6 ms·

We're working on something like that using Unity[1]. It's nice, because contrarily to the commercial platforms, we don't need to support low-end devices like th

We're working on something like that using Unity[1]. It's nice, because contrarily to the commercial platforms, we don't need to support low-end devices like the switch. And yes, the DXR features will make a difference[2] (sorry, I don't have a more recent video). Concerning physics, we're using VPX's engine, which is very well tuned to pinball. Not sure if the breaking the glass is going to be a thing, but PR welcome if you think so. ;) [1] https://github.com/freezy/VisualPinball.Engine https://github.com/freezy/VisualPinball.Engine [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CfZImFl1ME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CfZImFl1ME

karaterobot 3y ago
Wow, that looks really good!
xattt 3y ago
So would this be extended to physical cabinets with flipper buttons?
- phreezie 3y ago
  Absolutely, that's the main goal. I've built my cabinet over 10 years ago, so testing is assured. ;)
  - cududa 3y ago
    For a physical build, just curious if you've thought about integrating something like OpenTrack to track head/ eye position of the player and modify the camera position - to make the table look even more real when it's in a physical cabinet?
    - MegaDeKay 3y ago
      Support for something like this already exists for Visual Pinball thanks to BAM. Use a Kinect V2 for best results. https://www.ravarcade.pl/ https://www.ravarcade.pl/
    - secabeen 3y ago
      People have done this with an old Kinect. It works okay, but most people say it's not good enough to use regularly.
      - cududa 3y ago
        Yeah, I used to work on the Kinect which is why my mind went there - but the v1 certainly wouldn’t be up for this. Fun fact, originally, the resolution of the depth sensor was 640x480 but was nerfed in firmware to 320x240. Why? The makers of Rock Band wanted to make a Kinect version. But, with a Rock Band mic, bass, two guitars, and keyboard plus Kinect, the Xbox 360’s USB bus couldn’t handle it. So the Kinect got nerfed. The company behind Rock Band either shut down or went bankrupt before the Kinect went on sale. At that point, way too much of the tooling (not to mention pose estimation modeling) around the Kinect had been built with the 320x240 resolution constraint so it wasn’t feasible to “unlock” the full res.
        sleepybrett 3y ago
        It's so sad that microsoft fucked over kinect at every conceivable opportunity. I used it a lot for 'creative coding' open frameworks and processing projects (many in that community did). Thank god they bought the original from primesense and didn't have the ability, or didn't exercise the ability, to break their multi-platform sdk. When the Kinect 2 sdk was windows only it was a huge turd in the punchbowl and a clear sign that microsoft was not serious about making it a real tool to do real work with. I did do one project with the kinect 2 and learned just enough of the sdk to write a shim in c# to run the camera and pipe the data out over the network to a box that was actually doing the rendering. The kinect 2 also was excessively picky about it's usb3 port, I remember going through about half a dozen usb3 cards until I found one that worked.
    - phreezie 3y ago
      Yes, I also have a Tilt Five kit, which is awesome. We're still doing lots of work on the core parts though, so these things will come later.
cableshaft 3y ago
If you're taking requests for future pinball machines, I'd love to see the 1975 Gottlieb Soccer machine. My parents had one in our basement for most of my childhood. It was broken half the time, and was hard to find a pinball mechanic to fix it, but lots of great memories. A long shot, I'm sure, I just never really see this one get any love anymore. Volley seems pretty similar though, and looks like they're only a year apart from each other. Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiudbUYN1k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiudbUYN1k
- mrandish 3y ago
  There's actually a pretty active part of the virtual pinball community that recreates old EM machines (Electro-Mechanical). Check out www.VPForums.com and maybe post a request there. When authoring a virtual version of these older tables one of the challenges is getting a decent scan of the bare playfield. Fortunately, there are a lot of EM collectors who acquire and restore physical machines and they tend to be quite supportive of virtual preservation efforts - so they can be a great source for playfield scans (since they take it all apart when restoring anyway). Finding a hi-res scan or a potentially willing source for a scan will put you a good ways toward getting your virtual table made.
  - sumtechguy 3y ago
    Also keep in mind that a virtual version is usually close but sometimes the tables have particular quirks. For example I had a stars machine. I could back the ball up into the side chute with a flipper flick for some easy points. But virtually that does not work as it relies on the elasticity of the rubber band and the weight of the ball distorting it a bit on the flipper. Saw one guy who made VR version of these and made a physical stand which was just the plunger and buttons for him to hold onto. In VR it looked like he was playing a full thing. Tactically it felt that way too. Almost dumped 3k into that mess when I saw that before I came to my senses. There are also large collections of them out there you can get. Most of the popular tables are recreated in some way. But in varying conditions of 'done'.
- MegaDeKay 3y ago
candiddevmike 3y ago
Have the recent Unity shenanigans made you consider an alternative engine?
- phreezie 3y ago
  Yes. But at the end of the day, this is a hobby, and Unity is an awesome engine to work with. I'm following Godot more closely than ever, but too much effort to still be able to call it fun would be necessary to port this over.
appstorelottery 3y ago
This is amazing work - the lighting effects in the video are stunning. Kudos!

karaterobot 3y ago

Wow, that looks really good!

xattt 3y ago

So would this be extended to physical cabinets with flipper buttons?

phreezie 3y ago
Absolutely, that's the main goal. I've built my cabinet over 10 years ago, so testing is assured. ;)
- cududa 3y ago
  For a physical build, just curious if you've thought about integrating something like OpenTrack to track head/ eye position of the player and modify the camera position - to make the table look even more real when it's in a physical cabinet?
  - MegaDeKay 3y ago
    Support for something like this already exists for Visual Pinball thanks to BAM. Use a Kinect V2 for best results. https://www.ravarcade.pl/ https://www.ravarcade.pl/
  - secabeen 3y ago
    People have done this with an old Kinect. It works okay, but most people say it's not good enough to use regularly.
    - cududa 3y ago
      Yeah, I used to work on the Kinect which is why my mind went there - but the v1 certainly wouldn’t be up for this. Fun fact, originally, the resolution of the depth sensor was 640x480 but was nerfed in firmware to 320x240. Why? The makers of Rock Band wanted to make a Kinect version. But, with a Rock Band mic, bass, two guitars, and keyboard plus Kinect, the Xbox 360’s USB bus couldn’t handle it. So the Kinect got nerfed. The company behind Rock Band either shut down or went bankrupt before the Kinect went on sale. At that point, way too much of the tooling (not to mention pose estimation modeling) around the Kinect had been built with the 320x240 resolution constraint so it wasn’t feasible to “unlock” the full res.
      - sleepybrett 3y ago
        It's so sad that microsoft fucked over kinect at every conceivable opportunity. I used it a lot for 'creative coding' open frameworks and processing projects (many in that community did). Thank god they bought the original from primesense and didn't have the ability, or didn't exercise the ability, to break their multi-platform sdk. When the Kinect 2 sdk was windows only it was a huge turd in the punchbowl and a clear sign that microsoft was not serious about making it a real tool to do real work with. I did do one project with the kinect 2 and learned just enough of the sdk to write a shim in c# to run the camera and pipe the data out over the network to a box that was actually doing the rendering. The kinect 2 also was excessively picky about it's usb3 port, I remember going through about half a dozen usb3 cards until I found one that worked.
  - phreezie 3y ago
    Yes, I also have a Tilt Five kit, which is awesome. We're still doing lots of work on the core parts though, so these things will come later.

cableshaft 3y ago

If you're taking requests for future pinball machines, I'd love to see the 1975 Gottlieb Soccer machine. My parents had one in our basement for most of my childhood. It was broken half the time, and was hard to find a pinball mechanic to fix it, but lots of great memories. A long shot, I'm sure, I just never really see this one get any love anymore. Volley seems pretty similar though, and looks like they're only a year apart from each other. Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiudbUYN1k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiudbUYN1k

mrandish 3y ago
There's actually a pretty active part of the virtual pinball community that recreates old EM machines (Electro-Mechanical). Check out www.VPForums.com and maybe post a request there. When authoring a virtual version of these older tables one of the challenges is getting a decent scan of the bare playfield. Fortunately, there are a lot of EM collectors who acquire and restore physical machines and they tend to be quite supportive of virtual preservation efforts - so they can be a great source for playfield scans (since they take it all apart when restoring anyway). Finding a hi-res scan or a potentially willing source for a scan will put you a good ways toward getting your virtual table made.
- sumtechguy 3y ago
  Also keep in mind that a virtual version is usually close but sometimes the tables have particular quirks. For example I had a stars machine. I could back the ball up into the side chute with a flipper flick for some easy points. But virtually that does not work as it relies on the elasticity of the rubber band and the weight of the ball distorting it a bit on the flipper. Saw one guy who made VR version of these and made a physical stand which was just the plunger and buttons for him to hold onto. In VR it looked like he was playing a full thing. Tactically it felt that way too. Almost dumped 3k into that mess when I saw that before I came to my senses. There are also large collections of them out there you can get. Most of the popular tables are recreated in some way. But in varying conditions of 'done'.
MegaDeKay 3y ago

candiddevmike 3y ago

Have the recent Unity shenanigans made you consider an alternative engine?

phreezie 3y ago
Yes. But at the end of the day, this is a hobby, and Unity is an awesome engine to work with. I'm following Godot more closely than ever, but too much effort to still be able to call it fun would be necessary to port this over.

appstorelottery 3y ago

This is amazing work - the lighting effects in the video are stunning. Kudos!