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Complete Making my own dream theme

s000m

s000m

Site Supporter
Joined
Apr 12, 2021
Messages
3,350
Location
Swindon
Alias
Scott
This is talked about on our latest Podcast.

I've been busy working with my Wife Holly in the background building up my own Dream theme.

This will include:

  • New Custom Artwork - Playfield
  • Custom Call Outs/Music
  • Custom Plastics
  • Custom Ramps
  • Custom Artwork - Backglass and Speaker Panel

Plus so much more I can't get into at this stage.

Here's a teaser trailer to get a taste of whats to come.



See you soon!
 
s000m said:
This is talked about on our latest Podcast.

I've been busy working with my Wife Holly in the background building up my own Dream theme.

This will include:

  • New Custom Artwork - Playfield
  • Custom Call Outs/Music
  • Custom Plastics
  • Custom Ramps
  • Custom Artwork - Backglass and Speaker Panel

Plus so much more I can't get into at this stage.

Here's a teaser trailer to get a taste of whats to come.



See you soon!
Click to expand...
Here's my suggested next video choices - unfortunate juxtaposition

1692636103187.png
 
I've never played the game as the PS4 version performed so badly. PS5 might be worth a look now its dirt cheap and probably had a ton of updates.
Amazing theme though from a creative perspective though. I'm imagining neon built in to cab now 😊
So if all the ramps and plastics are custom, you still start from a donor playfield layout right? Which one are you basing this on?

Good luck with it. Really looking forward to seeing progress.
 
DanSeldon said:
I've never played the game as the PS4 version performed so badly. PS5 might be worth a look now its dirt cheap and probably had a ton of updates.
Amazing theme though from a creative perspective though. I'm imagining neon built in to cab now 😊
So if all the ramps and plastics are custom, you still start from a donor playfield layout right? Which one are you basing this on?

Good luck with it. Really looking forward to seeing progress.
Click to expand...
Yup, all will be revealed soon enough :D
 
I'm sure more seasoned players will identify the donor from that larger insert/cutout but its still a mystery to me. :)

*and there we go 😂😂😂*
 
s000m said:
This is talked about on our latest Podcast.

I've been busy working with my Wife Holly in the background building up my own Dream theme.

This will include:

  • New Custom Artwork - Playfield
  • Custom Call Outs/Music
  • Custom Plastics
  • Custom Ramps
  • Custom Artwork - Backglass and Speaker Panel

Plus so much more I can't get into at this stage.

Here's a teaser trailer to get a taste of whats to come.



See you soon!
Click to expand...
Wicked :) - massive fan of the game and have the LE xbox one X Cyberpunk edition.
Loved the game so much, I ended up buying a beefier pc to play it with raytracing on and such (beautifull game) - series X version (with thr next gen update) looks/runs great too now though (bit of a step down from Pc, but only in some scenarios to my eyes)
Look forward to seeing how this turns out!

P.s enjoying the pod; about half way through ep 2 during my daily commute.
 
Nice one choom! I assume you'll not quite be ready to launch with Phantom Liberty?

Really interested to see how this turns out, I've been thinking about doing the other side of a reskin as whilst the physical side of removing everything and designing artwork scares me, I really do fancy having a go at writing the code/rules side of things for a machine.

Do you have a time estimate of how long it'll take to do the physical side of things, strip down, repaint and rebuild the playfield?

Was thinking of doing a code rewrite of my Space Jam as I love the theme, but as Josh keeps telling me, the shots will still be ****ty, so will have to look at something else.
 
cyberkryten said:
Nice one choom! I assume you'll not quite be ready to launch with Phantom Liberty?

Really interested to see how this turns out, I've been thinking about doing the other side of a reskin as whilst the physical side of removing everything and designing artwork scares me, I really do fancy having a go at writing the code/rules side of things for a machine.

Do you have a time estimate of how long it'll take to do the physical side of things, strip down, repaint and rebuild the playfield?

Was thinking of doing a code rewrite of my Space Jam as I love the theme, but as Josh keeps telling me, the shots will still be ****ty, so will have to look at something else.
Click to expand...


A lot of it relies on my wife at this stage not going to lie! Holly has been working 100+ hours on the cabinet, back glass, speaker panel and now the playfield artwork. Its actually gone through some major revisions as we found elements we wanted in the playfield get pretty obscured through playfield ramp design.

I've been putting my focus on getting ramps sorted, the right ramp is basically unobtainium. Which then started me down the garden path of finding someone willing to make a replacement. We've settled on a metal design replacement for all 3 ramps as the original ramps were plastic and prone to breaking due to the sharp 90 degree bend on the right ramp.

We're in keeping with the overall shots but the returns are literally 'up in the air' at present we just need to be careful as the person making the ramps literally can only go visit a machine he doesn't actually own one.

Playfield reskin wise getting it done was easier this time as the trust level has been built up between me and the guy doing the reskin/refurbishment as I got my custom BSD done through him.

Plastics are still a work in progress but I've already begun compiling music and begun remixing. Call outs I have some people lined up (mostly impersonators) around Cyber Punk characters. DMD animations are going to be trickey. I'm at a cross roads there, I could either go down the PROC route or keep the original ROM code. I have some volunteers to help me with the coding as my C++ days at Uni are well and truly behind me.. :D

Topper design hasn't begun yet.

I would imagine we're about 4 -6 months from completion. We'll have something working by month 3 I think based on current time lines for the playfield completion.

I should be getting the prints of the Cabinet, Back Glass and Speaker Panel back within the next few weeks.

I have to prioritise Neil's ToM before I begin assembly but I'm on the final stages on that.

Scott
 
Last few days I finished editing, cutting and compiling all the call outs over 400... Music files are also done and I began editing the DMD animations. My wife laughed at my attempt to draw Johnny Silver Hand so I'm going to teach her on how to use the editor and leave her to it :D

Original
WhatsApp Image 2023-09-01 at 21.14.54.jpg

Mine:
WhatsApp Image 2023-09-01 at 20.46.28.jpg


Let the record show I tried!
 
I've extracted all the scenes but its going to take some time to redo them all.

For now I've been mucking around with the colour palletes.

Colorchoice.JPG
 
PROC is best for rethemes. But most things run from a small PC. Then use a screen or pin2dmd

My pin is coming on very slow but surely.

The hardest thing for me is code!

I can do everything else.

Holly has done a great job on the PF art.
 
Pick Holder said:
PROC is best for rethemes. But most things run from a small PC. Then use a screen or pin2dmd

My pin is coming on very slow but surely.

The hardest thing for me is code!

I can do everything else.

Holly has done a great job on the PF art.
Click to expand...
Thanks Phil, I'll let her know!

For now I'm just reading up on Pin2DMD and getting use to layer masks, key frames etc. Feels a bit like Flash from the old days. Playfield art is now finished but it will need some passes I think to make sure everything lines up etc.

Ramps are at the design stage and the following is now complete:

Decals
Back Glass
Speaker Panel

I'll begin work on the cabinet after I finish the ToM. I managed to get covid so its drained me a bit so haven't had the time to finish the ToM off.
 
PROC doesnt use the existing audio/video board - there is a USB on the top so all the video and audio comes off the computer.
Why do you not use a video screen and not pin2dmd. Using Mission pinball framework you can run a nice monitor (even the whole backglass area!) as well as a DMD.
Think I will be using one of these screens as a DMD
Worth saying you can still run something with a DMD look on these monitors too.

You are doing it totally the opposite way to me. I just want to get some flippers and coils working using the code. I will worry about PF art last.
Nobody is correct on this.

You have great strengths with the art.

I know a brilliant artist too but he has no interest in pinball. I may even get him to do the design and pay Holly to do the 'inserts' etc.

@Goodwinsplace is also doing a build - it will be really good to see what the three of us come up with.

In the past the old community on Yahoo made Phil Dixon's machine (@Sven Normansson ) but he was the main brains behind it.

I am still wondering what my theme is actually going to be but I have ideas for:

Rush (as Stern didnt do it well)
Futurama
The Muppets
Prince
Van Halen

@Paul - can we have a Homebrew section please?

Going to watch with interest - knowing you it will be done in a week.
 
Pick Holder said:
PROC doesnt use the existing audio/video board - there is a USB on the top so all the video and audio comes off the computer.
Why do you not use a video screen and not pin2dmd. Using Mission pinball framework you can run a nice monitor (even the whole backglass area!) as well as a DMD.
Think I will be using one of these screens as a DMD
Worth saying you can still run something with a DMD look on these monitors too.

You are doing it totally the opposite way to me. I just want to get some flippers and coils working using the code. I will worry about PF art last.
Nobody is correct on this.

You have great strengths with the art.

I know a brilliant artist too but he has no interest in pinball. I may even get him to do the design and pay Holly to do the 'inserts' etc.

@Goodwinsplace is also doing a build - it will be really good to see what the three of us come up with.

In the past the old community on Yahoo made Phil Dixon's machine (@Sven Normansson ) but he was the main brains behind it.

I am still wondering what my theme is actually going to be but I have ideas for:

Rush (as Stern didnt do it well)
Futurama
The Muppets
Prince
Van Halen

@Paul - can we have a Homebrew section please?

Going to watch with interest - knowing you it will be done in a week.
Click to expand...

Yup, definitely doing a different approach.

I've used Pinsound to change the call outs, effects and music. At the moment I'm experimenting with replacing scenes with Pin2DMD. JM already has great code so for me adapting animations and text Is the easier option even though it's going to mean editing about 400 frames of animation...

If that doesn't work out I'll fall back to proc. My method however means less third party components.
 
Pick Holder said:
PROC is best for rethemes.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's not entirely true, they were the first to bring a board to market, but there has been other 2.0 games with FAST, there's probably more of them than there are p-roc rethemes now.

Most people are using FAST + MPF because the learning curve isn't as steep, you don't really have to know how to code using MPF +Fast.
 
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