102 replies to this topic

[gtxjoe]

Very interesting, Shoopity.  Thanks

 

I just installed the Future Pinball FPx plugin (http://wiki.blender....turePinball_FPx).  There is a short install and overview video there

and I was able to open the FP library, fpModels.fpl and view all the FP objects.  It was even able to open an FP table .fpt file.

 

I will have to play around with the export.  Exporting an item from the FPL library worked.  My first attempt to export a rubber from an existing FP table failed - VP complained that mesh had no Texture coordinates (UVs) found in obj file.  but I am not Blender savvy yet...

[ICPjuggla]

gtx,

Did you convert the rubber to a mesh in blender? Try that I've had some success doing that for the metal guid rails.

[unclewilly]

For the rubbers you have to select the mesh. Then convert curves to mesh.

[ICPjuggla]

UW I was meaning to ask you..

How do I get my metal guide's shiny?

In FP I create the guide's I want save that table
import table to blender, delete unused objects
select all objects in blender, convert to mesh
scale by 0.019
export obj file then import to VP and I add a sphere map texture, but my guide show up dull and not as a shiny metal. Am I missing a step?

[unclewilly]

Sometimes the sphere maps show shiny. Sometimes if it's a lot of flat surfaces, it won't be so shiny. In those cases I usually make a uvmap in blender and use my old Vo shinny metal texture in the uvlayout.

In the case of bop, since I already had the metal guides made in my old table I just copied them over.

Kind of think in the case of metal guide walls, since they need to be collidable anyway, maybe vp wall objects are best for now. Saves you the time of making them in fp then having to make them again in vp to create the collision for the models.

Hopefully vp10 will have a guide wall object so we can shape them like ramps and just input the height and width.
After seeing the new rubber object I don't think a guide wall will be too difficult

[Shoopity]

UW I was meaning to ask you..

How do I get my metal guide's shiny?

In FP I create the guide's I want save that table
import table to blender, delete unused objects
select all objects in blender, convert to mesh
scale by 0.019
export obj file then import to VP and I add a sphere map texture, but my guide show up dull and not as a shiny metal. Am I missing a step?

Does your sphere map look shiny in a regular image viewer?

 

I'm not sure if this is how UW has done it, but I had to make my Party Zone Rocket Shiny.  The way I did that was to bake a texture.  Normally textures don't include specular lighting, if you use Blender, make a material that's shiny like you like it, then in Nodes, use Extended Materials and Mix; in the Mix node, connect Color for Color 1 and Spec for Color 2.  If you want some more in-depth instructions, let me know.  But when you bake it, you'll get a texture you can save as an image.  Of course you'll also be doing some UV Mapping.  There might be an easier way to do this, but that's how I did it.

[zany]

Shoopity....do you know how to use the Extendet Material/Mix method to mix transparency and specular? 
I get it to work with solid colors and textures, but not on transparent materials.

[unclewilly]

Added a mushroom trigger to the first post.

it has the trigger, texture, and animation coded.

Not sure how much these are used except for in em's,  but someone requested one so here it is.

 

Download in first post

 

  Its made of 3 models and one wall.  all 3 models have same texture but are just in different stage of animation.

 

enjoy

 

 

 Mush.png   8.96KB   8 downloads

[Shoopity]

Shoopity....do you know how to use the Extendet Material/Mix method to mix transparency and specular? 
I get it to work with solid colors and textures, but not on transparent materials.

I don't, but since I'm not 100% sure what you're trying to achieve, what if you didn't use the mix, plugged in Spec into the Color of the Output Node and the alpha into the alpha of the Output Node?

[zany]

What i'm trying to achieve is a colored shiny transparent plastic UV-map. I'll mess around with it abit some more. But since there is a problem with transparency in VP, except when using sphere maps, i think i'll soon leave it for a while.

[chepas]

Might not be the best place to ask this but I've gone down the route of having a raised playfield.

 

https://www.dropbox....3vb5n4/hole.png

 

The small square is a drop-able wall. I have this set to a solenoid which I can see it's dropping. Same bottom/top height set as outer main PF.

 

The problem is the ball will not run over this wall but goes straight through?

 

Had kicker underneath with its hit height set too high!

Edited by chepas, 07 July 2014 - 05:30 PM.

[kiwi]

Note for those who use these objects in their own tables.
All objects in the template are active, "Static Rendering" box unchecked, a lot of active objects may create stutter.
The most common objects in a table are the pegs and rubbers, if you don't need to be transparent or do animation, I recommend you check the "Static Rendering" box.
 

Thanks UncleW for your work.

 

Max

[LoadedWeapon]

Thx kiwi I had wondered that...

[zany]

Good input Kiwi....and true, when having them as "static" they pre render when the table loads, and have alot less impact on your computers performance.

[dark]

Just to clarify:  rendered "static" as opposed to "dynamic" means the primitive will load when the table loads but then will not effect performance during game play, 'dynamic' must be rendered in real time, ie for animations or transparency where the transparent mesh must be able to show the ball underneath/behind it.  The higher a poly/face/vert count a primitive mesh has the more it will impact performance if rendered dynamic, where as static will just make the table take longer to load but once loaded will no longer impact performance.

 

So in conclusion:  Unless your primitive needs to be animated or have transparency that shows the ball behind the object, check the "static" box in the primitive options.

[allknowing2012]

Can anyone provide a howto for the primitive flippers or provide a table where it was used? I would like to use the "flipper" flippers in my next table.

Edited by allknowing2012, 12 March 2015 - 05:33 PM.

[freneticamnesic]

yea a lot of recent tables use them, check out my WWF, OXO, or any of Javiers recent tables

you simply size the primitive to meet the size of your flipper, hide the VP flipper, and then there's a script that tracks the VP flipper angle and tells the primitive flipper to match it

[gtxjoe]

The magic is just these 4 lines of code. You need to add a 10 msec timer called "FlipperTimer" to your table.   It sets the rotation of the primitive to equal the flipper object current angle.

 

Sub FlipperTimer_Timer

LFlipperPrimitive.RotY = LeftFlipper.CurrentAngle

RFlipperPrimitive.RotY = RightFlipper.CurrentAngle

End Sub

Edited by gtxjoe, 12 March 2015 - 07:09 PM.

[allknowing2012]

. Thanks guys this should save me a lot of hassles.. I didn't realize the value of  primitives until I found this thread.

[freneticamnesic]

one-upped, once again, by gtxjoe ...