Parsheets questions

[bitcoiner]

Hey guys, and girls

I'm new to the site, im a slot enthusiast and a 3d game developer (you can see on the picture to the left my own homebrew wheel slot). Anyway, my question is this, im working on recreating a 3d version of "Wild Cherry Deluxe", in my parsheet file i have both the PHYSICAL REEL STRIP LISTING and the EXPANDED REEL STRIP LISTING however there seems to be no indication to where the EXPANDED REEL (or virtual reel) offsets the physical reel. Normally this isnt a big issue except the "clustering" appears off compared to the real thing, but on wild cherry its even more important as the wild pays for "in any position" which requires proper reelstrip offsets for the machine to work as intended.
Anyone happen to know if its possible to somehow obtain the expanded-to-physical-offsets ?

On another note, if any of you happen to sit on parsheets for some of your favourite slots feel free to send me some Id be happy to send you back a copy of the machine either in a 3d metaverse (such as Second Life) or as .3ds

Thanks a lot in advance

[StatFreak]

  bitcoiner

There is no offset. (Unless you're talking about physical mounting issues with slant tops vs. uprights -- but that has nothing to do with the data in the PAR sheet.) The virtual (expanded) strips are in the same order as the physical strips; only the number of virtual stops per physical position varies. Positions (and therefore weighting) are always on the center line (important when evaluating line games and any position pays such as with Wild Cherry). With those WC any position pays, the virtual blanks immediately above and below the WC symbol contribute to the pays.*

Physical and virtual position 1 is always the blank with the seam (on the center line). The last physical stop and corresponding virtual stop(s) are the symbol on the "bottom" of an unmounted strip. (I'm sure you know that they spin "backwards", so they'd be the symbol immediately above the seam when mounted.)


Hope that helps,

StatFreak
  Global Moderator


* Take the sum of the virtual stops on each reel for the blank above each WC, below it, and the WC(s) and multiply across the reels to get the product, then subtract the product of the number of virtual stops for each of the WC symbols to get the number of "any position" combinations.  When evaluating the nudges for the "Deluxe" feature, simply count the number of virtual stops for nudging blanks as if they were the symbol itself. They will be labeled appropriately.  It sounds like you already know this, but I just wanted to be thorough.  

[bitcoiner]

Thanks very much to those who sent me parsheets, and to StatFreak for pointing out about offsets of virtual>physical. However as for the offsets there's still some room for error on some models, i did one model based on trial and error because it had an unparallell physical>virtual sheet, normally there 1 blank on the physical, and that corresponds to XX blanks on the virtual, however for games with scatter symbol (ie wild cherrry) or autonudgers (such as xx-diamond-deluxe) or also multiliners there are often multiple blanks on the physical reel which also correspond to multiple blanks on the virtual, here's an example which caused me a lot of headake to get right:

PHYSICAL:

Line #  14 R7 R7 2B     
Line #  15 ~~ ~~ ~~     
Line #  16 1B 1B ~~     
Line #  17 ~~ ~~ ~~     
Line #  18 2B 2B 1B

On R3 i should have optimally a number divisible by 3 to equally distribute the 3 blanks, however as it turned out the virtual reel had a number not divisible by 3 for the lines 15-17 on R3, which ultimately led me to trial and fail for this uneven distribution. I guess there is no system for this and only the chipmanufacturer knows this hidden offset rule which can vary from model to model.

On a slightly releated note, i've been recently requeted to make some "videoslots" (those nasty 9-50 line slots that many of us, me including don't consider real vegas slots), but since i never had interest for these things i'm totally clueless as for how a standard videoreel looks like. Yes i do know they usualy have top card symbols (ie 9-ACE) a scatter that triggers freespins and some high pay symbols, but how do those ususally look like ? If anyone has some sort of example of a standard "reelstrip" (i assume on videoslots there is no need for a virtual reel since its all virtual anyway), any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

PS: i'll post videos of my current works soon.

[StatFreak]

Okay, I see what you mean. It's not really an offest. There are a specific number of virtual stops mapped to each of those blanks, but you're right: Unfortunately, the PAR sheets don't tell you exactly how many virtual stops are assigned to each successive blank in such cases, and they are almost never equal. 

That example, as you've displayed it, would represent a line game with no nudges or Wild Cherry type any position pays ("scatter symbols"). All PAR sheets use a different symbol to represent blanks that nudge and blanks that are part of any position pays, so those types of games shouldn't cause you any problems. It's the type 0 line games that are giving you difficulty.



For those pesky line games, there are basically three options, two of which require you to have the SS chip.

1. Install the SS chip in a machine and use the reel strip test [5] to bring up each of the blanks in question and write down the virtual stop
    rages assigned to them. That will tell you exactly how many virtual stops each blank in a contiguous set has.

2. Put the SS chip in a burner and figure out the virtual stop pattern, then count the number of assigned stops for the problem blanks.

3. Calculate them through deductive reasoning.

   Line games use the symbols in all three positions to create winning line combinations. The physical strips are laid out very carefully
   (using computer aid) so that the number of winning combinations of each win type occurs the same number of times on every line.
   That means that there have to be the same TOTAL number of occurrences of each symbol type in each of the three positions
   on one reel, and that this has to be the case for all three reels.

   However, a specific physical symbol can't have the same number of stops in all three window positions without affecting the neighboring symbols
   in the top and bottom positions, so they have to juggle the number of virtual stops so that the sum total for every symbol does add up when all
   is said and done, and all positions are listed in the PAR sheet according to the physical stop that appears on the middle payline.

   For example, if there are supposed to be a grand total of 5 triple bar virtual stops on the third reel (data available in the PAR) and there are
   two 3B symbols on the strips, they may have to assign only one stop to one symbol when it's on the bottom line (that gives you the number
   of virtual stops for the blank above it) and assign four stops to the other 3B symbol when it's on the bottom line. (Again giving you the number
   of virtual stops for the blank above that symbol.)

   Now, when those same two symbols are on the top line, they may have to give one of them two stops and the other three, and you then use that info
   to figure out the number of stops for the blanks below.)

   You end up tying those in with the symbols on the other line, since those symbol totals also have to match the PAR. (When 3B is on the bottom,
   the number of blank stops in the middle also determines the number of stops for the symbol on the top, and vice versa.) This creates a tightly
   woven fabric which becomes unraveled if even one virtual or physical stop is out of place.

   This method is tedious, but doable.


Obviously, the best method is #1.


I realize that this probably isn't the answer you were hoping for, but still, I hope it helps some.


Stat

[StatFreak]

...
PS: i'll post videos of my current works soon.

That would be great! We'd love to see what you've done. 


By the way, there IS a fourth solution. Since you're designing a virtual game on a computer screen, there's nothing preventing you from twisting the reels around. 

All you have to do is to make sure that each symbol type (e.g., 7, 3B, Ch, etc.) on each reel ends up with the same number of stops in each of the three virtual window positions and that they match the total number of stops assigned to that symbol on that reel per the PAR sheet.   After all, you're not forced to use the same physical design layout. You don't even have to use the same "three position" ending window layouts within your program for every spin.

You don't have to match the number of stops for blanks in between. You do have to make sure that the total number of blanks that can appear in each of the three positions on a reel is correct, but you can change the final displayed image as necessary to massage the symbols to make that happen.

Just thinking outside the box...