369 replies to this topic

[Wizards_Hat]

Wow, Gary, you really are putting together an AWESOME tutorial.

KUDOS! .... BIG KUDOS!!!

I'll second that - I just wish I'd carried on with this (I did start following/building along at the start), I just didn't have the time (or patience!).
However I have read it all the way, and it's brilliant that you've done so much with it - I (& I'm sure plenty of others) have learned loads.

Thanks,
Dan.

[wtiger]

Wow, Gary, you really are putting together an AWESOME tutorial.

KUDOS! .... BIG KUDOS!!!

I'll second that - I just wish I'd carried on with this (I did start following/building along at the start), I just didn't have the time (or patience!).
However I have read it all the way, and it's brilliant that you've done so much with it - I (& I'm sure plenty of others) have learned loads.

Thanks,
Dan.

Thanks guys! I may not have the best ideas or ways of doing things (or most of the time have copied ways from other authors), but hopefully as you mentioned people can learn from it and build on it themselves. We have two lights left for the playfield. I probably won't be able to do those today, so they will have to wait until next weekend. I will probably also ask for some help in getting the kinks out of all the ramps as they don't function too well at the moment.

[kruge99]

Wow, Gary, you really are putting together an AWESOME tutorial.

KUDOS! .... BIG KUDOS!!!

I'll second that - I just wish I'd carried on with this (I did start following/building along at the start), I just didn't have the time (or patience!).
However I have read it all the way, and it's brilliant that you've done so much with it - I (& I'm sure plenty of others) have learned loads.

Thanks,
Dan.

Thanks guys! I may not have the best ideas or ways of doing things (or most of the time have copied ways from other authors), but hopefully as you mentioned people can learn from it and build on it themselves. We have two lights left for the playfield. I probably won't be able to do those today, so they will have to wait until next weekend. I will probably also ask for some help in getting the kinks out of all the ramps as they don't function too well at the moment.

I don't know what happened to my post, it said pretty much the same as Noah and Dan, great work Gary! I'll be using everything I learned here when I start to build High Speed once I finish redrawing the playfield.


Best Regards,
Todd.

[wtiger]

Light 32 – RUSSELL

Click on the following image to enlarge it then save it on your hard disk and then load it into The Gimp:




Use the Shear tool to skew it. Use a value of -60




Save the file as RUSSELL-Shear.jpg

Start up Inkscape and Import this new image in and trace the bitmap. Delete the image so you are left with just the traced path. Select the path and break it apart. Fix the letter R to cut out the white part (select both paths that make up the R and perform a Path, Difference).




Let’s make the letters a little thicker.

Make a selection around all the letters and then go to the Object menu and select Fill and Stroke:




Click on the Stroke Paint tab and then select the Flat Color button.




Now click on the Stroke Style tab and enter 6 for the Width:




Now save your file as RUSSELL.svg


Switch back over to The Gimp and load in your Playfield image. Now load in your RUSSELL.svg as a new image then make a rectangle selection around it and copy it and paste it into your playfield as a new layer. Rename the layer Light 32 Text:




Now scale it down to size:




Now rotate it to match the existing text:




Hide the layer and then select your main playfield layer:





Now use the Free Select tool to make a path of the current light insert and cut it out:




Make a duplicate of the layer Light33 and rename the copy to Light32. Move the image into position and rotate it as necessary (Make sure you de-select your path you just cut out before you perform the rotate on the new insert image). Move the Light32 layer into it’s proper order in the layer area:




Now move the Layer32 Text layer into order and turn it back on:

[wtiger]

The last light…

Our final light is light16. I used a computer font called Bitwise to make the lettering. You can search for this font using Google, use a similar font, or download the image below (click to enlarge before saving):



Next load the image into Inkscape and trace the bitmap, then delete the image object so you are just left with the vector object. Break the object apart and fix the A, O, P, and R letters:




Now we need to center the words. Make a rectangle selection around the word INITIATE and then perform an Object, Group to group the letters together. Do the same for COMPUTER and VIRUS so that you now have three objects. Make a selection around all three objects and perform an Object, Align and Distribute. Select the Center Horizontal button:




Ungroup all three objects and check and see if you have some large blank objects (I had one at the bottom of each line of text). Delete these blank objects. Now make a selection around the objects and click on the white color box towards the bottom of the screen to make the text white. Save your file as Initiate.svg.

Switch over to The Gimp and load your playfield in. Load in the Initiate.svg file and copy it and paste it into your playfield image as a new layer and start scaling it down:




Continue to scale it down and then rotate it to match the existing text of the light insert:




Rename the layer Light16 Text. Now download the following image and copy then paste it into your playfield image as a new layer (click image to enlarge before saving):




Rename the layer Light16:




Make your main playfield layer active and cut out the rectangle portion of the light we don’t want:




Now move the Light16 layer into position, rotate it then move the layer (along with the Light16 Text layer) into sequential order in the layer list:




We are now done with the lights!

Save your playfield file. Now we need to save four copies in .jpg format with the different transparency percentage layers on or off.

Save a copy just as things are and name it Playfield-On.jpg. Click on the 50% layer to turn it on. Now save a file as Playfield-Off.jpg. Unclick the 50% layer to turn it back off and click on the 15% layer to turn it on and save a file as Playfield-A.jpg. Click on the 15% to turn it back off and then click on the 30% layer to turn it on. Save a file as Playfield-B.jpg.

NOTE: When the message comes up about exporting the image, go ahead and export it.

[kruge99]

We are now done with the lights!

Save your playfield file. Now we need to save four copies in .jpg format with the different transparency percentage layers on or off.

Save a copy just as things are and name it Playfield-On.jpg. Click on the 50% layer to turn it on. Now save a file as Playfield-Off.jpg. Unclick the 50% layer to turn it back off and click on the 15% layer to turn it on and save a file as Playfield-A.jpg. Click on the 15% to turn it back off and then click on the 30% layer to turn it on. Save a file as Playfield-B.jpg.

NOTE: When the message comes up about exporting the image, go ahead and export it.

I had a quick peek back at the other pages... when was this part about the 4 images & transparency discussed? Maybe I'm just having a brain cramp and missed seeing the relevant post?

Never Mind: I was scrolling too fast - I found the info back around page 15 I believe. Sorry I was anxious and overlooked it the first time.


Best Regards,
Todd.

[wtiger]

Well, I had hoped to do a little more here this past weekend, but I ended up being sick for the past whole week! My plan was to take a look at Nealtron's ID4 table and see what heights he used for his ramps since the ramps I had you make here don't work (ramps always give me quite a bit of trouble). I'm assuming this is the way to go (fix the ramps first and then get into the scripting). Does this make sense, or should we worry about the ramps later and dive into scripting (well, I don't think dive is the right word as I barely know enough to get things to working). Let me know your thoughts.

[kruge99]

Well, I had hoped to do a little more here this past weekend, but I ended up being sick for the past whole week! My plan was to take a look at Nealtron's ID4 table and see what heights he used for his ramps since the ramps I had you make here don't work (ramps always give me quite a bit of trouble). I'm assuming this is the way to go (fix the ramps first and then get into the scripting). Does this make sense, or should we worry about the ramps later and dive into scripting (well, I don't think dive is the right word as I barely know enough to get things to working). Let me know your thoughts.

Personally, with High Speed, I'm going with the scripting last. In my humble opinion, the last thing I want is the script breaking if I have to rip something out of the table and rebuild it.


Best Regards,
Todd.

[wtiger]

Ok, I've spent a bit of time today mapping out the ramps and comparing my ramps with the ramps from Nealtron's table. The ramps I had you make are too steep in the beginning part so the ball is having trouble getting on them and completing them all the way around. I think I have "tweaked" them enough so that they are now working a lot better. I will be doing some more testing today and then hopefully will post the fixes tomorrow.

[kruge99]

w00t! I had a couple of helper kickers I was using in the mean time! Thanks!


Best Regards,
Todd.

[wtiger]

Fixing the ramps

As you have probably figured out the ramps don’t work all that well. This is due to being too steep of an angle. To fix this we need to change them so the ball can travel up them without quite as much speed. We’ll start out with the middle ramp since this is one is the lowest.

This ramp currently consists of two ramps. I’ve outlined them in red:




Currently the first section goes from bottom height 0 to top height 60. We can get away with changing the top height to 50 which will make that part a little less steep. The second and last section currently goes from bottom height 60 to top height 60. Go ahead and change the bottom height to 50 which will match up with the end of the first section and change the top height also to 50.

Also, download the following image and set the first section to use it. Change the mode to ImageModeWrap and also uncheck Acrylic.




Now to prevent the ball from flying off the ramp at the beginning, change the two wall images (the ones that represent out objects for the plastics) selected in the following image and set the bottom height to 0 and the top height to 40:




Fix the end points of the right plastic wall object so that it ends before the standup targets:

Before:




After:




Note: I also move the left target to the left a bit.


For the second ramp (the far right ramp), change the first section to a top height of 45:




Delete the second section of the ramp




Now make the bottom of the next section match the end of the first section. Change the bottom height to 45 and the top height to 100:




For the next section, change both the bottom and top height to 100. Make sure your gate object on top of this ramp piece is set to the surface name of the ramp section name. I noticed that my ramp section was named Ramp7 but my gate object had it’s surface set to Ramp1. They need to match. Next set the wall object to the left of this ramp section to a top height of 100 and bottom of 99. Lastly set the half round ramp object that runs on the outside of the wall object to top and bottom height of 125 (basically we subtracted 18 from the height since that’s how much we reduced the ramp section by).




Now for the last section set the bottom height to 100 and the top height to 125





Now fix the piece that joins the end to bottom and top height 125




On to the last ramp on the left. First change the top and bottom height of the plastic wall object to bottom height 0 top height of 35




Also change all the wall objects around this area to the same top and bottom height as well:




Next adjust the first section of the ramp by moving the bottom control point up a bit. Set the top height to 38. For the black ramp flap, copy the objects from one of the other ramps and reshape as necessary.




Change the next ramp section to bottom height 38, top height 65.




Change the next ramp section to bottom height 65, top height 118




Finally change the next section bottom height to 118.




One more thing. Here’s a new image to use for the first part of the second and third ramps:




Hopefully all of the above makes sense and the ramps work better now. Thanks go out to Nealtron as I too a look at how he did things and based a good part of my fixes on how he did things.

Please let me know either way if this fixes things or whether you still have problems.

[wtiger]

Hopefully everyone's ramps are working much better now. In preparation for the start of scripting I'd suggest you read Destruk's Scripting 101 which can be found here:

http://www.vpforums....?showtopic=4261


Here's the link for all of the series:

http://www.vpforums....hp?showforum=27


Hopefully I will have some time this weekend to work on things.

[faralos]

um...ok. i read all it, and most of it does not make real sense to me. maybe after I take a look at the demo txt, I'll understand ita bit better. I guess i will wait for a tutorial from you on how to go about scripting in a rom pack. An hour huh? I wish! my originals take by far at least 2 weeks for all the testing and coding to go in! I'd love to be able to write in a rom pack table in under 2 hours! Looking at older rom pin scripting I though you guys wrote all that and it looked like it took weeks! if there are shortcuts for getting the rom coding in, then I am all for it! ireally do want to try my hand at converting some older vp8 pins into vp9 but am lost with this rom pack stuff! originals only take me so far! i have already upgraded to Anthias's table skeleton as it has so much more in it than mine! he uses skill shots, bonus routines, and tilt, Tilt is something that always eluded me with its coding! but it's in my current wip since it's his template. Now that i am beginning to 'get' the coding, I think I am ready to take this next step. Someone mentioned earlier that the Haunted House pin should be redone with vp9! well... in about 1-2 months i will volunteer as I love that pin and also work only in vp9, now, so i was thinking... (could be a bad thing, my thinking...!)

[wtiger]

Spent today adding VPinmame to the table so I can write it up and post. That went fine so I thought we'd then do the fading lights lights so at least the table will do something. I've never done fading lights before so I found PD's fading light system v5.5. Spent a couple hours trying to figure things out and so far no luck. I have a little bit more time tonight then I won't be able to continue until tomorrow afternoon.

[wtiger]

Ok, I figured out why things weren't working (sort of). I didn't have the right bottom and top heights for the walls. Changed that and I was able to get a light working. I then added a few more lights, but only the first one works and none of the other ones I added light up. I'll have to experiement some more tomorrow.

[wtiger]

I only had about a half hour on Sunday to experiment and I believe I was able to get all three lights I added to the table to work (I'm not 100% sure what I did so I will need to do more experimenting/testing). I don't know how much time I will have this weekend, but *hopefully* I will get things sorted out and post a "how-to".

[kruge99]

No Sweat Man! Take your time.


Best Regards,
Todd.

[wtiger]

Adding the script

As previously stated, if you haven’t read Destruk’s Scripting 101 then do so now. He goes into details on what is required to hook Visual PinMAME up to a table so I won’t be repeating a lot of the information.

The first thing we need to do is add the PinMAMETimer object to our table.

Click on the Timer button on the left side of the screen and add a timer object to the upper right side of your table. In the name field change the name from Timer1 to PinMAMETimer.




Add a second timer object below the one you just created. Change the name of this new one to PulseTimer and change the Timer Interval to 40.




Now we need to open up the script editor by clicking on the Script icon. This will open up a new window with the default new table script. Highlight all the text and delete everything.

Copy the following text code and paste it into your blank script window (refer to Destruk’s post for full explanations).

CODE

Option Explicit  'Enforces the rule that all variables must be declared before use
Const cGameName="id4" 'Romset name Visual PinMAME will use  
Const UseSolenoids=1  'Whether to use the default routine for solenoids or not.  1 = Yes  
Const UseLamps=0      'Whether to use the default routine for lights or not.  0 = No  
Const UseGI=0         'Whether to use the default routine for General Illumination.  0 = No

' Standard Sounds  
Const SSolenoidOn = "Solenoid"    'Sound to play when the Solenoid activates  
Const SSolenoidOff = ""           'Sound to play when the Solenoid deactivates  
Const SFlipperOn = "FlipperUp"    'Sound to play when the Flipper activated  
Const SFlipperOff = "FlipperDown" 'Sound to play when the Flipper deactivated  
Const SCoin = "Coin"              'Sound to play when a Coin is inserted  Const cCredits=""

LoadVPM "01120100", "SEGA.VBS", 3.02    
Sub LoadVPM(VPMver, VBSfile, VBSver)      On Error Resume Next          
If ScriptEngineMajorVersion < 5 Then MsgBox "VB Script Engine 5.0 or higher required"          
ExecuteGlobal GetTextFile(VBSFile)          
If Err Then MsgBox "Unable to open " & VBSfile & ". Ensure that it is in the same folder as this table. " & vbNewLine & Err.Description : Err.Clear          
Set Controller = CreateObject("VPinMAME.Controller")          
If Err Then MsgBox "Can't Load VPinMAME." & vbNewLine & Err.Description          
If VPMver>"" Then If Controller.Version < VPMver Or Err Then MsgBox "VPinMAME ver " & VPMver & " required." : Err.Clear
If VPinMAMEDriverVer < VBSver Or Err Then MsgBox VBSFile & " ver " & VBSver & " or higher required."      
On Error Goto 0  
End Sub    
Sub Table1_Init() 'The name of the table here must match the table name in the VP editor     
On Error Resume Next         
With Controller             
.GameName = cGameName             
If Err Then MsgBox "Can't Start Game" & cGameName & vbNewLine & Err.Description : Exit Sub             .SplashInfoLine     = "ID4"             
.HandleMechanics     = 0             
.HandleKeyboard     = 0             
.ShowDMDOnly         = 1             
.ShowFrame             = 1             
.ShowTitle             = 0             
.DoubleSize         = 0             
.Run             
If Err Then MsgBox Err.Description         
End With     
On Error Goto 0    
End Sub

Make sure you have the ID4 ROM file in your ROMs directory and if so go ahead and click on the play button. Visual PinMAME should initialize and you should then see your table with the DMD and the ROM running (you should also hear the music and see animations on the the DMD). Since all we added was enough to get the ROM running you won’t be able to do anything else with your table at this point.

Edited by wtiger, 25 September 2010 - 08:33 PM.

[wtiger]

Let there be light!

For the fading lights we’ll use PacDude’s Light System

I’m not going to even attempt to explain how his system works as that is way too far beyond my knowledge of VB Scripting!!

To start off make sure you have loaded the four light stage images made using The Gimp into your table (Playfield-A, Playfield-B, Playfield-off, and Playfield-on).

Download the zip attachment at the bottom of this post which is the script text for PD’s light system. Unzip it and load the .rtf file into Wordpad, copy all the text and then paste it at the end of your table script:




The next thing we need to do is to add another timer object to our table for the light system to work. Add a new timer object to the upper right (below the previous two timer objects). Change the name to Light Control and change the Timer Interval to 45.

Let’s start our first light with a simple round light. I chose light 46 which is kind of in the top center of the playfield:




Copy a circular wall object (I used one from the ramp nearby). Move it into the approximate position and scale it up until it covers the existing light area on the playfield. Change the name to Light46a, change the bottom height to -1 and the top height to .1. Uncheck cast shadows and uncheck side visible. Change the top image to Playfield-a. Lastly, under the State section uncheck Collidable and put a check in Can Drop. Click somewhere on your table where no objects are so that the changes made to this object will take effect.




Now, we need to make sure more copies of this wall object and change some things. Click on the light wall object and hit CTRL-C to copy it, then CTRL-V to paste a new object. Change the name to Light46b and then change the Top Image to Playfield-B:




Now do the same thing again but call the new object Light46off and change the Top image to Playfield-off.

Do it one more time calling the light just Light46, change the Top Image to Playfield-on, and change the top height to .2:




Now open up the script window and scroll down to about line 296 and add the following line:

FadeW 46, Light46a, Light46b, Light46





The way the light system works is that the off state of a light is always shown on the table. The routine then switches between the on, a, and b objects for the fade effect. The FadeW command tells the system that we are using wall objects (rather than a VP light object). The 46 after the FadeW tells the system what light number we are working with and then following that are the three object names that represent the a stage, the b stage, and finally the on stage.

Let’s do another light. This time we’ll do a non-circular one. Light 35 is just to the right of light 46. You can make a copy of one of the wall objects from light 46 and reshape it. Change the name to Light35a, make sure you select the Playfield-A for the top image and make sure the top height is .1:




Now do the same thing we did before for the Light35b, Light35off, and finally the Light35. Make sure you add the statement to the script:

FadeW 35, Light35a, Light35b, Light35


Now click on the play button and make sure it all works.

To add the rest of the lights you will need to refer to the ID4 manual for the various light numbers and positions (same as what was needed when making the light images in The Gimp).

Attached Files

•  PD_LightSystem_v5.5.zip   14.45KB   10 downloads

[wtiger]

I hope to have some time tomorrow to continue on this.