834 replies to this topic

[yagesz]

Pretty. I just got excited.

[Slydog43]

oh yeah!, love watching the progress of VP10.  Thanks VP Dev Team for all that you do.  The future sure is looking bright

[kruge99]

I just want to give you an update of the current work on VP10. We started a small closed alpha test phase to get the first feedback and bug reports while we are adding more and more features. The screenshot I attached shows some new/updated features. This "table" was done in around 2-3 minutes no 3D modelling tool or photoshop magic was used. What you see here are: Bumper(animated if ball hits it), gate(animated), bulb lights and triggers (again animated). The whole shading/coloring is done with the new material/lighting engine.

I can't give you a time schedule when we can start an official beta test phase but we get closer and closer

 

This looks really amazing!  and I think I figured out how the original 'demo' table was made.  I believe it's an 'inside-out' wall.  If you drag one of the corner points over to the opposite corner, it creates a box with the 'wall' on the outside and open space on the inside.  Someone could probably fix that wonky curve at the top of the table by doing this.

 

Best Regards,

Todd..

[ClarkKent]

Is the problem with the disappearing ball that was introduced with the physmod also fixed in VP10?

 

Will it be possible to load physmod tables into VP10 and adjust them or do they have to be built from scratch?

[unclewilly]

You can load them but there will be many script errors and you will need to adjust many things, like adding materials to all objects, and readjusting the phusics due to the ability to set elasticity, friction, and scatter angle on all objects, rather then the hard coded stuff that was done in physicsmod5

[lodger]

exciting. I'll be anxious to see what this will be like with textures, images, etc on it. Any preliminary sense of what the computer specs will need to be?

[burnt_secondary]

Don't post much always but I am always lurking, this made me have to come out of the shadows and say I can't wait for VP10.

 

Currently I'm going to load up my cabinet with VP9.9 and wait patiently for 10.  I need to work on setting up a multiple versions of visual pinball in Pinball X (glad we have a thread on that too).

 

(BTW, good timing on this update, the forum needed this . . . . )

[fuzzel]

the overall table creation process will change for VP10 because we changed the behavior of elements. For example the bumper doesn't have a light state anymore but you can connect a bulb or a flasher via scripting to it and let the bumper flash when hit... there are other things that won't work like in VP9 anymore. If all goes well VP10 comes with one or two example tables to show you the new features.

[perplexicon]

Just wanted to drop in and say - thank you for the hard work, developers! It's great to see the progress being made (occasionally sneaking a look at the sourceforge checkins). Seems like it's going to be a huge step up in visuals and usability, not to mention gameplay... can't wait to see the first tables released with it! I hope some of the talented table makers are getting revved up about it too

Wish I could do more to help but alas, my talents do not lie in programming or art!

[ClarkKent]

Will objects on the table also reflect on the playfield like the ball does now?

[BigBoss]

Edited: Nevermind. I was on an old page lol

Edited by BigBoss, 19 November 2014 - 07:22 PM.

[fuzzel]

Will objects on the table also reflect on the playfield like the ball does now?

I guess not in 10.0 but in later version...

[ClarkKent]

And I hope that the behavior of the ball when it falls into holes (like kickers) will be more realistic. At the moment a kicker "catches" a ball without any animation. A real kicker is like a funnel - the ball rolls wobbles around it a little bit and falls into it. Same with some holes in ramps - e.g. the spiral formed ramp in TOTAN. When the ball falls from there into the other ramp going down, the ball drops down that fast without any visual feedback. The holes are mostly only slightly bigger than the ball so the ball should also wobble there a little bit before dropping down...

[lodger]

Not sure if this is asked elsewhere, but are there any changes/ updates to the ramps? In some ways that is one of the most finicky parts of vp now.

[fuzzel]

Kickers are on my to-do list. I can't tell if the physical behavior will be also improved but the look will definitely change. As for the ramps, unfortunatly not yet because we don't really know how to improve them. I'm with you that the ramps are challenging but I hadn't looked into all aspects of the current ramp implementation.

[dark]

Would it be possible to support square mesh instead of triangulated for 3D models in future?  Or are we stuck with legacy models?

[kruge99]

Kickers are on my to-do list. I can't tell if the physical behavior will be also improved but the look will definitely change. As for the ramps, unfortunatly not yet because we don't really know how to improve them. I'm with you that the ramps are challenging but I hadn't looked into all aspects of the current ramp implementation.

 

If you're looking at improving kickers, specifically how they are used as a saucer, take a look at Nitro Ground Shaker from Eala Dubh Sidhe.  One of the techniques developed back in the day was to use a magnet to simulate the ball being caught on the bevel of the saucer and changing it's direction if it wasn't close enough to make it into the saucer.  I think he pulled off the effect quite nicely.

 

http://www.vpforums....s&showfile=7787

[fuzzel]

Would it be possible to support square mesh instead of triangulated for 3D models in future?  Or are we stuck with legacy models?

 

Sorry no. The complete engine is designed for tri-meshes. I'm even not sure if DX9 has a good support for quad meshes. So I guess you are stuck to the legacy models.

 

Kickers are on my to-do list. I can't tell if the physical behavior will be also improved but the look will definitely change. As for the ramps, unfortunatly not yet because we don't really know how to improve them. I'm with you that the ramps are challenging but I hadn't looked into all aspects of the current ramp implementation.

 

If you're looking at improving kickers, specifically how they are used as a saucer, take a look at Nitro Ground Shaker from Eala Dubh Sidhe.  One of the techniques developed back in the day was to use a magnet to simulate the ball being caught on the bevel of the saucer and changing it's direction if it wasn't close enough to make it into the saucer.  I think he pulled off the effect quite nicely.

 

http://www.vpforums....s&showfile=7787

 

ok I'll take a look...thanks

[toxie]

Is the problem with the disappearing ball that was introduced with the physmod also fixed in VP10?

 

this is fixed, yes.

Would it be possible to support square mesh instead of triangulated for 3D models in future?  Or are we stuck with legacy models?

 

what do you mean with legacy models? the whole realtime graphics world is still based solely upon triangles (and if at all then subdivision surfaces are getting hipper currently).

exciting. I'll be anxious to see what this will be like with textures, images, etc on it. Any preliminary sense of what the computer specs will need to be?

 

we try to keep it as reasonable as possible. the material and lighting model is currently still pretty fast, so if at all then the amount of triangles and dynamic effects people will use on table builds will influence the performance.

[DJRobX]

I wanted to report a physics bug.   While the current VP10 trunk has some limits that prevent the balls from flying off the table, there is still something odd with the collision detection when the ball hits a very thin wall head on.   

 

I was doing a PhysMod5 of RollerGames and noticed that the ball would often disappear from the table if it hit a tiny diving wall between the inlane and outlane.   It should have always diverted one way or the other, but I could repeatedly see the ball slicing through that wall (and then off into la-la-land) .

 

I created a simple demo table with a tiny wall in the shooter lane.  It reproduces there too.    I loaded it into VPX and can see that the Z-limiting code prevents the ball from being lost altogether as it was in PhysMod5, but the ball still goes through the wall as if it didn't exist.    If I make the wall a little thicker it will collide and bounce back to the plunger as expected. Not sure why it behaves the way it does with a thin wall, but whatever it's doing definitely seems wrong.   

Here is the bug demo table in VPX format. 
 

https://dl.dropboxus.../BugDemoVPX.zip