FP Resolving Problems with Captive Balls on Future Pinball

[GeorgeH]

Over the years, I’ve had ongoing issues with captive balls. I often found that the ball would strike the captive ball but only move it slightly—or, in some cases, it would bounce off the surrounding pegs without moving the captive ball at all. I attempted to widen the gap between the posts, but this introduced the risk of the ball falling out. While working on the Williams version of Indiana Jones, I noticed that a previous table developer had used a rubber post on each side of the captive ball enclosure. This solution worked extremely well.

When I began working on Galaxia, I encountered the same problem again. I decided to try the technique used on Indiana Jones. However, the FP model of the rubber post used on Indiana Jones (a T1 post) was too large to fit on Galaxia. I experimented with two alternatives. The first was a small rubber post used on Medieval Madness. The second method involved using a round post created from a surface by a previous Indiana Jones table developer, with the Material Type set to rubber.

Both methods worked, though I discovered that the small rubber post only functioned correctly when its elasticity was set to "hard." Evidently, FP assigns a surface with a material set to rubber to hard elasticity because I don't think it would have worked if it wasn't.

Ultimately, I chose to use the round post made from a surface with the rubber material setting, as the small rubber post looked out of place next to the larger T1 post. I was able to give the round surface post a metallic appearance by applying the sphere-mapped "[chrome-silver]" texture. Since I had integrated FizX into Galaxia, I renamed the posts to Metal1 and Metal2 so that the automatically generated ball hit sound would produce a metallic effect instead of a rubber one.

I’ve attached a demo table that showcases both methods. I also included an overlay used to measure the gap between the posts, with each side set to 22 mm. In my experience, a 22 mm gap tends to deliver the best performance.

Update: I deleted the attachment of the first captive ball demo because the physics of the naive FP are so bad. I added the captive ball demo to my FizX template and attached it. Be sure to add the zip of the FizX 1K ball to the table if you want it to play correctly.

 

[madmrmax]

I started responding to this thinking about the newton ball change where scripting was used, then I recalled the difference between newton vs. captive :D

BUT that said, there might be an opportunity to use BAM scripting to get a better than "stock" experience. I'll have to try out your demo table!

 

[GeorgeH]

I started responding to this thinking about the newton ball change where scripting was used, then I recalled the difference between newton vs. captive :D

BUT that said, there might be an opportunity to use BAM scripting to get a better than "stock" experience. I'll have to try out your demo table!

If you figure out a better approach in the script, you can post it here.

 

[madmrmax]

@Wecoc - you do great with script based solutions -- have you done anything in the past to make captive ball respond better?

 

[GeorgeH]

Update: I added the captive ball demo to my FizX template because the physics of FP are so bad in the first demo. It is attached to the first posting. Be sure to add the zip of the FizX 1K ball to the table.