14 replies to this topic

[Wizards_Hat]

Alphanumeric Display Tutorial



Version: 3.0.0
Category: Tutorials

Author(s): Wizards_Hat

Description:
In the vpforums original table contest I designed an Alphanumeric Display with a simple command structure.This table is designed to help others use the same system in original tables.Very little understanding of coding is required to use it.
This tutorial can be used in different ways...

Firstly you can just literally copy the required parts of the script and table objects and use the display commands without needing to know how any of it works, other than the commands needed to place messages in the display.

The script indicates the 2 sub routines you will need to change for your table (otherwise you'll end up with the example messages I have included here). There is also an indication line in the script that shows you what you can ignore.

After that, if you wish to know how it works, the script is (hopefully) commented enough for you to find that out - though if you have any questions please ask.

27/1/11 - added fix to right justify problem (effectively caused by a typo - thanks Bob for helping spot this)
25/2/11 - added fix to scroll left-to-right problem (effectively caused by a typo (again!) - thanks Billyrjse for helping to spot this)

View File

Submitted by Wizards_Hat, on Oct 27 2010, 07:39 PM

[Sabbat]

Awesome, I'm sure this will come in handy for a lot of people

[tiltjlp]

Awesome, I'm sure this will come in handy for a lot of people

Thanks Dan. Tutorial and demo tables are the easiest way for me to learn new things about VP.

[Wizards_Hat]

Thanks for the support guys.

I'd actually also really appreciate feedback from anyone that tries to use this.

I think this has been the hardest tutorial table to write - mainly because I was trying to set it up so that anyone can use it with very little knowledge or understanding of coding.

Getting the script to do that was easy, but writing the instructions so people can do it without the instructions being the length of a small novel or requiring further help was quite tricky...I'm just interested to see if I've accomplished that or not. (for anyone that's not seen it yet, the instructions are actually only about a page long!)

Regards,
Dan.

[Wizards_Hat]

Just a quick note to say that this tutorial has been updated to fix a problem with the right justify.

Basically the problem was caused by an incorrectly renamed variable.
Thanks to Bob for bringing it to my attention.

Regards,
Dan.

[faralos]

" I think this has been the hardest tutorial table to write - mainly because I was trying to set it up so that anyone can use it with very little knowledge or understanding of coding. "

he means me thanks Dan! I'll take a look at it and you know me, I already have a question, ( just concerning that exact wording in the display), is it just empty wording or are those commands?

[Wizards_Hat]

Just a quick note to explain that I've updated this again to fix a problem with the scroll left-to-right.

Again, the problem occurred to do an incorrectly named variable....both this & the previous issue arose from me trying to use variable names that would be unique and so the script could just be dropped straight into a table, so basically I added "HAT" onto the front of every variable name - just appear to have missed a couple of changes part way through the scripts each time!

As far as I aware it should now all work!!

Thanks to Billyrjse for spotting the error this time!

Regards,
Dan.

[kiwi]

I don't know how to stop immediately the Attract Mode.
I put in my new ball code this command "InProgress = True".

 

Sub NewBall()
InProgress=True
.........

The Attract Mode stops only at the end of the cycle.

 

Thanks

 

Max

[Wizards_Hat]

Add the lines

 

 

EmptyMessages
PriorityMessage " ",1,3,0,0.5

I think that should do it (not looked at this in ages - these are the lines I used in "Beat This").

 

If it doesn't work, let me know & I'll spend a bit more time looking into it.

 

Regards,

Dan.

 

[kiwi]

Thank you very much.
Tomorrow I try.

 

Max

[kiwi]

Add the lines

 

 

EmptyMessages
PriorityMessage " ",1,3,0,0.5

I think that should do it (not looked at this in ages - these are the lines I used in "Beat This").

 

If it doesn't work, let me know & I'll spend a bit more time looking into it.

 

Regards,

Dan.

 

I saw this at the end of the script and when I pressed the A key nothing happened.
Now I knew where I was wrong, wrong table name and section KeyDown double.
Thank you very much for the suggestion, now works.

 

Max

Edited by kiwi, 07 February 2013 - 05:36 PM.

[Wizards_Hat]

You're welcome - glad I could help.

 

Regards,

Dan.

[kiwi]

I had another question similar to the one above , how to register credits on the AttractMessages immediately without waiting for the next cycle.
I gave a look to the Beat This script, copy and paste the right code into my table, renamed some variables, and now it works (I hope I did not violate the copyright of the table ).
By this I mean that in future updates of the Alphanumeric Display would be nice to be added also this change, for people like me that without help they would not understand how to do.
Thank you very much for this great tutorial.

 

Max

[Wizards_Hat]

You're welcome to use anything from the Beat This script (or any of my scripts, tutorials, tables or whatever).

 

As for displaying anything immediately with the alphanumeric display - use the command "prioritymessage", as outlined in the tutorial - this command will interrupt anything being displayed and display the contents of the "prioritymessage".

 

Regards,

Dan.

[kiwi]

Thank you for permission to use your scrips.
I understand how the command "prioritymessage" works , in fact when I insert credits, the display shows it for 1 second and then the "FillAttractMessage" continues.
When the "FillAttractMessage" displays the credits, these are 0, the cycle following the credits are correct.

With this I copied from your/Bob5453 table, the credits is immediately updated in the "FillAttractMessage".

 

Sub Table1_KeyDown(ByVal keycode)    
If Keycode=AddCreditKey And TimerAttract.Enabled=0 Then
PlaySound "CoinIn5"
If Credits >9 Then Exit Sub  
Credits=Credits + 1
PriorityMessage " CREDITS      "&Credits&"     ",1,3,0,1
For HATn=1 to HATBufferSize             
If HATMessages(HATn,1)=" CREDITS  " Then     
HATMessages(HATn+1,1)="    "&Credits&"     "      
HATMessages(HATn+2,1)="PUSH START":HATMessages(HATn+2,2)=1:HATMessages(HATn+2,3)=1:HATMessages(HATn+2,4)=0:HATMessages(HATn+2,5)=2.5:HATMessages(HATn+2,6)=1
 
HATMessages(HATn+3,1)="  BUTTON  ":HATMessages(HATn+3,2)=2:HATMessages(HATn+3,3)=2:HATMessages(HATn+3,4)=0:HATMessages(HATn+3,5)=2.5:HATMessages(HATn+3,6)=1
Exit Sub         
End If     
Next 
End if

Thanks again

 

Max

Edited by kiwi, 16 February 2013 - 01:12 PM.