683 replies to this topic

[ynneBBenny]

Great job Dutchy. I'm glad you have pushed this. As I said earlier, I think you are onto something.
Sorry I didnt get that tutorial finished, I tried, but stuttered and stammered so much, that it was embarressing.
Anyway it seems you have got it down pat anyway.

Last night I researched gif alternatives. Mainly because gifs only display 256 colors.
There is a new format called APNG that is an animated png file. The big advantage is that it is 24bit color.
The animation software is free and runs as a plugin for fire fox.
The only thing is I m yet to find a way to embed it into and exe. But that will come soon.

Your doing good work Dutchy, even if others havn't told you yet.

Benny

[Flying Dutchman]

Glad you liked the accomplished result & thanks for your encouraging words Benny .. it's good to see it's appreciated

Besides that I simply enjoy doing it!
I'll have a look at apng as well ..

Cheers,
FD.

[ynneBBenny]

Here is the free apng builder. Its pretty good, except it only open with firefox.
https://addons.mozil...efox/addon/5519

Putting it into a self contained exe is still a problem for me.

[bolt]

Wow the video is amazing. Looks like real

[Flying Dutchman]

Thanks WWW .. I found a program called 'jtvmaker' which claims to convert 'apng' into '.exe' .. will check it out .. and thanks for the FireFox Plug-in suggestion!

Cheers,
FD.


Thanks WWW .. I found a program called 'jtvmaker' which claims to convert 'apng' into '.exe' .. will check it out .. and thanks for the FireFox Plug-in suggestion!

Thanks bolt

Cheers,
FD.

Edited by Flying Dutchman, 04 July 2009 - 12:45 PM.

[ynneBBenny]

Ha, I could kick myself........
I tried your jtvmaker and it only displays the first frame.
But the solution was staring us in the face all along.
Forget APNG files. ( A wrong turn)
Export your seperate frames out of photoshop as individual PNG files.
Then make a slide show with them in Irfanview, but make the slide transitions as 0.5 intervals. Make sure you loop the slide show.
This way we get full quality PNG or JPGs all contained in an exe, with all the other options (Fullscreen, etc) that Irfanview offers.
We have come full circle to realize we didnt need to take the journey in the first place

[ynneBBenny]

Here is a backglass you already made. I have added lights to it.
Its a 4 frame jpg animation that full screens via an exe.
The lights are probably too yellow, but I wanted to enhance the illusion of fire.

I have also attached the PS working file so you can see what I did. Make sure you turn the hidden layers on and off.
I had to double zip it to make it very small.

I have also attached he Irfanview settings I used. I know you already know, but others mightn't

Attached Files

•  Medievil_Madness.zip   1.23MB   16 downloads
•  working_file.zip   2.38MB   12 downloads
•  irfanview.jpg   114.58KB   53 downloads

[Flying Dutchman]

WWW .. this is exactly what I've been experimented with the last couple of weeks .. merge the seperated created .png's from PS & import them into IrFanview .. the result is superb!
I've uploaded a few more tests onto Youtube..

'Cactus Canyon' - 'Active Backglass'
'Haunted House' - 'Active Backglass'
'Scared Stiff' - 'Active Backglass'
'The Adams Family' - 'Active Backglass'

I've tried to get the lights in the right/correct place by researching YouTube vids and pics from the 'inside backbox' (see example attached) to recreate it as close to reality as possible ..
I've did tests with up to 16 different images in an .exe which doesn't run down the table whatsoever! The more different images you use .. the less repetitive the animation becomes.

Let me know what you think .. all of you!

Cheers,
FD.

ps. the vids shown are not representing the quality of my real one's .. just examples ..
ps1. WWW - thanks for sharing your enthusiasm!

Attached Files

•  TAF___Example.png   277.66KB   39 downloads

Edited by Flying Dutchman, 13 July 2009 - 08:34 PM.

[pinball buzz]

FD this is awesome work, it is just what VP needs.

Thanks for all your hard work you have done it`s appreciated here mate
I am struggling with my DMDs at the moment (see post in the VP Help centre), but using your original idea of Irfan view, and your excellent backglass images.

Thanks to WWW for his input also

Keep up the good work,
Cheers Pinball Buzz

[ynneBBenny]

They'er great.
We need to work on the white light not washing the colors so much.
I have been using a filter layer of the image with an opacity of 90% so as the try and make the white retain some of the orignal backglass colors.

Some years ago I used to use a program called SwishMax. It was a flash program. It could also generate an exe. One advantage would be that you would only need one picture and you could just shine the lights through it. This would mean that the file size would be a quarter of what they are now.
I might have a crack at a flashed based one, at some stage.

Ha, studying original machine light patterns is way too obsessive If it looks ok then thats good enough for me

Once you have perfected the process, I'm expecting you to make it into a tutorial, including how to launch the exes, etc
I have attached the same backglass but with random frames and much faster flickering.

Attached Files

•  Random_backglass_lighting.zip   1.23MB   11 downloads
•  swishstudio.jpg   112.7KB   25 downloads

[Flying Dutchman]

WWW .. much appreciated .. attached is some info on how to autostart/stop a Backglass on a 2nd screen you could use partly for your tutorial.

Cheers,
FD.

Attached Files

•  IrfanView___Scripting___FINAL.pdf   41.09KB   55 downloads

[ynneBBenny]

Great document work, Dutchy.
It will be great to eventually compile the lot into one packaged tutorial.

This is a fun project that is proressing well !

I have made a video tutorial of how to use photoshop and irfanview to make the backglass animations.
It can be downloaded from HERE (46.13 MB) I have told Noah about it and he might add it to the tutorial section.
It's pretty rough, but it will give people an idea of where to get started anyway.

I guess the next task is to make one or two tables and distribute them and see what others think. A job for you

[Flying Dutchman]

Great document work, Dutchy.
It will be great to eventually compile the lot into one packaged tutorial.

This is a fun project that is proressing well !

I have made a video tutorial of how to use photoshop and irfanview to make the backglass animations.
It can be downloaded from HERE (46.13 MB) I have told Noah about it and he might add it to the tutorial section.
It's pretty rough, but it will give people an idea of where to get started anyway.

I guess the next task is to make one or two tables and distribute them and see what others think. A job for you

WWW fantastic tutorial you got there! It is different on how I accomplish it with more or less the same result .. but as you said yourself in PS same things can be accomplished through various ways!
You explain in a clear manner on how to get to the end-result: the 'Active Backglass'!

Thanks for this good tutorial!

Edited by Flying Dutchman, 14 July 2009 - 02:52 PM.

[Noah Fentz]

This is very cool, indeed!

Thanks FD for inspiring new touches.

I'm downloading the video now, and I'll get it up in the tut section. One thing I will miss about our old host was the built-in avi to flv conversion service. It was SUPER quick.

You guys are making me want a cabinet MORE EVERY DAY! I'll never find to sleep, at this rate!

[Flying Dutchman]

Thanks Noah .. it inspires me to get for every table a (animated) Backglass included available to everyone able to use a 2 screen setup (4:3 / FS / VP8 / VP9 - all shouldn't make any difference)
while it adds an enormous amount of positive FUN into the VPinball gameplay!

I'm also glad I can return something back into this fantastic community that I so much gain from as well ..

Cheers,
FD.

Edited by Flying Dutchman, 14 July 2009 - 03:06 PM.

[Drummy]

Guys all I can say is keep up the good work! The backglasses are really looking awesome!
Cheers
Drummy

[ynneBBenny]

Hey Dutchy, What modifications are you doing to the tables. Are you using the 16:9 tables as they are, and then opening the exe over the top of the original backglass, or are you deleting the original backglass altogether?

I would imaging this new process could solve problems for those who have troubles using spanning. They could just use the standard dual monitor setup as individual screens. This process will give much better individual monitor control.

[Flying Dutchman]

Hey Dutchy, What modifications are you doing to the tables. Are you using the 16:9 tables as they are, and then opening the exe over the top of the original backglass, or are you deleting the original backglass altogether?

I would imaging this new process could solve problems for those who have troubles using spanning. They could just use the standard dual monitor setup as individual screens. This process will give much better individual monitor control.

WWW I only use two screens setup as individual screens.. resolution etc. are set on a per monitor basis.

Cheers,
FD.

[xzotic]

These look great...I haven't looked through the tutorial yet but I gather from looking at the results the light effects have been merged in as a single ON then OFF type state. Correct? I just notice that the lighting effect is very LED like in that the effect is either on or off.

If you haven't looked at doing this already it would be even better to include 1/4, 1/2 and then 3/4 strength lighting frames leading up to the full light ON and then reverse when turning them off. THis will give a more realistic halogen light effect which has that ever so slight fade in fade out effect to it.

A subtle touch but one that will really make these light effects look like the real thing. If you are already doing this then I think more frames are needed to bring the light up to full power and then down again for off.

Hope this makes sense.

[ynneBBenny]

Hi xzotic, I understand what you are saying. Its a good suggestion.
One problem is that for each increment of light brightness you require a full picture frame. To have 4 incremental light stages you would need 4 frames. So a normal 4 frame display would then need to be 16 frames and changing 4 times more rapidly. The file size would increase by 4 times and it could tax the CPU even further.

The one solution would be to make them as flash files. That way you would only have one semi transparent picture and only the actual lights would change.

Tonight I will be experimenting with making a flash based backglass.