In Progress Multipin Madness - Virtual Pin build

[Tyke]

Hey tyke!
Beautiful cab and build... awesome!

Is that artwork exclusively for you or is there a chance to get a "copy" of it?
No problem if not, just liked to ask.

Greetings,
Dom

Hey Dom

Glad you like the cab

Yeah the artwork turned out really nice thanks. The details of who I paid to create it is above if you fancy getting your own commissioned.

I'm not releasing it right now sorry, I would like to get this one finished first and for it to be the original. I may look to release it later on in the year..

Good luck with your build.

 

[Deleted member 2463]

firstly your machine looks awesome but for me it was all about the depth of the playfield which looked flat, in your video you can see it also - wonder if 3D might be useful?

 

[Tyke]

firstly your machine looks awesome but for me it was all about the depth of the playfield which looked flat, in your video you can see it also - wonder if 3D might be useful?

There's a few things to help with the perception of depth. One which you don't see in my video is there is an optimum viewing angle. This is standing in front of the pin straight on as you would normally and not moving your head too much. The tables are designed with specific lay back settings which handle the depth and angles of the table objects you see to give a wider perception of depth and 3D.

You of course loose the depth when moving your head as the objects don't appear true 3D and dont track i.e. you can't see around things when looking from the side. This can spoil the immersion to a point but isn't a deal breaker unless you like to move around a lot when playing

There is a technical solution to help with the 3D tracking and that is a system called BAM which utilises a camera to track your head movements. The ideal solution utilises a Microsoft Kinnect sensor to track your head and torso. This allows the viewpoint to change in real time based on what you're looking at. This allows you to look at objects on the playfield at much wider angles and true feeling 3D.

My build will have BAM working soon

Check out this video...

 

[ChrisH]

As another VPin builder I'm always the first to say its not the same as a real machine, and it never will be..... People also welcome to have a go on mine, its not at good as @tyke's though! (1/2 size and no DOF)

With that said, a modern VPin is nothing like the Pinball Arcade and the like
Its not too far of feeling real on some of the newer VPX tables, its not the same, but my average scores on the new TAF are pretty consistent (ly bad!) with an average game I'd have on a real TAF.
On TAF on pinball arcade I can pretty much get 150milllion or more every go - and on my VPin or a real one I'm happy with half of that.....
But if you play the older VP9 tables, then its feels much more of a pinball game than a pinball simulation if you see what I mean.....

The other thing is having one means I can walk up and play games I'll realistically never be able to own.
There is no way I'll ever have a real MM, TAF, MET or TWD they're simply too expensive
With the prices as they are then even the lesser 90's WMS game will be £2K soon, so my plan is to keep my VPin and maybe upgrade it with some of the force feedback stuff (I already have a nudge/tilt sensor) and try and grab a players HS2/FT/I500 before the prices make it impossible to jump in! That way I get the best of both worlds

 

[peddars]

Couple of questions:-

1. Given the inclusion of shakers and knockers, is it necessary to isolate the PC/electronics and if so how ?
2. What is a fair price to pay for an empty cabinet to use as a basis for one of these projects ?

Thanks loads

PETER

 

[Tyke]

I must be crazy but I'm starting to pull together the parts for what will be the big brother to this one.. Multipin Madness widebody

I'll add to this thread when the build starts with lots of detailed photos and software tips

 

[Mozcom]

I must be crazy but I'm starting to pull together the parts for what will be the big brother to this one.. Multipin Madness widebody

I'll add to this thread when the build starts with lots of detailed photos and software tips

You definitely are crazy Mike. Definitely. [emoji3]

 

[Eric Evans]

Have to say tyke its looking really sweet, i built 1 4-5 years ago and upgraded bits over the years, i have 3 pins and 1 vpin i dont think people realise the time and cost that gets put into a full size vpin with all the bells and whistles from the build to getting all the software to work together. to all the pin heads out there who do comps what if you could learn all the rules and shots and get a feel of 100s of tables from your own house, it will never replace pinball but half the fun is building it and the other half is playing and knowing the rules of a game youve never ever played before. keep up the good work tyke.

 

[PBrookfield]

Have to say tyke its looking really sweet, i built 1 4-5 years ago and upgraded bits over the years, i have 3 pins and 1 vpin i dont think people realise the time and cost that gets put into a full size vpin with all the bells and whistles from the build to getting all the software to work together. to all the pin heads out there who do comps what if you could learn all the rules and shots and get a feel of 100s of tables from your own house, it will never replace pinball but half the fun is building it and the other half is playing and knowing the rules of a game youve never ever played before. keep up the good work tyke.

That's why I own every Pinball Arcade table - the rules familiarity you can gain is invaluable. I have very, very little 'real' time on most games out there, but I punched above my weight in Manchester's NLP tournament as a result of simple rules knowledge. You don't need a virtual cabinet to benefit, but it certainly adds to it, I would imagine.

Hardware selection and software configuration - I haven't built a virtual pin but I have a lot of experience in my past life playing music games at tournament level, and creating simulator rigs on PCs for many of them. I will just say that if people think it is easy to achieve, or unimportant, that you get the entire thing to work with about 1ms or less response time and sub-millisecond frame and input timing jitter, they don't know what they're on about. And it is certainly not cheap - and absolutely a real huge benefit - to have hardware that is capable of 120+ FPS on pinball, so the hardware costs are even higher...