VP9 VPX Converting EM's made in VP8 (and earlier) to VP9 & VPX

[Isaac Sauvage]

I can't remember this topic coming up before, but obviously this kind of thing can be hugely useful to get the benefit of the newer flipper physics. For example, we have so many classic tables here that I suspect it's worth figuring out how to easily update them, even if it only starts off for the purpose of doing private mods for one's own use.

@druadic,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but many (most?) of your mechanical games made in older VP versions port right in to VPX without needing to change a thing, no?

Well, based on an experiment @inframun2 and I were looking at, in terms of standard EM's-- the light-scripting commands seem to be one of the few deal-breakers that need to be updated going from ~VP8 to VPX. For example, it looks like stuff like this:

LightX.State=LightStateOff

...needs to be changed to:

LightX.State=0

Not sure what else might need to be updated, but I get the sense it's pretty simple work for most tables. Maybe even something that could be automated with the help of a 3rd-party tool.

Feel free to add on here if you have any corrections or additions. Ideally, we can turn this in to a small, polished guide to help anyone who wants to do one of these conversions.

EDIT: No, looks like I'm wrong. It's evidently pretty complicated, even for simple EM's. @rascal does give some helpful tips in this thread, and in fact produced a number of VP8 to VPX conversions.

 

[druadic]

Most of my VP 8 games don't work right in VPX so I do not support them. Anything VP8 or older I will not support for the fact that this problem SHOULD have been fixed at the source when they updated VP. It's sad, but that's how it is.

Any machines I did in the past that do not have lighting or EM works WILL work pretty fine in VPX.

The only thing I can do is TRY to update some of them but graphically it's not worth it without newer images.

I DO support VP9 and VPX6 with no issues though.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Any machines I did in the past that do not have lighting or EM works WILL work pretty fine in VPX.

So I guess gobble-hole and key-commands work fine without alteration, but not stuff like... bumpers and spinners?

You also use drop-walls on some of your mechanicals, right?

 

[druadic]

So I guess gobble-hole and key-commands work fine without alteration, but not stuff like... bumpers and spinners?

You also use drop-walls on some of your mechanicals, right?

Ike,

I have no idea. I've not played anything from VP 8 or older for over 5 years. Who knows what can work or not.

 

[Wylte]

I actually spent a little time converting a couple tables, just to see how it was. Lots of little script conventions have changed; some work fine, most with a quick replacement like light states, while others need to be replaced with the newer style. Bumper lights need to be removed, re-scripted, and separate lights added. Images need to be re-applied, which usually works fine but obviously the resolution isn't great. Sometimes the object and image both just need to be replaced because of the difference in handling positions.
The biggest issue, IMO, are perspective-based objects. More complex tables have things that just weren't meant to be seen at a new angle and must be redone entirely.
A lot of tables *could* get a quick and dirty update without much effort, if you don't care about visuals too much. I think an automated script could help and might encourage more people to take it up, but each table is still a project.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Thanks, @Wylte!
Sounds like it's more work than I thought.

Just for fun, I generated a blank starter table with VP8 and tried running it in VPX. Script-wise everything seems to work fine, just that for some reason the table displays with a pink theme (see attached). The flippers are also comically underpowered, but they do work.

So I guess that suggests that basic:

- key commands
- flipper function
- plunger pull back
- sound playing
- nudge
- slingshots
- create and destroy balls

...are all still compatible, script-wise.

Me, I'm unbelievably rusty at VB-scripting (been many, many years), but I'll try to keep going with this. At the very least, it would be nice to do some kind of commented template table, showing what the old and the new script commands are. Something like that.

Not sure, though-- maybe someone already did something like this long ago...?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

@inframun2,
I've made a little progress. Found some helpful comments about converting tables in a VPF thread, and edited that in to the first post.

I also found a simple VP8 EM that is able to start up without error in VPX: (screenie attached)

VP8 - Williams - EM - Recreation - Doozie (Williams, 1968) VP8

Doozie (Williams, 1968) VP8 v1.0 Leon Spalding IPD No. 704

pinballnirvana.com

Current issue is that when you start a game, VPX doesn't like this:

bumper1.state=lightstateoff

So far I think it wants something more like the below, but I'm struggling getting the format right:

bumper1Base.BlendDisableLighting = 0

So yeah, looks like in VPX there's a lot more parameters per object, including lighting for bumpers. Guess it's time to read some proper guides on this stuff.