20 replies to this topic

[Bencrest]

Just a quicky, realised I was turning my other thread into a kind of WIP thread so will post a WIP here (and updates as they occur)

Long story short, have been playing Kriss's 1280DX for the past few days trying (and eventually succeeding) to get a jackpot from it, and since the machine has grown on me, I decided to give it a newer version.

As for the naming structure - the layout is designed for 1080p (1920x1080) screens, but I'm currently on a 1050p screen and it's fine, it'll not be much use on a 1366x768 laptop (I've not tried yet but I assume it'll be missing most, if not all of the reels).

Will I do a laptop friendly layout? Possibly, but I much prefer playing layouts on 1080p screens or similar, and since I'm not working away or anything these days, I might not... we'll see!

Given my track record, expect a release sometime in 2019 or something

Left to do :

A little more line removal and tidying, then chopping up and lamping, then loading those lamps into the emulator.

Attached Files

•  JJ_WIP3.jpg   293.67KB   76 downloads

Edited by Bencrest, 30 September 2012 - 05:48 PM.

[Bencrest]

Turns out I can't get on with the lamping in GIMP, so will have to install Photoshop... will give GIMP one last shot but really not happy with the results, whereas I used to be happy with the Omni Lamp or whatever it was called in Photoshop. Bugger. Oh well, can still chop bits out in preparation

Edited by Bencrest, 30 September 2012 - 05:21 PM.

[nails]

looking good!

i`d like to put my 2p's worth into DX releases. there are some spectacular DX's out there that are sadly let down by the smaller detail, and, in my opinion, far to much time and effort had gone into the cabinet (and payout try on some releases) and of course the top of the machine/coin mech.

you can get away with the finer detail at much higher resolutions, but as for 1024 it becomes impossible to see for example what your bonuses are etc.

now.. some layout designers overcome this problem by simply mapping this small bonus/alpha area to the side of the machine, and i think they have done wonders. like i say just my 2p's worth....

[Bencrest]

looking good!

i`d like to put my 2p's worth into DX releases. there are some spectacular DX's out there that are sadly let down by the smaller detail, and, in my opinion, far to much time and effort had gone into the cabinet (and payout try on some releases) and of course the top of the machine/coin mech.

I fully agree with you, I did have a little debate (with myself - yes, I know that's mad) about whether to just chop the top black plastic / speaker housing from the cabinet altogether. In the end I scaled it down a point I was happy with. Compared to the original 1280 release by Kriss (and again, I'm not having a dig here!!), I've tried to maximise layout detail as much as I can, given the flyer - while pretty good - is a little grainy. The Alpha on Kriss's isn't the original it was released with, I found it too small to play with so I bunged a standard Barcrest type alpha on top, even though it didn't quite fit. I'm sure he was new to designing at the time and the layout was absolutely fine to play, it just feels like a bit too much space was used for the cabinet, at the expense of detail of the machine glass.

you can get away with the finer detail at much higher resolutions, but as for 1024 it becomes impossible to see for example what your bonuses are etc.

now.. some layout designers overcome this problem by simply mapping this small bonus/alpha area to the side of the machine, and i think they have done wonders. like i say just my 2p's worth....

Yup, I see that too. I can imagine it would be near impossible to have a 1360x768 layout using the dot-matrix alpha display in the correct position, because it simply doesn't resize very well. I've gone as small as I can with it, while keeping the characters perfectly in proportion, and had to move the lemon / plum either side of the alpha, and stretch the 'box' that fits around the alpha.

This layout won't be too bad - I'll be adding the bonuses later (perhaps not tonight) onto the glass, don't worry they will be perfectly visible. The only area that I'll need to add to the side art should be the reel maps, while I like to have in side art on clubbers - but I'm not even sure they are strictly necessary here. After all, while the machine gives steps on the number reels, it also tells you in the alpha what you are stepping to, so knowing the above numbers isn't really any benefit.

Attached Files

•  Untitled.jpg   287.96KB   44 downloads

Edited by Bencrest, 30 September 2012 - 06:19 PM.

[Bencrest]

I'm not sure if I've f**ked up here or not - been ages since I last did one of these

In any case, I cut out the 'easy' lamps, and am starting to drag them back onto the layout once lamped. Am I OK to use a background BMP which has lamps 'cut out', or can it cause problems? I ask because when I dragged the window you could see the white behind the lamps when the window was in motion.

If it's not a problem though I'll just leave it

Attached Files

•  JJ_WIP4.jpg   283.79KB   26 downloads

Edited by Bencrest, 30 September 2012 - 11:07 PM.

[Bencrest]

... I've decided to lower the brightness of the 'fruits' on the glass from the previous WIP. In all honestly, I think I've underlamped the fruits on the cash ladder. However, for this release, since it syncs up OK with the brightness of the feature stack and nudges, I'll leave it be,

In the future though, I think I'll go a little 'brighter' on the lamps, and perhaps try and concentrate the lamp effect more.

Still, quite enjoying this at the moment. Surprising how much I remember since I've not worked on one for at least 3 years

Attached Files

•  JJ_WIP5.jpg   308.44KB   32 downloads

[Bencrest]

Note : I have used the original layout from Kriss for my DX, which means that I've used the lamp numbers, e.t.c. from his layout to make mine work. This has saved me a huge amount of time - having made a classic layout from scratch before, finding all the lamp numbers / button numbers e.t.c. is a lot of work. What I'm doing here is fannying about in Photoshop to try and make a pretty layout, built upon his work.

So - many thanks to Kriss for the original layout. Just because I feel I can improve on what was already out there (bearing in mind it was released 4 years ago!) doesn't mean I'm not hugely appreciative of the work that he did in making the original layout.

Things left to do -

1) Lamp the 'faces' for the exchange points (probably the biggest job, although for a shortcut I think I might pick the best looking face, copy / paste it onto the background art, then make ONE transparent lamp - otherwise I'll have to light 25 or so individual faces and that seems a bit silly!)

2) Make my own purple boxes for the bottom reels.

3) Lamp the buttons. I very rarely use the buttons with a mouse (that is, clicking on the buttons on a layout to play), but I appreciate others do. I'll be doing that on my other PC as I need the 1200p resolution really to make sure I can position them correctly.

4) Couple of lose lamps, and a trail held lamp.

5) Side art, including reel bands and keyboard shortcuts.

I feel I'm now in a position to say that it'll be ready 'for the weekend'. I'll get it out as soon as I feel it is ready, but that doesn't mean rushing it out. I may well not bother with playtesting on this, aside from what I've played myself. Then, if people do find errors (which they hopefully won't), or suggestions, then I'll replace the upload - but I've no intention of releasing something that's not working 100%

Attached Files

•  JJ_WIP7.jpg   404.9KB   36 downloads

Edited by Bencrest, 02 October 2012 - 07:03 PM.

[Daryl]

As I said on FF I am looking forward to a release from you after a hiatus of a few years, and this DX is looking very nice.

[Bencrest]

Looking very nice,the lamping looks a1 is there an option to turn the brightness up on the fruit wins

No, but I do agree, I may well end up re-lamping that area - I keep looking at it and not being 100% happy myself

[brucegeorge]

Looking good mate some top class work on that looking forward to it

[grantman]

looks awesome looking forward to playing it

[Bencrest]

Caved in and started re-doing the cash stack while waiting for lunch to cook... mmmm, slow cooked pork loin in cider with homemade mash

Anyway, below the red line are the new lamps, the old ones are above - hopefully it looks less dull now, it just didn't look right to me

Attached Files

•  CASHWIP.jpg   137.6KB   19 downloads

[Bencrest]

Well, no screenshot tonight, but just letting you all know this layout will be released tomorrow, but probably not until later on

Things left to do :

1) Lamp the buttons (probably 30 minutes work)
2) Couple of hidden lamps - 2 x LOSE and 1 x TRAIL HELD - (probably 15 minutes work)
3) Possibly purple boxes for the hidden wins - the ones included are perfectly OK, but I might redraw them (if I redraw, probably only about 15 minutes work)

-edit- sod it, I'll redraw the purple boxes, since it's a small job and will make a difference!

... and that's it - aside from giving it a good once over, making sure it's all fully working and ready for release

Edited by Bencrest, 03 October 2012 - 10:54 PM.

[gemini17]

Looks crackin
Wonder if this is easy to squeeze a jackpot from


Jay

[Bencrest]

Looks crackin
Wonder if this is easy to squeeze a jackpot from


Jay

It's actually finished, I did upload it but for some reason it seems to need restarting once or twice before working on my current PC.

Regarding jackpot, I've included two RAM files, one that will drop a JP within a few quid, and one that will drop it after about £150.

If I upload the file here, can you guys tell me if it boots up OK on your machines, or if it's an issue my end?

Please use MFME v9.4 - and if it works OK, I'll do a proper release thread for it!


Ta

Attached Files

•  JJ1080BEN2.zip   4.37MB   4 downloads

Edited by Bencrest, 04 October 2012 - 09:53 PM.

[gemini17]

Loads up fine.

Stunning dx

Many thanks

Jay

[Bencrest]

Loads up fine.

Stunning dx

Many thanks

Jay

Well that's bloody weird

I save it on my proper PC upstairs, and upload it, then come downstairs and download it on my office PC and it won't load 1st time!

As long as it works for you though, I'm happy - so I assume it loaded 1st time, you didn't have to restart it? Maybe I've broken my MFME?

Edited by Bencrest, 04 October 2012 - 11:46 PM.