Flipperdampener Routine - Some Explanation

[jimmyfingers]

Some people were asking about the FlipperDampener routine. I'll try to explain it briefly and hopefully can do so in an effective enough manner. A while back I noticed and saw other people discuss VP's ability to not shoot well straight up the table, especially if the ball was coming around the inlane with some speed vs. slower moving or from cradled shots. It had seemed in real pinball the flippers still had more affect on sending the pinball relatively straight up whether it was moving fast or slow and was still more down to just being more demanding on the timing (it also did so with not actually sending the ball flying around the table – again maybe related to the ball density differences in real pinball than appear to be in play with VP).   I actually noticed this when comparing video and working with the Scared Stiff GI8 Mod table (trying to make the crate shots from the right flipper).  Although, on that Mod I purposely edited no physics at all and wanted to keep JPs original settings for everything focusing solely on the lighting (plus I don’t think I’d developed any of my physics routines at that point).

 

Some discussion and theories were around about raising the speed and strength to help with this dilemma - both displaying different nuances in what they alter, but if they were both increased, the flippers shot the ball too fast / hard (albeit maybe more in the direction one was expecting it to go). Eala talked about it in one post and theorized as well as tested - I believe (at least I know UW did) - by doubling the size of the table to compensate for the faster shots from the flippers. So, instead of that approach and the effect it would have on rebuilding an entire table, I tested / created the trigger in the spot it currently / typically exists to edit the balls speed leaving the flipper and allow in general for stronger / faster flippers but would tone down the result without anyone really noticing the change in motion.

 

What ended up happening is that after making and evolving the formula / calculations, I was able to not only adjust the Y velocity but could for the X velocity as well (needed to actually) so it would still remain natural looking / feeling when slowed (If only VelY got altered the VelX would be high still and the and result was an overly wide trajectory). This calculation and breaking out of the “XFactor” parameter allowed to also alter the X speed disproportionately to the main level of the effect and allowed for the application of more or less straightening effect, which was a nice option to have. Further to this I added trigonometric factoring (TrigFactor) so that it would not straighten the ball as much on shots that were already more towards the side, thus still allowing the side target type shots to be makable. The threshold to apply any of this has pretty much been standard since the first instances of the routine at -10 (10 up table) so as to not affect already softer shots or plays in and around the area between the slingshots.  The over strength (that affects the X factor more the higher it gets) is the “Level” parameter and it’s formula is hyperbolic in shape so it’s much more stronger in the higher levels (8 or 9) than at the lower ones.  The X speed change is always in general proportion to the main level but does need less manual increasing the higher the main level is and the XFactor parameter allows for this tuning by increasing or decreasing it’s value independently.  

 

Overall, what it’s done is allow for much more options when combined with the flipper’s regular physics choices to tune the flipper interaction / game play while being able to keep the ball speed of the game in more realistic realms and potentially true to the real table while not sacrificing shot aim. 

 

I use it solely with higher speed / somewhat lower strength flippers (i.e. between .75 - .85 speed and .225 to .275 for strength) then tune the rest with the dampener’s parameters. Flipper swing angle (end – start angles) is still very important as this effects a lot from what I’ve seen with VP (maybe even too much) and most tables that I’ve studied originally had their VP versions with much too high “end” angles, which I surmise was more to do with trying to get VP flippers to do more of what their real life counterparts were doing vs. for how they looked - on some tables it is clear to see they’re much to hard of an angle and extremely easy to cradle the ball.  The higher angle has shown to shoot (flip) the ball much better so that the center shots were better even if the ball had speed.  But aside from the looks, over simplified cradling, and incorrectness of how it was in relation to the real game, it had some crazy backhands associated with it also.

 

Using the dampener allows for these changes and alterations while also keeping the flippers start and end points consistent with the real games so that not only straighter / more intuitive shots can be made, but the action and difficulty levels around the flippers can be maintained.  The dampener is pretty much entirely isolated from BMPR though and can be used independently.  A few things might relate in how it’s set do to other physics changes between a BMPR and a normal table, but in general the code could be used without BMPR at all.  The FlipperDampener and the flipper settings I refer to above do however compliment the tap code.  Although the tap code can work with other flipper objects level physics settings, I’ve tuned it more and designed it more with the flipper settings I found personally best.

 

Hope this helps to those that are / were interested.

 

Edit: Typo of 3rd last sentence, 2nd last paragraph (with was supposed to be without for describing whether it needs the BMPR)

[dup3d]

thx for this great explaination of the FlipperDampener routine.

as english is not my native language and the translators sometimes throws wired things out it´s not always easy for me to understand all things but your descriptions are really great and helps a lot in understanding things better.

on my avatar patch i experimented a lot with different settings to see what happens and now with your post here it becomes clearer to me. 

for my next patch i have to test some more as the flipper settings annoy me at the moment. when i´m happy with the normal shots, the backhands will not work as seen in video and vice versa. i will put some more time in at this weekend and hopefully get it working.

so long thx again for all your great work and keep the balls rolling...