Farsight in the Process of Ordering Virtual Pinball Cabinet!!!!

[p6800]

Too bad for the washed out colors on that lcd.... A nice plasma would make the game look 17923 times better!

 

[Ark Malmeida]

Not sure what all would be involved. Not ruling out the possibility of adding support of those.

Thanks Mike - that answer is good to hear! As far as using a 3rd screen for the DMD instead of a real DMD, obviously I don't know what the code looks like, but I would think it would be just a matter of allowing output to another screen that is dedicated to the DMD which can be positioned and re-sized on that screen.

Definitely looking forward to seeing more once you guys get the cabinet back to the office (and they give you some free time)!

 

[SilverBalls]

Too bad for the washed out colors on that lcd.... A nice plasma would make the game look 17923 times better!

They are not washed out in the flesh. That's the way the camcorder films it. In three years of reading forums in the virtual cabinet scene no-one has every said a plasma is better! Plus it would probably catch fire in a cab. LCD / LEDS are the best choice.

 

[p6800]

Well, that's a shame... With any lcd you get the off center contrast fade, plus the blacks aren't that great to begin with. People catch myths too easy! Modern palsmas are as thin as the thinnest led, most certainly don't catch fire and the picture quality is superior in any way.

'Nuff Said!

http://postimg.org/image/6udplthmd/

 

[jwil026]

They are not washed out in the flesh. That's the way the camcorder films it. In three years of reading forums in the virtual cabinet scene no-one has every said a plasma is better! Plus it would probably catch fire in a cab. LCD / LEDS are the best choice.

For some reason, this was washed out in real life, was there this morning and mentioned it also. When standing directly in front of the machine, it was not washed out. Not sure why, my friend has a virtual pin cab and it is not like that, and neither was the VP cab that virtua pin had on display either. Not sure if the monitor was bad or if just the settings need to be "tweaked" on Farsight cabinet.

 

[LanceBoyle]

Now that I realized it...

We do know it has an actual DMD, but... how will alphanumerics be handled? I'm guessing that for those that had the displays on the backglass art it'll be on the backglass monitor, but for those where it's where a DMD generally is? Will it just simulate alphanumerics?

 

[Deltaechoe]

For some reason, this was washed out in real life, was there this morning and mentioned it also. When standing directly in front of the machine, it was not washed out. Not sure why, my friend has a virtual pin cab and it is not like that, and neither was the VP cab that virtua pin had on display either. Not sure if the monitor was bad or if just the settings need to be "tweaked" on Farsight cabinet.

That has to do with the quality and type of display that is being used, most lcd panels have an optimal viewing angle and if you deviate from that colors, gamma, ect becomes very inaccurate. Your friend's virtual pin cab is most likely using a display with a larger viewing angle than the one in farsight's cab

 

[Crawley]

Got to play this a few times. Its pretty impressive for just being cobbled together for a first go. The only table running on it right now was ST:NG. It was pretty easy to pick up in this format with the physics I was accustomed to. The DMD was flawless as far as I could tell and the backglass looked nice. It'll be interesting to try this when nudging gets added.

The VirtuaPin vendor was right nearby running the Visual Pinball tables and they looked just as good and played fine too. I do wish the resolution was a bit higher on the tables but I know I would have loads of fun with the tables regardless.

I didn't get the sense pinball hobbiest saw PA as anything more than a curiosity. While I was there a few people who were not familiar with the product asked questions but didn't seem all that excited about it which is unfortunate.

 

[Roo]

We do know it has an actual DMD, but... how will alphanumerics be handled? I'm guessing that for those that had the displays on the backglass art it'll be on the backglass monitor, but for those where it's where a DMD generally is? Will it just simulate alphanumerics?

When using it with vPinMAME in Visual Pinball, it can display most alphanumeric displays quite nicely. I believe the PinDMD board that drives the DMD does some sort of conversion. Hopefully that will apply to Farsight's ROM emulation in the same way.

I didn't get the sense pinball hobbiest saw PA as anything more than a curiosity. While I was there a few people who were not familiar with the product asked questions but didn't seem all that excited about it which is unfortunate.

I've gotten that sense a little bit in the past, but there are certainly those who are interested. One guy who was there when I was didn't sound like he was familiar with it much beforehand but said he'd definitely buy a cabinet once the full TPA cabinet package was out. I think there are more and more people who are getting into real pinball because of pinball video games. I was one of them a few years ago. I think even if you own real pins there's an advantage to having 40+ other tables (including some rare ones) available digitally as well.

Also any thoughts (even if it might be way down the road) about having configurable support for force feedback and toys (contacts, LEDs, knocker, shaker motor, etc.)?

I have to say, today was the first time I played a lot of games with a shaker motor in them and it made a bigger difference than I thought. Got to play Metallica, AC/DC, Star Trek, Roadshow, Attack From Mars, Harley Davidson and Jurassic Park Lost World with one. I would definitely want to add one to my cab if TPA supported it.


Other things... they didn't have the nudging or plunger (not that STTNG uses it) working when I was there. They said it was working earlier but stopped at some point. Obviously they haven't really had a chance to work on it yet. They also mentioned that they'd like to do some backglass stuff, at least for the tables that need it like Scared Stiff and Taxi. (Fingers crossed for Banzai Run someday... )

I also got to play a demo of the PS4 version. The lighting on it was cool; as you guys know that will come to the PC version eventually. The PS4 controller is much-improved over the PS3 controller in my opinion, by the way.

I will say it was great talking to some of the Farsight employees today. You could tell they were really passionate about pinball and about what they were doing. I can't wait for the cabinet version of TPA!

 

[Edan-Grossman]

I like plasma displays for their color accuracy, realistic flesh tones, and 600hz refresh rate. With that said, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, build a virtual pin cab with a plasma TV in the playfield. Plasma TVs must be mounted vertically or the display will be ruined. Use LED/LCD displays for the playfield as they can be used in that position.

When it comes to color accuracy in general, the display that fs had in the cab, may have needed to be calibrated or have the color mode set to a warmer setting. In the past, I used the Disney WOW Blu-ray TV calibration disc and I found it significantly improved the image quality, even on a new TV out of the box. My point is that, before you complain about inaccurate colors, make sure your display is properly calibrated before blaming the content source.

 

[lettuce]

Im not 100% sold on the view point FS are using for the cab view, its the same view the VP tables used to use for cab view where basically its as if your looking directly down on the table from 90° so dead on, where the newer view is more at a 100-120° view and shows the actual side walls and back of the inside of the cab.

Kind of like the full table view the new Papa Pinball videos use

I think it makes it more authentic, jpsalas (one of VP best table builders) use this same viewpoint.....

What do you guys think?

 

[Jeff Strong]

Yeah, I agree. It needs to be angled back a bit. It's still a WIP at this point, so now would be a good time for them to take that advice before they go through all the tables.

 

[Fungi]

Well, it's the difference between looking at a spinning square vs. a spinning trunk right?

 

[pghjerry]

I totally agree!!
I always thought that might be an issue, it's not like you're playing directly above the table. You should still be viewing the table at an angle.

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

The angle is tough to do without the cabinet to mess with. Was mostly guessing on what would work based on what looked ok on my PC monitor.

Another issue is if you angle the camera, then you end up with the back of the table being really small and not filling up the screen. Which then requires some distortion/skewing to fix.

 

[Pinhead45]

I saw the cabinet at Expo and played it. Sounded like they just received the cabinet there. The programmer said they only had it a few days. STTNG was the only table on it, it had a few beginner bugs like crashing issues coming out of cabinet mode. (i've seen the same problems with a few front ends with VP) the programmer said they still had to stretch the display so it would fill up the screen better. Seems like they did a good job for the time they had it. It was lagging slightly, but that will probably get better as they program it.

 

[pghjerry]

Another issue is if you angle the camera, then you end up with the back of the table being really small and not filling up the screen. Which then requires some distortion/skewing to fix.

True, I hadn't thought of that.

 

[Fungi]

Would there be some kind of formula that creates a distortion that compensates for the perspective? Kinda like how painted traffic words on streets are stretched out to look normal from your car.

 

[Roo]

Would there be some kind of formula that creates a distortion that compensates for the perspective? Kinda like how painted traffic words on streets are stretched out to look normal from your car.

The Pro Pinball guys have actually been working on something like that for their dedicated cabinet camera angle(s). I said it was kind of like that 3D sidewalk art that only looks correct when you stand in the right place.

I don't know how hard it is to pull something like that off, though. There are some long threads if you're interested:

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=25491
http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=25521

 

[Rincewind]

Hey Mike, for the upcoming release of TPA, will it be possible to play the landscape mode in portrait view? Something like this here, like "flipping" the landscape view to fit a vertically oriented LCD monitor? I've got a pinball cabinet and this would make the wait for a full fledged portrait version a bit easier.