johnparker007

Paging @appstrader

It looks good on paper, but I think most fruit emulation cab builders find that they want physical buttons to operate the machine, at least for the main buttons (Start, Hold 1/2/3 etc) - so trying to press down at the bottom of the touch screen, while it will work, will make for a fairly unsatisfying experience, especially in this pure vertical orientation.

Those 3d cabs are looking good! Long way down the line but one day Arcade Sim will have all its layout in a clear open source format, along with the cabs themselves (prob in .json). Once that time comes, it'll be all open source so you can have at it Also, there'll be the lamp data, so you could even show attracts running - keep up the good work man

That port has come out pretty well! It's by Ed Fries (who also did Halo 2600) - here's his dev thread for it: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/218406-rally-wip/ It's really nice that he managed to use the 'playfield' aspect of the 2600 hardware in a 4 way scrolling fashion to do the map, very nice.

Wow just checked out Boxxi, does look like good simple pure fun actually!

Not technically FME-related, but I believe these were in arcades/bars in some countries alongside fruit machines... "work on PC video cards is still progressing, with the added benefit of fixing MegaTouch XL 6000 graphics this month" https://www.mamedev.org/?p=529 We also have an initial 3d model from @Spidy21982 for the future (as the new Arcade Sim will directly run latest MAME releases )

Technically possible using the source released version (from many years ago during the whole MAME source code situation), though it's old and buggy. At some point, the more promising approach will be using MAME... currently no official up to date port, though retroarach has an android lib, but it lags quite a lot of versions behind - plus the MAME team (and emulation scene in general) really aren't happy with the Retroarch project, so I'll not be using Retroarch as a dev pathway going forward. TLDR: 2D FME on mobile will be coming one day, and probably 3D to via Oasis - but don't hold your breath for any of this, will likely be years away!

Quick test of an MPU4. Seems the fix we put in (as Adders and Ladders synth sound tunes were running too slow), has also sped up the sound chip, so everything sounds too fast/high pitched! Will be fixed in a different way at some point (2x xtals, or different values per machine or something...).

If we're necro-ing old posts, I've had a quick edit of that layout to fix/improve: - improved alphanumeric display - made buttons clickable, with keyboard shortcuts (should now work with touchscreen) - made main coinslot clickable, with 0 to insert £1 - made reel lamps and reel mask the default, which looks smoother and more realistic Alphabet - Barcrest.zip Have fun

Just thought I'd record a very quick play with some of those new emulation features we get 'for free' (since this is using MAME for emulation backend), such as the save states...

Ah unfortunately it sounds like it is likely not compatible with your machine then unfortunately, sorry about that. I just checked and the arcade sim website is live, and it boots for me past the update process, so all I can suggest is restarting your PC, then launching it again, a restart has been known to fix things! Also, I guess try launching Arcade Sim as Administrator (find in Start menu, and right click, like shown below): I'm a bit under the weather, so maybe someone else may be able to think of something if those steps don't work! If still not joy, perhaps you could post a screenshot of the errors you saw ("get errors on updates") ? Might help to narrow down the issue...

I think the CPU should just about be fast enough to even do the videos, RAM is fine, SSDs are fine... however your graphics card looks to be one designed for CAD workstations rather than standard 3d gaming, and I think that may really pull your framerates down. I'd say your best bet is to install it and see! Like I mentioned, download is here: Arcade Simulator: Pre-alpha installer: http://arcadesimulator.net You'll also want the latest MFME installed for the fruit machines, though I'd try installing Arcade Simulator first, then try walking around in the arcade, see if your graphics card can run it ok. The graphics card looks to be one specialised for working with wireframe models and things like that rather than playing games. So I suspect it may not work/work very well due to that, but you might get lucky!

It's 'Arcade Simulator', there's a download link in my forum sig below (You'll need a half-decent PC to run it btw, it's more demanding than just MFME, since it's 3d, realtime lighting etc...)

This is normal, that menu was placeholder - this Arcade Simulator was a (very large) initial proof-of-concept of a large playable 3d arcade (as was not sure if was even feasible), the new one is going to be built as a component of the new Oasis project (it will have more tightly integrated emulation via live MAME exe which will solve a bunch of problems with the current system). This will be quite a while though (at least a year, probably longer), but I felt that I left Arcade Sim in a good spot to keep people going, there's plenty of machines in there! For the video games, the keys are QAOP and Space for up/down/left/right/fire, and then I believe it was MNB for additional buttons. Some standard joypads will automatically work (Xbox pad etc), however for custom ones, you'll need to use some software like Joy2Key (which maps definable USB joystick inputs to keypresses). Not ideal, but this was where I was up to, so hadn't gotten to doing definable input system yet. It did while it was under development, however, the new Arcade Simulator (as part of the Oasis Suite of arcade emulation software), will be a whole new install. There are no more updates planned for this version of Arcade Simulator. I play it on a TV for the fruit machines from time to time, it's nice relaxing experience! All donations are gratefully received, there's a link in my sig below They will go towards future expenses for the Oasis project, as stuff comes up - ta very much! Also, the Oasis project is open source (as are all my new FME projects going forward) - source code links also in my sig.

If you've not changed any settings, this is usually that your PC setup is not quite powerful enough to run with the attract videos, as they are a demanding feature. In the ingame settings menu, one thing you could try is: Set the 'Pop-in Protection' and 'Distance/Resolution' sliders down to zero. Then exit to the frontend, and click Play to reload the arcade. Though usually if the PC is struggling, they will not work very well / cause performance issues. Best option in very likely to simply disable the 'Attract Videos' feature. In the future version of this software (Oasis), there will be an option to cycle through a few screenshots per machine instead of full video, but that is a very long way off.

Quoting so you get a notification, see above reply

This initial demo of Arcade Simulator requires the MFME software to run the fruit machines, available from this site. You'll need I think 4-5 'rep points' to download it, I've just given you another one. You'll need to download and install it, then within the MFME install folder run an update. Then when you next run Arcade Simulator, the fruit machines should work. Some of the newer ones can take a very long time to start up (minutes).

Haven't been looking at this project for a while (full WIP source code from link in my sig) - however I logged into the Mecca recently and saw that someone had tested that Ghostbusters test rom in their real Haunted House machine

I realised what this was whilst watching TV in bed I'd made the output sends (that transmit the button inputs from Oasis framework into MAME process) asynchronous, so they could arrive out of order, from back when I was having thread blocking issues before the Lua plugin strategy and was trying various stuff. I simply changed the output sends back to the standard synchronous behaviour, and now the inputs are 100% reliable, no stuck buttons issue

A little more work on the MAME/IO stuff - now using a plugin to process input commands, while simply reading state change output from console. MAME runs as a hidden child process of Oasis Layout Editor. Still some minor issue with 'debouncing' where a button can get stuck down in the emulation, I managed to get Hold 3 to stick later in the video... will need more work, but this technique seems good overall.

Hiya mate Yeah I got the -video none sussed out, though when it comes to games with actual video output (like all the video games, and some video fruits), I'll have to figure out/implement a bit more so I can get some kind of texture pointer or something. Also had it sending inputs, though was running into thread blocking issues with doing that whilst also pulling out the data for the lamps/reels etc. I could get around it via having MAME send it's output over the local network port, but it means end users needing to make a local firewall exception for mame process which is grotty (and still wouldn't solve a good way of getting video, which I think will need work in Mame source). So the next iteration is doing the lua plugin approach like BletchMAME project (worker_ui), working - it mentions various stuff about blocking in the plugin and the Qt c++ desktop app code, so he ran into the same issue, and managed to fix it with his plugin approach. I don't think I can use his approach for video though (he's pointing it at a different Hwnd/widget handle, it's all a bit windows specific and hacky, it works for the BletchMAME use case, but not really for cross platform Arcade Sim use case), we'll need something better for more control... Great news that you are looking at more fruit machine emulation, good work man! And once I have the basic non-video IO working without blocking thru Lua plugin, I'll get a couple of the older Blackbox / Mpu1/2 going for a demo that'll be running your drivers on the Mame backend (as this new approach can use the latest mame.exe)

For those that are interested in behind the scenes info on Arcade Sim/Oasis, providing a small update on this unfolding major crisis in the game engine industry (Unity Engine Install Fees). In lock-step with some other factors relating to my career, we will hopefully have the finalisation on which game engine Oasis/Arcade Sim will be built on around Jan-Feb 2024. The current shortlist to replace Unity Engine for all FME-related projects from me and any future collaborators (on Oasis and its related sub-projects such as the new Arcade Simulator) is Godot Engine, Unreal Engine or Flax Engine. This is subject to change before Q1 2024, but that's where we are currently. Of course this will slow things down compared to sticking with Unity, and yes, a project like Oasis/Arcade Sim wouldn't be actually affected by these Unity license/fee changes as they currently stand since it is free, but; Unity is no longer viable for me, as I will be continuing to use the same engine for my hobby projects as I do in my career, so that I'm continuing to develop complementary skills to literally pay my bills. Such a shame, but this is where the industry is at right now. This is also the sort of action that needs to happen (migrating even free projects with potential to become quite popular in the coming years), as a cautionary tale for any future execs who think they can pull something like this, and not destroy the game engine company they are working for. It's so frustratingly myopic and short-term share price focused, sigh... Here's another video by a prominent youtuber, continuing to cover the events as they have unfolded so far:

It will be interesting to see if that decline continues. Platforms like Unity exist because of developers, and game studios. The whole community is quite rightly completely up in arms at this barely legal bait-and-switch. While the effects won't be immediate, as studios large enough to be shafted by this, are also often complex enough that the Unity development pipeline cannot simply be changed (so we're kinda locked in for a good while). We're all eyeing Unreal and Godot (and there are a couple of other potential options) at this point for long term game engine/tech stack transition plans. So this will make Unity's profits go up in the short term... but long term they have put the final nail in the coffin (Unity has been rotting for the past 3-4 years). Unity will almost certainly wheel this back to something less shitty, but the damage has been irrevocably done. No new studio in their right mind is going to choose Unity as their tech stack, and existing studios are now considering the long term strategy to move away. It's the end of an era - Unity was and is a great engine, but the only thing constant is change I guess The guy who is now CEO of Unity, was previously CEO of EA - he was planning to have an in-app purchase when you reload your gun in Battlefield. He publicly called all Unity devs who don't want to heavily monetise their games via in-app purchases as 'fucking idiots' (his exact words)... and he's been selling off chunks of his Unity shares pretty much every month for the past year while buying none back. The whole thing is screwed!

I feel like I need to smoke a little something reading this first thing in the morning!

I am keeping a very close eye on these new 'Unity Install Fee' developments, as they relate to Oasis. Currently the plan is to build Oasis on Unity, however they have recently announced an insanely greedy plan that will potentially kill off lots of small studios (especially ones that create 'free to play' games, like mobile games with IAPs). In a lot of cases (i.e: commercial free-to-play games), the model one tries to achieve is many millions of users, but a very small 'ARPU' (average revenue per user). If Unity want say $0.15 per user, and you only actually earn $0.10 per user, you've now gone from a profitable game, to one that in reality costs you more than you receive! While this new 'Unity Install Fee' would not affect Oasis (since Oasis is free), I suspect this may signify the beginning of the end for the Unity game engine. Viable yet unpreferable (for a bunch of technical reasons I don't want to get into right now) alternatives are Unreal Engine, and Godot Engine. Unity is 'going public' soon (so people can buy shares in it on the stock market), and is also now being run by the a-hole who used to run EA, with all the lootboxes and other toxic cashgrab IAPs, so it's clear why they are driving this excellent game engine into the ground; ca$$$$h. Ugh, the enshitification of yet another great product, thanks modern capitalism. On the plus side, we already did the very 'game engine specific' proof of concept with the initial Arcade Simulator project (to prove we could run a massive arcade with 100s of machines on a modest spec PC)... so a lot of the upcoming near-term work in Oasis has to do with stuff that is fairly easy to port to another engine. Things like finishing up the MAME emulation IO, the Oasis Layout Editor project format, the 'safe screen scraper MFME extractor' system, the MAME layout export system, the machine+layout formats (for use in the new 2D and 3D Oasis modules like Arcade Sim v2, standalone machine player, etc) - these things are not so closely tied to Unity in the new Oasis project (they were very entwined with Unity in Arcade Sim, but the plan was already to decouple these formats with Oasis, so got a little lucky there). So as and when I can do bits and bobs of work on Oasis, it will be in those areas... and we'll see how this whole thing plays out! Here's a quick rough video a dev has made about this, I'm sure more will follow as this news (about Unity, not Oasis! ) goes mainstream: