1353 replies to this topic

[fuzzel]

some short note about the aspect ratio in the dimension manager:
In another thread there was a short discussion about optimizing the camera view to make it easier to adjust the view especially in fullscreen mode. My idea that I thought that it could fix this turned out to be not a good solution at all. The reason why it's often so hard to get a descent POV in fullscreen mode is that the aspect ratio of real tables is too far away for a 16:9 screen. WPC tables (from 1987 on) are 20.5 : 46 inch that results in an aspect ratio of 2.247! A 16:9 screen has a ratio of 1.7777! So ratios greater than 2.1 are really hard to scale right on a 16:9 screen. So even if a lot of authors try to design a table as close as possible to the real one it can be counterproductive if the real table has a wrong aspect ratio that can't fit nicely on a 16:9 screen. My advice for a better fullscreen POV is to reduce the length and/or increase the width of the table a bit to come a bit closer to the 1.7777. Like Sega/Data East widebody tables 23.25" : 46" result in 1.9780 or Stern widebody tables with 23.875" : 45" result in 1.8850.
If we would use special dimensions for the rebuild than the real dimensions we could use the same set of POV settings on nearly all tables that were built in that way.

Edited by fuzzel, 17 October 2016 - 10:03 PM.

[Drybonz]

If anyone is working on a table with this new dimensions method, please let us all know... I'm interested to see how it works out.

Edited by Drybonz, 17 October 2016 - 11:09 PM.

[unclewilly]

Isn't changing the dimensions that way going to skew the artwork, like making circles ovals.... etc. And aside from that wouldn't it also change the physics as shots will be in slightly different places and lanes will become bigger or smaller.

Honestly i would rather have a slightly off fs view with accurate table art and physics then compromise the table to force ut to look better in fs view

Just my 2 cents

[sliderpoint]

Agreed.  Correctly sized/shaped objects and tables resulting in squished screen is way better than the other way around, IMO.

 

-Mike

[dark]

Yeah I think I'm with UW here, we should always be trying to make tables accurately to the real thing as possible.

 

Maybe we should just be happy with what we got for camera angles until VP can make the leap to dx11 and then it could even have dynamic cameras....VP11

[freneticamnesic]

That's what FOV and inclination and layback are for

[nFozzy]

Scared Stiff did something like this. Smaller apron, plunger moved up the shooter lane a few inches, otherwise proportionally correct

[jpsalas]

Scared Stiff did something like this. Smaller apron, plunger moved up the shooter lane a few inches, otherwise proportionally correct

 

That's what I used to do in VP7 to "zoom inn" as much as possible, since VP7 didn't have any zoom controls so I cut down the apron and playfield image and moved up the plunger so it was visible I kept those graphics for many of my VP9 tables, this is why the VPX table has the same kind of graphics

[fuzzel]

I don't want to push you guys to use 'wrong' dimensions but we should keep in mind that we are using a computer game here with not so optimal screen sizes.
The POV problem will always exist even with a dynamic camera in FS mode.
Changing the aspect ratio towards 16:9 it only helps you finding a better POV.

[ced]

and with a screen 21:9 ???

[fuzzel]

I don't know.a 21:9 is longer so it could be better for longer tables. It's more a personal taste thing I guess.

[allknowing2012]

I have a table that just opens & closes without any error messages. Works fine on my dev machine but fails to run on 3 others. I think I have everything software & table wise the same. Is there any sort of debug option that might lead me to some clues?

I have tried parsing out lots of the code and table elements to find out what it doesnt like. This is a 10.2 table.

[toxie]

so it crashes VP?

[allknowing2012]

Right ..

It will flash the table (not running in full screen) then exit.

 

I put msgbox "debug" into the code and it runs them fine .. so it is executing thru the script.

[Drybonz]

Hey allknowing... this is a long shot, but I was getting this problem with a few tables after I got the Limited Edition compatible pinmame from another unspeakable site *holy crosses self*... if you did that make sure you have the most recent one from there, as it fixed things for me.

[toxie]

Indeed. Plus some AT91-core machines (e.g. Stern Whitestar II and newer) still have some crashing issue on some PCs. This can be worked around (at the price of performance) by adding the option 'at91jit' to the registry of the affected machine and setting it to 0.

[ViriiGuy]

The newest VP Release breaks the flippers on every older table that I have tried so far.

[allknowing2012]

No rom involved - original table. I used the all in one installer above and placed the beta over top of it.

[toxie]

The newest VP Release breaks the flippers on every older table that I have tried so far.

 

Hmm.. I just tested with VP8.1, VP9.9.2 and VPX10.2.. All tables worked.. Any specific table you see issues with?

No rom involved - original table. I used the all in one installer above and placed the beta over top of it.

 

So which table is it?

Do you have the crash dump that VP creates?

[allknowing2012]

There is no "crash" .. the table simply flashes and then closes.