34 replies to this topic

[hmueck]

Create the empty folder structure of the Media Pack by unpacking a previous Media Pack and deleting the previous files or by creating the folders yourself. The structure should look like this:
 
HyperPin
                UltraVP
                Media
                               HyperPin
                                               Instruction Cards
                                               Flyer Images
                                                               Back
                                                              Front
                                                               Inside1
                                                               Inside2
                                                               … (as many InsideX folders as you need)
                               Visual Pinball
                                               Backglass Images
                                               Table Images
                                               Wheel Images
 

 
Each and every file you put in these folders must have the same filename:
Tablename (Brandname year).abc (where .abc is .jpg/.png/.uvp/.swf).
E.g. „Earthshaker (Williams 1989)“ or „Elvis (Stern 2004)“.
Check ipdb.org for information on a table if you’re not sure.
 
UltraVP
This folder should contains one file only: the .uvp file (with the information about the alphanumeric displays and the light bulbs behind the blackglass).
Check www.vpforums.org and www.theretrocade.com/flying_dutchman if an UVP has already been created.
In case there is no UVP yet, you could choose to create your own or to not include a UVP file. A simple UVP (e.g. with the alphanumeric displays only) is very easy to create with the UltraVPServer.exe. Check the „Tutorial UltraVPServer - English Version.pdf“ in your HyperPin folder for more information.
If you create the Media Pack for a B2S table, you can skip the UVP.
 
Instruction cards
This folder should contain a .swf file (that’s an Adobe Flash file). A .jpg or .png will not work here. Unless you rename it to .swf. This doesn’t make it a .swf file and shouldn’t work, but HyperPin doesn’t seem to care. This might change in the future.
You can convert many filetypes to real .swf files with SWFtools from www.swftools.org.
You can find instructions cards at ipdb.org, www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/, http://www.pinballre...ns/instruction/ or www.sternpinball.com (Sega & Stern only).
 
Flyer images
The front, back and inside folders should contain .jpg files.
You can find flyers at ipdb.org and flyers.cdyn.com/pingames/.
 
Backglass images
This folder should contain a .png file.
If you have a UVP package, the .png from this package belongs in this folder.
You can find finished backglass images at www.arcadecrusade.com/gallery/v/minimarquees/Minis+and+Lables/hyperpin/backglasses/, www.theretrocade.com/flying_dutchman/ and www.mediafire.com/backglasses.
Sometimes you can also find a nice finished backglass in the 16:9 spanned tables at www.vpforums.org. Use the image manager to export the picture and convert it to .png.
In case no backglass image has been created yet, you can look for photos of backglasses/backboxes at ipdb.org and google.com. Use Photoshop/Gimp to straighten the image.
In case you can’t find any picture, use the flyer (preferably a 300dpi scan) and cut out the backglass image.
 
Table image
This folder should contain a .png file.
Start the table in VP, move away the DMD, find a nice attract mode light sequence and press the Print key (right of F12) on your keyboard. Close VP and open Microsoft Paint from the Start Menu/All Programs/Accessories.
Paste the picture in Paint, crop the picture to 1920x1080 (in case you have a second screen) and rotate it 180°. Save it as .png file in the table image folder.
Then rotate the image 90° counter-clockwise. Open the menu and click „Save as“ (don’t click the Save icon!) to save a .jpg file e.g. on your desktop. This .jpg file will be used as the preview picture when you upload the Media Pack.
In case you *did* click the Save icon, use the undo button until you see the table image again and click save again. Then rotate again and use „Save As“.
 
Wheel images
This folder should contain a .png file.
You can find finished wheel images at www.vpforums.org and http://www.arcadecru...in/hyperwheels/.
If you can’t find a finished wheel image, check google.com for e.g. „tablename pinball logo“ or use the flyer or backglass for inspiration. Go wild with Photoshop/Gimp.
 
 
Preparing the upload
After you collected all the files, create a .zip file directly of the HyperPin folder. When you open the finished .zip file you should see the HyperPin folder directly. No need for additional folders with e.g. the table name and then putting in the hyperpin folder – this will produce additional work for the person who wants to use the HyperPin Media Pack.
If you’re using OSX, try to tell your archiving program not to include additional folders (__MACOSX) or files (._.DS_Store / ._Media).
The name of the .zip file can e.g. be „Tablename HPMP.zip“
 
Open the Media Pack category on vpforums.org
http://www.vpforums....oads&showcat=35
and click „Upload File“.
Step 1: browse and attach the .zip file.
Step 2: browse and attach the .jpg file created from the table image.
Step 3:
File Name
Please use the same name you used for the files in the Media Pack. Add „[HP MEDIA PACK]“ after the name. E.g.:
„Ali (Stern 1980) [HP MEDIA PACK]“ or „Last Lap (Playmatic 1978) [HP MEDIA PACK]“
File Version
Enter a file version like „1.0“ if you like. Recommended when you upload a new version of your Media Pack.
File Tags
You can enter key words for the Media Pack if you like. E.g. the table name, the brand, manufacturer, year, creator of the recreation, creators of the components of the Media Pack, etc.
Change Log
When you upload a version of your Media Pack, enter the things you changed in here. One change per line, no need to seperate the lines somehow or add „- „, the forum will do that automatically.
Description
The description should contain the entry for the Visual Pinball.xml file that the downloader has to add.
E.g.:
XML:
<game name="TableName goes here">
<description>Lord Of The Rings (Stern 2003)</description>
<manufacturer>Stern</manufacturer>
<year>2003</year>
<type>SS</type>
</game>
 
And don’t forget to give credit / thank the creator of the components you used for your Media Pack!
E.g.:
Special thanks to:
Flying Dutchman - UVP
Inkochnito - Instruction card
Grizz - wheel image
IPDB.org – flyer
 
Click „Add Submission“.

[The Loafer]

That is a great post, thanks Hmueck

[blur]

great tutorial hmueck! only few add ons:

 

Table images

for table images with hyperpin and latest fplaunch (wip 9) - just press o while playing table - it will rotate and save image

remember that you have to do it on full hd screen so that image is 1920x1080

you can do that for backglass also by pressing u but only for b2s tables - non b2s tables don't have backglass if it is not already in backglass directory, so it makes no sense to save it over existing one (though it will be saved if you press "u" so watch out)

keys are configurable in settings.ini

 

Wheel images

for wheel images if you do them your self you have to

find some image with logo

crop logo with crop tool

add alpha channel (enables transparency)

select borders that you want to make invisible with fuzzy select tool and select by color tool in gimp, experiment with percent AND always use antialiasing and sometimes even fethering of edges to get nice straight borders - i used to do lot's of wheels that were lousy just because i did not use antialiasing

everything that you select you turn transparent just by pressing delete

you can add to selection by pressing shift or if you selected part of the wheel remove from selection with control, you can tune percentage between each click

you can delete all in the end after one big select or select something - delete - select - delete... many times

 

Backglass images

for backglass images - except cropping you have to almost always change perspective with change perspective tool - NOT shear tool but change perspective tool - you can stretch image so that all backglass corners fit to corners of your image and then you press enter and image is cropped to that corners and stretched borders are removed

 

lot's of people put one folder with table name above hyperpin - that's not good because such media packs are difficult to extract quickly to your hyperpin folder

Edited by blur, 11 January 2013 - 09:18 AM.

[ArcadiusMaximus]

In addition to this I would really like to see a standard for image sizes. Before I fixed them, the wheel art logos were all over the place ( some big, some small). Now all my wheel art is uniform. I was going to bring this up last week but didn't want to start a war since some people can't even agree on how physics work .

[Noah Fentz]

Very Nice!

 

Promoted to Tutorial!

 

Thank you!

 

[hmueck]

In addition to this I would really like to see a standard for image sizes. Before I fixed them, the wheel art logos were all over the place ( some big, some small). Now all my wheel art is uniform.

 

To me it looks like Hyperpin always shows the wheel image with around 900px width. The only difference seems to be the height.

When a wheel image is very high and i don't like how it looks, i add empty pixels left and right of the wheel image, so Hyperpin will show it "smaller" (Photoshop, canvas size).

So as a "standard size", anything wider than 900px doesn't make sense since Hyperpin will scale it down. Anything less than 900px will look ugly.

How can you standardize wheel image sizes otherwise? A wide logo with "harley davidson" written from left to right will never look the same in Hyperpin as a high round safecracker logo, will it?!

Edited by hmueck, 10 January 2013 - 09:15 PM.

[maceman]

Great Job!!

To me, people who add the XML entry right to the Media Pack link are my heros!!  Saves me so much time looking up the info!!

 

E.g.:
XML:
<game name="TableName goes here">
<description>Lord Of The Rings (Stern 2003)</description>
<manufacturer>Stern</manufacturer>
<year>2003</year>
<type>SS</type>
</game>

[blur]

I don't see any problem.

You have all data in any picture name - so if pictures in media pack are named "Lord Of The Rings (Stern 2003).png/jpg" you know that table description is "Lord Of The Rings (Stern 2003)", manufacturer is Stern and year is 2003. You see also if it is SS or EM type just by looking at backglass - if it has digital scores or dmd it is ss, if it has rotating "paper" scores - it is em.

[hmueck]

I don't see any problem.

It's not a problem if it's missing, but when it's there, it's saving time for all the users.

[toxie]

In addition to this I would really like to see a standard for image sizes. Before I fixed them, the wheel art logos were all over the place ( some big, some small). Now all my wheel art is uniform.

 

To me it looks like Hyperpin always shows the wheel image with around 900px width. The only difference seems to be the height.

When a wheel image is very high and i don't like how it looks, i add empty pixels left and right of the wheel image, so Hyperpin will show it "smaller" (Photoshop, canvas size).

So as a "standard size", anything wider than 900px doesn't make sense since Hyperpin will scale it down. Anything less than 900px will look ugly.

How can you standardize wheel image sizes otherwise? A wide logo with "harley davidson" written from left to right will never look the same in Hyperpin as a high round safecracker logo, will it?!

 

Talking about ugly display of wheelart in hyperpin: Is it really normal that the image scaling of HyperPin is kinda like broken?

Sometimes pixel are replicated, sometimes "something" is filtered between scaled pixels (but not like one is used to from bilinear filtering).. All very weird..

But as you say 900 pixels seems to be the golden spot (although even then some logos will show small artifacts)..

[hmueck]

But as you say 900 pixels seems to be the golden spot (although even then some logos will show small artifacts)..

That number is just a guess. Could also be 1080x85%=918 pixel. Who knows... well... the programmer must know. I just send im a PM.

[toxie]

Cool, please get back with the optimal scale, cause it already drove me nuts for quite some time.. Or maybe we could also ask for simply -fixing- it..

(After all image filtering is a solved issue since like 20 years or so.. )

[ArcadiusMaximus]

In addition to this I would really like to see a standard for image sizes. Before I fixed them, the wheel art logos were all over the place ( some big, some small). Now all my wheel art is uniform.

 

To me it looks like Hyperpin always shows the wheel image with around 900px width. The only difference seems to be the height.

When a wheel image is very high and i don't like how it looks, i add empty pixels left and right of the wheel image, so Hyperpin will show it "smaller" (Photoshop, canvas size).

So as a "standard size", anything wider than 900px doesn't make sense since Hyperpin will scale it down. Anything less than 900px will look ugly.

How can you standardize wheel image sizes otherwise? A wide logo with "harley davidson" written from left to right will never look the same in Hyperpin as a high round safecracker logo, will it?!

When I was resizing things I realized that some wheel art needs to be taller than others. Just not obscenely taller like the Big Bang Bar logo.  So I created 2 templates: 1 for horizontal logos and 1 for vertical logos. For the horrizontal logo I used the Attack from Mars wheel art since it seemed to look pretty good on my screen. For the vertical logos like Big Bang Bar and Big Hit I took the Attack from Mars template I created then brought in the tall logos in. Using constrain scale I began to resize the vertical logos so they where about as tall as the horizontal logos were wide....Hope that makes sense I haven't had my coffee yet today

[hmueck]

Using constrain scale I began to resize the vertical logos so they where about as tall as the horizontal logos were wide....Hope that makes sense I haven't had my coffee yet today

On one hand it makes sense, but on the other hand the wheel image sizes will still be all over the place when looking at them in Hyperpin. A horizontal logo with a width of 300 looks much bigger than one with width 700 - even if they both have a height of 900px.
EDIT: Or is there also a maximum of 900px height? So a logo with 900px in either direction will not be shown any bigger? I will test that later...

Edited by hmueck, 11 January 2013 - 02:03 PM.

[ArcadiusMaximus]

Using constrain scale I began to resize the vertical logos so they where about as tall as the horizontal logos were wide....Hope that makes sense I haven't had my coffee yet today

On one hand it makes sense, but on the other hand the wheel image sizes will still be all over the place when looking at them in Hyperpin. A horizontal logo with a width of 300 looks much bigger than one with width 700 - even if they both have a height of 900px.
EDIT: Or is there also a maximum of 900px height? So a logo with 900px in either direction will not be shown any bigger? I will test that later...

 

I think I may have worded it a bit wrong. IMO the best way would be to set a standard width and height for horizontal wheel art. Then based off a proportion determine a maximum height and width for vertical logos. For vertical logos the width would never exceed the width of the horizontal logo ( shouldn't even be close really). The vertical art would not necessarily be 900px high or as tall as the horizontal art is wide. Also I think setting a standard dpi would be required too. If you look at my image below you can see what I mean. Again I used the Attack From Mars wheel art as my basis and went from there. These numbers aren't set in stone, they just worked well for me.

 

Edited by ArcadiusMaximus, 11 January 2013 - 02:37 PM.

[hmueck]

For vertical logos the width would never exceed the width of the horizontal logo ( shouldn't even be close really).

It shouldn't be close, but it's actually always the same width. That's the problem. The only way around it is to add transparent pixels left and right of the horizontal logo.

(those numbers aren't real, just examples)

In case of your example, Hyperpin would enlarge the yellow 4"x3.5" to 4.5"x4" or something.

Edited by hmueck, 11 January 2013 - 03:36 PM.

[ArcadiusMaximus]

For vertical logos the width would never exceed the width of the horizontal logo ( shouldn't even be close really).

It shouldn't be close, but it's actually always the same width. That's the problem. The only way around it is to add transparent pixels left and right of the horizontal logo.

(those numbers aren't real, just examples)

In case of your example, Hyperpin would enlarge the yellow 4"x3.5" to 4.5"x4" or something.

So what your saying is hyperpin stretches the images regardless? If so maybe we could work backwards to figure out an optimal size. That would be a good idea to indent the image for vertical wheel art so even when its stretched, the proportions remain the same.

[hmueck]

So what your saying is hyperpin stretches the images regardless?

Yes, i think so.

If so maybe we could work backwards to figure out an optimal size. That would be a good idea to indent the image for vertical wheel art so even when its stretched, the proportions remain the same.

The proportions (aspect ratio) will not be changed by Hyperpin. It just makes the vertical images so big, that in worst case they cover the whole wheel and a lot of the table image. As i said the only way to make them smaller is to add transparent pixels left and right. Then the visible logo might be 400x800 instead of 900x1800 (because with all the transparent pixels it's actually a horizontal wheel with 900x800).

In other words, when you have a vertical logo with 500x1000, resizing it to 250x500 makes no change. Hyperpin will always show it as 900x1800.

Unless somebody tells me that there's also a vertical 900px limit.

[hmueck]

Nope, no vertical limit...

 Hyperpin (scaled to 25%)    wheel image (original size)

Edited by hmueck, 11 January 2013 - 06:24 PM.

[hmueck]

Cool, please get back with the optimal scale, cause it already drove me nuts for quite some time..

Well, BadBoyBill send me a PM and says it's 700. But when i measure it in paint, one is 862 pixels, one is 924px.