Visual Pinball 10 The Holy Grail?

[mikjames]

Just tried out Tales of the Arabian Nights in Visual Pinball 10, comparing it to Zen/Fx3. Visually there really is no comparison, Visual Pinball graphics just wipe the floor with Fx3 when it comes to recreating all the fine details of the original tables. Where Zen seems to have remodeled the 3d objects, cutting down the detail and applying a cartoonish style to it, Visual Pinball scans in the 3d models and textures and presents them in stunning detail. Physics are a bit of mixed bag in Visual Pinball, with some tables more heavily scripted/customized than others, but Zen's physics are kind of a mixed bag right now as well.

Visual pinball used to be a joke just 5 or so years ago, but VPX has really pushed the limits for graphical detail. It's amazing what a dedicated group of people can do for 0$. Zen might want to up their game if they are targeting the virtual pinball cabinet crowd, if they can't compete with free offerings, they might have a problem. If I were in their shoes I'd focus less on the Williams stuff, and fix the ball physics on their original tables. Their original tables are well crafted and unique, but the featherweight ball physics makes them nearly unplayable.

[Profiler]

where does one get visual pinball? Can't see it on Steam...wanna try it out.

[mikjames]

spyrescaa の投稿を引用：

The #1 factor for me is that the physics and gameplay of VPX tables are simply awful. And the graphics, while sometimes pretty, are often static, with inferior lighting. VPX often looks nicer in still shots than it does in action, as it plays like garbage.

Unrealistic compared to what? Is Pinball Arcade like your gold standard for "realistic" physics? Go play some real tables and get back to me on that, cause VPX and Pinball Fx3 are both very realistic compared to a real pinball table. Also the graphics are objectively better on some of the VPX tables. Just because you don't have the hardware to enable the fancy effects, doesn't mean it doesn't look good.

[mikjames]

Profiler の投稿を引用：

where does one get visual pinball? Can't see it on Steam...wanna try it out.

Just google it, it's freely available on various pinball forums, along with the tables.

[Full_Throttle_F14]

NightShadowPT の投稿を引用：

What are the currently Top 10 tables in VPX, to impress newcomers?

One of my current favorites is the latest Theater of Magic table. Even though I have it on PBA it's a really well done table for VPX 10.6. There are lots of good ones out there, and some that are less polished graphics wise but are so fun to play.

You guys should also check out Future pinball and use BAM addon which will let you use custom physics and added features for BAM or Zed physics ready tables.

[mikjames]

Full_Throttle_F14 の投稿を引用：

NightShadowPT の投稿を引用：

What are the currently Top 10 tables in VPX, to impress newcomers?

One of my current favorites is the latest Theater of Magic table. Even though I have it on PBA it's a really well done table for VPX 10.6. There are lots of good ones out there, and some that are less polished graphics wise but are so fun to play.

You guys should also check out Future pinball and use BAM addon which will let you use custom physics and added features for BAM or Zed physics ready tables.

Yeah, I should really reinstall Future Pinball as well, they were way ahead of their time for graphics, physics, and ease of use back in the day. I think Visual Pinball has caught up and surpassed Future Pinball in a few areas, but there are still some tables that haven't been converted to VPX, and it's just another physics model to try if you don't like VPX/TPA/FX3 physics. BAM sounds intriguing.

[Asus]

NightShadowPT の投稿を引用：

What are the currently Top 10 tables in VPX, to impress newcomers?

This is more than 10, but these are my favorite VPX tables.

In no particular order (always get the latest version):

* AC/DC (LUCI Premium)
* Diner 4k
* Funhouse (williams 1990)_1.2c.vpx
* Indiana Jones - NZ&TT 1.2.vpx
* Medieval Madness VPX Remake - Tom Tower & Ninuzzu rev2.3.vpx
* No Fear Dangerous Sports (Williams 1995)_1.1.vpx
* Pirates of the Caribbean
* Stranger Things
* Terminator 2: Judgment Day
* VP10-The Walking Dead 1.2.vpx
* Tron Legacy (Stern 2011)1.3f.vpx
* Twilight Zone_VPX_2.1.vpx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v3gvSb_0Tk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otLJzYEXR9c
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future Pinball (Best with BAM installed)

* Halloween_ULTIMATE Pro 1.02 PE (PinEvent 1.1)
* Jaws ULTIMATE Pro 1.08 PE (PinEvent 1.1)
* Nightmare on Elm Street ULTIMATE 1.06 (Physics 2.7 DOFLinx)
* Aliens Legacy (Ultimate Edition) (v1.12) (p2.7) (DOFLinx)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KugzVtXp0HU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chmkcmRQeQc
Personally I prefer Future Pinball over VPX. It's more user-friendly, and in my opinion looks better.

VPX on the other hand is complicated cluster f**k, especially for newcomers. You may find yourself bashing your head against a wall for a few days trying to sort out this broken mess. The VPX devs seriously need to revamp this convoluted train wreck, and bring it into the modern age. Don't get me wrong. Many new VPX tables look great. It's just that setting up VPX with all the different software dependencies is anything but user friendly. It gets even worse if you want to use PUP-Packs and B2S Backglass.

[Full_Throttle_F14]

Yeah Asus those are some good ones. Diner 4k is a beauty. Stanger things is just awsome

[Asus]

Full_Throttle_F14 の投稿を引用：

Yeah Asus those are some good ones. Diner 4k is a beauty. Stanger things is just awsome

Thanks.

[punchobastardo]

The ball in VP is flat like a cut piece of paper moving around which is the major turn-off for me. I don't care for visuals or anything else if the core thing in pinball, the ball, looks like sh!t. So no it's still is a joke.

[Mal]

punchobastardo の投稿を引用：

The ball in VP is flat like a cut piece of paper moving around which is the major turn-off for me. I don't care for visuals or anything else if the core thing in pinball, the ball, looks like sh!t. So no it's still is a joke.

You haven't played in a long while then. Plus you can load whatever graphic and texture you want the ball to have. Hell, it even spins and rotates, and bounces off the playfield and properly responds to friction.

Since you can edit and adjust every single aspect of the VPX experience, if you feel it is a joke, well you must be the punchline.

[punchobastardo]

That's ugly 2D, from the above video:

https://i.postimg.cc/KzfVMRbN/Untitled.png

[Mal]

punchobastardo の投稿を引用：

That's ugly 2D, from the above video:

https://i.postimg.cc/KzfVMRbN/Untitled.png

Honestly, that is one of the older VPX tables and I agree that it could look much better (it is using the old generic and standard ball map), and if you knew how VPX works, you would know that this is a non-issue. In fact, the first thing I do with a new table is replace the ball/lighting/pov settings with my own custom ones (takes about 1 minute) and after playing a few games if I feel the need to alter the physics, I will do that too, sometimes completely overhauling the way the table plays to match my own tables, or to just apply continuity among all the tables on my pincab.

Oh well, I guess hundreds and hundreds of tables that can look and play exactly how you want them to just isn't for you.

[Mal]

punchobastardo の投稿を引用：

Mal の投稿を引用：

Oh well, I guess hundreds and hundreds of tables that can look and play exactly how you want them to just isn't for you.

yep, for the reasons Monochromatic, NightShadowPT, spyrescaa and Asus stated as well, let's quote Asus' for example:

Asus の投稿を引用：

VPX on the other hand is complicated cluster f**k, especially for newcomers. You may find yourself bashing your head against a wall for a few days trying to sort out this broken mess. The VPX devs seriously need to revamp this convoluted train wreck, and bring it into the modern age. Don't get me wrong. Many new VPX tables look great. It's just that setting up VPX with all the different software dependencies is anything but user friendly. It gets even worse if you want to use PUP-Packs and B2S Backglass.

So as long as I'm not poor I prefer the convenience of FX3, even if I have to wait months for new tables, instead of the above mazochism.

There is literally a single all-in-one installer for VPX these days. If you can configure a PC racing wheel or multiple monitors you shouldn't have any trouble if you are able to RTFM.

Poor? A proper VPX pincab can run in the thousands of $. And the funny thing is, there is just as much configuring on a pincab here with FX3 (backglass, etc) and TPA (third party solutions) as there is with VPX.

If you are just a desktop player, I agree that the FX3 experience and convenience is more than worth the less than a Starbucks coffee price per table. But it is nice having options.

[Ronn]

Monochromatic の投稿を引用：

VPX10 is not a user friendly experience. So, yes, it’s possible to compete with free.

The VPX community has indeed pushed VPX to its limits, some of them have resorted to rendering tricks to get the tables to look good at specific angles (the angles that make sense for pincabs). But they look terrible if you change the view angle.

At its core, VPX is a 2.5D engine.

I haven’t seen the VR version of VPX but it must be a new engine because VPX10 was not a 3D engine last I checked. Many tables were still scripting the the ball to teleport to different levels. Certain tables like NGG were almost impossible to emulate with VPX10 because you couldn’t make a ball fly off a ramp.

Disclaimer: I haven’t seen the state of VPX in over a year. Maybe the engine has improved by leaps and bounds in the last year. I loved VPX when I used it, but it really isn’t user-friendly to set up and has its limitations.

Some minor corrections and additional information. :)

VPX 10 is 3D (DirectX 9 actually) but it doesn't have "free camera" when you play, you have to adjust the camera outside of playing.

VPVR is the same base code but was ported to OpenGL to be able to do VR since DirectX9 is deprecated and not really supported by any VR API nowadays.

Baked textures are not a bad thing, for example Totan looks amazing in VR as well, but some table authors do other tricks that only works with a fixed camera like putting layers above the table. For VR table versions called VR-ROOMS are now a thing where table authors are creating modified versions of tables that look good in VR complete with surrounding environments and such.

Hopefully sometime in the future VPX and VPVR will be merged together, VPX will also get upgraded to a newer graphics API in the future maybe in VPX11 (The main developers are actually very interested in Raytracing) but development takes time and the roadmap is quite big.

There is also a side project going on that is trying to port the engine to Unity, it can already display the tables in there with amazing graphics and native VR support but still needs the physics engine and such.

[AcadDude]

I have tried setting up VPX a few times and no matter how easy it is to setup I get mixed results on if a table will even load. Some tables load and run. It took awhile to figure out which file went where. Then hit and miss on if a ROM file matched a table file. If all the files for a table were bundled together that would be awesome. Maybe I haven't figured out the logic of VPForums downloads? I will probably try again sometime soon and find that the Steam Pinball games are way easier to setup on a pincab than VPX. It lures me in with a frontend that looks like it will load a table then either it shows up rotated or errors out and then I have to google how to fix a download that has been downloaded hundreds of times so obviously its my fault. So I then realize once again that I am not worthy of VPX.