johnparker007

Thanks I've downloaded a bunch of these already - they're more popular so a lot of models are out there, whereas the UK fruit machine scene is pretty niche. Believe it or not, that Atari model you've posted is the exact one I've used as a placeholder test in the arcade for housing some MAME games! (lighting is knackered so cab looks very dark, it was just for a test the other night)

Thanks Tommy there are some proportions slightly off, but I figure I should just get through this one first, and then do a few more (simpler) ones. Plan is to then come back to this for a second pass when I've got more modelling skills, and clean it up/redo it. I won't be able to make anything else, like cars or helicopters - just arcade cabinets! All images are handy, thanks mate I know the user @infection and @Player are involved in collecting and cataloguing images, thanks guys - I've been having a browse through those google drives. Did they often show the whole machine in perspective like that on the older cabinet flyers? Most photos (from ebay/for MFME layouts) never show it, as it's usually blank, so not worth taking a picture of. At least they used to reuse cabinet designs between lots of different games, so just one grainy flyer per cab design should be all that's needed to get it to a 3d version, that can then house a bunch of different layouts. For how I'm currently making these cabinet models, the most useful picture is one showing the whole left or right side of the cabinet - like in the grainy flyer of the JPM Vogue above. This is my workflow so far, completely relies on seeing a photo of the whole side of the cabinet:

Using the '2d' side view I extracted above from the grainy flyer, I've made a start on modelling the JPM Vogue cabinet in 3DS Max. Full disclaimer, I've not really used this package, and I'm not artist! I've got to this so far... looking forward to getting back on this soon to see how far I can get. In retrospect I've perhaps picked a harder cabinet, the 80s brown wooden ones look a lot simpler... but I'll hopefully be able to get it vaguely usable, at least enough to get Indiana Jones running in it

Don't tempt me, there's free kitchen sink 3d models out there, like these bad boys! I've been tinkering with image wrangling, managed to extract an 'ok' side profile from a perspective shot on a flyer (JPM Vogue cab): Going to try work out how to build 3d cabinet side panels from this 2d image as reference...

Hi @MrRog - there's an awful lot of great layouts these days, I don't really get to spend time playing them as I'm usually busy working on some research or coding when I do get 'hobby time'! Off the top of my head - the Happy Hour layout from Pook aka DXcellent is nice and clean, would look good in a cab.

Thanks guys, these are all great ideas - happy that I've already found some measurements just going through a bunch of pdfs. Will definitely look into that avenue too Vecs once I get up to speed with making/adapting cabs in 3ds Max

Hey that would be awesome, thanks mate - I'm definitely after measurements, technical drawings of the cabinets, anything like that Still not gone too far into looking at the cabinet modelling, but I think with just a few simple measurements, and the right reference photos, most/all lengths can be derived. Actually - is there a rough list of machines that used this cabinet? It's be great to know what the total width of the machine is when looking from the front, and the total height of the machine... the depth could be useful but not essential. It's be a bit of a soduku puzzle - from the width, I'm guessing that's 3/4" ply, same as pins and a lot of jamma cabs were built. So after subtracting 2x that off the width I have the width of the metal panels + glass - then work out their width with scaling, getting us to the glass width. A perspective warp and then at 90 degrees, the individual glass heights could be worked out from the photo scale... Buttons are probably all standard size around this era... and then with a pic of the side profile of the cab, a little perspective warping and fudging, and you'd have the plan/side/front view measurements and cnc curved edge. Then it's just a case of getting a basic skillset up to model the cabs in 3ds max of similar. This'll probably turn out to be harder to master than I think it is lol ... but be great to have a library of roughly accurate cab models built up to start converting the older layouts into Edit: ooh, remembered I'd bookmarked a couple of google drives from the resource gatherers on here - had a scan, first manual I opens up had a 3d wireframe render in the manual... I wonder if I can 'prespective trace' that back to a model's measurements... feeling optimistic now Might spend a few days getting into this, see what's involved Next manual I checked has another wireframe, good call on looking in the manuals man! Cabinet name: Genesis Manufacturer: Barcrest Technology: MPU4 Height: 1680mm Width: 680mm Depth: 650mm Awesome info on this Barcrest Genesis cab, full cab tech drawing plus measurements too BFM Phoenix A.W.P:

Totally agree, the AI upscaling will never be substitute for a good source art. It's a tricky problem to crack for sure

The old codger's fruities are all definitely planned for, though I need to get to 'cabinet modelling stage' which is going to be a bit later on... Here's an example of a poorly proportioned Smash 'n' Grab era cabinet a student has done and shared online, that I'll be remaking from scratch in the correct proportions, with other improvements, all these things are bubbling away in the background

Thanks man What I've done to get the results here is; run the ROM in MAME. Record at native resolution of emulated game, lossless. Convert to h264, to allow the best balance of hardware accelerated playback/video quality/streamable. Playback each video onto a material as individual streams. I'm looking into getting the screens 'curved' like real CRTs, rather than flat like they are in the video...

Bonus second tech update of the day, since this is giving me strong arcade feels Done a quick video game attract mode stress test, it's nice and efficient, doing solid 60FPS with lots of performance to spare on my PC

Quick tech update Been working on more bug fixes, plus started some optimisation tests/work (RAM and CPU/GPU load)... here's a couple of short vids First shows a solid 60FPS when viewing a 'worst case scenario' (using extra copies of machines I have in so far to fill out the view) in terms of the amount of machine lamps visible at once. The GPU is spending around 2/3rd of the frame idling (waiting for vsync). The CPU is under very little load also. My CPU is an i5 @ currently clocked at 4.3GHz. My GPU is an Nvidia 1060. And here's a wireframe view showing how the scene is actually made up. When a lamp is fully off, its quad is not drawn to save GPU time.

Hi @MrRog One of the issues is getting 'clean' source images of a high enough resolution. The layout artists do a fantastic job with the resources available, though it can be challenging when all they have to work with is a grainy flyer from the 1980s! I did have a look into this and am planning to provide 'AI upscaled' machines (in cases where good results can be achieved from the source images) in the arcade simulator project. For more information of my preliminary AI upscaling tests and some general chit chat, see here: And for more information on the arcade simulator project (3D machines / AI upscaled virtual streaming textures (planned, not yet implemented) / VR), see here:

Good spot I redownloaded VirtualBox on this PC recently because of the mfme2mme work - I was trying to get to the latest possible copy of the code. I got to like 95% of the useful code anyway, so it all worked out - and thanks for the offer of the forum backups bud, much appreciated

lol sorry @Reg - bearded man incoming, from the latest download set!

Had some time taken up working on stuff for the MAME guys (I've managed to lose some mfme2mame work that I did from 5 years ago, was trying to piece that back together!)... but also had chance to fix a couple more converter bugs and get four more machines in. Minor issues here and there, I've realised the buttons not working issue on one machine was just as I'd forgot to do something - anyway, building the collection of machines up a bit more Going to keep on this path for now, of just converting Eclipse cab machines that look like they will work with what I currently have in (I haven't implemented 'band reels' yet for instance, so skipping all those for now). Then in a bit, I'll move over to doing some performance/RAM optimisations... then back to converting again. Certainly be good to get at least 50 different machines running, to start seeing where the bottlenecks are that I need to solve.

All the old skool techs definitely planned for further down the line, once I've got the conversion process a bit more sorted (and some placeholder cab models to put them in)

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys haha and in my defence on these skill stops, there is a valid excuse, in fact two! I'm doing this dev in bed in the evening (as is the way) with a large TV at the end of the bed. I don't have the TV in 'game mode' as the picture doesn't look as good, so there's loads of input lag due to the TV processing the image. Also I'm using a wireless keyboard with built-in touchpad, so that adds even more input lag - so when I press, it's always like half a second behind I've been trying to press 'too early', and that sometimes hits them. But these are only videos to show tech progress to be fair

Been busy working on the converter issues this week, as it's very buggy at present and most layouts don't convert properly for various reasons. So with recent fixes, here's four new machines to fill out the room a bit more ...they have minor graphical issues still to fix in the converter, but totally playable

I've just had a look, and I think perhaps posts lock after 24 hours or something, to stop people editing the threads and breaking the continuity. Could be good though I've no costs at present (apart from cash already spent), but there will be costs further down the line I'm sure... Perhaps an admin could help here?

Hi The temporary 'snap view', is for desktop users. I'll be getting everything working for desktop first (including something better than this jarring snap view!) - then add in VR camera control/navigation later. I did a little VR dev for Samsung Gear VR headset a couple of years back for a work project, it's not too painful. So proper VR (with reel peeking by leaning forward to look etc) is on the roadmap, but lower priority than desktop. Also, I don't even own a VR headset so would need to buy or at the very least borrow one in order to develop it... And yes, so sad about Chris But the scene continues on, and his excellent emulator is what I am using to drive these machines

I've done a (very basic) version of the feature to auto-position the player and set the camera up when playing machine. Currently it just instantly 'snaps' to the viewing position, and then snaps back to the original position you were in before you started playing. It's pretty ugly But it's perfectly functional for now. To do the proper system I have in mind (with various fancy modes), requires a time-consuming rewrite of the controller/camera code, which I'm not looking to get bogged down in at this stage. So this is as done as this gets for the moment

Currently using max for cabinet, my own system for converting 2d layout => 3d machine and Unity Engine for rendering. The Epoch doesn't look too far away from an Eclipse... initially I'll probably just work on using the Eclipse as a base to build similar cabinets

Been plugging away, and got the first pass of clickable buttons / custom mouse cursors / locked camera during gameplay done Coin slots are a bodge for now (it's just clicking through to the original layout 2d coin slot underneath)... I'll probably also do a hand with the finger pressing down for when you have a button held down by the mouse later... It's definitely more fun playing the features, now I can click the other buttons! EDIT: I just skipped through the video to check it recorded correctly - at some points the mouse pointer appears to flicker and blink off. This doesn't actually happen, it's just the video recording software glitching out