36 replies to this topic

[Shoopity]

Hmmm... as far as I know, there's only ever one "song" playing at a time in BPP.  I'll double check with Ben.

[Shoopity]

OK, newest version released.

6/27 update:

I added some music to the table just so there's no silence.  Currently these are waves in the main table so the table is unnecessarily fat; in the end, once I get the official music (if I get it), they will be separate MP3s.

 

Multiball is working; scoring not accurate, lights not accurate, still no sound, but the fact that you lock a ball, a new ball gets served (without decrementing total balls), you have to lock wives 1 and 2 first (if you hit wife three it kicks the ball back out and plays a sound to let you know; in the future it'll play a quote and give you certain "foreplay" bonus), when you lock all three you have three ball multiball (and losing balls doesn't decrement total balls).

 

Apollo 13 mode is in (though scoring isn't accurate); it advances the lights, plays some quotes (I pulled these myself since I'm still waiting on a sound pack from Ben; I don't know if he will or if he's just been busy).

 

Aliens mode is implemented (this seems to be a main mode of his, so I'm sure I don't have everything right); scoring is, I believe, accurate.  I haven't put in overtime mode (you complete the mode once, but you can keep getting the bonus until it runs out of bullets).  It's pretty hard to get this going since the flippers seem to have a hard time hitting up the middle.  You can manually start this mode by hitting N, B, V, and C (each one of those triggers the targets manually), at least then you get to see all the work I put into the stupid turrets.  Turrets randomly fire about every 3 seconds (either turret 1 or turret 2), then each burst is random from 3 to 33 bullets, once on turret runs out, the other turret will always fire.  No sounds as of yet.  I'm working on a pseudo DMD for simple animations.

 

Keys to manually do stuff:

N - Right Drop target toggle; B - Right/Center Drop Target toggle; V - Left/Center Drop Target Toggle; C - Left Drop Target toggle

M - hits Hamm's target (which triggers both a sound and the Hamm's can crusher) and triggers the Wheel-O-Fate (just spins the wheel, scoring isn't it, it's currently hard to see since I removed the graphic)

Edited by Shoopity, 23 July 2013 - 06:08 PM.

[Shoopity]

If anyone is still following, I've updated.  I THINK Aliens mode is done, Big Love mode is done, Apollo 13 mode is done, True Lies Mode might be done.  I'll make more notes later.  Just follow the link at the top of the original post for the latest table.

Edited by Shoopity, 23 July 2013 - 06:07 PM.

[Nemo]

If anyone is still following

 

Of course we are following 

 

Keep up the good work !

[Shoopity]

Thanks for the reply Nemo.  Actually I need a little help; should I start a new thread asking for it, or will posting here get enough attention?

 

I have a raised toy (right now it's just a floating wall for the floor and surrounding walls), the Titanic, with three holes in the "back".  In the real table, the holes just let the ball fall through, but you can't cut holes in walls in VP.  You either have to do some fancy wall designing or do some trigger coding.

 

The problem I having is that the ball correctly "drops" the first time the target is hit, but after that, it doesn't drop unless I shake the table and re-hit the target.

 

I decided to go the route of the trigger where the ball hits the trigger then sets its Z coordinate to be 98 (two units lower than the top of the wall).  I don't know if this is the issue, but it SEEMS to me like the unhit state is never triggered, so when the ball rolls over the trigger again, it never calls the hit routine.  So when I shake the table off the trigger, then it gets re-enabled?  I've tried disabling and re-enabling the trigger in the hit routine; I've tried calling trigger_unhit() (and then having the unhit routine not do anything).  Nothing seems to work.  Any help?

[faralos]

for an UNHIT to work within a trigger routine I code something into it

Example:

-NUMBER 1-

Sub trigger1_Hit()

Playsound"bam"

addscore 100

Light1.State=1

End Sub

-NUMBER 2-

Sub Trigger1_UnHit()

Light1.State=0

EndSub

 this means that when the trigger is hit that number one happens

 when it gets unhit that means when the ball rolls off of it

 number two happens that is the light turns off

I never coded a "UNHIT" that did nothing

 why even code it in then?

is this what you mean??

 

 

oh for a ball to pass thru a wall try making it uncollidable

 

 

 then the wall acts like it ain't solid

can you use that coding instead of an actual hole?

Attached Files

•  hits ands unhits.JPG   88.01KB   5 downloads

Edited by faralos, 09 July 2013 - 12:58 PM.

[Shoopity]

Currently this is my code:

 

 

Sub TitanicTrigger2_Hit()
  ActiveBall.Z = 98
  ActiveBall.VelY = 0
  ActiveBall.VelX = 0
  TitanicExit(2)
End Sub

I get the impression that moving the ball down through the wall never triggers the unhit state within the program of Visual Pinball, so the next time the ball hits the trigger, it's still in the hit state.  I think this might be a "bug" so I'm trying to find a way around it.  In fact, I just "verified" it; I programmed something for unhit (just play a sound), and it never played.  I'm wondering if there's a way to force the object (the trigger) into an unhit state (not just run the unhit routine).

 

I'll try quickly making the floor uncolliable then re-enabling it.  My other option would be to re-create the wall so there are actually holes; the above code works fine for the bottom ramps, but there is actually a hole there.  The problem with that option is that I might use a ramp instead of a wall; this is supposed to be like a maze where the ball randomly drops through one of three holes.  Right now it always drops through the bottom hole since the wall is at the mercy of the slope of the table (although Ben's diagrams show the maze having a normal slope, I've come across plenty of stuff telling me he's tweaked things on the real table without updating the source material); I'm thinking of making the floor a ramp so that I can counteract the slope and have it be level in which case I wouldn't be able to really put "holes" in the floor (unless I do some CRAZY wall design).

 

****EDIT****

I think I have a temporary work-around.  Using the standard trigger instead of a custom trigger seems to be OK.  It's still not ever becoming unhit (because if unhit runs, it's suppose to play a sound and it's not), but it still triggers every time it gets hit.

Edited by Shoopity, 09 July 2013 - 09:40 PM.

[Shoopity]

OK boys and girls, newest version is up.  I suppose I may as well call this an official Beta version.  ALL the sounds are in, but the music is out.  I haven't uploaded the music zip to Google Drive as of the time of this posting, but I'll upload it soon and put a link on the first post for it.

 

As always, if anyone wants to give any suggestions or if you come across any bugs, lemme know.  Also, it still seems like uploading tables and screenshots is a member thing and I don't make enough to justify membership (maybe some day).  If anyone is willing to upload the table to this site, they're more than welcome to take credit for the table, I'm not doing this for the recognition.

 

Current version (sort of like fortune cookies, end all statements with "As far as I know"):

All in-game sounds are in the table and 95% play correctly (still need sounds for Slingshots and sounds for Aliens Overtime Mode)

U-571 animation in

All modes and sub modes in and working... actually I think the last time I saved it I had it always picking U-571 mode, it's easy to change though and you can have the game manually pick a mode if you go to getmodesuggest

Scoring is about 80% ~ 90% correct

 

Some things left to do:

Put in the bonuses for completing a mode (the math is there, but at first I thought they were EoB bonuses when they actually occur in-game)

Some additional plastics (Torpedo Load on the right ramp, Sub Launch on left ramp for gate, gate graphics, surrounding Wheel-O-Fate)

Maybe do some DMD type animation stuff but I probably won't if I...

Possibly put in HyperDMD support.  Is there that much of a demand for it?

 

I'm checking with Mr. Heckendorn as there seem to be some bugs in the source code provided (it's probably not the most up-to-date) and some coding that doesn't totally fit with what I believe to be the intention.  E.G. It seems in U-571 mode, you have a short amount of time before the sub moves out of range, but after that the mode is still active; you have about 100 seconds before the sub completely leaves, but you only have about 24 seconds to "hit" it.  Missing the sub DOESN'T end the mode.  The sub doesn't move in and out of range, it simply comes into range at the beginning and slowly leaves.  You get 5,751,000 points for hitting the sub, and 1,000,000 for missing.  Seems to me you can get more points by missing the sub than by hitting it.  Or, there are a couple times when he checks for a mode state, but nowhere in the code is the mode ever set to that state.

Edited by Shoopity, 23 July 2013 - 08:53 PM.

[Slydog43]

great news, Love "The ben heck" show also

[Shoopity]

Not that they were coming that fast to begin with, but it's probably going to be awhile until another "official" update.  A) I'm going on vacation for a week, 2) I spoke with Ben last week for about 2 hours and during that time he sent me the most up-to-date code.  There are a lot of changes to basic game play. E.G. the bored suggestion only starts 3 possible modes, no more suggestions to start a regular mode and giving you a bonus for doing it, it only suggests modes that don't start any other way; U-571 mode starts with multiple ramps shots instead of randomly; loading a torpedo consists of hitting an oxygen tank, then the ramp.

 

I also tried working on HyperDMD support (once I wrapped my head around the work flow of that program), but I apparently have an error.  Any time I launch a table with HyperDMD, it launches, with the initial scene that's defined, but with an error saying it couldn't create the object and any further calls to it crashes the table.  It's this problem exactly, but that thread doesn't specify any fix (though I might just re-install my windows anyway, I think it's about time)

[Jose Sinclair]

since it's Bill Paxton, these are his quotes in Aliens:

 

"Yep, it's a bug hunt"

"AIn't you keeping up with current events, pal? We're getting our asses kicked!"

"THis ain't happenin, man!"

"We're in some purty sheet now! Game over, man - game over!"

 

RIpley: "This little girl survived"

Paxton: "Then why don't you put HER in charge?"

 

..and of course, Big Love: "I'M the priesthood holder in THIS family! If I want a fourth wife, then I'll take one"

 

KUDOS to all the work everyone's doing here!!

-- Jman --

[Shoopity]

Oh, Ben gave me all the sound files for the game.  Much of the time the clips are random so you might not here one even though it's there unless you play it a lot.

 

Jose, have you played the table in real life?

 

I've also re-installed my windows 7 (as it was about time) and HyperDMD is working.  I have some basic scoring working, we'll see where this ends up.  As always, hit the main link at the top of the thread for the most recent version.

 

As always, PLEASE let me know of any bugs you find; Ben told me his VP was crashing every time the ball drained, but that wasn't happening with me.  Once I re-installed Windows, it did start happening; it was linked to the testing balls I had created.  I've since fixed it (but now testing balls isn't as easy), but how come no one told me?  Gives me the impression no one is really playing this table :-(.  That's OK, like I said, I'm not doing this for recognition, I'm doing this just to see if I can do it.

[Shoopity]

Just another update.  I've got some lighting effects in, though they're crap.  If anyone wants to do anything differently, please feel free to contribute.

[Shoopity]

Hey, check out the first post.  I'm doing this in VPX now.  Code was started from scratch.  I pulled over lots of elements from the old game, but there's plenty that's new.

[Shoopity]

Added a link to the newest table.  This is the active file I'm saving to, which I do regularly.  I won't be commenting here every time I update it.  Just look at the last modified attribute.

[xenonph]

Your work is appreciated kind sir!!

I also love your automated shots to test!!

I would keep that in final release and make a Visual Instructions Option that does quick version of everything you showed in video!!

 

Again thanks for bringing this rare pinball gem to life for the community!!

Carry on.

 

 

GAME OVER MAN!!!

Edited by xenonph, 15 August 2022 - 01:03 AM.

[ronald71]

thanks for this Table from Ben Heck... now this table from the video of Things That Go Bump in the Night The Spooky Pinball Story

love what you done with it.. Carry on ... GAME OVER MAN!!!  thx.