Late To The Fp Party

[Gilrock]

Well I had quite an eventful weekend in my pinball emulation world.  I started out saturday morning searching forums for the best way to capture backglass videos because all the ones I had for my VP tables are showing speaker grills and DMD's and look nothing like the B2S backglass when I go into the game.  So I wanted to learn to make my own videos.  I stumbled on a thread with someone suggesting using Camtasia which looks great btw and he showed an example video of what he had done and in the video was showing all three screens of the table War of the Worlds.  I was like OMG that looks freakin awesome I gotta have that table.  Then I saw it was Future Pinball and I've never even installed it before because when I first started in the beginning of the year I read comments claiming it was a dead simulator with no support and I could only find installation tutorials for VP so that's what I went with.

 

So I spent hours upon hours this weekend trying to find FP setup help and eventually I worked my way through several problems.  At first more than half the tables would crash and when the ball moved across the screen it would eat away at the texture like pacman...lol.  Also when the ball was initially placed in the launch lane there was a god awful repeating sound.  I spent over an hour searching for how to disable the shaker sound until I found a tip that suggested checking the vsync box.  It sounded like a crazy suggestion totally unrelated to the problem but sure enough it fixed that issue and most of the crashes disappeared.  The rest of the crashes seemed to disappear by changing some model setting to high.  And I had to disable reflections to get rid of the pacman effect.  Then I found a tip to modify a registry setting which made the angle of the table look better but messed up the lighting a little.

 

I also found the post on this forum with links to some tables by Slamt1lt and wow are they awesome.  Having never tried the versions before these guys mod'ed the tables I'm not sure what was added but the results are awesome.  I'm hooked on these FP tables.  I've read others not liking them because they are too out there but the audio in the games just blows me away.  My son came running in the room when he heard the Tron Legacy soundtrack playing.  And I loved the VP version of KISS I've been playing because I used to own that table but how can you not like the FP version of KISS listening to those soundtracks while playing the table.  F-14 Tomcat audio was awesome and I loved it when I started Jurassic Park and heard the phrase "Hold onto your butts."...lol.  I don't know who created all those tables but I feel like I owe them some money.

 

I spent a couple hours trying to get the LedWiz outputs working but I failed at that.  I'm pretty sure I followed all those instructions right but it just wasn't working.

 

I'm running the version of FP from the website and today I'm reading there is another version out there that removes the splash screen and that there is a mod for 2.5 physics and something out there called BAM.  The splash screen isn't really bothering me but I didn't know if that version fixes other things I should have.  After tuning all the settings and having all the tables working I'm reluctant to make a change that screws everything up.

 

Sorry for the long saga if you actually made it this far in my message...lol.  I'm just excited about these FP tables and it's brought my pincab to a whole new level.

 

Thanks,

Gil

[faralos]

I use both FP versions side by side with no problems

 but I also use only a desktop monitor with NO cab at all

the newer (hacked) fp version does have better physics too

as well as removing that front end splash screen

but since it is an illegal hack job some sites don't support it at all

FP is closed source while VP is open source software

anyhow the fp (newer version; hacked)pins do play better since the physics have been tweaked

[Loafmeister]

FP physics 2.5 is no longer considered a hack Faralos, as BAM can now load external physics settings without modifying the exe.

 

Welcome aboard Gilrock, enjoy FP for what it is, a damn good time can be had with it for sure.  some of the BAM enhancements as well as many others will basically freak you out.

 

BTW, the blotches issue you describe is typically found because reflections are on (and you are using a NVidia card I assume?).  BAM now fixes this too!

[Gilrock]

Yeah I found help that said it was the reflections.  That's what I meant by "And I had to disable reflections to get rid of the pacman effect."  But I didn't know BAM fixed the issue so I'll have to turn it back on and see how it goes.

 

I'm way far along with FP since posting this.  I tested the head tracking with BAM using a Xbox 360 Kinect and now I've got 2 PS3Eye cameras I just ordered sitting here disassembled and removing the IR filters and I built a little IR circuit and parts to do a calibration board.  I don't even know if I will play with that feature regularly but it sure is cool to show off to others.

 

Gil

[faralos]

I still call it a hack since that is what it is called on vpf

 and until it is known otherwise I will call it as such

at least until everyone endorses it

but what is this BAM thing I keep on hearing about?

[DStruct]

Seriously, you could at least do a little reading before you try and talk about things. It would be a nice change of pace.

[Wildman]

I still call it a hack since that is what it is called on vpf

 and until it is known otherwise I will call it as such

at least until everyone endorses it

but what is this BAM thing I keep on hearing about?

 

1   this is'nt VPF......    Really its not check your address bar ..

 

2  Who's everyone ?     Oh you mean paul ( Noah )     Yea I keep forgetting he's the official authority on everything pinball.

 

3  that BAM thing?  is the sound you hear of braincells popping in that empty space between your ears

 

read DStruct post above and try it faralos, it really works..Really it does

[Itchigo]

Noah doesn't decide what's a hack and not. He only decides what HE wants on HIS site, that's all. He has nothing to do with fp at all other than hosting stuff. He actually has more ground to stand on with vp, but not as much as he thinks.....

 

[Loafmeister]

For fuck's sake, from a VPF perspective, Noah has approved the BAM modified physics txt thing, so although what happens here or at gopinball has nothing to do with VPF, its still a moot point anyway, this isn't a hack because the exe isn't modified and that's how those 3 Virtual Pinball sites.  Doesn't seem like Itch minds so I guess his site is ok.

 

Why don't you provide a good service for all Faralos and ask on Pinball Nirvana?  Then if they are ok with it, you can put this to rest as that will fit your choice of words of "everyone".  Feel free to report back here with your research, then anyone else who may be wondering will know.  At least that little bit of research is better than assuming, right?