[Petri]

Thanks for update,jpsalas.
Happy 1.st of May all! :thumleft:

 

[jpsalas]

I have updated Taxi to 1.91.

New:

- Fixed text on airport lights, now with the right values.
- Speeded up plunger
- Adjusted ramp colours
- Added rings to the ramps
- New background based on the idea of Deep Stuff

There will be a version 2.0 when VPM 1.53 is released to adapt the display to the new VPM.

JP

 

[philou66]

great, thanks jpsalas
for me gameplay is better on the version 1.91 than 1.81
can you add a playfield less dark?
choice: dark or light :D

 

[jpsalas]

I have uploaded to my site a "lighter" version of 1.91.
By "lighter" I mean the colour of the playfield is the same as in 1.81. Just for those of you that prefer the lighter version.

I could have uploaded just the 5 pictures needed, but it is easier to download the whole table.

Direct link:
http://home.no.net/jpsalas/zip/Taxi_JP_1.91_Lighter.zip

JP

 

[philou66]

big thanks for the lighter version :D
Thanks for all of your hard work 8)

 

[tiltjlp]

Yes sir, much thanks for the lighter version. It's much easier on the eyes.

 

[Shockman]

Me, I want a darker version now. Real dark jp, with real bright lights.