38 replies to this topic

[anthias]

I've decided to dip my toes in VPX, something I haven't had the headspace to do before now. Over the last few years I have stuck to familiar territory in FP, with the bulk of my tables (well, all but one) being on FP/BAM in recent years. I've been enjoying it, but I felt it was time to tackle the daunting VPX transition. After all, VP was the formative platform, and I did over a hundred tables in the older versions! So I decided to make it less daunting by learning with a mod.

 

JPSalas has kindly given his blessing, so I  am modding his excellent playboy 35th anniversary table.

 

I am retheming it completely, into an all original theme - not a licenced theme. But I am doing it in anime style. So far I am only working on playfield art, but in so doing I have already learned a lot I hadn't fathomed about what has changed in VPX from the old VP6/7/8/9 days.

 

Since this project has cemented in my mind and is now one I will definitely see through to completion, though perhaps over a fair amount of time, I thought I'd just post a little teaser showing the playfield artwork so far. I started from the bottom and worked my way up, and am using layers to add new sections of artwork as I go, which means I can easily rework a section if I decide it doesn't work. For example, the lower left needs some tweaking since faces landed behind plastics.

 

The lighting effects in VPX are something else!

 

 TPTeasershot.png   906.63KB   7 downloads

 

JPSalas has kindly given his blessing for this project. And so far I am working primarily on artwork, and enjoy

[Zuxif]

Looks interesting so far! Thanks for all that you have created/contributed to this hobby in the last decade, I know you have been around a long time! Glad to see you dipping your toes in VPX! I'm sure you will get the hang of it fairly quickly, being that you have made tables for many different versions of VP and FP/Bam. Great choice for the table to mod also, JPsalas version of this is great. It's also an interesting and refreshing table layout. As much as I love a lot of the original tables released lately based off JPsalas wrath of Olympus & JP's mago de oz tables, it's starting to get a little worn out lol. Although both have fantastic layouts and some originals barely resemble the original table. Still, it's nice to see a different and barely used table layout get the original treatment! Thanks and good luck! I look forward to seeing it progress over time.

Also, if you ever need any help testing the table for bugs or cabinet usage, etc. I'm happy to help test! I have a VPin cabinet I built with all of the bells and whistles, so if you need any testing on that part I can help.

Zuxif

[anthias]

Tonight I've been working on lights and plastics. I decided to trial a little homage to the doner table by putting girls on the plastics, but I'm not sold on the look. As they are, I worry the plastic fade too much into the playfield and need more definiton. I'll look at them again on my next effort. THe apron was just a slap on, that will have to change.  TPSS2.png   1.71MB   4 downloads

[anthias]

 TPSS3.png   1.85MB   2 downloads Some minor progress. Art is slowly being integrated. Much will likely change before it's over. But it has new bumper caps, and I have added a bronze trim to plastics to provide some contrast.

[anthias]

 TPSS4.png   1.76MB   0 downloadsmore artistic alterations. It's getting there. I'm honestly dreading dipping into the script and finding out how much there is to do since I've never done VPM stuff before, so I keep finding little things to change! Still a lot of those little things left to do.

[anthias]

 TPSS5.png   2.41MB   2 downloads

 

Not a lot of change to see here, but I finally got VPX into cabinet mode! I think the table looks ok in it so far.

[digitalarts]

Cab mode with b2s would be very nice 👍

[anthias]

SOme good progress today. All sounds, bgm, and mansion replaced. Feels more like its own table now.

[anthias]

And I've reshaped and tidied up the lights. Been tinkering with b2s stuff, no real luck there yet. Also contemplating how to deal with display text that doesn't suit. Like "do you want to be my playboy?" - my though is to replace JP's lights display with the VP native text displays then run an on the fly search and replace function. Change playboy to fly boy, photo shoot to test flight, that sort of thing, so the rom still sends the text but I change it as it's displayed. No clue if that will work yet.

Edited by anthias, 26 December 2023 - 02:11 AM.

[anthias]

 TPSS4.png   1.48MB   0 downloadsHere is a screenshot as it stands. I'm honestly ready to abandon VPX altogether for cabinet play - that stuff is just a hot mess. I don't have the time or the energy to stuff around with it right now, so I will focus my attention on getting the table right in desktop mode, then reassess the situation once this thing is done. Cabinet mode is all effort but no reward right now. And I don't even HAVE a cabinet anyway...

 

Art is getting there. sounds are done. Music is done. Display.... I'm damned if I know how I'm gong to attack that. And I can't seem to find anything in the way of a straightforward scripting guide for interfacing a VP text box with VPM. I know it exists, I've read such a thing about fifteen years ago. But I can't find it anywhere I search. If I can find that, my hope is to run a timer that checks the contents of the text box and alters any text that does not suit the table to text that does. So VPM will populate the text box, then the timer will interrogate it and see that, for example, Playboy is on there, then change it to Test Pilots. I can't even begin to code such a thing if I can't even make the ROM talk through the native text box display. But one step at a time. I REALLY have no motivation to recode the entire god damned table at this time! I even tried modifying the text in the ROM itself but VPM hates the modified version and crashes, so that's not viable. Oh well. One step at a time, it'll get there.

 

Table plays amazing, thanks to the excellent work already done by JPSalas, so it will be nice to get it across the line. Especially now I put all this work into things.

[anthias]

So I have directb2s working with downloaded tables now after a reinstall, but not this one. So now I need to figure out what I did wrong. This project has given me a much better grasp of how VPX works, particularly the differences from earlier VP versions with materials, layers etc.

On the ROM side, it's looking like custom display text isn't possible without completely recoding the table and ditching the ROM. I may elect to do a preliminary release with ROM in place, and possibly recode at a later date - I'll decide on that when it's a little more polished. The ROM lighting control and ruleset does make a big difference to the amount of work involved. Once I've got my head around the peculiarities of VPX.

I haven't coded a VP table in a long while (most recent being the 20Th anniversary release of Dr Rollover a couple of years ago, which was mostly graphical improvements and a couple of minor code mods and couldn't go VPX as I couldn't reverse the playfield slope in script with vpx at the time. Before that it would have been a decade.)

There are many similarities and many differences when coding FP. I have ported from VP to FP but not the other way. Maybe that would be an interesting exercise?

[anthias]

I have erased the Playboy script, effectively removing the ROM from the table. I have pasted in my somewhat ancient template table script, and begun the long arduous task of bending it to my will. Naturally none of the table objects match the table objects scripted, but at least it gives me a display and scoring system to start with. Once I clean up all the other superfluous stuff, I can start coding in the new rules. Some of the playboy rules will be recreated, but I am thinking of some new stuff as well, like an around the table target spotting mode, among other things. 

 

This may take a while. On a positive, the new sky blue segment displays I replaced the old one with look nice at least initially. We'll see if I still feel that way when things are happening on them!

[anthias]

Still on this though the holiday period ended before I could get far into coding. I will keep on plugging away at it.

While my primary goal is to get it coded and done, I'm wondering how good my chances are of getting VP+ to work on vpx, and coding this table for head to head online multiplayer mode? Thoughts sent to plague me...

[anthias]

OK so NOW I am EXCITED! I just went to download the VPPlus addon, and in searching for it, Discovered that Rascal, that deadset legend of an awesome fellow, in 2019 released a VPX table - working with VP Plus! Apparently it had trouble loading from a front end, but it works, so I WILL DEFINITELY be looking at doing some VPPlus tables for VPX, so when I get my cabinet assembled soon, Rockinghorse (My brother) and I can play head to head against each other on our cabinets from different towns, or anybody else who wants to play for that matter! 

 

If you have never used VPPlus, I suggest you download it and try any of the half dozen vp8 tables that were made for it. I'm pretty sure they mostly work on VP9. (My Chrono Crusade is my personal favourite of my tables, but Last Exile was fun too, as was The Pit, hell even Super Collider. But if you can find it, the vp plus version of Bob's Mad Mag is an absolute must have. I'd love to see that one in VPX - an all time classic VP table if ever there was one.

 

And I will decide, once this Test Pilots table is closer to completion, whether I will release a standalone vpx, and a vpx/vpplus table as separate releases. (I may do this so those with less technical ability re addons etc can still enjoy but the players who are determined and want that competitive head to head experience can finally have it again.)

[anthias]

Third time starting over on the script. Things putter along for a while, then VPX goes insane and decides to error on every line of code with "description unavailable." COmment out the offending line, the next one does it, until no script is left. I may have to put this aside for a bit if I can't get VPX to behave. Anybody know why it does this? Once it starts the only solution I can find is to delete the entire thing and start over, but I can't keep doing that.

[anthias]

Well I solved that one. I was using my old VP template script, which uses public variables. Turns out VPX hates those and if you have them, starts throwing these errors all over the place. So I got rid of the publics and made them dims. Now that error is fixed. But I get a syntax error on "sub Table1_Init()"

 

huh?

[hmueck]

But I get a syntax error on "sub Table1_Init()"

 

huh?

Did you rename the table to TestPilots?

[anthias]

No. But when I'm at the PC next I will. And change the sub to match you never know!

[anthias]

Found a missing end sub, then corrected a few calls to missing assets (the nature of dragging in my ancient template code) and now I have a working script, keeping scores for four players, balls on table etc. The main guts are in place and nothing is crashing anymore. Now the real scripting can finally begin!

[anthias]

 TPSS6.png   1.81MB   0 downloads

 

It's been a while since a screen shot. SO while I'm happy with it (as in, it's currently loading, playing, and not crashing) I thought I would give a new screenshot. Not a lot visually since the last one, a couple of graphci tidies and obviously the new display section, which I will tidy some more next session, those four funky looking lights will be dealt with, they were simply needed to get the template script running.

 

I've coded the underlying scoring, highscore routines, bonus routines, display routines etc, the top lanes and bumpers, and a new skill shot (and light as indicator)

 

Still I dare say a long time to go yet, but I finally feel like the script is underway.