Spinning Ball Animated Wheel Images

[Draco1962]

A few renderings custom made for my GameEx Arcade Edition setup found here:

 

[scutters]

Thanks for testing guys!

But apologies..  with the barrel / cylinder being used more i thought i'd better make it as good as i could after finding a couple of quirks, so i tweaked a couple of things. Static pngs to show the difference.

The 3D edge being applied was still slightly spherical

Before

Now

(you have to look closely but the 3D edge turned slightly in towards the middle of the image)

Some over distortion could still occur squashing the top and bottom of the image, and stretching the middle

Using a new test image to show the difference

Test image

Before

Now

Some cylindrical distortion will still be present, but it is now reduced.

 

Depending on the source images and settings used theses changes might not be significant, and will be more evident on some images than on others.

Here's a test version with these changes (just the exe to replace). Let me know what you think @Draco1962. I can undo the changes if you prefer the previous effect.

 

Note - these changes only affect images produced using the Cylinder option, so won't affect the underlay images you make @Mike_da_Spike

 

Edited April 16, 2025 by scutters
attachment removed - full update now released

[Draco1962]

Unable to download & open - Windows Defender says it is detecting a virus. 🥴

[Mike_da_Spike]

5 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

Unable to download & open - Windows Defender says it is detecting a virus. 🥴

No issues with downloading and this version is working fine for me as well

[scutters]

13 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

Unable to download & open - Windows Defender says it is detecting a virus. 🥴

Not sure what i can do about that especially when it's ok for @Mike_da_Spike

But here it is again after a recompile and rezip

 

Edited April 16, 2025 by scutters
attachment removed - full update now released

[Draco1962]

Still getting the same - following is the page referenced: Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml threat description - Microsoft Security Intelligence

I was able to bypass and allow the file. It may likely be a false-positive, but always best to be sure.

[Draco1962]

Original and latest - minimal change detected and working well!

[scutters]

1 hour ago, Draco1962 said:

Still getting the same - following is the page referenced: Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml threat description - Microsoft Security Intelligence

I reported it on Submit a file for malware analysis - Microsoft Security Intelligence. Not sure it'll work but nothing else i can do.

1 hour ago, Draco1962 said:

Original and latest - minimal change detected and working well!

8 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

No issues with downloading and this version is working fine for me as well

Thanks for retesting guys!.. No more changes planned (really this time ) so i'll post the app update shortly.

Edit - And done. V1.5 posted.

[Draco1962]

2 hours ago, scutters said:

I reported it on Submit a file for malware analysis - Microsoft Security Intelligence. Not sure it'll work but nothing else i can do.

Thanks for retesting guys!.. No more changes planned (really this time ) so i'll post the app update shortly.

Edit - And done. V1.5 posted.

Thanks for this and all you do!

[Mike_da_Spike]

Stupid user question:  

I am using the following source image. Since it is transparent, I have made the background gray for illustration.

And with the following settings :

this results in this (endresult in PinballX as underlay) 


You can't see it correctly, but I used the  ''Draw full spin"
But what I see is that it is making the image like this :

Would it be possible to support a 2:1 ratio image as well, so the entire texture wraps around the ball without repeating?

so an image like this :


So when PINEMHI is at front, the WEEKLY CHALLANGES should mirrored and with shadow effect  and when PINEMHI is rotated away, it starts with WEEKLY CHALLANGES and PIINEMHI is mirrored and with shadow effect (or even without the 'Draw FullSpin' option selected that it supports a 2:10) 
So it would something like this

 

[Draco1962]

Can you attach a copy of your transparent text image?

[Mike_da_Spike]

16 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

Can you attach a copy of your transparent text image?

This one ? : 

[scutters]

On 5/4/2025 at 7:17 AM, Mike_da_Spike said:

Would it be possible to support a 2:1 ratio image as well, so the entire texture wraps around the ball without repeating?

Would  it be possible? - Yes

But not easily, it would need quite a big rewrite as i made an assumption early on in the development that having the full logo visible in the first frame would be preferred (and the 'reverse' side graphics were added later building into that same original design).

I do have a concern that adding the 2:1 image for different font and rear images as an option might complicate the UI even more, but i'll have a look (with no promises!!!)

[Mike_da_Spike]

1 hour ago, scutters said:

but i'll have a look

Thanks mate ! It's too complex for me, but I'm sure you can make this !

[Draco1962]

9 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

This one ? : 

Yes. I just looked at your settings and noted that you have no padding set. Adding a pad will give some spacing between the beginning and end of your source file.

[scutters]

On 5/4/2025 at 7:17 AM, Mike_da_Spike said:

Would it be possible to support a 2:1 ratio image as well, so the entire texture wraps around the ball without repeating?

I've had a look at this now, and i'm afraid the answer is a No from me (sorry!).

Technically i could do it (with a lot of work), but i now realise it would make processing of images a lot slower too. This is because each frame is built using cached data of the original source image (and then maths is performed to plot new points of each pixel based on rotation, frame number values etc). 

To include a full wrap of the source image (not repeating the same image on the front and reverse of the ball) i'd need to alter the source image to take into account the frame number for each frame (for the wrapping), which in turn would mean that the caching wouldn't be valid and the app would need to loop through the pixels of every frame instead (which is a lot of pixels when producing multi frame apngs - and it'd be very slow)

Basically, i just don't think the benefits of the option would outweigh the disadvantages.

Hope that makes sense!

[Mike_da_Spike]

[scutters]

Version 1.6 now posted. This adds the ability to override individual frame delays.

E.g. 

Using Rajo Joeys AC/DC Power Up logo image (https://mega.nz/folder/IFsxBbCD#04cfuNEJi5hwuYxL6CvQIg/file/1c8nXI7S)

With these settings;

Note the 'Enable Delay Overrides' is checked and specific frame delays are entered in the box below (1,1500;2,150;3,100;4,75;5,65;50,100;49,80;48,75;47,65).

These settings produce an animation that pauses on the first frame and then starts rotating before slowing to a pause again after a full rotation. All the intermediate frames not listed in the Overrides use the standard manual delay of 60ms.

Output (converted to gif format for the forum);

[scutters]

Version 1.7 posted. Small change to allow an underlay colour to have an alpha value set (for semi transparency - allowing the use of colour in the sphere but still allowing the playfield media to be visible behind it when used in PinballX).

E.g. With these settings #(the only change from example above being to use an Underlay Colour and with an Underlay Alpha set at 128)

To produce

[scutters]

@Mike_da_Spike really wanted an option to have different graphics on the front and the reverse of the sphere...  so he added it!!!

V1.8 now posted with a 'Fully Wrap Source Image' option.

So adding a Stern logo to the side of the previously used AC/DC logo above;

And using these settings;

Will now produce;

Note - As can be seen, when using the Fully Wrap Source Image option the animation doesn't repeat so will appear to spin faster as twice the number of distinct frames are used to show a full rotation. Either increase the number of frames used or frame timing to adjust for this if required.

 

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Thanks @scuttersfor this extra feature.

3 versions of updates in 1 1/2 week ! And pretty good ones !

My plan is to update my cab this winter and completly setup VP and other systems from scratch on my new computer. And your new features would be used as well to create my overlay, and tarcisio wheels. 

Thanks for all your (hard) work on this !

[Draco1962]

I look forward to giving these latest enhancements a whirl as soon as I put some other projects to bed.

Thanks as always @scutters for the great work!

[scutters]

Thanks guys..

No more changes planned so no need to worry about a v1.9 with more changes appearing just as you start to use 1.8!

[scutters]

On 9/3/2025 at 8:18 AM, scutters said:

No more changes planned

Well ok, i was wrong.. I'm not entirely happy with how the alpha value is used for the background colour.

When drawing the reverse of the ball (if selected) the selected alpha is a bit misleading (as the final alpha is a combined alpha value of both the front and reverse sides of the ball), and as the alpha is applied uniformly there is no depth affect (i.e. transparency does not reduce towards the centre of the ball).

I'm working to change this so that the selected alpha will be more representative of values at the sides of the ball and will also be less transparent towards the centre. Hopefully the ball centre will also appear darker against a light background and lighter against a dark background too.

E.g. (static frame only against a black and white background with no overlay)

Current;

Next version, more like;

Just got to iron out some remaining bugs, but if you're thinking of using an underlay colour with an alpha value it's probably worth waiting for.

[scutters]

V1.9 posted with a change as described above.

Now, using this source image;

With these settings;

Will produce;

NOTE - Some compression artifacts are now created and can be seen if you look closely at the example. These are caused by use of colour gradients in the alpha effect. They can be removed by adjusting or turning off compression in the Image Compression settings (i didn't do this in the example as using compression keeps the file size down for a forum post).