100 replies to this topic

[Fusionwerks]

I am going to start this work in progress thread as a way to show you guys my new project, but also for a place to ask questions, and get feedback throughout the build. It will be based on the 1951 version of the movie, and NOT the newer movies featuring Jonny Depp. As you can see by the screenshots, I have the layout done, and some of the 3d assets are completed. It is an original layout, but the scripting will be built on JP's Serious Sam II table. Most of the rules will be similar. 
 
Heres what i have for ideas for modes:
Mad Hatters Tea party: Hit the bumpers XX number of times. (The 3d teacups will sit on top of the 3 bumpers)
Painting the Roses Red: Hit the 8  6 standup targets to light the lights
Follow the White Rabbit: Follow the lit light around the playfield to complete
The Caterpillar: It is the 5 ball captive ball target. Hit 5 times to spell A-E-I-O-U
Cheshire Cat: Hit the 2 inner loop spinners XX times
Alice Mutiball: Hit the 2 upper standup targets (Tweedle Dee and Dum) to light lock at left ramp, diverter opens, and you go down the "rabbit hole"  x3   now opens trap door to access kicker to play upper playfield
Lower Lanes: nothing assigned yet  spells ALICE and will increase bonus X
 
What I have Done:
Layout
Some GI
Some physics
Some artwork
Teacups 3d model
Drink Me bottle 3d model
Eat Me cookie 3d model
Card Soldier 3d model (not pictured)
both 3d ramps
both 3d rails
Playfield mesh
Upper playfield
 
What I still Need:
Finish playfield and plastics artwork
a few more 3d models
Sound FX
Table music
Script cleanup
Physics
Pinup? (Not sure if I'm going this route this time)
 
What I need help with: (If your interested)
FlexDMD
Lighting
Suggestions
Answering stupid random questions
Testing (when the time comes)
 
I have no intention of making this a "silly kids game". The rules wont be hard to understand, and the modes will not be too hard to beat. I want it to play fast, but smooth. I've taken a lot of time tuning the angles to avoid SDTM shots, and the outlanes are very forgiving. I will probably make script options to make the table more difficult by moving the outlane posts and removing the center post. This table was not meant to be a ripoff of John Popadiuk's table that never came to be, it is again another of my wife's favorite movies, and if your married in this hobby then you know that there is a fine balance that you have to keep. This allows me to be creative and pour hours upon hours of work into a table and still fall into the "I'm doing it for you babe" umbrella.
 
I look forward to hearing anyone and everyone's suggestions, comments, and support.
 
 

 

Edited by Fusionwerks, 01 November 2023 - 03:47 AM.

[Cliffy]

Like! I do have a concern about the snaky captive balls though. Lots of real estate for an effect that will likely be hidden plus in real life the walls would pretty much guarantee an impossible target hit at the top. all the balls absorbing energy plus the walls plus direction changes. Looks cool though.  Looking forward to it Fusionwerks! Will be watching and yeah for sure I hear ya on the wife/life balance

[Fusionwerks]

Like! I do have a concern about the snaky captive balls though. Lots of real estate for an effect that will likely be hidden plus in real life the walls would pretty much guarantee an impossible target hit at the top. all the balls absorbing energy plus the walls plus direction changes. Looks cool though.

yes, I had to do some adjusting in the script to get them to move like I liked. it only takes a "normal" velocity hit to make them hit the target now. It works surprisingly well. They were meant to replicate the caterpillar. I may replace it with 1 captive ball and 5 drop targets with the letters AEIOU on them. Thank you for the feedback

 

I added the teacups to the top of the bumpers. They spin when you hit the handles on the left wire ramp, and they bounce up and down when you hit the corresponding bumper.

 

Edited by Fusionwerks, 07 September 2023 - 12:42 AM.

[Fusionwerks]

A few updates...
I got most of the script cleaned up and the modes working.

Added 75% of the required insert lights.

Found out I need to remove the bottom target on both left and right target banks because you cannot hit them with a flipper! I'm thinking about using the slingshot hits to cycle the order of the lights instead, but haven't decided yet.

Fighting with the FlexDMD. It's all new to me, and I just don't know enough about it yet to be creative. Still looking for help of your interested.

That's all for now

[simbamame]

Count us in a tester, can also show case this on our channels as a WIP ( youtube & Facebook group ) we have over 9,200 members :-)

 

[Fusionwerks]

Count us in a tester, can also show case this on our channels as a WIP ( youtube & Facebook group ) we have over 9,200 members :-)

Yes please!

[wiesshund]

Fighting with the FlexDMD. It's all new to me, and I just don't know enough about it yet to be creative. Still looking for help of your interested.

 

 

You can use UltraDMD's API

FlexDMD will happily read UltraDMD code.

 

UltraDMD's API is a lot more limiting though.

 

I still have not had time to actually sit down and learn FlexDMD's API properly, but it allows for a magnitude more possibilities

 

Get the table Star Wars Bounty Hunter
It is all flexDMD, and has a lot of examples on displaying different things

Also the flexDMD demo table is useful as well.

 

Not sure on the method you wish to use for the DMD..

[Fusionwerks]

So I've made some good progress since having an error stop me dead in my tracks. I have got all the modes, multiballs, and jackpots working. I have all the lights drawn in on the playfield art, but still lack other artwork. (I'm waiting to be certain of the light layout first) I am also working on some new ideas about a mini playfield and having the ball "shrink" like Alice did in the movie. It will be part of the lock I believe, haven't decided yet. I am also reworking the clear plastic ramps in blender. I will post some pics tomorrow, just wanted to update anyone who may care.

Edited by Fusionwerks, 18 September 2023 - 04:02 AM.

[Fusionwerks]

ok, so here i go with the stupid questions as i promised...

Im struggling with the logic on a mode.

it is a "follow the lights" in a specific order type of mode: if you look at my initial post and look at the screenshot you will see the 2 orbit switches

sw8 is the left orbit, and sw7 is the right orbit. There are no gates to close between them.

how do i prevent sw8 from being triggered when sw7 is the required next hit? (and vice versa)

I know the "LastSwitchHit" method, but i do not know when it is "regestered". When you hit a switch, does it count it for THAT hit and do whatever is in the switch_hit sub, or does it just log it for next hit event? Or does it matter where the LastSwitchHit command is written into the sub? (meaning before or after the If/then statements)

I have rearranged the order and cant seem to make it work logically.

 

Basically how do I prevent one switch from being triggered from a backwards orbit shot

[jpsalas]

I always use to set the variable "LastSwitchHit" at the end of a trigger sub.

If another trigger is hit I can check from where come the ball comes from by reading that "LastSwitchHit".

This way I can award combos, loops, or I can prevent something from happening if I do not want it to trigger.

 

So it is up to you what you want to do. The way I use that variable is to know what was the last trigger or target the ball has hit.

[Fusionwerks]

ok, so i have removed all of my garbage coding from the sub below. How then would you write this sub to prevent the ball from triggering the switch (sw8) if it came from the opposite direction in the orbit? in other words, if this switch is on the left orbit, and you hit the ball around through the orbit from the right? It would travel over sw7 to get there. It is the "follow the lights" mode (in specific order) It would need to be that way for the jackpot portion of the sub also so you dont collect both jackpots on one pass through the orbit.

 

Here is the original script:

 

Sub sw8_Hit

    DOF 130, DOFPulse

    PlaySoundAtBall "fx_sensor"

    If Tilted Then Exit Sub

    LaneBonus = LaneBonus + 1

    If(bJackpot = True)AND(light41.State = 2)Then

        light41.State = 0

        AwardJackpot

    End If

    Select Case Battle(CurrentPlayer, 0)

        Case 1

            If Light014.State = 2 Then

                Light033.State = 2

                Light014.State = 0

                Addscore 100000

                CheckWinBattle

End If

    End Select

    LastSwitchHit = "sw8"

End Sub

[wiesshund]

dim ignore

sub switchsummy_hit

dim ignore =1

end sub

 

Sub sw8_Hit

If dummy=1 then

dummy = 0

exit sub

 

Else

 

DOF 130, DOFPulse

    PlaySoundAtBall "fx_sensor"

    If Tilted Then Exit Sub

    LaneBonus = LaneBonus + 1

    If(bJackpot = True)AND(light41.State = 2)Then

        light41.State = 0

        AwardJackpot

    End If

    Select Case Battle(CurrentPlayer, 0)

        Case 1

            If Light014.State = 2 Then

                Light033.State = 2

                Light014.State = 0

                Addscore 100000

                CheckWinBattle

End If

    End Select

    LastSwitchHit = "sw8"

 

 

End If

End Sub

 

 

 

End sub

then put summyswitch in front of  sw8

[Fusionwerks]

This could work. I've thought about using a separate trigger before the switches, but I figured there was a way to write it into the sub itself. I will try this if I cant figure it out. Thank you.

[wiesshund]

This could work. I've thought about using a separate trigger before the switches, but I figured there was a way to write it into the sub itself. I will try this if I cant figure it out. Thank you.

there is a way to check ball direction
but i think it is a lot more complicated and prone to failure.

 

there are real tables that have this feature

and they just use switches

Edited by wiesshund, 19 September 2023 - 03:21 AM.

[Fusionwerks]

ok, I have been messing with it, and I just cant get the "last switch hit method" to work WITHIN the switches sub, so I may have to go with the invisible trigger in front of the switch.

 

another question. can you create a kicker that destroys a ball and creates one (OR resizes the existing one) BUT kicks it out at the same velocity it went in? I am reworking my left ramp to go behind the backdrop. Behind there I would like to place the kicker. I would like it to give the illusion that it never stopped back there. This is to give me the opportunity to shrink the ball (maybe change color or decal), and to divert to a mini upper playfield, or let it pass through (full size) back down to the inlanes. 

 

I should say I already have the logic to do the transition from big to small, I'm only looking for the method of determining the incoming velocity and how to translate that to the outgoing velocity.

 

update: nevermind, I guess I really don't need to do that. I found the answer in JP's Pokémon table. The ball goes in, over a trigger before the kicker, and enables/disables the kicker. If I want to divert to the playfield I will destroy/create small ball at the kicker and drop it onto the mini playfield, otherwise the big ball just cruises on through.. sometimes I get stuck on the simple things!

Edited by Fusionwerks, 19 September 2023 - 07:49 PM.

[wiesshund]

kicker_hit
kicker.destroyball (i think, check file new example table and look at the drain)

kicker.createball (you can see plunger does this in example table)

kicker kick (kick args)

 

Now as far as the ball size change

you could try, before creating the new ball, changing the ball size

but i am not 100% sure the ball will change size post table rendering?

 

You can try it though

 

Yes you can change ball color

if you look at heavy metal
the glowball routine changes ball textures when changeball is called

you could get the commands out of that

 

If you can not actually shrink the ball once the table has loaded

you can always do it by illusion

 

do a lower playfield instead, and set it down lower than normal

ball will appear smaller due to distance

and you can of course oversize the playfield objects to add to the illusion

 

Maybe you could have the main playfield appear to open like a book?

large transparent area of playfield

put a non collidable simple rectangle prim just a hair under playfield

put a book like texture on it, as well as your bonus lights etc.

have the prim tilt open when lower goes active

(or maybe lke a trap door?)

and just set the insert lamps in the areas as lampname.visible = 0 when the door opens

 

just an idea

 

JP will probably know if you can shrink a ball or not

[Fusionwerks]

yes you can change the ball size post rendering. here is the sub that is going to handle the ball change. I have them called KickerIn and KickerOut for now. 

Sub KickerIn_Hit()

    KickerIn.Enabled = False

KickerIn.DestroyBall

KickerOut.CreateSizedBallWithMass BallSize / 4, BallMass

    vpmtimer.addtimer 1000, "KickerOut.kick 270,40 '"

CloseDoor

End Sub

 

The " /4 " divides the ball into half size. 

 

i like the idea about the book, this might change everything...

Edited by Fusionwerks, 19 September 2023 - 09:17 PM.

[wiesshund]

cool i wasnt sure on the ball as i never tried resizing one

 

didn't mean to derail your idea.

 

you can do a lot of easy things to suddenly have a big opening in the playfield

without having a forever window and losing your inserts and graphics in the center

 

a big drop wall also works

non collidable of course

shame you cannot modify drop wall speed, would add a litttle drama

 

that would be kind of neat?

do a big jagged hole in the playfield
apply the part that was cut out as the image for the wall top.

drop wall below the lower adventure playfield.

 

could probably even do an effect with a flasher, using same image.

link flasher to a lamp, with a high brightness and a slow fade out, fast ramp up and set to incandescent 

put flasher on top of wall.

pulse lamp, which will light the linked flasher

adjust flasher so it appears to overly saturate the area of playfield that is going bye bye

flasher fades with lamp and the drop wall is already gone.

 

so basically part of main playfield appears to suddenly light up and then fade into thin air.

 

maybe toy with the idea on a dummy table just to see what can be done with it

 

might be fun

 

a twist on going down the rabbit hole?

 

Maybe you could do an upper playfield too?

 

Maybe the red queen plays there LOL

[Gravy]

Looking good. I remember there is a mini pinball in Family Guy table for Stewie's mini playfield. Also likely on Shrek as it shares the same playfield I think.

Edited by Gravy, 20 September 2023 - 01:25 AM.

[Fusionwerks]

That all sounds awesome, but I think that all seems way over my pay grade. I'm kind of still tearing things apart to see how they work. I know how to do a lot of things, but for some reason the lights, flashers, etc always screw me up. I can never seem to be happy.
Maybe I can recruit you to help figure out a special effect I'm trying to create? I want to keep it DL for now, but If your interested PM me, I'll explain what I'm trying to do.

Looking good. I remember there is a mini pinball in Family Guy table for Stewie's mini playfield. Also likely on Shrek as it shares the same playfield I think.

It's funny you say that because my wife and I were playing family guy the other night when we came up with the idea of adding in a mini playfield. It's going to be the "eat me/drink me" part of the game and shrink the ball to play the mini