Development Updates

[Zippy]

11 minutes ago, A:E said:

I never knew On-Line was one of Chris’s favourites?  That surprises me, thought he had better taste   What a garbage machine it is really.  Unless I’m missing something on that machine, it was all about the gamble from 4p to £1.50 and nothing besides.

J

Thanks for pointing that out my mistake, have edited.

On Line is still miles better than the crap we have had in the last near 20 years but that is my own opinion.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Big J

[serene02]

Oh Odds On, I know he likes his MPU3, that’s why I was surprised you mentioned On-Line, that is MPU3 too and each to their own.  Ha ha, oh he at least he has better taste

J

[Zippy]

4 minutes ago, A:E said:

Oh Odds On, I know he likes his MPU3, that’s why I was surprised you mentioned On-Line, that is MPU3 too and each to their own.  Ha ha, oh he at least he has better taste

J

For real according to this thread, MPU1,2 and 3 was his forte,

https://www.fruitemu.co.uk/ib/index.php?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=23666&page=3&tab=comments#comment-356938

[johnparker007]

A little update - I'm back onto working on the Converter side of the project now  

Have started on 'machine configurations' as a basis for trying to get batch conversion set up once each machine has been configured (things like the location of the 'perspective quads' live in the configuration).

It's still very manual - the idea is that ultimately it can batch process, down to creating the data layouts.  So then, I can make a fix in say one of the many lamp bugs I've got, then leave my office PC reprocessing all the layouts overnight.  Currently conversion is slow, due to data extraction from MFME taking a good 20-30 minutes per machine (this is due to a limitation on how I'm capturing data from MFME, I may revisit using alternative OCR or something custom to capture out the numerical data, which would be much faster.  I tried before but the OCR wasn't accurate enough and sometimes got numbers wrong).

Anyway, thought I'd post the latest test machine Wok And Roll.  Here you can see more lamp bugs that need fixing; green fringing around the chopsticks in the top right, blended lamps not yet implemented so purple rectangles are back, issues with overlapping lamps not doing the alpha properly... along with a list of existing lamp bugs.  Still, nice to have a change from Happy Hour!  

 

[slasher]

Ah, an early snoozecom. 

I've got a new reasonably powerful pc on the way and would be happy to run the converter in the background in a VM or just overnight once you get it going.

[ProfessorDawn]

Stunning work here - simply stunning.

[vectra666]

43 minutes ago, johnparker007 said:

A little update - I'm back onto working on the Converter side of the project now  

Have started on 'machine configurations' as a basis for trying to get batch conversion set up once each machine has been configured (things like the location of the 'perspective quads' live in the configuration).

It's still very manual - the idea is that ultimately it can batch process, down to creating the data layouts.  So then, I can make a fix in say one of the many lamp bugs I've got, then leave my office PC reprocessing all the layouts overnight.  Currently conversion is slow, due to data extraction from MFME taking a good 20-30 minutes per machine (this is due to a limitation on how I'm capturing data from MFME, I may revisit using alternative OCR or something custom to capture out the numerical data, which would be much faster.  I tried before but the OCR wasn't accurate enough and sometimes got numbers wrong).

Anyway, thought I'd post the latest test machine Wok And Roll.  Here you can see more lamp bugs that need fixing; green fringing around the chopsticks in the top right, blended lamps not yet implemented so purple rectangles are back, issues with overlapping lamps not doing the alpha properly... along with a list of existing lamp bugs.  Still, nice to have a change from Happy Hour!  

 

You say green bits etc, unpack the blended lamps within mfme I don’t think I did that on Release

[johnparker007]

40 minutes ago, slasher said:

Ah, an early snoozecom. 

I've got a new reasonably powerful pc on the way and would be happy to run the converter in the background in a VM or just overnight once you get it going.

Thanks for the offer, much appreciated   I'm hoping I should be ok - if I can get it down to about 10 mins a layout, then that should be fine for big overnight runs, it's just a bit bloomin' slow at the moment with this first crude technique I'm using!

[johnparker007]

5 minutes ago, vectra666 said:

You say green bits etc, unpack the blended lamps within mfme I don’t think I did that on Release

It's not just blended lamps, the transparency color fringe is everywhere - I believe I know how to fix; this is a common problem with with 3d alpha textures.  I have to modify transparent pixels so their color is that of their nearest non-transparent neighbour.  Then the GPU has something good to sample against, for 'inbetween pixels'.


Apologies for making your nice layout look bad with all the lamping bugs in my converter!   Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I can get them all ironed out. 

[vectra666]

1 hour ago, johnparker007 said:

It's not just blended lamps, the transparency color fringe is everywhere - I believe I know how to fix; this is a common problem with with 3d alpha textures.  I have to modify transparent pixels so their color is that of their nearest non-transparent neighbour.  Then the GPU has something good to sample against, for 'inbetween pixels'.


Apologies for making your nice layout look bad with all the lamping bugs in my converter!   Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I can get them all ironed out. 

 NO problem most of my layouts probably have flaws within nobodies perfect

[Zippy]

 Bloody phone

Edited November 16, 2020 by Big J

[Zippy]

42 minutes ago, vectra666 said:

nobodies perfect

Except this individual,

https://www.desertislandfruits.com/forum/index.php?/profile/734-big-j/

[johnparker007]

1 hour ago, vectra666 said:

 NO problem most of my layouts probably have flaws within nobodies perfect

Hey the flaws are in my converter program, not your layout  The layout looks very good. 

I've been tinkering with it for a couple of hours and got a partial fix working, to fully fix it I'm gonna have to figure some more stuff out... here's the same area with less green fringing:

 

[slasher]

BOGIES!

[Zippy]

Are you an FML Artist too @johnparker007? Only assuming since you have the knowledge to do something like this and certainly have quite a few tricks up your sleeve a layout shouldn't be  problem for you, don't worry am not asking or telling, besides you definitely have your hands full here but with your capabilities I really wouldn't be surprised. I don't know you no where near what others do on here since you seem to have a history with them and that is all good, well pretty fantastic really.

Thanks for all the eye candy still

[serene02]

He’s a coder and this might sound selfish but his time would be wasted on layout creation, he has a lot more to offer with his coding skills.

J

[johnparker007]

13 minutes ago, Big J said:

Are you an FML Artist too @johnparker007? Only assuming since you have the knowledge to do something like this and certainly have quite a few tricks up your sleeve a layout shouldn't be  problem for you, don't worry am not asking or telling, besides you definitely have your hands full here but with your capabilities I really wouldn't be surprised. I don't know you no where near what others do on here since you seem to have a history with them and that is all good, well pretty fantastic really.

Thanks for all the eye candy still

Hey there   I've only put together small bits of layouts for testing stuff - I'll leave it to the pros on here to make the lovely layouts!  Some of these high resolution DXs these days with the blended lamps and the latest MFME really do look very nice indeed.

I'm a games programmer, and I also made a program years ago called mfme2mame along with some MAME development, which allowed me and the talented A:E to put together the first ever working DOND (Wizard was off the scene back then and so it seemed worth developing emulation for new techs via MAME).  I've found a video where it's working in demo mode someone made, but we (another programmer called Keith got involved) also got basic ccTalk working - so we could play the DOND DX layout in proper door closed mode for real money, not crappy 'Demo' mode.

Wizard reappeared on the scene at that point promising a new release of MFME, so I drifted away from the FME scene for a bit - as his new emulator release would cover what we were doing and lots more besides - I was just keeping the chair warm for him!  

So anyway, that's why I'm very familiar with the internals of layouts and MFME and fruit machine emulation in general, I've already written an MFME layout converter once already!  (though the 3d stuff is adding some new problems to solve).

[Zippy]

Thanks JP as was only an ask as have been following you since you started this, just wanted to know if you had other talents up your sleeve that is all.

I am well aware of what he does @A:E no need for the snappiness as it was a question I'd asked him and was curious about.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Big J

[slasher]

25 minutes ago, Big J said:

Thanks JP as was only an ask as have been following you since you started this, just wanted to know if you had other talents up your sleeve that is all.

I am well aware of what he does @A:E no need for the snappiness as it was a question I'd asked him and was curious about.

Basically you're a nosey fucker

Has to be said, JP's MFME2MAME was pretty impressive. We kept in touch a bit even when Wizard came back on the scene but unfortunately we've not met for a beer or 2 since.... there's something for when covid decides to piss off!

[serene02]

I didn’t mean it to sound snappy. It wasn’t specifically aimed at you, more my general thought.  I did say I was being selfish with my post.  

J

 

[Zippy]

6 minutes ago, A:E said:

I didn’t mean it to sound snappy. It wasn’t specifically aimed at you, more my general thought.  I did say I was being selfish with my post.  

J

 

Ok fair play, tbh thinking about it you sounded like Wizard for a moment there, that was him and gladly accepted it but only from him.

Back on track, sorry about this @johnparker007

@slasher Piss off!!!

Edited November 16, 2020 by Big J

[serene02]

I don’t know if Chris ever released any layout for mfme, think it was always SP that work on the layouts back in the day.

J

[johnparker007]

Had the day off work today, and basically spent it all on lamps so far!  I need a break   But it's gone really well

So I had a bunch of minor (but hard to solve how I was originally going about it) issues with the lamps:
- not in correct positions
- scale may have been a little off
- lamps that overlapped each other were having problems (two overlapping ON lamps would mean one lamp would get overdrawn with a partial off image)
- even after the main fix earlier for the green fringing I was getting with Wok & Roll, there was some other green fringing from a different cause (to do with edge of warped quads at conversion time

I had a think, and realised I could rework the whole thing in a different way - which has fixed ALL of the above issues in one go   It's quite a relief I can you, as this lamp stuff was not trivial to solve the way I was trying to do it before - the maths was making my brain melt.

Here's Wok & Roll lamps with the issues fixed from today's rewrite:

(Blended lamps - I haven't implemented fully yet, just treating them as normal lamps for now... will prob be looking into more converter automation/optimisation and reels next as higher priority tasks)

[Zippy]

7 minutes ago, A:E said:

I don’t know if Chris ever released any layout for mfme, think it was always SP that work on the layouts back in the day.

J

He released Cash or Nudge didn't he as a classic?

Who is SP?

Edited November 16, 2020 by Big J

[infection]

1 minute ago, johnparker007 said:

Had the day off work today, and basically spent it all on lamps so far!  I need a break   But it's gone really well

So I had a bunch of minor (but hard to solve how I was originally going about it) issues with the lamps:
- not in correct positions
- scale may have been a little off
- lamps that overlapped each other were having problems (two overlapping ON lamps would mean one lamp would get overdrawn with a partial off image)
- even after the main fix earlier for the green fringing I was getting with Wok & Roll, there was some other green fringing from a different cause (to do with edge of warped quads at conversion time

I had a think, and realised I could rework the whole thing in a different way - which has fixed ALL of the above issues in one go   It's quite a relief I can you, as this lamp stuff was not trivial to solve the way I was trying to do it before - the maths was making my brain melt.

Here's Wok & Roll lamps with the issues fixed from today's rewrite:

(Blended lamps - I haven't implemented fully yet, just treating them as normal lamps for now... will prob be looking into more converter automation/optimisation and reels next as higher priority tasks)

Looks awesome mate