Virtual Pinball Cabinets at the MPE-- Pics vs Real machine
scott (Detroit Pinball)
Virtual Pinball has made Giant strides forward even in the last 2
months.
VP is constantly being updated, Physics can be tweaked to recreate a
very realistic experience.
Understandabley you may have to do your own tweaks.
What you are looking at is my Actual TOTAN Gold, photographed from
the exact angle/perspective that I play pinball at-- Take in mind, I
am 5 ft 7 and have a normal stance. Obviously if you are shorter or
taller and tend hunch while playing your perspective may be a little
different. My VP cabinet is housing a 42 inch LCD for the playfield.
VP tables are constantly being recreated and are free, My Totan Gold
was not free :(
Noah from VP Forums the Guru of virtual pinball will be at the
Michigan Pinball Expo with his cabinet. I will also have my cabinet
there as well.
Make sure you stop by and give it a whirll ...
Scott
Detroit Pinball
Bowling Jim
Mick McDonald
scott (Detroit Pinball)
> I want one. Is any one making these for resale?
Paul AKA Noah Fentz is the Guru, I had been researching this for
years.
Here is his website... http://virtuapin.net/
Here are pics of my cab...http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitpinball/
sets/72157625758900136/
I took delivery in December, couldnt be more happy... I had over 17
pins in my collection and have down sized -2 pins because of the
Virtua Pin. Its very nice to have, especially for those games you
like, but not enough to own. Not to mention you dont have to shop the
game out and you dont have to worry about something breaking down on a
table.
Only partial negative is, most of the guys that re-create the tables
do not have a ton of real pin playing experience.
I usually have to go in and make physics tweaks,especially to the
flippers. The good thing is its actually kind of fun, it takes a
little bit of time to do, but it is very easy to do/ learn and fun to
play test.
Hang out at the MPE and take a test run for yourself
Scott
Detroit Pinball
scott (Detroit Pinball)
Actually, as far a tweaks go... to give you an example.... I plan on
going back into the Totan Table and actually Stretch the Genie to make
it more realistic like my real Totan Genie. I have No programming
skills what so ever!! Very user friendly.
Also, There is playfield glass on the Virtua Pin shot and I used a
flash on my camera, There is actually a lot more detail than what you
are seeing on the Virtual Pin version. Flash and glass are kind of
washing it out. You can actually see the captive ball through the
right ramp, and the lamp is a lot more detailed compared to this pic.
Scott
Detroit Pinball
Joe Jet
Is there a location to get a huge .zip or iso file for dropping off
the latest tables/settings/etc into a folder and be done with it like
the mame rom burners, or do you have to download/configure one game at
a time?
jackal2001
back when it first started out. I even helped with the pins by
sending scans of my manuals, etc. Although there are a lot of good
pins to play, some are just not that great. Ball physics will vary
greatly from pin to pin. Remember, the tables are only as good as the
designer/programmer.
I've also found out that some tables play better on different versions
of the software and some have issues on the latest and greatest
versions of vpinmame.
Also Vpinmame is basically designed to run on Windows XP (or I should
say runs the best on XP). I was fine on Windows7 until they keep up
dating the code. Now I'm getting a lot of stuttering on some tables.
I just run Vpinmame on my PC at home to test playing out different
pins that I've never played before.
Frank Gigliotti
the latest tables/settings/etc into a folder and be done with it like
the mame rom burners, or do you have to download/configure one game at
a time?"
No, there is no way to just install a big file of tables. You have to configure
each one and install it.
It takes a couple of minutes to download, configure and load it onto the vpin.
There are over 200 tables available and new ones are released or updated weekly.
These are the 2 sites to get logged into. Everyone that makes/updates a table
sends a screen image so you can see if you want it.
This is the main site. Its huge and there are thousands of tables to play on
your desktop, and probably 200 tables to play on your cabinet. Again, more added
weekly.
www.vpforums.org
This site is great for vpin cabinet owners/builders/modders. You can continue to
add features to your cab.
There are some downloads on this site.
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/
Each site has a huge group of enthusiasts from all around the globe, but only a
few dozen people step up and make tables.
The good news is Vpin has never looked better and now there are a few new folks
in vpin development so expect greater things in the future.
Either way, you need to get a bit familiar with the layout of the the programs
and file structure, then its easy to add tables to your cabinet. This is not
something you get and are stuck with the X number of tables forever....
Enjoy,
Frank
"Joe Jet" <jdec...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:624ac2f7-fea7-483d...@j17g2000vbr.googlegroups.com...
machine.slave
glass on your virtua-pin cab? (if they're the same size)
I wonder how that'd look..
scott (Detroit Pinball)
So would I...... I actually contacted Joey about price and shipping
(it is standard widebody dimensions) and got cold feet after I got
the quote... I am still kicking it around, but since were talking
about glass over a LCD, I kind of want to know that it will improve
on something?? before I take the plunge.
>Either way, you need to get a bit familiar with the layout of the the programs
>and file structure, then its easy to add tables to your cabinet. This is not
>something you get and are stuck with the X number of tables forever....
>Enjoy,
>Frank
Frank, it sounds like you have a virtual pincab you hit the nail on
the head on everything you have said, if you have pics, I would like
to see them.
Scott
Detroit Pinball
Fursphere
If you're not comfortable tweaking config files and messing with windows
folder structers and dealing with the strange hack of a program known as
virtual pinball.. please know there is a steep learning curve to
getting the thing working at all.
First you install virtual pinball (the program).
Second install VPINMame (the ROM emulator - launched by virtual
pinball)
Third - find the actual ROMs for each game (not too bad actually)
Forth - install all fonts for various DMD displays.
etc...
etc...
etc...
(Such as the "backglass" is a seperate program than the pinball
playfield itself... you have to get a middleware peice to tie both
together and luanch at the same time)
The thing does not run "out of the box" and will be fustrating to get
actually working your first time.
Then there is the front end setup...... you'll spend weeks tweaking
that thing to your liking.
I'm not saying its a bad thing, I'm a Hyperspin / Virtual Pinball /
Future Pinball lover. But if you're not comfortable dealing with a
less-than-standard program install.... don't run out and buy / build a
virtual pinball cabinet.
Fyi - you can get the 4:3 "desktop" tables and run them on your PC just
fine (standard desktop monitor - no crazy rotating). You might want to
start with that, as its simpler - and it'll give you an idea if you
really want to mess with it
--
Fursphere
This USENET post sent from http://rgparchive.com
Noah Fentz
The VirtuaPin cabinet comes pre-configured, with both Visual Pinball
(licensed) and our own version of HyperPin (licensed) pre-installed
and ready to go. The support provided is endless. You have a question,
it will be answered.
Anyone will be able to enjoy virtual pinball at it's finest with a
VirtuaPin.
Brian Munn
Scott the only thing they need to add is a joystick and button add-on
so I can also play the old arcade games as well. If they do that I
will buy one. Can you ask if they have plans for that and if so
when. That will really open up the market for them. Think about it
with one machine you can play pinball, Golden Tee, missle command,
defender and Arcade Legends type stuff.
PS - All I have both seen and played Scott's virtual pin and love it.
I am just waiting on the other stuff above before making an
investment.
Brian
Detroit Pinball
Fursphere
Are you guys that are building and commercially selling these virtual
pincabs licensing the tables properly?
Or are you telling your customers they have to load thier own tables?
I would hate for the IP owners to get pissy about it and kill the
virtual pinball gig for everyone.
Joe Jet
One more question on this... since you went widebody.. does that
affect the look of the tables, much like a Standard Def picture
"stretches" to fill HD widescreen, or, is the widebody closer to the
true table size as you must lose some space on the sides?
I am wondering which size would look more natural for the majority of
(non-widebody) pins.
Noah Fentz
I can only speak for myself when I say customers will be loading their
own tables, which is a breeze now, and we've licensed VP and our own
HyperPin frontend. IP owners are fully aware of what we do.
@ Joe - Since the playfield monitors are all 16:9, the only difference
is the apparent size of the tables. The x/y scaling remains the same.
The beauty of it is, if you don't like something about a table, you
can change it.
Noah Fentz
We do custom work, so if there's something you'd like to see on your
unit, simply ask, and we'll work out any and all details.
I'm currently working on a jukebox feature, among other things, to
provide more functions when not playing pinball.
appetite4pinball
I just finished building my own visual pinball machine and put a 40"
LCD in a standard cabinet which is perfect for playing standard size
games in visual pinball. I think the sweet spot is 40" to 42" for
standard games. playing widebody games on a 40" like Future Spa is a
little different. The ball is smaller, and while still fun to play it
just feels a bit off compared to playing the real thing. For these
widebody games a 46" would be perfect, but i'd imagine playing
standard games on a 46" would seem a bit off in the other direction.
I haven't played on a 37", but I have played on a 32" and the
playfield is too short for my liking. Personally, I don't think I
would go with anything less than a 40". If I didn't have the
capabilities to build my own cabinet I would have purchased the 42"
setup from Noah. He offers an awesome product and the support on
vpforums and the hyperspin forums is outstanding! Virtual pinball,
while not real pinball is still a heck of a lot of fun! Huge strides
have been made in the past six months, especially with the latest
version which has alpha ramps and layback features and new games and
updates are released almost every day.
I took some pics of my 3 screen setup in case you want to check them
out:
http://s241.photobucket.com/albums/ff75/appetite4pinball/Virtual%20Pin%20Project/
-Mike
scott (Detroit Pinball)
>
> - Show quoted text -
Brian, see Paul (aka Noah's) post above, I talked to Paul about this
and I believe he is able to do this, actually when I last talked to
him about it, I believe he already aquired some parts to rig up a
proto type. One of his coleagues has done it already but instead of
playfield glass, the person used Lexan and had the track ball and
joystick coming out of the playfield glass (lexan) down by the
lockdown bar.
Personally, I can not speak highly enough on Noah's skills, the
machines are not easy to build and can be costly.
I have been researching this on and off for the past couple years.
The Bottom line, you want it done right the first time. Deal with
the guru; I couldnt be more happy with my unit. I am not the
computer expert by any means, Paul has taught me a lot, I am at a
point were there are things that I point out to him that I have been
able to tweak myself.
I also agree with appetite4pinball; I would not go with anything less
than 40 inches; I believe 42 inches is the sweet spot.
Virtual Pinball the program is now open source and keeps getting
better all the time. Brian just checked out my unit a couple months
ago; I will say nothing has really changed with Future Pinball, but
with Virtual Pinball 9.12 release its a whole new ball game....
I plan on doing more side by side comparison shots in the near future.
Scott
Detroit Pinball