Visual Pinball

[shimoda]

By the begining of next week,
I'd recommend big bang bar v2
It has been updTed by jimmyfingers and myself.
Optomized and updated to use the new features of vp as well as jf's physics routines.

Il be releasing it early next week at vpuniverse. And later at vpf.

Jf will also be releasing his mod of jp salas afm. It has 8 step fading gi as well as the physics routines. Plays like a dream.

All coming early next week

Glad to hear more contributions to vpu. Thanks for that. Glad to see more development here.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Carl - have you tried Future Pinball recently, latest physics updates made it very nice, but you do need a better graphics card than I possess.

The flipper physics feel very realistic, with shot strength being proportionate to how far down the flipper the ball is when flipped.
Lack of consideration of this in TPA bugs the cr@p out of me personally. I was playing Centaur last night, and cradling on the right flipper, and could easily and consistently perform a strong enough vertical shot to travel the full length of the table and hit the 1,2,3,4 advance drop target accurately. Realistic???

BTW - just wanted to say a quick Thank you to unclewilly.
I've had countless hours of entertainment with your tables and really appreciate your sharing them. Thanks man!

 

[Carl Spiby]

Anyone know if there's a monitor arm you can buy that would allow you to angle a screen optimally for pinball?

 

[karl]

Carl - have you tried Future Pinball recently, latest physics updates made it very nice, but you do need a better graphics card than I possess.

The flipper physics feel very realistic, with shot strength being proportionate to how far down the flipper the ball is when flipped.
Lack of consideration of this in TPA bugs the cr@p out of me personally. I was playing Centaur last night, and cradling on the right flipper, and could easily and consistently perform a strong enough vertical shot to travel the full length of the table and hit the 1,2,3,4 advance drop target accurately. Realistic???

BTW - just wanted to say a quick Thank you to unclewilly.
I've had countless hours of entertainment with your tables and really appreciate your sharing them. Thanks man!

I will be the first to admit that some aspects in Future pinball is vastly improved with 2.5 but your impression of the flipper physics is so far from my experience that I wonder if we live on the same planet

There seams to be a lot of different opinions on Physics in Future pinball and of course I respect your view. I just do not understand it at all.

To me the flipper accuracy angle shots is so frustrating in future pinball that I want to tear off hairs I do no longer have. The ball goes everywhere but where it is supposed to. I think this is the strong point of TPA. you hit what you aim for (yes the ball is a bit light and bouncy but the accuracy is (in my view) 1000 times better on tpa than FP.

In VP, the tables with the best physics are better than in TPA but this is far from true on every table. At least in VP, the engine allows for you to have great physics. I still play some FP and enjoy it but it could be so much better.

Just my view of course ;-)

 

[Baron Rubik]

I'd agree different tables in Future Pinball do have differing degrees of flipper accuracy. I tried Seawitch this weekend gone, and that was not good accuracy wise.
Maybe my graphics card could also be giving me different results to you. I have to run on bare minimum settings, perhaps a miniscule slow down gives me better shot timing than you.
It's only recently I've retried FP and with limited tables, but it has impressed me enough to want a better PC to give it a full settings tryout.

TPA whilst having better shot accuracy, I personally find frustrating due to the flipper power near the pivot. Aside from the Centaur example in my previous post, another example is Dr Dude. Cradle on the left flipper, and you can shoot a vertical shot 85% of the way up the mix master ramp. On a real DD I was struggling to get accurate rolling shots off the right flipper up there.

Hands up, you have infinitely more real life experience, I play once in a blue moon (3wks ago since last), you have several of your own tables, so if you say TPA is closer to reality, I won't argue, but I quite enjoyed FP.

 

[superballs]

Yes I don't have a cabinet anymore so I play desktop on my livu ng room tv

Unclewilly, are the new physics routines much more taxing on the hardware?

I'd also recommend bob5453's The Beatles table. And I'll definitely second the nod to Triple Strike. And JP's Eight Ball Deluxe. And Indy 500.

Also. Try and beat my hs2 score of 4.2-some billion.

 

[Carl Spiby]

Looking at getting a 23 inch screen that has a stand which can be rotated into portrait, is it worth it? Its about £160. My current screen doesn't have a VESA mount or anything (Samsung Pebble) and the fixed stand just tilts back and fourth slightly.

 

[karl]

Baron: Thumbs up on your last post. Your reasoning is bullet proof and I agree about everything and you are absolutely correct about the flippers in tpa being to strong.

btw: having a real pinball table or two does not make my view any better than yours. I have heard some strange comments on the web by pin owners (myself included )

Some of my personal problems with FP could be due to my setup but I see the same problem often when I look at youtube videos of FP. (but I feel it is a little better with a keyboard than the Pinball Wizard controller) Looking forward to testing it with a real cab in xp to see if there is any difference

Now back to VP ;-)

 

[karl]

Looking at getting a 23 inch screen that has a stand which can be rotated into portrait, is it worth it? Its about £160. My current screen doesn't have a VESA mount or anything (Samsung Pebble) and the fixed stand just tilts back and fourth slightly.

The view on this differs on vpforums but personally I find it worth it. I found out by accident that my monitor can rotate and I have not played a single desktop table in VP since. The only drawbacks with one screen in portrait is that you loose a little bit of depth and that some of the dmds will display sideways, but to me the feeling of having the tables on the whole screen in portrait just feels so more natural and there is so many great full screen tables now in VP I'd say go for it

 

[Baron Rubik]

I feel it is a little better with a keyboard than the Pinball Wizard controller) Looking forward to testing it with a real cab in xp to see if there is any difference

Jeez - Is there anything that you own I'm not going to be envious of?
Man - my setup sucks!
I'm trying to console myself that you might have a really sucky car or something.

 

[SilverBalls]

Looking at getting a 23 inch screen that has a stand which can be rotated into portrait, is it worth it? Its about £160. My current screen doesn't have a VESA mount or anything (Samsung Pebble) and the fixed stand just tilts back and fourth slightly.

23" is quite small and sometimes the stand makes the price high. Another option maybe worth considering is buy a 27" monitor for a similar price and don't worry about the stand being rotatable. Then buy a cheap wall mounted bracket (amazon have them for about £10) and attach it to the wall where your desk is. I did this for my son and the 27" looks incredible.

 

[Carl Spiby]

Ideally I would want to use my old monitor behind it for the backbox but I don't think I'll find a cheap enough stand to give that range of movement required.

 

[karl]

Jeez - Is there anything that you own I'm not going to be envious of?
Man - my setup sucks!
I'm trying to console myself that you might have a really sucky car or something.

Yes you are correct about the car. my Carrera S is a bit crappy ;-). Look on the bright side, I am broke beyond belief and my personal skills sucks

 

[DrainoBraino]

The view on this differs on vpforums but personally I find it worth it. I found out by accident that my monitor can rotate and I have not played a single desktop table in VP since. The only drawbacks with one screen in portrait is that you loose a little bit of depth and that some of the dmds will display sideways, but to me the feeling of having the tables on the whole screen in portrait just feels so more natural and there is so many great full screen tables now in VP I'd say go for it

Yes same here. I built a new computer a few weeks ago and pulled out an old monitor, found out it works perfectly turned sideways for FS tables. I play it with a gamepad. SO AWESOME! It even supports analog nudging. I want to build a cabinet now!

SO yes, Carl Spiby, it is worth it. I don't even have a stand right now, I just prop it up. The monitor I am using detaches from the base and I use the base to keep it from sliding.

Karl, This will help you turn those DMDs correctly:
http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=6880

Post #2 in that thread is the trick. Just insert that line in the script at the proper place. Most of the tables already have that line in the script, they just need uncommented.

 

[karl]

Thanks DrainoBraino. I will check it out fast as a shark

 

[karl]

Again thanks for the tip DrainoBraino. I tried it out and it works like a charm. Your suggestion is very much appreciated (insert smiley of me dancing)

 

[Carl Spiby]

I've been trying some FS tables on my office monitor as it rotates to portrait, I've noticed the flipper area looks a bit squashed up, is this because they're intended to be viewed with the monitor flat on its back?

 

[Baron Rubik]

I've been trying some FS tables on my office monitor as it rotates to portrait, I've noticed the flipper area looks a bit squashed up, is this because they're intended to be viewed with the monitor flat on its back?

Try laying it on it's back - does it look any better?
Busy day in the office?

 

[Carl Spiby]

I can't take it off the stand at the moment

 

[Baron Rubik]

I can't take it off the stand at the moment

Pull the monitor to the edge of the desk, and lie on the floor looking up then.
If any one at work asks, you fell off the shody furniture and might sue them.