Ian Pretorius

[Ian Pretorius]

is this only cabinet mode? or does it have a desktop version?

 

thanks

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[Ian Pretorius]

i updated the fist post with a gameplay video now ;)

I also rebuilt and published all 4 my games using the newest version of Unity and i changed the installer to sniff for if you have vpinmame already installed and will not overwrite any of its contents if it find it ,will only dump rom in the roms folder. I also added a menu option to push the backboard to a second display if you have one. I improved the nudge and also added an menu option to invert the ball direction on nudge should you want to use that.

pinball fishtales
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fUFF4hTIBqbYJkHdCY9SDpOi8QMtcN-z

pinball jurassicpark
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lQviDbw-Ef-uKNTdnlaTTYztSY_pG94z

tommy pinball
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LX16kgzZOi8T0KjxVlI-CTX5k277WF3J

pinball elvis
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ouzV2sqQPBtACVLWjdZjcvBlhyuGZyn_

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senseless, bord

[Ian Pretorius]

yeah im doing this now but it is a bit more complicated , i actually look for the existence of the roms folder, if it exists i do skip but i also install the rom into that directory if it is found :)  i will consider a checkbox , currently it is all automated so no need to even prompt a user. it is not uploaded still on my machine, the uploaded installers still dont have this yet.

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[Ian Pretorius]

the installer has the entire vpinmame directory and files in it, the default one that gets installed when you install visual pinball , i have updated the  vpinmame dll to version 3 i think. Anyway if you do even install into the same directory it will only overwrite any files if it is itself newer anyways.

 

The new installer will currently even skip this step if it finds vpinmame already exists( not published yet ) still in development..

Sorry for your problems , im not doing anything except dumping the vpinmame folder where ever you point it. The dll is registered though so you will need to run the setup.exe inside the original folder of vpinmame again. Also dont only change the paths , click install as well so it re registers your local version of vpinmame. Hope that helps :)

EDIT: also while you have the setup running also check the “default” settings ,I know i hide the vpinmame dmd ii my games, so perhaps this is also a cause of your issues and can be check as well.

 

 

 

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[Ian Pretorius]

Thanks Guys, I bit the bullet and worked on the installer all day now so that it will detect if you have vpinmame already installed and skip installing those files ( except the rom which I will add to the existing vpinmame roms directory) if it doesnt exist. I have not applied this to the current uploaded installers just yet, there is one more issue i would like to have some light shed upon and that is the version of the current vpimame should one already be installed. as of now i cant see this stored in the registry anywhere. Anyway im glad i at least did all the hard work mostly today , from this no more messing up the paths ;)

 

i will keep you guy posted as to when the installer have been updated to use this better logic. Man i despise working in NSIS code ( the installer software) .. it’s like a mixed bag of assembly , phython ,php etc.. im so grateful to work with higher level languages coming from this each time ;)

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xenonph

[Ian Pretorius]

hey Xenonph

I dont know about the F1 table made long ago, I didnt make it, I have only made 4 tables , elvis , tommy, jurassic park and fishtales. As mentioned these tables are cutting edge and the latter two do not support dx9 even. Dx9 is ancient in computer gaming/ shading years, i think the next version of Unity will dump dx9 support entirely as well.

Everything is bundled in the  installer for the game to work with no external dependencies. The installer will install the latest vpinmame and register the dll and set the paths in the registry etc. It will prompt you to choose a directory for this to be installed , i normally use the same one i made for the game.

 

Sadly this does mess up the paths for those who already have vpinmame installed and set up prior to this. The problem is that if you use visual pinball after installing my game and it loads the other vpm, the paths will be wrong in vpm. They all share paths sadly this is not local to the object and all versions of vpm will look to the same place in the registry for the paths. it is a catch 22 for me, because i just want my game to run without asking the user to tinker with anything.  Many dont even know what visual pinball or vpinmame even is. I manage to achieve this by setting the paths in the installer.

 

perhaps down the line if somebody could tell me where to look in the registry for if vpm is installed and what version and also what directory , i could test for this and then skip this step

 

I use Unity engine but this is not related to unit3d or any other sim, it is my own. There is sadly a bug in Unity for using dual shift and ctrl keys so currently it only works as expected with a game pad. I have reported the issue to unity and the QA team did test and have confirmed the issue, how long we will have to wait for a fix now i dont know. At first it was the shift keys , so i had to move my flipper code to the control keys. Now it is that as well so im stuck. they do fire, just not at the same time ;(

 

these two tables are based on the first two tables but i did a major over haul of many components. The menu system uses sqlite now so all values are in a database stored locally per game.

 

Anyway thanks for the kind words, i dont own a cabinet (real or virtual ) ,im not aware of any cabinet tweaks that could/should be added. I just play on a desktop.

 

 

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[Ian Pretorius]

Thanks randr

Well I cant really compare building to VP because I have never built a table in it ;) One thing for sure is better is that the Unity editor is in 3D. In fact except for Post effect filters in the game view, the editor view is exactly like the game.

 

Attachments:

1. 

   unity_editor.jpg
   

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Pinball999

[Ian Pretorius]

Hey everyone

Thanks for the kind words ;)

Here is an installer for the game :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5GQag5iS_vzWHZDazNFZVNIOTg/view?usp=sharing

I added in more sound effects, upgraded the pop bumpers model and textures , fixed a collider and made adjustments to some switches .. a whole bunch of small tweaks, Oh and also I coded the extra ball button to be functional. ( for those who might not know if you hold this button while pressing the start button you can play the entire game with the blinders up )

Let me know if you encounter any serious flaws

@ninuzzu I used some more sounds now .. thanks again ;)

thanks

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ozg

[Ian Pretorius]

Thanks @ninuzzu

If you remember a while back you were kind enough to point me to your table ( when it was still beta )  to source the plastics images ;) I also used you mirror motor and rail slide sound files. Extremely helpful.

 

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[Ian Pretorius]

It wont be long until I upload the game to try out .. maybe give me two days or so ;) 

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[Ian Pretorius]

New update plenty of additions and changes

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5GQag5iS_vzaDFfV1R1VzVZVUk/view?usp=sharing

chat soon

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Neofr45

[Ian Pretorius]

Vampirolatino2 wrote:

Nice work. There is a Unreal 3 Pinball development tools available… not interested in moving to Unreal Engine instead of Unity?

Impressive job so far.

Thanks but not interested in unreal engine at all. I am highly invested in Unity ( 5 years ) , I am capable of building any tools within the editor myself, such as the tools you mention, I can even create all this geometry dynamically via code ;) , Also I prefer C# language

Most importantly Unity is truly free unless you earn more than $100 000 from what you produce with it per year. Unreal expects royalties from the very start , check the licencing ;)

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[Ian Pretorius]

Hi Again

New files are uploaded.

• Big change in the physics. Im not sure how this will work on all other computers but it works great on mine. In the end for best results I really had to push the amount of calculations spent on physics super high!

I had the odd occasion of the ball missing colliders , Im hoping this is no longer an issue, so far so good but also I did not like some aspects of the old physics in general.

The ball has much more weight now , the table plays alot faster. I really noticed the problem with the older physics on the right orbit shot, before no matter how hard and correct you made that shot the ball never traveled all the way to the top saucer. This is just one observation but obviously it means everything was not quite as correct as it could be. The new physics solves all of this. Of coarse now that I changed some core physics values I had to change settings on everything again. This actually brought me to realize the top control gate had no purpose with the previous physics, the ball was never fast enough to even need it.. and it was not really working anyway. I got this working now but its not perfect yet. Some times the emulation misses the magnet activation. I may need to adjust the bounce on the flippers back up a bit but I left it as is to get other stuff done. With the new speed of play increased I noticed my left ramps exit didnt narrow down enough like on the real table which reduces the ball speed to make the hotel shots easier. I just added in some invisible colliders to get it a bit reduced but Will look into it at some point for a next release.

• Lighting is improved , small bit of extra overhead but much better. This has to do with updating the environment and reflection probes with the tables general GI changes.

For weaker machines I will add a toggle to switch off dynamic shadows in the next release , if you currently decrease the directional light to zero you will notice you can get double the frame rate. I could use some baked lighting but had some concerns with it .. maybe if I upgrade to a newer version of unity this might become usable, so If real time shadows are disabled I will fall back to baked lighting ( on static objects only obviously )

• Extra sounds on table and code redone on the backend to support exposing them to the menu system

• Menu system enhanced, additional slider and preset buttons. Audio controls coming soon

• Ao map on the playfield

• Objects added to hotel roof

(remember m key is for menu)

feedback welcome as always :)

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[Ian Pretorius]

Nostromo wrote:

aw man! Looks good!
To bad I cant try it out atm, in the process of building a new cabinet and dont have a computer with gfx card. I will eventually in a few months from now :)

I am a bit confused though… You made this with ‘just’ the unity game engine? or something like Unit3dPinball? Or something else?

Best of luck with your new cabinet build ;)

I modeled everything in Blender, then built the game in unity engine and integrated with vpinmame. I coded everything myself.

For everyone else reading I found a bug in the menu to hide/show the vpinmame dmd , I had to compile a new .net marshalling dll from a different vpinmame dll source. I used the latest one that gets installed with VPX now.

Im going to be adding in all the other table sounds I can tomorrow and then I will update the files online and let you know when its done.

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[Ian Pretorius]

The video is finally uploaded ..

Watch it in HD full screen to appreciate it at best .. or even better grab the game and try it yourself

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[Ian Pretorius]

Hi Again

I have made changes to the files on the same link as always :

1. Menu is toggled with the M key now , I added in another slider and also a few other toggles for the cabinet and room and dmd etc.. have a look.

1b ( I never mentioned it before but you can press the p key to render a super hi-res snapshot to the game’s folder )

2. I made a working dmd on the table itself and an additional UI dmd , both running in the context of unity now. These can be toggled on and off as well.

3. Most importantly , I revised the flipper angle a small bit again , but this time I also adjusted the force value and the rubber. Along with several other tweaks to other physics materials. I was studying the Pappa Elvis video again while doing this and I think the results are very good now. The table plays much better now – The flippers being the most important change, before I was not happy with the shot angles and now I think its just about the same as in the pappa video, its much more spread on the length of the flipper now.

I made an awesome game play video , its over a gig again so its gonna take some time to upload. I will post it as soon as it is ready.

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[Ian Pretorius]

Thanks Paulo ;)

I do want to develop it to be cabinet functional in the future , I presume there are a few things that need to happen for this since cabinets have actual hardware devices like flipper switches and tilt lines etc.. I also need to get an understanding of all the various dmd solutions used in cabinets.

I would also think the camera needs a fixed best position/rotation and FOV for cabinets. Anyway if you manage to wangle this version to run on your cabinet take a photo of it for me please , it would be inspiring to work towards full cabinet support as best as I can.

chat soon

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[Ian Pretorius]

Hi All

I have fixed the slingshots – the code was in fact not working as expected.

I now did proper testing with debug rays and numerical reports until I saw it was producing consistent simulated results.

I also changed the flippers max rotation from 50deg to 48 deg , not sure what the actual rotation maximum is on the real table but this small tweak seemed to make the shots control a bit better.

The files are updated on the same link as above

chat soon

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[Ian Pretorius]

Paulo Carvalho wrote:

Ian you sound like a putz I fired last week. Please don’t insult the talent on this site. If you want contribute feel free, but if you feel like providing anything but good vibes for the hard work these guys do then please see attached….

Insulting people while you are telling them to not be insulting? Double standards anyone? – You need to practice what you preach.

Did you read my last post? Coming in late after the fire was already put out and saying all you did makes you the hostile entity today .. not me, so ideally you should take the meme you sent me – and send it to yourself ;)

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[Ian Pretorius]

Sorry you feel so sour about it all , Im new to the forums and like you mentioned virtual pinball and table creations exist within the realms of collaboration and table modding. It just felt a bit hostile in that regard. Thanks for the hard work you put in , I appreciate it and have wanted to play this table since the first time I saw stern released it.

So I am sharing the table now with my modifications so hopefully nobody else will bother you any more with lighting complaints ;) Perhaps I was a bit judgmental in my post , sorry for that. It was intended in the spirit of debate but I ended up reacting instead of responding thoughtfully.

Here is my table mod , its still moody , not like its in a room with a thousand lights or something ;)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5GQag5iS_vzZERaR1dSYktRMGs/view?usp=sharing

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