TRON Legacy Night/Dark Mod

[tabascoman77]

Hi all,

First and foremost: I suck at this.

Meaning I don't code and and I don't really do Photoshop. Also, I have zero idea what I'm doing with table layers or how to apply them to VisualPinball.

That said, LOOK, MA! I'M TRYING TO MOD A TABLE!

Doing Fett's TRON Legacy Dark/Night Mode. This is a WIP. Lighting's not perfect yet but I'm getting there. Most of the table is dark. My Recognizer is lit up just slightly (the orange light on his little head looks pretty sweet -- though I need to get a "glow" going on that)Any kind of illumination or dark lighting help or tutorials would help big-time.

The background is one of my own design based on Flynn's Arcade from the film. The lighting effects in the arcade are all me. Hopefully that looks good enough.

If not, I'll just walk away and burn it all in the driveway, I guess...

So, this is my list of stuff I need help with or need to complete:

• I'm trying to get the scripting down as I'd really like to see if I can reprogram the "lost ball sequence" so that the entire table goes dark except for the light cycle ramps.
• Trying to get more of an ethereal glow to the ramps.
• Would love to have the color refracting off the board like in real life.
• Need to know how to get the LED's on the table to go brighter with that soft glow look with them.

Again...any help anybody could offer would be appreciated.

And thank you in advance.

Criticism welcome. Be gentle.

[DJRobX]

First thanks for working on this table!   It looks really nice!

I'm happy to help you with scripting issues.   As for the glow and reflecting of the neon ramps, you might look at how Dozer's Walking Dead table does the color GI, I imagine you'll need something similar. 

For the lost ball sequence - I think part of that problem was VPM didn't send the signal to turn off GI, so old tables faked it.   I added that support to VPM a while back.  This code should work.   Take out all the existing GiOn and GiOff calls so only the ROM controls it. 

Sub UpdateGI(no, Enabled)
	Select Case no
		Case 0 'Top
			If Enabled Then
				GIOn
			Else
				GIOff
			End If
	End Select
End Sub

set GICallback = GetRef("UpdateGI")

 

[tabascoman77]

Update:

So, I'm screwing around with 3D models and I've done some things. A lot of things.

I copied models from the VPX Tron table here. I've started contacting people for credit. Don't worry. I got this. Kinda. Sorta. It's all good!

As you can see, I've gone Toy Mod on this sucker:

• Added the "Flynn's Arcade" neon sign on the right side.
• Added the TRON Legacy versions of the light cycle versions. Might shrink them down since OMG they're huge.
• Playfield darkened a bit more. Still messing around a bit.

This, by the way, is based on Vett85's table. I'm trying to see if he's good with allowing me to release it here.

That's it from home base. All right...I'm going out and seeing what I can get done in the next couple of hours.

Hold the fort and keep the home fires burnin' and I'm not back by dawn...call the President...

[tabascoman77]

@DJRobX - I'm having an issue putting your code in the overall script. I don't think the script in question has anything related to GI Lighting so there isn't anything to replace. The only thing I'm seeing is mention of lamps and SetLamps but I don't have the first clue as to what controls what. The neon ramps, in particular, are tough to find on the table blueprint.

I've attached the script in question.

Any ideas?

TRON script.txt

[jesperpark]

You might want to look at the VP10 tron table released by freneticamnesiac AKA Fren, I know he had the neon ramps working on his release.  Also I'm sure it was a lot to do what djrobx figured out with the LE boards to make them work correctly

[tabascoman77]

Hey, @jesperpark. Actually, that's what I'm using as my reference point. The issue I think I'm coming across is that the scripting scheme isn't the same as VP 9.X doesn't fully understand VPX commands and vice versa. That and there are several parts of the VPX table that have different names.

I'm actually coding this for VP9 rather than VPX.

[DJRobX]

You won't be able to do the neon ramps well in VP9.   We couldn't even do it well in VPX without some new code from VP dev to allow a texture to take an RGB color. 

I thought you were doing something for VPX.    Super Bummer.   The VPX table needs love.    Lighting is way way more difficult in VP9. 

My code snippet above gives you the signals when to shut the lights off and when to bring them back on.    They are just as applicable to VP9 as VPX.    In VP9 this is usually done by swapping the whole playfield with a darkened image.    So much work.  Yuck.

 

[tabascoman77]

@DJRobX- I dunno...the ramps in TL VP9 look just fine now. I wouldn't mind doing multiple playfields to emulate it. I can do the VPX table. It's just that VP9 runs a little smoother than VPX does for me right now. The TRON Legacy table on VPX runs well enough but has some frame skipping and the flippers feel delayed. Nonetheless, I'm more than willing to try to help supe up the TRON Legacy VPX table. I just thought it already looked great and was emulated well enough. Even the lost ball sequence mimics the actual table perfectly.

[DJRobX]

Have you seen what they're supposed to look like?  They're really not fine.  They don't fade and blend colors like they're supposed to.

I didn't realize they weren't fine until I played a real Tron.  That's what inspired me to go home and fix VPM so we could do it correctly.

As for VPX, try turning down the detail settings, turning off playfield reflections, etc.   The end result still looks miles better than VP9 but it runs smooth as butter even on a VM in my mac laptop. 

 

[tabascoman77]

I run it on a 2011 Mac Mini running Windows 7 Bootcamp. VP9 is perfect...but thanks for your recommendation on turning down the detail!  

As for the neon ramps on VP9, let me rephrase and say they don't look horrible. I'd just love to find a way to shut off all lights on ball drain except for the ramp. I'm guessing that has something to do with the playfield switch-out upon triggering the drain and then somehow turning the playfield back to lit up.

The other thing I'm noticing on a lot of "Night videos" involving the TL table is that there really aren't any big, bright lights. They're all blue, blanketing the table in a blue hue. 

But, then, I'm a total novice, sir.  I actually really like the VPX version because the lighting and sequencing is a whole lot better than VP9.