Jump to content

johnparker007

 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,664

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    119

 Content Type 

Posts posted by johnparker007

  1. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted

    First test of getting some data across the internet.  In this vid, the left and right are two separate instances of the arcade.  Both on my PC, but they could just as easily be on different PCs anywhere (using Amsterdam for the server for now, as we're mainly UK/EU based).  You can notice the block on the right instance moves with some slight delay and smoothing, as I move it 'live' in the left instance. 

     

  2. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted

    25 minutes ago, A:E said:

    Cool as.   What kind of backup are you thinking?  I have a 1tb one drive, but not sure how handy that is for this type of work?

    J

    Aw thanks mate :)  It's cool though, I've got something underway this afternoon - I've set up Perforce to run locally to manage the code/assets, then backing that up to BT Cloud (I get 1TB online free with them)... it's all chugging away at the mo, but I think that along with occasionally making a copy of my work folder to an external hard drive should do the trick, and ensure the project is safely backed up as it continues to grow :) 

  3. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    1 hour ago, A:E said:

    Wow!!

    Not sure how viable this is but to feel even more immersed is it possible to mix in other slots being played.  Maybe computer controlled punters randomly playing the machines, like have your random lamp sequences but some samples from other machines in the mix.  I think there are generic arcade sound themes available but to have actual real familiar slot sounds would be so neat.  I could record some machine session audio.

    PS Certain machines do have demo attract sounds that will randomly play when the machine is not getting in use.

    Thanks for your continued work on this, this is exactly how I would like to interact with mfme!!  

    J

     

    I was thinking that for each machine, there would be pre-recorded gameplay clip (audio and lamps/reels etc).  Then if that machine is in use, its audio sample would play on the client.  By taking into account where the client avatar is stood, that would set how loud each sample would be playing.  So hopefully it would sound authentic, once there are say 10-15 machines being played around the arcade - so you would only hear the sounds of Bar X being played off to your left if there actually is a Bar X being played off to your left.  This approach could also support attract mode audio.

    As you walk closer to the Bar X being played, that sample would get louder (and machines being played that you are walking away from would get quieter).  If you got close enough to trigger 'observer mode', then it would start streaming the live lamps/reels, and potentially audio (I am not sure how doable streaming the live audio will be just yet) etc from the PC of the player actually playing the game locally in MFME.

    There could be bots walking around playing too, though whether they'd really be playing in a streamable way (autoplay style where they just press random buttons to run through credits) will require more thought, as that's going to cost significant CPU time 'somewhere' in the network... just walking around simulating playing without actually running MFME instances will be fine though :)  When a bot is playing a machine, it would then run a prerecorded gameplay loop just like how the idle loops work.

    In the short term, I have to sort out a better system for backing up this project - it's basically outgrown what github is for (mainly code), and is getting up to commercial game scale now!  So I'd best get that sorted, as my project work folder is currently >6gb, and it's only going to keep growing, especially when I add all the other converted machines!  I expect the end user install when all this is done will be something like 1gb.

    • Like 2
    • Awesome 1

  4. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted

    I've been doing some research into customisable avatars, and settled on a system that I think I will use.  It's more complex to implement, but I believe it gives the best results.  It would've really bugged me that the machines and environment would look realistic, but then the characters would look cartoonish, I think it would've been a real immersion-breaker!

    Anyway, here's me playing with the sample scene of the system (shows how the end user can customise their avatar at runtime), I popped some attract mode Happy Hours in the background along with our beloved arcade carpet to give it a bit of the arcade feel :)

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
    • Awesome 1

  5. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    1 hour ago, A:E said:

    Hey John, not sure if Guitar has seen this thread but might be worth contacting him, I believe he had a 3D model of the JPM Vogue cabinet...  Indiana Jones as pictured above ;)

    Also, am I correct in thinking this could just be an online 3D realm so you already have machines fully converted so a normal user can just log in and play in 3D arcades?

    So essentially not even have mfme at all?

    This could be massive.

    Anyway as you were mate, this is far ahead into future times. Exciting prospects ;) 

     

    J

    Thanks for the heads up, I may hit him up depending on how well my foray into 3DS Max goes :) 

    I've currently discounted running the emulators on the server itself, as it wont scale - so if 100 people were to be online playing a machine each, I'd need the computing power to run 100 emulator instances... also they would experience a delay when interacting with the machine (as their button press has to get to the server, take place on server's emulator, then the client is also on a delay when rendering the machine via remote streamed data.

    So the plan is to have the end user running a single emulator instance locally (that would be installed as part of the arcade software) whenever they are playing a machine.  Then, if people walk up to watch the gameplay, the player initially streams the codec to say the first 3 watchers, who in turn stream to up to 3 watchers each, etc.  There'll be some small increasing delay for the observers as you move down the chain, but it's a scalable approach, so 1,000 people could all crowd around watching one machine being played, and the server wouldn't be overloaded :)

    • Like 2

  6. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    2 hours ago, slasher said:

    This may be something @Wildmanslots can help with?

    He's done flyers with cabinet pics on before and they've turned out brilliantly.

    Appreciated :)  My general (somewhat uniformed) strategy for the cab models is to have say a straight on and side profile photo of the machine to be modelled, e.g:
    image.thumb.png.f9f0adb30ca7ab654dadad9c9c25accd.png

    image.thumb.png.62e2939e71756b56a352f296dbf023bc.png

    ...and then with a few rough known dimensions (i.e: cabinet width is 82cm, cabinet height at rear is 196cm)... I should be able to model the cab to accurate scale in 3DS Max. 

    I'm just going to keep using the single cab model I have for now to keep things rolling, but I also have a talented 3D artist friend in mind who might up for doing some work on this project. 

    He'll still need a few reference pics per cab, though from what I can tell there are far fewer cab variants than actual machine variants, for instance this JPM grey cabinet seems to have been used for a lot of different machines - great news for us, as then I only need a single JPM cabinet model and use it for all the JPM machines, and I'm pretty sure the same is true for other manufacturers due to it being more cost-effective to have 'standard' cabinets that they then put their various different game into :) 
    666_500_csupload_19491129.jpg?u=4273797709




     

    • Like 1

  7. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted

    11 hours ago, slasher said:

    What an amazing piece of eye candy!

    One bit of criticism - doesn't really matter as such unless you're trying to be perfect, but the cab you've used isn't a proper BFG Eclipse cab as it has black trim at the top and bottom (under the buttons).

    It doesn't really matter but thought I'd point it out before it gets too far in case you wanted it to be a 100% or as near as :P

    Thanks for the info :) Currently I only have this one model, which I bought to save time so I could get started on the 3d side.  My plan is to get some basic 3DS Max skills, then I reckon I'll be able to tweak/make new cab models as needed, as a lot of them are quite simple really; just chrome/painted metal tubing and black mdf panels - it should be something I can knock up then from photos, so the cabs are roughly authentic.

    10 hours ago, vectra666 said:

    Looks great I’d like to see different machines running next to each other if possible 

    when the arcade goes online account holders will need a avatar something like Nintendo wii did or like forte nite lol

    also what if someone does a emptier on a machine (big j lol) their bank roll will be huge!!!

    Simple customisable humanoid avatars was what I had in mind :) - I'll probably just buy a prebuilt avatar creating/rendering system to save dev time, not researched that area yet, but should hopefully be something out there I can 'drop in' without a ton of work.

    9 hours ago, A:E said:

    We have a lot of chipped machines, it’s best not to have emptiable a online I guess.  Though it could be a separate arcade in its own where all unchipped machines live ;)

    J

    This is a good point :) if/when this all gets to that stage, you guys will have get a list together of say 100 machines (and the relevant roms) that we want in the first test arcade, that are not vulnerable to emptiers for the tournaments.  And yeah I see no problem with having a side room full of unchipped machines -  I'll just have a flag on these broken machines that marks them as non-eligible for tournament play (so it wouldn't apply profit/loss to your bankroll).

    • Like 2

  8. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    Ok sounds like I need to convert Rat Race and get a 3d model of a mobility scooter! ;) 
     

    2 hours ago, A:E said:

    Wow, seriously John.  You will be able to walk around and view machines in full on 3D!!!    Wow!!!

    Also you didn’t just mention online arcade did you!!!!    Nice.

    You will have to have a set bankroll as you will play the machines like with real cash that way ;).

    J

     

    Yep walking around is very much the plan, to get that first person perspective going on for the immersion :) 

    And yes, I think the cat's out of the bag that my plan is to make this into a live arcade... so I'm thinking to make it so you can walk around and watch other people playing games on their machines (plus potential text/voice chat), as well as playing on machines yourself.  When you choose to play a free machine, MFME will be launched in the background to run that machine.  When you have finished playing on the machine, your server-based bankroll balance will update accordingly based on cash in/out.  Then that will allow for daily/weekly/monthly tournaments etc which should be a lot of fun :) 

    So as a part of that new work, I've taken a break from the Converter today, and started very basic work on the 'codec'.  This will allow streaming of the machines lamps/reels/vfds across the net, as I should be able to write some efficient lossless compression.  Currently I've just implemented the base recorder/player system, along with the recording/playing of 'simple' (on/off - no fade levels yet) lamps.

    This will be used for all the free machines to play their attract mode loops without needing to have an MFME instance running for each machine (as that would get impractical very quickly).  Here's a demo of 44 machines running their attract mode lamps (at random playback start points to provide variation) via this new system (so I am running zero MFME instances here).  These are not perfect loops, I just recorded a few minutes, later I should be able to write something to auto-identify the loops when recording the attract modes.

    Anyway, enough blurb from me - onto the eye candy (may be best to watch this direct on youtube rather than embedded in the forum, then you'll be able to see in full 1080p HD, as some of the lamps are now tiny!): :) 

     

    • Like 3
    • Awesome 2

  9. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    3 hours ago, A:E said:

    This is amazing and impressive.

    I take it you can’t move around in this 3D world, are these baked in viewing angles?

    J

    Thanks mate :) 

    You could move around in this environment, I'm generally using a static camera for these videos as it's just very quick for me to set up.  Once I get that side of it more set up, I'll do some walking around videos :) 

    2 hours ago, ProfessorDawn said:

    This looks incredible.

    If you release this and it is easy to use with any machine on MFME for a dumb arse like me - there is £100 coming to you from PayPal.

    This would be an incredible add-on that you have made for the fruit machine emulator.

    Thanks man - and the offer of the donation is very kind :) ...if I get it all properly up and running, I'll put any donations towards server costs for hosting the networked arcade (there'll probably also be an offline mode for those that don't want to play in the live arcade) :) 

    • Like 2
    • Awesome 1

  11. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    5 hours ago, slasher said:

    That's a lot of clones of Happy Hour

    Hehe indeed - it's just the only one I had to hand that I generated with the latest converter code, so I made some quick copies with a much-needed beer in hand... but hopefully more different machines to follow once I have the last few initial stage (lamp/reel) conversion issues nailed :)  

    4 hours ago, A:E said:

    If you have a different cab is it more specific work for each model to map lamps, reels etc or once this one is totally done is it easy to implement other cab models?

    J

    Good question :)  This should all be automatic (provided the 'empty' 3d cab model has roughly the correct glass aspect ratio(s) of the original)... 

    For each new machine, I generate the glass panels from the 2d mfme layout as a perfect 1m x 1m flat square, regardless of their original aspect ratio (and size):
    image.png.6e28a8aaec04f17b0f67d291376bc85c.png

    image.png.560ee18da9bc2f4ed8423e420e2eab98.png

    Then, for each new cab model, the top and bottom generated 1m square glass panels are then scaled to the 3d cabinet model top/bottom glass rectangles:

    image.png.a24d19ada8dc85d75c214e5c2f6f2c17.png

    ...so in a nutshell the plan is that the generated 1m square panels should auto-scale back to their correct aspect ratio once placed in an appropriate aspect 'empty' cab model panel (like these ones do now, as I'm choosing source machines that fit the single cab model I have so far).

    Later I'm planning to refresh my (very basic) 3ds max skills and knock up some more cabinets, though if it gets too time-consuming for me to do well as I only have extremely novice 3d art skills, I have a games industry artist friend in mind I can call on who would hopefully be interested in chipping in with some bespoke tweakable cabinet models once the project starts to shape up :)  He also has a love for for the late 80s/early 90s retro arcades so I think I could lure him in... ;) 

    P.S. Ignore the incorrect scaled reels in the example pics above, I'm still working on reels/lamps to implement the proper one-size-fits-all perspective pass.

    • Like 2

  12. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    Been working on the reels , but auto-placement/scaling needs me to fix the complicated maths stuff with the lamps - and it's been a long week, so having a beer tonight instead, and a play with the 'arcade environment' idea :)  


    image.thumb.png.933e0c66580330b274b15976195b9c8f.png

    • Like 1
    • Awesome 3

  13. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    After a bit of headscratching, managed to get the transparent reel windows implemented :)   Couple of very minor issues to sort out later with them, but they're good enough to move onto the actual reels next.
    image.thumb.png.60d28cf2c98c3a41472e87950591fc70.png

    • Like 2
    • Shock 1

  14. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    Couldn't handle the purple blocks! ...so have implemented reading Checkboxes from the MFME layout (got away with not doing that until now), and then reading the Transparent value per lamp from the checkbox, along with implementing the alpha support itself.  No more purple blocks, now the alpha lamps render with their transparency :) 
     

     

    • Like 4
    • Awesome 1

  15. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted

    Needed to move to a new layout, with more detailed reel window overlays (as I need to preserve these to then make the reel windows transparent, Monopoly Millionaire ones are just plain square so no good to test with):

    Reel overlays from Happy Hour:
    image.png.7a7890cc3371ea5cc3ac2d055bb00deb.png

     

    After fixing some bugs in the layout extractor stage of the converter, we have the new machine running it's lamps in 3d :) 

    (Bright pink areas are where I have to implement alpha mask support for the lamps that use it).

    • Like 2
    • Awesome 2

  17. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted

    I was meant to be taking a break this week to focus on the day job but got hooked in again :) 

    Got a good start on the extraction of lamp textures from the flat lit background quads and creation of relative positioned new lamps on the quad panels.  There's still quite a bit of work, you'll notice a some lamps are visibly slightly incomplete, usually in their bottom-right, there's some grotty maths and whatnot to sort that out, which may take a while.

    Thought this was worth a quick vid update though albeit in its somewhat unfinished state :) 
     

     

    • Like 5
    • Awesome 2

  18. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, A:E said:

    Will it be able to play machines with video screens or would like be too taxing?

    J

    Video screens should be fine - I had Pacman running before, so doesn't seem to be any issues doing 60FPS emulator raster output in general :) 

     

    • Like 2

  19. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    Work progresses slowly but steadily on the 'Converter' to generate 3d machines from 2d layouts... :)

    Now supports multiple perspective panels on the source 2d layout:

    image.thumb.png.1c1fa3c17eaa08c330d9d5f61508cb4d.png

    ...and after some maths pain, I am finally able to auto-extract 'flat' textures from the perspective panels:
    image.thumb.png.d1e09b9f3d1d277ea9031c7f2a75f588.png

    Here are the generated backgrounds in a cabinet model, as the base for the lamps to go on next:image.thumb.png.d0de68e0dcb288e0e726819833ba9815.png

    3d buttons on bottom are wrong (these are just placeholders), but there is a plan for those, along with the other buttons dotted around the glass panels.

    The note acceptor and coin slot housing in top-right of machine are also 3d.

    Next stage, I'm hoping to get the lamps working :) 

    • Like 3
    • Awesome 4
    • Shock 1

  20. Development Updates

    in Arcade Simulator

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    No eye candy this time, just a tech progress update :)

    Having to redo how lamp image extraction will work for the AI upscaling stage of the converter, as it adds AI upscaling 'noise' around the edges if scaling lamp images independently of the background, which is noticeable when a lamp flashes on/off (and is just not perfect even when lamps are steadily lit, when it can be ;) ).

    To address this, now I auto-generate a background image for each of the lamp sets (Off, On1, On2, On3 etc...) like this:
    image.thumb.png.38a3b8bbd01dfc0d55ce95818d971d57.png

    So when those images (or at least the perspective quads) are upscaled 8x with the AI, I can extract the lamps without having pixel noise around the edges.

    Currently I'm looking into the 'perspective fixing' (much like what's done in Photoshop/Gimp perspective tools), but implementing myself so it can be automatic once the quad is defined.  Here's the very early WIP editable quad tool in place for the bottom glass, in the Unity Editor:

    image.thumb.png.3a60a1ab832c0956610ccc01698c408d.png


    The next step is auto-converting those defined quads (usually two for a machine; one for top glass, one for bottom glass) into 'flat' images.  Then from the flat images, I can extract the background and lamps with original alpha masking (not yet implemented) and also the additional perspective masking, so everything will be correct 'flat' aspect ratio, ready for 3d rendering.

    This process (AI upscale, then perspective correct both backgrounds and lamps, then fix positions and scales) was how I (very slowly and completely manually) made the 2p Cash Nudger 3d test layout, so hopefully it'll all eventually come together and look alright :)

    image.thumb.png.d00cd721c1a64f7563fcbced49794cd1.png


    Edit: Just done a test with the lampsOn1 background, should all look good and noise free :)

    Original:image.thumb.png.b3812d5b8fed50b382a3e792da8bce9e.png

    8x AI Upscaled:image.thumb.png.08d662aa553f3e2a6509d60747026c0c.png
     

    • Like 1
    • Awesome 2

  21. 2D 'flat' glass images from video footage

    in General FME Chat

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    Thanks @Amusements :)   I'm just looking into it a little for the moment, but I may take you up one of your flat PSDs at some point to try some tests with, thanks very much for the offer :)

    (As the AI upscaling technique may not work well on some lower res layouts on the bottom glass panel, since it's already heavily vertically 'squashed' for the pseudo-3d perspective of the source MFME layout image).

    I'm thinking that theoretically once I've 'auto-flattened' an existing MFME layout so it can be used for the 3d panels, I could somehow write something to take a high res flat scan (or flat redraw), and auto map that into place (and potentially auto-lamp it) - giving a much higher fidelity source texture on the existing 3d layout.

    I've still got a couple of big chunks of work left to do on the converter to auto-flatten and AI upscale the source layouts, but then investigating this idea further might be a cool side-quest, to further enhance the visuals ;)

    In the 3d engine, whilst the glass panels can be viewed from any angle:image.png.22767032f677856b5f8092b0ed56bbdf.png

    ...they are stored internally as perfectly flat:image.png.23325e310dc4acb3a93a1c93de5ff0aa.png

    • Like 1

  22. 2D 'flat' glass images from video footage

    in General FME Chat

    Posted

    Ah cool, good to know it's a standard technique :)   Yeah it's a tricky one with the lighting, I tried equalising then tweaking brightness/contrast down, seems to level it out a bit ready for an 'unlit' glass image... but getting the different stitched together parts to have even brightness, that does definitely add more complexity.

    It's an interesting problem, trying to get back to a evenly lit 1:1 ratio complete 2d scan from a bunch of unevenly lit 3d frames :)  

    image.thumb.png.44844c822695abbb09d6c9f9bdf0d2d3.png
     

  23. 2D 'flat' glass images from video footage

    in General FME Chat

    Posted · Edited by johnparker007

    Hey guys :)

    I've just been experimenting with a youtube video, I was able to get this perspective/aspect correct image (as if it were scanned) from a single frame.  This was using perspective tool, then scale in just the single axis required to correct aspect ratio...

    Corrected image:image.thumb.png.38547bd57ea1790a721ee76c8561cd53.png

    Source image (youtube video frame):
    image.thumb.png.5b21b29d7dcf66e668b461f5813fc09f.png

    I was wondering, is this what you guys sometimes do when getting a layout source image assembled - grab a bunch of these then scale and stitch them together to end up with a 2d video 'scans' of the machine glasses?

    I was watching 1080p videos of fruit machines on youtube, and it got me thinking that the information for high res layouts is technically there, just in a somewhat painful to extract format! 

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...