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- Oct 3, 2004
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- Trigon
As we all know, Future Pinball just sucks with physics, even with BAM. The biggest problem is because there are just not enough defined physics within Future Pinball to actually do the job properly, and those that are there are just set wrong. With the flippers especially, the ball angle coming of the flipper is completely FUBARED, (which my shivaFlippers get around) but the other annoying thing is the constant strength (or Omega) of the flipper. Even a brief flick of the flipper a single degree shots the ball like a cannon sometimes, and backhands are terribly unrealistic.
As you all know, I have been working on a improvement to this. I showed a couple video examples (https://pinballnirvana.com/forums/i...-fpx-preview-release.18223/page-2#post-125164) a couple days ago, and you can see my new flippers doing very un-fp like things, so I decided to show a brief demo of the various settings of the new shivaDynamic flippers (to debut in the Next release of Jungle Girl fpx) with the new variable coil strength feature. This new feature takes the MaxOmega, divides the MaxOmega with the amount of steps you input, and then uses that value to increase the strength of the flipper with each step. There is also a Minimum Omega you can set just for a slow ball roll down a flipper so you can "flick" the ball to the other flipper.
I set the left flipper for this example to have a variable omega (strength) for the first 26 degrees of angle of the flipper swing before it reaches it's maximum strength, and then demonstrate how the various minimum omega values to "flick" the ball affects the future pinball flippers . At the end, I show a quick play of how the variable coil strength plays compared to the unmodified right flipper. (JG will be set to 12-14 steps)
You can set the amount of angles the flipper will swing to it's maximum strength (or Omega) (LeftFlipperSwingAngleEnd). A very low value will speed up the shots, while a higher value really slows the speed of the shots, and causes the flippers to be a bit sluggish and drags the ball. Jungle Girl has a maximum swing of 52 degrees, so a setting of 26 for the left flipper means there are 26 different omega values, each getting stronger for each higher angle. At the last example in the video, you will notice at the end the ball does drag the flipper a bit due to the amount of steps, but the shots are still accurate with a full flip, and you can see the ball loft a bit with the left flipper compared to the right if you press and release the flipper button before the flipper reaches it's full swing. Reducing the amount of steps (LeftFlipperSwingAngleEnd) decreases this effect, but also decreases your ability to "loft" the ball as well. This is very dependent on your reflexes and whether you are using a cabinet or your keyboard.
The second setting I use is the LeftFlipperMinimumOmega. This is a forced omega value for the flipper till it hits a higher omega value with a step, and then switches off and lets the variable coil strength system take over. In other words, if you set 10 as the LeftFlipperMinimumOmega, the flipper will never be at a strength below 10 omega. This is used exclusively for the tip of the flipper, and to do "flick passes", but this does not affect the MinOmega any other time. For the maximum speed of the ball needed for this "flick" feature, I have a third variable, SetFlickMaxBallSpeed, for this. In the code, I check if the speed of the ball is LESS than SetFlickMaxBallSpeed, check the position of the ball, and if it is a slow ball engage the "flick" feature. In the video, you will see a very low omega will work fine to fick the ball from one flipper to another, but at the cost of the flipper being very sluggish with the weight of the ball on it.
When JG 1.1 is released, you can customize your flippers to the behavior you want just by changing these 2 main variables for each flipper. This is highly experimental, so one of these days I will see if I can make this system work better.
As you all know, I have been working on a improvement to this. I showed a couple video examples (https://pinballnirvana.com/forums/i...-fpx-preview-release.18223/page-2#post-125164) a couple days ago, and you can see my new flippers doing very un-fp like things, so I decided to show a brief demo of the various settings of the new shivaDynamic flippers (to debut in the Next release of Jungle Girl fpx) with the new variable coil strength feature. This new feature takes the MaxOmega, divides the MaxOmega with the amount of steps you input, and then uses that value to increase the strength of the flipper with each step. There is also a Minimum Omega you can set just for a slow ball roll down a flipper so you can "flick" the ball to the other flipper.
I set the left flipper for this example to have a variable omega (strength) for the first 26 degrees of angle of the flipper swing before it reaches it's maximum strength, and then demonstrate how the various minimum omega values to "flick" the ball affects the future pinball flippers . At the end, I show a quick play of how the variable coil strength plays compared to the unmodified right flipper. (JG will be set to 12-14 steps)
You can set the amount of angles the flipper will swing to it's maximum strength (or Omega) (LeftFlipperSwingAngleEnd). A very low value will speed up the shots, while a higher value really slows the speed of the shots, and causes the flippers to be a bit sluggish and drags the ball. Jungle Girl has a maximum swing of 52 degrees, so a setting of 26 for the left flipper means there are 26 different omega values, each getting stronger for each higher angle. At the last example in the video, you will notice at the end the ball does drag the flipper a bit due to the amount of steps, but the shots are still accurate with a full flip, and you can see the ball loft a bit with the left flipper compared to the right if you press and release the flipper button before the flipper reaches it's full swing. Reducing the amount of steps (LeftFlipperSwingAngleEnd) decreases this effect, but also decreases your ability to "loft" the ball as well. This is very dependent on your reflexes and whether you are using a cabinet or your keyboard.
The second setting I use is the LeftFlipperMinimumOmega. This is a forced omega value for the flipper till it hits a higher omega value with a step, and then switches off and lets the variable coil strength system take over. In other words, if you set 10 as the LeftFlipperMinimumOmega, the flipper will never be at a strength below 10 omega. This is used exclusively for the tip of the flipper, and to do "flick passes", but this does not affect the MinOmega any other time. For the maximum speed of the ball needed for this "flick" feature, I have a third variable, SetFlickMaxBallSpeed, for this. In the code, I check if the speed of the ball is LESS than SetFlickMaxBallSpeed, check the position of the ball, and if it is a slow ball engage the "flick" feature. In the video, you will see a very low omega will work fine to fick the ball from one flipper to another, but at the cost of the flipper being very sluggish with the weight of the ball on it.
When JG 1.1 is released, you can customize your flippers to the behavior you want just by changing these 2 main variables for each flipper. This is highly experimental, so one of these days I will see if I can make this system work better.
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