DDR arrow test

[Radical]

What do you think of these DDR arrows?  I'm doing them for a pad I'm building.  I still have to do the rest of them but I'm trying to decide if I like the style or not.

They're done with a combination of SVG and raster do to limitations in Inkscape.

[Witchboard]

Very cool.  What are they going to be printed on?

[Radical]

I'll be using photo paper (possibly laminated).   I'm building two different pad designs.  On the first, the graphics will just be between sheet metal and Lexan which means it might wear out after a while.   On the second they will be sandwiched between two thick pieces of acrylic that are clear-epoxied together, in which case they should not wear out.

Updated with solo arrows.

[Radical]

OK... some more buttons.  I think the triangle button is too big.  I gotta come up with something for the center.

[drunkatuw]

I'd recommend leaving the back corners as plain sheet metal.  The arcade pads don't have anything there, they only have the 4 cardinal directions (of course solo pads have the front two corners), the only thing I can think of using the back diagonals would be Pump it up, but in that case, I'd just mirror the solo arrow instead of a triangle/square.

Just my opinion...otherwise they look great!

Which plans are you using to create your pads?  I've been thinking about making my own, but I haven't found any good plans which show how to make the sensors/switches.  Although I have seen a few plans which are lacking detail on www.ddrfreak.com

[Radical]

Thanks, yeah the first pad is going to have all 9 buttons for games like Pump It Up  (PITA to build so far).  I sorta agree about the triangle/square thing.  I can't decide.

I'm not using any plans since I couldn't find any that were what I wanted.

With the first pad I just tried to come up with the simplest design possible.  After doing that I found out that I basically designed a Cobalt Flux.  It's more work than I expected because when you have 9 buttons that's a lot of crap to do.

I'm trying to design my second pad more like the arcade.  Probably only 4 buttons and they will (hopefully) work and feel a lot like the arcade machine.   I haven't finalized my design for this one yet.

Current version: (I don't care for the center design so that will probably change)


Solo arrows on bottom

[patrickl]

Looks really great.

Only (minor) problem I see is that your highlights don't match now. If you rotate a glass/gell button the reflection should stay in the same corner of the button (i.e. you need to draw each buttom seperately).

[Radical]

 I agree.  I'll have to see what it looks like.

Here's a more gel type of shading (which obviously needs some tweeking)...  I think I like the clear/glass look better.  Opinions?

[patrickl]

I think the clear version looks better too (more realistic anyway). But the highlights look more consistent now.

[Shieldwolf]

I love the middle one.  Very professional.

Couple of questions:

Is your pad going to light up?
Which site are you using to build them?

Finally,
I have  almost every bemani game on my pc ( no pop n music  )
and I have to recommend the dual shooter playstation to usb connector. My guitar/drums/dancepads all work really well.

[Radical]

Thanks.   I want to make the second pad light up like the arcade but I haven't decided if I'm actually going to do it.

I'm just making up the plans as I go.  I'll probably write something up if it works.   I didn't like the plans I found on the 'Net because all of them sense your steps by pressing in the center of the pads instead of the edges like in the arcade.

That's good to hear about the Dual Shooter.  Do you know if it works in Linux?  I'm currently using Red Octane's Dual USB thing (SuperJoyBox 3?).  It is a HID device but so far I have not been able to get it work in Linux.