Visual Pinball

Does anyone play this? I've found myself playing it more and more lately than TPA because the tables seem more real somehow, the scores I manage on there are much more comparable to real life tables (TWZ for one).

Also the generic sounds are much nicer, the only thing I miss is the eye candy.

I played one the other day and the ball is too dark and when it moves fast is really hard to see almost having to guess where its at.

I play both visual pinball and Future Pinball. The 10-15 best tables on Visual P is really good, but I think Pinball Arcade is ten times better.(just wait until the pc version is available) Future Pinball is also getting better with Physics 2.4 (but it is still a bad physics engine) Future Pinball is the only way to play all the latest Stern tables though and the graphics is getting really nice.(just check out the new Transformers table coming soon) If anyone is thinking of checking them out I recommend you try J. P. Salas tables first on VP and Slamt1lt tables with Future Pinball. There are other great creators also but I seem to play tables by those two the most. They are a nice diversion while waiting for new tables on PA (and Pro pinball)

karl said:

I play both visual pinball and Future Pinball. The 10-15 best tables on Visual P is really good, but I think Pinball Arcade is ten times better.(just wait until the pc version is available) Future Pinball is also getting better with Physics 2.4 (but it is still a bad physics engine) Future Pinball is the only way to play all the latest Stern tables though and the graphics is getting really nice.(just check out the new Transformers table coming soon) If anyone is thinking of checking them out I recommend you try J. P. Salas tables first on VP and Slamt1lt tables with Future Pinball. There are other great creators also but I seem to play tables by those two the most. They are a nice diversion while waiting for new tables on PA (and Pro pinball)

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There won't be much more development on FP as it's basically been abandoned by it's creator and the code is not likely to be released as OS ever.

VP is a great engine. Problem is that there are some severe performance bottlenecks. Most likely because to get the fullest experience, you need to have several programs interfacing with one another and it just isn't very well optimized.

JPSalas makes incredibly detailed tables. His Eight Ball Deluxe is among my favorite pinball experiences ever. Also check out anything by Megapin (Groni). While not always as visually polished as JP's versions side by side, they offer a much more gruelling experience.

As always, two must see tables are Beat This and The Beatles, both original tables with great rulesets and a nice mix of old EM feel with newer SS features.

superballs said:

Also check out anything by Megapin (Groni). While not always as visually polished as JP's versions side by side, they offer a much more gruelling experience.

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Just play both JPSalas' and Groni's versions of AFM, and it'll be crystal clear what superballs is talking about

Bonzo said:

Just play both JPSalas' and Groni's versions of AFM, and it'll be crystal clear what superballs is talking about

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Seeing is believing.

Both are highly enjoyable, but I score much higher on JP's tables. As a testament to both though, I've scored higher on MM on TPA than I have on either Groni or JP's version.

Well it basically boils down to, TPA is good, but it's not a real table, Visual Pinball has the whole "you can put it in a cabinet" thing going on and it can be any size.

1) I can't fit a full size table in my house
2) Even if I could, that's only one table to play on
3) Cabinet can be ANY size

I honestly am not holding out hope for Farsight creating a cabinet compatible version, for the userbase that actually own a cabinet, it's such a niche product, it's just not worth their time. They've never hinted at such possibility and they're having a hard enough time getting the PC version out the door.

Carl Spiby said:

Well it basically boils down to, TPA is good, but it's not a real table, Visual Pinball has the whole "you can put it in a cabinet" thing going on and it can be any size.

1) I can't fit a full size table in my house
2) Even if I could, that's only one table to play on
3) Cabinet can be ANY size

I honestly am not holding out hope for Farsight creating a cabinet compatible version, for the userbase that actually own a cabinet, it's such a niche product, it's just not worth their time. They've never hinted at such possibility and they're having a hard enough time getting the PC version out the door.

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They've explicitly said a few times that they are looking into making the PC version with cabinet support. All the mobile versions support portrait orientation and that's really all they NEED to do besides allowing fully customizeable keymapping. Allowing an option to rotate the screen, even if the DMD has to take up a bit of real estate at the top would be a good start. If they add multiple monitor support then even better.

Hi All,

I used to play VP alot-It got me back into PB in fact!

I used VP8 and would recommend this to try on an old PC-PacDude's tables were some faves.
Recently tried VP9 - JPG (JPSalas and Groni's(?)) LOTR specifically...
But I had balls becoming stuck in the left 'E' (K 'E' - E P) inlane and 'vibrating' with weird 'stuck audio' meaning game unplayable...

Anyone PLLLLLLEASE have any ideas?

Andy

I just signed up at vpforums.com. I haven't played VP in almost ten years and figured I give VP9 a shot since I've heard decent things about the physics engine. Now I think Future Pinball is OK with better visuals than VP but the physics really get me. FP is, to me, more punishing than real pinball. VP9 is a nice middle ground. Also, they're several tables on VP that may never (or could) come to The Pinball Arcade and I wanted to play them again. Tables like Data East Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Fathom, Cactus Canyon among several others.

I paid the ten bucks for the silver membership which gives you unlimited downloads and checked out a great tutorial on youtube because I didn't remember how to set up VP. Everything works pretty good so far and my mac mini's had no trouble running it through XP in Boot Camp. It certainly doesn't replace TPA but it's not bad. Now I just gotta remember to cancel the subscription in a year to avoid the a recurring charge. Anyone know where to find that on vpforum.com?

HOW said:

Hi All,

I used to play VP alot-It got me back into PB in fact!

I used VP8 and would recommend this to try on an old PC-PacDude's tables were some faves.
Recently tried VP9 - JPG (JPSalas and Groni's(?)) LOTR specifically...
But I had balls becoming stuck in the left 'E' (K 'E' - E P) inlane and 'vibrating' with weird 'stuck audio' meaning game unplayable...

Anyone PLLLLLLEASE have any ideas?

Andy

Click to expand...

Don't know what to tell you. I'm not getting any balls stuck in LOTR. Maybe redownload the table?

The ball stuck thing is usually caused by playing a VP8 table in VP9. I think some of the physics stuff changed between versions.

Also if playing on win7, remember to always start the application as administrator

Bonzo said:

Just play both JPSalas' and Groni's versions of AFM, and it'll be crystal clear what superballs is talking about

Click to expand...

Well, I always have connections to the real table. Also I´m a medi pro pinball player. Thats why my tables are closer to the real thing as JP´s. JP didn´t play pinball in real life, he only reproduce them.
Thats why my table are always very close to the real thing.

HOW said:

Hi All,

I used to play VP alot-It got me back into PB in fact!

I used VP8 and would recommend this to try on an old PC-PacDude's tables were some faves.
Recently tried VP9 - JPG (JPSalas and Groni's(?)) LOTR specifically...
But I had balls becoming stuck in the left 'E' (K 'E' - E P) inlane and 'vibrating' with weird 'stuck audio' meaning game unplayable...

Anyone PLLLLLLEASE have any ideas?

Andy

Click to expand...

You need to download the VP9 Version of it. Try my Version, which is the closest you can get compared with a real machine.

Table: http://megapin.org/Downloads/STERN - The Lord of the Rings - V1.4 - Megapin.rar
Rom: http://megapin.org/Roms/lotr-roms.rar

Groni said:

You need to download the VP9 Version of it. Try my Version, which is the closest you can get compared with a real machine.

Table: http://megapin.org/Downloads/STERN - The Lord of the Rings - V1.4 - Megapin.rar
Rom: http://megapin.org/Roms/lotr-roms.rar

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Always good to see you Groni,

And he means what he says everyone, Groni's tables are the cat's meow if you are looking for realism.

Groni, just wondering, I remember you were working on a new extremely Hi Rez version of LoTR. Are you still working on that? Was looking absolutely dreamy.

Yo GRONI! Whats up with that controller you made, update us please.
VP is great for limited space and if you live in an area that has NO pinball at all, even if you have TPA. Its fun to play TPA tables and notice the differences like MM.
It will be interesting to see them on the new UHDTV SONY is releasing later this year wich is better than retina display, but Im guessing they'll be so expenive you wouldn't dare touch it and the sizes 80" might be too big

Reading this thread has made me want to get back into VP, so maybe someone can help me with a couple of problems I ran into that made me stop playing it ?? First of all, the sounds of the game, like flippers etc are perfectly loud, But the ROM sounds are whisper quiet ! No matter what configuration I set coming out of my sound card, the sounds are barely audible. And yes, I set the sliders in the audio config both on max. Secondly, if I play the game as windowed, the tables seem in the correct proportion. But if I play full screen, it stretches the table. Is there a switch somewhere that stops this ? Couldn't see anything under the video options, only settings for stretching the ball.

Any help, much appreciated.

laughing_lunatic said:

Reading this thread has made me want to get back into VP, so maybe someone can help me with a couple of problems I ran into that made me stop playing it ?? First of all, the sounds of the game, like flippers etc are perfectly loud, But the ROM sounds are whisper quiet ! No matter what configuration I set coming out of my sound card, the sounds are barely audible. And yes, I set the sliders in the audio config both on max. Secondly, if I play the game as windowed, the tables seem in the correct proportion. But if I play full screen, it stretches the table. Is there a switch somewhere that stops this ? Couldn't see anything under the video options, only settings for stretching the ball.

Any help, much appreciated.

Click to expand...

First, to adjust the ROM sound in most DMD games, you need to go into the adjustments screen (press F7). There you can adjust the volume, along with any other changes you want, such as difficulty. There are other tables that are more tricky, luckily there's a special topic in the help section at VP Forums which gives a detailed guide to adjusting sounds to some of these tables.
Desktop versions are designed for 4:3 monitors. If you have a 16:9, you'd be better off getting the cabinet versions (which are better anyway). If you can't rotate the screen 90 degrees, angle the monitor as high as you can, then turn it so the right side is facing you. This works surprisingly well.
Of course, the best place is the help section of VP. There are a lot of topics already there, and they respond to any questions rather quickly. They are very helpful and friendly there.

Now, my favorite tables, both in design and accuracy, are:
Attack From Mars (salas) - Great table, looks nice, good physics.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (salas) - Not my favorite table, but the best table that uses the new Momentum Mod, which is the best VP physics build, though unfortunately few tables use it.
Doctor Who (Krellan) - A nice looking table with nice physics. Plays very close to the real Who machine near me.
Indiana Jones (Hiryu) - Love this table, even though this version seems awful fast and difficult.
LOTR (Salas) - The table I play the most right now. The tower skill shot is ridiculously hard to hit (never done it yet, while a real table it's not that hard), but it's still a great version of one of my favorite tables of all time.
Scared Stiff (Salas) - Another great conversion that plays close to the real thing.
STTNG (Salas) - Great game, great conversion.
T2 Chrome Edition - Probably the best looking table in terms of graphics. Plays nice too (though is somewhat harder than the real thing, and the T-800 head, required to lock balls, is more of an SDTM hazard than it is in real life.
Tommy (Hiryu) - Another solid conversion of an underrated table.

Then there's Groni's tables, (TZ and TSPP are my favorites). Excellent versions of great tables, which I've been playing for years, though I do find some of his tables, particularly TSPP, to be much more difficult than the real machines.

Richard that's not the right procedure for changing ROM volume, you simply press the END key to open to coin door then use 8 and 9 to adjust the volume.