1394 replies to this topic

[Tropi]

I might have found another bug, which seems to affect all 916 releases.
Yesterday I switched to DOF as it has been officially release now.
Randomly the lights in the front buttons aren't working at all. Currently no other toys are attched to my LedWiz so I can't test any other function. Restarting VP the one or the other time make them light up again, without any change in the config of course. Restarting/reloading the table doesn't change anything. If it is working with the first attempt it stays like that. If it is not working from the beginning it will not work with any other table loaded without restarting VP.
I tried several releases from latest down to 654, all showed the same behavior. Using 915 the issue doesn't occur and all lights are up everytime VP is started.
From my very basic knowledge about VP and B2S I'm suspecting VP isn't initializing B2S server properly at startup. B2S server version is 1.3.0.1.

If you need more details or certain tests done please let me know, always happy to assist.

Edited by cs2908, 10 November 2013 - 02:03 PM.

[fuzzel]

Well I think it's more a DOF/B2S issue than a VP issue. VP uses Microsoft's COM interface for launching any other external DLLs. There isn't any initialization to a specific DLL.

[toxie]

Ah good to know, so we are closer to an official release?

 

should we stop commits then and testing the hell out of it to get this finally out the door?! 

[jpsalas]

 

Ah good to know, so we are closer to an official release?

 

should we stop commits then and testing the hell out of it to get this finally out the door?! 

 

 

Yes But maybe fix the colors of the modern plunger first (if it is possible)

[fuzzel]

Will check that. But then we should release this baby

[toxie]

Okay, you go check that and i'll concentrate on the playing, uh, testing part..

[fuzzel]

Hehe ok...I took a first quick look into this plunger code and this stuff was never finished. I'm going to change that and hopefully the days of complicated alpha plungers are over

[unclewilly]

Any way we can use our own image on that modern plunger.

I see it has an image box.

What's the next step after this release?

Other feature additions like the flasher object, or stepping toward dx9

[LoadedWeapon]

Hell this version has has so many updates and addons it should be version 10.. Thanks for all the hard work.

[Slydog43]

It would be so great to have a nice looking analog plunger without the scripting necessary now.  Thanks for looking into this!

[kiwi]

It is possible fix the mapping image of primitives .
The side marked with the arrow should be completely green, according to the image that I used, the two rings and two squares.
 

 

Super thanks

 

Max

[Tropi]

Well I think it's more a DOF/B2S issue than a VP issue. VP uses Microsoft's COM interface for launching any other external DLLs. There isn't any initialization to a specific DLL.

Ok, I will raise this topic also on the other end, but what would be an explanation why 915 behaves correctly, while 916 doesn't?

[koadic]

If there is an issue with 916, any chance you can find the last revision where it worked properly? Might help narrowing down the issue.

[fuzzel]

It is possible fix the mapping image of primitives .The side marked with the arrow should be completely green, according to the image that I used, the two rings and two squares.
 

 
Super thanks
 
Max

Why you don't use a 3d mesh for that? For me the old primitive is more or less deprecated sorry i know you don't want to hear that but you can do so much more with meshes than with those simple primitives that I would remove it in the next major release (VP10)

Edited by fuzzel, 11 November 2013 - 06:13 PM.

[Tropi]

If there is an issue with 916, any chance you can find the last revision where it worked properly? Might help narrowing down the issue.

Made some test. The issue starts with version 646.
Within 3 starts of VP it at least came up once without any lights.

[fuzzel]

? That is weird...the only changes in rev 646 are the convertion of the texture coordinates if you import a 3D mesh. I suppose that's more of a coincidence, did you test below 646?

[toxie]

Not related to previous questions, but i just added a new (tiny) feature to the beta:

 

PlaySound now has an additional parameter to randomize the pitch of the played sound effect:

 

Instead of  PlaySound "name",loopcount,volume  one can now use  PlaySound "name",loopcount,volume,randompitch  (randompitch ranges from 0.0 to 1.0)

 

So f.e. PlaySound "FlipperUp",0,1.0,1.0  would change the pitch so that it can range from half as fast to double as fast as the original sample

 

This just makes the sound effects a bit more 'dynamic', especially when used on the flipper fingers, to avoid having the exact same sample played each time

Edited by toxie, 11 November 2013 - 09:16 PM.

[ViriiGuy]

You guys are doing amazing work! Thank you very much.

[jimmyfingers]

 

Why you don't use a 3d mesh for that? For me the old primitive is more or less deprecated sorry i know you don't want to hear that but you can do so much more with meshes than with those simple primitives that I would remove it in the next major release (VP10)

 

Please do not deprecate the basic primitives in the next release of VP as the performance of the 3D ones still is way more hard hitting than using the basic ones and it would be a shame to lose so much of the performance gains achieved in the last few months due to wanting to abolish the basic primitives from the program just because it seems that the 3D ones can do more or are superior in some contexts.  There is still a lot of uses for the first generation / basic primitives (even with the side mapping glitch as Kiwi demonstrates and I have also enountered) and some very basic 4 sided models still have a wide use for various features. 

 

The other important consideration about replacing the "old" primitive for only using 3D ones is that it will separate a large portion of VP users / authors and / or force them to learn complicated 3D modelling software programs as opposed to only having to work with more common graphics applications (PS, gimp, or even paint) when needing only something like a flipper logo or mainly top view item which can be easily accomplished using the basic 4 section grid for a basic primitive graphic mapping.  The time needed to do quality work in VP is already quite high and pushing this further, by requiring authors to also learn additional 3D 3rd party tools by removing the more basic options, may dissuade some contributors.

Edited by jimmyfingers, 12 November 2013 - 07:05 AM.

[fuzzel]

I didn't say that I remove it in the VP9 branch, but with VP10 we are trying to jump to a new render api and that is going to have a big impact in nearly every aspect how the player works and behaves today. I know that it's not easy to handle all the tools for creating good looking tables but if you want to create realistic looking tables you have to learn advanced stuff to realize that.
The big question is when we are starting with VP10 because this is something that will take a lot of time. For now we are restructuring VP to make the porting less painful and try to support any feature you guys are using today