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Epoch Emulator - September 2014 Update


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#1 killcrazy

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Posted 02 October 2014 - 09:09 PM

Evening all, time for an update on the Epoch emulator!!  Sorry it's been a while!  I've been quietly busy on the emulator for the last 2 months and have made some big changes and tidy-ups!!

 

The biggest change has been to the rendering engine for the reels.  One of the major problems I was struggling to solve was how to render the lamps behind the reels.  This was really easy to achieve for stationary reels, but being a bit of a perfectionist I wanted the lamps to animate with the reels in motion.

 

I tried all sorts of ideas such as pixel shaders and interchangable textures but none could give acceptable performance.  I've now added an engine that pre-generates and caches all the graphics for the reels which gives super fast rendering performance.  The cost of this is the emulator requires a lot more dedicated memory (300-400mb).  This probably means you're going to need at least 1.5gb total in your system.

 

The other big change was to the lamping editor.  The emulator will now generate all the lamping images based on a transparency mask.  The emulator integrates tightly with an imaging editor called Gimp which is used to define these transparent and semi transparent areas.

 

A feature has been added to automatically name all of the lamps and mark all un-used ones.  The way this works is the emulator puts the machine in to test mode and auto extracts all the lamp numbers and names using the standard bacta test.  This means you should have all the names and numbers of the lamps to hand when building a layout.

 

There's also been a huge number of bug fixes and improvements.

 

So the release plan:

 

There's still a few more things I want to finish off and improve before releasing the new version to layout designers for testing.  I'm hoping to put it out at the end of this month to willing volunteers - even if it's not quite not where I want it to be as the feedback will be valuable.  I know everyone else is keen to get hold of it too - I promise it'll be worth the wait!

 

I have to do jury service in early November which I'm *hoping* means I'll have a few mornings/afternoons free to do some more final bits of development!!

 

 

As always please could everyone be on the lookout for resources.  We're mainly after artwork/high quality photos now as we have loads of ROMs (thanks to all who've helped with this).  I've got the reel bands for duff beer guide and a few photos of other machines, but nothing substantial unfortunately.


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#2 fuzion

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Posted 03 October 2014 - 07:40 AM

Wow, excellent news. Sounds awesome, cant wait . Many thanks for the update

// stumblin' in the neon groves


#3 fuzion

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Posted 03 October 2014 - 08:32 AM

Why isn't this news on the main page when I log in? Real emu news and it's hard to find it.

J

// stumblin' in the neon groves


#4 killcrazy

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Posted 03 October 2014 - 08:48 AM

Not sure!! I noticed that this morning.  Perhaps this forum doesn't appear on the main page.  I'll PM a mod :)



#5 stevedude2

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Posted 03 October 2014 - 07:18 PM

Great news and thanks for the update.  It's really exciting to have something new in the pipeline and I for one really appreciate the hard work and time you've put in :)


Watch out! There's a SIG thief about...

#6 fuzion

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Posted 03 October 2014 - 07:31 PM

Sounds like an easy to use editor especially if it gives out the lamp ID's that is a major help for creating layouts.  Excellent stuff mate.

 

J


// stumblin' in the neon groves


#7 Guest_Tommy c_*

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Posted 04 October 2014 - 11:56 AM

Excellent news. Cheers for the update, Will keep an eye out and grab images were I can. This needs to be on the main forums page not stuck to the front page. It'll get more views

#8 andy-1

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Posted 04 October 2014 - 12:55 PM

Thanks for the update killcrazy



#9 fuzion

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Posted 04 October 2014 - 01:26 PM

Can this be moved onto the main forum?  This is important EMU news on an EMU related forum and it's lost in the abyss.

 

J


// stumblin' in the neon groves


#10 aaamusements

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Posted 04 October 2014 - 04:51 PM

It's already featured in the News section, at the top:

http://www.fruit-emu.com/



#11 ritdav

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Posted 04 October 2014 - 08:43 PM

Sounds great will be a real shot in the arm to the scene.

 

 



#12 fuzion

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 08:43 AM

Who looks at the news section? It should ideally be included in the 'latest from the forum section' I can't understand why it doesn't go in this section by default.

J

// stumblin' in the neon groves


#13 aaamusements

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 09:53 AM

Who looks at the news section? It should ideally be included in the 'latest from the forum section' I can't understand why it doesn't go in this section by default.

J

 

Indeed it should, but unfortunately when the Epoch emulation forum was created it did not pick up the setting that does that, and despite some time spent searching I haven't yet been able to work out where that setting is. The admin side has literally dozens of hooks and modules, many of which are unclear or seem to overlap.

 

At the moment, putting the article literally at the top of the front page of the root of the site is the very best I can do. The PC is being packed away today while boiler installation takes place so there won't be much opportunity to work on it properly for a week or so.

 

Edit:

I've sent out an email to 12,197 members informing them of this thread. Short of taking out a full page spread in the London Evening Standard, I've done as much as I reasonably can at this time.



#14 spa

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 12:40 PM

Thanks for the update! :)

 

I have a few hi res photos for epoch. Gridrunner, Hi spirits, Hurricane, WWTBAMH, Funny Money, IJ2, IJ3, Double Dragon, Beaver Las Vegas, Mario Kart, New York New York, Beer Guide and Meltdown.


http://www.youtube.com/FruitVideos - My youtube channel

 

https://drive.google...R3ZTMTBIQTdwWUU- My Drive

 

 

 

 

 


#15 mortalwombat

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 01:16 PM

Great news.



#16 Chopaholic

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:29 PM

Splendid news! There are some real gems on the Epoch tech and for my money it's the last real 'major' tech that we're missing. (Maygay had their fair share of interesting machines on there, although personally it's Impulse I'd most be interested in.)

Very excited and thanks for the update killcrazy :)


Fruit machine emulation YouTube shenanigans - https://www.youtube....c/DegsyDegworth


#17 Guest_Tommy c_*

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:32 PM

Impulse deffo gave barcrest a run for their money. Some top.games, wipe out is a special.machine.

#18 vectra666

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:54 PM

Excellent news look forwards to the Eventual release, what with Amber2 and this it,looks a very promising 2015 in store and hopefully inject some needed life back into fruit-emu and beyond. A new chapter in Fme.
Whether my lappy has enough space remains to be seen and I'd gladly test when the time comes.
The more I do today, The less I do tomorrow.
Fme is alive and screaming into the 21st century!
Enjoy FME and Happy Gaming!!!!

#19 niallquinn

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 06:56 PM

Brilliant, thanks for the update Jon.  Looking forward to it immensely.

 

NQ.



#20 Alex Atkin UK

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 09:31 PM

 

Indeed it should, but unfortunately when the Epoch emulation forum was created it did not pick up the setting that does that, and despite some time spent searching I haven't yet been able to work out where that setting is. The admin side has literally dozens of hooks and modules, many of which are unclear or seem to overlap.

 

At the moment, putting the article literally at the top of the front page of the root of the site is the very best I can do. The PC is being packed away today while boiler installation takes place so there won't be much opportunity to work on it properly for a week or so.

 

Edit:

I've sent out an email to 12,197 members informing them of this thread. Short of taking out a full page spread in the London Evening Standard, I've done as much as I reasonably can at this time.

 

As one of those members you e-mailed, a big big thank you.

 

I haven't been on this forum in AGES as my desktop OS is Linux so I get around to playing the fruit emulators.  This news is definitely worth keeping an eye on though, I wasn't even aware anyone was working on these newer machines.






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