(Topic ID: 183206)

American Pinball Houdini thread

By lllvjr

7 years ago


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41 key posts have been marked in this topic, showing the first 10 items. (Show topic index)

There are 14,809 posts in this topic. You are on page 104 of 297.
#5151 5 years ago

Just updated my game (I was working on other games last night and missed the code drop) and see a lot of improvements already. The LED fade and attract effects are much better know IMO. Unfortunately I'm still getting random MBs, it happened on my very first game post code update. I'm pretty sure it is something to do with the scoop but I've examined, tested and cleaned it multiple times to no avail. I did capture the logs of it happening this morning so hopefully Josh or someone can let me know what the hell is going on so I can resolve it. I do have mine set to about 6.6 incline so I may try lowering it so if it fixes the issue, though I still like the way it plays better this way versus flatter.

#5152 5 years ago
Quoted from ezeltmann:

Glad you got yours working! The image posted from Josh is 120 dpi .

On my Mac, Photoshop indicates Josh's custom_image.png is 72 dpi, 8 bits per channel.

Screen Shot 2018-08-04 at 11.19.05 AM (resized).pngScreen Shot 2018-08-04 at 11.19.05 AM (resized).png
#5153 5 years ago

I originally wanted a female voice to get variety in the game, but I just did not love how it sounded, I felt a 'movie preview voice' would be better and needed to be different then the primary narrator, but knew some one prefer the original voice, thus the reason I added the setting/option.

As far as custom message, was sent one that was failing and it worked fine on my laptop running game code, but I'll have to try on an actual machine to see what it did not like, might be something in the color profile of it.

#5154 5 years ago
Quoted from ezeltmann:

Glad you got yours working! The image posted from Josh is 120 dpi .
I do appreciate the effort put into this game; and as a bit of constructive criticism, i do not care for the new movie mode voice. Seems out of place and muffled compared to the rest of the package. The female voice i wasn't thrilled with , but it seemed to fit the time period somehow. <yes i know it can be turned back to the other voice>
Interested if others share the same opinion. I was up until 3am playing a nice 3mil game![quoted image]

Yeah, I too am not at all thrilled with the new male film mode announcer voice.
Sound likes he's a older heavy smoker/ heavy drinker and not at all appealing to listen to.
Sorry Rosh.. I have to agree with ezelltmann..

#5155 5 years ago

Seems like everyone wants a custom message!
I will wait a while to try on mine to see if the issues are figured out first but
as a .PNG file, it can be a mixture of graphics/text/colors as long as it's 72 DPI?

#5156 5 years ago
Quoted from CUJO:

Yeah, I too am not at all thrilled with the new male film mode announcer voice.
Sound likes he's a older heavy smoker/ heavy drinker and not at all appealing to listen to.
Sorry Rosh.. I have to agree with ezelltmann..

Glad there is a voice choice option..Will dig thru menu for it.

#5157 5 years ago
Quoted from CUJO:

Seems like everyone wants a custom message!
I will wait a while to try on mine to see if the issues are figured out first but
as a .PNG file, it can be a mixture of graphics/text/colors as long as it's 72 DPI?

Issue seems to be image formats that the software does not like. Since the one that was bad works on my laptop, won't know what it does not like until I try it at the office, but suspect it will just tell me invalid format.

You can try one and if the issue pops up, just use the one I posted put that on, and then disable the setting.

#5158 5 years ago
Quoted from CUJO:

Seems like everyone wants a custom message!
I will wait a while to try on mine to see if the issues are figured out first but
as a .PNG file, it can be a mixture of graphics/text/colors as long as it's 72 DPI?

Correct.

#5159 5 years ago
Quoted from CUJO:

Yeah, I too am not at all thrilled with the new male film mode announcer voice.
Sound likes he's a older heavy smoker/ heavy drinker and not at all appealing to listen to.
Sorry Rosh.. I have to agree with ezelltmann..

Yeah, that's pretty much the only thing in the awesome update I did NOT like. Just plain bad.

#5160 5 years ago

The guys at American pinball were nice enough to provide me with a translite when I met them at a show since I bought a game. I finally got around to illuminating the translite. I'm really happy with it except for the support I added in ththe center to support the lexan. If I get time, I'll swap them out for clear tube of some sort.

Easy enough to make one of these frames. I can give a quick rundown for anyone interested.

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#5161 5 years ago

Adoring the update! The Custom Message feature is terrific and works perfectly.

#5164 5 years ago

I installed the new release and while it was loading I perused the release notes. I noticed the part about custom_message.png and I drew one up. When it was done, I pulled the install .pkg off and put the .png on it.

I redid the install dance and restarted, then enabled the custom message in the standard admin menu.

I think it might not have actually installed the image correctly because when I restarted, it went into an infinite loop of crashing during boot and rebooting. I downloaded the old version and thank god it installed properly and got me out of reboot hell.

I put the new version on the stick alongside the .png and installed them together, and that time it worked. Phew.

BTW if anybody wants a copy of the .psd file, I'm happy to send it. It has all the curtain and stage layers busted out to slide an image between them, with the blue glow effect on the logo layer to mimic some of the art on the backglass.

Now if only I could put an MP4 on there to animate glowing and film effects on my logo...

custom_message (resized).pngcustom_message (resized).png
#5168 5 years ago
Quoted from Manic:Deleted post

America's true "greatness" is measured by nobler standards than a temporary economic indicator.

Let's please stick to the thread topic though and not drag Trump and politics into it.

#5169 5 years ago
Quoted from triggur:

I installed the new release and while it was loading I perused the release notes. I noticed the part about custom_message.png and I drew one up. When it was done, I pulled the install .pkg off and put the .png on it.
I redid the install dance and restarted, then enabled the custom message in the standard admin menu.
I think it might not have actually installed the image correctly because when I restarted, it went into an infinite loop of crashing during boot and rebooting. I downloaded the old version and thank god it installed properly and got me out of reboot hell.
I put the new version on the stick alongside the .png and installed them together, and that time it worked. Phew.
BTW if anybody wants a copy of the .psd file, I'm happy to send it. It has all the curtain and stage layers busted out to slide an image between them, with the blue glow effect on the logo layer to mimic some of the art on the backglass.
Now if only I could put an MP4 on there to animate glowing and film effects on my logo...[quoted image]

Ok wont lie and say I understood half of what you did there but you sir have some crazy talent if you created those images. Very well done!

12
#5170 5 years ago
Quoted from Manic:Deleted post

I tell you what I hate; I hate paying all the taxes for the 1%ers and then having my kids have to pay the balance on the huge ass loan we just took out to pay them money they don't deserve. I hate that we can't seem to bring ourselves to basic human decency onthe smallest of things these days. And I hate that we are putting our pride that we voted a certain way, over the integrity of this country. I hate that we have fallen so far into following propaganda that we are utterly convinced that a
Thing is true, Despite Clear visual, indisputable evidence to the contrary. And I hate that our brothers and sisters who have died as recently as 2 weeks ago to protect democracy the world around may have died in vain. I hate that we have turned against the very first thing our founding fathers wantwd
To explicitly protect - because they knew the effects of stifling criticism of a dictator. I hate that we have been played by another country's leadership in the most obvious and pathetic way possible. I hope this 4.1% GDP gain is worth selling out the country for. Trump is irrelevant - we are the problem.

#5171 5 years ago
Quoted from Manic:Deleted post

Context is king. And it's easy to look good when you're handed the best economy in years to screw up. Obama took unemployment from 10% to 4.7%. Trump has taken it from 4.7% to 3.9%. Not a lot to legitimately crow about there unless you're in White House PR.

#5172 5 years ago

Updated the code and now for two player and beyond, the game resets at the end of ball three. This has never happened before with the previous code. Has anyone else had this happen?

#5173 5 years ago
Quoted from GSones:

Updated the code and now for two player and beyond, the game resets at the end of ball three. This has never happened before with the previous code. Has anyone else had this happen?

So Ball 3 Player 2 ends and it resets?

#5174 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

I originally wanted a female voice to get variety in the game, but I just did not love how it sounded, I felt a 'movie preview voice' would be better and needed to be different then the primary narrator

Is it you Josh? Is the new man's voice you?

#5175 5 years ago

I think there is a different forum for talking politics and I'm pretty sure this forum is for talking pinball.

Let's try and stay on a topic we all agree on - Houdini is awesome!

#5176 5 years ago
Quoted from Rferullo:

I think there is a different forum for talking politics and I'm pretty sure this forum is for talking pinball.
Let's try and stay on a topic we all agree on - Houdini is awesome!

Very classy of you you. Thanks

#5178 5 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

So Ball 3 Player 2 ends and it resets?

Yes. Single player works fine but 2 or more player games reset as it's going to the screen that shows the scores and times played.

#5179 5 years ago
Quoted from GSones:

Yes. Single player works fine but 2 or more player games reset as it's going to the screen that shows the scores and times played.

So this is after match and after 'fin', but before 'last scores'? Please pull and send me the logs. [email protected]

Has anyone else run into this?

#5180 5 years ago
Quoted from Rferullo:

Is it you Josh? Is the new man's voice you?

Sometimes when you run out of budget, you get in your car, drive to a recording studio, yelling all the way to get a raspy voice . . . .

#5181 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

Sometimes when you run out of budget, you get in your car, drive to a recording studio, yelling all the way to get a raspy voice . . . .

Smoking a pack of cigarettes along the way??

#5182 5 years ago
Quoted from bobukcat:

Smoking a pack of cigarettes along the way??

Cigars.

#5183 5 years ago

Tilted this AM (maybe for the first time ever) while trying to free a stuck ball and was rewarded with this callout in an Irish cop's voice:

"I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of bubble gum."

LOL

#5184 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

So this is after match and after 'fin', but before 'last scores'? Please pull and send me the logs. [email protected]
Has anyone else run into this?

Just tested a 3 player game and sure enough, after the curtains close following the end of ball 3 for player 3 and before it shows the summary screen the game reboots. I pulled the logs following the reboot and sent them to you @Rosh.

#5185 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

So this is after match and after 'fin', but before 'last scores'? Please pull and send me the logs. [email protected]
Has anyone else run into this?

Yes I had the same thing happen after a two player game. I'll send logs when I get home tonight.

#5186 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

Sometimes when you run out of budget, you get in your car, drive to a recording studio, yelling all the way to get a raspy voice . . .

In the movie Little Big Man, Dustin Hoffman spent hours screaming to get the raspy voice he used when playing the older version of himself.

LTG : )

#5187 5 years ago

Building on numerous factors - updated code, easier settings, better understanding of rules and a growing skill level ... reached a score of 2.5M. Completed 4 Houdini letters, 2 escapes, 1 mission and stated 2 films. This game epitomizes the - if I had only hit this thing once and that thing twice, I would have ....

My suggestion for playing and really enjoying Houdini is in a home environment where you can readily adjust your game settings until you can achieve your own criteria. In my case ?.. I wanna be able to earn 1-2 letters regularly or 4-5 letters on a great game. I want to one day reach Wizard mode too. So I have adjusted my settings to match my skills and this allows successes along the way and builds enthusiasm. Make note of those setting and continue to adjust as you improve. The harder your settings that still allow you to to meet your criteria, the better player you've become.

Didn't see them this version but Josh has promised to offer preset levels and that accomplishes the same thing, but quicker.
IMG_2602 (resized).JPGIMG_2602 (resized).JPG

#5188 5 years ago
Quoted from bobukcat:

Just tested a 3 player game and sure enough, after the curtains close following the end of ball 3 for player 3 and before it shows the summary screen the game reboots. I pulled the logs following the reboot and sent them to you

At the office, testing this on both my dev machine and a test/production machine, and can't replicate this error. I can see the error in the log, and can trap for it, but hard to test a fix when I can't replicate it. So, here is code with the fix, if a couple of you who are having the issue want to give it a try, please do and report back (this also will handle bad custom_message.png image files and should also fix @vireland 's favorite bug)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12Y9eBm6eIKnmG4_W4Fjzka0GdxmZ14nF

#5189 5 years ago
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

My suggestion for playing and really enjoying Houdini is in a home environment where you can readily adjust your game settings until you can achieve your own criteria. In my case ?.. I wanna be able to earn 1-2 letters regularly or 4-5 letters on a great game. I want to one day reach Wizard mode too. So I have adjusted my settings to match my skills and this allows successes along the way and builds enthusiasm. Make note of those setting and continue to adjust as you improve. The harder your settings that still allow you to to meet your criteria, the better player you've become.

You can also choose to focus on a particular aspect, going for movie modes to get all five and get to the binge, by really focusing on spelling FILM and shooting inner loop (which if you do right, you can match two of the five with a multiball). You, can do the same with escapes, focus on spelling escape (magic stand-ups, escape targets, and jail) and starting jail escapes (and of course finishing them). You can do secret missions as well, but not sure that one is as rewarding as a journey, but would be a great way to focus on getting the right side shots down.

Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

Didn't see them this version but Josh has promised to offer preset levels and that accomplishes the same thing, but quicker.

Go to settings, and navigate to the last and smallest icon, which is presets.

#5190 5 years ago
Quoted from bobukcat:

Just tested a 3 player game and sure enough, after the curtains close following the end of ball 3 for player 3 and before it shows the summary screen the game reboots. I pulled the logs following the reboot and sent them to you Rosh.

This was set to a 3 ball game, not 5 balls?
Update: Sorry, I saw where you said summary screen.
I wonder if it would do the same error on a 5 ball 3 player game?

#5191 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

and should also fix @vireland 's favorite bug

Thank the maker. What's this version?

#5192 5 years ago

if it gets fully released 18.5.5, but it won't yet have that on the end of the file name, too many people would not have upgraded yet. That link is direct to the code package.

Once I get confirmation from someone who has seen the issue that it stops it from crashing, I'll release it.

#5193 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

if it gets fully released 18.5.5, but it won't yet have that on the end of the file name, too many people would not have upgraded yet. That link is direct to the code package.
Once I get confirmation from someone who has seen the issue that it stops it from crashing, I'll release it.

I'll give the new code update a try a bit later today. Thanks for the quick response!

#5194 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

if it gets fully released 18.5.5, but it won't yet have that on the end of the file name, too many people would not have upgraded yet. That link is direct to the code package.
Once I get confirmation from someone who has seen the issue that it stops it from crashing, I'll release it.

I updated the code with this new one and it is working as it should. I tried 1,2,3 & 4 player games and the rebooting after the last ball didn't occur at all. I played each game normally (eg I didn't just drain the ball as quickly as possible) to simulate actual gameplay as closely as possible. I also did not make any setting changes or mods before installing this new code.

Hats off to Josh for taking care of this so quickly on a Sunday morning. This rapid, personal Pinside attention that API demonstrates was one of the deciding factors that made me feel confident about buying a game from a new company.

#5195 5 years ago
Quoted from GSones:

it is working as it should

18.8.5 is now available on the code update page.

#5196 5 years ago

Whilst I've only played this game about a dozen times, I'm really looking forward to mine arriving here in Australia late September or early October. We are extremely lucky that the programmer of the game is a member here, communicates with us and provides help and support. Thank you very much. Your clear love of what you do and the way you go about your work helped me decide to order a Houdini.

#5197 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

18.8.5 is now available on the code update page.

Thanks! This is customer support at its finest and one of the reasons I bought Houdini!

#5198 5 years ago
Quoted from rosh:

18.8.5 is now available on the code update page.

Mine also reset after player 3, will update now. Thanks

#5199 5 years ago

I know the patched code is available and I'm loading it in now but when I was testing to see if a two player game always reset I actually ended up with my highest score ever (~1.76M) on player two and thought great, now it's going to reset and I can't even put in on there. Nope, it let me enter my name and never reset.

#5200 5 years ago

The new code is certainly less insulting but I miss the verbal abuse for missing skill shots and using ball saves. Thanks for the quick fix on the reboot issue!

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