I have started working on a full graphics rebuild of Tales of the Arabian Nights and want to share the updates with you. Triggered by the work of G5K I want to try the following:
- all graphics (all) will be prerendered; all the physics will be (invisible) VPX objects
- all rendering will be done with "project from view". Recently I finally figured out how to get the exact same camera point of view as in VPX. This enables perfect transparent ramps (Diner was more sort of the same viewpoint). This means that the FS and DT view will be sort of fixed to the settings I set them to. Diner has this as well, White Water not so much.
- all objects will get prerendered GI and Flasher lighting (including posts, plastics, metal rails, etc).
My other tables have prerendered graphics, but I have not yet made a full prerendered table, so this is partly a new journey as well. And since I do not have access to a fullblown renderfarm like G5K, I have to optimize everything otherwise rendering will take forever.
Contributors so far:
- Clark Kent: a perfect new playfield in the crazy resolution of 6301x14086 pixels (almost 16K resolution!!); I will use it at 4K level in the rebuild in VPX
- Clark Kent: almost all of the plastics in pristine scanned quality
- JPSalas: for the original VPX table
- Rothbauerw: he offered to implement the spinning lamp code, which is similar to the disc in Safecracker. Also working on material based physics, a real trough and subway, and surround sound
- Randr: graciously provided new images of the genie in order to make a better texture of the genie. Also working on 3d scanning the genie for me to have a highpoly model to do lighting tricks.
- My brother: he works professionally in the 3d scanning business (scanning people). He is helping me converting the genie images into a good texture.
Work done up to now:
- remade all the inserts with prerendered on/off textures. I have a new way in VPX to still have fading lights but with proper on/off textures.
- partly converted all objects into a full Blender model of the table.
- remodeled the ramps and did the first test of a project-from-view rendered ramps. Blender 2.8 has a new feature which makes it easier to implement these ramps.
- remade the lamp, see the post below.
- made some new fireball pinball bats
As usual I will update this thread with pictures, but I thought to do a longer post on specific items, explaining how I create them. This first one will be on the lamp, coming right up after the break. To start with, some first images of the WIP:
Blender:
VPX: