Best VPX Tables?

[Jeff Strong]

Been a few years since I've played VP (the early physMOD was the last version I played) and am wondering if you guys can reccomend the best VPX tables?

I'll be playing in desktop mode.

Need something to tie me over until FX3 WMS launches heh.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

Special thanks to The Loafer for helping me get everything running smoothly.

Here's a little video of me flailing around on Metallica:

 

[Jeff Strong]

Well, hit a speed bump. EMs work fine, but anything with a ROM is giving me an error (yes, I have the proper ROMS...been using VP since VP7 in the early 2000’s so not my first rodeo heh). Googling the error gives me a few different threads at VPforums, but no clear answers, so it’s a bit mysterious.

The physics are pretty good at least. I like the way the ball rattles a bit at the top of the inlanes. It’s a realistic touch most pinball sims don’t get right.

Can’t really judge the graphics yet as I haven’t got the lights working on any DMD table.

 

[The loafer]

Some games look ok, while some games look great (see latest "The Getaway", Whitewater, T2, Attack From Mars). As with commercial pinsims, some are better than others. It's not a 3D engine so you won't get the full light show you see in TPA or PBFX3, but there is a way to do a night mode in VPX, better than expected in some cases. There are also some awesome 3rd party stuff like PinUp backglass support which adds something like JJP backglass video to the games and in some cases like the just released Transformers or the awesome original Stranger Things SE, well, it's just plain awesome.


If you want to test VPX, you need to install the all-in-one 10.5 that's available at vpforums. After that, if you are still getting some errors, then let me know and it would be both my pleasure and honor to give you a hand in getting it running.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Much appreciated.

I installed the all-in-one and everything went smoothly with the first EM I tried, until I tried to load up the latest Attack From Mars, and I received this error:

I get a similar error with any ROM dependent table, even though I have the proper ROMs.

The table still loads, and I can drop coins in it, but I can't play it nor can I see the DMD.

Thanks for your help!

EDIT:

OK, I ran the ROM tester in PinMAME setup and it said the ROMS were good. I decided to try changing some VP settings to see if anything would help and oddly enough, turning off "Force Exclusive Fullscreen Mode" in Video Options seems to have done the trick. Everything works fine now!

 

[Jeff Strong]

Oh my...the latest version of T2 kicks all kinds of arse! What a ball-buster, fast and deadly, quite similar to the real pin...maybe a bit too bouncy, but good overall. Lighting looks great too.

Any others that are on this same level?

Tried one of JPsalas new ones (AFM), but wasn't as impressed. Ball felt weird. I always thought his older stuff played a bit odd as well.

But this T2 by nFozzy...wow!

 

[The loafer]

T2 by nfozzy is fantastic, I think that's the one that shows some movement when you hit the T800 head right? There is ANOTHER T2 that's maybe better by G

On this site, check out ACDC Premium (preference is for the Luci edition), Attack from Mars (G5K … his tables will make you salivate!), Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure, Stranger Things Stranger Edition (you might need a second monitor and the need to install PinUp), another T2 by G5K again, The Getaway (flupper) and Tron Legacy (G5K again). Although I mention one author on some of these, there are others of course pitching in, sometimes it's a team effort.

http://www.monsterbashpincab.com/download-page/tables-vpx/


On VPF, you can find WhiteWater (flupper), Diner (flupper), Creature from the Black Lagoon (fuzzel), Black Knight 2000 (flupper… I guess I'm a fan! LOL), etc

On vpinball.com, anything by Bord plays just awesomely, very realistic IMHO. His Paragon, Eight Ball Deluxe, Centigrade 37 and Centaur are probably some of the best playing tables but be warned, they play as if with new rubbers, right off the factory floor so if you find they play too fast, keep in mind most tables we play in real life that old are beat up old pins that are slowed down by inattention or ravages of time

There are lot's more but.. that should keep you busy for a while.

As for your "force exclusive" issue, that is odd. Out of curiosity, did you install this over an existing VP install? note that the scripts should only be in the scripts folder and not in the tables folder. If you installed it over an existing VP install, you may have different versions of .VBS files which may mess with it. If that is not the case, a google search seems to indicate the following:
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=37637

Exclusive full screen lessens the lag so if at all possible, you should try to get that working. I'm a little pressed for time today but let me know if the link above doesn't work and I'll try and we'll sort it out together.

Enjoy and let me know what you think of the above tables

 

[Jeff Strong]

Loafer, you are the man! Much appreciated. You're right: this should keep me occupied for a bit. Gonna download some of these now.

It was a fresh install. I had VP8/9/physmod on another PC, but nothing on this one yet.

Interesting thread about the exclusive fullscreen. Doesn't seem to be a clear solution though, which seems to be the case with just about every vpforums thread I've read in the past 24 hours unfortunately. Please do let me know if you have any other ideas.

The isntaller put all the scripts in the tables folder as well for some reason, so I'll move those out.

 

[The loafer]

Piece of advice: If you have windows 10 (maybe also Win7/8), ensure you unblock anything you download before trying to install it. IE: right click on file, select properties, then unblock the file. Then it's safe to extract it. Also, DON'T install VP into the program files folder it defaults in, you end up fighting too much for windows rights, so just install that in something like:

Visual Pinball can go here: C:\Pinball\Visual Pinball\
VPinmame can go here: C:\Pinball\Visual Pinball\vpinmame\

I don't know if this is the issue but the link I had supplied mentioned in passing about turning off direct draw, here's another thread about this:
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=26893

To test this, IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH adjusting registry, try setting direct draw off for a table you have already tested, so in the example you quoted, you had tried "Attack from Mars" using the rom version 1.13b (rom name: afm_113b). Therefore for this table, go to the following registry key and adjust it: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\Visual PinMame\afm_113b

Once you double click on that rom folder, look for the ddraw option and double click on it and ensure the value is "0" (I am guessing it is a "1"). Once you've set it to zero, exit registry, then load up VPX and set the "Force exclusive fullscreen mode" back to "on", load up this same table and try again. If it works, THAT is your problem.

So let's assume it worked. Does this mean you have to change it manually for every rom?? Nope, there is a tool that can facilitate this and you can download it here:
http://thebigboss.org/arcade/setdmd.html

This is a useful tool as it lets you set the DMD size for ALL VPM tables automatically, amongst other things. At the same time, this tool can also set the DDRAW off for ALL the tables at the click of an option/button. So download the tool, ensure you unblock the zip once you download the zip, then extract. Once unblocked, run the tool (setdmd.exe), load mame defaults (bottom left), click on the DDraw box, then ensure you click it again so it's NOT selected, then click "install roms and update" (bottom right). That should create a registry for every single rom and will ensure that tick is NOT in the ddraw box, which should ensure the registry has it set to "zero" (off). Exclusive fullscreen should now work.

Incidentally I just ran the all-in-one install for vp10.5 and all the scripts are in the scripts folder and none in the tables folder. You sure you haven't been installing it over an existing VP install? Shouldn't matter anyway, just ensure there are none left in there now and the ones in the script folder are the latest ones.

 

[AcadDude]

Are these free to play? No software license needed?

 

[The loafer]

open source but... as with mame, licensing is somewhat black/white or very grey depending on how you view things. If you feel shame in running pacman in mame then stay away, stay very FAR away from Vpinmame tables (Visual Pinball on its own is ok, lot's of originals to play with but even then, some VP tables may be using unlicensed art assets/sounds, etc.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Thanks for the follow up loafer.

I’m 100% sure it’s a fresh install, and it’s in a visualpinball folder on the root of my c drive similar to what you described.

One thing to note though is that there are several versions of the all-in-one installer at vpforums. I went with the last zip on the download page assuming it’s the latest, which was also the largest one (I’m not in front of my PC atm so don’t remember the exact file name)...so the older versions might give different results for the scripts, I dunno.

I did see the direct draw thing mentioned when I read the thread earlier, but also sounded like some potential downside to it? So I wasn’t sure if it was truly the best solution. but I’ll give the reg edits a whack shortly when I’m back in front of my PC. Thank you for taking the time to type up the detailed instructions. I’ll let ya know how it goes.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Perhaps this begs the question: should I be downloading the installer from somewhere other than vpforums? There seems to be quite a few more vp sites nowadays than I recall back in the day, so I’m a bit out of the loop.

 

[The loafer]

The one from VPF is ok. There are updated vpinmame installs elsewhere that are offering a couple of newer roms but it's not really a big deal right now (let's walk before we run ). As an alternative, this one works too https://vpinball.com/VPBdownloads/vpx-installer-10-5-0/

The all-in-one you should use is: VPX5setup.zip which I gather you did use. It's all good, I'm sure the install is fine.

Are you just running desktop mode or two screens?

 

[Jeff Strong]

Desktop mode. So I didn't install B2S.

Yes, it's VPX5setup.zip

Just ran the exe again as a test in a new folder. It doesn't put any scripts in the tables folder; just the B2S files (sorry, was going off the top of my head earlier and I hadn't looked too closely at what files were actually in there).

Ok I tried the ddraw reg edit and while it did let me start tables without the error, the colors were all funky and everything was pixelated. So I set it back to 1 and turned forced fullscreen off.

But now I've hit another issue. For some reason I'm getting these script errors on every table. I have no idea if it's related. Maybe I'll just delete everything and start again from scratch...

 

[Jeff Strong]

OK, deleting and reinstalling fixed the script errors. Still can't force exclusive fullscreen, but honestly don't really notice any lag. I'm guessing if I used B2S then it would definitely be an issue, but maybe it doesn't matter for a single desktop setup? I know I run a lot of my other games in windowed fullscreen as it seems to be the default for a lot of stuff these days.

EDIT:

A few other threads I've found on this btw...no real solutions tho except just uncheck force exclusive:

https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=39779
https://vpinball.com/forums/topic/vp10-1-0-will-not-load-vpx-tables/
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=35317

 

[The loafer]

If you aren't using a second monitor then yah, keep b2s disabled. If you have a second monitor and want to experiment, there is a menu option within vp (under keys configuration I think) that allows you to disable b2s in there if you want to switch back and forth without the need to reinstall the entire thing).

Did you try any of the tables I recommended? Curious what you think of those. On the exclusive fullscreen, whenever you switch back and forth, don't know if you notice but you have to reset the resolution (same menu page). removing DDRAW should not in any way make the graphics uglier.

If you don't notice any lag then no worries keep as is. But if you want to give it another try, set the table to exclusive fullscreen and reselect the resolution and give it another try. If not, no biggy. In fact it's very possible in desktop view with only one monitor you won't notice any lag at all, the addition of "exclusive fullscreen" really was possibly to assist multiscreen pincab users (just a guess, speaking out of my butt here LOL)

As you are re-discovering, VP is not for the faint of heart and it's not a polished commercial product. Then again there aren't 25-50 guys paid to work on it too. STill, the physics overall have ball spin implemented better than any commercial pinsim and there is lots to like and above all, so many contributors it makes the experience very organic and overall positive.

Other titles for you to try: Star Wars (data east, especially awesome with both the hacked 1.07 rom AND the replacement OST from the movies), Metallica Premium, Jurassic Park (from Dark), Twilight Zone (Skitso detail mod)

 

[Jeff Strong]

D'oh! So apparently I reset the resolution every time I fiddled with ticking "force exclusive fullscreen" on and off...EXCEPT for the one time I made the ddraw reg edit, which is why the colors were all screwed up. It was late and I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I read your post, so once again you are a lifesaver, my man. Exclusive fullscreen works perfectly now with ddraw at 0, and my fps does seem higher as well.

Only issue is now the DMD is nowhere to be seen. I'm guessing this can be remedied by the tool you mentioned earlier?

I haven't had a chance to check out any other tables yet, but I will today.

Thanks again!

 

[Jeff Strong]

Hmmm, seems the DMD is loading behind instead of on top of the VP player. Alt tabbing doesn't help. Let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix it.

EDIT:

Rebooting my PC fixed it, as long as I don't alt + tab while playing, which will knock the DMD behind again with no apparent way to bring it back aside from restarting the app. It's very finicky.

I also used SetDMD1.0.5 to globally set ddraw off as you described, plus I went ahead and set the DMD size and position the way I like it.

 

[The loafer]

The exclusive fullscreen isn't buggy, that behaviour is "as intended". That's what makes the "exclusive" in "exclusive fullscreen. The frame rate should not be affected much I think, assuming you have a decent PC (which I suspect you do). Exclusive fullscreen has one major annoyance, in that you can't press F1 for vpinmame menu options and you can't press F6 for adjusting rom settings (dipswitches). I mean you can, but you won't be able to reach that menu. But for actual playing, IMHO exclusive fullscreen is well worth it, especially if playing on two monitors (db2s backglass) as it just seems to free up enough ressources that there is a noticeable difference in flipper response. Not a frame rate thing, BTW for best performance in the video settings menu, insure you select "1" for both FPS limiter/vsync and also "maximum rendered frames".

 

[Jeff Strong]

Interesting that the DMD shows up by default if it’s not intended. It seems to only disappear if I alt tab.

For PC gaming in general, fullscreen has traditionally provided better FPS than windowed, so no surpris that it would here as well. I didn’t really look at the actual FPS numbers, but just noticed it felt a bit smoother in fullscreen. I’ve also seen several people mention on vpforums that they get stutter unless they run fullscreen.

Running a GTX 960 on this PC, so it’s actually not that great by today’s standards (also only 2 GB of vram).