When Editing newest added stuff is a bigger font size

Many people had mentioned it takes them way too long to test out their creations, so I thought I'd put this here. This will save time.
You can map any key to any subroutine in the KeyUp and KeyDown sections of the script. Or you can set up a routine whenever the shift keys or return/enter keys are pressed. Example:

If KeyCode=PlungerKey then
Kicker1.CreateBall
Kicker.Kick 0,40
End If

If you need to match a keycode with a key, add this line to the keydown routine.
Score.text=Keycode

Anyway, whenever you press that key, it creates a ball and launches it onto the playfield. You then have practical ball-in-hand power for testing purposes. You can launch a ball in any direction, at any speed which is good for testing out ramps and loops.

You can also set up multiple kickers on the playfield. If (Scared Stiff example) to get coffin multiball, you need to hit the left ramp, then hit the left loop. Do that three times, and coffin multiball starts.

Now sure I could sit there playing the table, and play it for a long time to test that out, or I could use some kickers to do the entire sequence for me.

One kicker above the plunger, named Test1, one kicker in front of the left ramp named Test2, one kicker at the left ramp deposit to the right inlane named Test3, one kicker in front of the left loop named Test4. The script would be something like this.

Sub Test1_Hit()
Test1.DestroyBall
Test2.CreateBall
Test2.Kick 350,30
End Sub

Sub Test3_Hit()
Test3.DestroyBall
Test4.CreateBall
Test4.Kick 145,30
End Sub

Whenever a ball is launched, it can't miss kicker Test1, and when I'm finished it's easy to comment or delete the test script section and the kickers, or just move them off the table, or disable them

Add variables to this

dim f 'force of kick
dim a 'angle of the kick
f = 50
a = 350

Sub Test1_Hit()
Test1.DestroyBall
Test2.CreateBall
Test2.Kick a,f
f = f + 5 ' adds 5 to the force
if f > 90 then f = 50 ' resets the force to default
End Sub

you can change the angle the same way.

Shrinking File Size

Most of your size is probably in the graphics or sound. Makes your sounds 8 bit mono with a maximum sample rate of 11k. In most cases this is more than high enough quality, and can instantly cut the size of your table by 7/8th!.

As for graphics, I like to keep the main playfield graphics at 24 bit (while many argue that 8 or 16 bit depth suffices) but any decals or supplementary graphics I take down to the lowest bit depth that is suitable...such as a decal on a light... a 1 bit black and white is usually just as suitable as a higher bit depth image, and can reduce the file size big time. In Skateball, the playfield is 24 bit, but all the light decals are 1 bit, and the flashing 'plastics' are 8 bit. In Skyrocket all of the graphics were kept at 24 bit for clarity and maximization of resolution, but the sounds, all being 8 bit mono 11k, kept the file down to a reasonable size.

I find that if your playfield picture is clear enough, you can reduce it to 256 colours easily without any noticeable loss of quality. Since the bitmap is used as a texture map, VP will smooth out the pixels and it won't look any different if the original bitmap is of a high enough resolution. It makes editing and retouching the playfield graphics that much easier too. All my table conversions so far have used 256 colour playfields split into lower and upper levels; the only one causing any problems so far is 4 Million BC, due to a lower quality image to work from. But a bit of time spent with Photoshop to tighten up the wall edges a little should sort out any difficulties. :>

Graphics

start your *original* playfield art (or any other for that matter) at a huge res.... my jetsons psd file is 1500x3000 as that is all I can do with my avail ram!

Then take that pic when it's ready to be imprted to VP and scale it down to 512x1024 (width aproximate) But! scale it down in seval steps.... 1500x 3000 - 1350xxx - 1100xxx - 900 etc til you arrive at 512x1024

Play at 1280 x 960 for proper alignment.

Default table Image size should be --- 512 by 1024

Table Measurment Used

Okay, so now that Wpcmame was nice enough to point out to me that I had the real world ball size wrong, here's the accurate (6% smaller) figures for sizing your WPC and WPC95 machines. Note that these are only for these era machines and that the System1-11 and EMs will be different.

The ball in VP is 50 units which equals 1.0625" or 27mm in the real world. That means that your VP to real world conversion ratios are:

1" = 47 units
1.85mm = 1 unit

(Note: not nearly as clean as my mis-figure, so if you like the roundness of the previous figures, you can think in terms of 1"=25mm=50units and then just scale down your board and all objects by .94 when you're done. Big, big, BIG thanks to Dorsola for pointing out that you can select all objects on a playfield and downsize them (other than circle radii), that's a **really** handy way to adjust a table.)

This means that the actual measurements of real world tables in VP units is:

WPC era VP Playfield Sizes:
Standard - 962x2190
Widebody - 1095x2190

The recommended size for a playfield pic remains unchanged because the ratio is still the same as before, so to have a playfield pic be as large as possible and still fit the playfield properly, use these sizes:

VP Playfield Pic Sizes:
Standard - 450x1024
Widebody - 512x1024

That's it for the basics, go wild from there and your ball will 'fit' to a blueprint from a manual very nicely. Below are some revised details for sizing of playfield objects, so read on if you're interested.

-------------------------------------

I'm still pretty unsure of how large flippers should be since it appears that VP is using the flipper with rubber for it's sizing, so my measurements didn't work out too well. Here's what I came up with when matching up to a blueprint of the flippers on a properly sized board: Flippers seem to fit the blueprint when made to be length 128, base radius 23.0 and end radius of 9.5. The secret to properly emulating Fliptronics-era flippers seems to be in higher speed and lower speed than the defaults. The figures of 0.11 speed and 2.1 strength that Dorsola and Metallik suggested in the TZ mods seem to work pretty well. For 80s and EM pins, the default 0.08 speed and 5.0 power work quite well.

Most rubber rings would be about 12 units (1/4") wide, and even though in the real world, they actually make contact with the upper part of the ball before the midpoint, Randy pointed out that the behavior of the ball when it hits a surface that isn't connect with it's midpoint is currently undefined in VP, it's a good idea to make sure your rubber rings cross the 25 unit area. I've been using a rubber height of 24 to 36 units and that seems to look pretty good in the game.

A standard post would be 50 units high and plastics are sitting about 60 units off the playfield.

Even though these figures do seem a bit odd, I have to say that they make a world of difference when laying out the playfield. My previous figures made the game play much better with my Indy500 table, but downsizing it by 6% to hit these figures was really cool and just nailed the 'feel' of the table!

Limit Size of Bitmaps in VP

I beleieve the problem is the actual image size since I've succesfully loaded 500x1000 images that had huge filesizes, yet have been unable to import a playfield with a similar file size, but larger image size.

The trick I've used to keep as much detail as possible is to start with an image of 1562x2135x32 @ 300dpi. If an image has to be resampled to get to that size, I make sure that any anti-aliasing is disabled, and continue not allowing any anti-aliasing throughout the edit. When that is scaled down to 96 dpi (which looks much better when rendered than 72 dpi) it becomes a perfect 500x1000. This downsampling is the first stage where I turn anti-aliasing ON. Using this method, the smaller resolution image loses very little detail from the original, and edges of images turn out beautifully smooth.

It's still not as good as it would be to use the full size image but it at least makes the downsizing much less "lossy".

Table Graphics

How does one go about making Sling-shot bumpers like in the older Pinball tables

two walls on top of each other.

Set the high wall at 39 - 40

Set the second one 18-30 and make it a different color. Stretch the control points a few pixels outside and make it slingshot. Should do the trick.

Draw in Back really does have a purpose

Using other stuff for moving graphics

You could use transparent text boxes too if you wanted - since the background has a graphic - not sure how that would work out for you.

For a ball image though, you'd place a kicker outside the table and create a ball in it - and with a timer you can change the image so it animates - using a few kickers you could get the explosion, and the bullet flying across the table.

Since droppable walls provide similar functionality, those have been popular up to this point. The new Monster Bash using balls for animation of dracula, and Indiana Jones redux uses them to simulate drop targets. The temple table uses custom images for the gems. Pagan Pinball uses a ball image for the bubbling cauldron. Besides those, I don't think much work or research has been done on it in the area of animatrion. (Rock Fantasy has nifty animation for the ball, but that's just for the balls themselves - not trying to animate other stuff)

Lights

What does the pattern property of a light do?

A pattern is just that, a pattern. "1\" represents on, and "0" represents off (of course if you were a computer, everything is represented that way)...so you have a light and you want it to blink "on,off,on,on,off,off,on,off" then the pattern would be "10110010", now you may ask why you'd want that, so consider that you have three lights that you want to blink in in sequence...the patterns would be:

light1.blinkpattern="100"
light2.blinkpattern="010"
light3.blinkpattern="001"

The "1" is on and the "0" is off, so you can easily see how the pattern will play-out.

As for interval, it is simply how long a timer lasts. an interval of 1000 lasts approximately 1 second (so 100 would be a tenth of a second etc...) In the case of our three lights above, if you gave them each an interval of 1000, then:

Light1 stays on for a second then goes off for two seconds
Light2 stays off for 1 second, comes on for 1 second, then goes off for 1 second.
Light3 stays off for 2 seconds, then comes on for 1 second

The pattern will repeat as long as the timer is active. It's cancelled with "...timerenabled=0" ("0" here is the same as false here)

Changing colors during game play

You can put two lights of different colors on top of each other. When you want to change colors, turn the old light off and the new light on in that order. The light you last changed the state of will remain visible on top.

Or you could use droppable walls.

In short, assign a variable to a group of objects (Lights) and/or their perimeters (events)? So that

Dim A

controls

Sub Spinner1_Spin()
A = A + 1
Light[A].State = LightStateOn
End Sub

in order to light Light1-10 (think Bonus)

I used brackets because parenthesis are confused with an array (that's what the error message says).

Sort of. You have to declare an array of controls first, like so:

code:

Dim A

Dim SpinnerLights(10)
Set SpinnerLights(1) = Light1
Set SpinnerLights(2) = Light2
Set SpinnerLights(3) = Light3
Set SpinnerLights(4) = Light4
'etc.

Sub Spinner1_Spin()
A = A + 1
If A > 10 Then A = 1
Light(A).State = LightStateOn
End Sub

It's tedious if you have a lot of lights, but it works. See just about any table for an example. I think Top Speed (that comes with VP) uses this technique. That's where I learned it.

There are several ways to do it. The easiest one is to create a collection. Go to the collection manager and create a collection called "LightsCollection" and put all your lights in there. Then you can do "LightsCollection(1).State" etc.
The only drawback is that you can't change the order in the collection so put them in in the right sequence from the beginning.

If you don't want to use collections you can create an array in the script.
Dim LightsArray
LightsArray = Array(Light1, Light2,Light3)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On my table, I have a set of lights which light in sequence each time a particular bumper (of which there is more than one) is hit. When I programmed the bumpers, I put an "if" for every possible permutation . e.g.:

if x=1 then
light1.state=light.stateon
end if
if x=2 then
light2.state=lightstateon

etc.

I have 12 lights- and 5 bumpers- and I've copied and pasted the list for each bumper_hit subroutine. It works fine, but is there a way that you can program the script so that the application knows automatically what to do if x=N?

So, for example, input all of the possible states in once only, and point all of the bumper_hit subroutines at that subroutine.

I think what you need to do is make arrays of your lights and bumpers. That way you can index them. Define two arrays:

Dim LightArray(11)
Dim BumperArray(4)

Then in the table's init-method, make the arrays point at the objects:

Set LightArray(0)=Light1
Set LightArray(1)=Light2
....
Set LightArray(11)=Light12

And the same for the bumpers. Note that arrays start at zero, so an array with 12 elements has indices from 0 to 11.

Now you can call one bumper subroutine from all bumperX_hit, using the number of the bumper as a parameter if you need to distinguish them:

Sub Bumper1_Hit
BumperStuff(0) 'numbering the first bumper zero here
End sub

To set a light based on a your x (if x starts at 1):

LightArray(x-1).state=LightStateOn

Balls Speed

I want to write a formula (possibly polar coordinate orientated)
That uses a kicker to speed the ball up, but maintains the direction.
I'm not such a Math wizard (surely you're understating!)
Does anyone know a good formula for this?
It must look as if the ramp simply isn't that steep.

Just multiply all of .Vel's with the same constant, say 1.1 or 1.2.
When you preserve the direction, no polar coordinates thing is necessary.

boostFactor = 1.2
With ActiveBall
.VelX = .VelX * boostFactor
.VelY = .VelY * boostFactor
.VelZ = .VelZ * boostFactor
End With

P.S.
You don't need a kicker. A trigger would suffice for this purpose.

Ball Color

Changing Color

You must have the absolute latest Tech beta 4 and then do

Kicker.CreateBall.Color = x

Note that it does not set the colour of the ball, just the tint.

Plunger.CreateBall.Image = "YourBallImageNameHere"

Sub Kicker1_Hit()
ActiveBall.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0)
End Sub

The order of the numbers = same as color control in the Windows "Paint" program.
Seems to work with all Hits; Triggers too.

Decals

hmm...Does the wall drop? Can't put a decal on a droppable wall.
Also JPGs don't make very good decals - I don't like using them that way.
So check the surface property of your decal.

By check, he meant check it for something (look at it). If you select your decal in the editor and the options bar is showing you will see an option "surface". By selecting a wall from the drop down list, the decal is placed at the height of that wall.

A question, though. Since you weren't familiar with the surface property, did you really do a decal? It sounds to me that what you might have done is imported your picture, then set the image property under the options for your wall to that image. The image property for walls assumes an image the full size of the table, not part of it. Your picture would have been stretched to fit the whole table, and the part that would show on the wall would just be that portion of the stretched image where the wall happens to be located. That would explain why you're getting only blue fuzz.

So you have two options (I recommend option#1):
1) Create a blank image the same size as your playfield image (512x1024 or whatever) and paste your picture onto this in the location where the wall is, and use that for the image property of your wall.
2) Put a decal on the table with the decal button on the left of the screen (it should show as a blue square in the editor). In the options for the decal, make sure the "Type" option says DecalImage, set the Image property to your picture (the original, not the full table blank), and the Surface property to the name of the wall you want the decal on. Then make sure Sizing says ManualSize and adjust the Width and Height to make a rectangle that frames your wall.

Do decals not show up on a droppable wall?

Just making sure that I'm not going insane...

Is there any other way to get an image on a droppable wall besides making the image part of a whole-table image layer and setting the wall to display that full-table image?

You can place a decal on top of a droppable wall by selecting the wall from the "Surface" list in the Options for the decal. The only problem is that the decal doesn't drop with the wall, so it is left floating in air when the wall drops.

So yes, as far as I know if you want the image on top of a wall to drop with it, you have to use a full table image.

Decals on Ramps

I'm having a problem placing a decal on a ramp. Duh.

I have a decal that goes the entire length of an upward-sloping ramp. I've got the decal sized right and everything. However, only the bottom part of it shows on the ramp, like this.

What am I doing wrong?

on the decal's surface property - set it to the ramp. Currently it defaults to table level which the ramp covers up.

so you set the decal to the ramp height?

Make a wall as high as the ramp is, or 1 unit higher then and set the decal surface property to that wall.

Table Animation

Borrowing some ideas from Berimon Aghar Truesilver's Transformers table and several other tables that use the "plastics lighting" trick, I've whipped up a quick demo that should be of some interest to original table designers. This example shows a technique that can be employed to create animations on the playfield surface of a table. This example is of a very simple five-frame animation controlled by a timer, but the technique being used could be set off by an event trigger just as easily. I have also illustrated an apparently unintended consequence that I discovered working on this: bumpers that are invisible except for the shadow. Depending on your table, this could either be a useful idea, or something to watch out for.
The .VPT example I have created can be found : here (Tm_Test1). I didn't bother commenting the example, but it shouldn't be too difficult to understand. Let me know if you have questions. To adjust the animation speed, adjust the value of the timer to the left of the table.

Sound

Save as

Mp3-Mpeg layer 3

Wav-windows pcm

To Soft/Loud

Sometimes, the volume of a VPinMAME game is too loud or too soft for you tastes. There are two different ways of changing the volume which depends on what type of game it is.
If it's a Williams/Bally game using the DCS system, then you'll have to open the coin door (End key), and use the service keys:

7 8 9 0
Escape - + Enter in Menu
Srv. Crdt - + Enter otherwise

Don't enter the menu (if you did, just hit Escape (7) until you're out of the menu) -- just use the 8/9 keys to adjust the volume. If you set it to maximum, there is the possibility of distortion.

If the game is not Williams/Bally DCS, (i.e., every other game), you'll need to use the MAME menu -- click on the PinMAME window, hit the key beside the 1 (tilde on US keyboards), and you'll see a little text box shown on the DMD. Use the up/down arrow keys to pick the various settings, and use left/right to alter the volume. When you're finished, hit that key again (tilde) to clear the menu, and click on the VPinball Player window (the pinball table).

Help turning sound off in sub to play once

To stop a sound that's currently playing use:

StopSound <sound name>

I only want the sound to play once after the wall is dropped, but after the wall is dropped each time the ball hits a trigger the "boing" is played

sub checktriggers
if light1.state=lightstateoff and light2.state=lightstateoff and light3.state=lightstateoff then
block1.IsDropped = false
if block1.isdropped = false then
playsound "boing"
end if
end if
end sub

I tried lots of stuff but I'm out of ideas

heres the rest of the script that calls checktriggers

Sub trigger1_Hit()
playsound "swoosh"
light1.state=lightstateoff
addscore(25)
checktriggers
end sub

Sub trigger2_Hit()
playsound "swoosh"
light2.state=lightstateoff
addscore(25)
checktriggers
end sub

Sub trigger3_Hit()
playsound "swoosh"
light3.state=lightstateoff
addscore(25)
checktriggers
end sub

I just gave your routines a really quicky glance but you don't need the second "if then" in your checktrigger routine.

Instead just make it

sub checktriggers()

if light1.state=lightstateoff and light2.state=lightstateoff and light3.state=lightstateoff then
block1.IsDropped = false
playsound "boing"
end if

end sub

Doing that the "boing" will only play if light1, 2 and 3 are off.

if that's not quite what you want (hard to read a segment out of context), then adding another variable should work, such as...

sub checktriggers()

if light1.state=lightstateoff and light2.state=lightstateoff and light3.state=lightstateoff then
block1.IsDropped = false
playit=true
end if
if playit=true
playsound "boing"
end if

end sub

you could include playit=false in each of your trigger_hit routines. to ensure that the sound only plays if all the lights are off AND the wall is dropped.

Don't forget to dim playit.

Q:Sound Looping

leave the sound as .wav and loop it via

playsound "music" ,-1

stop it using

stopsound "music"

that´s the only way for nice looping music right now

0 is infinate sound

LoopCount is optional... 0 is infinit, i think. 2, i think will play the sound twice... Volume, i don't know how that works, but it's optional too.

Anyway:
PlaySound TheSound, 0
that may play TheSound until you finish the table or you use StopSound TheSound.

Music

Save Mp3 in stereo or they play fast 160

Can Music Be Looped USES(to cut mp3 size down)

You can fake it reasonably well if you break your mp3s into three parts - intro, loops, ending. Each part is a separate file, perhaps music-intro.mp3, music-loop.mp3, and music-end.mp3.

When you play your music, you first play music-intro.mp3, then loop play music-loop.mp3 over and over again until something forces it to change to music-end.mp3, signalling the end of the song.

Try this after you have your PlayMusic"musicfile.mp3" in you code then have this....
Sub Table1_MusicDone()
PlayMusic"musicfile.mp3"
End Sub
Or you could take a look at my Psycho 1.3 and it has this in there for a reference.
Hope this helps.

I actually got the music working from the psycho script
but I wasnt sure what the
Sub Table1_MusicDone() was for

Table1 is the name of your table, it starts as Table1, but many people change it.

When the mp3 stops, it goes to this sub. So for example by placing the
PlayMusic "filename.mp3"
End Sub

there it would play filename.mp3 when done playing the other mp3.

To take it one step further which I did for my table, if you want to add different music to different things, like attract mode, in game play, high score, multiball etc, you can set a variable such as
DIM music

then after each event use

music = "filename.mp3"
PlayMusic "filename.mp3"
Where filename is the name of the file to play for that portion such as attract mode, multiball etc.

In the sub for endmusic, change PlayMusic "filename.mp3" to
PlayMusic music

and it will then play the current music over and over when its done, but allows you to change which music to play when the music is done.
When you go to another mode, such as when the game ends, I just
use the EndMusic to stop whatever was playing, and then set music and PlayMusic to the new music, which again will repeat when done if you have the PlayMusic music in the endmusic sub.

You can even take this a step further which I havent yet had to do such as playing from a selection or rnd selection of music. You would just create a select for what sets the music variable, this is done at the point of the playmusic. The endmusic will automatically repeat that one since it will play the music set to the variable.

This would work well for example for mario teeshot if he wanted to change to mp3, or a similar reason where you want to play multiple choices of music or multiple different music one after another during for example in game play.

Enjoy! My Super Android table uses this, it should be released very shortly, havent had much time until now to work on it again.

For TB4, here are some helpful music tips, from basic to more advanced:

To play a mp3 music file as background music, you would place the mp3 file in the /music sub directory, in the script you would call it using in the script:

PlayMusic "android.mp3" where android.mp3 is the name of the music file to play, and the .mp3 is needed.

This would play the file ONCE then stop.

To Stop the Music File in Mid Play, such as at a game over or ball end you want no music to play anymore, you use the
Command

EndMusic

You don't need to enter the song title, only that command using that case exactly. This stops the music but doesn’t hold
The place it was in the file- if you start this or another song using PlayMusic again it starts from the beginning.

To Repeat the exact same music file after the complete music file plays, simply add a subroutine in the script:

Sub Table1_MusicDone()
PlayMusic "android.mp3"
End Sub

Where android.mp3 is the exact same filename as the original. The above is if you use only one single music file total in the table to play once or repeating. If you want to play more then one music file in different
Parts of the table or multiple files one after another, see more advanced below.

More Advanced: How to play multiple music files, such as one music file that can repeat in attract mode, a different
One that can repeat in in game music, a different one that can repeat during an event like multiball etc...

This is NOT for playing multiple files one after another, this is for playing different files at different times, repeating the looping of the correct file when its done playing based on where you currently are in the board (otherwise you'd always play the wrong file when the current music file ends).

First you dim a variable, I use Song, so you add:
Dim Song
To the variables at the top of the table.

Next add the following sub routine:

Sub Table1_MusicDone()
PlayMusic Song
End Sub

Then, at ANY point to play whatever music you want for that period of time you would use:

EndMusic
Song = "android.mp3"
PlayMusic "android.mp3"

Where android.mp3 is the name of the file to play during that part of the table.
For example, I use the above during attract mode, so that it will now play android.mp3 during attract mode, and
Whenever it finishes it calls the sub Table1_MusicDone, and plays the correct android.mp3 again since I've set
Song to that filename as well.

When you go into the in game music, I use:
EndMusic
Song = "android1.mp3"
PlayMusic "android1.mp3"

Now it immediately stops any current music playing (this is why you can use this at any event also, as say you JUST hit
Multiball, you can stop the current music and immediately change the music to play and repeat).
Then starts the new song android1.mp3, and whenever the file stops it will replay the correct song, in this case android1
And NOT the song used in another mode such as android.mp3 which I was using in attract mode only. This is very flexible
As you can stop and play different songs at different times, and repeat the correct music.

This mode is NOT for playing one after another after another, or random song choices, changing Song = to another name will play that song after the first is done, but then would just repeat that 2nd song, it wouldn’t allow a 3rd, 4th etc or even to go back to the 1st song during that same mode using these routines.

This could be taken further if you want to play multiple music files one after the other during the same event, such as playing 3 files one after another during in game play not related to event changing (which the above advanced routine does that), by setting up a routine within Table1_MusicDone that would step to another song based on what played before, then every time its called it should check what played before to decide what to play next. This is easy coding but I havent had the need to use, as all my music changes are related to event changes, such as playing an in game music then you get a multiball or other event reason to change the music, or going from in game to game over (and therefore attract music) which uses the above Advanced routine. If anyone uses this, feel free to add to this to give a code example for someone else.

How do I loop my tables background music?

Leave the sound as .wav and loop it via playsound "music" ,-1
stop it using
stopsound "music"
that´s the only way for nice looping music right now

Triggers

Can triggers destroy balls?

A trigger can not destroy a ball.

CAN TRIGGERS PLAY 3 SOUNDS

You could use timers.

Timers are a little bit hard to wrap your head around at first but get to know how to use them, and you can do anything.

The basic concept is this...

A timer is comprised of the timer itself, an event subroutine an interval setting, and a state (enabled true/false). When a timer is first activated(with "timername.enabled=true", it will wait for the assigned interval to pass before executing anything in it's subroutine. It will then repeat the commands in a loop until it is told to stop "timername.enabled=false". When it disabled "enabled=false" it will stop as soon as the current interval length expires. Ofcourse the interval length can be set on the fly, so it can be sped up or slowed down as required.

Every object on your table has timer built in that you can make use of, the only difference being that the state is "timerenabled" true/false rather than "enabled" true/false as it is with an actual timer object.

Timers are best learned by playing with a few of them, so I suggest you start with a blank table and try a couple things before using them in the table that you're working on.

Most VPtables that use kickers use timers for sound and kick timing, so a quick look at any of these should help you out.

Like anything else though experimentation is the key.

Then a timer is exactly what you need...
set the timerinterval for the length of the sound (1000 = 1 second, so if the sound is 2.5 seconds, the interval would be 2500)

three sounds with a space (first space 2.5 seconds, 2nd space 1 second) between could be achieved like this...

sub kicker1_hit()
playsound "1stsound"
c=0
kicker1.timerinterval=2500 (you could have this set in the option screen instead if it's never going to change)
kicker1.timerenabled=true

...insert anything you want to happen with the first sound here...

end sub

now you have to have a routine for your kicker's timer, remeber, nothing in this sub routine will execute until the interval has passed at least once...

sub kicker1_timer()
kicker1.timerinterval=1000 (changes the interval for the length of the second sound...this WON'T happen until the original 2.5 seconds have passed)
c=c+1 (count how many times the timer had looped)
if c=1 then (first loop through...actually the second, since only your 1st sound played during the first)
Playsound "2ndsound"

...insert anything you want to happen with the second sound here...

else (the timer has looped, cause "c" has changed value)
kicker1.timerenabled=false (shuts off the timer, so it doesn't repeat again)
Playsound "3nd sound" (your 2nd sound is already over because of the timer)

...insert whatever you want to happen with the third sound here...

end if

...insert anything you want to happen with EVERY timer cycle (play with some lights?)

end sub

Just remember, that everything else in your script is still running while the timer executes...since your timer would be for a kicker, there's not much to worry about, since the ball isn't moving around the table.

Using a few timers together can accomplish some complex tasks easily, but just make sure you always do a "timerenabled=false" for any timers you're not using, or any. If you don't want the timer to repeat more than once, make it the very first line in the timer routine.

Glass Height

How high of a ramp are we talking here? The default glass height in VP is 210. If your ramp is too tall, the ball could be hitting the top glass. You can change the glass height from the options for the table. Make sure it is at least 50 units above your tallest ramp.

1. Visual Pinball Corruption

I'm cross-posting this to the Pinmame Help messageboard as well because it is very important.

I had just downloaded Windows Media Encoder 7.1 and went to open a table after had installed the media encoder. I don't think that caused the trouble though.

The point is, eventually your Visual Pinball registry settings will become screwed up (provided you use your pc for more than just visual pinball LOL).

Rather than reformatting and reloading all your software, follow these steps to correct it:

1) Rerun the setup file for Visual Pinball -- it will give you the option to REPAIR Visual Pinball installation. Use that option.
2) Rerun VPinmame setup beta 3 and it will tell you the comm object is registered or successful.
3) copy the attached file to your windows\system directory, then open up a dos window, change to the windows\system directory and type:
REGSVR32 MSSTDFMT.DLL

That's all there is to it, and you're back up and running.

rnd() function

Either I have done this wrong or the rnd() function is a crock!!!

The user should be getting a random award. I just shot 70 shot and got ZILCH every damn time

if CastleShots > 40 then

dim mystery

mystery = rnd(10)

               if mystery >= 0 and mystery < 2 then

               Instructions.Text = Instructions.Text + "ZILCH"

               end if

               if mystery >= 2 and mystery < 3 then

               Instructions.Text = Instructions.Text + "20 MILLION"

               AddScore(20000000)

               end if

               if mystery >= 3 and mystery < 4 then

               Instructions.Text = Instructions.Text + "10 MILLION"

               AddScore(10000000)

               end if

               if mystery >= 4 and mystery < 4.3 then

               Instructions.Text = Instructions.Text + "100 MILLION"

               AddScore(100000000)

               end if

               if mystery >= 4.3 and mystery < 7 then

               Instructions.Text = Instructions.Text + "5 MILLION"

               AddScore(5000000)

               end if

               if mystery >= 7 and mystery =< 10 then

               Instructions.Text = Instructions.Text + "BONUS AWARDED"

               AddScore(Bonus)

               end if

end if

TextDisplay.Enabled=True

end sub

same line is in my music selector and it works perfectly for me and plays both of the options for BGM

You need this near the beginning of your script.

RANDOMIZE

Then to use RND for a number between 1 and 10, you'd use this.

variable=CINT(RND*(9)+1)

While this works variable=CINT(RND*(9)+1), is this not the same as CINT(RND * 10)?

This is what I would have put when programming in VB.

CINT (RND*10) allows for rounding -- that would give you a possibility of getting 0.

Nope, not the same. The first case selects a random number between 1 and 10. (Rnd*9 returns a random floating-point value between 0 and 9, not including 9.0. Then you add 1 to it and round it to the nearest integer.)

The second case picks a random number between 0 and 10.

Another possibly less confusing way to write the first statement would be: variable = 1 + CInt(Rnd*9)

Okay, that I under stand, but SDB's example went from >=0 to =<10, which as far as I can see is 0 to 10.

I don't consider myself a wonderful programmer, but that is how I interpreted the request.

Hey, if RND(10) works for you, go for it. I'd prefer (feel better about the script) if it was RND*10. I don't trust the parenthesis to work as desired.

For 0-10, just drop off the +1 on the line.

Things on Platforms above 0

How do I place a bumber, or gate, or for that matter anything on a platform not on level zero?

Create a wall at the height you want the bumper or gate and in the surface property box select the wall you want the bumper to sit on.

but be careful with kickers...hehe...unless they are on the actual surface you're using it might work sometimes, and not work other times....

see attachment.

Sling Shot Walls

How do you make a slingshot

Select a control point, then right click on it. Two choices will pop up smooth and slingshot. Click on the word slingshot.

How do I make a slingshot?

Place a wall on the table. Shape the wall how you want your slingshot to be. Select the wall, and then select a control point with the right mouse button. Two choices will pop up smooth and slingshot. Click on the word slingshot. That will convert the wall into a slingshot.

Balls

Setting # of Balls

Declare a variable for it.

Dim CurrentBall

In your "drain_hit()" section, add one to this, and if it exceeds your maximum number of desired balls, you'll want to call your end of game routine.

You'd also want to set this variable to 1 when you start the table.

If you award extra balls, you'd need to subtract 1 from it before you check to see if the game is over...

Multi Balls

If it wasn't way past my non-existent bedtime, I'd write a longer reply, but here's a few basic guidelines:

-For a really basic multiball (e.g. one where all balls are put into play at the beginning of the MB, and all extras are drained when the MB ends) Keep a variable that keeps track of how many balls are currently on the playfield (I usually use nBallsInPlay for this purpose.) Ensure that every function that can create a ball increments this count, and every function that destroys a ball (or, depending on what you're doing, the Drain_Hit() event reduces this count. When this count reaches zero, you end the current ball and start a new one as appropriate.

-For what it sounds like you're trying to do (hold balls in kickers to be released when targets are hit) you'll want to keep two variables: Total balls on the playfield, and balls in play (which would be one except when a multiball is active.) In this case, I'll call thse two values nBallsInPlay and nActiveBalls. When a ball is first put into play, you would increment both counts by one (note that I'm not writing actual script here, and this is for illustration purposes:)

nBallsInPlay = nBallsInPlay + 1 = 1
nActiveBalls = nActiveBalls + 1 = 1

If this one ball in play drains, both counts would be reduced to zero, at which point the drain_hit() event would use an if statement to see that no balls are active on the playfield, end the ball with bonus (or whatever) and start a new one. But say that ball goes into a lock:

nBallsInPlay = 1
nActiveBalls = nActiveBalls - 1 = 0

since there are no active balls on the table, hitting the lock should trigger a CreateBall on the plunger, which would increment both counts:

nBallsInPlay = nBallsInPlay + 1 = 2
nActiveBalls = nActiveBalls + 1 = 1

Now we have one ball in the lock and one ball in play. If the ball in play drains, nActiveBalls gets reduced to zero again, and the ball ends. But if the trigger to release the ball is hit, this releases the second ball into play and increments the nActiveBalls value:

nBallsInPlay = 2
nActiveBalls = nActiveBalls + 1 = 2

When one of these balls is drained, both counts drop by one:

nBallsInPlay = nBallsInPlay - 1 = 1
nActiveBalls = nActiveBalls - 1 = 1

...Which puts back to a single active ball on the playfield. In short:

-Have the plunger (or any other item that creates balls and puts them in play) increment both counts;
-Have the drain (or any other item that destroys balls) reduce both counts;
-A ball that gets locked should reduce the active ball count, which should trigger a CreateBall event, thus incrementing both counts again.

If none of this makes sense, feel free to ask questions. Again, I'm writing this at 1:30 in the morning, so coherence isn't exactly my strong point right now.

but the major one is that I can't get it to kill the Multiball...the program recognizes the second ball (the Multiball) as a normal ball and when it goes down the drain even though I have the "If Multiballs > 0 Then Multiballs = Multiballs - 1" and the DestroyBall thing. Could I possibly put a trigger in front of the drain that when hit it would destroy the ball if you had a multiball?

Without seeing the script, this is sort of tough.

Make sure at the beginning of the script you have Dim Multiball.
Somewhere in your table init you have Multiball = 0, also have this when when you reset the table for a new ball.
I'm going to assume when you add a ball in multiball, you also added multiball=multiball +1 to whatever kicker or plunger created the ball?
Check spelling.
Before you have "if multiball>0 then " put multiball=multiball-1 then put your if statement.

You always want the program to know how many balls are in play on the table. Whenever a ball is locked, that needs to be known as well. Whenever a ball leaves play. For multiball, if you have 60-ball multiball (gasp) after 59 balls leave play, you know multiball has ended.

In your drain routine does it check to see ballcount?

If multiball then subtract one ball otherwise advance ball in play.... (?)

What variable do you use to keep track of the numberof balls on the table???

Ramps

Soon we will have transparent ramps...but until then, like I did on Scared Stiff, setting the ramp color to the background color will make them barely-visible near the back of the table.
For the ramp leading from the coffin, that is actually using a wall at 55 units above the table. The base of the pinball diameter is 12.5 units, and as long as your wall is 12.5 units or wider, the ball will go over it just fine. The pinball is approximately 48 units from bottom to top or across in any direction. So based on this, provided you have a wall on each side of the bottom wall 'ramp' at about +25 and -25 horizontal distance from the ball center location, and -24 to -26 units from the top of the ball, this will hold it in place. The downside to using this which makes it so difficult is if the ramp is on an incline. Placing walls in layers is very time consuming.

For any ramp, transparency can be achived by placing a decal about 50 units abobe the top of the ramp. As long as a wall is not under the decal (between the ramp and the decal), the ramp will be hidden, and the ball will be drawn on TOP of the decal image -- thereby pulling off the effect successfully. This is partially portrayed over the left ramp entrance -- a decal is between the top of the ramp and the bottom two wires -- the bottom two wires are hidden by the decal while the top two remain visible.

12.5 is much more accurate than 13. But for ramps, you want the wall at +24 to +26 -- possibly higher to stop the ball from flying off the ramp if it does become airborn.

from the bottom of the pinball to the lowest possible point of contact with a wall which will impact ball movement, is 12.5 units from table level (0)

The pinball is 48 units high, and 48 units wide. Therefore, the center point of the ball would be approximately +24 to +26 from the current ramp height.

ie - you have a ramp going from 0 (table level) to 100. At the top of the ramp, a 'sidewall' at bottom height of 124 and top height of 126 will keep the ball on the ramp. Adjust the top height of the side wall based on how fast the pinball tends to go up the ramp and the incline of the ramp. This also prevents slow balls from falling off flat ramps too.

Gates

Today's lesson in VPINMAME scripting: Solenoid Controlled Gates

There are many ways to handle a solenoid controlled gate, but some ways are better than others. To understand how to best model such a beast, you must look at what the effect of it is. If a ball aproaches from the pass-thru side, it always goes through. If a ball approaches from the other side, it only goes through if the solenoid is Enabled.

Now since gates cannot be dropped or lifted, we must use a Wall object instead. But how will Visual Pinball know if a ball is approaching it? There needs to be a hidden Trigger next to it. And, since you need to know which side the ball is approaching from, there should be one on each side.

So we have our gate, a wall called SolGate1. And we have the inner and outer triggers, InnerTrigger and OuterTrigger. First, let's write OuterTrigger_Hit. This one is simple.

Sub OuterTrigger_Hit()
SolGate1.IsDropped=True
End Sub

This drops the wall whenever a ball approaches from the ouside. Now we have to write InnerTrigger_Hit. This one is trickier. (note some people may use a Timer instead of an inner Trigger, but this is a kludge that causes slow moving balls to bounce off, and really fast ones to bounce out.) What it needs to do is raise the wall, but only if the solenoid is disabled. So our preliminary version looks somewhat like this.

Sub InnerTrigger_Hit()
If Controller.Solenoid(sGate) then
SolGate1.IsDropped=True
Else
SolGate1.IsDropped=False
End If
End Sub

But we can do better. Notice that with either case, the state of IsDropped is assigned to the same state at the solenoid itself? This means we can dispense with the If statement entirely! So our new, optimized code is.

Sub InnerTrigger_Hit()
SolGate1.IsDropped=Controller.Solenoid(sGate)
End Sub

If the solenoid is on, the wall is lowered. If the solenoid is Off, the wall is raised. "But what about the solenoid handler?" I hear you ask. IT IS NOT NEEDED. The ONLY time Visual Pinball needs to know the state of that solenoid is when a ball approaches from the inner side, and our subroutine takes care of that. But if you really want to add the solenoid handler, it's very simple.

Sub GateSolenoid(Enabled)
SolGate1.Isdropped=Enabled
End Sub

This way, you will see the gates go up and down before a ball approaches.

So to recap, here's our code.

Sub OuterTrigger_Hit()
SolGate1.IsDropped=True
End Sub

Sub InnerTrigger_Hit()
SolGate1.IsDropped=Controller.Solenoid(sGate)
End Sub

And, optionally.

Sub GateSolenoid(Enabled)
SolGate1.Isdropped=Enabled
End Sub

Yup, each subroutine is a one-liner, and NO timers are used. You can't write better code than this. Every situation that can come up is handled properly by the first two one line subroutines. If two balls approach, they will either bounce off the wall, or bounce off each other. Which is the case DOES NOT MATTER because the effect is the same.

When proper liftable gates are implemented in VP, you can remove the triggers, and their associated hit routines, replace the wall with a gate, and just use the solenoid handler to drop or raise the gate.

Bumpers

What is the height of the bumper object in VP?

The height of the bottom part of the bumper is 40. The top section of the bumper (the overhang) is a height of 20, making a total height of 60.

Re:How do you get your bumper lights to stay on?

If you set the bumper to LightStateOff in the UI, then when you set it to LightStateOn in the script, it will actually work. Some kinda bug. But not as annoying as the "rename a new item twice = crash" bug. I lost quite a bit of work at least once because of that. Now I save every 5 minutes.

Or add a light on top of bumper

RE:Bumper heights
I'm making sea wolf and i need to build a bumper out of walls so it can drop.
What is the height of the base of the default bumper and the height top and
bottom of the overhang part??

In STTNG I had to put a ramp over a bumper...the ramp was at 65 units. That's how high a bumper must be (64 or so). No idea how much room is between that and the overhang.

The height of the base and bottom of the overhang should be the same, 40. The top of the overhang is at a height of 60.

Targets/Walls

& messing with walls, if you don't want a ball popping off the table because of a low wall

make it 13 numbers higher then the wall or table its on

if your table or wall(if wall is a base)bottom height is 0 then the shortest height is 13

ex.

bottom height 0

top height 13

ex.

bottom height 3

top height 16

you can make it higher than 13 but any lower & the ball goes right over it

from the bottom of the pinball to the lowest possible point of contact with a wall which will impact ball movement, is 12.5 units from table level (0)

The pinball is 48 units high, and 48 units wide. Therefore, the center point of the ball would be approximately +24 to +26 from the current ramp height.

If I have target1 target2 and target3, when I hit these targets they go down and increase score, however on the next ball thay are still down.

I know I need to reset the table or the targets somehow, but I cannot figure it out. I have checked some other scripts but I must be doing something wrong.

For each target:
Sub Target1_Hit
Target1.IsDropped = True
Timer1.Enabled = True
AddScore
End Sub

Then, after all three target scripts:
Sub Timer1_Timer()
Timer1.Enabled = False
CheckTargets
End Sub

Sub CheckTargets
If Target1.IsDropped And Target2.IsDropped And Target3.IsDropped Then
Target1.IsDropped = False
Target2.IsDropped = False
Target3.IsDropped = False
End If
End Sub

if you only want the drop targets to come up after the ball drains or whenever the ball drains put the TargetX.isdropped=false in your Drain_Hit area. (X being the number for your target)

just put all objects that need to be reseted for next ball in a sub called for example

sub Next_Ball_Init()
Plunger.CreateBall
Target1.IsDropped = False
Target2.IsDropped = False
Target3.IsDropped = False
......
end sub

and call it in Drain_hit():

Sub Drain_Hit()
If GameInProgress then
Next_Ball_Init
Else
GameOverText.Text="Game Over"
End if
End Sub

When you progress with your table then you will have more objects (lights,bumpers,targests) that need a reset so u have them all in one place

Collection of targets- VB5

Sub TargetCollective_Hit(Index)

' This is triggered when any target in the collective is hit.
' The index starts at zero. (Ex. the third target is index #2)
' If target #2 is hit then the index number equals 1, it drops
' target #2 and plays the sound "Drop Target"

TargetCollective(index).IsDropped=true
PlaySound "DropTarget"

' Now we check to see if all targets in the collective have been dropped.
' If so, we play a "TargetsAllDropped" sound and reset the targets.
' If at any time during this loop that
' TargetCollective.IsDropped not true then we exit the whole subroutine

For Each Target In TargetCollective
If Target.IsDropped <> true Then Exit Sub
Next

'All Targets have been dropped. Play "TargetsAllDropped" and
'reset all targets back to their original state.

PlaySound "TargetsAllDropped"

For Each Target In TargetCollective
Target.IsDropped = False
Next

End Sub

Score

getting scoring to work?

-first, you need a sub routine for any object that has a hit event and score addition. for example:

sub drop_target_hit() (where "drop_target" is the variable name assigned to that object)
drop_target.isdropped = true
score = score +100 ("score" is the variable you've assigned to the score)
display_score ("display_score" is the name of a sub routine you've written to display the score)
end sub

sub display_score()
scorebox.text = score (scorebox is the name of the text object you've created)
end sub

Make sure you have include a dim statement for any variable (ie. Dim score) that will hold a value and that that statement will not be read again while the variable is being assigned new values - usually the opening lines in your script.

How do you reset score when game is over?

I reset score.text back to 0 when last ball is drained, but when I hit the first scoring target in the next game it resumes with the score from the previous game.

Also just curious, how hard is it to add 2 player mode?

Obviously, the variable you are using for score is not being reset to zero at the end of a game. This isn't automatic; you'll have to insert a '(score variable)=0' line in the required place of your code. If you *do* have one in, then it must be in a place which isn't being accessed at the required point in the game, and you'll need to move it. Put it in the same place as the code that sets up the first ball in a new game.

Score How to

first, you need a sub routine for any object that has a hit event and score addition. for example: sub drop_target_hit() (where "drop_target" is the variable name assigned to that object) drop_target.isdropped = true score = score +100 ("score" is the variable you've assigned to the score) display_score ("display_score" is the name of a sub routine you've written to display the score) end sub sub display_score() scorebox.text = score (scorebox is the name of the text object you've created) end sub Make sure you have include a dim statement for any variable (ie. Dim score) that will hold a value and that that statement will not be read again while the variable is being assigned new values - usually the opening lines in your script.

Reset score after game over

I reset score.text back to 0 when last ball is drained, but when I hit the first scoring target in the next game it resumes with the score from the previous game. Also just curious, how hard is it to add 2 player mode?Obviously, the variable you are using for score is not being reset to zero at the end of a game. This isn't automatic; you'll have to insert a '(score variable)=0' line in the required place of your code. If you *do* have one in, then it must be in a place which isn't being accessed at the required point in the game, and you'll need to move it. Put it in the same place as the code that sets up the first ball in a new game.

Bonus Scoring

"i want to have the bonus adding points runing slow/donw and see the score growing by (for ex) 1000 points"
The only way I could manage it was to have a seperate timer for each bonus level, and give each timer a slightly longer interval. Then call all the timers in one sub. They will all trigger at the same time, but with different intervals, they appear to exicute one after the other.

I had the same problem in my Stingray Table. This is how I solved it. Create a timer that has the time delay that you want.

For example, for 1 second set the timer to 1000. Be sure to uncheck the enabled box when creating the timer, otherwise the timer will run as soon as the table is initialized. In the script where you want the countdown to occur call the timer by enabling it.

Sub BonusScoring
BonusTimer.Enabled = True
End Sub

Then do all of the scoring inside the BonusTimer Routine. The routine will run over and over again with a delay of 1 second (or whatever you set the timer to) until the timer is set back to false.

Sub BonusTimer_Timer()
If bonuscount > 0 Then
Playsound "Bonus"
AddScore = 1000
bonuscount = bonuscount - 1
Else
Bonus.Timer.Enabled = False
End If
End Sub

In the sxample above there is a counter called bonuscount that has some value. If the value coming in is 5 then when the timer is called then the timer routine will run 5 times playing a bonus sound and scoring 1000 points each time with a 1 second delay between each event. The next time through the bonuscount counter will equal 0 and the BonusTimer will be Disabled and the script will continue running from where the BonusTimer was initially Enabled.

Okay.. I've tried and tried to do this.. and cannot manage to create a delay when scoring my end of ball bonus..
my variable fh_xTotalBonus holds the total ball bonus value.. I want to decrease this by 1000, add the points to the Score, and repeat until it hits 0, and pause 500 ms (1/2 second) between repeats.
I "tried" using what jlang suggested.. and I must be doing something wrong. I've tried looking at code in other tables.. and they all have hundreds of lines of code concerning the bonus counts.. I'd think what I want to do is pretty simple.
Here's what I had.. I am sure it will be glaringly obvious how wrong it is.
Here is the Award Bonus Routine:
Sub AwardEndofBallBonus()
fh_xTotalBonus = fh_xRunningBonus * fh_xMultiplier
Timer1.Enabled = True
bo_AddPoint 1000
AlertBox.Text = "Ball Bonus " & fh_xTotalBonus
End Sub
And the timer timer is here...
Sub Timer1_Timer()
If fh_xTotalBonus > 0 Then
rem Playsound "Bonus" -- IT'S NOT PLAYING SOUND!!!
AddScore = 1000
fh_xTotalBonus = fh_xTotalBonus - 1000
Else
Timer1.Enabled = False
End If
End Sub
What exactly am I doing incorrectly?

just kidding... ok, you read this far. Your variables must make sense to you. Hopefully ALL your bonus additions are in 1000 flat increments or this script will have problems.

As long as the bonus addition is correct, to the addscore routine when you test it, you might want to increase the timer delay just for testing purposes, and have it write to a textbox after each bonus addition in the timer subroutine so you can see what it's doing. If you are 1000 points off on your bonus (which it looks like you are because of the >0 qualifier, put a second If statement in there to say like if it =0 then addscore 1000 and disable the timer. That way your other variables can't drop into negative numbers

High Score Reset

Open vpmkeys.vbs with notepad, and look for the follwing line:

keyHiScoreReset = 7 '(6) Reset Hiscores

Just set 7 blank or change to the desired AscII number for the key wanting to use.

Remember to save the file on exit...

Bonus: Counters

i want to have the bonus adding points runing slow/donw and see the score growing by (for ex) 1000 points

The only way I could manage it was to have a seperate timer for each bonus level, and give each timer a slightly longer interval. Then call all the timers in one sub. They will all trigger at the same time, but with different intervals, they appear to exicute one after the other.

I had the same problem in my Stingray Table. This is how I solved it. Create a timer that has the time delay that you want.

Sub BonusScoring
BonusTimer.Enabled = True
End Sub

Then do all of the scoring inside the BonusTimer Routine. The routine will run over and over again with a delay of 1 second (or whatever you set the timer to) until the timer is set back to false.

Sub BonusTimer_Timer()
If bonuscount > 0 Then
Playsound "Bonus"
AddScore = 1000
bonuscount = bonuscount - 1
Else
Bonus.Timer.Enabled = False
End If
End Sub

Okay.. I've tried and tried to do this.. and cannot manage to create a delay when scoring my end of ball bonus..

my variable fh_xTotalBonus holds the total ball bonus value.. I want to decrease this by 1000, add the points to the Score, and repeat until it hits 0, and pause 500 ms (1/2 second) between repeats.

I "tried" using what jlang suggested.. and I must be doing something wrong. I've tried looking at code in other tables.. and they all have hundreds of lines of code concerning the bonus counts.. I'd think what I want to do is pretty simple.

Here's what I had.. I am sure it will be glaringly obvious how wrong it is.

Here is the Award Bonus Routine:

Sub AwardEndofBallBonus()
fh_xTotalBonus = fh_xRunningBonus * fh_xMultiplier
Timer1.Enabled = True
bo_AddPoint 1000
AlertBox.Text = "Ball Bonus " & fh_xTotalBonus
End Sub

And the timer timer is here...

Sub Timer1_Timer()
If fh_xTotalBonus > 0 Then
rem Playsound "Bonus" -- IT'S NOT PLAYING SOUND!!!
AddScore = 1000
fh_xTotalBonus = fh_xTotalBonus - 1000
Else
Timer1.Enabled = False
End If
End Sub

What exactly am I doing incorrectly?

just kidding... ok, you read this far. Your variables must make sense to you. Hopefully ALL your bonus additions are in 1000 flat increments or this script will have problems. As long as the bonus addition is correct, to the addscore routine when you test it, you might want to increase the timer delay just for testing purposes, and have it write to a textbox after each bonus addition in the timer subroutine so you can see what it's doing. If you are 1000 points off on your bonus (which it looks like you are because of the >0 qualifier, put a second If statement in there to say like if it =0 then addscore 1000 and disable the timer. That way your other variables can't drop into negative numbers.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Bonus(0) = Whatever bonus you're using *remember to dim Bonus so that Bonus exists either

Dim Bonus (4) If you use it for a 4 player game

Bonus = Array (0,0,0,0,0)

Of course you could replace Bonus(0)

and then this line

CollectBonus.Enabled=True

So for example

Bonus(0)=Bonus(CurrentPlayer)
CollectBonus.Enabled=True

I took what you'd posted before.. (after I posted) and played with it and it DOES count down the bonus..

Here's the problem I have.. it's still counting the bonus when the next ball gets sent into play. ::chuckle:: Any way to totally stop advancement table action when the timer is running.. instead of the timer running while the subroutines after it continue to be ran by the system? The new ball shouldn't be able to come into play til after the bonus is done.

I sat up the delay to eject a new ball into play.. but still at times it's not long enough. Is this what I have to do, or is there a way to totally stop the routines from executing at the same time as that timer?

Here's what I would do if I understand you problem right. Instead of having a separate timer for the ball, have the ball be ejected in the same timer as the bonus. Whatever your variable for bonus is (lets call it bonus), say something like this in the bonus script part:

Put this at the begining, so it won't still try to take points away from bonus and make it negative where it won't be zero, and the ball won't fire.

if bonus = 0 then
plunger.createball
bonustimer.enabled = false
...
(other stuff that needs to happen)
end if

+++++++++++++++

My table is working well but I need to know how to set a bonus multiplier for a kicker ,adding say 200 points after the score reached sAY 1000 ,and 500 after 3000,Would I also add a percentage of the Total Score?
Im doing an older pinball so the scoring would not be too high..any info helpfull..

Sub Kicker_Hit
If nScore > 1000 then
addBonus 500
ElseIf nScore > 500 then
addBonus 300
Else
addBonus 100
End If

End-of-ball bonuses.

-First, it'll save you a lot of headaches if you make the bonus lights an array or collection. In fact, I don't know how you'd do it without an array, and I've never bothered figuring it out.

-The way I do an end-of-ball bonus usually involves three subs: AdvanceBonus, SetBonusLightState and AwardBonus. Their respective purposes should be pretty obvious.

-For the sake of this example, I'll stick to a bonus done in a simple, EM-like fashion (Max bonus 10,000, 10 lights. In fact, I'm going to cut and paste this example with some minor modifications from my script for Nip-It.) Whenever a target that advances the bonus is hit, it would call the AdvanceBonus sub. This sub would look something like this, with dims added to show what kind of variables it takes:

code:

dim nBonus

dim naBonusLights(10) 'the ten bonus lights are mapped to this array

dim nBonusMult 'if you have a multiplier

Sub AdvanceBonus()

  If nBonus < 10 then

    nBonus = nBonus + 1

    SetBonusLightState

  Else

    Exit Sub

  End If

End Sub

Sub SetBonusLightState()

  For a = 1 to 10

    If nBonus >= a then

      aBonusLights(a).State = LightStateOn

    Else

      aBonusLights(a).State = LightStateOff

    End If

  Next

End Sub

The AdvanceBonus should be pretty self-explanitory. The AdvanceBonusLightState() is a quick check that turns on all lights that are less than or equal to the current nBonus value. I will admit that this is a slightly "lazy" way to handle the bonus, but it should do the job in a situation where execution speed of the script isn't an issue, as is the case with VP.

As for the AwardBonus() sub, it would be called by the end-of-ball or any other sub that would award the bonus. The real work in this one is handled by a timer called BonusTimer, and the actual AwardBonus() sub is just a convenient way to activate it. Here's what it would look like:

code:

Sub AwardBonus()

  BonusTimer.Enabled = true

End Sub

Sub BonusTimer_Timer()

  If nBonus = 0 then

    BonusTimer.Enabled = false

    NewBall ' a call to the sub that starts the next ball

    Exit Sub

  Else

    Score 1000 'a call to whatever score function is being used

    aBonusLights(nBonus).State = LightStateOff

    nBonus = nBonus - 1

  End If

End Sub

Set BonusTimer's interval to be what you want the delay between bonus counts to be. This BonusTimer function will behave how you'd expect a simple EM-style bonus countdown to act. You can also add whatever sounds you need to, or modify it to handle more complex bonus counts.

Tilt

I want to either weaken or disable (preferably) the slam tilt on a certain System 11 William's table. I can't find code for this in the script. How do you do this?

Slam tilt is just a switch which is either on or off.

If the table uses the s11.vbs the normal tilt is simulated and be controlled with

vpmNudge.Sensitivity = x

Where x is 0-10

While x can be from 0 - 10 (0 = less sensitive, 10 = most sensitive), if you set it a negative number, you can effectively disable slam tilt (unless you *really* bang back it a lot!).

E.g., if you want to see how to get bored easily, set it to -100 or so...

Timers

Whats the correct way to make a message text only appear for 15 secs?

Set a timer for 15000 milliseconds. When the text is put into the messagebox, enable the timer. When the timer expires, disable the timer and write "" to the messagebox. three options.
When renaming objects, after chaning the name, press enter, select something else, press tab...etc. the name doesn't always change -- small vp bug.
2) save the table and reload the table. this sometimes works.
3) for timers, it makes no difference where they are on the table -- so just delete the old timer and make a new one.

Remember, if you changed the timer's name to MessageTimer, first I wouldn't recomment using spaces in names if you can avoid it. Anywayz, the script would use Sub MessageTimer_Timer, and you would use MessageTimer.Enabled and MessageTimer.disabled.
If you named it Message, it's easier to remember (for me anyway) -- that way it would be Message_Timer, and Message.enabled/Message.disabled

Short form
Change the name of your timer with no spaces.
use Exactly what you renamed it to in your script.
Change every instance of the old timername to the new one.
That's all there is to it.
(edit/find at the top will save you hours of time -- F3 moves ahead to the next occurance)

Anyone know how to cause a delay between the drain and the plunger?

Sub Drain_Hit()
Drain.DestroyBall
Drain.TimerEnabled=True
End Sub

Sub Drain_Timer()
Drain.TimerEnabled=False
Plunger.CreateBall
PlaySound "Plunger"
End Sub

Adjust the Timer Interval on the dran kicker to change the length of the delay.

Timer For A shot-check out breakshot

Here is one way, first place a timer called "Countdown" on the table, uncheck Enabled and set the interval to 1000 (1 second)

Add this line to set up a var
Dim count

When you want to fire the timer add this in the script wherever you want
count=60 'count down 1 minute (or any amount you want)
Countdown.Enabled=True 'start timer

Sub Countdown_Timer()
If count > 0 Then
ScoreText.Text="TimeLeft = "&count
Count=count-1
Else
Countdown.Enabled=False
ScoreText.Text="Finished"
End If
End Sub

*********

Create a timer, uncheck the enabled box, and set the interval to be 1000. At the beginning of the script, put this in:-

Public featuretime

This allows the variable "featuretime" to be used between subs. When you want the timer kicking in, put these lines in the sub (where timer1 appears, replace with whatever you call the timer):-

timer1.enabled = true 'this starts the timer
featuretime = 60 'change this to how many seconds you want the feature to go on for

Somewhere else in the script, create a sub like this:-

Sub timer1_timer()
featuretime = featuretime - 1
if featuretime >= 0 then
timer1.enabled = false 'this disables the timer
'before this comment, enter any variables you want changing relating to the feature, ie. dropping off walls, removing targets, changing score etc.
End If
End Sub

Text

I am having trouble scripting a routine which will use a Sub to write different messages on a textbox. IE - I'd like the textbox to handle messages, as in:
"Press Start"
"Activated"
and so on...

I am trying to use a variable, but either I did it wrong, or VP will just not recognize it (I'm banking on #1).

I have the following:
In the Init part of the code: Dim Message
In the "hit" event(Sub): Message = "Activated"
In the "read" event (Sub): Textbox2.Text = Message

It doesn't work as stated above. I can't "Dim Message as String". I'm wading through VB boooks looking for a clue, but no dice.

Why not in the hiot event just say Textbox2.Text="Activated" or whatever? The problem is probably that DIM is in the table_init routine, which makes it a local variable. Try putting the dim line at the top of the script, outside any sub routines.

*************

Message=Array("","Press Start","Activated","message 3","message 4"...)

Sub UpdateMessage(messageno)
Textbox2.Text = Message(messageno)
End Sub

In this way you could define the messages presuming that you can fit in one one line and call a routine with the messagenumber to be displayed...

The first "" indiactes message(0), you can add a message there, just remember it'd be message(0) *game over might be nice?*

On Paratech's reply: it looks doable! Instead of writing the message on all hit events, I'd just have to write it in one place, and then assign messageno a value in the hit event, and send it to Sub Update Message?

For example: let's display "Hurry Up Activated" in two texboxes. Would this be OK?

Message1=Array("","Hurry Up","Lock Is Lit",...) 'Textbox 1
Message2=Array("","Bonus X","Activated",...) 'Textbox 2

Sub LeftSwitch_Hit()
Messageno1 = 1
Messageno2 = 2
UpdateMessage1
Updatemessage2
End Sub

Sub UpdateMessage1(Messageno1)
If TextBusy = True Then
Exit Sub
End If
Textbox1.Text = Message1(messageno1)
End Sub
Sub UpdateMessage2(Messageno2)
If TextBusy = True Then
Exit Sub
End If
Textbox2.Text = Message2(messageno2)
End Sub

Also, where in the code would I insert Message=Array... ?

Messages

. Re:Whats the correct way to make a message text only appear for 15 secs?

set a timer for 15000 milliseconds.
When the text is put into the messagebox, enable the timer.
When the timer expires, disable the timer and write "" to the messagebox.

three options.

When renaming objects, after chaning the name, press enter, select something else, press tab...etc. the name doesn't always change -- small vp bug.

2) save the table and reload the table. this sometimes works.

3) for timers, it makes no difference where they are on the table -- so just delete the old timer and make a new one.

If you named it Message, it's easier to remember (for me anyway) -- that way it would be Message_Timer, and Message.enabled/Message.disabled

Short form
Change the name of your timer with no spaces.
use Exactly what you renamed it to in your script.
Change every instance of the old timername to the new one.

That's all there is to it.
(edit/find at the top will save you hours of time -- F3 moves ahead to the next occurance)

Animate Text

To animate text effectively you have to layer text boxes...there could be other ways, but it's the best solution I've found so far...

By making text boxes different sizes, you can achieve all kinds of growth, wipes and assorted dissolves. Just remember that the most recent text box written to at a given x/y will be the top box, and therefore the one that is displayed. It's also good to keep in mind that a font size that is too big for the box, will simply make PART of the text disappear...you can use this to great effect.

The table I'm currently working on currently has 10 layers of text at a single x/y, and that number will likely quadruple by the time I'm done. BUT, it does allow me to some near DMD quality effects.

Well, a really simple solution to doing things like scrolling text (text that scrolls from right to left or vice versa), text wipes, etc. would be to first of all set up your text box with a mono-spaced font, such as Courier New. Determine the maximum number of characters you can display in the box at the font size you've selected, then write a few functions to display the effects as you want them to appear. You'd run the effects on a timer - that's the best way I can think of to do it.

I'm too tired at the moment to write up code samples, but I'll experiment with some text effects as a VPT file and post up the result when I get a chance. Here's what I'll attempt to tackle:

* Marquee from right to left
* Marquee from left to right
* Wipe in from left
* Wipe in from right
* Wipe out from left
* Wipe out from right
* Wipe in from center
* Wipe out from center
* Blank, then asterisks from center, then text from center
* Text, then asterisks from center, then blank

I came up with pretty much the same idea as Dorsola, but I was writing while he was posting (I'm a morning person, and it's morning here! ). Here's some quick code I wrote up for a simple scroll that goes from right to left. I added a timer called ScrollTimer and a text box called ScrollingText with a monospaced font to my backdrop (proportional fonts would be hard, since there's no text width function in VBScript).

code:

dim scrollPosition

scrollPosition = 0

'Text has 16 spaces after it so it will go off the edge of the screen

const ScrollText = "I AM SCROLLING TEXT! BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!                "

const ScrollTextLength = 16

Sub ScrollTimer_Timer()
'Scroll horizontally based on current position
dim s
if scrollPosition = 0 then
         s = ""
elseif scrollPosition < ScrollTextLength + 1 then
         s = Left(scrollText, scrollPosition)
else
         s = Mid(scrollText, scrollPosition - ScrollTextLength, _
                                ScrollTextLength)
end if
ScrollingText.Text = s
scrollPosition = scrollPosition + 1
if scrollPosition > Len(scrollText) then scrollPosition = 0
End Sub

Going left to right, doing wipes, etc., are all pretty much variations on this theme. As Dorsola says, having a bunch of subs to handle different effects is the way to go.

Vertical scrolling is a little different. Since you can't control any attributes of the text box, you can only scroll one full line at a time. Your best bet is to either do as PeBo does and have multiple boxes for different vertical positions or have a really tall text box.

Yup, it's messy, but the advantage is that you can change fonts, font colour, text size, position and angle on the fly with no more that 10-15 lines of code. This means you can have a string appear at a barely readable 6-8 point, have it grow to 36 point, start flashing, and then use the other suggestions for single box manipulation in this thread to have it scroll off to the side. It also means that using a custom font, you can animate virtually anything from a full DMD style multiball announcement to a dancing baby (if you're not sick of them yet). Additionally if you create an array for all your text boxes, accessing any one of them is very simple and can be a variable value triggered event. You can easily scroll text in a single text box, but if you want any other type of effect, I can't see how it would be possible without using layers.

Okay, I've come up with a sort of library for text effects in a single box. Check out this VPT file ( http://www.descent2.com/dorsola/files/vpt_texteff.zip ) - it is just a text effect demonstration, so it does nothing else. You can direct the animation using the keys shown in the Instructions box. Examine the Table1_Init() and Table1_KeyDown() subs to see how easy it is to use this system.

This system is fairly preliminary - it'll currently only work with one text box, one string, and assumes that you want to go either from or to a blank text box in the effect. IMPORTANT: It will also only work properly with an EVEN TextBoxSize value! I plan on revising it so these effects will scroll, wipe and otherwise replace existing text, so the whole system will be simpler when it's finished.

In this example, I've set up a text box that can hold 40 characters, and the string you're working with is "THE FUN HOUSE CLOSES IN 15 MINUTES" (34 chars). If your string is larger than the text box size, some effects will truncate the string, while others will allow the whole thing to appear.

There are 16 effects to choose from:

* Scroll in from right
* Scroll out to left
* Scroll across from right to left
* Scroll in from left
* Scroll out to right
* Scroll across from left to right
* Wipe in from right
* Wipe out to left
* Wipe in from left
* Wipe out to right
* Wipe in from center outwards
* Wipe out from center outwards
* Wipe in from edges inwards
* Wipe out from edges inwards
* Blank to asterisks to text from center outwards
* Text to asterisks to blank from center outwards

The last two effects are coded separately from the rest, but are essentially combinations of other effects. They'll be coded as such in the next revision.

Flippers

Is there any way to make the flippers feel more realistic?

Some people find these settings help:

1. Start VP and open any table.
2. Scroll down until you can see the flippers.
3. Highlight the left flipper by clicking on it.
4. Click on the options button on the left side.
5. This will cause the settings for the Left flipper to be seen on the right.
6. In the box marked 'start =' change the number to 112
7. In the box marked 'End = ' change the number to 61
8. Then highlight the right flipper.
9. In the box marked 'Start =' change the number to 248
10. In the box marked 'End =' change the number to 299
11. Click on File drop down menu and save the table.

I did not mention the speed value because it seems to require a different one for each table. For some a speed of 0.135 is just to fast. I have found that a speed range of 0.05 to 0.07 works good for most tables.
The strength value does not seem to affect the shot very much. I could be wrong on that but the speed seems to be more important.

Also keep in mind that flipper radius, particurally the base radius, is really important to propper flipper operation. If the base radius is too large, that can also cause the flipper to seem sluggish. Seems that anything under 21 or so works fine.

How do I render flippers non-operational when the table loads up?

Hi, I assume that you have coded the table so you press a key to start it?

Dim a variable at the top of the table (ie Inplay for example)

In Table_Init - Set this to false
When you start the game, set this variable to True.
When it's game over, set it to False.

In the Table_Keydown sub routine, find the two entries for the flippers and encapsulate them in an If statement:-

If inplay = true then
<the two entries for left/right flippers>
end if

When the table is not in play, then the flippers will not activate.

How can I increase the strengh of the flippers in the Indy Tables or others?

Just start VPinmame and open the IJ table.
After it is open click the options tab to the left of the table.
Then click on one of the flippers on the table.
A new menu will appear on the right of the table.
One of the options in that menu is "Speed".
I believe it is set to 0.135 on Indy.
Just increase it to 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 and on up until you find a speed you like.
You will see a "strength" option below the "Speed" option but it will not do as much for you as the speed option will.
You will then need to repeat this process for the other flipper and save the table.
Hope this helps some.

. One of the most common "complaints" I see (besides the usual bugs of balls dissappearing, being stuck in walls, etc) is that the particular user doesn't like the flipper physics. Well, you can change them. I know that most know how to modify the flipper physics, but apparently some of the new user's don't, so I'm writing this for people who are new to the program. Here's how to change flipper physics, and it's quite easy..
After loading the particular table, go into the edit screen (the screen that looks like a blueprint with the icons on the left side). Now carefuly click on one of the flippers so it's highlighted (be careful not to move it). Now go to the menu at the top and click "edit", then click "options". A interface should appear on the right side of the screen. Near the bottom is 2 fields labeled "speed" and "strength". These are the 2 fields that you can change. Experiment with different numbers to find something you like. An easier and safer way however is to find a table that has physics to your particular liking and get the flipper settings on that table and place them onto the table you wish to change. If anyone's interested, I used the settings from Ian's tables (which were input by metallik, if I remember correctly). Attack from Mars and Theater of Magic had physics that I can play well with. I hope this helps anyone who can't make shots that were normally made in real world pins to get more enjoyment out of the tables

I have been experimenting with flipper angles on all of my tables.
I have found out that "Metalliks" numbers work great for every table I have. It allows for center shots to be made the way they are supposed to be. I can now shoot the castle and ball lock in MM with great accuracy. And it has restored the ball lock shot from the left flipper of my TZ table. In fact these settings have improved every table I have put them on and anyone can do it. I had no experience doing this just a day ago but for all of you out there that want great flippers and have never messed with any settings before, I am going to tell you how to do it easily.
1. Start VP and open any table. (AFM and TOM are already set right)
2. Scroll down until you can see the flippers.
3. Highlight the left flipper by clicking on it.
4. Click on the options button on the left side.
5. This will cause the settings for the Left flipper to be seen on the right.
6. In the box marked "start =" change the number to 112
7. In the box marked "End = " change the number to 61
8. Then highlight the right flipper.
9. In the box marked "Start =" change the number to 248
10. In the box marked "End =" change the number to 299
11. Click on File drop down menu and save the table.

Yea. I did not mention the speed value because it seems to require a different one for each table. For some a speed of 0.135 is just to fast. I have found that a speed range of 0.05 to 0.07 works good for most tables.
The strength value does not seem to affect the shot very much.
I could be wrong on that but the speed seems to be more important.

Also keep in mind that flipper radius, particurally the base radius, is really important to propper flipper operation. If the base radius is too large, that can also cause the flipper to seem sluggish. Seems that anything under 21 or so works fine.

Flipper Strenght

Just start VP/VPinMAME and open a table.
After it is open click the options tab to the left of the table.
Then click on one of the flippers on the table.
A new menu will appear on the right of the table.
One of the options in that menu is "Speed".
I believe it is set to 0.135 on Indy.
Just increase it to 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 and on up until you find a speed you like.
You will see a "strength" option below the "Speed" option but it will not do as much for you as the speed option will.
You will then need to repeat this process for the other flipper and save the table.

Changing keys for flippers to keys "3" and "4"...

How can this be done? I have all the newest files... It worked for a while, but then just stopped... I unistalled and reinstalled everything and still can't get them to stick! Is there a permanent solution to this, to get the 3 and 4 keys to be the main flipper keys for ALL games?A:

All keyboard handling is done in two sub:s inside the script called <TableName>_KeyUp(...) and <TableName>_KeyDown(...)

(search for keyup or keydown in the script)

If the tables are using the WPC.VBS, S11.VBS etc the keyUp and keyDown subs only calls the keyboard functions in the *.VBS file.

Near the end in the *:VBS file you will find a lot of "Const" declarations.

Private Const keyShowOpts = 59 '(F1) Show options
Private Const keyShowKeys = 60 '(F2) Show Keys
Private Const KeyReset = 61 '(F3) Reset Emulation
Private Const KeyFrame = 62 '(F4) Toggle Window Lock
Private Const KeyBangBack = 20 '(T) Bang Back
Private Const keyInsertCoin1 = 4 '(3) Inser coin in slot 1
Private Const keyInsertCoin2 = 5 '(4) Inser coin in slot 2
Private Const keyInsertCoin3 = 6 '(5) Inser coin in slot 3
Private Const keyInsertCoin4 = 7 '(6) Inser coin in slot 4
Private Const keyStartButton = 2 '(1) Start button

You can find keycodes in the helpfile supplied with Visual Pinball

Kickers

Sub kicker1_hit()
kicker1.kick -45,10
end sub

Use above or

Sub kicker1_hit()
kicker1.kick 305,10
end sub

The angles are 0 to 359 technically though negtives appear to work as well. Pinman's will give you the same result..

Think of the directions as a clock face that goes

-------------- 0
---------305-------45
--------270---------90
---------225-------135
--------------180

For the direction you want to kick it.

How To: Directional Kicker

I got asked how I did my aiming-and-shooting kicker in MiniGolf, so I made up a small pinball where you aim with the Flipper Keys and Shoot with either CTRL-Key. Here's the brief explaination:

Here is a VPT with just a directional shooting kicker. It has two timers: Rotate and Fire.

RotateTimer: set rate to determine speed of rotation. Can't get much faster than 50ms. Incorporated a RotateStep to rotate by 5 degrees at a time for a faster "feel."

FiringTimer: sets the rate in which balls shoot.

I also added several globals, most important are MaxBalls and BallsInPlay. Make sure BallsInPlay don't exceed MaxBalls. In the example, it's 20 balls at a time. Slows down my 500MHz processor. This one requires some tweaking.

Attached is the VPT file. Open up the options window on the table to access timer rates. Open up the script to see what I did. I commented all of my additions to the basic table with the word "HERE". So search for HERE to find all of the changes. It's a very short script, probably can just read it.

As for a directional indicator, that's another lesson. I still don't have it down yet. But here's the gist of it: Create N lights for N possible directions. In Minigolf, I had to round down to the nearest 5th degree. Don't worry if the lights overlap, the one that's lit will light completely. Turn off all lights and light the correct light in that order.

The other way to indicate direction is to use N drop walls for N directions. Drop all walls and raise the correct wall to indicate direction. This is the method I used in MiniGolf.

The attached VPT has greater detail in the script.

Yes, I would like fries with that.

Date: 06-17-2001 on 10:23 a.m.

Attachment: gunkicker.vpt

Random Directions

Please could someone tell me what line is needed for a kicker to kick out in a random direction?,with all directions enabled.Is it possible to have the ball kicked out at a random speed?.For example,between the speeds of say 30 - 80.If so,how do you do that?.Many thanks in advance for any help given.

This is just a guess (works in other basic-style languages, unsure about VP though) try it anyway.

Kickerdirection = Int(Rnd * 360) + 1 [angle at which the ball is kicked]
Kickerspeed = (Int(Rnd * 50) +1) + 30 [speed at which the ball is kicked]

Kicker1[name of kicker] = Kickerdirection, Kickerspeed

However, you may like to modify it, and delete square brackets bit. But that is the basic code.

I would do it this way:

Kicker.Kick 360 * Rnd, 30 + 50 * Rnd

I would also put a Randomize in your table_init sub so you don't get the same series of numbers every time.

Kicker1.Kick int(rnd(1)*359), int(rnd(1)*10)

Replace the 10 with whatever you want the max to be, and if you want it say a minimum of 10 use int(rnd(1)*10 + 10) which will make it between 10 and 20.

Make sure you have RANDOMIZE in your script somewhere. You can also use CInt instead of Int.

Can someone tell me what the middle 2 variables on my kicker means?

Kicker1.kick 270, 1 + rnd (1) * 40

1 + rnd (1) ?

Also when I enter my kickerhole it seems to lose its kick about the 5th time its entered. Should I just add Kicker1.kick 270, 1 + rnd (1) * 40 to each if statement?

----------------------------

The first parameter is direction, with 0 being due north.

The second parameter is strength of kick.

1+rnd(1)*40 generates a number from 1 to 40. The rnd function generates a number from 0 to .9999. Multiply that by 40, you get 0 to 39.99999. Add one, you get 1 to 40.9999. The decimals are truncated if the kicker function requires an integer parameter.

If you want a kick of strength 20 to 40 instead of 1 to 40 try:

20+rnd(1)*20.

1. Kicker shoot along Z-Axis - YES, working!!!

Hi folks,

everybody says that Kickers don't have the ability to shoot along the Z-Axis,
but then you all should take a closer look to the VP Documantation as there
are some properties of the objects not visible in the editor!

Like this one from VPReference.chm):

Kicker.Kick(Angle As Single, Speed As Single, [Inclination As Single])

You notice - INCLINATION!!!

Ok, I built an example-table with some stairs - now, let's play ball....

Attachment: UpKicker.vpt

I just figured out, how the "inclination" parameter has to be set:

as default, the kicker kicks horizontal (0 deg.), a 90 deg. kick (almost straight vertical)
would be something like 1.45 and everything between them is the corresponding angle
(ie. 0.75 is almost 45 deg.)
You have to play a little with the value to find out the needed angle, but it's great.
Don't forget to set the glass-height and a suitable shoot-strength

Oh, btw: ever tried to set the table-inclination to values between 90 and 180 degrees?
Nice look from below the table upwards

Kicker Timer

what line / lines need to be added to kicker script to make the kicker keep hold of the ball for about 5 seconds before releasing it

sub kicker1_hit
kicker1.enabled=false
holdtimer.enabled=true
end sub

sub holdtimer_timer
kicker1.kick 180,20
kicker1.enabled=true
holdtimer.enabled=false
end sub

Then set the holdtimer interval to 5000 (for 5 seconds).

Lamp

Spinning Lamp Totan

- Sim Tech Sample

After spending about 6 hours straight working on it, I figured out a reasonably code-simple way to simulate the spinning lamp in TOTAN. I've attached a VPT that contains a mockup of the lamp object and the simulator I designed for it.

This thing is far from perfect - the object can be fooled into turning the wrong direction; it can't tell the difference between a dead-on hit and a glancing blow (one where the ball is deflected off at an angle); and I don't have the rotation down very well - friction is poorly simulated.

But, this is a start, and it *might* be the best we can do until we're able to get the ball's direction and speed values from (or during) a hit event.

Unlike captive balls, I think getting the free-spinning lamp in TOTAN to work satisfactorily with the current VisPin release is just a bit out of reach. If the person working on TOTAN is satisfied with this, though, or has a better solution, it'll still make the machine plenty playable. =)

Feel free to play around with this thing, guys - I'd be interested in seeing if what I started evolves. =)

WARNING: Heavy math involved! If you want to piece through the math in the script, I included some notes, but there's some complicated trig stuff to sort through. Be careful if you modify the math routines.

Pinmame

How do i move the display and make it stay there next time i play a table?

The last position is saved but the script can override it. Look for a line in the script like .SetDisplayPosition ... or Controller.SetDisplayPosition ... and delete it or comment it out.
		How do I reduce the size of the DMD on games like Baywatch?

Hit F1 while vpinmame is running. Make sure to use the COMPACT DMD option. Also, remove the Double Size option if it's selected.

How do i move the display and make it stay there next time i play a table?

The last position is saved but the script can override it. Look for a line in the script like

.SetDisplayPosition ...
or
Controller.SetDisplayPosition ...

and delete it or comment it out.

Is there any way to make the vPinMAME games sound better?

Some people report success by altering the DirectX sound configuration. Click the start menu Click the run button Type DxDiag and press enter On the sound page (middle tab), select "basic acceleration" by sliding the slider to the left hand side. Press Exit.
Are there any bugs/issues with vPinMAME v1.10?

#1) Some of the BSMT games have volume issues. Either too loud or too soft. Nothing much can be done to fix it for now. You should be able to use the 8,9 keys to adjust volume for the SEGA games. If not, we might just need a new sega.vbs to handle support for it, so sit tight..

#2) The BSMT uses COMPRESSED audio samples on most games. We DO NOT yet know how to make it sound good when played back in vpm. It will sound loud, scratchy, and generally bad!! This is a known issue, PLEASE DO NOT post about it, we already know..

#3) In some cases, lower end setups *might* experience more static for ALL games with sound in the new release. Please read the whatsnew.txt for a brief description on this.. We're trying to work out something better, but just be aware, that's the way it is for now.

#4) The VPinMAMETest.exe is NO LONGER USED! Use the "TEST" button from the setup/installation program (setup.exe) instead to check out your vpinmame installation.

There are some issues with the Mech Handler code, which means that certain tables may have broken playfield toys/diverters or generally exhibit strange behavior.

SCRIPT

Just a couple of questions about script....
1) I am having problems defining variables:sometimes
they dont seem to register at all! do you have to DIM them all?.....and what about the program
order?....does it make a difference
2) My version of VPinball seems ill, it crashes left
right and centre
550p3,25M6,16MrivaTNT,Norton,Network card,USB
MIDI interface,Win98,SoundBlaster1024
sometimes use soft FSB, PC Accellerator to overclock.?any ideas?
3)What is the routine to determine if a

has run out?....ie I am in a subroutine for a skillshot, if the
timer runs out then skillshot has finished....but ive already done loads of code....do i have to repeat it
under the SkillshotTimer_Timer() routine?
4)Is there an endsound command?
5)Anyone got any VB script info or tutorials yet?

Any variable should be DIMed whith the exception of local variables used to pass parameters to a subroutine.

Their order doesn't matter (I like to put single value variables first, followed by single dimension and multi-dimension arrays after, but that's a personal preference). Best place though is in a place that won't be read more than once...like the top opf your script

A temporary variable (used for stuff like for/next loops) can be placed within the sub routine that uses it, but remember that everytime the Dim statement is read, the variable is going to be re-set.

As far as a skill-shot timer is concerned, you can have it start as soon as the ball is shot (or when it hit's a launch alley gate). Set the time for the correct duration (1000=1 second), and simply include a x.timerenabled = false (where x is the timer's name) within the timer subroutine. If it is an actual timer object you're using, then it would just be x.enabled =false. If you include the "=false" within the timer routine itself, the timer will end as soon as the duration has passed.

So for your skillshot it would be something like...

sub start()
Light_ss.state=lightstateon
x.timerenabled=true
end sub

sub x_timer()
x.timerenabled=false
light_ss.state=lightstateoff
end sub

You can check if the timer is still active with a simple "if x.timerenabled" statement ("if" will always return a 0 for false and a 1 for true, so you don't need any "= false" or "=true")

One suggestion, rather than using a gazillion timer objects, use some of your table elements instead. Every object has it's own timer that you can use. So for your skillshot, if you use an alley gate as the hit event that starts the time, why not use the gate's timer. ie...

sub gate_hit()
gate.timerenabled=true
end sub

The endsound command is a good question...I have no idea.

Actually be careful of how much you follow the above...I'm self taught myself, so I could be full of shit. If no one points out any errors in my suggestions, you can try them, but don't take em to the bank!

You only have to DIM variables if you've put "option explicit" at the start of your script.

(at least one person has told me that he thought "option explicit" activated some kind of adult content lock! <grin>)

However, if you skip the "option explicit", your programs will run fine, but the variables will only be scoped for the subroutine in which they're used... so if you want a variable to be globally available, you'll need to refer to it somewhere within the "initialisation" code at the top of the script (i.e. the stuff at the top of the script).... otherwise, the variable will reset to zero whenever you move out of a routine where it's scoped - if you have variables that don't seem to hold their values, then this is almost certainly the problem.

To be honest, there probably isn't any good reason to not use "option explicit" - it forces you to explicitly declare all your variables upfront, and catches out loads of typos and syntax errors that you'll otherwise miss. Which makes me wonder why I forgot to use it in dragons castle or star race..... maybe I like a challenge...

(disclaimer: I've been VB coding for even less time than Pebo. And I'm so stupid that I don't even use "option explicit" in my programs. I wouldn't listen to a word I say if I was you...)

Mod’s

Well, really i doesn't need to be dimmed at all, but I always have option explicit in my code so I don't have variable naming problems. But even so, I could declare i as a global, but nothing about i required global scope. It's a local variable used by subs, so I declare it every time. Of course, you're free to commit whatever travesty of coding style you want...

Mod is the modulus operator, which does an integer division and returns the remainder. So, 9 mod 7 = 2, 21 mod 7 = 0, etc. I use it because with my 4 light sequence, there are 7 possible states (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - all off - all on - all off - 1 - etc.). That way, I can just keep adding to my counter and not have the annoying if counter >= 7 then counter = 0 code. In this case, it's just personal preference, but in some of my games the attract sequence can get quite complicated (I believe Frontier has a sequence that is 90 or 100 lights long) and different lights go at different speeds. So I can have this sequence going fast and another 10 light sequence going slower with (attractCounter \ 4) mod 10 to kind of break things up a bit (\ is the integer division operator). So that's why I use mod.

Random

Random #’s

How do I generate a random number?

To produce a random number, use the rnd function.

Before calling Rnd, use the Randomize statement without an argument to initialize the random-number generator (this ensures that you get a random number every time you call rnd)

To produce random integers in a given range, use this formula:

Int((upperbound - lowerbound + 1) * Rnd + lowerbound)

Here, upperbound is the highest number in the range, and lowerbound is the lowest number in the range.

So if you wanted to get a random number between 1 and 10 then you would write the following:
Dim x
Randomize
x = int((10 - 1 + 1) * Rnd + 1)

this is a part of my match section... I'm trying to make my random number not repeat itself.

just to be clear, if the last number was 10 the next random number must not be 10, but instead go back and 'reroll' untill the number has changed.

Sub RunMatch()
MatchResult = Int(Rnd(1)*10) * 10
If MatchResult = 0 Then
BallText.Text = "00"
Else
BallText.Text = MatchResult
End If
MatchCount = MatchCount + 1
MatchTimer.Enabled = True

What is the range of numbers you want to choose from?

You could use recursion, but it's a bit dangerous as your program could litraly loop itself to death.

Um try the following, this is off the top of my head so forgive any small mistakes.

This script assumes that you want a range from 1 to 10.

At the top of the table

Dim LastRandomNumber 'Var to hold the last number

In the Table_init routine

LastRandomNumber = 0

Now the routine to call to get the random number.

function GetRndNumber (lastnum)

dim RandomNumber

randomize (timer)

RandomNumber = int(rnd * 10) + 1

if RandomNumber = LastRandomNumber then RandomNumber = GetRndNumber(lastnum)

GetRndNumber = RandomNumber
LastRandomNumber = RandomNumber

End Function

To get the RandomNumber use the following

GetRndNumber (lastRandomNumber)

the random number I'm trying to produce is for the match,

Int(Rnd(1)*10) * 10
1 through 10 times ten...

your solution looks better than any of the ones I was trying but I still fail to make it work. it keeps generating 0 for some reason... it's probly me, I'll take another look at it tmrw and see if it makes any more sense then. I think I'm just burnin out for today

I'm pretty sure that if you're using Int(Rnd *10) * 10 to generate your numbers, you're going to get numbers ranging from 0 to 90.

Rnd generates numbers in the range 0 <= Rnd < 1, so you'll never get 100. You need to adopt MrRalphMan's approach: (Int(Rnd*10)+1) * 10.

damn, never had a chance to do much of anything today till just now, and I'm sure you got up long ago here is my whole match section of my script as it is...

If you needed/want more than that I can just send you a wip of my whole table, not a problem.

BTW Joe, I belive you're right, my code as is WILL generate from 0 - 9, I know I said 1 - 10 earlier, I was wrong. I had previously figured all that out when I first put that code together, I was being forgetfull and lazy in my last post, very tired, too much VP! Anyhow... for a match routine 0 - 9 works perfectly 0 = 00 and 9 = 90 it's all just double digits, so in this case it works perfectly

Sub RunMatch()
MatchResult = Int(Rnd(1)*10) * 10
If MatchResult = 0 Then
BallText.Text = "00"
Else
BallText.Text = MatchResult
End If
MatchCount = MatchCount + 1
MatchTimer.Enabled = True
End Sub

Sub MatchTimer_Timer()
MatchTimer.Enabled = False
If MatchCount = 20 Then
MatchCount = 0
EndMatch
Else
RunMatch
End If
End Sub

Sub EndMatch()
If MatchResult =(Score-Round(Score/100)*100) Then
AddCreditAward
End If
GameOver
End Sub

Sub GameOver()
GameOn = False
Attract.Start
End Sub

Taking Camera Shots of a real table

Well.. Ideally you want to have your camera at the highest resolution and lowest compression settings possible. You'll want to take the playfield glass off and get that pinball in a lot of light (outside is best but otherwise a lot of nice diffuse(SP?) light).

If you have enough light (only the pics will tell) Then position yourself or the camera to be directly overhead of the table and line up the camera lengthwise with the table (so cropping will be less and you'll get a better and bigger overall pic).

Then shoot the following shots until you get at least one really good one of each.

1 full Playfield shot
1 shot with 60% of the lower half of the table
1 shot with 60% of the upper half of the table.

You can also take the above sequence with flash as well and see if it might come in handy later for something. With flash you'll have the flash bounce so I'd recommend the other for less cleanup.

Take a lower light pic of the table as well with all lights on for color matching.

Then take straight on closeups (watch the focus.. you can be a distance away just try to fill the shot with the zoomed plastic) of each and every individual plastic and drop target type on the machine.

Then take a shot of a lit and unlit backglass pic. This is a tough one because of the glare that most BGs give.

That should be a good start. Check how the pics came out when viewed full size on your computer and reshoot any that were too dark or blurry or had some other problem.

Creator of Visual Pinball . If it wasn’t for Randy I’d be playing Mame

http://www.randydavis.com/vp/

Shiva The best pinball site on the net

http://www.hippie.net/shivasite/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi

AJ’s Table Site Good selection

http://www.thefew.com/vptables/

IR Pinball , Table Downloads, Table Creators and they acquired the talented Leo

http://www.hippie.net/shivasite/irpinball//nonirptables.html

Thanks to Randy, Shiva, (Shiva Site Maintainers) for getting it going again and everyone who made a table.

My next release of Knock My Fn Teeth out will be the Final………….when? soon as its finished

I’m slower with this stuff but like getting it to work, It’s all greek to me.

I need brown balls for my next table “Eat Poop & Die” J

Keep up the good work & keep them tables coming.

Cold1

When Editing newest added stuff is a bigger font size

http://www.hippie.net/shivasite/cgi-bin/faq/faqprocessor.cgi

You Can Modify this as you need

Music Timers/Delays

Testing Tips

Shrinking File Size

Graphics

Balls Speed

Ball Color

Decals

Table Animation

Sound

Triggers

Glass Height

rnd() function

Things on Platforms above 0

Balls

Setting # of Balls

Multi Balls

Ramps

Gates

Bumpers

Targets/Walls

Score

Reset score after game over

Bonus Scoring

High Score Reset

Bonus: Counters

Timers

Text

Flippers

Flipper Strenght

Kickers

Random Directions

Kicker Timer

Lamp

Pinmame

SCRIPT

Random

Random #’s