503 replies to this topic

[Herweh]

Hi everybody,

FYI, I'm working on a B2S Backglass Designer. After some PMs to and from Rosve I've decided to start it. There is a lot to do and there is much room for ideas but let me show you what has happened so far.

I'm a great fan of Paint.NET, so the basic layout of the designer is a little bit similiar to Paint.NET. But the goal is that there is no need to use Paint.NET during the backglass development. The only required thing at startup is a pretty cool backglass image, best without any lights on. Already included is some code to manage reels or LEDs and some code to create all the "illumination".

It's too early to go too much into details, let me show you some pics of the designer and explain a few things. Here we go. I've started a backglass project with 'PLAYBOY', a nice table from the late 70s.



Here you get an idea of the menu structure of the designer (and as I'm having fun in details look at the thumbnail images of the recent list). Right now there are no LEDs visible, there is no illumination visible, just the background pic is loaded.

As you can see in the next picture there are some nice designer features like zooming, etc.



Now I have started the mode to design the reel (for good old EM tables) or LED setup. On purpose I positioned them not perfectly so you can see the scaling possibilities. The translucent new window on the top left is to support you during the design process.

So now it is time for some illumination. I have designed already a bunch of bulbs. What you have to do for a new bulb is first, press one button in the designer, and second drag and drop a marker rectangle to a location at the backglass and size it. That's it. The result is ...



Please look at Hugh's left eye, at the Bally logo, and so on and so on.

Please tell me, what do you think about this project? You can tell me everything about the things you have seen or you are missing.
And as I mentioned there is a lot to do, please give me the time to do it. I will inform you about the progress.

Best regards, Herweh.

Edited by Herweh, 02 September 2012 - 08:40 PM.

[The Loafer]

Well, I will tell you that I am very impressed and excited at your project. Anything that can help the community get more B2S backglasses done is a great thing and the way you are approaching this looks like it will be EXTREMELY helpful!

Thanks!

Rob

[hmueck]

Please tell me, what do you think about this project? You can tell me everything about the things you have seen or you are missing.

What i think about that? It's absolutely fabulous!

I wonder how the lamps can be controlled by the ROM, but that part is probably in the table script?!

[oldskoolgamer]

Wow this is AWESOME!!!!

[Itchigo]

What about for originals, and how far along are you?

[johnparker007]

That is a VERY cool tool Herweh!

[Herweh]

Please tell me, what do you think about this project? You can tell me everything about the things you have seen or you are missing.

What i think about that? It's absolutely fabulous!

I wonder how the lamps can be controlled by the ROM, but that part is probably in the table script?!

I've got some samples from Rosve. The ROM connection is done (to say it in Rosve's words "after a detective's job" ) in the B2S backglass in MS Visual Studio right now (or like Westworld did in the KISS B2S: one part in the table script and the other part in the backglass). I'm thinking about how to implement this. I believe that this is a part where I have to learn more about VP. But the goal of course is that you are able to design the old EMs AND the new stuff like T2 Rosve did a few days ago.

[Herweh]

What about for originals, and how far along are you?

Sorry, I have to ask, what do you mean with originals? EM tables?

How far I am? It's not so easy to answer. I started the coding only a few days ago so I think I'm pretty far for this short time. But there is much to do. I think this tool is not 100% finished with the first released version. You guys have to help me a little bit with some testing.
And right now I don't know how the backglass should look technically. Rosve's code is a MS Visual Studio 2010 code with .NET framework 4.0. The biggest advantage is here that a backglass designer with a little bit coding experience is able to do such cool effects like in the Spirit backglass, the rotating stars. Or such extraordinary backglasses like Diner with shaking lights after nudging.
But technically it is possible that a backglass is only consisting of one XML file. And this would be pretty cool for my design tool as there would be no need to install MS Visual Studio 2010 to create and compile some code and the needed coding skill would be zero.
Maybe both ways are necessary. As I mentioned there is room for ideas

[Bob5453]

Sounds great Herweh!

[Itchigo]

What I mean by originals is I do Solid State originals (no dmd). I also have a generic blank backglass if you'd like to use it as a base.

Edited by Itchigo, 02 September 2012 - 11:20 PM.

[LoadedWeapon]

WOW i'm very excited about this project looks great! B2S's for everyone!!! lol

[luvthatapex]

This is very exciting. I would be happy to test for you when you have a stable version! Woohoo, more B2S backglasses.
Currently it's a bit tedious to do this in MS Visual Studio 2010. A simple construction tool would be AWESOME and we would get more authors making B2S releases!

If you could start with an EM or solid state backglass and move onto the more complex ones later. Originals would use the same code as the EM tables.

[numiah]

wow

[strangeleo72]

AWESOME!!! I ask to Rosve about a little program, to everyone do easyly B2s Backglasses...
Like the UVP...

NOW are a reallity!

[thewool]

This is brilliant. If this accessible I think many more people will contribute to B2S including me. Can't wait!

Just as a suggestion, maybe future B2Ss be uploaded as a DIYs package just like Rosve's Addams Family B2S. Basically the download would contain just the B2S exe file and installation instructions. This way they could be plugged in to any version of the table and would not require a separate upload. If the number of B2S tables grows there will be 2 or more versions of a table to maintain in the future which could start to pose a headache to the authors/B2S modders. .

[skewba98z28]

Keep up the great work man. Anything to get my B2S tables out there!

[Herweh]

Just to keep you informed (and hot ), I have implemented two nice features.

The first is a image resize. Looks a little bit like Paint.NET but works perfectly to resize the image IN the designer if the source image is a little bit to "heavy" (and to keep the source image without any changes).



And here I have implemented the possibility to light some text. As you see below these are the illumination frames which you can drag and drop and size. Please have a look at that one with the thicker frame. It's still a standard illumination frame that I have selected and set "HIGH SCORE TO DATE" as input text.



And this is the result with the illumination on.



Pretty cool, isn't it?

But, please be patient, there is a lot to do.

Best regards, Herweh.

Edited by Herweh, 03 September 2012 - 10:07 PM.

[strangeleo72]

Need Betatesters????

[email protected]

[Flying Dutchman]

Herweh .. great development .. hopefully this all can be done without losing out on the quality of the BG output? Up till now the BG image output quality of B2S has been very poor.

Thanks again!

Cheers,
FD.

[thewool]

FD, do you mean the resolution of BG images?? Honestly I've never seen an issue.

I think Rosve has always said the resolution used in the past has been higher than that of the monitors/TVs people are using for the backglass (e.g. highest res on mine is 1280x1024).

The selction of the images to be used is a different issue, a matter of artistic choice by the designer.

Edited by thewool, 04 September 2012 - 08:18 AM.