43 replies to this topic

[Gravy]

 

Hello,

 

I know it's been a while, but I am wondering if this is still being worked on. A friend from the blind community introduced me to a few more classic pinball tables that I hadn't played before, so I have played VP within the last few months and would like to know what the status is with the accessibility features.

 

I can't answer the question as to whether it is still on the radar... but I did have a thought that perhaps it might be worth contacting some blind coders and see if its a project that they would like to be involved with, Visual Pinball is opensource so it could be forked and a version could be produced that caters better to the blind.

[Acerbt]

 

 

Hello,

 

I know it's been a while, but I am wondering if this is still being worked on. A friend from the blind community introduced me to a few more classic pinball tables that I hadn't played before, so I have played VP within the last few months and would like to know what the status is with the accessibility features.

 

I can't answer the question as to whether it is still on the radar... but I did have a thought that perhaps it might be worth contacting some blind coders and see if its a project that they would like to be involved with, Visual Pinball is opensource so it could be forked and a version could be produced that caters better to the blind.

 

In regards to the blind coder/ developer thing, I'm not sure if any would be willing to take the challenge. What code language is VP written in? If it's something common, I may be able to find some people that at least know how to program in it. Also, there is someone I got to know about in the community who was an accessibility cunsultent over the last few years. His name was Brandon Cole. He worked on the accessibility for the latest Forza motorsport game, and he did cunsulting for the blind character that is in Hogwarts Legacy, though sadly that game didn't have total blind accessibility features added. He even got a special ps5 with a special box and brailled note, as a thank you from the playstation team for his work on that system. Sadly, he passed away earlier this year, and many who knew him were understandably upset about it, since he died pretty young. If he were still here, he'd probably have been a really great help if asked about this.

Edited by Acerbt, 15 September 2024 - 03:30 AM.

[Acerbt]

I'm not sure if this will gain much attention, but i just played vp 10.81, not sure of the exact build number, and the stereo sound is great. Even though I can't see any of the action, I can, based on things I know about the genera layout of certain tables that I play frequently, tell relatively what the ball is doing when I send it up the table successfully with flippers or it otherwise interacts with objects. Will this eventually expand into more accessible gameplay? I ask because the stereo audio is a great first step that already makes it more fun, since fewer things are constantly in the center.

[Acerbt]

I'm unsure if anyone will see this, but i thought i should post this anyway if anyone still has an interest in working on this. An audio game developer recently released a little collection of web based audio only mini games, which includes a pinball game, Space Cadet style, but with all synthesized sounds, stereo panning, and sounds that allow blind people to tell the objects apart, tell the balls speed and relative position, and importantly, to tell when the ball is near flippers. I point this out because i think some of the audio mechanics from this might help with making those accessibility features required to make pinball in Visual pinball playable for blind people like myself. If anyone wants to take a look, the mini games are at https://play.oriolgomez.com and you can play the pinball game by selecting it from this page. I'm unsure if this has visual elements or not, but it does have text and sound as it is ment for audio first gameplay.