Support File George's Installation and Setup Guide for Future Pinball (Advanced Guide)

GeorgeH

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This "Advanced Guide" has links to guides on how to build tables and other advanced topics.

1. Most of the guys tend to associate BAM with physics but it does a whole lot more. You can set up just about any view of a table that you can possibly want. It has numerous table lighting options. There is even a way of setting up 3D glasses. Ravarcade wrote the program and he has the following web site:

http://ravarcade.pl (ravarcade.pl - BAM - Future Pinball Mod)

2. Gimli created several tutorials. Click on the following link to open a list of them:

BAM Feature How-To Guides

3. Gin suggested I write a guide for creating custom physics. I usually start by deciding there is something I don't like about the physics of a table. If I plan to make some minor changes, I usually start with the physics that is recommended for the table and edit the XML file. If the change I want to make is significantly different from the way the table currently plays, I create my own custom physics. I started creating custom physics by trying various XML files until I found one that has general characteristics that I like. I edited it until I finally ended up with an XML that I always start with now. The XML file is attached to this posting.

BAM has a screen where you can adjust some but not all of the parameters while playing a game. To access it:
a) Play a table and open the BAM menu usually by pressing Q or ` (the key above your Tab key).
b) Arrow down to "DEV options" and press Enter.
c) Arrow down to "Physics Tweaks" and press Enter.
d) Edit the parameters on this screen and arrow down to "Save tableName.xml" to save your changes to the external XML file.
e) You can copy the XML for saving in the script by holding down the "Ctrl" and "Shift" keys at the same time and pressing the "C" key to copy the XML to the script.
d) Open the FP Editor for the table and open the script.
f) Paste the XML into the script.

XML files can also be edited in the script or by opening the external XML with Notepad. I usually start by changing the parameters for ball mass, ball gravity, and ball damping. This portion of the XML file looks like this:

Code:
<ball newtonDamping="0" mass="80" gravity="6800" damping="0.85"></ball>

You can change the numeric part of this line. Basically, the higher the number that you enter for all three parameters, the faster the ball plays. The three parameters are interactive so it takes some experimenting to get it right. I usually start with gravity and either increase the number to make the ball play hotter or decrease it to make it play slower. Then I play the table to see how I like the change. You may want to change the table slope that is in the *.fpt file which affects the physics also. When I get the changes to the ballpark of the characteristics that I want, then I move on to ball mass and then damping. As I test the changes, I make more incremental changes to all three parameters until I get what I want. If you make significant changes to the physics, you are most likely going to need to change the strength setting in the *.fpt file of the flippers, the plunger that launches the ball, bumpers, the rubbers that are usually on each side of the table above the flippers but might be anywhere—basically any object on the table that has a strength setting. You may not need to change these things if you are only making a minor change to the physics. When you change the strength of the flippers, you need to be sure the ball will go up the ramps on the table. When you find a setting where the ball will just barely go up the ramp and rolls back down to the plunger, you should adjust the strength one tick higher. The player needs some margin to have better control over the ball. The strength settings for the flippers are rather course. You can finely adjust the parameters for flipper mass and possibly Omega in the XML file. The settings for the flippers in the XML file are shown below:

Code:
<flipper mass="20150.0" omega="43.0" moeMethod="0" leftXoff="0" leftYoff="0" leftZoff="0" rightXoff="0" rightYoff="0" rightZoff="0"></flipper>

After you make the changes, you should test the ramps to be sure the ball travels up them smoothly. This is basically it. It just involves making changes, testing them, making changes, and testing again until you get the characteristics you want.

4. If you want to build a table but haven't developed many skills yet, especially with scripting, this future pinball template will help:

Shiva's Beginners fpxEngine

5. If you want to start creating tables, 20degree has created the definitive tutorial. The files for it and quite a bit of other information are available here:

My Free Futurepinball PDF Guides

Gimli has also created three tutorials for DMDs that are available here:

Future Pinball: A. Simple DMD's Illustrated Tutorial

Future Pinball: B.Simple Background Animated DMD's Illustrated Tutorial

Future Pinball: C. Simple DMD Highscore Illustrated

A script guide can be found here:

MadMax's Quick Future Pinball Scripting Guide

A table design guide can be found here:

MadMax's Future Pinball Table Detail Design Guide

If you have questions or want to suggest revising this post, please post replies to this topic.

George

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