Flipperless Bumper Pool and Billiards (ongoing)

[Gimli]

Curious. I have never seen that happen. You can press the "Presets" button to make global changes but you always have to go back and change model quality back to high after you do it.

@Ike Savage

This table uses High def 3d models and normal maps and Gifs so it doesn't surprise me that it needs higher settings

 

[Ike Savage]

Curious. I have never seen that happen. You can press the "Presets" button to make global changes but you always have to go back and change model quality back to high after you do it.

I know; that's why I specifically mentioned that I'd done that.

But to tell you the truth, I believe I also checked or unchecked "render game room" in addition to what I mentioned above. Is that something you think would crash BAM, or games like this?

 

[Gimli]

I know; that's why I specifically mentioned that I'd done that.

But to tell you the truth, I believe I also checked or unchecked "render game room" in addition to what I mentioned above. Is that something you think would crash BAM, or games like this?

I am not aware of that being a problem , to turn off the Games Room, I used the code:

xBAM.GameRoom = false

 

[GeorgeH]

The game room option turns the default game room on and off. The main problem that can happen is to turn it on when the table developer has created his own game room. Then you get room objects from both rooms lying on top of each other. I think Rav added an option on BAM that can switch the default game room on and off when playing a game. That tells me the default game room must load on every table whether it is used or not.

 

[Ike Savage]

Would it make sense to just turn the option off in user settings and let BAM or the table dev control the variable?

Remember, I'm a FP newbie. Most of this shizzle is way over my head.

 

[TerryRed]

There's a reason why I'm very specific about the settings I recommend in my FP and BAM Mega guide. It's to allow for maximum compatibility on all tables.

The problem is...people either never see that guide... or start changing options they shouldn't afterward.... and then they run into problems with some tables not running. Don't get me started about "work computers".

Use these settings for Desktop play...and adjust only the resolution, monitor and anti-aliasing as needed.

 

[GeorgeH]

Would it make sense to just turn the option off in user settings and let BAM or the table dev control the variable?

You can't actually turn off the table dev's room objects. So it is either use the table dev's room or have both turned on at the same time. I always have it turned off as Terry suggests. There is an option in BAM where you can redefine keys where there is an option to turn the game room on or off. I have it set to "R" for room and you can use this key to turn the default game room on when the table dev did not add one.

Well I do remember Gimli provided an option to turn the Table Dev's room off on Creature From the Black Lagoon but that is unusual.

 

[Gimli]

Here is a version with the Redundant keycodes removed ("x", "v" and "z")
and here is a game play video

Game Keys are now as follows:

'1. left and right arrow to aim

'2. Up arrow changes view to Camera over cue or zoomed out view

'3. Down arrow flips cue during aiming

'4. "M" on keyboard to turn aiming arrow on /off

'5. Plunger key hold and release for variable strength and hitting cue ball, see 9. belwo

'6. "B" on keyboard will swap players

'7. Special1 or Special2 keys will rotate zoomed out camera view by 90 degrees

'8. If a foul is assigned ( for Wiffed ball, no rail hit, hit wrong suit, no ball hit) then next player gets "ball in hand"
'Use arrows to move Green Marker ball and press "Plungerkey" when happy and it should place cue ball at that location

'9 Adding Top and Back Spin are accomplished in Camera over cue zoomed in mode (see above)
'The first press of plungerkey will activate the add Spin feature and move the cue out of the way, use up and down arrows to set spin.
'Press plungerkey again to confirm spin the cue will move back to resting position.
'Now you can use the plunger key to take your shot as per usual.

'for shots in zoomed- out mode the plunger key is just for shooting ( not for adding spin)

 

[wild]

Have you updated your graphics card drivers ?

No,Bob...for the moment I can not do this shopping.....

Yes of course, I have the latest available from nvidia, but this for years now, I have the feeling that it is some setting, I don't know what, because I only have problems in the textures, I see them black, everything else works fine

if you and terry, use a laptop from a few years ago, and it works for you, I don't understand why not in mine....

 

[Ike Savage]

Tried the newest version briefly, and it lasted a little longer, but still had the same problem, I think:

After I potted a couple balls, for some reason the game brought up the green 'ball in hand' mode, even though I hadn't scratched the cue ball. EDIT: actually maybe I did technically whiff due to not understanding how the english system worked, okay.

In any case, pressing various keys brought up the familiar crash as mentioned earlier.

Dunno if I'm the only tester having this problem at this point. Maybe it's a settings issue. I'll try to go back and see how many times I can replicate the issue, and screenshot the error.

EDIT2: Bob, I noticed that in the first post, you'd linked the download to the most recent post, not the download itself. I took the liberty of editing the first post so that people only need make a single click to download.

Next update, if you right click on the latest attached file, you can choose "copy link address." Then edit that in to post #1 instead of linking to the latest post. If they want to see the latest post, they can simply jump to the end of the thread. (hope I'm making sense here)

 

[Gimli]

Tried the newest version briefly, and it lasted a little longer, but still had the same problem, I think:

After I potted a couple balls, for some reason the game brought up the green 'ball in hand' mode, even though I hadn't scratched the cue ball. EDIT: actually maybe I did technically whiff due to not understanding how the english system worked, okay.

In any case, pressing various keys brought up the familiar crash as mentioned earlier.

Dunno if I'm the only tester having this problem at this point. Maybe it's a settings issue. I'll try to go back and see how many times I can replicate the issue, and screenshot the error.

EDIT2: Bob, I noticed that in the first post, you'd linked the download to the most recent post, not the download itself. I took the liberty of editing the first post so that people only need make a single click to download.

Next update, if you right click on the latest attached file, you can choose "copy link address." Then edit that in to post #1 instead of linking to the latest post. If they want to see the latest post, they can simply jump to the end of the thread. (hope I'm making sense here)

Thanks Ike !
If the green dot appears, you have comitted a foul. The dmd should say which foul.
**when you get the green dot use ONLY the arrow keys and the plunger key


Although sometimes it gets it wrong as in video above.

Fouls:

Ball in hand fouls
1. Scratch cue ball
2. Wrong suit hit first
3. No balls hit
4. No rail hit
Of course you could just shoot the cue ball directly into the pocket 1, 3 and 4 at the same time


Game ending fouls
1. Eightball sunk prior to sinking all balls in your assigned suit.

2. Scratch cue ball while going for eight ball

 

[Ike Savage]

View attachment 15709

There's a reason why I'm very specific about the settings I recommend in my FP and BAM Mega guide. It's to allow for maximum compatibility on all tables.

The problem is...people either never see that guide... or start changing options they shouldn't afterward.... and then they run into problems with some tables not running. Don't get me started about "work computers".

Use these settings for Desktop play...and adjust only the resolution, monitor and anti-aliasing as needed.

View attachment 15678

Okay, I tried these settings just now. They effectively bumped up a number of values that I'd previously set lower. The game seems to run slower now, which is the opposite of what I wanted.

My system, memory and graphics card are old to the point that I want to set things as low as possible while avoiding a crash. The one thing I know is to set model quality to "high" to work with BAM, but if there are more key values like that to be aware of, I'd be interested in learning.

Somewhat related-- I tried George's AFM WIP earlier and was getting 12fps. Anything to get numbers like that higher while still being able to run the table is what I'm looking for at this point.

 

[Ike Savage]

Tested a bit more, and if I understand correctly, english is only available on the break. I think I'd assumed it was available for every shot, hence the whiffs and resultant problems.

Things seemed to be going pretty well until I somehow popped the cue ball partially off the table. It sat there bouncing just off the edge of the table, and eventually by nudging some balls in to pockets, the game recognised that it was time for another turn, and gave me green ball in hand.

Unfortunately, it didn't allow me to actually place the ball. I could move it around and change views, but not set it down to begin a new turn. Meanwhile, the cue ball remained happily bouncing away, impervious to the concept of gravity.

I would still really like a stored setting to turn off the GIF's and the models. More than just being distracting, the GIFs slow the game down on my older system. I.e., I'd like to get things running smoothly, then add back the special features later.

 

[TerryRed]

Unfortunately... those settings are needed for many "new" tables to work properly. No way around it. I get that your hardware is older... but for the latest and greatest tables that use more graphics intensive BAM features... an upgrade requirement is inevitable.

 

[Ike Savage]

Unfortunately... those settings are needed for many "new" tables to work properly. No way around it. I get that your hardware is older... but for the latest and greatest tables that use more graphics intensive BAM features... an upgrade requirement is inevitable.

Makes perfect sense!

What would massively help is if I could store custom sets of video / rendering settings to attach to various tables. The heartbreaking thing over here is getting the settings tuned just right for a certain game, but breaking other games' functionality by doing so.

Or maybe it is actually possible... via an XML or by juggling CFG files maybe? Or are the global settings being stored in the registry? Seems like a batch file to switch out sets might work whatever the storage method...

 

[TerryRed]

Yes... FP's settings are stored in the registry. they are located here:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Future Pinball\GamePlayer

So what you can do is export the FP settings from the registry to a REG file. You can make a few of these as needed for your different settings per table, etc.


Or, you can use a *.BAT file (batch) that will make the changes for you as well. You can use regadd (to add some settings) or regimport (to import all settings at once), etc.

reg import

Reference article for the reg import command, which copies the contents of a file that contains exported registry subkeys, entries, and values into the registry of the local computer.

docs.microsoft.com

For PinEvent, I recommend cabinet users disable the FP Backglass and Arcade Mode settings in the Video settings, just for PinEvent tables.

Here is how I disable the FP Backglass and Arcade Mode in the Registry

I add this to my front-end’s FP Launch script (before FP gets launched):

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Future Pinball\GamePlayer" /v "ArcadeMode" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Future Pinball\GamePlayer" /v "SecondMonitorEnable" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Then add these two lines to re-enable the Backglass and Arcade mode on your Close/Exit script:

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Future Pinball\GamePlayer" /v "ArcadeMode" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Future Pinball\GamePlayer" /v "SecondMonitorEnable" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

 

[Ike Savage]

@TerryRed,
Great stuff, bookmarked! (PN has a nice little bookmark system, check it out)

I'll try to play with that stuff in coming days and weeks and hopefully come up with a useful system. Seems like this could help a lot of people, so I'm thinking a user guide thread would be a nice end result.

 

[NitroNimbus]

Hi Gimli,
Mate got to say WOW!!
When you first started this project I was a little confused, I should of known better, cheers!

 

[Gimli]

Hi Gimli,
Mate got to say WOW!!
When you first started this project I was a little confused, I should of known better, cheers!

Thanks Nitro !!
Ya I share your confusion even still

Great work on your 2.0 mods !

 

[Gimli]

Tested a bit more, and if I understand correctly, english is only available on the break. I think I'd assumed it was available for every shot, hence the whiffs and resultant problems.

It is for every shot but only is set in "zoomed in " view where you are looking down barrel of cue.
If you press F9 key from table editor instead of starting table the usual way...it will show a green debug screen...it keeps track of a bunch of stuff...for English it will show "Spinfactor" value after you taking a shot that you tried to add spin to.

Things seemed to be going pretty well until I somehow popped the cue ball partially off the table. It sat there bouncing just off the edge of the table, and eventually by nudging some balls in to pockets, the game recognised that it was time for another turn, and gave me green ball in hand.

Unfortunately, it didn't allow me to actually place the ball. I could move it around and change views, but not set it down to begin a new turn. Meanwhile, the cue ball remained happily bouncing away, impervious to the concept of gravity.

Ok
I just increased the hidden wall preventing this from 100 to 400 mm. See image . That should fix ya once and for all ! lol

I would still really like a stored setting to turn off the GIF's and the models. More than just being distracting, the GIFs slow the game down on my older system. I.e., I'd like to get things running smoothly, then add back the special features later.

Try updated version below.
If you press "V" on keyboard it will toggle enhanced stuff on/off (Characters/Movies/Music) . DMD should notify you of change

 

[Gimli]

oops I made the spin calculus worse...I just set it back to previous....

SpinFactor =  (Angle2 * .05)/2

This only takes the "Dot location angle" into consideration and not the strength of the shot.
so you will notice that back spin only seems to work on gentler shots

 

[Gimli]

Here is another mini-update.
Here is the link:

https://pinballnirvana.com/forums/index.php?attachments/billiardsoct30-zip.15733/&hash=0b5fe3c9805eb933133f63f651195523

If you are annoyed by all the updates, just check back in a couple of weeks.

I have tweaked spin and added side spin to whatever you choose with respect to top and back spin. (In order for side spin to work you have to also to add some top or back spin..using dot placement).

I also have set spin proportional to strength of shot to a max of a magnitude of 5. All this is very arbitrary...but can refined ad infinitum

See video below

 

[Ike Savage]

Will take a look, probably today or tomorrow.

Btw, just noticed this glass table. Thought it was pretty cool: (while likely distracting as all gitout!)

https://i.imgur.com/cLeg6Xr.mp4

 

[Ike Savage]

Okay, finally tried the last posted version. No crashes at all this time, woot! And much appreciation for the 'V' key to turn off movies and characters when needed.

Now I'm trying to get used to aiming. I like the UP arrow for getting the behind-the-cue view, but it would also be nice to see that same view, only elevated some distance above. This would be like how you measure a shot in real life. From above, from behind, and going back and forth until you're comfortable with the shot.

Perhaps the UP arrow could be used to toggle that view. So instead of only switching between standard (zoomed out) view and behind-the-cue view, it could have a third state.

In terms of the angle change, we might be talking going from <10° (however you have it set now), to maybe 40° or something like that.

Hopefully that made sense...

 

[Gimli]

@Ike Savage

Here is an update with the following:
1. Preliminary Menu: Use Special1 key to bring up menu on DMD at any time. Use Flipper keys to move between options and use plunger to make a choice. Press Special1 key to return to game. (Options so far are: Music On/off, Characters On/Off, Add Spin Mode on/off, Movies On/Off).

All choices are saved in nvRam to be remembered for subsequent games.

2. Special2 key is ONLY for camera rotation during game play.

2. I improved the Audio syn on the movie clips.



Known bugs:
End of Game crashes sometimes especially if you sewer the cue ball while shooting for the 8 ball...