17 replies to this topic

[vectra666]

I may get shot down in flames for this, and I was going to start this a while back so here goes.
As we know layouts in all their forms can take many hours weeks months in forming from collecting information of the machine in either photo's,flyers or YouTube vids then there's the technical side to things, firstly the emulators months of tech no how to complete, still amazes me today. Next the roms, the brains of the layout, without these there wouldn't be one simples. Now on to the layouts themselves I personally consider classic type layouts to be the hardest loading Roms into a dat.file for the first time not knowing whether the time harvesting the data was a waste of time or not. Then you've got them little bleeding yellow squares, right pain in the arse spending weeks putting them in some kind of order, something I find near impossible to do. Then there's all the text n colouring in of said squares to make it more appealing to the player. So basically a classic layout is the body of the layout, now dxing in my eyes is the skin to complete the body in some respects just as hard, in some cases even harder than a classic to make due to the fact a dx has goto look exact or near to the machine as possible, this is where photoshop is valuable. Flyers will countless lines or logo's splatted all over, photo's that need to be painstakenly stitched together, the colouring of the lamps,text needs to be A1 lamp masking dual lamps etc etc.
The reels are just as difficult in both cases. So all in all in my experience in layout creating I'd say classic layouts are the Hardest because of them pesky little squares lol but not saying dx's have there challenges to.

[richy1976]

For me all of them lol.

[Daysleeper]

It depends on the info you have at hand. Oddly it can be harder with some bad photos than none at all sometimes.

 

 

With Dr Who, I managed to fool everyone. No one, not even Trouty realized it was a "disney" I drew it from scratch in Photoshop after a week trying to get a photo to work. Thing is, once I made the call to draw it, it was easy.

 

 

Hardest, of course beat The Clock, as I had to learn BFMulator from scratch, although Hans of course tried to help.

 

Or that pile of shit in your Kitchen Dad? Cant remember name now, but such a bad machine I could never finish it LMAO. Hey least you got a Son in law out of it if not a layout .

[Deathclaw]

It all depends how far you are willing to go and what you have available.

 

And because of that it depends what skills you need. So for example, putting a flyer under a scanner with no print marks and no lines? you could just clean it briefly and lamp it. As such, a few hours?

 

Then there's bad photos. It would probably be quicker in those cases to just use the photos as a template and redraw everything but if you get sucked in you could be talking days just to straighten out the images and remove any bad areas. There are some photos that I've picked up that were probably better off left in the bin.

 

And then there's whether you want to put in the extra spade work on the lamps. The easy way obviously is to just draw the area and put a omni lamp down. Then there are the more complicated ways of lamping, like using the dodge tool, Gaussian blur, edge blending, opacity, outer glow, layered lamps (so that every single one is lifted into a layer to be worked on individually) and so on.

 

As I've said elsewhere, you get out what you put in. It really is as simple as that.

[spa]

Any classic that you have never played or have any images for. Have done several. Its like a 5000 piece baked bean jigsaw lol

[Daysleeper]

Something which ive lost links for which are so useful are Font ID sites. Many of the fonts or ones indistinguishable from the original are available to download if you know he name.

 

Ill have a dig about, but were a couple of fantastic sites for font ID I used.

 

Then you of course need to buy he fonts LMAO Im sure a recent comeback to the forums would be only too willing to sell them lol.

[andy-1]

I think they both have there challenges.

 

When creating a classic you have to load the roms in, find out about the doors (if it will play open or closed) set the stake, prize and percentage only then can you start work on finding out where all the lamps go, reels ect, this can be a lot more challenging if you don't have a image of the machine (sometimes even this is not enough to help.

 

Then with DXs you have to clean the flyer or stich the pictures you have together, before you can then decide what kind of darkness you would like it to be and what kind of size e.g 1024, then there is all the lamping that has to be done  with photoshop, once completed it still needs to be put together in the EMU.

 

As said at the start of the post both have their challenges, I think most layout creators will have their opinions as to what is the most difficult.

 

Personally I think classics provide the most challenges.

[£6 In Tokens]

For me it's the artwork.  So straightening and a lots of fusing getting it right.  So example here a base done for Project Go For Gold from 3 photo's only, hard, hard work!

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[Daysleeper]

For me it's the artwork.  So straightening and a lots of fusing getting it right.  So example here a base done for Project Go For Gold from 3 photo's only, hard, hard work!

 

 

 

Kinda my favorite bit that you know. Its lamping, working out the f*****g multiplex and Hex addresses that drove me nuts. But I couldnt move things like you guys can so....

[ady]

Of course classic's are the most difficult to create, I and a fair few of those that understand emulations know that.....shame they arn't and really have never been seen that way.

 

I have only ever attempted 1 in my time of making DX's....I gave-up trying myself!!.........if it wasn't for TTX, DAD, ploggy, geddy, £6it and Steve it would still have been a question mark as far as I was concerned.

 

If I may add, yes mabey it's because i'm within this category too.....at the DX stage obtaining resources may well be the hardest at times, and alas an expensive part as well.......numerous times have I (alongside others) worked as a 'team' and gained these sources.........and shared.........that don't appear to happen anymore

[Daysleeper]

 

Well this could and should change now with the little kitty we have,for any future resources

 

 

 

Oh No

 

deja vu all over again. 

[ady]

 

Well this could and should change now with the little kitty we have,for any future resources

 

Nice to see some new names Tommy, we have done our bit.

 

Don't hold your breath though fella!

[Deathclaw]

 

 

 

Oh No

 

deja vu all over again. 

 

f*** sake get with the times. They've been doing it here, without any issues whatsoever for f*****g ages.

 

Have you really, truly not moved on Dave? because if you haven't I feel really f*****g sorry for you.

[£6 In Tokens]

Yes and there's a lot of people of here with so much excellence it's unbelieveable.  Like the 4 best in my eyes Fusion, Pook, DAD & Ploggy, absolute excellence in DX'ing as well as many more, standards I could never reach too many to mention.  Then legends in Classics like my best friend on here Hit The Six and Captain Haddock, Johnny, Geddy, Bugs again to many to mention.  TommyC is a particular favorite of mine, see what he creates now is brilliant! Really anyone that created and put the time and effort and love into a classic or DX is a legend in my eyes, it shows they have put the effort in.  Also non layout people shouldn't be forgotten, people who transported machines for pictures, took pictures, uploaded layouts, all just as important.  Basically love you all guys

Edited by £6 In Tokens, 27 April 2014 - 05:45 PM.

[fruitman69]

Hmmm figures?  I guess the 300+ classic layouts I did weren't enough to qualify me to be in the "legends of classics" .....I rest my case  lol