184 replies to this topic

[destruk]

I made samples from the game a few years ago. NuCore uses nearly identical samples too. They are at 11025 mono (20MB) for low quality and 44100 stereo (320MB) for high quality. Naturally I'm not including the size of the sound files in my media projection. I estimate for the display graphics it'll fill about 40MB total.

[bolt]

Thanks for the new video and for all the information about your great work.

[wtiger]

Destruk,
This is all sounding pretty exciting. Thanks for the latest progress report video!

[kruge99]

I too never dreamed this would bear fruit... I am speechless...

[destruk]

I think the High Score Entry screen is the next toughest section to get done, so I've been working on that a lot the past few days. New video will be up after I get the rest of the graphics done. I've been testing/debugging/fitting the entire routine into the existing display timer code. So it just relies on that one timer for all the high score stuff. I made it as simplistic as possible so to start it all off I just need to set two variables and it's automatically picked up, runs all the checks for all the scores and 'records' for every player, displays blinking cursors and multiple fonts, scrolls scores and data from right to left, has a nifty awesome new routine for entering letters with multiple speeds if the flipper is held down, etc etc. It dynamically sorts the new scores, records, and names to already be picked up and utilized for attract mode, and it loads everything once at table_init, and saves it all back out once at table_exit. I think it's the best dang highscore routine I've ever made.

Even though the game will be 'free play' only, even the real machine when in free play still runs the match routine and if you get a match it says you won a credit - kinda silly. But it's a fun animation to watch so it'll be in there too.
So it'll be a bit longer before a new video is ready - lots of new frames of data need to be added.

BTW - it uses the aux buttons to jump up or down a line too. Works fine.

Edited by destruk, 29 June 2010 - 07:03 AM.

[bolt]

Thanks for the new info destruck.

[Dazz]

destruck - You are insane for taking on this MASSIVE undertaking, but we all love (Umm, not in a gay way) you for it! It's looking incredible.

I'm hoping we get to see a FS version of this table. Would doing a FS version require re-doing all of the video?

[razors78]

Destruk, you're the best!. Can't wait to see the new video of your progress!

[destruk]

destruck - You are insane for taking on this MASSIVE undertaking, but we all love (Umm, not in a gay way) you for it! It's looking incredible.

I'm hoping we get to see a FS version of this table. Would doing a FS version require re-doing all of the video?

Yes, all the video and displays would need to be redone done, the script would need to be adjusted for size and placement of all the video display objects, and the fonts would need to be individually modified for rotated display. Also simply changing the resolution of the game - similar steps would need to be taken too. vpDisco doesn't rotate text or display data. While all of that seems like a lot, the actual table layout itself wouldn't cause an issue making it for FS, and with a solid script completed it'd probably only come down to a few minor routines that would need to be rewritten, and changing font sizes and layout locations - so it'd still not be as difficult as constructing it the first time, or porting it to Future Pinball. I do think it will use more total graphic frames than FP can handle though - we'll see after it's completed.

For resolutions, I currently work at 1920x1080 exclusively, so I'm using the highest res images I can while keeping the display area where I think it should be - just behind the moving up/down rubber in front of the center upkicker saucer. I looked at a bunch of video of the game and the display extends just over the two drop targets in front of the ramps. The display itself is 320x240 - which is about half the size of the real thing (640x480 source material). The display window needs to be smaller if you are playing the game at say, 1024x768 or something - and vpdisco has incomplete resizing features so it'd make more sense to simply resample the source graphics to a smaller resolution as an 'accessory pack'. There's not much point to unnecessarily increasing the filesize of the finished game by including these resampled images for every possible play resolution and rotation option so if that is done, it'd be an extra download, or I could include 3 or 4 sets with it for the most common play settings. I'm just trying to complete as much of the game as I can right now though - considering my situation.

[Practicedummy]

Is the monitor on the game itself a crt or an lcd screen? I can't imagine the undertaking that alone would take in recreating without having a plugin to work with.

[destruk]

It shipped with a crt that displays a mirror image against the glass.

[Rawd]

It shipped with a crt that displays a mirror image against the glass.

I wonder if one of those mini-projectors would produce a nice image on our cabinet glass. It may shine through, rather than reflect nicely...

My buddy has one, maybe I'll try it out.

[njamont]

nice work all ! damn if i was not moving to another apparment i would glady donate some $

[destruk]

Well, here is the game over sequence. High Scores entry is done, it's dynamic, as well as the match sequence and auto-percentaging, and the closing videos.

http://vpforums.org/...uk/gameover.avi

[pinnie72]

This looks amazing. But I fear I'm gonna need a PC which has been pumped up with more steroids than Stallone just to run it properly.

Keep up the good work

[njamont]

what kind of system shall be needed?

looks amazing

Edited by njamont, 02 July 2010 - 07:36 AM.

[razors78]

Well, Destruk once told us all (earlier in this thread) that if you can run the other VP9 tables, you will be just fine running SWEP1. I just hope that won't change!

Well, here is the game over sequence. High Scores entry is done, it's dynamic, as well as the match sequence and auto-percentaging, and the closing videos.

http://vpforums.org/...uk/gameover.avi

Well done!. This sure is looking very promising indeed!

[gStAv]

It´s amazing how precise your animations is destruk! *speechless*

Edited by gStAv, 02 July 2010 - 08:43 AM.

[bolt]

Thanks for the new video, the game over sequence looks and works very good.

You make an amazing job destruck.

[destruk]

I got the End of Ball routine done. It is dynamic, and although the video here is 19 seconds long, it has all the animations available to it for all the different players, their titles, and authentic score routine countdown for the end of ball bonus with timing as accurate as I could get it. Four days' work. I also flexed out some of the game framework, put in code to hard cap/enforce the maximum bonus score and maximum multiplier, got the basic game logic done for losing balls, added a bunch of variables I'm going to need for actual gameplay, etc.

Luckily, vpDisco can overlay animated gifs - so having multiple sprites and displays on top of each other can be done. I had to test that to be sure it'd work.

http://vpforums.org/destruk/eob.avi

By having this section load graphics as needed it simply replaces the current loaded image so it will allow more total graphics to be utilized and conserve memory. There isn't a noticeable delay either so it's all good.
Just made it slightly faster than that video - because I think it was counting down a little too slow.

And yeah, it also pops up the jedi emblem for your level if you fought darth maul in the saber battle.

Edited by destruk, 06 July 2010 - 11:39 PM.