ContributorThis afternoon, I had the great pleasure of chatting with Adrian Barritt of Barnstorm Games. I hope I touched upon many of the questions you may have ...
Noah Fentz: First off, I just want to say congratulations on achieving your primary goal on your Kickstarter campaign!
Adrian Barritt: Thanks very much. These are very exciting times for us! Your help is much appreciated too.
Noah Fentz: I'm always happy to help promote all things virtual Pinball! 
Noah Fentz: Now that you've achieved your goal, what's the next step in development?
Adrian Barritt:: At the moment we have all the lights working, old physics running and animated flippers & balls. The next thing for us to nail are all the other animated elements on the table. Once we've got that done we'll have a game that's in a reasonable state to consider sharing with backers. Though the game won't be optimised and will need fairly good hardware to run at speed.
Noah Fentz: You mention physics ... I must point out that many members of our community have said the original Pro Pinball physics are the best of any virtual pinball game already. How will the newer physics differ from the original?
Adrian Barritt:: They'll be more realistic.
Noah Fentz: Wow.
Adrian Barritt:: But to be a little more serious, the T! physics only had spin on the vertical axis of the ball, whereas BRUSA & FJ had spin on all three axis. Our starting point will be to take the FJ physics, retrofit them into T! then start to refine and improve things from there.
Noah Fentz: I see.
Noah Fentz: Can you share with us what system specs will be required to run the alpha/beta versions?
Adrian Barritt:: It's hard to be precise at this stage. But I can say if you have the equivalent of a relatively recent Macbook Pro then you should be fine.
Adrian Barritt:: That said, it's when all the flashers are going that the biggest strain is put on the system, so when they aren't going a much more modest machine should be fine too.
Noah Fentz: So, at least a 2.6GHz CPU?
Adrian Barritt:: That should be fine, but the GPU is going to be important too.
Noah Fentz: Many of our cab builders, including my own VirtuaPin brand cabinets run on XP. Will this be supported?
Adrian Barritt:: Yes, it will. We still run XP on some of our machines here.
Noah Fentz: That's great news!
Noah Fentz: Looking back on your first Kickstarter campaign, how does this most recent, and successful one, differ?
Adrian Barritt:: The biggest difference is much narrower focus.
Adrian Barritt:: The first offered four classic tables plus one new. But now of course we're just offering one. That means it's a much simpler and cheaper proposition, both of which I think have helped.
Adrian Barritt:: It also enabled us to make the reward structure simpler and clearer.
Noah Fentz: Are there still plans for new tables designed by legendary designers in the future, just not immediately?
Adrian Barritt:: Absolutely. That's still part of the dream. Last time around though we didn't have design or even a theme in mind, as we wanted the fans to choose. But with hindsight I think that might not've been the best approach. Assuming there is a next time I'd ideally like to have a theme (possibly licensed) lined up with some artwork and basic concepts first, so it's a much more tangible proposition.
Noah Fentz: That sounds fantastic and something we'd all like to see!
Adrian Barritt:: Yes, I'm not sure what the timing will be, it all depends on how T! goes.
Noah Fentz: What would you say sets Pro Pinball apart from the other pinball software available today?
Adrian Barritt:: A rather overly obsessive focus on making the simulation as realistic as possible.
Noah Fentz: One of the most common comments I get on virtual pinball from the 'real' pinheads is, the flippers never feel right. Mainly, this is due to the speed of the flippers flipping up. What is your take on that?
Adrian Barritt:: The flippers are by far the hardest thing to get right in a simulation. They're also the most important element of course, because that's where the player primarily gets the chance to control the ball.
Adrian Barritt:: The flipper simulation we have is incredibly complex. Not wanting to go into too much detail, we created a model that includes things like the power and holding coils you get in a WMS flipper, plus other subtle things like how the power curve changes as the rod moves further inside the coils. It's a very complex system and you need to model it all to make it feel real.
Noah Fentz: Interesting.
Noah Fentz: Will there be much flexibility in user settings for objects like flippers, bumpers, rubbers, etc?
Adrian Barritt:: That's a good question. Yes and no is the answer. The original games had setting for the age of the machine, which we'd still look to include. But different flipper rubbers could be a nice option too. Different flipper rubber colours to have different characteristics and that's something we could look to include. However, I doubt we'd offer control over the bumpers as that isn't something the operator would normally have control over. We want to stick with the simulation angle, if a typical operator could make and adjustment then our customers should be able to too.
Noah Fentz: Very cool. So, you're suggesting going with real-world settings like black or white rubbers, various flipper rubbers, and the condition of the machine?
Adrian Barritt:: Yes, keep it real!
Noah Fentz: You really are "overly obsessive"
Adrian Barritt:: I am. But it makes decisions easier!
Noah Fentz: Can you give us a little insight as to how the actually tables are designed? Do you use some kind of editor interface?
Adrian Barritt:: In the past all four games were primarily designed by me on paper (!) to begin with, before being input into a Silicon Graphics Workstation. From there virtual whitewoods would be created to check the ball flow and would then be tweaked on the workstation until they played just right. So there was no editor for the original games.
Noah Fentz: Have you ever played around with the Visual Pinball editor?
Adrian Barritt:: Not seriously. But I have downloaded and had enough of a play to decide that we'll need to take a different approach for any new table designs we do. If Pro Pinball is going to spawn a whole new series, we'll want to invest the time in some tools up-front to streamline the process as much as possible.
Noah Fentz: Does this mean there is a possibility for an editor? Will it possibly be made public?
Adrian Barritt:: There is definitely going to be an editor, whether or not it will be made public or is suitable for the public to use is another question.
Adrian Barritt:: One major complication is the fact that we currently pre-render the graphics to make them as realistic as possible. But there could be ways around that ultimately.
Noah Fentz: Can you share with us how pre-rendering works and how it is beneficial?
Adrian Barritt:: Certainly.
Adrian Barritt:: With a real-time game you have 1 to 4 CPUs rendering the entire frame 60 times a second (assuming the game's running at speed!).
Adrian Barritt:: Obviously that gives a finite amount of time to generate a result and is also limited by the size of the textures and the amount of VRAM in the system.
Adrian Barritt:: The graphics that we've put out have been rendered by dozens of CPUs over a number of weeks! Which means much more complex lighting and rendering systems can be used to generate much more realistic results.
Adrian Barritt:: A good parallel is to compare the best CGI you get in movies (which is pre-rendered) with the typical graphics you see running on a console or high end PC.
Noah Fentz: So, you're saying that you've pre-rendered nearly every possible combination of flasher and light on the table?
Adrian Barritt:: No, if you're Cunning ™, 
there are tricks you can use to not have to do that…
Noah Fentz: LOL
Noah Fentz: I'm very excited to see Pro Pinball in a VirtuaPin. You created a light show for desktop users. Is it possible for us to get a sneak peek like that in our cabinets?
Adrian Barritt:: I'd love to see Pro Pinball in a VirtuaPin too. I'm hoping we've got time before the end of the Kickstarter to render at least a static test cabinet view. Sadly because of the rendering time required, an animated version is unlikely to be possible in that time frame. Before we do the render though it would be great to get some input from the community on how the perfect cabinet view should be rendered/processed.
Noah Fentz: You are definitely in the right place. Our members are very informative, and I'm sure they'd be happy to help. Rob, for example, will LOVE to provide his input. Just be sure you have an afternoon to read his posts. (love ya, Rob! )
Noah Fentz: Seeing you have a deep passion for realism, is there any potential real-world recreations in the future?
Adrian Barritt:: How can I best put this… yes.
Noah Fentz: Awesome! I'm sure it's in its infancy, so I'll leave it at that ... for now.
Noah Fentz: Unless there is something you'd like to tell us ...
Adrian Barritt:: There are certainly some things I would love to tell you… but… sorry.
Noah Fentz: I had a suspicion ...
Adrian Barritt:: Hopefully soon though…
Noah Fentz: One thing I keep thinking about is ...
Noah Fentz: There are a number of cabinet configurations out there ... one screen, two screen, three screen, and two screen with real DMD. I see you have DMD support, but will all these formats be supported in some way?
Adrian Barritt:: That's the plan. I can't promise them all in the first version released (other than real DMD), but we are committed to supporting all the options you mention in due course.
Noah Fentz: And all inputs will be user configurable, for both keyboard and Joy controls?
Adrian Barritt:: Yes.
Noah Fentz: Fantastic!
Noah Fentz: It seems you have really done a lot of research.
Adrian Barritt:: Well Pro Pinball was originally conceived with aim of making the closest thing to a real pinball table as possible. The ultimate realisation of that concept must be to see Pro Pinball in a cabinet, with all the bells and whistles.
Noah Fentz: Will there be x/y axis support for accelerometer nudging and z axis support for analog plungers?
Adrian Barritt:: Accelerometer nudging, for sure. We'll do analog plunger support if and when we make a Pro Pinball table that has one. (One of the reasons we avoided an analogue plunger in the past was that it made it easier to keep it 'realistic' if you know what I mean.)
Noah Fentz: Well, Ade, I'm sure you're busier than ever with the success of your Kickstarter to get things rolling. Is there anything you'd like to say to your supporters before we wrap things up?
Adrian Barritt:: Absolutely! I really want to thank everyone who has been generous enough to get behind Pro Pinball to help get us to our goal. I know from reading many comments on forums that the cabinet community have really come out strongly with their support and for that I'm very grateful. The wonderful thing about Kickstarter is that it can make things happen that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Me and my team can't wait to finish off what we've started and release another pinball game we can be very proud of, and that all our backers can have many hours of fun playing. Thanks again!
Noah Fentz: Ade, I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with me. I'm really looking forward to your release of T! and subsequent titles. Thank you for what I know already is going to be a great virtual pinball experience!
Adrian Barritt:: Thanks for chatting with me, it's been great fun to do!
Noah Fentz:
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