6 replies to this topic

[freneticamnesic]

It's common knowledge that default ramps in Visual Pinball are terrible

You don't get support rings, proper 3d lighting effects, hard to work with, and if you do create a wire ramp using smaller ramps to get the effect you need, you're hung out to try if anyone wants to convert your table to desktop, or adjust layback, or anything, because it's all oriented to one perspective. I did this on Sharkey's Shootout, and I think it turned out OK but it needs to be updated with Future Pinball ramps now that I have seen how easy it is.

 

The bottom line is: it's worth it.

 

Now, there's a lot more you can do beyond what I show in this video. If you're comfortable with Blender, there's a ton of great things you can achieve. Check out some of the videos here once you are comfortable with this step http://wiki.blender....turePinball_FPx

 

 

 

 

 

Export your VP blueprint (File > Export)

Translate your VP table size to FP units (kiwi says 2 VP units = 1mm in FP, but technically it doesn't matter, I never scale my ramps properly and have to adjust the scaling of the object in VP)

Import your VP blueprint to FP and use as your table image

Create ramp in FP like you would in VP

Add your objects, and the exciting things are what you can do to the transform points - these are the rings. In FP there's like 15 different ring types.

 

After you get the ramp you want in FP, save it as a table

 

Open Blender (free, fairly complicated but you only need a few pieces of info to make this work)

Install the MS3D importer plugin 

Install the FP importer plugin

 

Import your .fpt table

 

Move things around in Blender if needed (I needed to move the end pieces to line up with the wire ramp, this is just moving it along the axis)

The lengthwise wire in FP ramps is imported as a curve while the rings are imported as meshes. Everything needs to be mesh, so select the curves and convert to> mesh from curve

Select your new mesh wires and go to edit mode > faces > triangulate faces (I have determined that all faces in VP need to be triangulated, otherwise you get strange texture issues)

Now select every object in your ramp and join it as one unit

 

Now you can export your wire ramp as an .obj - in the export options, make sure Write Normals and Triangulate Faces is checked, then export

 

Now you can import into VP! Easy. I use the Chrome-Silver texture but you can try different metal textures to get desired look.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

That looks supernice. I get a real metallic feel about it. Great job.

[batch]

Thank you so much for this fantastic video, Freneticamnesic, it's crystal clear 

[batch]

Thanks again for this topic, it works just fine when doing ramps

 

But I tried to use the same method with wires

 

 

 

 

and I got this error message

 

 

Is there another method to use for wires ?

[freneticamnesic]

after triangulating, mesh > uv unwrap > spherical projection then export obj and it should work

[batch]

It works fine, thanks a lot again !

[Mr H]

What has happened to this plugin? I've tried to find it with no luck, seems like its been removed. Could someone please send it to me? I need to open a future pin table in Blender.

Thanks.

Edited by Mr H, 25 October 2018 - 12:51 AM.