168 replies to this topic

[Shockman]

Don't tilt it too much!

 

I'll look into further improvements in physics.

 

I found a bug last game I played. If you tilt on the last ball, the game knows it's over, but it just don't want to stop. It's an easy fix. I never nudge, it's not a helpful game feature unless you have the reflexes of a cat and the time scale of a Scalosian. It's just there to light the tilt light. I could have probably have fixed it already if I didn't waste all this time writing about it.

[Shadowsclassic]

"Doc, it hurts when I do this."  "Well don't do that"

 

Seriously, I wonder if the real game has some kind of limiter to keep the bar from tilting to far in any direction?

[Slydog43]

shockman, your sig does not point to the right file for icb, it points to 2.0

[Shockman]

Thanks for that. I fixed it.

 

-I got the tilt working right I believe. It was not as easy as I thought. I need to test it. A nudge moves the ball around, but a tilt knocks it off the bar.

"Doc, it hurts when I do this."  "Well don't do that"

 

Seriously, I wonder if the real game has some kind of limiter to keep the bar from tilting to far in any direction?

No the bar can tilt quite extremely. The only limitation is the top stopper on one side and the bottom stopper on the other. The bar is not solid. It's a rod inside a tube. Otherwise it could not tilt at all without binding.

[xzotic]

Just did some tests...really like the new 'drop in hole' feature...

 

But for me the ball is now bouncing continuously on the bar even when stationery. The bounce only used to happen on steep rolls and wasn't constant (i.e.: It would bounce up 1 pixel after rolling every half inch or so). Now it just continuously bounces even when still.

 

Remember I'm running on a mac through crossover (wine) but I can't see why the previous version was better in this regard to this version? Maybe you'll know why.

 

Also F11 takes the whole play field (everything) away and just shows me my desktop. Is that right? Maybe my F11 is being interpreted through crossover as some other function? I need to test some more...

 

Regardless, great work on the new versions. Thanks.

[Shockman]

The next version should have a smoother ball. The problem with the ball is gravity, too little gravity and the ball would not drop as fast as the bar can, too much and it hops on the bar.

 

F11 should remove the bezel. Actually just make the bezel and the bezel mask 100% transparent. It then takes a crop of the playfield image a little way under the bezel and stretches it to the size the display was with the bezel. I don't know if your problem is a Mac. problem. I almost disabled that feature anyway, I was experimenting with the full screen version.

 

The portrait version is going to have to be it's own build, and I think I will have to redo the hole placement and position checks. In other words it will have to be a different resolution, and scaled differently. I think it's closer to 4/3 than 16/10 but it's probably somewhere between, but closer to 4/3. A dedicated cab, if someone was really going to build one, would probably require some of a wide screen monitor behind and below the control panel, with the display shunted to the top. 

[Shockman]

After trying EVERYTHING else, I have finally eliminated all hoping on the bar. 

[Shockman]

It was the first thing I tried years ago. It didn't seem to work because the holes would repel the ball instead of sucking it in. The ball is smooth as silk on the bar, but it gets jittery around the holes, but it does go in them. I'm going to see what I can do about that.

[Shockman]

The issue close to the holes was that the lights had collision masks by default. Never an issue until this physics tweak, because a collision is not checked for the lights. I'm basically telling the ball to stick to whatever it is touching. I have no function to tell it to stick to only the bar.

 

One last issue now. There is a vertical bar on each side that is invisible that moves right and left to have it's edge stay lined up with the stopper bar. This was put in to fix the issue with the ball climbing the stoppers, which was the means of keeping the ball from rolling off the side. There is some jitter at the ends of the bar because of that. This, I don't believe is going to be an easy fix, but I do have an idea using math, which is used to some extent to place the vertical bar horizontal movement

 

Also there would be no objection to removing the bezel removal in this version would there be? It will be in the version for rotated monitors. 

[xzotic]

Ok cool, looking forward to trying the next version especially to see if the ball stops bouncing. Cheers

[Shockman]

Version 2.3 is up.

 

- Better physics. There is still the problem at the ends to fix.

- Tweaked skill levels. Hard, no friction. Normal, .16 friction (just enough to make it noticeably easier, and Easy has .8 (you won't know what that is like, but your kids might). It's now suited for beer fans as young as 4.

- Documented the save state which it has always had. F5 to save the game and F6 to load it. It will be exactly as you left it, less music that might have been playing. The last time I played it I scored 22,620 points. It took some time.

- Repented the lie that the auto bump bar was speeding up as the game progressed. It starts at 300 which is 5 seconds, it drops by 5 every time the bar is reset and a ball is fed. The bonus countdown also starts at 5 seconds and reduces by 5 in the same manor.

- Increased the priority a little. It lets the game have more of the cycle priority and should help to smooth it out, on machines that it may have need. Let me know if it effects any processes you run with it like your control mapping hardware or software.

[xzotic]

Brilliant! The increased priority fixed my bouncing issues. Now the ball is silly smooth! So that's fantastic! 

 

Only a couple of things I can think of now:

1. Are you still in the process of getting new graphics? I have noticed that the play field seems a bit 'blown' out as if it has had too much bloom effect added. Are you seeing the same? Not sure if anything higher in resolution is also available? That would really top it off in terms of overall realism.

 

2. A selfish request but it would be great if you could also assign a 'normal' key on the keyboard to remove the bezel because no matter what I do F11 appears to be hard wired to some system function which is causing the whole play field to disappear and reappear when pressed. My key goal is to make this into a cab and I won't be able to do that without the bezel-less option working. So if it's not too much trouble if you could also assign that key to something like the "-" minus key that would be great (sort of would make sense too when removing the bezel to press the minus key but hey I'm not fussy, anything but the function keys!). 

 

Otherwise it's an absolute gem! Thanks again so much for your hard work on this, it really is appreciated.

[Shockman]

You will probably want to use the next version (not next release of this version) for a cab. It will be rotated 90 degrees, your choice of 90 or 270. This will be for desktop pc and wide screen cabs. the other for tall screen cabs or rotated monitors. You could use your graphics card to rotate this one, but the aspect ratio leaves a lot of blank screen area. The rotated version will have a viewport that minimizes this while keeping aspect ratio. The top and bottom of the bezel will have to be over the blank area of the screen and barely overlap the sides.

 

Higher res. graphics would be no help. The game is only 768X1024 zoomed in or out for other resolutions while keeping aspect ratio. Zooming in creates a better display than zooming out.

 

The priority increase did not fix the bouncing. It is new collision physics.

 

I am still waiting on graphics. Also looking for Zeke's Peak graphics.

 

I had to fix some issues with when the game is over. It can go whack is the last release. Version 2.4 will have that fixed, bezel removal disabled, and a fancier light sequence for game over. Probably later today.

Edited by Shockman, 16 April 2015 - 06:27 PM.

[bha19]

I have a question about the real game. Was ther a way for the operator to make it harder besides making extra ball 4,000 instead of 2,000?

[Shockman]

They could speed up the bonus countdown I think, but definitely the delay between the rom moving the bar if you waited too long. 

[PinballShawn]

This is very cool! Well done! We used to play ICB all the time when it was new, now I mostly fix them. One question, is there a way to map the controls? I'd love to use the two joystick setup on my MAME machine.

[Shockman]

It doesn't let you map controls but it has dual gamepad support (y axis and ry axis) in joystick mode, and in keyboard mode, MAME default key support, and international keyboard support. 

[Slydog43]

This is very cool! Well done! We used to play ICB all the time when it was new, now I mostly fix them. One question, is there a way to map the controls? I'd love to use the two joystick setup on my MAME machine.

 +1 as I can't use my mame cab either without remapping (I guess I could use xpadder)

[Shockman]

This is the FS version I'm working on. 16/10 with and without bezel. Resolution is not a problem, but aspect ratio is. If a 4/3 or 16/9 is needed, it may be another build yet.

 

The pics are not cropped.

 

 

I'll look again at mapping controls

[xzotic]

That's looking good Shockman.  Just to let you know (at least for my setup) I don't have any need for the rotated display. I know others might.  My monitor will be mounted permanently in a cab vertically with the desktop already rotated as I'll also be running other applications when needed. So I can just swipe to another desktop to run other things on the vertically orientated desktop. Rotation within the app will cause my desktop orientation to be wrong when I swipe to another desktop.

 

Thanks for correction re collision physics solving the bouncing ball - that actually makes more sense. Cheers.