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Need A Physmod5 History Lesson


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Posted

Hello, so after a big absence from Digital Pinball (Stale Environment) to pursue other hobbies, these hobbies turned into what now seems like work so i have abandoned them just at the right time, I think, because so much has happened in the last 6 months that has made this hobby fun again.

 

What has made this hobby fun again is Primarily the Release of Physmod5 and of-course vpinmame source, not to mention all the great table authors here and VPU obviously.

 

From what research ive been able to do, I'm still confused as to How PM5 came about and its future.

 

So correct me if i'm wrong, please end my confusion.

 

The story as far as i know now is VP went open source for some reason, then VP Dev team releases a modified version PM5 , but the official version also gets updated eg VP9.9 and apparently we are waiting for VP10 which will be a blend of both, but apparently VP10 wont run existing tables and does PM5 then get abandoned.

 

Can anyone clarify this for me.

 

Cheers

 

P.S : Not looking for a debate on the subject, just need to know the facts please

  • Content Provider
Posted

Pm5 is essentially a beta test for the new physics.

The new physics incorporated into vp9.9.0. With dx9.

Vp 10 will have the new physics from pm5 but with all the settings unlocked.

Vp 10 will also have a bunch of mesh based objects like bumpers with animated bumper rings and animated mesh wire and star rollovers. It also contains a new environmental lighting system which requires materials settings for all onjects.

The materials, some command name changes, and new flasher and light insert objects are the main reason it will not be backwards compatible.

There is also a nice new gibulb object.

After getting about half way through converting my fire pm5 table to vp 10. The conversions are really not that hard but take a little time as until we have a library of materials for people to download and use, authors will have to create their own

  • Content Provider
Posted

Just to add - 

VP9.2.1 was the last version of VP based on DirectX7 graphics engine using the old physics engine

VP9.9.1 is the last version of VP based on DirectX9 graphics engine using old physics engine.  (Some of the older table releases when played with VP9.9 have graphical glitches due to the upgrade to DirectX9)

Posted

Hey, as I'm totally new here and quite the noob on VPF I need a litlle update too.

Mainly why the (vp) universe started to exist and who created it ;)

My impression so far:

So here's the place for the more relaxed and open minded people!

You invented a patching system! (Cool)

You do sam tables. (Even more cool)

question:

First place for VP development is still VPF, right?

VPmame is developed by toxie over at VPF and hosted here? Or are theese different versions?

  • Content Provider
Posted

toxie is the vpinmame maintainer, he works on it at vpf and releases it at vpf. arngrim is the guy who compiled the SAM source into the vpinmame.dll and he is the one who adds new roms to vpinmame for SAM games, and that is strictly on VPU.

Posted

Just to add some more details ... 

 

VP went open source quite a while ago.   The existing dev team continued making fixes refinements to it and added some important features, such as 3d primitive support.    Some of us started seeing a big issue with the new 3D primitives:  Tables that utilized them extensively performed very poorly on Windows 7 for a lot of us, but performed decently on Windows XP with the same hardware.   UncleWilly's Monster Bash table "PC Killer Edition" became the benchmark for performance.   

 

Then a coding master-magician by the name of Mukuste appeared and did what was previously not thought to be feasible - he re-wrote the graphics engine in DX9 and made it mostly backwards compatible to pre-existing tables.  This was a huge deal because it resolved the performance issues we were seeing on more modern operating systems since DX7 was no longer being supported by vendors very well.  The "PC Killer" Monster Bash now worked well on even lower end systems.    This also laid the foundation for further graphics engine enhancements which are now being worked on as part of VP10.

 

During VP9.9's development, one stubborn problem was ball stutter.  System performance could no longer be blamed as the root cause.    During Mukuste's investigation, he determined that there were a lot of limitations to VP's physics engine, some of which prevented using "Vsync" options for perfectly smooth gameplay.   Mukuste dropped one more bomb on us - a modified VP9 that demonstrated a new, more realistic physics engine.    This engine was NOT backwards-compatible.    The plan was to make a VP10.0 relatively soon after that incorporates the new physics engine and some other fixes to the core that were not compatible to VP9.     Then, Mukuste moved and disappeared from the scene.  

 

Despite Mukuste's disappearance, the original dev team has steadily continued their work on VP10, and I have no doubt that it will be something great when it's finally released.

Posted

Just to add some more details ... 

 

VP went open source quite a while ago.   The existing dev team continued making fixes refinements to it and added some important features, such as 3d primitive support.    Some of us started seeing a big issue with the new 3D primitives:  Tables that utilized them extensively performed very poorly on Windows 7 for a lot of us, but performed decently on Windows XP with the same hardware.   UncleWilly's Monster Bash table "PC Killer Edition" became the benchmark for performance.   

 

Then a coding master-magician by the name of Mukuste appeared and did what was previously not thought to be feasible - he re-wrote the graphics engine in DX9 and made it mostly backwards compatible to pre-existing tables.  This was a huge deal because it resolved the performance issues we were seeing on more modern operating systems since DX7 was no longer being supported by vendors very well.  The "PC Killer" Monster Bash now worked well on even lower end systems.    This also laid the foundation for further graphics engine enhancements which are now being worked on as part of VP10.

 

During VP9.9's development, one stubborn problem was ball stutter.  System performance could no longer be blamed as the root cause.    During Mukuste's investigation, he determined that there were a lot of limitations to VP's physics engine, some of which prevented using "Vsync" options for perfectly smooth gameplay.   Mukuste dropped one more bomb on us - a modified VP9 that demonstrated a new, more realistic physics engine.    This engine was NOT backwards-compatible.    The plan was to make a VP10.0 relatively soon after that incorporates the new physics engine and some other fixes to the core that were not compatible to VP9.     Then, Mukuste moved and disappeared from the scene.  

 

Despite Mukuste's disappearance, the original dev team has steadily continued their work on VP10, and I have no doubt that it will be something great when it's finally released.

 

Thanks for the Info, thank god for Mukuste and I was wondering why UW "PC Killer" Monster Bash worked so well on my crappy system, hopefully hes on a break and comes back after VP10 releases for tweaking if needed. Cheers mate , very interesting.

  • Content Provider
Posted

Kudos to all involved in moving vp forward. No matter where they are from.

 

Mpad: The bottom line is VPU was started as a nice place with a better atmosphere. Each (all 3 sites) have something(s) the others don't. So it's best to keep all your options open. :)

Posted

Thanks! I became an active reader of VPF after the dx9 conversion. This was when VP finally got rid of its performance limitations and things got interesting...

And the third site is hyper....? :)

Posted

Thanks! I became an active reader of VPF after the dx9 conversion. This was when VP finally got rid of its performance limitations and things got interesting... And the third site is hyper....? :)

 LoL , And the third site is ********* , check under itchigo's signature, all will be revealed ;)

Posted

Thanks! I became an active reader of VPF after the dx9 conversion. This was when VP finally got rid of its performance limitations and things got interesting... And the third site is hyper....? :)

LoL , And the third site is ********* , check under itchigo's signature, all will be revealed ;)

Oh boy. In tapatalk you don't see sigs.

Become a rouge... got it.

Well, as I like tpa and zen too, I have a lot to keep track of now...

I need a break :)

  • 1 month later...
  • Content Provider
Posted

What does it mean to make a physmod of a table? I dont see anything noticeable in the scripts from a v9 table compared to a physmod table. Is it in the objects that can be placed on a table?

(is there a link to what it means to physmod a table?)

 

-- oh man ignore the multiple posts.

  • Content Provider
Posted

What does it mean to make a physmod of a table? I dont see anything noticeable in the scripts from a v9 table compared to a physmod table. Is it in the objects that can be placed on a table?

(is there a link to what it means to physmod a table?)

  • Content Provider
Posted

What does it mean to make a physmod of a table? I dont see anything noticeable in the scripts from a v9 table compared to a physmod table. Is it in the objects that can be placed on a table?

(is there a link to what it means to physmod a table?)

  • Content Provider
Posted

What does it mean to make a physmod of a table? I dont see anything noticeable in the scripts from a v9 table compared to a physmod table. Is it in the objects that can be placed on a table?

(is there a link to what it means to physmod a table?)

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