Development Updates

[Spidy21982]

1 hour ago, johnparker007 said:

Wow they look really good man, lovely detailing!     Thank you for all the additional options, they will come in handy. 

For now I have to hide the 'pay ins' (as I did on the Barcrest cabinets), so I can use the existing '2d' system from the layout (to allow for lit/clickable coin slots).  But later I plan to use the 3d coin slots, it will just need a additional work to set the system up (so they are clickable, lit, and the 3d lamp/input is correctly hooked up to the emulator).

There were so many games in these, it'll open up a lot of layouts!  Amazing work man  

Sorry it takes so long from my end, to get to using these cabinets btw, it's a real slow process - I have currently started on some more MPU4 at the moment in your cabinets, including some in a taller version of the non-rolltop.  There will hopefully be a couple of new Spidy layouts in there, providing no conversion problems...  But the new 3d models will definitely all get used, in time!  

you dont have to sorry buddy .with every cab i do the work for you gets more and more. youre such a one man show  and the time will come when all cabs are in. patience is everything.

greetings spidy

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, Spidy21982 said:

you dont have to sorry buddy .with every cab i do the work for you gets more and more. youre such a one man show  and the time will come when all cabs are in. patience is everything.

greetings spidy

Thanks for understanding man, it's just a lot of work... but as the months go by, more and more of your cabinets will go in  

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, bionic_beast said:

Finders Crossed alright

I made a comment back when this project was still just 3 reels and a light (the very beginning and while I had my Brendo account) and that statement is still true to this very day with eye candy additions such as bloom.

Well I uninstalled Arcade Sim, installed AVG Free on my test machine in the background while I was doing my work, then reinstalled Arcade Sim.  It doesn't go wrong!

I really expected to see the same error with AVG Free installed... So I will have a think tonight, and try to figure something out.

[Spidy21982]

had a little play  

[woodsy]

1 minute ago, Spidy21982 said:

had a little play  

You need to switch careers

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, Spidy21982 said:

had a little play  

Nice to see a preview of them together with some people!  Very cool   

Long term, I'll be able to have it with adjustable lighting (from very light like this, to darker than it is now in Arcade Sim) - for now it's fixed to dark, and I'm choosing dark layouts, as it's a *lot* of work to make the process changes to get those fruit machine glasses lightable... but one day, we'll be able to make this scene for real and play all the games   

[johnparker007]

Hiya @bionic_beast   

I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this issue writing the dlls - please could I TeamViewer into your machine at some point to investigate further?

[bionic_beast]

6 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

Hiya @bionic_beast   

I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this issue writing the dlls - please could I TeamViewer into your machine at some point to investigate further?

I don't see why not.

When would suit you best?

[johnparker007]

57 minutes ago, bionic_beast said:

I don't see why not.

When would suit you best?

Bear with me, you are not alone in this issue! - I have another user with it too (exact same error message). 

I've actually done a patch (well about ten while I've been working on this bug haha  ) with a slight change to the order of some file operations... if you get chance if you could just launch Arcade Sim, it will update a couple of patches to the latest, but then if you could let me know if the issue is now fixed (unlikely, but there's a slim chance it now starts up ok).

If the issue is not fixed - could you please could post a screenshot - after it has got stuck, and you've done the 'clicking in the top-left corner of screen 3 times' procedure to bring up the debug window.  The messages on the window may give further clues now that I've changed the order of those file operations, and added some extra debugging info.

And thanks for the chance of TeamViewer - much appreciated  ...if I get well and truly stuck, it's been a good route in the past for spotting an issue's root cause, some things are difficult to diagnose from afar.

[bionic_beast]

6 minutes ago, johnparker007 said:

Bear with me, you are not alone in this issue! - I have another user with it too (exact same error message). 

I've actually done a patch (well about ten while I've been working on this bug haha  ) with a slight change to the order of some file operations... if you get chance if you could just launch Arcade Sim, it will update a couple of patches to the latest, but then if you could let me know if the issue is now fixed (unlikely, but there's a slim chance it now starts up ok).

If the issue is not fixed - could you please could post a screenshot - after it has got stuck, and you've done the 'clicking in the top-left corner of screen 3 times' procedure to bring up the debug window.  The messages on the window may give further clues now that I've changed the order of those file operations, and added some extra debugging info.

And thanks for the chance of TeamViewer - much appreciated  ...if I get well and truly stuck, it's been a good route in the past for spotting an issue's root cause, some things are difficult to diagnose from afar.

Ah, lovely, I just booted up Arcade Simulator and...

Black Screen! (is this the new red screen from the Atari Jaguar CD?)

Anyways, here's the debug log:

[johnparker007]

13 minutes ago, bionic_beast said:

(is this the new red screen from the Atari Jaguar CD?)

God I hope not, the Black Screen Of Death is definitely being a bloomin' pain 

Thanks for testing the latest patch - I now can tell (along with the tests that @Ryan Hughes has also been kindly helping with) that it's specifically that file - out of 3 that get written, one after the other.

Bear with me guys, I have a couple of strategies in mind... but I might see if I can replicate the bug here first.  I think it's a case of either trying to ignore the exception , or launching an external process to perform the unreversal/copy.

Once I next have a strategy figured out, and a new test patch uploaded to live, I'll tag you both and request another test... hopefully I can find a fix for this thing!  Thanks again both of you for your help in testing these builds  

[superl33ch]

There seems to be a weird and severe 'behaviour' bug with the new Barcrest machines in the arcade - couldn't see it on the "known issues" list.

When collecting nudges from a feature the machine nudges reel 1 down automatically until the nudges are gone.   This happened on the first two machines I tried, Winner Takes All and Action Bank. 

On WTA I had 15 nudges and an easy jackpot in view but it just nudged reel 1 down instead and ended the feature.

On Action Bank I had the cashpot on, pressed "Nudge for fruits" and got the reel 1 stitch up instead.  

This phantom "reel 1" input only happens when collecting nudges, never when offered holds or indeed any other interaction involving reel 1 or its button.

Edited December 17, 2021 by superl33ch

[johnparker007]

8 hours ago, superl33ch said:

There seems to be a weird and severe 'behaviour' bug with the new Barcrest machines in the arcade - couldn't see it on the "known issues" list.

When collecting nudges from a feature the machine nudges reel 1 down automatically until the nudges are gone.   This happened on the first two machines I tried, Winner Takes All and Action Bank. 

On WTA I had 15 nudges and an easy jackpot in view but it just nudged reel 1 down instead and ended the feature.

On Action Bank I had the cashpot on, pressed "Nudge for fruits" and got the reel 1 stitch up instead.  

This phantom "reel 1" input only happens when collecting nudges, never when offered holds or indeed any other interaction involving reel 1 or its button.

I've also seen this, unfortunately it appears to be an MFME bug, and as the source code is lost it is a case of waiting until I properly implement MAME support.  The source is available for MAME so emulation bugs can be fixed.

I've add to the sheet, as a faint deferred bug for now, as re-adding the MAME support is a long way off, I'm just using MFME for now. 

Edited December 18, 2021 by johnparker007

[johnparker007]

EDIT to the above!  OK it's not an MFME bug  

I realised I was still using some of my experimental patched ROM (Chr free roms for real machines).  These can have issues such as the reel 1 nudge problem (further work is needed really in this area, but it's a separate project).

These will now be fixed in the next patch (by switching back to using the official ROMs rather than my Chr-free patched ROMs I was testing for the other project)  

[johnparker007]

Just a note that on some machines, the lamps currently appear to 'shift' when they are lit.  This is a new bug introduced since an improvement in converter perspective warping accuracy, since some images are cached during conversion (so they no longer match up).

It's now on the list and will be fixed in next big patch  

[Danik2343]

Arcade simulator
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[johnparker007]

54 minutes ago, Danik2343 said:

Arcade simulator
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HI   Are you reporting a bug?

It sounds like you saw the 'popup' from the MFME data layout loading behind (I'm doing these in a 'lazy' way at present, later the data layouts will not have the popup).  Something like this:



Does this happen every time for you?

Edited December 18, 2021 by johnparker007

[johnparker007]

Little update Been fixing bugs, but also made the 'tall' variant of the Barcrest cabinet (officially called the 'Highline' cabinet according to a Club Tropicana flyer) - here's first test of Club Adders & Ladders @Reg, first machine to use the new cabinet:

(On the feature board the segment alpha display shows issues, this is known about, got a quite a few issues to sort with alpha displays).

Big thanks to @Spidy21982 as always for the base 3d models we are now using for these new cabinets  

No timeline on this, as probably need to get new settings menu system done... and a very busy week next week, then Xmas... but these new machines (in Vogue / Highline cab) are also being worked on  : 



Oh, and Indiana Jones should be working again in the next patch update   

Edited December 19, 2021 by johnparker007

[Reg]

@johnparker007 holly shit - that looks awesome in there - thank you - another one of the few layouts I've made so even more happyness !

Thank you sir and actually so @Spidy21982 for all his 3D work.

Just sent you some more funds... ...that's what those club machines mean to me in this.

That highline cabinet looks like the one Monopoly Club used as well... ..obviously not the same - but close.

[woodsy]

42 minutes ago, Reg said:

@johnparker007 holly shit - that looks awesome in there - thank you - another one of the few layouts I've made so even more happyness !

Thank you sir and actually so @Spidy21982 for all his 3D work.

Just sent you some more funds... ...that's what those club machines mean to me in this.

That highline cabinet looks like the one Monopoly Club used as well... ..obviously not the same - but close.

That’s a Hallway o could spend some time in!

[johnparker007]

Thanks very much indeed for the donation!    

Added to the donation sheet where the live income/expenditures of the project can be viewed: https://tinyurl.com/yzvgl4xo

So just to verify for future reference; Maygay built their own cabinets (such as the M1A/B housing shown in your image)?  Or did they do the kits like BWB/PCP to fit into other machines?

It looks familiar, perhaps if you can source more reference images (especially any side-ish profiles), our 3d modelling superstar @Spidy21982 might take a look at creating one

Even though it is somewhat slow progress on the new machine front (as it's still rather time-consuming per machine from my side, plus I am continuing to develop AS/fix bugs), all the cabinets Spidy has made will definitely be used in time, as I can get to them.  He's really doing god's work, opening up so many machines for integration into AS! 

[johnparker007]

22 minutes ago, woodsy said:

That’s a Hallway o could spend some time in!

I see a yellow-framed Barcrest Rolltop in the middle of those three machines in the background, maybe it's in AS already!   Can't make out the game with the heavy reflections on the glass though...

[woodsy]

7 minutes ago, johnparker007 said:

Thanks very much indeed for the donation!    

Added to the donation sheet where the live income/expenditures of the project can be viewed: https://tinyurl.com/yzvgl4xo

So just to verify for future reference; Maygay built their own cabinets (such as the M1A/B housing shown in your image)?  Or did they do the kits like BWB/PCP to fit into other machines?

It looks familiar, perhaps if you can source more reference images (especially any side-ish profiles), our 3d modelling superstar @Spidy21982 might take a look at creating one

Even though it is somewhat slow progress on the new machine front (as it's still rather time-consuming per machine from my side, plus I am continuing to develop AS/fix bugs), all the cabinets Spidy has made will definitely be used in time, as I can get to them.  He's really doing god's work, opening up so many machines for integration into AS! 

it's both of you that are winners of FME STAR OF THE YEAR

[johnparker007]

Submitted in error, corrected post below

Edited December 19, 2021 by johnparker007

[johnparker007]

21 minutes ago, woodsy said:

it's both of you that are winners of FME STAR OF THE YEAR

It won't be too long before some of your layouts get picked up by the process, you layout creators (and the classic creators who organise the base layouts) are FME superstars!   

I have a plan for the future Credits section;
Firstly it'll need more work on the layout artist system - it's currently just a simple text field, but it will ultimately be an 'alias matrix' internally (though hidden to protect anonymity as some changed their usernames for stealth reasons).  Then the credits section will show the DX layout artists, sorted in descending order of number of layouts currently implemented in AS - so it will always be live and correct, I won't have to manually update it. 

I suspect @vectra666will nail the top spot, he's a layout making machine lol  

Also, there may be a system (needs more planning) to allow a similar matrix (or shared) for the 'Classic' artists whose work provides the foundation for the DXs.  So a machine will show DX and Classic artist (if not straight-to-DX / unavailable), plus ability to click through to see a list of machines for a single artist.  All in the concept stage, but definitely planned for later.

Edited December 19, 2021 by johnparker007