29 replies to this topic

[CrimsonTurtle8]

So I read that only Future Pinball developers can make original toys? Is that true?

Are all these recreations of old tables with fancy gadgets made by people who are outsourcing their toy creation to fancy developers? Or are they all making these toys themselves? Is it possible to model and code your own toys or does everyone rely on copying objects from pre-existing tables? And if they do rely on that, who makes the toys on those tables to begin with?

Please let me know how it works! Thanks!

[chepas]

You make your model first into a .ms3d.

Then you will need to download FPM editor (future pinball model editor). Import your model into this program and create an .fpm model with the settings you need. If you want it to be a toy you select toy, if you want it ornament, you select ornament etc.

If you create an ornament you will notice when you come to import it into future pinball you can just create a new ornament and it will be there to select from.

Toys are different.

If you go here http://www.vpforums....b/FP3DLib2.html you will find the toy factory.

Open the toy factory table and copy a model and paste it into your table. If you imported a model as a toy you should now be able to change the model of the one you copied from the toy factory for your own.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Cool that helps a lot thanks

But what about say the spinning wheel on the Fishing table or the gopher wheel in the the Caddyshack Table. Who made those toys? Where would you even start for something like that?

[T-800]

In VP I believe most of those "toys" are merely images applied to walls or ramps that are then animated. They just appear to have the 3D effect. For custom toys I could envision a skilled 3D CAD model maker creating the "toy" and then exporting image files of it at the right angle and lighting for implementation in VP. It would be cool if one day VP has the same 3D model capability that FP has....

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Thanks, you know I think a lot of the things I've seen are exactly that. For example I THINK the Fish Tales table that just got uploaded to pinsimdb is a model of a wheel with animations to make it look like a toy. So that may be how some do it. But there are still some big mysteries to me, especially the Caddyshack table, wherein I swear the ball falls beneath the playfield into like a roulette table. It's crazy.

Actually maybe not I tried out something similar and realized you can't paste overlays onto 3D objects, so I guess FP is pretty different from VP in that sense.

Actually how do you import something as a toy? If I have something I want to copy into my table and I export it, then when I import it it just goes nowhere. How do I tell FP to import it specifically into the Toy category?

Edited by CrimsonTurtle8, 20 September 2012 - 03:32 AM.

[faralos]

But there are still some big mysteries to me, especially the Caddyshack table,
wherein I swear the ball falls beneath the playfield into like a roulette table. It's crazy.
in vp we can make lower play fields and have the ball look like it's falling through to the lower play field if necessary

[chepas]

You can use spinning discs in FP just by choosing them. I don't know much about them.

Actually how do you import something as a toy? If I have something I want to copy into my table and I export it, then when I import it it just goes nowhere. How do I tell FP to import it specifically into the Toy category?

Already has been explained to you how in my reply.

Have your table open and open the toy factory. (You can open two tables at once)

Copy any toy from the toy factory, no need to be exporting anything, just copy the model off of the design playfield.

Paste onto your table.

Import your model.

Select the toy you copied and just assign the model you imported to it.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Okay I didn't get the concept of actually copying and pasting by having two FP windows open. Thanks!

I have one more question. I made a test model of just some thing sticking out of the ground, then I exported it as a drop target, pop up, and spinning disc (I tried each separately), then imported them as that to a table. Everything seemed fine but upon starting to play the table future pinball stopped working and closed down every time.

Is it not possible just to save any shape you want as a moving part in FPM Editor? Do you have to have animation frames built in for the object to move up and down through the playfield or something? Or to have it spin around as a spinning disc?

The good news is, some of those things on the Toy Factory table may accomplish what I'm looking for

[chepas]

Well I think I'm right by saying if you have a Drop Target or Pop Up it needs to have an animation to it , could well be causing the crash with no animation to the model. It may well be the same for a spin disc.

If it's a toy you can move it. There's plenty of help in the manual for this. Just type in Toy in the manual search. You need to code it in to be able to move it.

If you want just something that opens , you can make a model with animation in milkshape and import as a drop target. You can call this in the script with the .popdown.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Ah, interesting. So as long as it qualifies as a toy, I can code it to rotate or move up and down? Like Rotatexy -200, 10 or something like that?

That would do the trick. I may have to poke around a bit and copy the code from the Toy Factory but I think I can do it. Thanks so much, you've been a huge help.

[faralos]

wow does FP ever differ from VP!
so what is the difference between a toy compared to an object?
or is it just for importing into fp that they are named that way?
all vp toys (objects, anything really!) must each be coded to operate
I don't know though how FP handles that but I would think with no code they would not work
or the pin will crash like they do in vp

[CrimsonTurtle8]

There are a lot of FP objects that just sort of work on their own, but with a little assistance from code. Like Drop Targets drop on their own when you hit them and stuff--but basically everything does need code. From what I can tell, the difference between toys and objects is just that toys are anything that aren't already built into the game (aside from spinning discs and holograms)--which means its up to you to model them. But from what I've gathered, MOST toys on original tables do little other than move a bit, spin, drop, or rise. Which is fine because that's all I really want. And as long as the object itself can generate a hit event, some pretty cool stuff can be made just with those capabilities.

So I think this is what I want for now, and chepas you can maybe tell me if this is possible.

I want a rocket ship standing up right on the playfield. When the ball hits it, it spins slightly (either really fast to flick the ball or just a slow turn for effect), and a light is added up the shaft of the ship. When you light all the lights it spins and all the lights blink and you get a special reward, then it starts over. And that's it, i think. So I'm hoping that the fins of the rocket ship (it'll just look like a typical arrow-shaped missile) will make contact with the ball at the base and push it along every time it moves.

So if I steal a rotating sphere or cylinder from the Toy Factory and replace it with my rocket ship model, then code it to rotate upon impact, will that get the effect I want?

Edited by CrimsonTurtle8, 20 September 2012 - 07:36 PM.

[chepas]

I'll try and give you some tips, I've only been at this a couple of months on & off, and before that I hadn't coded anything let alone make 3d models.

If you want it collidable with the rocket fins I would set the polygon collision in FPM. To have it rotate is easy and you'll find that out in the manual.

There is ways with "arrays" in a script to have it turn , rotate, move when and how you want but I can't understand any of that yet so I use timers to move or rotate my models. If you are just rotating on a hit you probably don't need to worry about array or timer.

If you code in to set a starting position for a model I think you will lose the abilty to collide with it.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Ok, that makes sense and is very helpful. I don't think I need an array either. Nor do I need a starting position. I'll be sure to do polygon collision too. Darn, can't wait to get home and try it. Thanks for your help!

What tables have you made? I'd like to try them.

[chepas]

No problem , you're welcome.

None finished yet but have been working on one for a little while now. Set the bar a bit high for a first effort but it's getting there.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Okay I successfully made a toy and I can manipulate it and rotate it in all kinds of exciting ways. But it's not collide-able for some strange reason. I checked the per polygon collision box and the ball just goes right through it. I even tried putting a collision shape around it just to see if that would work and the ball still goes right through. Are all the toys on the Toy Factory table not collide-able? Because no matter what I do with my model, the ball doesn't even react to it.

What am I doing wrong???

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Nevermind, as I suspected, nothing from the Toy Factory is collidable. I wonder if I can get a toy from elsewhere that is.... Any ideas?

[chepas]

I don't know whether those toys are collidable or not. I presumed you were using your own models that you had set collusion to.

If your model is set up right in FPM as a toy and either has a collision shape or polygon collision and doesnt have a start position in the script then it will be collidable. I'm on a laptop atm with weak Gfx, when I launch the ball in FP it will crash so I can't test right now.

Have you tried Toy.collidable=TRUE < not sure if that's possible with toys, I don't know without being at main cpu.

[chepas]

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Wow it works when you do it. I swear I did exactly that. And the Toy Factory guy even said they aren't collidable. I'm confused. Hahaha. Thanks for posting that though.