Which VP software?

[Coitusmysterioso]

Good afternoon folks.

I am planning to start a VP shortly and I wanted to get your opinions on the different ones available?

I have looked around on (vpforums) and left more confused than when I got there. LOL

I see there is

• Visual Pinball 8,9 & X
• Future Pinball
• Others

I’m only looking to build a setup with 20-30 good tables with backglass & DMD. Can anyone recommend which one to go with?

 

[roar]

Everything starts and ends with VPX

I don't have any VP8 tables on my cabinet and very few VP9's. I do have a couple of Physmod5 tables like AC/DC and Avengers (That one is actually Physmod2) but for the most part all my table recreations are VPX. The uptick in table releases has been quite noticeable in the last 12 months or so as VPX has really taken off. It is actively developed with the current version being 10.2. There is also some great work being done with vpinmame and being able to emulate modulated lighting with recent releases of Star Trek LE and TWD LE.

Physics wise I find VPX to play better than any other emulators, I do not like the way Future Pinball plays at all, granted I haven't invested a lot of time in getting it completely dialled in but I've read enough to give me confidence that even perfectly dialled in it is an entirely different experience than VP and one that I don't believe I will enjoy.

Other emulators to consider... Pinball FX2 would be one. That one is on my cabinet, it isn't trying to be a pinball emulator I don't find, it knows what it is and, which is a video game and I think it does a pretty good job at it. There are a couple of Unity tables out there, that I tried once, if you are only planning on running 30 tables though I wouldn't bother with them... there is also Time Shock from ProPinball (http://www.pro-pinball.com/), it is just a single table but has cabinet support. I've purchased it but haven't gone back to dialling it in, I need to do that.

Edit: I didn't mention The Pinball Arcade. I haven't played a table on TPA that also exists in VPX that I like better. I love TPA on my iPad, but on my cabinet VPX is just a better emulator.

 

[Coitusmysterioso]

Thank you Roar.

I probably learned more in 2 minutes reading your post and got a better idea of direction than I did in 3 days looking around VPF!

 

[roar]

There is a WHOLE lot of information over there, unfortunately a lot of it is outdated. I never understand why forums (This one does the same thing actually) keep sub-forums around well past their "best-before-date" I'll call it. There does become a point as a user where I think seeing old essentially dead sub-forums do more harm than good.

With that being said do check out vpinball.com if you haven't stumbled across it yet. No where near as busy or full of older information as vpforums.com. A lot of new tables will get posted there first these days and you do still have to check in over at vpuniverse.com too to stay up to date with the vpinmame and colour dmd work that's going on. There is also an Italian site run by a super talented table creator that is the only place to go for his releases, that is monsterbashpincab.com.

 

[Jesper]

+1 to what Roar said, I would start with vpinball.com and start branching out from there. Visual Pinball 10 is getting tables that are downright beautiful. Make sure you get Feedback (DOF) Contactors, Shaker Motor, Lights Etc. These things really add to virtual pinball.
Always keep in mind the "Virtual" part, no matter what it's not the real thing, but i can play MM, AFM, CV, plus many others on the same cabinet, plus a lot of EM'S without the hassle/funof fixing them

 

[kiwi]

Good afternoon folks.

I am planning to start a VP shortly and I wanted to get your opinions on the different ones available?

<snip>

Another +1 to what Roar said. I have been busy with my build since October, and haven't been online here in the "real pinball" world. (You can read about it on vpforums )
There's a ton of information out there and some of the tables are simply amazing for an emulation. If you build a good cabinet, you're 90% going to get the "effect" of thinking you're playing a real machine. Plus there's the "joy" of building something quite unique.

 

[mwong168]

I can't wait to try my friend kiwi's (Brian) build which he will be posting up on here soon.

I just saw this video of GBLE in VP and it looks great!

 

[roar]

I can't wait to try my friend kiwi's (Brian) build which he will be posting up on here soon.

I just saw this video of GBLE in VP and it looks great!

Unfortunately that table is likely to remain unplayable until someone custom codes it. With no emulation for stern's spike mpu building Virtual pins of the latest stern releases is a custom job and to date the only one I've seen is Kiss. They did such a killer job of Ghostbusters visually, I hope it is playable one day.

 

[mwong168]

Speaking of killer, this was posted last night and looks great.

I might have to build me another pinmame cab in the near future to play this and the many other nice tables I am seeing on this guy's youtube channel.

 

[roar]

I can't wait to get my hands on that one too... my cab is currently folded up as we are in the middle of a renovation but what is being produced in VPX these days is nothing short of amazing.

The recent Taxi and Diner releases are fantastic:

Even less popular titles like Data Easts Batman get redone in painstaking detail:

And a personal favorite of mine, Fathom:

Then you get original creations like Diablo and Stranger Things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwLRofLyWG8

With the pinDMD3 or PIN2DMD in these machines you are now even seen a lot of colour DMD releases like Metallica, AC/DC, Spiderman VE, The Avengers and so on.

Make no mistake about it, no mater how amazing these recreations get they will never replace real pinball machines, but when you've got limited room to dedicate to pinballs I think they have a place in a games room. Even with that said I've got mine pretty pimped out with what I have to imagine is well over $3K maybe even $4K into it and what has to be hundreds of hours and I'd trade it for a pin on my dream list in a heart beat.

 

[mwong168]

Make no mistake about it, no mater how amazing these recreations get they will never replace real pinball machines, but when you've got limited room to dedicate to pinballs I think they have a place in a games room.

I have been down this route before and built a few VP cabs since 2009 and been out of it since 2012. I am told a lot has changed especially with the force feedback and ball physics are much improved now. Before when a table looked nice or more realistic usually performance suffered such as ball movement stutter during game play. I am patiently waiting for kiwi to get his cab buttons wired up so I can give some of these newer tables a try.

No doubt this is no substitute for a real pinball and if it was I wouldn't have built up my 12 pins collection.

 

[roar]

I have been down this route before and built a few VP cabs since 2009 and been out of it since 2012. I am told a lot has changed especially with the force feedback and ball physics are much improved now. Before when a table looked nice or more realistic usually performance suffered such as ball movement stutter during game play. I am patiently waiting for kiwi to get his cab buttons wired up so I can give some of these newer tables a try.

No doubt this is no substitute for a real pinball and if it was I wouldn't have built up my 12 pins collection.

I am well acquainted with his build... it is going to be pretty sweet when it's done!

 

[DRANO]

Mike has been showing me these vids recently and, while I would never have gone to VP a few years ago, I'm now at the point where my collection is maxed out and I am slowly downsizing, so this is becoming an interesting option.

I also don't want to spend NIB stern money and they're not my favorite era of pin anyway.... But if I can own them all in this way and still learn how to play each one, plus some great classics I will probably never own, this is a very attractive proposition.

Building custom cabs is no issue for me as well, so I'm very excited to see how Kiwi's project turns out. There may very well be a VP in my future.

 

[kiwi]

You should see the latest generation of tables on my cab. They look and play amazing. I just updated my post with some pics