The Endless Summer – Original DIP (desaster in progress)

[makmak]

• yesterday I’ve played JPs new AfM…for sure I have to steal his new physics to my table (somehow)
• added a new “sexwaxfrenzy”- mode
• other than that not much progress…winter holidays are over and not much spare time

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[makmak]

some more progress, its growing…

• brand new JPSalas-physics
• Skillshot (at first I used the SUMMER-targets for the skillshot (its not a real plunger-skillshot – its about the first hit after plunger-shot) then decided to try something new to learn movement of primitives…see video)

(ignore that “thing” at the upper ramp, its intended to be a breaking wave around the ramp … still under construction …)

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[JR]

Hey!  Was just playing the test table and was going to post today asking how it was going. Very cool! You’re doing some very creative stuff here.

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[makmak]

I see a faint glimmer of light at the end of a very, very long tunnel…

– it seems that all modes and functions and ifs and thens work now as intended and no longer interfere with each other.

– developed some more light effects.

– songs adapted somewhat better to each mode. Hopefully one doesnt get bored by the same starting song (no worries, I dont like the beach boys music too much…;-).

– lately I have been exaggerating a bit with moving primitives the moving walls are replaced by nice surfboards now. The upper lanes are also fully connected on both sides during endless summer mode by an upcoming surfboard.

– replaced magnets and invisible walls for the locked-ball function with invisible kickerholes. It still looks a little bit strange when the ball falls into the invisible kickerhole. I have to try out if the kickerhole can be lifted over the playfield to prevent this effect. Or is there another way to prevent the ball from “falling” into a kicker hole?

– I lost almost all my hair (and the remaining have grayed) to code a conclusive way about what happens if you lose the current ball, but the other one is still locked. And what happens if there is a player change ? In the end it wasnt a real “problem” but a knot in my brain…

Next I have to work on the sound effects a bit. Hopefully I can then slowly start to integrate the code into orbital framework, so that you can play “real” games with 3 balls and also with several players.

I think I will abandon UltraDMD and use PuP-DMD instead. Recently I saw a video from TerryRed about this, I’ll have to take a closer look.

I have almost all PUP-Pack videos ready by now.

The other day I had a crazy thought about a DMD mini-game being a great idea (as a reward, so to speak, when you’ve finished a beach). I want to take a look at the Godot-game engine for that. Already have something in mind… If it turns out being too complicated, I might save it for an update or forget about it.
Talking about update: I just saw an update on “High-Speed” – one of my fav pinball machines, the author was talking about playfield shadows… for that I have to sacrifice some brain cells in the future, too.

It’s maybe a little too enthusiastic, but at the moment I think that I could actually finish the endless summer pinball this year

 

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[makmak]

Found out: you cannot lift kickers above the playfield, but you can place it on a surface which is placed at the desired height, in this case: an invisible wall. Now I have a kicker hole above the playfield and the ball does not disappear partly in the playfields surface when being locked. Maybe strange workaround, but it works

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[makmak]

I have a question on lights, please help me, I am missing the forrest through the trees. Yesterday I was trying for more than an hour (before I fell asleep…) to get a light doing what I want from it:

It should slowly fade within lets say 2 or 3 seconds from no light up to an intensity of 10 and back to no light again. This should look like a „pumping“ light, you know? What are the correct parameters for state, blinkpattern, fadespeedup/down? Or is it just repeated state on/off with a slowly fadespeed controlled by a timer? What would the simple code look like? Thanks so much!

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[makmak]

This table wont be easy to play and simply shooting the ball around will not lead to success. Therefore I resigned from too many multiball actions (I dont like multiballs too much and it often/sometimes leads to errors in vpx (at least for my cab…) (nevertheless there is the chance for a 2 Multiball).

Instead of Multiballs and stuff, I designed more ball savers. The Player should not become depressed and should progress in the game.

A kickback at the left outlane, a randomized (1/4) magnet ball saver at the right outlane, timed ball saver phases here and then.

Now I have added a „moving bumper“ (whats the right term?) in between the flippers (a droppable wall around the already existing center pin). It will rise up after certain modes for a limited time and then go back down to playfield level. I want it to have a rubberring like a slingshot and let bounce back the ball (like a rubber ball) when hit. Any suggestions how to tweak the physics oft the wall/rubber? Or so you know an already existing table with such a feature?

Thanks a lot, it would save me hours of testing…(every little thing takes me hours of testing, as everything is new to me…)

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[makmak]

Sorry guys, most likely I am at a dead end with my non existent programming skills.

I tried to put the code into orbital framework and had a look at other originals a lot.

With the framework, the pup-videos and -music are nearly fine now and Ultra DMD also spits out points. But you always start with ball no. 3 somehow and after that there is no new ball. grr. Since 2 weeks I’m trying virtually 24/7 , but with every success in one direction something in another direction suddenly doesn’t work anymore and I don’t have a clue why…

I guess that someone with a little more programming knowledge and more experience could see immediately where the problem is. The main problem (besides some small others that I think I could solve by myself) seems to be what happens when passing my “gate1” to plunger lane. This code prepares the table for a new ball (resets lights, targets, modes and stuff) and I dont know where to put it in the framework. I tried different locations but…grrrr…

So, before getting in too deep with scoring functions, dmd-stuff and “DOF”ing (havent even thought about making shiny ramps or the primitive of a breaking wave around the upper ramp and for sure deleted all thoughts about a DMD-minigame ;-), I have to solve this, but I dont know how and therefore have to face my limits. Winter is passing by, my programming journey in vpx will come to an end as days get longer and my interests will fade to sports outside again.

Nevertheless I am very happy with my “endless summer with endless balls” version ;-),  everything including sound and light effects and all the modes work as far as I can see, didnt notice any conflicts anymore. Sure, theres lots of work for the bin and still lots of small things that can and will be optimized, but thats the way it is. Its still far away from publish and without the help of someone who is interested to take a look at the code it never will. I have asked some talented guys already but I guess no one wants to waste time by looking at someone elses code.

 

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2 users thanked author for this post.

JR, BeachBumTN

[Thalamus]

I believe you would do better just releasing the table as is – with a comment in the release thread that you would like help to get the script working. But, of course, this is all up to you.

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[makmak]

You wont believe (me neither…): after a nervous breakdown yesterday night and a cold shower afterwards my emptied, fresh mind by accident found out, what was going wrong: a single line of code that “slipped” somehow two lines below its intended location and messed all up. So hard to find out. It can go on – yehaw – my ambition probably wouldn’t have left me alone anyway. So be prepared for some more ups and downs in the near future

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[JR]

@makmak – – I think you aptly described what a lot of our brains go through when figuring vp stuff out.  Glad to hear you had a eureka moment and are back at it!  I’ve really enjoyed playing the early versions of The Endless Summer and admire how you’ve pressed on with this project when the ‘sensible’ thing to do was re-theme an existing table!  You had something else in mind. Cool!!

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[BeachBumTN]

• I have enjoyed the early version as well. When a table has endless balls and no scoring but I still find myself playing it for extended sessions, there is definitely something special in the making.  As I kept playing I discovered more and more features. A few targets are tough to hit so I kept going after them.  I do hope folks contribute as needed for a complete and fantastic table.  Congrats on your efforts to date!

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[makmak]

Two simple questions:

1. how to get rid of the orange “visual pinball” letters in the upper right corner???

2. There are two gates that are one-way open. In certain modes they need to be open both ways. I have set them to collidable=false, but i want to use them as a counter as well. Is there a command to open both ways? Thanks!

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[makmak]

Thanks for the overwhelming respond to my questions…what would be the right board to ask silly beginner questions WITH getting an answer? (Besides FB, I have no face, you know…)

In case someone else is searching for an answer to this: you could use Gate.open=true /false instead of collidable. But thats not what I was searching for. I dont want the metal gate just stay open but letting the ball travelling through both directions / one direction  optionally, but always touching the metal wires. Like the both upper gates in AfM. As far as I understood , in VPX I can choose from a gate  with one direction (left/right) or both directions?

 

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[makmak]

What you should never do:

forget to close all editor/options/sounds/images – windows before starting a table. This has strange & unpredictable effects (e.g. rotatelanelights…), omg, knowing & remembering that could have saved me hours, nerves & grey/missing hair…

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[Thalamus]

VP is far from bug free.

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[makmak]

I did not blame the developers. You just need to know what to do in what way

Reg. Endless Summer: I’ve played around with some GI lighting yesterday… there is more light to come

Did some more sound effects also.

Found out, that grouping elements e.g. walls for a general soundeffect (lets say hitting any wall has a fx_sound) also leads to other general changes of all  the elements in that group? Suddenly walls were dropped that shouldnt and vice versa. Hmmm…headaches over headaches even without having a corona (as far as i know).

This gonna be an endless wip, not an endless summer…

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[Thalamus]

Grouped elements is probably not the reason why you have this problem. What is dangerous with groups is that you put them into place too early in the process, you then later on select a wall, not noticing that you are selecting every wall in the group and change its properties – but, in fact you are changing them all. It is just like you say. A question of getting used to the editor and finding a way to get around its shortcomings and dangers. I’ve done the group mistake a lot of times myself. Just remember to save often and to different filenames, you at least then have a way of back tracking yourself if you loose control of what you’ve done. Of course, you loose a bit of work that way too. But, the harder the fall is, the more focus you will have next time around.

I’m sure you’ll get there in the end. Building a table from the bottom up is no small task, and I see from your posts that you are learning.

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[makmak]

The golden rules:

Just remember to save often and to different filenames

What too often happens: you loose control of what you’ve done.

At least I am still laughing at myself ( but sounds  hysterically and fatalistic sometimes). Thanks for your encouraging words.

 

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[makmak]

Dear pinball-friends and -nerds,

I’m at a point where I realize I’m getting a little tired of the endless summer. So I think its time to make a cut! Even if the table is not 100%. Many of us have to stay at home these times and having a new table to play makes it a little more bearable hopefully…

I for myself hate downloading some half-baked tables, playing once and then waiting for a new release or version. So I decided the following: I want to share a link to a full PUPpack/UltraDMD Table 0.1 Version to those who want to help a little bit. As I dont know how many people are following this thread, maybe you know someone and can encourage him/her?

If I do not get any help at all, I will publish the actual state the next days anyway.

So, the following things are waiting to be done but I am struggling with. All nice to have and not really mandatory in my eyes, but imacceptable for perfectionists:

• HighScores – I have a script for highscores and you can enter initials at the end of a well played game but highscores are not stored and are not recalled. I even dont know in what folder they should be found. My guess is a missing or wrong defined variable or such.

• DOF – Arngrim gratefully added a blank slot for the Endless Summer table. I do not know much about „DOFing“ and my cab is poorly fitted with. Two solenoids for flippers, a gear motor and an old LED-strip (not addressable) is all I have…so if anyone wants to fill up the code and DOF configtool with DOF code – you are very welcome (up to now flippers, slingshots and gear motor is used and working)

• Ramp/Wireramp rolling sounds – there are soundfiles already but there must be something I have missed. I have tried with „general“ rolling sounds, triggers and so on. I dont get it working.

• Blender ramps – right now there are VPX-ramps and cup only – I am fine with it. Without wearing glasses I do not see much difference anyways ;-). I have tried Blender several times but this programme causes me headaches, makes me nervous and angry. Some others like it and are able to produce things magically in virtually no time. Not me…

• „A primitive wave“ – my idea was a breaking wave around the upper ramp. Great effect with relatively little effort (I thought)  -just a plain cylindrical transparent tube rotating around the upper ramp when the ball is rolling down the ramp. Put an image of blue water with some foam (lip of the wave) at the frontend on it. Let it rotating coming directly out of the back wall… and let it disappear again. I managed  to make a tube and putting an image to it. But I couldnt get the origin of the tube placed in the middle of the tube, so rotating always was weird… shouldnt be a big deal for someone knowing what he is doing…

• Multiplayer – as in times of Corona you should play single anyways… in fact, you can play with up to 4 players but I have not checked out much. I bet there are lots of bugs when playing with more than one player. I never focused on that and its probably a lot of work checking each and every variable and lightstate for its relevancy for multiplayer. So I recommend to play one player games only…on the other hand, if you can take it easy, it might add a lot of fun getting unpredictable advantages/disadvantages when playing multiplayer?

• Start a new game – I have an outro running at the end of a game on the backglass, like the attract mode (which you can stop by pressing the start button). Right now you have to wait until the outro is finished before you can start a new game. The first several times its entertaining but when seen three dozen times people might want to interrupt it to start a new game. I cannot get it stopping – lol. There is „orbital code“ in the sub I do not know how its working…

• I did not notice stutter although I have by no means a highend computer, so i guess it should run on any machine. Sometimes drain triggers are firing multiple times when they should do once only (you get an „echo-sound“ then and multiple light-sequences – not really critical at all). I guess I am using wrong type of triggers or sth…

• In very rare occasions the ball moves weird at the rubberposts at the outlanes (although I have set the height to 26 or so..)

There are also still many ways to pimp the graphics (playfield, targets, inserts and so on), and I have many more ideas like modes and a minigame and so on… maybe sometimes later…

I know its by no means a perfect pinball table – but when you look at the code and before you die laughing, be aware:

–  half a year ago I did not know anything about programming at all

– I have never owned a real pinball machine

– one year ago I was not interested in Pinball at all…

Much of the code was just copy&paste from many many other pinball tables (starting with a blank vpx table, originals, recreations, orbital framework, pup-framework and so on). Sometimes I had a faint idea, sometimes I did not have a clue what the code does or if its used at all… In fact, its a miracle its working and probably a nightmare for others to look at…

So thanks to all the genius coders/authors and vpx-developers out there. Some of them are mentioned in the code, many many more I have forgot to make me a note of. But I think you all know the famous and infamous „usual suspects“ better than me ;-).

Besides steeling code from others, I for sure have coded at least 10.000 lines altogether by myself, most of it deleted again afterwards by finding a supposedly better way. I have spent countless hours editing videos, music, sounds, graphics and so on. Still there are plenty ways to optimize the code. And for sure there are ways to get rid of most of the millions of timers I have used. I do not know better to date.

I also do not know how to change things to make it playable as a desktop version or two screen version or whatever. This is a three screen cab version with Backglass, topper, UltraDMD and PuP, VPX 10.6 (probably not installed 100% correctly…) which runs on my cab miraculously well.

Do you have some spare time, want to test the „beta“ & have some knowledge to contribute to the above mentioned „issues“ to pimp the table before the first publish?

I´ll be happy to share a download link.

If you just want to play, please be patient for a few more days. In any case it will be published shortly, no matter what the response to this call for help is.

Thanks for your time, stay save and hang loose!

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Scotty VH

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