3889 replies to this topic

[hmueck]

@KieferSkunk or other devs:

May i request a section about cvpmDips in the vbsdoc.html, please?

[KieferSkunk]

I'll take a look - I thought there already was a section in that doc about dip-switch handling.

[BigBoss]

The tables alll use vbscript and com. It's pretty married to windows.

[Shockman]

The saucer and plunger is nice and wonderful improvement. The lights and lighting, for all the still existing and new shortfall, works. The only thing that makes my table incomplete at this point is a lack of control over the actuator assembly of the pop bumpers, as there is little contrast with a white shaft, and no way to give it the color it should have. I would gladly give up the skirt, which does have display perimeters for those settings put on the ring and bracket, as I could make an even better skirt, but not the actuator assembly. 

 

Is this something that is planned to be fixed, completed, or addressed, whatever were, or should I start on moving the old style bumpers into my VPX table?

[hmueck]

The only thing that makes my table incomplete at this point is a lack of control over the actuator assembly of the pop bumpers, as there is little contrast with a white shaft, and no way to give it the color it should have. I would gladly give up the skirt, which does have display perimeters for those settings put on the ring and bracket, as I could make an even better skirt, but not the actuator assembly.

What kind of control would you like to have? The bumper looks the way it looks, because it was converted from Future Pinball.
If you would like to have another bumper, make the base invisible and put in one of the other Future Pinball bumpers from here or create your own?!

http://www.vpforums....e=3#entry270851

[ICPjuggla]

The saucer and plunger is nice and wonderful improvement. The lights and lighting, for all the still existing and new shortfall, works. The only thing that makes my table incomplete at this point is a lack of control over the actuator assembly of the pop bumpers, as there is little contrast with a white shaft, and no way to give it the color it should have. I would gladly give up the skirt, which does have display perimeters for those settings put on the ring and bracket, as I could make an even better skirt, but not the actuator assembly. 
 
Is this something that is planned to be fixed, completed, or addressed, whatever were, or should I start on moving the old style bumpers into my VPX table?

Just render them invisible (stock rings and base) and use some primitives that are already made and available. If you would like I could put some in a test table for you later this evening..

[fuzzel]

The saucer and plunger is nice and wonderful improvement. The lights and lighting, for all the still existing and new shortfall, works. The only thing that makes my table incomplete at this point is a lack of control over the actuator assembly of the pop bumpers, as there is little contrast with a white shaft, and no way to give it the color it should have. I would gladly give up the skirt, which does have display perimeters for those settings put on the ring and bracket, as I could make an even better skirt, but not the actuator assembly. 

 

Is this something that is planned to be fixed, completed, or addressed, whatever were, or should I start on moving the old style bumpers into my VPX table?

I have that on my to-do list. I wasn't aware of the fact that sometimes you want to change the look of the ring and/or bracket.

[Shockman]

Thanks. I can wait. What I want to do is give it a darker material of it's own so I can see it working. mmpac has white bumper shafts with black rings and rods that they ride through.

[hauntfreaks]

this seems to be one of the problems.... the ring and the standoffs are part of the same object.... 

[KieferSkunk]

@KieferSkunk or other devs:

May i request a section about cvpmDips in the vbsdoc.html, please?

 

Okay, took a look at the current release, and there is indeed no documentation on cvpmDips.

 

However, I have two problems:

 

(1) I can't really make heads or tails of how that class works - it's basically just a dialog-box creator, but it's very opaque to me how the dialog interacts with dip-switch settings.

(2) I unfortunately don't have much time to devote to that right now, so unless someone else can step in on this, I'm afraid this will have to take a back seat. :/

 

Sorry I can't be of more help at the moment.

[toxie]

 

Yes, the space is too small for the ball. But the engine still shouldnt push the ball up like this, should it?

 

 

Absolutely. The problem is that there are quiet some hacks/heuristics in the physics engine that piled up over years. Mukuste tweaked some of that and also did some stuff more or less from scratch, and then after that we also fixed some more, but there is even still more than plenty left. And nowadays that one has much much more freedom with the table elements, these old hacks do not work flawlessly anymore.

[sliderpoint]

Just wanted to say thanks.  It looks like the bottom side of ramps are visible now in that last build, which is pretty cool and useful (at least for me anyways).

 

-Mike

[toxie]

Indeed. I changed that on the way (implicitly).

 

So nowadays, ramps should be more precise (everything visible from all directions, although the transparency depth sorting per ramp is still incorrect which is currently too tricky to quickly fix :/), feature correct lighting and be even faster than before. 

[freezy]

Question for the devs: Is there a command line option for the player where the screen orientation can be forced? I was talking to Tom from PinballX and such an option would be really practical so people don't need to change the VPX manually to FS if the author happened to have it set to DT.

 

Would this be complicated to do?

Edited by freezy, 02 July 2015 - 08:22 PM.

[chepas]

I'm glad you've asked that, already did a while ago.

 

PinballX I have a desktop tag in the database. This just changes the registry before launching.

 

Desktop

REG_DWORD,HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Visual Pinball\VP10\Player,BGSet,0 

Cab

REG_DWORD,HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Visual Pinball\VP10\Player,BGSet,1

[toxie]

FS vs DT can already be selected in the video options.. this is not overridden by the table option..

[fuzzel]

rev2107 is up:

 

- primitives can optionally be reduced for the use in the physics core (so that highly detailed objects do not cause stutter on collisions)

  by setting the new 'reduce polygons' options (0=no reduction and no slowdown on loading .. 1=high reduction of polygons and slower loading)
- some UI improvements to clearify the "IsToy" switch

[freezy]

Ah, my bad, I thought it was a table-specific thing. Thanks for the rapid answers!

[toxie]

a bit of explanation for the new primitive option: it is a bit experimental currently, but i thought i put it in before the final, as many tables nowadays use such highly detailed primitives..

 

what it does:

- it leaves the primitives as-is for rendering/visuals

- it reduces the primitives (optionally, if set to something > 0) for the physics engine

 

so if you experience micro stutter/harsh stutter if the ball comes close to a collidable primitive, try experimenting with this new option for this specific primitive.

note though that this preprocessing can take quiet a while and is (currently) done before each play cycle. so its still better to not use "too many" polygons for primitives.

[freneticamnesic]

would it be possible to get the triggers on non-visible objects fixed? this dates back to vp9, you can set a surface for a trigger to a ramp, and it works, but if you flag the ramp non-visible, the trigger is now on the playfield height. the only fix I've seen is a transparent png image and a non-opaque material for the ramp that should just not be visible