Visual Pinball

[Groni]

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.

At the moment I am working on a original table with a real DMD Rom. Maybe you saw the WIP on VPF. After that I will continue LOTR. Had a very tired time of creating Pinballs.

But now that SCEE needs neverending time to release the DLC´s in Europe, I use it to create my very first original game.

 

[HOW]

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.

IIRC it varies between manufacturers as to how you adjust in ROM settings.
As Richard said there is/was a v.good thread on VPF.

 

[superballs]

At the moment I am working on a original table with a real DMD Rom. Maybe you saw the WIP on VPF. After that I will continue LOTR. Had a very tired time of creating Pinballs.

But now that SCEE needs neverending time to release the DLC´s in Europe, I use it to create my very first original game.

An original from you sounds exciting...i don't even think I could run that LoTR on my poor laptop, but you really show the world what VP is capable of.

Also. Here is a video showing why VP is so wonderful. I call it the poorman's cabinet. It's a 22" monitor with the bezel removed, laying over the keyboard of my laptop, who's screen is being used for the backglass. I used a rubber "rollup" keyboard for the control.

Also. For PC keyboard pinball, I urge you to try this configuration.

Flippers: F and J key
Second Flippers/Magnasave: R and U keys
Nudging: G (nudge right), H (nudge left), Space (nudge up)
Start: S
Launch ball: Enter (For Getaway magnasaves work as shift up/down)

Set the video to 1080p, it was recorded on my iphone in portrait (i had to play one handed and yes i sucked). If i can find the top-down view (though rotated).
The sound is super low...sorry and it was handheld.

The first game is JPSalas's Eight Ball Deluxe
Second game is Rawd's Triple Strike

I think I might just get my setup going again, create a setup tutorial and try and cover my favorite tables. Especially some of the originals that I absolutely love.

 

[Zeether]

I have played VP stuff a lot, but sometimes the graphics aren't entirely up to par (this could be dependent on the graphics card though...). Future Pinball also has a few original tables based off of stuff like Metal Slug and Akira, but the scoring is usually simplified and more reminiscent of older SS machines.

 

[superballs]

I have played VP stuff a lot, but sometimes the graphics aren't entirely up to par (this could be dependent on the graphics card though...). Future Pinball also has a few original tables based off of stuff like Metal Slug and Akira, but the scoring is usually simplified and more reminiscent of older SS machines.

Usually it's a case of how sharp the images are that the author has access to. Some of the members there are amazing at redrawing playfields so if they take the time, they can sharpen up low res images but it takes a while. The two tables in my video above are amazingly sharp. I find VP not to be as sharp in 4:3 or Widescreen. I'm not sure why exactly, but full screen and rotated a lot of the tables will look far better.

 

[Nik Barbour]

I tried to get into VP a couple of years ago, but couldn't get it to work properly on my old Vista Laptop so gave up and played Pro-Pinball instead.

Re-tried it again, about a week ago, because I wanted to practice TZ before getting my hands on the Real machine this weekend gone, realised I had to knock UAC off, and it worked at last.

I was expecting something pretty crude but figured, it would give me a flavour of the table, instead of going in cold on the real thing.
I was blown away by how it plays though, Wow! Once I set the view to Window as opposed to full screen, it just feels and plays so realistically.

I downloaded a few more tables, and eventually got a Silver subscription.

After the expo on Saturday, I came home (the missus went out on the pish with her mates, I was left babysitting) so sat down, and downloaded all my favorite tables I'd played at the expo, and was blown away how close the play felt to the real counterparts. I was even getting very similar scores between the two.

I'm really impressed with this and have found myself playing with this more and more, barely touched TPA this past week.
I don't know why this is so good, but my guess would be its created by Pinball Fanatics using their own time for non-profit, as opposed to paid programmers who may not even be pinball fans. Passion shows in everything!

Can't wait to try more tables out now (thanks for your list Richard B), and maybe even have a go at creating something myself (I'm a CAD draffy by trade, with some programming experience, so should be in a good position to try). My 3 year old who loves playing pinball, would be made up if I created a 'Thomas the Tank Engine' themed table - bash the cr@p out of Diesel 10, cranky the crane playfield toy......

 

[Jeff Strong]

Anyone have a list of "must have" tables? I need to expand my humble collection a bit.

 

[Nik Barbour]

Anyone have a list of "must have" tables? I need to expand my humble collection a bit.

I'm working my way through Richard B's posted list still (#19 on this thread).
Twilight Zone, STTNG & Simpsons Pinball Party are all awesome!

Nice to play Black Knight as it was intended too!
Black Knight 2000 rocks!

It's going to take a while, but I might download them all!

 

[Bonzo]

Anyone have a list of "must have" tables? I need to expand my humble collection a bit.

All of those found here. Should keep you busy a while. hiryu's BK2k is loads of fun, too

 

[Carl Spiby]

Is there a good Monster Bash recreation? The one on vpforums plays really badly.

 

[karl]

Jeff. I second that link from Bonzo and also most of this list http://www.gethome.no/jpsalas/. Also go to http://www.vpforums.org/ and check out the most popular tables first. Megapin, JP Salas has the best ones, but also check out some of the Melon, Lord Hiryu, and Uncle Reamus tables. There are other good tables also but I would start there and see if you get the bug first. Good luck! And if you'd like to be real adventurous and can get past the bad flipper physics of Future pinball (download ver 2.3 or 2.4) go to http://www.pinsimdb.org/ and start with tables by Slamt1lt, Rom, francisco666 , GLXB and BlindMankind and check out http://www.gopinball.com/forum/ to see what developers are up to.

 

[karl]

Carl. There is a beta ver for Future pinball also: http://www.pinsimdb.org/pinball/table-760-monster_bash. But I have yet to try it

 

[Jeff Strong]

Thanks guys. Much appreciated!

 

[shutyertrap]

PacDude used to be the man. He got fed up with the VP community a few years back, but I always found his tables to be my favorites. He would also put in a modded set of rules sometimes, and the one he did for Centaur is outstanding. I mean really really really awesome-sauce good. Anyways, here's the link...

http://www.pacdude.pinballnirvana.com/

 

[Jeff Strong]

Yeah, I haven't updated my collection in quite awhile, so I have some of his tables and they are indeed great. I don't have his Centaur though, so I'll definitely check it out.

 

[shutyertrap]

I don't have his Centaur though, so I'll definitely check it out.

He made it so that when you get multiball, the balls become 'power orbs' which are these glowing clear pinballs of various colors. While lit, they score one set of points, dull, another. To relight them, you have to shoot them into their corresponding colored 'dock'. Oh, and you can use your own mp3 file for music to kick on when multiball starts. I highly recommend using "The Burly Brawl" from the 2nd Matrix film, as I found it fits to a tee.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I'm fiddling around with trying to get VP to work on my dual monitor setup. Is it possible to put the Backglass and/or DMD on my 2nd monitor without running a FS table? This isn't a cabinet setup (yet).

EDIT: OK, I figured out that I can just drag the DMD to my other monitor (nice!). Does anyone know how to resize it to make it fill up the screen horizontally though? I right clicked on it and went to settings, then selected "double size", which helps a little, but it's still not as big as I'd like it to be.

EDIT 2: Figured it out

 

[neilpinbot]

PacDude used to be the man. He got fed up with the VP community a few years back, but I always found his tables to be my favorites. He would also put in a modded set of rules sometimes, and the one he did for Centaur is outstanding. I mean really really really awesome-sauce good. Anyways, here's the link...

http://www.pacdude.pinballnirvana.com/

I used to use VP and post on VPforums many years ago and remember Pacdude often got hounded by one guy in particular it was a shame that he stopped making his great tables.

 

[Carl Spiby]

Has anyone managed to get anti aliasing to work on an ATI graphics card?

 

[Nik Barbour]

Has anyone managed to get anti aliasing to work on an ATI graphics card?

I've got Nvidea 6series - did get a tip off VPForums.org which was use 16bit colour, full screen, not windowed.
Fixed some graphics issues I was having.