1394 replies to this topic

[fuzzel]

It will have some impact on the fps but not that much because the all polygons won't be rendered because the z test will fail.

[unclewilly]

That's good to know
Then I can use as many as my machine will handle and set up an option to switch from primitives to walls. That will drop the primitives below the Playfield and raise some walls.

Anothe dumb question since I won't be at my machine for a while to check.

Is the visible property of a pop bumper scriptable

[fuzzel]

Anothe dumb question since I won't be at my machine for a while to check.

Is the visible property of a pop bumper scriptable

Nope...the normal bumpers are prerendered.

[kiwi]

It would be nice to have visible also the objects under the playfield, obviously if the playfield there are holes.
 

Thank you very much for continuous work to improve VP

 

Max

[jimmyfingers]

That's good to know
Then I can use as many as my machine will handle and set up an option to switch from primitives to walls. That will drop the primitives below the Playfield and raise some walls.

Anothe dumb question since I won't be at my machine for a while to check.

Is the visible property of a pop bumper scriptable

Can you not use the scriptable "visible" property of the primitive instead of going the route of moving them along the Z access? I've assesed and verified in a few tables / routines this approach and with the visible property toggled off for the primitive, the performance hit appears to be completely gone or very close at leastto what would be expected if it was present at all. I tried most recently on a pre-release version of the new STTNG MOD for the 3D based / mesh primitive canons and when visible was off, totally different FPS / performance - no need to move or drop. In fact, it's those findings and options regarding the scripted visibilty that allowed / facilitated the creation of an optional work around to assist performance on less than high-end PCs.

[LoadedWeapon]

Fuzzel you are the man! You fixed problems we didn't even know there was.. You made my fav table play like a dream smooth as silk. My first game with the new exe was over a billion and I couldent be happier with how VP is turning out. HUGE thanks to you and the rest of the Dev team and to all these amazing table creators that have the skills to use the tools available to create these amazing tables.

And to think it can get even better. Thanks to everyone that helps make this all possible I love you guys!   

Now back to STTNG

[fuzzel]

you're welcome

[kiwi]

Very useful if there was a chance to uncheck the "Display Image in Editor" for all objects that have it selected.
It is not easy to find all the objects, and with VP slowed is also a time consuming.

 

Thank you very much

 

Max

[Herweh]

Heya guys, thanks for all you're doing at and with VP. Of course no pressure but any chance of an official VP 9.1.6 the next weeks?

[fuzzel]

I think we are close to an official release. We're just waiting for bug reports but if everything goes well we can release version 9.16 in the next weeks.

[BobAlbright]

I've been wondering about that as well. I never used to upgrade until it was an official release. Lately, however, with all the new tables needing 9.16 I have, in fact, been using the beta versions. And looking back to when 9.16 was started, I see there are a TON of revisions.

[Pin-Pete]

I think we are close to an official release. We're just waiting for bug reports but if everything goes well we can release version 9.16 in the next weeks.

WOOHOO! Can't wait.

[randr]

I'm currently running build 628 and have zero issues..but would it be better to use latest build? does it improve yet again?

[htamas]

There are new features in the latest build (such as ball reflection on the playfied) and I find that speed / performance seems to be equally good as it was in 628, so I'd say yes, it's definitely worth to upgrade.

[jpsalas]

I find version 677 (the latest) very stable and very fast. I made a table with 14 primitives and about 125 alpha ramps (I used alpha ramps for all the normal lights, the gi and the flashers ) and it still plays very well.

 

The only bug I found is that while editing I added an image to the side of a wall, and then I run the table and the image didn't appeared. I tried to do some changes to the shape of the wall, and I even disable the "Enable Lightning". When I disabled it the image appeared, but when I enabled again the "Enable Lightning" then the image disappeared again. I even changed the color of the wall but it still displayed the old color. I stopped VP and run it again and then the wall displayed fine. It has only happened once and I have not been able to reproduce the error. I'm not doing as much editing as before, but this latest version is very very stable and I have not found any other errors.

 

JP

[fuzzel]

That sounds very promising. I have to discuss this with the rest of the team and then we decide when we release an official 9.16.

[bodydump]

I find version 677 (the latest) very stable and very fast. I made a table with 14 primitives and about 125 alpha ramps (I used alpha ramps for all the normal lights, the gi and the flashers ) and it still plays very well.

 

The only bug I found is that while editing I added an image to the side of a wall, and then I run the table and the image didn't appeared. I tried to do some changes to the shape of the wall, and I even disable the "Enable Lightning". When I disabled it the image appeared, but when I enabled again the "Enable Lightning" then the image disappeared again. I even changed the color of the wall but it still displayed the old color. I stopped VP and run it again and then the wall displayed fine. It has only happened once and I have not been able to reproduce the error. I'm not doing as much editing as before, but this latest version is very very stable and I have not found any other errors.

 

JP

I found this same bug as JP.  Had it happen several times and as JP said as soon as I exit VP and restart, the wall images appear.

[fuzzel]

Ok I'll have a look.

[jpsalas]

So, maybe I should upload the table here, just for testing and to see how it works in your computers.

 

A few notes about the table:

- The table is a complete rebuild, now with the right playfield size. I used to make my playfields 1024 units wide, (don't ask me why or how I found out that that size was "perfect" (?!)

 

- I have used alpha ramps for everything that lights up: Gi, lights, flashers, bumpers and for the saucers

 

- I used primitives for the targets and the big ufo (the only normal droptarget is the one under the big ufo). I have not imported any mesh, they are plain VP primitives. I just wanted primitives for the 3 bank to make a fluid animation

 

- This table do not use any "refresh" light to refresh the alpha ramps. So how it works? Very easy: just disable Region Updates as shown in the image. And the ramps refresh by themselves. I know that to disable Region Updates is not for everyone, but remember this table is just a test

 

And remember the table is not finished as I'm still not happy with the flasher drawings (hey, I'm not a Grizz or a hassanchop )and I also need to make them in 8 steps for the GI. There are 2 set of flashers, one set for the normal flashers and another for the GI (which are the same but with its opacity reduced to 70% in photoshop so they are not so strong)

 

 

PS: I think the lights using alpha ramps are so cool

PS2: If you take a look at the table you'll see that it has just a single image for the playfield and a single image for the plastics. That alone saves a lot of video memory. One thing I'll try later is to use ramps to make the plastics, so it will be possible to resize and adjust the plastics individually.

Edited by jpsalas, 13 October 2013 - 12:02 PM.

[fuzzel]

Cool is this table for testing the image issue or an overall test table?