VPX WIP They Live New Pinball Engine

[spookyMoulder]

Programming started three or more weeks ago on They Live a pinball for Windows this is a long project texturing and changing static and dynamic lighting the flippers are finally working with sounds program also supports Android Studio and java script this will be open source once I get it to work. Easy movement of lights and 3d models supports all fbx,obj and so on program uses Direct3d has Light mapping and Polygon Mapping directional lights and multiple scenes multiple cameras camera to follow ball. Going to make a simple demo and make this open source for other development. The files use small size right now only 20 MB. One small issue I had was adjusting the depth of field and gravity physics.

Also for cab players all you will have to do is rotate camera and you are ready to play, next I will make a plunger and physics. I will post tutorial as I figure out more to the left is also first working light and nice new bumper texture. Each light is a separate node when this gets playable I could use help with physics and lighting and testing.

 

[spookyMoulder]

This is the early demo use the left and right arrow keys for flippers the plunger will be down arrow I am still working on this. Please test the game out and tell me if it works ok. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. - also wanted to thank freezy and vbousquet for the pinball model collection they made just a shout out thanks for nice flipper model.

 

[spookyMoulder]

This program is good I am still trying to figure out . but it can also be used for other things as well, let me explain and maybe someone can also help me. So I use Visual Pinball to make games its quite good but it has a few things missing.

What I wanted to accomplish was to play Visual Pinball from an .exe or executable file. A player system would fix this issue and not load the games from the editor but player, then I saw this https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=50420 but its just a front end. I also tried creating a .bat file then converted it to .exe but it just opens the editor .

If there is a way to make visual pinball play directly a game without opening the editor first please let me know.

If there was an export as exe option in Visual Pinball it would be real nice. Before I started making Visual Pinball I tried Gdevelop. Gdevelop is only 2d and the button behaviors are broken on that game engine. Unreal Engine is bloatware installing 30,000 files and bogging down everything so I refuse to use it also same with Unity installing 57,000 bloated files also games created with Unreal start at a minimum of 300mb and Unity at 400mb files after all the json files are written.

So the game engine I am using to make this project is CopperCube the game engine is quite nice and only takes up 90mb simple and clean and games are also simple and clean small files and CopperCube is free to download. also If anyone is interested it can also help make Pinball Video LED's like this.


the led effect https://neophyte.cf/ccb_shader_dots_effect.html

You can read all the features of CopperCube https://www.ambiera.com/coppercube/features.html

 

[spookyMoulder]

So CopperCube physics is broken and perhaps the game engine is just not meant for pinball the model collider has no physical changes options and collision is also broken sometimes the ball goes directly through static collider objects, it is a good game engine I would rate it at 2 out of 5 stars . I have tested about 20 game engines so far and many are just bad, this video explains some of it.

Unity is Bloatware.

I am switching to a better engine with visual scripting instead of behavior scripts. I just started so here is first picture.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

So the game engine I am using to make this project is CopperCube the game engine is quite nice and only takes up 90mb simple and clean and games are also simple and clean small files and CopperCube is free to download. also If anyone is interested it can also help make Pinball Video LED's like this.

the led effect https://neophyte.cf/ccb_shader_dots_effect.html

That looks real nice!

I wonder, instead of having to apply the effect frame-by-frame, if there's a similar filter/effect in a video-editing program that could convert a chunk of video to a DMD-style output?

 

[shiva]

Whats the new engine? Godot?

 

[spookyMoulder]

That looks real nice!

I wonder, instead of having to apply the effect frame-by-frame, if there's a similar filter/effect in a video-editing program that could convert a chunk of video to a DMD-style output?

It does look good I will try to make a few examples if I can. I tried to make one in Photoshop just by adding a layer on top but it would have to be made for every frame like you said. CopperCube is free so maybe if import video clip then get frames from clip using free screen recorder it takes less time and look better. I know After Effects can help with text. There are free online text generators for effects this is a good one but there are others https://engfto.com/index/neon_logo_maker_online/0-23

 

[spookyMoulder]

Whats the new engine? Godot?

It's Flax I tried Godot but it did not have as many features. Don't get me wrong I like using Visual Pinball but wanted to try out something new. I just learn from watching tutorials and Visual Scripts are nice to use.

 

[shiva]

okay. I'm still trying to decide myself, godot 4 has just been released, the third coding system was removed but they promised they will improve it and put it back in. The physics look really good, my concern is the techies have taken it over and mad it to hard for us mortals to use.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Godammit, Spooky, let's not test him, okay..?

 

[spookyMoulder]

I saw this Godot pinball but when I looked at Godot I did not see that many options and yes feels harder to use for us mortals. Unity or Unreal makes large files and the editor loads slow even on good computers. Some people like Unity and that's fine. This website has many game engines to choose from https://www.moddb.com/engines

 

[AnonTet]

that flipper swing angle... :D

 

[shiva]

newbies... :)

I've seen another one, was a lot better than that.

 

[GeorgeH]

Why is it that so many builders make their tables so dark? The Godot 4 video is so dark I can barely see anything.

 

[FireDragon76]

Why is it that so many builders make their tables so dark? The Godot 4 video is so dark I can barely see anything.

Personally, I like brighter 70's tables.

Most RL pinball I played had decent lighting, too, at least as much as what you get in a typical home, if not more.

 

[spookyMoulder]

The latest They Live pinball still cleaning up textures. At the top I want to add a small city from the movie add some 3d stuff and some alien glasses.

 

[spookyMoulder]

They Live will be uploaded late June or early July still needs targets I was trying target colors trying to get something good I also have to add multiball and in the back area some more 3d models. I was able to clean a few textures since the last picture and yes I am still fixing the plastics art also will try changing the back lighting to make game more dark.

 

[spookyMoulder]

This game is just getting better and better I fixed my dmd score display and now using JP's dmd scriping much thanks to JP. I have not worked on the table but did find a way to make my dmd better looking check this out it's very neat cartoon filter.

 

[kennethry]

Had to make my 1st comment here on this very project. This is the best theme idea that didn't exist that anyone could possibly think of. I don't care about anything else in this world until I get to play it.

 

[spookyMoulder]

@kennethry hey thanks for comment I will try to make it nice.

 

[Itchigo]

That movie was an early prophecy!! Great theme to go with!!

 

[FireDragon76]

The table looks like it's progressing.

The 1980's was all about gas tubes displays on pinballs. DMD was in the early 90's. There was a wave of pinball machines like Jurassic Park and Adam's Family that had them. So if you want your table to look retro, you have to have gas tube (they displayed alphanumeric messages, also).

 

[spookyMoulder]

I was busy with other things but I did get some free time this weekend and finished the textures and sound and added a ramp. In the right corner I don't know what I should add I was thinking of an antenna or satellite dish because in the movie Nada had to take out the TV station antenna. If anyone has ideas for the top right corner I also added a ramp but needs more work.

 

[spookyMoulder]

This game has been released you can download it and play it here is fast link enjoy the game https://pinballnirvana.com/forums/resources/they-live-original-2023.8157/

 

[kennethry]

This game has been released you can download it and play it here is fast link enjoy the game https://pinballnirvana.com/forums/resources/they-live-original-2023.8157/

You did it! So glad you thought of this. I just randomly checked to see if finished. Thank you!