Ok, since I'm really tired of people that makes comments on my table or writes me PM saying that in my tables "plunger don't even launch the ball" or "the ball doesn't move at all" I've decided to create this topic to make a final clarification on how to use BAM.
PREAMBLE
Default Future Pinball has a terrifying physic and without BAM I would definitely switched to Visual Pinball.Fortunately in 10 years things are changed and now we can play with a realistic physic that in my opinion has not yet been fully exploited and explored.
Personally with my Custom Physic tables I exclude every FP1.0 Player, Traditionalist and Stuffists, they got tons of old table to play! (little tip: BAM is not only a new way of rendering tables but even a Physic Switcher)
WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY A ZED OR CUSTOM PHYSIC TABLE
-A clean new installation of FP (save Tables folder) you can choose any version, personally I use 2.6 because don't want watermark in my cabinet (no moralism please Chris has abandoned FP years ago) and doesn't create me problems.
- BAM (Download Link)
- Default FP 1.0 xml file
- Tables Built for a specified physic: All tables with Custom or Zed physic has a tablename.fpt and a tablename.zip (in some cases is tablename.fpt and tablename.xml)
CONFIGURATION
Install BAM (2 ways: if you have chosen the Setup.exe install in the Future Pinball root directory ,normally C:\Games\Future Pinball. If you've chosen the .rar unpack the BAM Folder in your Future Pinball root directory)
- Now you should have a directory like this "C:\Games\Future Pinball\BAM"
- Copy the default.xml file in the ...\Future Pinball\BAM folder, this file is used by BAM as a default physic in order to make you play old 1.0physic tables with the oringial FP old physic (for Zed and Custom Physic tables BAM will use the xml provided by table creator inside a zip that is stored in the same folder of the table, excluding default.xml)
This is how a perfect FP installation Folder should be
and this is how the BAM folder should be:
TESTING AND PLAYING NOW
-Start Future Pinball Via BAM (with FPLoader.exe located in ...\Future Pinball\BAM\FPLoader.exe
-Load a Custom Physic or Zed Table and once in game press "Q" .
In the lower right of the screen BAM shows the physic in use for this table
(For Example, if you are playing with MytableZED it will show ...\Future Pinball\Tables\MytableZED.xml) so you know that you are playing with the right physic
If there is no an xml file with the exact same name of the table, BAM will use default.xml physic (this happens for old tables with original physic)
USING 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 TABLES:
You don't need no more a different FP version for this kind of tables, they are simple tables with no provided xml files because they takes automatically physic integrated in FP.exe, but now since you don't have 3 or 5 version of FP you need to copy a (2.5,2.6,2.7)xml file and rename with the same name of the table.
EXAMPLE: if you download Bad Cats ULTIMATE 1.10 Physics 2.6 you know that is a 2.6 physic table so by copying this table in the Future Pinball table folder you'll not have any xml named as the table and BAM will use original FP physic and table will play really bad.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND THE 2.5, 2.6,2.7...XML FILES?
IN ...Future Pinball\BAM\XML Folder, if this XML folder is empty DOWNLOAD THIS and insert all the xml contained in this zip to your ...Future Pinball\BAM\XML Folder
HOW TO CREATE THE RIGHT XML FOR THESE TABLES?
Go In ...Future Pinball\BAM\XML, copy the right Physic (2.6 in the example) in the Table Folder and rename it in Bad Cats ULTIMATE 1.10 Physics 2.6.xml
So now in ...Future Pinball\Tables\ you have Bad Cats ULTIMATE 1.10 Physics 2.6.fpl and Bad Cats ULTIMATE 1.10 Physics 2.6.xml
You need to do this for all these kind of tables (2.4,2.5,2.6,2.7....) If you think that is too much work stay away from Visual Pinball and go buy a real Pinball!
Remember that you can always check if you have the right physic by pressing "Q"
CONCLUSION
if you have followed this guide step by step now you know that you can play every kind of table with only one .exe file and in a simple way.Keep FP Alive by supporting natural evolution!
LITTLE TIPS: (updating)
BAM Currently uses only 1 physic per session so:
if you load a default 1.0 FP Physic table it plays with the correct physic, but if you load a second table with another physic, pressing Play for the first table will load with the second (latest)table loaded.
Solution:
Every table you want to play, close FP and restart it
Playfield is black or white and the image is not loaded:
Solution:
Many tables uses High res texture that exceed memory bandwith: Go to Preferences/Editor and UNCHECK Load Image into Table editor
as in the image below:
BASIC BAM CONFIGURATION FOR CABINET
First of all
- Go in Future Pinball \ BAM \ cfg Folder and delete all the files inside.
- DOWNLOAD this configuration
- Copy downloaded file in C:\...Future Pinball \ BAM \ cfg
- Start Future Pinball and press File\New (default new table will open)
- In Future Pinball editor under Preferences\Video Rendering Option check the "Arcade Mode" and set the Rotation to 270 or 90 (depends on your monitor) as showed in the pic below:
- Now you can press "Play Table" button and once in game press "Q" to set the Bam Option, press "Config" and "Save as default" (check the pics)
From now all the tables (old and new) will be loaded with the same view\rendering settings, but every time you edit a single table BAM will alter only that single table you edited.
Obviously this configuration is only a base, because table dimensions and monitor could be different,
Tell me if you have problem
Edited by pincade, 18 August 2015 - 11:27 AM.
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