Arcade Collecting > Pinball
Digital Pinball Disasters
Dazz:
--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on February 27, 2011, 02:50:30 am ---...snip
--- End quote ---
Xiaou2 you are quite possibly one of the biggest elitist --bags of cream-filled twinkies-- I've ever seen on any forum. I don't know why people even listen to you around here.
I still don't believe that you've ever taken the time to play a digital table in FS mode. Playing an Ultrapin DOES NOT constitute as playing a digital pin! I have Ultrapin tables and they look and play like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- compared to newer tables we have now. You may know a *little* about real pins, but you are talking out of your ass when it comes to digital. Your comments regarding digital pins should continue to fall upon deaf ears (blind eyes?).
Xiaou2:
Dazz, As for pin and video experience, I not only own 3 pins, and 3 vids... Ive Managed a busy arcade with over 42 games at any moment in rotation. Usually with at least 2 to 3 pins at one location.
Ive also fixed/restored/modded other peoples pins/arcade machines for side cash.
Being an Arcade manager in a Namco owned mall store, means tearing things down to pieces to get them to work properly. I was there about 45-50 hrs a week, for 3 yrs before the store faded out.
I attend out of state shows and auctions at least once a year. Allentown almost always... other shows and auctions at random. Ive seen and played both the Ultra Pin, as well as custom built digital pins at these shows and auctions. I also have experience with them on my own PC.
I belong to a pinball club, which host regular comps and get togethers, with basements filled with top of the line pins, in pristine upkept condition.
Ive restored an Ice Cold Beer game, rebuilding the entire slide bar assembly (using pretty brass tube), new rubber pulley lines mod, buffed metal parts to mirror finish, and touched about 1/5th of the artwork that had flaked off the machines front glass - to the point where people couldnt tell that it was ever touched. Yes, my color matching skills are pretty damn solid. Sold the machine at a show for about $750. (they usually go for $300-$400 top)
I have good artistic ability, color matching skill, pencil and paint skill, woodworking ability, metal work, PC repair and building, PC apps such as photoshop, and mechanical design ability.
Ive been into emulation and video pinball, almost since their very inception.
Ive contributed to mame, as well as many other projects.
Im no master of any one thing.. but I have a deep understanding and broad range of skills.
Which includes art, photoshop, color, shading, touchups, and much more.
So, yeah, I have a lot more understanding of what a Mess the current digital pins are today.
In fact, long ago when virtual pinball started.. I had every updated table and files. But it didnt take long before I gave up playing them. They kept changing the system, so tables frequently would error out and cease to work. There were a billion versions of tables to try to maintain.. and all had various artistic issues, as well as glitches, and other issues like no analog, and poor perspective, ohh and missing functions... so certain games couldnt even be built period.
Fast forward to recently, when tables are getting a lot more attention... and I re-downloaded a monster pack of files / tables. As well have been browsing the VP forums.
But, sadly, even with all the engine enhancements that make producing a good pin possible now...
you have people who have no artistic clue how to put together things properly... and so every table looks like Butt. And again, because of this... multiple versions of the same tables... all highly flawed as usual.
Whats amazing, is that you claim Im blind... when you cant even tell the difference between a real photographed insert.. and a pile of crap simulation of one, made by some idiot who thinks a few light color alterations equates to good looking inserts. This is the most BASIC of things that can make a pin look good... and they cant even get that right!
What is being produced is Crap. But why is that? Im pretty sure its because of BLIND people like yourself, who dont understand art, light, shadow, 3d, photoshop, vector art, touch ups, etc.
You promote Supreme Ignorance, and Revel in it.
And Honestly, I could Out-build you on a digital pin any day of the week.
I wont however, because:
A) There Analog Patch they are Trying to install is not even close to correct.
(does not appear to track acceleration well. Only relative position. Its also doubtful they allow for full use of an analog axis. Instead, the one guy is hacking a joypad, using only half an axis, which equates to super low resolution. Ohh, and even worse res, cause its direct drive and not geared)
B) The tables look like Butt.
C) Id rather spend the money on another Real pin. And merely build a pin-controller ""IF""
they ever get their crap together.
Take the time to Actually review the pictures you posted so eagerly for me / us all too see...
and then take the time to go over my comments and see match them to the tables. If you cant follow it.. then ask a few lifetime artists (Real artists who can draw and shade with a pencil and ink... not photoshop wannabees) whats up. They will tell you the same exact things, when comparing a real pin to the crappy output that exists today.
Making a good digital pin is possible, but not with people who dont have a damn clue.
Thats like trying to reproduce an F1 race car, with a bunch of Dance Instructors, who havnt the foggiest clue about mechanics... let alone could run a machine shop to fabricate things.
I may be an Elitist / Perfectionist... AND I may be a *badwords*, BUT, I am right.
Anyone with a clue, will let you know it. But obviously, you dont know anyone with a clue, and
wont listen if you did.
amendonz:
you do it then
Xiaou2:
--- Quote ---Looks better than a lot of "touchups" I have seen people do to machines.
--- End quote ---
You are again talking people who are Clueless.
As for me, I can color match to the point where people dont know there is a touchup,
and I know most of the collectors that have pins here locally have a good artists who knows
what they are doing... to touch up their "thousands of dollars" machines.
You also seem to ignore that many people send their playfields out for complete restoration
for Huge money. Wait years in line for that to happen... and or preorder a soon to be newly reproduced playfield.
Sure, there are some who dont care. Who beat their machines into the ground. Never clean or maintain them unless its extreme. But there are plenty more who actually Do care. Spend big money and time restoring them to new or better than new condition. But, people are not buying reproductions based on what the Repo guy wants to do. They are asking for accurate reproductions, and complain when things are not accurate, due to mistakes/issues.
--- Quote --- There are differences in color, inserts, etc but your comparing apples to oranges. It's just not the same fruit.
--- End quote ---
This is a weak way of saying that its impossible to make a virtural pin look like a real pin. And thats ignoring the changes made on-purpose, rather than accident.
Its a lazy way out, and a way out that screams of someone who just doesnt know what they are talking about.
Photographing Inserts is about the Easiest thing one can do to reproduce a games proper look.
Its been done before, such as on the Microsoft Haunted House pin.
You have the sort of attitude George Lucus has about his use of Crappy CGI. Nearly any other big name movie can make CGI thats nearly indistinguishable from a real object. Yet Lucus's team? Not even close. Its like Lucus's team is a bunch of swimmers asked to play pro basketball. They can make a few hoops... but look like idiots out there in the game.
You wouldnt let your 5 yr old work on the house electricity?
You wouldnt let a nurse perform a surgery instead of the Doctor would you?
Clueless = Crap Results. Plain and Simple.
Xiaou2:
Here are some Articles about Monitor Calibration:
http://www.wikihow.com/Calibrate-Your-Monitor
http://www.ehow.com/how_2111986_use-adobe-gamma.html
Quick Gamma - A program to help calibrate things.
(however, try Adobes gama program first. It installs with Photoshop & ran from windows control panel)
http://www.quickgamma.de/indexen.html
Additional types of calibrations:
http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php
http://adoniram.deviantart.com/art/CRT-Monitor-Calibration-Chart-12834934
There are also specific calibration screens and programs specific to LCDs.
Even with all of this, the calibration may not be 100% due to your monitors capabilities, age, and
accuracy of the calibration..etc. Either way, it will be a lot closer to being correct, than what it currently may be.
If your monitor is off considerably, it will cause a lot of problems with how other people see the image. In colors, brightness, and much much more.
And if Anyone is doing any artwork, they always should be calibrated.
Some places of business will actually buy expensive Hardware calibration devices to insure perfect color and gamma accuracy.
More later...
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version