15 replies to this topic

[Topogram]

Is there a comprehensive manual for creating tables with VP? I think I'd like to try creating one (instead of just consuming them!) but am not sure where to start.

 

Thanks,

 

[rockhouse]

i've asked a few times no luck yet

[FreeLunch]

There's an ongoing effort at the vpinball website to consolidate a lot of tutorials and information community members make, but it's not exactly comprehensive. There are general skills, like programming fundamentals, that you probably won't find members here making tutorials for (unless it's visual pinball-specific) because you can get that information anywhere. However, I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a page or post somewhere with links to various places where you could learn everything from the ground-up necessary to make tables assuming you know nothing. I'll see if I can track something down.

[FreeLunch]

I'm not seeing anywhere I can lazily point to for an end-all beginner guide. Before I point you in a direction to get started @Topogram and @rockhouse, do you have any background with programming, 3D art, 2D art, or general game design? What goals do you have for the tables you want to build? Original or recreation? Do you want it to look pretty, or just functional? How much of the Visual Pinball editor are you familiar with? There's a lot of challenges with making pinball tables with Visual Pinball, and even the "pros" here often work together and take advantage of their individual strengths and skills.

[rockhouse]

a keep it simple approach would be good

functional is ok  pretty comes later.

Start with an e.m playfield thats not been made

then a step by step guide i dont care if it takes a year there is

no rush as long as its a simple to follow tutorial.

i can see people have a life to lead so small easy to follow steps.

Not a criticism just an observation but there are loads of tables

not been made i can see you need good resources

but as long as its playable pretty comes later

just my opinion so i wait to be shot down

[Topogram]

I'm not seeing anywhere I can lazily point to for an end-all beginner guide. Before I point you in a direction to get started @Topogram and @rockhouse, do you have any background with programming, 3D art, 2D art, or general game design? What goals do you have for the tables you want to build? Original or recreation? Do you want it to look pretty, or just functional? How much of the Visual Pinball editor are you familiar with? There's a lot of challenges with making pinball tables with Visual Pinball, and even the "pros" here often work together and take advantage of their individual strengths and skills.

Thanks FreeLunch. I’m a jobbing software engineer so very familiar with code. I have a little experience with 2D art creation (have made a few simple retro platform games in the past). No familiarity really with the VP editor but have just finished building a virtual cabinet. Looking to perhaps do a table recreation.

Edited by Topogram, 28 September 2017 - 07:02 PM.

[bord]

In the absence of any guides I started by finding a VP9 table that I wanted to port to VPX and just set to the task of making it work properly. It kind of forces you to learn each aspect of a table. Have a good VPX table next to you to imitate so you are picking up good building techniques and ask questions on the forum as you go.

[Thalamus]

If that task is a bit to much to bite over. You could also consider converting a few VP9 to a PM5. It is not at all the same, but, it will give you some insight into problem solving. Some tables is just changing values here and there. But, others you need to dig through to figure out why it isn't working. That means, reading and learning what the different components do and how to adjust them. Get your hands dirty - before jumping into what Bord suggested.

[FreeLunch]

 

I'm not seeing anywhere I can lazily point to for an end-all beginner guide. Before I point you in a direction to get started @Topogram and @rockhouse, do you have any background with programming, 3D art, 2D art, or general game design? What goals do you have for the tables you want to build? Original or recreation? Do you want it to look pretty, or just functional? How much of the Visual Pinball editor are you familiar with? There's a lot of challenges with making pinball tables with Visual Pinball, and even the "pros" here often work together and take advantage of their individual strengths and skills.

Thanks FreeLunch. I’m a jobbing software engineer so very familiar with code. I have a little experience with 2D art creation (have made a few simple retro platform games in the past). No familiarity really with the VP editor but have just finished building a virtual cabinet. Looking to perhaps do a table recreation.

 

I should be able to point you in the right directions to get started. For coding, check out the Doc and Scripts folders in your Visual Pinball installation, especially CommandReference.txt and core.vbs. Open table scripts from other tables for a plethora of coding examples. In the Visual Pinball editor, the Table menu at the top is going to have your asset managers. Make sure Options is toggled under the View menu at the top, the Options bar has a lot of variable manipulation for objects and lighting.  The Insert menu at the top will let you make some 3D objects withing Visual Pinball, and you can import models as primitives as well. For scoring logic, you'll want to figure out if you're making a PinMAME (SS) recreation where you hook into a PinMAME ROM, or an EM recreation or an UltraDMD original where you write the logic. For separate monitor animated backglass support, look up directB2S, I don't know much about it myself.

And I only have a mostly inexperienced background in programming and fiddling with Visual Pinball throughout this year. You probably could surpass what I know in no time with your background, so be sure to come back with specific questions, and more experienced members here will probably be happy to help. I find this community to be generally helpful, especially solving specific questions/problems.

[gtxjoe]

Here some info:

 

Here is an old vp9 tutorial to just review and see the overall process.  The Lights, targets, rollovers, posts, have all been simplified in VPX so just read this as a primer.  

http://www.vpforums....showtopic=25665

 

For those wanting to understand pinmame coding, read the Visual Pinmame scripting tutorials here

http://www.vpforums....hp?showforum=27

 

I would work on porting an existing table to VPX as your first table

 

Start new table with correct dimensions from dimension manager

Use new or old playfield image

Setup outside walls

Adjust apron, ballrelease kicker, drain, plunger and shooter lane

Places flippers and inlanes

Adjust slings

Place VPX Bumpers

Place VPX posts

Place VPX rubbers

Place VPX rollover switches, try to name them same as old table

Place VPX targets, try to name them same as old table

Place VPX spinners, try to name them same as old table

Place VPX light inserts, try to name them same as old table

 

At this point I like to get the script working so you can see the attract light insert animation

Then continue working on adding plastics, ramps, GI lighting

 

For a vpinmame script, it consists of 

Table_init for trough, target banks

Keydown handler

Key up handler

Switch subroutines

Solenoid subroutines

Light and flash subroutines

Sound subroutines.

[FreeLunch]

@rockhouse if you don't have a background in programming, Google Search a beginner programming tutorial. It doesn't have to be in Visual Basic which is the language Visual Pinball uses, you would probably find a better tutorial for something like C# or C++, and that should be fine. If you want to see how programming can be more involved with game design, look up Unity3D tutorials. I'd recommend that route the most because I think a lot of concepts will carry over. You should be able to find written tutorials, video tutorials, all kinds of tutorials. Once you grasp the basics, you should be able to start messing around in the Visual Pinball Editor and follow the rest of the advice here.

[gtxjoe]

Visual Pinball scripts are written in VBScript, so you can search for tutorials on that also. It's basically a subset of Visual Basic

[Topogram]

Really helpful advice guys as usual. I think I shall attempt to port a VP9 table on my first go as that seems most sensible. Looks like this is going to take a while though!

 

Out of interest, does anyone here know if VP is a 2D physics simulation or a 3D one? Curious to know if I need to know 3D modelling or if most of the toys on the playfield, etc are just 2D images/sprites.

[kiwi]

You do not need to know 3D modeling, VPX has 3D ready-to-use objects, to start building a table is more than enough.
The new default table has a set of 3D objects such as pegs, bumper caps, just copy and paste the objects that interest you in your table.

[FreeLunch]

Really helpful advice guys as usual. I think I shall attempt to port a VP9 table on my first go as that seems most sensible. Looks like this is going to take a while though!

 

Out of interest, does anyone here know if VP is a 2D physics simulation or a 3D one? Curious to know if I need to know 3D modelling or if most of the toys on the playfield, etc are just 2D images/sprites.

The physics are definitely 3D, ball spin included. I recall some table authors struggling to tame some weird physics interactions with custom 3D ramp models. Air balls are possible, too, so you can flip a ball up a ramp with a low wall and it can fly out (I was beta testing for a table this was a frequent issue with). Since end users can tweak the Camera POV, generally anything should have perspective considerations.

[bord]

Right, so lots of 3d assets go into a build yet lighting is defiantly 2D. If you aren't cursing that limitation you will be eventually.