3D Artwork Display for Mame

[Xiaou2]

 Many of you may know... that certain arcade machines used a Half-Silvered Mirror system.
A game like Asteriods Deluxe is such an example.

 In asteriods deluxe,  the main game monitor is facing the sky.  The mirror is at a 45 degree
angle, and directs the monitor image straight at you.... However, behind the mirror is a
black lit artwork scene.  When the black light turns on... that artwork is visible through this
special mirror.   So... the asteroids game objects appear to float in mid-air over the top
of the artwork in the background. 

 This effect is Very cool... and can not be duplicated well in any other way.


 Ive had the idea to remake such a display using two monitors... However, I heard that
the glass was not easy to get hold of... and was not cheap.   

 Recently, I decided to look for myself, and found that was not the case.


 First, here is a stereoscopic projection booth that uses a similar system:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlQyy6i3tPo[/youtube]
 

 Not sure if mame could really output well in Stereoscopic 3d...  but at least the 3d artwork
system could work very well.   


 Here are some source pages for the Mirrors:

http://www.telepromptermirrors.com/telepromptersglass.htm
http://www.twowaymirrors.com/


There seem to be varying versions made by the same company. Options range from
Plastic coated mirrors(Cheaper) to actual glass coated mirrors (Best visual quality).

As well as various coatings. Some letting more or less light through. And finally, some having
the mirror coating on the front of the glass... while others on the rear (I think).


I know arcade gun games use mirrors which have the coating on the front of the mirrors,
so there is no "Ghosting" of the images (caused by distortions going through the thickness
of the glass). This type of mirror is what they use in laser operations and high
precision optical usage.

As for games like Disc's of Tron, Im not sure if they used front silvered glass or not.
Im gona have to check with my friend.

I also do not know the translucency levels. If anyone has any additional
information... please post.

I would love to get a piece to Accurately re-create the true 3d effect of the mirrored art games.


 Edit:  FYI.  you should be able to pick up decent CRT monitors from the local thrift shop
for $10 each.  Or, post a wanted on craigs list.  They may be larger than 2 lcds, but are
very cheap to get a nice project going.  One could also combine a CRT with an LCD, to save
some space.

[severdhed]

very cool..i'd be very interested in seeing this work

[scream1973]

I know this is an old post.. but the effect you are talking about is commonly called a peppers ghost illusion.. its used lots in the haunted attraction industry and also by magicians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost

[ChadTower]

FYI... the monitor in Asteroids Deluxe points at a roughly 45 degree angle with the high end near the player.  The monitor is 45 degrees opposite.  The monitor isn't pointed at the sky.

It says very clearly in the video that you have to use LCDs because they are already polarized.  CRTs are not.

[Haze]

more demands for features.

same lack of actual code.

zzzzzzzzzz

if somebody wants to code it, properly, I'm sure it would be accepted.

if people want to moan, without sending anything I'm sure nothing will get done.

I wonder at what point you'll realise that the dev team have limited resources, and will do their own thing.  They are not your slaves.

[saint]

(To be fair, this thread was from September of 2009)

[Haze]

(To be fair, this thread was from September of 2009)

Heh..

to be fair, it's something I'd really like to see too, some of the cabs would really benefit from a full 'advanced' 3d engine simulation of them, but it would have to be near ray-trace quality for everything to work 'as expected'   Maybe GPUs in a couple of years will handle it well ;-)

it would still need somebody to code it tho.. somebody with a passion for arcade systems, and cabinets, and 3d modeling / rendering.  Considering nobody seems to be interested in doing basic artwork for the more complex cases like the fruit machines (only Dr. Who has been done in any form for MAME) I can't see anybody picking up on this.

don't get me wrong, some of X2s other ideas I think would be worthwhile too, multi-channel sound, I would like to see, but just trying to get my head around the best way to support it, and the required channel remappings, best choice of channels etc. etc. without breaking support for existing systems is nasty, not to mention getting it to work consistently in Windows is a pain.  I don't think some people realise how BAD and inconsistent soundcard drivers are.