elchmartin Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 hey! first of all sorry for my english maybe not being perfect, I am not a native speaker. This thread, hopefully, can become a stating guide for others to follow. i am sure that more questions will come up later on. So I am very new to the whole "scene" of creating VirtualPinball machines. I think I am quite familiar with PCs and getting hardware pieced together, the same should apply for some woodworking and electric wiring for the cabinet. My understanding is that a good setup contains: 1 screen (large) for the table itself 1 screen for the "head" displaying scores and maybe controlling the operating system 1 PC with decent CPU and graphics power several Hardware Buttons (minimum 2) a trigger for launching the ball speakers and amplifier a cabinet to carry all of this There is already some hardware present, I think it's the bare essentals: 1 large screen, a 32" HDMI Full-HD 1 small screen, i can choose either a 19" DVI 1280x1024 or a somewhere 20" DVI 1600x1200 2 aged computers to coose from (Phenom-X4, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD4600) (Core2Duo, 2GB, integrated graphics) a keyboard to control everything, hardware-buttons come later Now I was wondering: if one of those computers is powerful enough to run virtualized pinball machines in Full-HD. what operating system to use, I was planning und Windows-7 (x86 or x64?) what Pinball software to use. I figured there are different possibilities Thank you for your time and for your comments on this. Really looking forward to get started greetings from Duesseldorf, Germany! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rappelbox Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Hi and welcome! 1. i can't help you here but other share can Imo it's to weak, especially graphics card 2. Win 7 x64 is perfect and should work best 3. Very complex thing... Visual pinball - best simulation, especially in version 10 beta Future pinball - good graphics, with som mods (bam, zedphysics, other pysicsmods) Pinballfx2 - good "fantasy" tables and becoming more and more popular as the developer is adding more and mor cab support Pinball arcade - I have no experience with it Greets, Dom ...from Gütersloh, Germany Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westworld Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 When I started I used a Pentium IV with 4 GB Ram + old graphic card to test. It worked fine with 2 screens and old tables, such as End 70's or even mechanical beginning 70's. It did not worked fine with more modern ones, especially in multi ball. I quickly replaced it with a i5, 8 GB Ram and a medium priced graphic card (nvidia 670). That allowed me to play everything. In the meanwhile I replaced the card with 970, as the new tables getting bigger (and better). Win7 64 bit is fine, but for a new installation, why not directly start with Win10? It's no update charge and your system will be fine for the coming years. 32" is fine, but if you plan to build a cabinet, think about a 40". As currently UHD TV's get cheaper and cheaper, and everyone wants 3D, some people are trash their old 40" 2D HD screens as too old. That could be an opportunity for you. I started with Future Pinball, as that was the most easy to setup and get first results. After a while I found Virtual Pinball and that's really a different story. More difficult to setup, especially with backglass, but so real. Later you can add a 3rd screen or even real DMD (much cheaper now than a year ago) and DOF with ledstrips moves everything to the next level. In theory you can use several different pinball software on the same computer, but after I while I focused on Virtual Pinball (but currently in 3 different versions). take it easy to start. There are some struggles. But it is worth the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elchmartin Posted October 29, 2015 Author Share Posted October 29, 2015 thanks to the two of you. fun thing both answers are from germany with the salvaged machines lacking power I just might use my "big" computer, should be just fine (Phenom II X4, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD7600, SSD+HDD). maybe i will get enough experience setting up the software side. I do have experience with win10, let's just say I am not a fan yet. Still using Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on most PCs (the macs are a different story ) about getting a 40"TV ... nah, space in my apartment is limited and i think it will be too big then. plus a used 40" still will be like 100€-200€ ... DMD is definitely an option but not a priority right now. my final goal is to get a running "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" machine up and running. don't ask why, it's just the one I played when I was young taking it slow is also part of my project cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider Itchigo Posted October 30, 2015 Content Provider Share Posted October 30, 2015 I'm not from Germany. About using your 'big" computer, I have my computer do double duty as a cab and a computer. I'm on my cab's computer right now. My first cab was a 25 inch pf. I cannibalized it to make my full size one, and a 40 inch- well it was night and day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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