New WIP Pirates of the Caribbean pup-pack

[kcirrick]

 

 

I’ve been obsessed with finding the POTC pup-pack, but as everyone knows it’s just not out there anymore. I was too late to the game and still learning the vpin ropes and so never downloaded it when it was still obtainable. As a result I finally decided to make my own. This is my first attempt at a pup-pack, but I’ve found the basics to be pretty simple although setting up triggers can be an exercise in patience and editing videos, music and animations can be pretty time consuming. I’m nearing the finish line with just a few things to add and tweak. Based on the number of triggers that other pack had, (nearly 250), my version isn’t quite as sophisticated, but I still feel it’s fun. I’m pretty much just making the pup-pack for my own enjoyment, but I will attempt to share it with the community when I feel it’s ready.  Hopefully, soon. 

 

The community has certainly shared enough with me.  I fired a few triggers in the editor for this video.  Pardon the low quality.   (And no flaming me for the hokey LCD DMD screen.🙂  This machine was given to me by someone who was fed up with trying to make it work.)

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by kcirrick

[kcirrick]

I'm about 90% done.  Here is a snippet of the pack in play.

Includes an attract mode video, Port Royal completed, some sword fighting interrupted by parlay interrupted by ball lost and a couple of others.  Many triggers have multiple videos to play in random order when triggered.   A ball spends a lot of time up on the spinner resulting in lots of explosions on the coins.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by kcirrick

[kcirrick]

double post deleted

Edited October 5, 2023 by kcirrick

[LTek]

VERY cool... please make a 2 screen version!

[LTek]

any news on ETA?

[kcirrick]

This is taking longer than I expected. I think the gods are against me. I was so close.

 

I was still doing some trigger tweaking, but put that on hold to work on sound. Because table sounds, mainly music, would often conflict with the videos, most of which have their own music, I had intended on dumping the rom and creating an altsound file. To my dismay, it apparently can’t be done with this table. A testament as to how clueless I am in trying to make this all work. However, I came up with an alternative. I simply collected many of the tables call outs and then started creating multiple ‘screens’ in the screens.pup file whose sole purpose was to play sounds. I couldn’t have just one or two ‘screens’ dedicated to sound because when one sound was playing others couldn’t play. I had it working really well. I just turned the tables volume all the way down and the pup-pack was playing table sounds and they continue to play when a video is triggered. I used what I felt were the tables best sounds, but didn’t bother with the more generic call outs and no music.  There are a LOT of videos.  Most triggers have anywhere from three to six or more videos that play at random when triggered.  When the game ends any of three different videos will play.  The generic call outs I didn't bother with aren't missed.   I didn't replace all the call outs, but in addition to existing table call outs that I kept I created some new call outs using quotes from the movies. All was going very well. Then it happened. What happened I don’t know, but suddenly many files on the computer were corrupted. Since I was mostly working on the triggers.pup file I kept backing that up, but I hadn’t backed it up in a while and hadn't backed up the screens.pup or the playlists.pup files at all. These and other files on my computer were now corrupted. Anyway, I’m having to redo a lot of the work I had done. Lesson learned.

 

So I haven’t forgotten or given up. It’s just taking longer than expected. In frustration, I took a break for several weeks, but I’m back at it. I’m hoping to share by Christmas. I apologize for the delay.  I have a new found respect for the enthusiasts that create those fancy pup-packs.

 

Ltek: I do plan on making a two screen version, but please be patient with me. Once I post this version I’m sure, (at least I hope), I’ll get some suggestions for tweaks and have some issues I didn’t catch pointed out to me. Once I get it all cleaned up then I'm considering making a new ‘screen’ on the backglass to show what currently shows on the DMD screen. Or, I may simply move the DMD stuff to the topper and let the different videos and animations fight it out using assigned priorities.   Option two will be much easier, but I still will have to find a place for the DMD.  Technically, I guess the backglass currently has six ‘screens’. The two aztec coins are each their own screen, the topper, the ocean border, the frame for the videos and the backglass where the videos play.

 

As a teaser, here is a video that plays should you get a high score.  (The Pearl rising up and getting pulled back down loops during the game when a triggered video isn't playing.) 

 

Working on this I noticed what appears to be a mistake in the movie.  In the beginning of the video you see Captain Teague at the wheel steering the ship.  Then when it switches to Sparrow and Gibbs you see Cotton at the  wheel behind them steering the ship.  (This video is zoomed in a bit so you'll get a better view watching the movie.)

And here's one of several that plays when the game ends. 

And here's a sample animation for the topper.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2023 by kcirrick

[LTek]

It looks like you have callout videos (lost ball, etc) showing on the DMD? Most PuPs have that on the main backglass and the DMD is an always-on scoreboard. But if you want to keep the videos without resizing... maybe put the DMD Videos & DMD Score Board in the small bordered area, like the attached image. IMO most pups have 'too much' going on... the brain cant see all of this and play the game anyway. I have a rule when I design things that no more than 2 areas of movement, its all the brain can keep up with. For a 2 screen I suggest the lower inset is larger and move the coins to the corners. The ocean background is ok, but seems the main focus is the main inset screen anyway?

 

 

Edited November 24, 2023 by LTek

[kcirrick]

Something like the option in your upper graphic is the more likely, but both options have their challenges. Remember, I’m a novice at this. I can put the score between the coins, (well, the player will have to put it there and save the size and location), but I’m not sure if I can make the short videos and animations show on top of it when they play. I might experiment with it. I think I have another option for the animations though and I might just skip the short videos that show on the third screen above the DMD score as for most of them I just put them there because I had the option to do so and they’re not really essential.

 

As far as resizing the area between the coins, that is kind of a bug a boo. Adjusting the screen locations for the coins is not difficult, but in order to make that moving ocean border work I had to take a video and mask out anywhere I didn’t want ocean showing and then make that masked area transparent. It’s a little embarrassing, but I’m not sure I remember how I did it the first time. I use Davinci Resolve for most of my video editing, but I’ve been unable to use Davinci to create transparent MP4’s due to the lack of a codec. I managed it in Videopad, but when I tried to do duplicate it I keep missing something and it doesn’t work. I don’t use Videopad much. When the time comes to make the two screen version I’ll figure something out. If we’re lucky I’ll figure it out before I upload and I’ll be able to include both the three and two screen options in the pup-pack. Either way I may have no choice but to increase the size of that area on the backglass so the score is readable.

 

As far as having too much going on, you may hate this pup-pack. There is a lot going on. There are a lot of great pup-packs out there, but there are a lot that seem to leave much to be desired with just the occasional video popping up and it always being the same video so I resolved to step it up a few notches. Once I started creating the pup-pack I felt the more that was going on the more fun the game was so again I resolved to step it up. This is why most triggers have multiple videos and there are, including videos, animations and sound, approximately 200 of them, (the original POTC pup-pack probably has at least twice as many), but some are setup to stop looped videos from playing when a mode such as multiball is over. That said, it got to a point that there was too much going on even for me so I cut the triggers back a bit. Of course, if there is too much sensory overload it’s easy for anyone to edit the pup-pack and simply by unchecking a box any trigger can be disabled.

 

I appreciate the input. It gives me something to think about.

[LTek]

Many of the latest packs I'm seeing with 2 screen the authors are placing the Topper  in a frame at the top of the Backglass, and the DMD in a frame at the bottom... I think this is how they are making a single 'efficient' pack work for 2,3,4 screens. I suggest taking a look at Jumanji, which was just released, its that way and it works well. Just wish people would make the lower DMD frames larger... they are very small on a 15" backglass.

[PacketNarc]

Hate to sound like a leach but where might one FIND this WIP pack ? I too was very late to the scene and while I have DIY'd most everything else; this evades me. PuPs are still part witchcraft part Sorcery. 

[kcirrick]

I apologize for the delay and not meeting my intended Christmas goal. So as not to be thought of as a complete jerk I feel an explanation is in order. I’ll keep it brief.

 

If you’ve never woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone rummaging around in your home and had a complete stranger ease open your bedroom door let me assure you it is a fairly terrifying experience. Fortunately, I literally sleep with my Glock.  (I own some acres in a rural area.  My neighbors are not within shouting distance.)  I pretty much abandoned the game room while I focused on security and my guns. I conceal carry when I go out, but I now open carry whenever I am home and I still sleep with the Glock. Fear, paranoia and depression subsiding (somewhat) I’m trying to get back into the games again focusing on the pup-pack.

 

Having been unable to create that altsound file I turned the games volume down and set up the pup-pack to emulate many of the table’s sounds. Mostly successful, but with some issues. I still have been unable to properly trigger a sound when operating the flippers. When I set up a trigger to make a sound when a flipper is pressed there is no sound. Thanks to something I learned from an old TerryRed video I had tried triggering the sound when releasing the flipper and this worked, but there is an unacceptable delay in the sound. Unable to resolve the problem I have temporarily given up on using the pup-pack to emulate table sounds. I will be doing some cleanup and will hopefully upload the pup-pack soon. I won’t estimate a time though. Getting back into it I’m having a little trouble picking up where I left off, (although I was able to recover from the corrupted files), and I’d rather not disappoint twice. There will be some minor conflicts with table sounds, (mainly music), with triggered videos, but I’m going to live with it for now. Hopefully, you can to.

 

Again, I apologize. Bear with me. I’ll get there.

Edited January 24 by kcirrick
spelling error

[LTek]

@kcirrick  I added a 3rd screen, ready to test when you are ready

[kcirrick]

The pup-pack has been uploaded and waiting for moderator approval.  I still consider this a work in progress so you might experience a glitch or two.  I went ahead and uploaded as I feel people have been waiting long enough, but I will continue to tweak and clean up.  I'll keep an eye on it for comments on any issues or positive suggestions.  Thanks for your patience.

[kcirrick]

I've temporarily uploaded the pup-pack to my google drive.

 

Link removed.    Posting new link below.

Edited February 15 by kcirrick
update

[Cliffy]

Ok @kcirrick I just tried your new pirates pup in desktop and here's what I see. The first pic is out of box, no bat files ran. It seemed to play the movie trailer clips but no triggers except for ball lost and the overlay alpha is behind the videos. The videos themselves have lines going through them all the time.

Because I'm in desktop mode I added nailbusters desktoppunch, pupinit.bat and my own pinupplayer.ini.

[Cliffy]

Next I ran the fulldmd.bat and I got a completely different set of clips, most seems to be callouts but they were a bit confusing to me as they didn't seem to match what was happening in the game in some cases. At least with this one the overlay was on top of the vids- good.

[Cliffy]

Lastly I ran the "original" bat which seems to use the same vids and clips as the fulldmd option but with added dmd clips but no overlay alpha at all. 

So I think you're off to a good starty. The animations are clever and cute but it needs work on order of priorities for screens, clean up vid quality and especially matching callouts with events. 

Will be watching your progress!

 

[kcirrick]

Wow!  That is ugly!  Looks like I've got some work to do.   I expected some issues, but not this bad.  It works so well on my machine.  Regarding the bat files not working.  Yeah, don't use those.  I should have removed them for now.   That's part of the cleanup and tweaking needed so when I add the two screen version.  Here's my graphics setting.  Maybe it will help.  If you want to post some screen shots of your different settings I will try and duplicate the issue.  It would be extremely helpful.  Thanks for posting.  I appreciate the input.  I agree some vid quality needs to be improved.  You should have seen them when I started.  Yuk! 

[Cliffy]

performance isn't an issue. I do wonder if you're forcing your pup to use ffmpeg or native vlc?

[kcirrick]

Okay, my fault for not removing or modifying those bat files.  I ran both of them and what a mess.  Try putting the original triggers, screens and playlist pup files from the zip file back in and see how it works.  Thanks.

 

I'll fix that and reupload the zip file.

Edited February 11 by kcirrick

[Cliffy]

1 minute ago, kcirrick said:

Okay, my fault for not removing or modifying those bat files.  I ran both of them and what a mess.  Try putting the original triggers, screens and playlist pup files from the zip file back in and see how it works.  Thanks.

The original untouched is what you see in my first pic

[kcirrick]

Whoops! You did say that.  I'm using VLC 2.2.8 version that is included with PuP from Nailbuster and no ffmpeg.

 

I'm pretty confused.  It's like the screen locations and sizes are totally messed up.  Okay, I'm about to go on a search and destroy mission.  I'm going to backup my files and start changing things up to try and duplicate the issue. 

 

It probably won't make a difference, but can I ask what version of VPX you're running?  I'm using VPX 10.8.0 beta 4 revision 1314.  (Suppose I should update to the current release.)

[Cliffy]

I'm using vps 10.8 RC1 rev 1887 from Actions here

https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/actions/runs/7861364662

 

 

[kcirrick]

Thanks.  After I backup I'll install that.  Probably won't matter,but you never know.

[kcirrick]

I’m working on setting up the pup-pack in Desktop mode on my cabinet and to use its own PinupPlayer.ini.  I noticed the lines you mentioned on the Liars Dice topper video and was able to remove them by changing the size of the screen to a variable of 1920x1080 which is the size of the video.

 

ScreenHeight=640

ScreenWidth=270

 

I’ve also been making changes so the Alpha the ocean border and the rest of the backglass show up correctly.  Much of it disappears behind the desktop theme.  I recall a way to fix that, but what it was??  It was either from TerryRed or Nailbuster so I’m digging for that.

 

Thanks for your patience and help.