39 replies to this topic

[hauntfreaks]

File Name: America's Most Haunted (Spooky 2014) (B2S)

File Submitter: hauntfreaks

File Submitted: 11 Aug 2015

File Category: dB2S Animated Backglasses

Author(s): HauntFreaks
Shoopity
freneticamnesic
Manufacturer: Other - Pinball
Year: 2014

this is an un-animated B2S for America's Most Haunted, I added some basic lighting and grill
if someone feels like animating it, please go for it....
 
v3.0
- 2 or 3 screen support added by freneticamnesic
 
v2.0
- animation added by: Shoopity
(animation will only work if you have table "amh 081915a" or newer)

Click here to download this file

[Ben Logan]

Spooky good...

[Shoopity]

Give me info on the capabilities of B2S (I've never designed one myself and I've only briefly looked at Scared Stiff to see if it were at all possible to animate the spider any smoother).  My understanding is that any "toys", like the SS spider or the CV cannon, are just frames of an image that get turned on/off at the correct times; is this a correct, at least basic, understanding?  I know AMH doesn't have any toys, but it does have lots of lighting effects.

 

Is the lighting handled the same way?  Does the designer just do some pretty good image manipulation at the point you add a light and just make that manipulation appear/disappear at the right times?  Or is the lighting a little more dynamic like in VPX?  I ask because there are lots of fading effects which can be fairly easily coded by simply increasing/decreasing RGB values until they hit the target color.  Even if fading isn't really feasible (maybe it's possible, but that would mean putting in hundreds of Frames of colors in), is it possible to just add all the main colors the back glass could be?

 

Again I ask because I did some fiddling just yesterday.  In VP9, I achieved all the fading effect by overlapping three Flashers on top of each, each Flasher having a different Image, either Red, Green, or Blue.  By adjusting the alpha value of each Flasher differently, I can get any color I want, just like a real RGB LED.  When I was playing with the B2S designer, any time I overlapped a Frame, only the Frame on top was showing in the Preview, but I wasn't sure if that's how it would look in the final product.  Or maybe there's a way to change the color of the Frame/Light from script?

[STAT]

Just a little Idea for the Ball in Play (3-2-1, 0), maybe you can add it ...

Attached Files

•  b0.png   56.89KB   6 downloads
•  b1.png   56.9KB   6 downloads
•  b2.png   56.98KB   5 downloads
•  b3.png   56.84KB   5 downloads

[hauntfreaks]

Give me info on the capabilities of B2S (I've never designed one myself and I've only briefly looked at Scared Stiff to see if it were at all possible to animate the spider any smoother).  My understanding is that any "toys", like the SS spider or the CV cannon, are just frames of an image that get turned on/off at the correct times; is this a correct, at least basic, understanding?  I know AMH doesn't have any toys, but it does have lots of lighting effects.

 

Is the lighting handled the same way?  Does the designer just do some pretty good image manipulation at the point you add a light and just make that manipulation appear/disappear at the right times?  Or is the lighting a little more dynamic like in VPX?  I ask because there are lots of fading effects which can be fairly easily coded by simply increasing/decreasing RGB values until they hit the target color.  Even if fading isn't really feasible (maybe it's possible, but that would mean putting in hundreds of Frames of colors in), is it possible to just add all the main colors the back glass could be?

 

Again I ask because I did some fiddling just yesterday.  In VP9, I achieved all the fading effect by overlapping three Flashers on top of each, each Flasher having a different Image, either Red, Green, or Blue.  By adjusting the alpha value of each Flasher differently, I can get any color I want, just like a real RGB LED.  When I was playing with the B2S designer, any time I overlapped a Frame, only the Frame on top was showing in the Preview, but I wasn't sure if that's how it would look in the final product.  Or maybe there's a way to change the color of the Frame/Light from script?

 

Shoopity... I have very few answers... I'm no good at making it work, I can do EM B2S if its already coded into the tables.... the designer is really easy then... beyond that I dont have a clue to animate the BG
since your a coder I might be easier... you will need to code the events into the table that will trigger the lamps/images on the B2S BG... thats about all I know... I wish I could be more help... everyone says the help file has it all in there... but what i can do is make all the image frames needed if need be... I would just need to know what ones... 

STAT's example is perfect on how its done... the designer is a bit out of date and could use an update , but it does it done.... 

sorry I couldnt be better help

Edited by hauntfreaks, 13 August 2015 - 03:26 AM.

[Shoopity]

Oh, I know I could code it, but I need to know what B2S can do in the first place.  Like I said, if B2S can blend Red, green, and Blue together, then I can adjust the adjust the intensity of each colored light and be very accurate to the real table.  But, if each color (Red, Green, Blue, Orange, Yellow, White, Brown, etc.) has to be designed separately, then some interpretation of what the code is trying to do will be needed.

 

Or, we could just go completely "Fantasy" with it and design whatever want... ghosts rising from the tombstones, each character flashing whenever that character does a callout (that would take a butt-ton of if statements), whatever.

[STAT]

About the BIP Images, this shouldnt be a Problem (of course with the missing B2S Code in the Table-Script ),

and maybe at one Grave Stone lights "Player 1 - 4" ...

 

I think, i could do that, but here are "kramer73", "loserman76", "32assassin" or "bassgeige", they are very good at B2S what i have seen, maybe they will help us ?

Edited by STAT, 13 August 2015 - 07:36 AM.

[bassgeige]

My history with the dB2S designer is young. I had the idea to try a Spectrum dB2S and since then continuously learn new solutions with each new dB2S I create.

 

From the basic start you need to deside how to control the dB2S. As communication mode you can use no modus, the VPinNAME ROM or the B2S data element communication. With the ROM you can use any ROM output like Solenoid, lamp or the GI String control command. There is also a free modus with the ability to code own fix events which you can control by or without the ROM. Coding means the control about illuminated frames with an inserted RGB colour which is also present as hex value. Further you can use any kind of predefind frames. A predefind frame png file is in the editor named as "snippit" (I think meant is snippet). An animation with more "snippit" is possible. I did that with for example Twister. An animation means time based "snippit" or frames like a flip-book. They are coded step by step (On/Wait, Off/Wait as or without an interval in ms) or from the ROM. An animation can join to any B2S/ROM ID. Animations are independent from each other. Same named frames act as a bunch.

[Shoopity]

Can you change the RGB value of a Frame from the code, or is it fixed once it's designed?

Can you change the intensity of a Frame/Light from the code, or is it fixed once it's designed?

Can overlapping frames blend in together?  E.G. if I put a red Frame and a blue Frame on top of each other and turn both of them on, will I see a purple light?

[STAT]

Atm. i cant locate the right Variable for BIP,

but a simple Test with Snippits in B2S works very well with my "Battery Images"

 

What i did and use:

ID 1 - 4 for Snippits-Images at B2S

Added to KiDrain_Hit: Controller.B2SSetData 1,1 'first 1 should be Variable at 1,2,3,4 for Battery-Image 0,1,2,3

Edited by STAT, 14 August 2015 - 06:49 AM.

[STAT]

Shoopity, i can test it later, maybe you get an answer before

[bassgeige]

Unfortunately to my experience a frame which is defined is fix. You can only replace it with another frame with other RGB or light intensity. Overlapping frames blend in together but you always interact with your backglass and the colours you have there too!

Also to heavy blending frames can cause frames which will be simply not shown, cause the colour gets unseen or completely outshined.

"Snippit" can be transparent to show the behind and also backlit backglass and lightning but I did not manage to backlight a "Snippit". The exact interaction can only be seen when you try it. So a native purple needs a backglass and a colour from it that does not interfere the frame mix due to for example different coloured dots of other colour in that area. You will then interact with each of those mixed frames and given picture dots and there wont be everywhere a native purple light.

Edited by bassgeige, 13 August 2015 - 03:29 PM.

[hauntfreaks]

man, you guys need to work this S**t out... it will be awesome to see this animated!!

[freneticamnesic]

No everything you change is either a very basic "light" on the base image, or a complete image swap. It's very limited in regards to actual light transitions. Although perhaps.... perhaps the light objects are good enough that you could do a red one, green one, and blue one, and turn them on/off depending on the color you want. However, there's no fading that I have seen, the light is either on or off as far as I can tell...

[STAT]

Fren, what can i use to calculate BallinPlay (3,2,1,0), atm i cant follow your Way with the "BallsInTrough",

BIP=3-BallsInTrough ... isnt the right one for me, i think i have (we, you have) to add another Variable for BIP ?

Edited by STAT, 14 August 2015 - 07:00 AM.

[Shoopity]

What do you guys think of this

 

I tried blending colors together, but it wasn't "right".  Like, if I turned on Blue, Green, and Red, all with the same intensity, it changed color, you could tell all the lights were on, but it wasn't white, it was primarily the color of whatever frame was on top.

 

Stat, you can use the built-in CountBalls function.  It's a function to count the balls in the trough.  So you could do something like:

BIP = 4 - CountBalls

BallsInTrough was something I used from a long time ago and it was my implementation of my own trough system.  I would think BIP = 4 - BallsInTrough would give you the same thing though.  Maybe that's your problem; there are 4 balls in the table, so you have to subtract 4, not 3?

Edited by Shoopity, 19 August 2015 - 04:03 PM.

[freneticamnesic]

Looks good to me!

[Shoopity]

So here's the idea I had to get in the Fantasy element:

 B2S animated.gif   636.76KB   2 downloads

 

I currently have it hooked up to run when a Sling gets hit (it looks slightly smoother, but the gif capture wasn't running at full speed), and the idea is to have one of every ghost that randomly (or maybe in order) raises when a sling gets hit (mainly because when the slings get hit they make the wailing sound).  Is this a good idea or is it just stupid?

[STAT]

Shoopity, thanks for the Information about the BIP.
Now, do you want to add the Battery-Level Images in B2S ?
 
It would be easy to do, just Import my Images (add new Illumination Snippit), put at X/Y = 0/0 and give them ID 30 to 33 (at my example),
VP Part should be something like this (i want to test it later):
 
Edit: tested with, works well, but show you "Balls Left":

( see on next Post for better BIP )

add in Sub ServeBall()
Controller.B2SSetData (34-ball),0:Controller.B2SSetData (33-ball),1

add in Sub CabStart(...)
Controller.B2SSetData 33,1
 
You can try it with this B2S:
https://mega.nz/#!jR...Husk1cfs1sKn4y8

Edited by STAT, 20 August 2015 - 12:15 PM.

[STAT]

Of course, also for Ball In Play you can try:

add in Sub ServeBall(), below DOF 119,2
Controller.B2SSetData (29+ball),0:Controller.B2SSetData (30+ball),1

add in Sub CabStart(...), below this Line
Controller.B2SSetData 30,1:Controller.B2SSetData 33,0

And of course, with the same B2S:
https://mega.nz/#!jR...Husk1cfs1sKn4y8

Edited by STAT, 20 August 2015 - 12:17 PM.