369 replies to this topic

[kruge99]

Todd,
Thanks, but I can't take credit for this. I am only copying what JPSalas has done. Ramps alway drive me crazy figuring out the heights (I worked on Viper Night Drivin' for quite a while because I kept having a problem like you did. I don't remember how long it took me to finally figure out that various heights needed so that two overlapping ramps didn't cause the ball to stop). Also, I did cheat a bit in that I looked at the various heights that the previous ID table uses.

Understood. Still, I wanted to congratulate you anyways for putting what pro's like JP do into words with step by step screen-shots for us n00bs to learn from. I've tried to take apart some tables to learn how things are done, but it can be a very daunting task with so many elements being put into the newer tables.

I had a couple of hours last night to build the ramp and then copy it into my ID4 WIP. Here's a screeny:



I used a kicker to drop a ball all the way around onto the plastic ramp above the new wired one to make sure the ball would clear the ramp that crosses above the new ramp. At first the ball got stuck so I had to raise the bottom height of the higher ramp and now it clears properly.


Best Regards,
Todd.

p.s. I'll try to build one of the other wire ramps this weekend if I can find some time.

[wtiger]

Todd,
Thanks for your kind words! Your WIP screenshot looks great. I'll try to post this weekend the finishing up of the ramp (going form where we left off to meet up with the end of the transparent ramp as well as adding the half wire rings).

[wtiger]

Part 3

To finish the upper end of the ramp we need to repeat the same process we did to build the main portion of the ramp. First we will add our invisible floor ramp. We will want this ramp to line up exactly where the ramp currently ends, so click on the current invisible ramp to select it, then click on the end control point and write down the X and Y coordinates




Now add a ramp object to the table near where we want it to go:




Move the top control point where it needs to go. Now select the bottom control point and plug in the X and Y values you wrote down so that it will line up exactly where the previous ramp ends:




Now we need to change the ramp properties so that it matches the previous ramp. Change the top and bottom width to 55, uncheck Cast Shadows and Visible. One thing that is different from the previous ramp will be the top and bottom height. The reason we had to break this ramp up into two pieces was to make sure that we had enough clearance over the ramp that is below. A height of 118 will do that (the ramp below there this ramp crosses over has a height of 54. As per Destruk, ramps should be separated by about 60 VP units, so 54+60=114. Using 118 will give us a few extra points for comfort – plus that’s the height we used for our transparent ramp that we are connecting to). Change the top and bottom height to 118:




Now make the next set of ramps (the bottom set) the same way as before. Copy and paste the invisible ramp, then change the top and bottom widths to 8. Uncheck the Collidable, check the Casts Shadow and Visible, change the R, G, and B color values (45, 51, 51), change the Mode to ImageModeWrap, use the Metal_wire image. Change the Left and Right Visible Walls to 0. Now change the top and bottom height to 128:




Now move the bottom control point into position by getting the X and Y value of the end of the ramp we want it to line up with:




Manually move the end point to where it needs to go:




Now copy and paste this ramp. Change the top and bottom height to 122, change the Left and Right Visible Walls to 6, and select none for the image:




Now repeat for the right side:




Now copy and paste one of the ramps we just made that has uses the Metal_wire image. Move it to line up at the bottom part of our ramp assembly. We want the end to flare out to match the guide we are using, so add a control point and then move the end point out. Change the top and bottom height to 158:




Copy and paste this ramp. Change the top and bottom height to 152. Select none for the image and change the Left and Right Visible Walls to 6.

Now repeat for the other side:




Your ramp should now look like this:




Part 4 will add the half rings, add an invisible wall with elasticity of zero as Destruk suggested, and match up to our invisible ramp (or rather align the invisible ramp o our metal ramp since that will be easier).

[kruge99]

Thanks wtiger! cranked out the top part of the wire ramp during lunch at work today:




Best Regards,
Todd.

p.s. no pressure, but what are the chances of this being released before the New Year?

[TheMcD]

p.s. no pressure, but what are the chances of this being released before the New Year?

You want my opinion? Prolly about 5% or less. There's NO scripting in this table so far, I doubt that will be finished in a few weeks.

Table's lookin' good so far.

The McD

[wtiger]

p.s. no pressure, but what are the chances of this being released before the New Year?

You want my opinion? Prolly about 5% or less. There's NO scripting in this table so far, I doubt that will be finished in a few weeks.

Table's lookin' good so far.

The McD

Todd,
No pressure here for me. I will work on it as my time permits. I do have from Christmas to New Years off of work, so I plan on working on things quit a bit then. Also, it all depends on how much time you have to do all the necessary things.

I think The McD is correct. There are still lots of things that need to be done still. After the first wire ramp is done, the second one needs to be built. After that, there is the whole playfield light task - figure out what font is used for the text on the lights, find some nice light insert image for the various shapes, make copies for the different colors, then place all of them on the table with the text and make an on and off image). Once all that is done, there is the scripting. There is also bug fixes where things may not work properly and need adjustments (ramps, places the ball gets stuck).

[kruge99]

Thanks for the explainations. Even though I released a VP9 version of Stern Galaxy, it's not as good as it could be, and I hope to release an update in the future with more graphical improvements after we finish ID4. I really appreciate the effort put forth here to teach VP/VPM recreation at this level of detail!! Please keep the tutorials coming!!


Best Regards,
Todd.

[wtiger]

Please keep the tutorials coming!!

You got it! I have Friday off (except my wife and I need to do a little shopping). I hope to post some more sometime this weekend.

[wtiger]

Part 4

Let’s add the ramp half rings and finish it up. If you haven’t already imported the HalvRing.bmp, go ahead and import it by going to the Table menu then selecting Image Manager. When you import the image, make sure you have the transparency set to 0 for Red, Blue, and Green.




The bottom portion of our ramp has three half rings in the following locations:




Add a target to the table near where the lower half ring goes. Un-check Top Visible, change the Side Image to HalvRing. Un-check Cast Shadows, Animate Slingshot, and Collidable. Set the bottom height to 60 and the top height to 100 (we use 60 for the value since our invisible floor ramp height at this point is 60. We use 100 for the top to make it 40 units high).




Now delete the upper left control point of our target object. Move the upper right point over to the center, then move it down close to the line between the left and right control points. Now move the whole object into position and move the left and right control points out to the edge of our invisible flat floor ramp. You will need to zoom in a couple times so that it’s easy to grab the object to move it.




Now make a copy of our ring object, paste it, and move it up into it’s position. I don’t think we need to change the bottom/top height or it’s rotation:




Now make a copy of this ring and move it up close to where the third ring goes:




Right click on the object and rotate it by -35 degrees then move it to the proper location. Change the bottom height to 85 and the top height to 125:




That’s it for the bottom part. Now for the top part there are also three rings that need to be added:




Make a copy of the last ring we added and translate it by X offset -400 and Y offset -300. This will put it in the approximate position we need it for the first ring of the upper part. Now rotate it by -12 and move it into position:




Change the bottom height to 118 (to match our invisible floor ramp height) and change the top height to 158 making our ring 40 units high.

Make two copies of the ring and move them into position to complete the upper part. When done it should look like this:




Let’s add a bit more realism to the bottom where the ramp is attached to the right slingshot. Using what you learned above, add a ramp with top and bottom height of 60 that has the metal wire image and another ramp of top and bottom height 54 with no image but color black. Make it in the following shape:




Now we need to add an invisible wall with bottom height of 60 and top height of 110 and elasticity of 0. This wall is needed at the lower end of our ramp to stop the ball and let it drop back to the playfield. It doesn’t have to look pretty since you will be turning the top and side visibility off. Just make sure that it is stays outside of the round opening at the end:




I think we are done with our ramp. Now click on the Select tool and make a rectangle around all the ramp objects. When done, hit CTRL-C to copy. Switch over to your ID table, or load it in if not already loaded. Make sure that you have imported the Metal Wire and HalvRing images and to set the transparency for the HalvRing image to black. Now hit CTRL-V to paste everything in.

The upper end of our wire ramp and the end of the transparent ramp need to meet. They probably look like the following image. Click on the invisible floor ramp of our wire ramp and then click on the very end control point:




Write down the X and Y values then select the transparent ramp then click on its end control point and make it match the same X and Y values that you wrote down. You will then need to adjust the next control point up so that the end of the transparent ramp matches the same angle ad the end of the wire invisible floor ramp:




Your table should now look like this:

[kruge99]

Dang! I was so busy on Sunday re-learning how to re-drawing a playfield that I missed this! I hope I have time at lunch today to catch up!


Best Regards,
Todd.

[kruge99]

Just adding that I am caught up now and posting a screeny, but the half rings barely show up. I double checked everything, but I maybe missed something. Any suggestions?





Best Regards,
Todd

[robert kundrat]

I can't see nothing on your picture. I don't know.
Check this example. Export my image, and try with that one.
Another alternative: Maybe you miss something in the wall shaping process.
Make new wall (target) to the halfring. Sometimes strange things happened.

 half_ring.rar   264.39KB   10 downloads

[wtiger]

I don't know either. I had it do some strange things too. When I was first adding them to my table for the tutorial, they were only coming up all black. I deleted them, recreated them and still nothing but a black square. I finally loaded in JP's AFM table and copied one from his table and pasted it into my ID table and it displayed properly. I then created a new one from stratch and guess what, now it worked like it's supposed to. It had me puzzled.

[wtiger]

I've spent the last couple days sorting through my thousands of thousands of JPG pictures recovered using DiskInternals NTFS recovery after losing a couple of my partitions a few months ago. I've come across some pictures I didn't remember that I had (a nice Stargate stripped playield, and a 5,629 x 10,902 Viper Night Drivin stripped playfield to name a few). I plan on posting the next ramp build (and possibly the VUK) over the weekend of early next week. I have all next week off work, but I have a few projects that need to be done around the house as well. Stay tuned...

[wtiger]

Sorry everyone. I had to babysit my nephews on Sunday, and early Monday morning I apparently came down with something like the 24 hour flu). I'm better today but feel pretty weak. I had enough energy at first to log on to this website and read through the new posts, but I'm feeling pretty lousy now and need to go rest. Hopefully I'll feel well enough in a day or so to pick up on the next ramp.

[kruge99]

Sorry everyone. I had to babysit my nephews on Sunday, and early Monday morning I apparently came down with something like the 24 hour flu). I'm better today but feel pretty weak. I had enough energy at first to log on to this website and read through the new posts, but I'm feeling pretty lousy now and need to go rest. Hopefully I'll feel well enough in a day or so to pick up on the next ramp.

No worries!! Get some rest and get well!!


Best Regards,
Todd.

[destruk]

I've spent the last couple days sorting through my thousands of thousands of JPG pictures recovered using DiskInternals NTFS recovery after losing a couple of my partitions a few months ago. I've come across some pictures I didn't remember that I had (a nice Stargate stripped playield, and a 5,629 x 10,902 Viper Night Drivin stripped playfield to name a few). I plan on posting the next ramp build (and possibly the VUK) over the weekend of early next week. I have all next week off work, but I have a few projects that need to be done around the house as well. Stay tuned...

Awesome! When you have time could you upload those stripped playfields? They're higher res than what is here now.

[wtiger]

Awesome! When you have time could you upload those stripped playfields? They're higher res than what is here now.

Stargate was posted a few days ago, I just uploaded Viper Night Drivin.

[kruge99]

Hey wtiger, I figured out why my "Halve Rings" did not appear properly! I did not set the "Auto Texture Coord." setting properly after creating the the triangle shape used to hold the image. Here are two screenshots I took which show the proper setting.

The first picture shows the texture coord for the left point, and the second picture shows the texture coord for the right point. Notice that the Auto Texture Coord. setting needs to be disabled for these two points only, the third remaining point needs to have the Auto Texture Coord. setting enabled.


Best Regards,
Todd.

Attached Files

•  JP_rings_help_01.jpg   221.05KB   27 downloads
•  JP_rings_help_02.jpg   220.59KB   29 downloads

[wtiger]

Hey wtiger, I figured out why my "Halve Rings" did not appear properly! I did not set the "Auto Texture Coord." setting properly after creating the the triangle shape used to hold the image. Here are two screenshots I took which show the proper setting.

The first picture shows the texture coord for the left point, and the second picture shows the texture coord for the right point. Notice that the Auto Texture Coord. setting needs to be disabled for these two points only, the third remaining point needs to have the Auto Texture Coord. setting enabled.


Best Regards,
Todd.

Todd, glad you figured it out. It took me quite a while to figure this out several years ago and drove me nuts. If you build the triangle object by using a target object, those settings will automatically be set properly.