A way to add tracks?

[niston]

Let's keep it in mind for later then.
I will now begin work on Virtual Circuit module.

[niston]

Can you start thinking about design of Holotape Deck?

As it should accept both regular and pipboy sized holotapes, I suggest front loading mechanism, similar to VCR but tape remains sticking out a bit so the label can be seen. Or tray (like some DAT recorders) style design.

If using front loader, I can script it to spawn and attach a copy of the tape inserted, so the tape displayed on the deck will have the proper/same size and labelling as the loaded tape. I can also do this for the tape in the tray, if using tray loader mechanism.

Loading/unloading will be done through inventory menu, for player to insert/remove tape from deck. Inventory Menu is to be triggered by EJECT or similar button. Suitable animations, such as tape tray animation for example, can be played from script when menu opens or closes.

[South8028]

14 minutes ago, niston said:

Can you start thinking about design of Holotape Deck?

As it should accept both regular and pipboy sized holotapes, I suggest front loading mechanism, similar to VCR but tape remains sticking out a bit so the label can be seen. Or tray (like some DAT recorders) style design.

If using front loader, I can script it to spawn and attach a copy of the tape inserted, so the tape displayed on the deck will have the proper/same size and labelling as the loaded tape.

Loading/unloading will be done through inventory menu, for player to insert/remove tape from deck. Inventory Menu is to be triggered by EJECT or similar button. Suitable animations can be played from script.

Do you mean vcr from phillips? How exactly does a holodisk work? The case is small and the media is probably packed very tightly. Some audio recordings are not small in size. This is a kind of retro-futuristic media that has a capacity several times greater than a floppy disk. There are probably magnetic layers there.

[niston]

As for holotapes in FO4, from the looks of the tape cartridge, it appears to be an endless spool of tape. Could be magnetic, although the name and supposed capacity imply some fancy sort of holographic read/write technology. Perhaps the tape is thus just some transparent plastic film and the signal is etched into and read from the tape in holographic form, with a laser. The recorded signal could be encoded similar to optical analog soundtrack in cinema movies. This principle could support many signal layers in the plastic film, where the laser is focused on the desired layer. Theoretically, a short spool of film could hold enormous amounts of data in hundreds of layers. If the spool is really short, seek and access could be reasonably fast (comapred to reel-2-reel tapes). Using a suitable polymer for the film, layers in the film could be erased through localized heating by laser as well.

Front loading mechanism on a VHS recorder:

Spoiler

VHS tape is inserted into slot and then disappears into the machine as it is being loaded.
For game use, I'd suggest not to let the tape disappear into the machine - so the label remains visible.
 

Front loading BETACAM player in action:

Spoiler

 

 

A very unusual front loading cassette tape mechanism. It is unusual because this type of front loading mechanism was most often used with car cassette players due to the limited space, and almost never for HiFi gear:

Spoiler

 

A tray loader cassette tape drive:

Spoiler

 

Panasonic DAT tray loading mechanism:

Spoiler

 

 

[niston]

As for controls on holotape deck:

* Power On/Off Button
* Configuration Button
* Open/Close or Eject Button
* Stop Button
* Play Button
* Pause Button
* Previous Track Button
* Next Track Button
* Display Mode Button

Currently unsure if Reverse/Forward Seek can be implemented. The corresponding, exposed engine function doesn't seem to work right at the moment. I hope we can do it, because this will also be needed to synchronize sound emitters.

The deck could have a nixie display that shows playback time/position in hh:mm:ss and track as 1 to 999.

[South8028]

23 minutes ago, niston said:

As for holotapes in FO4, from the looks of the tape cartridge, it appears to be an endless spool of tape. Could be magnetic, although the name and supposed capacity imply some fancy sort of holographic read/write technology. Perhaps the tape is thus just some transparent plastic film and the signal is etched into and read from the tape in holographic form, with a laser. The recorded signal could be encoded similar to optical analog soundtrack in cinema movies. This principle could support many signal layers in the plastic film, where the laser is focused on the desired layer. Theoretically, a short spool of film could hold enormous amounts of data in hundreds of layers. If the spool is really short, seek and access could be reasonably fast (comapred to reel-2-reel tapes). Using a suitable polymer for the film, layers in the film could be erased through localized heating by laser as well.

Front loading mechanism on a VHS recorder:

  Reveal hidden contents

VHS tape is inserted into slot and then disappears into the machine as it is being loaded.
For game use, I'd suggest not to let the tape disappear into the machine - so the label remains visible.
 

Front loading BETACAM player in action:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

A very unusual front loading cassette tape mechanism. It is unusual because this type of front loading mechanism was most often used with car cassette players due to the limited space, and almost never for HiFi gear:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

A tray loader cassette tape drive:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Panasonic DAT tray loading mechanism:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

We will assume that the holodisk uses the principle of quantum entanglement.

[niston]

FO4 don't have holodisk. Holodisk looks vastly different from holotape.

Could be another device, holodisk deck, using FO3 style mesh for disk (which really looks like a two spool cassette).

[South8028]

1 hour ago, niston said:

FO4 don't have holodisk. Holodisk looks vastly different from holotape.

Could be another device, holodisk deck, using FO3 style mesh for disk (which really looks like a two spool cassette).

I think... Since we are at the point in fo4 history, we will make a player for fo4 holotapes. Pip-Boy format. It is worth remembering that holotapes of this format are computer-compatible storage media. Obviously this has nothing to do with VHS. Such a multimedia center must have a motherboard, processor, RAM and video card. Roughly speaking, a holotape is not a recording of a single video or audio standard. This is a full-fledged ROM, for example a hdd, or sdd, or cdr disk, or flash drive. Has a file system. The player for such a code is a hardware hybrid assembled based on the components of a personal computer. The so-called monoblock.

[niston]

Well, you think of something

Important: Whatever mechanism you implement must support both full size (regular) in addition to small (pipboy) holotapes, or it won't be possible to support the feature I described earlier.

Btw, music cassette tape also is computer compatible storage media:

Spoiler

 

[South8028]

2 hours ago, niston said:

Well, you think of something

Important: Whatever mechanism you implement must support both full size (regular) in addition to small (pipboy) holotapes, or it won't be possible to support the feature I described earlier.

Btw, music cassette tape also is computer compatible storage media:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_4_holotape_games

I found only one form factor. This. They have one uniform size and the same world model. What other holotapes are there? In other words, provide screenshots or links to all the form factors that we need to put in our player.

Edited July 20 by South8028