Version: 1.6
Category: VP/VPinMAME 9.x - MOD Tables
Author(s): Unclewilly, rob046 (Mod)
Description:
CFTBL Mod for VP912. Desktop. 4:3.
Select 'Backdrop_WS' in backdrop for widescreen's, and set...
16:10 monitor set x-scale to .942
16:9 monitor set x-scale to .848
v1.6 - Physics adjustments. I slightly tweaked JF's flipper routine, now drop catches should be easier, & things like post passing should be even better than before. Rubber may seem to have more bounce also, but hopefully no more than a real CFTBL with white rubbers.
- Couple other minor physics tweaks
- Flipper rubber sounds added.
- Black posts lightened
v1.5.3 - koadic had a new idea with his plunger system & wanted to try it out here. It involves his new find with making alpha ramps like they aren't there when not being used, which basically means better performance without any visual hit, hopefully. Also on the bowl a couple of the decal alpha's (2 of the 3) are disabled/hidden at all times, freeing up a few fps. If anybody has issues from this, please report it. Seems good to me though.
v1.5 - Fixed some slight lamp glitches & made changes to bowl textures & lamps. Thanks koadic & thewool for help & suggestions on this. Also the bowl now only uses 3 alpha ramps instead of 20+, this will help performance & it looks almost as good as before so I think it is worth it.
- Also to help performance, koadic came up with this nice plunger system. Same idea as before with the alplha ramps, but using gates instead. With these enchancements you guys not using full alpha slider can likely bump it up a notch or 2.
- F in FILM is fixed
v1.4 - I spent time with jimmyfingers flipper routine that helps with soft taps, liked it & implemented it here with hopes it would play well with my physics preferences & no momentum system. It seemed to & I noticed multiple benefits from it, a couple things I won't even mention here but see if you can find them! The way I have my flipper settings, its easier to do a drop catch with the flippers, & flipper/bounce passes are a bit easier to pull off & usually behave like they would in real life (flipper, post, flipper, over). The code is untouched, so any differences here are due to my flipper & physics settings.
So anyhow, big thanks to him. Its just a little chunk of code but makes a big difference & lucky it doesn't seem like much is sacrificed to achieve this. Very nice. I'd love to see this bit of code built right into VP, at least as an option we can enable/disable or adjust.
Post passes actually worked well in previous releases, so now I guess they are just toned down a bit with smaller chance of getting too much steam behind the ball. Requires a less quick key tap to pull off, I guess I should say, which is nice.
- New default transparent ball image but the older options still available as well as couple extra shades of the new one.
- TILT more sensitive
- a few other very minor tweaks
v1.3 - Made outlane posts metal only (like real CFTBL) & added metal hit sound. Game might now be tougher. Also slightly adjusted all 4 outlane adjustable posts to factory (middle).
- added 3 missing gate sounds
- couple other very minor tweaks
v1.2 - Set all alpha ramps to non-collidable, then created new invisible ramps for contact with the ball. This should help ramp & bowl physics work the same on all systems regardless of alpha setting.
- Found another ramp to set to alpha, now the lamp behind it can be seen when on.
- Frequency of "sneak-in" shot is adjusted, should happen less easily.
Thanks to UW for letting me mod this, he made an amazing table here, this is just a mod. One of the more notable changes & the main reason I wanted to share this was for all the desktop users, who don't have an alpha ramp version of this game since alpha ramps didn't exist when UW made this table. Due to the alpha's, this table eats more resources. However, considering that this table has more clear plastic on it than any other table, I did need to spend a good deal of time using tricks & optimizing to free up performance everywhere I could without sacrificing much, if any, quality.
Some things I did even decreased performance further, & so I'm actually quite happy with how much I was able to optimize it. Its still a resource hog, but really not any worse than a number of other tables out there, which again considering the amount of clear plastic, I'm happy with that. The other good thing is that for those who do have an issue with performance, turning down the alpha slider should help quite a bit without losing much visual quality.
Throughout the table there are some smaller tweaks & changes that I won't get into here, I'll focus on the more notable changes. Physics as well. Without going into boring detail, throughout the table most things related to physics have likely been at least a little tweaked. Yet I should note that I think UW does a good job with his physics & I like them. All I'm doing here is tweaking things based on my personal experiences with real CFTBL & also watching numerous videos. I put a lot of time into these sorts of details, so if I'm gonna tweak somebody else's table in these ways I make certain I'm happy with it.
I re-did parts of the creature ramp. Adjusted marquee placement, & all new mini bulbs along the ramp which are now white, & there is some new placement of bulbs (color & placement same as a factory CFTBL).
Also changed bumper cap & skirt colors to match the factory CFTBL, & tweaked metal rods & bumper body just a little. Physics slightly adjusted there as well. Noticed a neat little trick with the bumpers as well to help display them properly through alpha ramps set to solid. I also removed the "flash when hit" from the bumpers (factory CFTBL).
Rebuilt much of the bowl, to help alpha textures display cleanly wile also freeing up some performance. Bowl physics also adjusted. A well maintained real CFTBL will register a good 4 switch hits in the bowl, & now this VP version should as well. Also, bowl now uses standard white chaser lamps like factory CFTBL.
Added a new backdrop image & new view settings for a less angled view of the table. Now all PAID lamps are visible. I kept this table at 4:3 ratio since that is compatible for all users & doesn't involve a widescreen workaround hack, but this can be changed (see above). & about the backdrop, an important note. Due to my not setting all clear plastics to true alpha I did have to work around some things to fix the problems this can sometimes cause. Such as a glitch with the black rail walls. In short, a black area is needed in the backdrop image to act as the rail walls. When switching to widescreen of course this stretches the backdrop image, & so if you do switch to WS, use 'Backdrop_WS' as the backdrop image. It also looks better when you do this as that backdrop is more properly proportioned for WS.
Also in regards to the backdrop, while I suppose the table is technically angle independent & even more so in this Mod since the plunger reel is gone, I would definitely advise against changing the view or angle because, as mentioned, the backdrop had to be made for the view angle as it is. Also there are a couple other areas that may not appear as intended if you change view.
Added JP's alpha plunger. The previous desktop version used a reel, & the latest FS version I saw didn't have any plunger at all, so I figured this would be a nice addition. Plunger strength increased with some variation added, & pullback is slower to help with skill shot aiming.
OK, I think that pretty much covers the more notable changes. There is a new ball image I found that I gave png transparency to that I like, so I added it, but the original is still in there. I also toned down the rubber hit sound & made so that it only plays on a slightly harder hit. I did add rules here from the instruction card, & included a text file with this zip that has both that & more detailed instructions. I recommend reading that to really learn the game.
View File
Submitted by rob046, on Jun 26 2012, 08:02 PM
Edited by rob046, 09 July 2012 - 01:17 AM.
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