244 replies to this topic

[PainkillerAlice]

Got all the objects and images in place, and also scripted in (in a temporary state) multiball into the table until later on (when I will script in the multiball the way I want it implemented) I will script in the gameplay functions and audio into the table.

For the multiball just shoot the ball up the Tron skillshot ramp to activate the first two locks (5X for the first lock and 6X for the second). The third lock will be available immediately after the second ball is lock. Posting up the link to download this current version of my WIP for you to playtest and make sure I didn't overlook anything concerning the playfield design in the way of glitches.

After I finish a project that I hope to get payed for, I will get the rest of the audio ready by the end of the week and then start on the gameplay scripting.

Tron WIP 6-22-2011

Edited by Practicedummy, 22 June 2011 - 06:28 PM.

[faralos]

Okay, I'll try it. I am not good at it, but I test it out. If anyone can get it to crash or go awry, it's me!

[faralos]

Here's something, I am noticing, Hogans Heroes took a long time to load. I never expanded the view in that one, but in Tron It too took a long time to load, even longer than mine some of which are huge in file length. So I see these at the top. I think now I answered a previous post I put up. See, when the timers are scripted in the coding and not visible on the play field the tables load quicker. Now I know you like timers but geez they seem to be multiplying at an alarming rate! Is this where the Queen Timer resides?

Attached Files

•  PD_R_U__serious_Faralos.jpg   357.49KB   27 downloads

[PainkillerAlice]

Those timers at the back end of the table are for the Giant Sark animation (most of them anyways).

Edited by Practicedummy, 23 June 2011 - 07:21 PM.

[faralos]

no prob but you can align them with the rails at the sides and front and back. That is what brought me to them. I was working my way around the outside erasing all those extra posts you had lying around and moving all those other timers(he has over 200 I believe!) onto the right, bottom, and left walls. It was only when I reached the top I saw that hive! Now I still have not moved, them but still erasing all the extra posts and crap and moving the rest has decreased table load time, a good thing! I hate your tables for this reason, my tables load at 1/3 the time of yours and some of my wip's are over 80 megs! HH takes literally 3 minutes from editor to play even in this tower! I can, well... bathroom and coffee, both while it loads in all from timers galore. But I again I use timers in script only only using any in table skeletons if they are already there. but you on this one especially have dozens of them scattered all around the outside. It really looks like you mined the table with 'claymore timers' It's taking me hours to move them and erase those unneeded posts, but I bet in doing that I can shave down a minute or moreof table load time. You may wanna' start to clean it up a bit. Your coding rocks, don't get me wrong, but I've found out too that the nicer the table is in the editor and the blueprint the quicker it'll load for play!

oh and I got to Sark once and hit him twice! very nice table. Yea I am getting a little better at the skill shot but there are a few skill shots and many hidden loops! A very nice lower table layout indeed! good job on that! now go and police the outside, make it purty like...

[PainkillerAlice]

Due to the way I code (intermediate programmer at best ) I have to use a lot of timers for things in order to get things working the way I want to (especially the Giant Sark animation (and by the way the Giant Sark is an obstacle, you won't get any points for hitting him )). Fortunately due to my having to get a new PHP programming book when I get the money set aside, I switched over to my Visual Basic book and am learning some fundamentals about VB programming, so I should in the future be able to put in place some more efficient coding (and more efficient use of objects).

[Bob5453]

Timers? This is my Three Stooges table where I didn't know how to reset a timer by just changing the timer interval when I made it. This table loads in 5 seconds. Tables that take forever to load have a lot of large images being rendered on walls and drop walls or they have very large decals on them. When I made my Pachinko game, I had one large decal on the backdrop for the machine itself, it took forever to load, over 2 minutes, I replaced the large decal with 4 or 5 smaller ones making the same backdrop and it loaded very quickly.

Attached Files

•  timers.jpg   271.69KB   27 downloads

[PainkillerAlice]

Timers? This is my Three Stooges table where I didn't know how to reset a timer by just changing the timer interval when I made it. This table loads in 5 seconds. Tables that take forever to load have a lot of large images being rendered on walls and drop walls or they have very large decals on them. When I made my Pachinko game, I had one large decal on the backdrop for the machine itself, it took forever to load, over 2 minutes, I replaced the large decal with 4 or 5 smaller ones making the same backdrop and it loaded very quickly.

I did use almost exclusively bmp images for the table. Never looked to see how large they are.

[PainkillerAlice]

Egg on my face! I wanted to see how large my Tron table file was after I added some wav files to it and discovered that my file is a tad over the previously stated 58.3 megs, it's more like over 500 megs! Gonna trim most of my image files to downsize the table.

Edited by Practicedummy, 23 June 2011 - 07:21 PM.

[Bob5453]

Egg on my face! I wanted to see how large my Tron table file was after I added some wav files to it and discovered that my file is a tad over the previously stated 58.3 megs, it's more like over 500 megs! Gonna trim most of my image files to downsize the table.

LOL. If you are using music files in Wave format, those too are killers for size. I only use bitmaps for decals. Jpg files look fine for playfield images, backdrops and plastics.

[PainkillerAlice]

Egg on my face! I wanted to see how large my Tron table file was after I added some wav files to it and discovered that my file is a tad over the previously stated 58.3 megs, it's more like over 500 megs! Gonna trim most of my image files to downsize the table.

LOL. If you are using music files in Wave format, those too are killers for size. I only use bitmaps for decals. Jpg files look fine for playfield images, backdrops and plastics.

Yep the wav files are making up a nice chunk of the file size, so I will convert all the audio to mp3 format.

When scripting in an mp3 file, do I use the 'PlaySound' codeword or is it the 'PlayMusic' codeword? I do know that I have to add .mp3 at the end of the file name when scripting in mp3 audio in a table.

[PainkillerAlice]

LOL The wav files took up 479 megs of the total size of the table. I hope the mp3 files don't sound too crappy.

[Bob5453]

The mp3's should sound pretty good. I used Switch Sound File converter for the Beatles, it was a 14 day free trial thing. Audacity will allow you to load an mp3, but it won't let you save in an mp3 without some addon or codec or whatever, I didn't even try to do it that way.

[PainkillerAlice]

I have Adobe Audition to change file formats with so no worries.

Just got my new CPU in today. Should see a significant performance boost.

Edited by Practicedummy, 23 June 2011 - 10:08 PM.

[Bob5453]

Congrats on the new cpu, what are your new specs?

[PainkillerAlice]

It the AMD Phenom 2 Black Edition 3.4 GHz Quad Core socket AM3 CPU. This one actually came with a mini-disc with a 6 month trial of AVG anti-virus hehe.

[faralos]

ah! I never checked the file size of the wav's! That's probably my problem! so in the final one are ya' gonna' stay with mp3's? It'd speedup table load times I'm sure!

[PainkillerAlice]

Yep. Gonna try to get the audio converted later today.

Got my new CPU installed after upgrading the bios first and everything is running great! Also can switch back to fullscreen mode on VP. Did a test run on Unclewilly's Bride of PinBot table and it runs fantastic!

Edited by Practicedummy, 24 June 2011 - 04:45 PM.

[PainkillerAlice]

Ran into a small snafu with my audio files. VP won't let me import mp3 files, so where do I need to place the mp3 files at in order for me to use scripting to call the files directly? I am guessing VP's 'music' folder.

[Bob5453]

Ran into a small snafu with my audio files. VP won't let me import mp3 files, so where do I need to place the mp3 files at in order for me to use scripting to call the files directly? I am guessing VP's 'music' folder.

You are guessing right. Check out my Beatles table, I used mp3's for the music clips that are about 30 seconds in length.