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really? i would tend to think the reverse. i.e., rolling along slopes AFAIK is mostly a matter of friction, while simulating a flipper is much harder because you're trying to simulate the way that one object (steel ball bearing) is interacting with another material (thin strip of rubber) that is interacting or not interacting with a second material (hard plastic) depending on the amount of force involved. so very many ways to go wrong in that equation. add in the fact that you're supposed to simulate a strong solenoid that's involved in 'active' ball-on-flipper hits and its partner... a weak solenoid that's supposed to only function as a holding agent, but in fact gets involved with less-common active ball interactions as well.It's wide open as far as flipper settings in Box2D. Basic bouncing off the flipper ... anything else is programmed. Flippers are not the hardest part in a pinball simulation in my opinion, but the most important. Rolling along slopes and curves smoothly is the hard part.
15 years later and pro pinball is the only simulation that comes close to putting all of that together.
well, i assume those are there mainly to make up for the fact that the basic emulator still leaves out critical physics equations from the simulation. so then, better to patch a leaky roof and make the best of it than do nothing at all. especially when a better-quality roof is not forthcoming...In my opinion programs like VP for example has poor flipper physics and way too many settings. Physics settings is an oxymoron. Physics are a law. Pick a flipper strength, and speed. That should be it. Then simulate real world physics, not unreal physics like scatter angle, oblique correction and that kind of stuff that is just an adventure in how unrealistic you can make your game.
i'm not sure if the video is still up, but around a month ago i hit the farsight website and they had this very cool video that autoplays on the main page... takes you through a tour of everything they do, interviews different people, and one of the guys even admits that it's basically his 9-to-5 gig to artificially tweak physics settings, strongly implying that if the basic simulation was more accurate in its physics, he might be out of a job or re-assigned. :D
seriously... check out their video if you get a chance. it's like 15 minutes or something. they're a likeable group IMO and they also discuss the living hell that is patent and copyright licensing.... something i personally had little idea was so painful and difficult to deal with.