1031 replies to this topic

[toxie]

Hit events and collision handling cannot be really separated in the physics engine (and IMHO we shouldn't start to do this, too). Maybe we rather need some special heuristics for drop targets instead (i.e. the dropping motion of the target, plus the target itself being kinda like "elastic" and not fixed on impact, is not really accounted for).

[cyberpez]

This might not work for the drop targets..  but going to throw it out there anyway...

 

On Haunted House, for the kicking targets I wanted to simulate the target rocking back when the ball got close, and not actually activating the switch until it made it further back..  So I added a trigger over the target to do the animation, and then a wall (with sling) to register the hit and kick the ball back.  Seems to work well for this....

 

Granted, it would be a little different for the drop target..  register the hit and animation (and maybe a ball slowdown) on the trigger hit, but then a full stop and rebound once it hit the sling in the back.

 

Like I said, might not really be feasible, but throwing the idea out there anyway..

 

Attached Files

•  Kicking target.JPG   42.7KB   14 downloads

[fuzzel]

So to help visualize what I'm proposing, in this image the yellow highlighted circle represents the ball where it currently hits and rebounds from the target as VP now works.  What I propose is the "hit" event happens at that point of the yellow circle hitting the target, but the rebound/physical interaction of the ball doesn't actually happen until the location of the blue circle at least, at which point it would also have initiated the "hit" event on the drop target to the right of the one intially hit as well.

 

to me this kind of thing, the actually physical emulation of a real pinball machine more accurately is far more important than making things look pretty, but then I don't have any idea of how this is programmed and what it would take to change that, so again hats off to you guys who do understand how to make such things happen

 

 

 

I checked the code for drop targets and unfortunately it's not so easy to add such feature to the engine without redesigning at least some parts of it. The reason for this is that the engine works like this:

1. based on the ball's position it is tested if the ball hits a line, polygon or circle

2. if this is the case do a collision calculation based on the hit check

3. after the collision calculation the threshold for generating hit events/animations is check

 

So every animation is based on the hit check and is done after the real collision calculation is done. For drop targets we had to do the hit check and then do some 'smooth' collision calculation until some threshold is reached before the ball is reflected.

This 'smooth' collision isn't provided in the engine especially not with animation.

[Mitchell]

The target push back and then go forward before it drop. Ball get a hair push off when the target move forward.

Edited by Mitchell, 23 February 2018 - 11:38 PM.

[hauntfreaks]

I was trying to backtrack today to see how old VPX is now.... 3years?...4???

[fuzzel]

A bit more than 2 years. We released 10.0 Xmas 2015 if I'm not wrong.

[hauntfreaks]

A bit more than 2 years. We released 10.0 Xmas 2015 if I'm not wrong.

it looks like about January of 2015 when i first seen the beta.... so at minimum 3yrs since the beta stage... 
I can use this when i see people post, "I dont have VPX yet".... like it was made 3 weeks ago... 

[fuzzel]

rev3359 is up:

 

- remove critical section for the property pane to prevent some strange crashing when closing VPX

- update bass to 2.4.13.8

- draw also flipper thickness in the editor

- add UserValue to target and primitive elements

- Patch by DJRobX: Improve gate swing physics. Expose new gravity factor parameter. Correct backwards initial swing. Also add some "bounce back" for 1-way gates. Currently set up to use as-is defaults, but Wrd1972 recommends the following settings:

 

This is the ideal setting for GATE motion:

Elasticity = .4 (currently default on gate object)

Friction = .02 (currently default on gate object)

Dampening = .85

Gravity = 3

The following settings are ideal for SWITCH ACTUATOR motion:

Elasticity = .4 (currently default on gate object)

Friction = .02 (currently default on gate object)

Dampening = .9

Gravity = 1

[toxie]

btw: this also includes the kicker fixes (the wrongly offseted kickers that i broke earlier on)..

[psmiraglia]

Not sure if this is trictly 10.5 beta related, but I have an issue, believed to be associated with Pinsound studio. I’m curious if there is state kept anywhere where Pinsound Studio can be “stuck” as the VPX sound engine:

http://www.vpforums....showtopic=39751

 

edit: hard to believe but 10.5b3359 cleared the issue

Edited by psmiraglia, 24 February 2018 - 03:27 PM.

[markrock76]

Thanks for the update and I really like the new gate swing physics.  I personally am liking a bit higher gravity setting (.7 or higher) so it falls faster.  Curious to see what others think the ideal setting should be.

 

 

 

rev3359 is up:

 

- remove critical section for the property pane to prevent some strange crashing when closing VPX

- update bass to 2.4.13.8

- draw also flipper thickness in the editor

- add UserValue to target and primitive elements

- Patch by DJRobX: Improve gate swing physics. Expose new gravity factor parameter. Correct backwards initial swing. Also add some "bounce back" for 1-way gates. Currently set up to use as-is defaults, but Wrd1972 recommends the following settings:

 

This is the ideal setting for GATE motion:

Elasticity = .4 (currently default on gate object)

Friction = .02 (currently default on gate object)

Dampening = .85

Gravity = 3

The following settings are ideal for SWITCH ACTUATOR motion:

Elasticity = .4 (currently default on gate object)

Friction = .02 (currently default on gate object)

Dampening = .9

Gravity = 1

 

[BorgDog]

glad to see the taming of the flappy gate

 

are we ever going to get an option to turn off the annoying touch screen message? or change the timeout on it so it goes away faster.  it is very very very annoying.  yes I have a touch screen, and no I don't need to see the message every time I start a table.

[chepas]

If you have a ramp with a physical wall, the ball doesn't travel underneath it?

 

I think the walls are projecting down, as well as up which is weird. Until you set physical walls to 0, the ball will be stuck.

[toxie]

are we ever going to get an option to turn off the annoying touch screen message? or change the timeout on it so it goes away faster.  it is very very very annoying.  yes I have a touch screen, and no I don't need to see the message every time I start a table.

 

yeah, yeah, guys, understood..

next update will display it overall 10 times, then never again..

[sliderpoint]

Dig the new gate animations.  I think that the suggested switch actuator values seem to be what work best with minor adjustments for preferences.  However, why is the dampening values so limited in functional values.  Even at .8 the gate barely moves and at 1 it never stops.  Obviously we can set values that work, I'm just asking if its using the correct range?

 

-Mike

[bord]

Can we get "disable light from below" added to drop targets or targets in general? It would be really helpful. I've been procrastinating building and scripting primitive drop targets just to control their lighting. Thanks!

[wrd1972]

Feature request.

Can we consider adding "slope" to the Global Physics options?

This would make it much easier to standardize physics a large amount of tables in ones collection.

 

Maybe even have global options for backdrop inclination, FOV and layback? I use the same setting for all of my tables. Of course the x, y span and positioning is unique for each one.

 

Also, could the "sets" be revised to custom names?

Edited by wrd1972, 28 February 2018 - 07:43 PM.

[fuzzel]

Adding the slope shouldn't be a problem but all the POV settings depend on the playfield dimension. If you have a table where the playfield width/height is wrong you get a wrong view.

[wrd1972]

Sounds great fuzzle. Really appreciate that one. Could you also please add the new settings to fix the swinging gates too?

[wrd1972]

Oh...one more important request for globals. Regarding flipper "strength".

 

How can this one setting still be made "customizable" while still applying a global set? This is is really needed to customize the strength across individual tables. Might it be possible that if one of the fields in the global set options is set to 0, then that setting will be globally ignored? Maybe a strength global override button in flipper settings?

 

Lastly, can the "sets" be custom named?

Edited by wrd1972, 01 March 2018 - 12:11 PM.