Why aren't there more table like T2 Chrome?
It's not because there is just one part of the community that can play them, it's not because it will affects things either. Otherwise, we could also complain every time a new software or hardware releases and is not compatible with the old generations or with all the everybody's specs.
For me the answer is similar to what Unclewilly said, we don't have more table like this because it takes a huge amount of time, skills, development and knowledge, just to make one table, and in the end, you know that you won't be able to make everybody happy anyway. Also it's really fragile, any update of VP can break the table.
Certainly so many people not being able to play them is a big reason, perhaps the main reason. People voted that Scapino should start making angle independent tables so that FS users could play them, but I'm not sure he was too interested in that, he said he might consider it. I can't speak for him, I just know he hasn't released anything ever since but he still hangs around here & might even be reading this. I just think it would be silly to say that the whole FS thing has zero impact on the way authors choose to do things.
Then speaking for myself, I no longer do angle dependent tables for this very reason.
That is why I said what I did above, because it is a fact that reel/decal tables have fallen off for this reason, not just my opinion.
I should say too that when I mention reel/decal tables, I'm not just talking about 3D rendered tables. All the stuff I did was done using images. So while even that can certainly still be time consuming, its not quite as tedious as having to create graphics from scratch, I would imagine.
It wasn't horribly difficult though, as the first full table I ever created was 100% reel/decal based, & I was very much a noob at everything, it just took a lot of patience. I never shared that table at the new VPF, or a few of the others I worked on. I would want to update them for VP9 before sharing them again, & 1 of them I actually never got around to releasing. But since I don't want to spend time these days on decal based tables, since they indeed do leave out a chunk of the community, I just plan to rebuild them more VP9 & FS friendly, if I work on them at all.
So when I talk about reel/decal based tables I worked on, that is what I'm talking about. The only reel/decal based table I've really shared here is Amazon Hunt which is a hybrid. & even with that some people were bummed that it wasn't easily convertable for FS. I think somebody was going to attempt to convert it but never did. So at that point I just figured it might be time to do some angle independent stuff. & after seeing what guys like JP & UW were doing with them, I thought it could actually be a good thing & also maybe force me to learn more basic VP table building which I really never had done before since I leaned on decals since day 1. Obviously probably like you I just wasn't a fan of how many actual VP objects looked. That is still an issue, but people have come up with pretty clever ways of making things look decent.
I fear that I'm still coming off like I'm requesting that people don't do reel/decal based tables. I want to make it clear that I'm definitely not saying that. I'm just saying that I personally chose not to do them anymore, & for all the above reasons. I just like the idea of trying to keep the desktop & FS communities in sync, I think that is important, because I really do think things can get out of whack as we start seeing more releases only going to FS. Reel based or not, but at least if not reel based I can usually do a decent conversion pretty quickly, but its getting hard to keep up.
I know some people could care less about desktop tables, but lets not forget VP wouldn't even exist if not for desktop tables. VP would continue on quite well if FS didn't exist, as it did for years. But FS wouldn't be doing too well if desktop tables suddenly stopped being made. The number of authors & members would drop considerably, & it would ultimately hurt FS users. I wouldn't be saying this if FS users were the majority, but that simply isn't the case, & likely will never be the case. So the point of all my posting here is simply that I do get concerned about how this stuff affects the community, or will affect it down the road. Again, the fact that T2 for FS already has such a nice version might mean that desktop users may have to wait a lot longer for a new version, for example. For the exact same reasons why some tables Scapino has done could use an update for FS, but not desktop, & so authors may not view these tables as needing rebuilt all that badly.
As for tables being built for FS or having a resolution in them that might be more beneficial to FS, I sort of understand that. However, on my desktop I actually run higher resolutions than any cab user does, & have a decent sized screen. & I definitely see benefits from higher resolutions as well. It isn't just FS users that benefit from this sort of stuff.
I know I've now beaten this topic to death. While reel based tables might not be as appealing to authors as they used to be, decals/reels will always be able to do things that standard tables simply can't. They are visually unlimited, you can do whatever you want since its like a blank canvas you have to work with. There will always be the pro's & con's. But please work on stuff however you feel, we have so few authors & I'm all for any VP related stuff that people want to work on. In the end it is definitely much better that some people can enjoy a release rather than nobody at all.
Edited by rob046, 09 December 2012 - 01:19 AM.
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