Development Updates

[eagle64]

to add  to my above answer, you should be able to add a gamepad this way too...  will try tomorrow on my day off

[wearecity]

The gamepad setting, is right trigger to enter the MAME machine config menu (normally TAB I believe on standalone MAME).

Still loving this, played Frogger for far too long yesterday.

A small request, when you are looking at the control system, could the right analog stick be used for turning in the arcade. Also possible to use a button, perhaps for engaging and disengaging a machine.

[spa]

I just tried and could get an options menu up by pressing 'v' and 'space' to select and option, 'q' and 'a' to go up or down, but no other button would let me select that option I was on.

[johnparker007]

All this setting controls through the MAME menu is totally not officially supported lol   I was actually going to be removing the MAME menu, though if people are managing to use it as an interim solution, I'll leave it there.

It'll all be replace by a large job that will be an input system that is entirely configurable through Arcade Sim (and will be more powerful, and do other stuff like simulate analog, persist across different MAME versions etc).  So I can't offer any help with using the internal MAME menu, but if folks can get it working have at it!  
 

14 hours ago, wearecity said:

A small request, when you are looking at the control system, could the right analog stick be used for turning in the arcade. Also possible to use a button, perhaps for engaging and disengaging a machine.

There's lots of improvements such as this coming, but I can only do them when I move onto designing/making the whole new input system... but it will be the next task at some point  

Edited April 20, 2022 by johnparker007

[johnparker007]

Needing a break from programming after the recent patch, so started working on a new (hopefully better) process of converting Spidey's models into ones that will render well in Unity.

I've got a new step, that looks like it should be useful for fixing normals   So while things can look ok in Cinema 4D, they get broken in Unity (as Unity does backface culling, double-sided shaders are too slow for video games).  Here's a before and after of a problematic part of the new high quality Vogue cab (to replace my very basic one).  In the top image, there are normals issues, in the bottom, I can now get the normals to face outwards, and also perform auto poly reduction (use less GPU% when drawing)...

Both shots from Unity:

Broken normals (can see through model):


Fixed normals (can no longer see through model):


I'll continue working on this new model conversion process for a couple of nights, I'm somewhat optimistic this will generally help fix this issue I was having with the normals

Here's another example, not yet in Unity but showing the missing polys due to normals:

Before fixing normals:


After fixing normals:


Handy stuff this new process step, as this normals issue has been plaguing me from day 1 really haha!  Hopefully cracked the core issue now I think   I'll prob end up redoing some of the other cabs at some point, so I can fix other subtle normals issues...

Edited April 20, 2022 by johnparker007

[Spidy21982]

15 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

Needing a break from programming after the recent patch, so started working on a new (hopefully better) process of converting Spidey's models into ones that will render well in Unity.

I've got a new step, that looks like it should be useful for fixing normals   So while things can look ok in Cinema 4D, they get broken in Unity (as Unity does backface culling, double-sided shaders are too slow for video games).  Here's a before and after of a problematic part of the new high quality Vogue cab (to replace my very basic one).  In the top image, there are normals issues, in the bottom, I can now get the normals to face outwards, and also perform auto poly reduction (use less GPU% when drawing)...

Both shots from Unity:

Broken normals (can see through model):


Fixed normals (can no longer see through model):


I'll continue working on this new model conversion process for a couple of nights, I'm somewhat optimistic this will generally help fix this issue I was having with the normals

Here's another example, not yet in Unity but showing the missing polys due to normals:

Before fixing normals:


After fixing normals:


Handy stuff this new process step, as this normals issue has been plaguing me from day 1 really haha!  Hopefully cracked the core issue now I think   I'll prob end up redoing some of the other cabs at some point, so I can fix other subtle normals issues...

nice you have it  no more looking throu.

hope the mpu4 video cab will make it in your simulator.

[johnparker007]

2 hours ago, Spidy21982 said:

nice you have it  no more looking throu.

hope the mpu4 video cab will make it in your simulator.

I'm planning to use all of the models you made, they're really good!  Thank you again so much man, sorry I got sidetracked with video games for so long, it was more difficult that I thought it would be!   

MPU4 Video: I can't do MFME-based video games yet, only MAME video games (and also I'm not on latest MAME so I also can't do those MPU4 Video thru MAME 2003 right now)... but I'll hopefully figure that stuff out at some point.  So they will go in, but it will be more reel-based machines first, in your new cabinets.

I found in Cinema 4D, you can see the missing faces, by selecting Options> Backface Culling:

Standard mode:


Backface culling mode:


I should hopefully be able to fix up the reversed faces with this new process step though (so it determines 'exterior faces', then flips the normals on those polys it found that are inward facing).  It seemed to work pretty well in my initial tests last night  

[spa]

This whole project excites me the same way when I found FME back in the day. Playing fruitys on mfme is awesome, but walking round them is just crazy! I can't believe this thread has sat here for this long and ive never looked at it! Thankfully @Chopaholic did a vid to guide me.

The last bit I hope you consider is a wallet of sorts. I can only speak for me but in mfme, Im jackpot or nothing. Im not going to collect £2.40. To have an actual budget while in there would make you play a bit differently.

Unreal work! I log on daily now, just to see if theres any new replies!

[woodsy]

16 minutes ago, spa said:

This whole project excites me the same way when I found FME back in the day. Playing fruitys on mfme is awesome, but walking round them is just crazy! I can't believe this thread has sat here for this long and ive never looked at it! Thankfully @Chopaholic did a vid to guide me.

The last bit I hope you consider is a wallet of sorts. I can only speak for me but in mfme, Im jackpot or nothing. Im not going to collect £2.40. To have an actual budget while in there would make you play a bit differently.

Unreal work! I log on daily now, just to see if theres any new replies!

firstly great way to explain the feeling created by this project.. jp should use that as a tagline... "excites me the same way when I found FME back in the day"

and second i'm also jackpot or nothing, it does take away some of the enjoyment available not having monetary float balances to keep track of... i'm sure that's planned later on, but i'd like to add maybe variables to that as maybe challenges or quests??>>> here's £10 how much can you make? or rolling wallet starting amounts that change each time.. BUT IN NO WAY AM I SUGGESTING pay to play as in buy more credits to continue... merely a option for users to start/end on demand for playability... RPG kinda thing... i've been on fallout4 for the last month.. i think i'm crossing over haha..

but really anything and everything you have done and continue to do is just phenomenal.. be proud bud

[vectra666]

I think there should be a starting balance say £100 of course if you lose it all then it would automatically refresh to £100 and like project Amber did hold raffles and spin the wheel, @Guitar even had bingo 

it’s very true mfme is nothing like how we gamble In the real world! Would you really gamble higher than a 11 to win 40p more. Especially the older £4-£8 games I put a fiver in and challenge myself to win more than the initial fiver so in that respect you need to take the lower offers given to maintain the balance

[spa]

Just to add. Haunted house. 5p/£5. Theres a 10p/£5 version. Can this be changed by me? Think the decals match up.

[johnparker007]

3 hours ago, spa said:

This whole project excites me the same way when I found FME back in the day. Playing fruitys on mfme is awesome, but walking round them is just crazy! I can't believe this thread has sat here for this long and ive never looked at it! Thankfully @Chopaholic did a vid to guide me.

The last bit I hope you consider is a wallet of sorts. I can only speak for me but in mfme, Im jackpot or nothing. Im not going to collect £2.40. To have an actual budget while in there would make you play a bit differently.

Unreal work! I log on daily now, just to see if theres any new replies!

 

3 hours ago, woodsy said:

firstly great way to explain the feeling created by this project.. jp should use that as a tagline... "excites me the same way when I found FME back in the day"

and second i'm also jackpot or nothing, it does take away some of the enjoyment available not having monetary float balances to keep track of... i'm sure that's planned later on, but i'd like to add maybe variables to that as maybe challenges or quests??>>> here's £10 how much can you make? or rolling wallet starting amounts that change each time.. BUT IN NO WAY AM I SUGGESTING pay to play as in buy more credits to continue... merely a option for users to start/end on demand for playability... RPG kinda thing... i've been on fallout4 for the last month.. i think i'm crossing over haha..

but really anything and everything you have done and continue to do is just phenomenal.. be proud bud

 

3 hours ago, vectra666 said:

I think there should be a starting balance say £100 of course if you lose it all then it would automatically refresh to £100 and like project Amber did hold raffles and spin the wheel, @Guitar even had bingo 

it’s very true mfme is nothing like how we gamble In the real world! Would you really gamble higher than a 11 to win 40p more. Especially the older £4-£8 games I put a fiver in and challenge myself to win more than the initial fiver so in that respect you need to take the lower offers given to maintain the balance

There will be a wallet type system based on total in/out, but not for a while yet, there are a lot of other areas of work needed (basically wherever you look, there's tons needs doing!).  There is also a challenges feature already in the backlog, and something for online leaderboards etc... all will require the whole cloud backend doing, these are big jobs to do scalable and right.   But then people will be able to create, play and share their challenges, like how the arcade creation/sharing will work.

3 hours ago, spa said:

Just to add. Haunted house. 5p/£5. Theres a 10p/£5 version. Can this be changed by me? Think the decals match up.

I've checked, and I pulled the legacy section from here for source layouts; in Empire's Haunted House, the latest version I have from TommyC is the £5/5p one that is currently in the arcade:


If you have a version of this layout that is £5/10p with the correct decals, could you send me it in a zip please?  Then I'll add it to the requests sheet, and it will change to that version in a future update  

Unfortunately there's no way to do this yourself, and there isn't likely to be for a long time, if ever - it is a very in-depth process, requiring lots of toolchains and other things.  This has been asked about and covered a couple of times somewhere earlier in the thread.

[spa]

Have pm'ed it to you. It's the exact same layout, just 10p roms.

[johnparker007]

51 minutes ago, spa said:

Have pm'ed it to you. It's the exact same layout, just 10p roms.

Ok I've had a look, on this one it's a DIP switch setting... all this stuff will be coming later, as the glass on that still says '5p Play'... so I'd perhaps want to redraw that as 10p play to make a real 10p play machine.

But   The good news is, here is a completely unofficially supported hack so you can change that setting:

You'll find a file under:

C:\Users\YOUR_WINDOWS_USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\GyroxGames\ArcadeSim\data\Saves\Haunted_House_(Empire)\Active

called: Haunted_House_(Empire)_[Dx04_5jp]_DATA_LAYOUT.gam

If you open that in a text editor (such as Notepad etc), then you can change the second line from:

DIP 1 00110010

to:

DIP 1 00111010

Then you will have a 10p play Haunted House in Arcade Sim.  You will need to have played and exited Haunted House once for this file to have been created.  Then it's internally being used as your 'active' save.  All for future save management stuff...

I made a quick video showing the process and it working:

This is just a hack!  There will be much more user friendly ways to have different stakes/decals etc at some future point when I get to working on that  

[Spidy21982]

19 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

I'm planning to use all of the models you made, they're really good!  Thank you again so much man, sorry I got sidetracked with video games for so long, it was more difficult that I thought it would be!   

MPU4 Video: I can't do MFME-based video games yet, only MAME video games (and also I'm not on latest MAME so I also can't do those MPU4 Video thru MAME 2003 right now)... but I'll hopefully figure that stuff out at some point.  So they will go in, but it will be more reel-based machines first, in your new cabinets.

I found in Cinema 4D, you can see the missing faces, by selecting Options> Backface Culling:

Standard mode:


Backface culling mode:


I should hopefully be able to fix up the reversed faces with this new process step though (so it determines 'exterior faces', then flips the normals on those polys it found that are inward facing).  It seemed to work pretty well in my initial tests last night  

thanks for letting me know ,next time i create i try to use this normals option  

at this time i´m realy burned out of doing stuff like these , no clue whats going on...

dont be in a rush, take your time ,sometimes we need a break from some things and play a game or whatever. you know what i mean.

keep up the good work my friend . the  new update is awesome with all these arcades inside. realy crazy  

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, Spidy21982 said:

thanks for letting me know ,next time i create i try to use this normals option  

at this time i´m realy burned out of doing stuff like these , no clue whats going on...

dont be in a rush, take your time ,sometimes we need a break from some things and play a game or whatever. you know what i mean.

keep up the good work my friend . the  new update is awesome with all these arcades inside. realy crazy  

Hey man - I feel you, I'm a bit burned out from programming at the moment, my day job is demanding at the moment - so I'm going to be working on art for a while instead   No pressure, I've got lots of cabinets to work on here from you, they'll keep me going for a long time!  

[spa]

Thanks for the fix! Has changed over and now on 10p! So much better

Will have a read up and see if winner takes all can have a switch change to get that on 10p too

[logopolis]

Generally on these MPU4 Empire games - switch 1-4 is percentage, switch 5 &6 changes the stake and switch 7 changes the jackpot amount.

[spa]

4 minutes ago, logopolis said:

Generally on these MPU4 Empire games - switch 1-4 is percentage, switch 5 &6 changes the stake and switch 7 changes the jackpot amount.

What about winner takes all? Im sure those had a 5p/10p option?

[logopolis]

3 minutes ago, spa said:

What about winner takes all? Im sure those had a 5p/10p option?

I don't have any notes on that.... However I do for Rich & Famous which is almost a clone and the switches didn't change stakes. So I'm assuming they don't on Winner Takes All.

[woodsy]

19 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

Ok I've had a look, on this one it's a DIP switch setting... all this stuff will be coming later, as the glass on that still says '5p Play'... so I'd perhaps want to redraw that as 10p play to make a real 10p play machine.

But   The good news is, here is a completely unofficially supported hack so you can change that setting:

You'll find a file under:

C:\Users\YOUR_WINDOWS_USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\GyroxGames\ArcadeSim\data\Saves\Haunted_House_(Empire)\Active

called: Haunted_House_(Empire)_[Dx04_5jp]_DATA_LAYOUT.gam

If you open that in a text editor (such as Notepad etc), then you can change the second line from:

DIP 1 00110010

to:

DIP 1 00111010

Then you will have a 10p play Haunted House in Arcade Sim.  You will need to have played and exited Haunted House once for this file to have been created.  Then it's internally being used as your 'active' save.  All for future save management stuff...

I made a quick video showing the process and it working:

This is just a hack!  There will be much more user friendly ways to have different stakes/decals etc at some future point when I get to working on that  

oh fucka duck, me and my hastiness.. coz i saw this i thought instantly it was dip bank 2 that was changing and not two examples of dip 1 being changed..

after hiding all my files trying to find the appdata part and then fighuring out how to get there i changed dip 2 and the holds went off and still 5p surprisingly.. hahaha

now i've actually read the post and watched the video i will now try again.. interestingly though it did make some of the games turn green in as... 

madness. 

[Ginge]

This project is awesome @johnparker007 thanks for the latest update, everything is a little slow on my crappy laptop but still playable. Think I will ask  for a new one this year Aka the boss (wife) , anyone have any suggestions on what to buy to run arcade simulator. My daughter works in Cex and get`s discount so may look there for a new one at some point.  

[woodsy]

40 minutes ago, Ginge said:

This project is awesome @johnparker007 thanks for the latest update, everything is a little slow on my crappy laptop but still playable. Think I will ask  for a new one this year Aka the boss (wife) , anyone have any suggestions on what to buy to run arcade simulator. My daughter works in Cex and get`s discount so may look there for a new one at some point.  

there's a sub forum area besides this one with some advice and options buddy.. i had the same process your embarking on. i got a good deal for mine £600.. budgets depend on your needs etc.. pm if needed but there are some helpful links and info in that area matey
 

[johnparker007]

2 hours ago, Ginge said:

This project is awesome @johnparker007 thanks for the latest update, everything is a little slow on my crappy laptop but still playable. 

Thanks man   If you turn of some settings it'll speed things up a bit - the Attract Videos cost a lot of CPU...also there's a couple of sliders underneath you could turn down to minimum, relating to 'Pop-In Protection', they'll help a bit with CPU load if you keep attract videos on.  Later, when attract videos are off, I'll be making it so it'll cycle between several screenshot per game, and have the attract audio... but I need a break from coding for a bit, so we're in an art/fruit machine building cycle for a while!  

There'll also be some other optimisations to do with drawing the 3d models, but again, and some others to do with ceiling lights... that'll all be later though when I get time...

In general, I'll always be behind on optimisations... it's a work in progress   So unfortunately it is a little demanding... but if you turn lots of things off in the 'Graphics' menu (Ceiling Lights is another expensive one), it should help a a bit with performance.

And as @woodsy said, there's a thread here, where people might be able to help advise on getting a reasonable gaming PC/laptop without spending millions:

I'm not up to date on hardware stuff, especially since GPUs went crazy in price - so other people will be able to help more  

[johnparker007]

New @Spidy21982Vogue WIP  

Ignore coin alarms and terrible performance, it's due to running in the editor. New Vogue cab from looking a lot nicer than my old basic version! Also have some issues left with black material not being dark enough and Bonanza have a weird issue with its lamps... plus a couple of proportions may need tweaking, though will probably leave until the 3d buttons stage which is a long way off yet...