18. Customizing VP Tables
One of the great things about the Windows virtual pinball environment
is that so many tables are available in a format that lets you modify
and customize them in any way you please. The free pinball player
programs (Visual Pinball, Future Pinball) are also full pinball
construction programs. You can open any table for Visual Pinball or
Future Pinball in its editor and make your own modifications.
(The same can't be said of the commercial pinball games, such as
Farsight's Pinball Arcade or Pinball FX/2 and FX/3. With those,
you're stuck with what they sell you, which is never a perfect fit for
cabinet play. That's one big reason that VP is so popular with pin
cab builders.)
This chapter provides an overview of how to customize tables in Visual
Pinball. We go into detail on a few of the key customizations often
needed to adapt a table to cabinet play. Many of the tables available
for VP were designed with regular desktop in mind, and weren't
tested on a cab by their original authors, so they
need some tweaking to look and play their best on a cab.
Opening a table in the VP editor
Visual Pinball is, at its core, a pinball construction program that
also happens to let you play the tables. So editing a table is
really the default thing that VP does.
In VP 8 and 9, the first thing you see when you start the program
is a blank table editor window. Use the File > Open menu
command to open a table in the editor.
In VP 10, they tried to make VP a little friendlier for the "average
user", who just wants to play existing tables rather than creating
their own. So VP 10 starts by bringing up a "Select Table File"
dialog when you first start the program, and then immediately starts a
game session with the table you select. If you want to edit a table instead,
you have to bypass this initial dialog. Just click Cancel in the
dialog, then use the File > Open menu to open a table in the
editor, just like in VP 8/9.
Adjusting the viewing angle
When VP runs a game, the image you see on the display is a rendering
of a 3D model of the table. To construct this image, VP uses an
imaginary camera that views the model from a selected position in
space. You can adjust this camera position to create different views
of the table.
I find that most of the VP tables I download need some adjustment in
their viewing angle to look their best on a pin cab display. And most
pin cab builders feel the same way, because the ideal viewing angle is
subjective. No one viewing angle will satisfy everybody.
VP 9: Adjusting the viewing angle in VP 9 is a bit tedious
because you have to do it by typing numbers into a property sheet in
the editor, and then run the game to test the results. I always have
to iterate this process five or ten times before I find a satisfactory
solution.
- Open the table in the VP editor
- On the left tool palette, click the Backdrop button
- Make sure the properties panel on the right is showing; if it's
not, click the Options button on the left tool palette
- The properties panel should be labeled Backdrop at the
top; if it's not, click in a background area of the editor window
to select the backdrop
In the Backdrop properties window, the Colors & Formatting
section contains all of the viewing angle options. The exact settings
vary a lot from one table to the next, so there's no one-size-fits-all
setting list I can give you. You'll just have to experiment with the
different settings to see the effect they have. Change a setting and
run the table to see the result. Change one thing at a time so that
you can see each setting's individual effect.
Here's an overview of the individual settings and what they do:
- Inclination: The camera tilt, in degrees. 0 points the
camera straight down at the table. Positive values tilt the camera
upwards. For cabinet use, this should usually be close to 0.
- Field of view: The camera's viewing angle. This is analogous
to a zoom lens on an optical camera. Zero produces an extremely flat
view, like a telephoto image from a long way away; a high number
(120-150) creates an exaggerated fisheye lens view. A value around 20
is usually good for cabinet use.
- Layback: The camera's distance from the front of the table.
Higher values create a more tilted perspective. 0 creates a view from
right over the center of the table. You want a value that places the
camera a little ways out in front of the table, just like the normal
viewing position for a player. A value of about 2/3 of the Y offset
below is usually good.
- XY Rotation: For cabinet play, set this to 270.
- X Scale: This adjusts the table's size relative to the
width of the monitor, which is confusingly the height of the table,
when rotated 270 degrees for cabinet play. Adjust this to fit
the table in the monitor across the monitor's width. This varies
a lot by table, since it's a function of the playfield dimensions
as well as the camera angle settings above. A value of around 1.4
works for many tables, but you'll have to fine-tune it for each table.
- Y Scale: This adjusts the table's size relative to
the height of the monitor, which is the width of the table, when
rotated 270 degrees for cabinet play. Adjust to fit. A value
of around 2.0 works for many tables, but you'll have to
fine-tune it for each table.
- X Offset: This adjusts the side-to-side position of
the table, which is confusingly the vertical position on the
monitor, when rotated 270 degrees for cabinet play. Adjust
this so that the table is positioned properly. A value of
around -450 works for most tables, but you'll have to fine-tune
it for each table.
- Y Offset: This adjusts the top-to-bottom position of
the table, which is confusingly the horizontal position on the
monitor, when rotated 270 degrees for cabinet play. Adjust
this so that the table is positioned properly. A value of
around 50 works for most tables, but you'll have to fine-tune it.
VP 10: You can use exactly the same procedure as above with VP
10, but VP 10 also has an interactive "camera mode" that's a little
easier to use. Camera mode lets you see the effect of each change
immediately on the rendered table, without having to switch back and
forth between editor mode and play mode repeatedly.
To activate camera mode, use the menu command Table >
Camera/Light Edit Mode, or press F6. Follow the on-screen
instructions to cycle through the settings and make adjustments.
The settings listed above for VP 9 all have the same meanings
here.
The camera mode controls are a little cumbersome, and it's hard to set
exact values with them. You can always go back and fine-tune
the values with the properties editor (using the VP 9 procedure
above) to make any final adjustments.
Fake 3D table elements
One thing to note is that a lot of tables have some "fake 3D" table
elements that don't respond well to viewing angle adjustments.
For example, consider Rudy's head in Funhouse. On the real
machine, of course, Rudy is a rather large 3D chunk of plastic. But
some VP versions of Funhouse don't use a 3D model object for
Rudy; they just use a photo of Rudy pasted onto a flat surface in the
VP model. That's what I mean by a "fake 3D" element: it's meant to
look like it's 3D, but it's actually just a flat photo in the
software.
The problem with these fake 3D objects is that the viewing angle captured
in the photo will stay the same no matter how much you change the
viewing angle of the table. The photo is, after all, just a photo. If
you change the overall table viewing angle too far, it will become
extremely obvious that the flat photo is now from the wrong
perspective.
There are a few ways you can deal with this when you run into it:
- You can live with the distortion. The distortion will become
more obvious the further you change the table viewing angle, so
if you only need to adjust the angle a little bit, the distortion
might remain tolerable.
- You can take or find a new photo from the new angle and replace
the one in the table. This is tough unless you have access to the
real machine, but you might get lucky and find a suitable image
on the Web. You can find a lot of images on the Web for the more
popular titles, after all.
- You can substitute a real 3D model (known in VP parlance as
a "primitive") for the fake, flat photo. Ask on the forums to
see if someone has already created one; there are 3D models
of lots of pinball elements floating around (even unique ones
like Rudy's head). Browse through some generic 3D model
sites looking for something similar that you can adapt via
Blender or SketchUp. If it's not too complex, create one
yourself with one of those programs.
Once you have a 3D object, you have to save it in the Wavefront
".obj" format. This is a common format that most 3D editors
can save to. Next, create a "primitive" object in VP and
import the .obj file. You'll also need a "texture" (an image
that's projected onto the 3D surface to provide its coloration).
The details are beyond the scope of this guide, but you should be
able to get help in the forums if you're not familiar with
VP primitives.
Viewing and editing the table script
Many customizations in VP are made through the table's "script".
Every table has a script, which is basically a little computer program
that carries out certain operations when you're playing a game with
the table. It's called a "script" by way of analogy to the script for
a movie or play. A movie script is a series of things the actors are
supposed to say and do during the movie; a VP table script is a series
of things the computer is supposed to do while the the is running.
To view a table's script:
- In VP 8/9, use the Edit > Script menu command
- In VP 10, use the View > Script menu command
That brings up a text editor window showing the script. You can
simply type into this window to edit the code.
Table scripts are by their nature utterly unique, meaning there are no
fixed patterns that they have to follow. However, there are certain
conventions that many table authors follow, so you'll start to see
patterns after you've looked at a few scripts.
VP scripts are written in the Visual Basic language. (Which makes for
some confusing initials: VP scripts are VB scripts!) If you want to
be more technical, VP actually uses a variant of Visual Basic called
"Visual Basic Scripting" or VBS. Beware example code you find on the
Web, because many Web examples of "Visual Basic" use a different
variant known as "Visual Basic for Applications" or VBA. VBA is much
more powerful, so unfortunately, many generic Visual Basic examples on
the Web just won't work in VP's simpler version of the language.
Option variables
As mentioned above, many VP table authors follow common conventions
and patterns for how scripts are arranged. One of these common
patterns you'll often see is a set of "option variables" defined near
the top of the script, that let you select some pre-programmed
variations on the table's behavior. It's always a good idea to scan through
the script for a new table you've installed to see if it has any
option settings and customize them to your liking.
To see if a table has any option variables, read through the comments
near the top of the script. A comment in VP starts with an
apostrophe ('), and the VP editor usually shows it as green text:
Script options are typically defined as Visual Basic variable
assigments or Const (named constant) definitions.
Most authors group these near the start of the script, to make
them easy for people to find without having to read through the
whole of the script, and prominently label them with comments
so that you'll know what they're for.
For example, here are the options at the top of Whirlwind for
VP 9:
Const cController = 3
Const cDMDRotation = 0
Const cGameName = "whirl_l3"
Const Flashers_ON = 1
Const GI_ON = 1
Const Flippers_Sound_ON = 1
Const SlingShot_Sound_ON = 1
Const Bumpers_Sound_ON = 1
Const StormMode = 1
Const RotatingWilliamsW_ON = 1
Const BlueApron_ON = 1
Const Plunger2Ramp_ON = 1
You don't have to be much of a programmer to know what to do
with these: just change the number after the "=" in any line where you want
to change to a different setting.
How to fix up tables for a real plunger
Many VP 9 tables require some scripting changes before they'll work
properly with a plunger device. Most VP 10 tables work with plungers
automatically, but you might run into a few that need the same kind
of fixup as is often needed for VP 9. The changes are sometimes
fairly complex, so we cover this topic in a separate
chapter:
Fixing VP Plungers.
How to enable B2S backglasses
Most VP 10 tables will work with B2S without any modification, as
will some later (2016+) VP 9 tables. Earlier VP 9 tables often require
some slight modifications to the table script to enable backglass
art, though. See
Backglass Software Setup for details.
How to play table sound effects through the backbox speakers
If you have a separate set of playfield effects speakers inside your
cabinet, VP decides whether to use your main backbox speakers or
your playfield effects speakers as follows:
- If the sound comes from the game's ROM (the original game's
software, being emulated in VPinMAME), it's played through the backbox
speakers
- Otherwise, it's played through the playfield effects speakers
If you don't have a separate set of playfield effects speakers, all
sounds are played through your main speakers. See "Playfield effects
speakers" in
Audio Systems for more about
setting up the extra speakers.
Assuming you do have playfield effects speakers, you might want to
override the rule about playing all of the non-ROM sounds through
the playfield effects speakers. VP lets you override it on an
effect-by-effect basis.
First, let's think about why the rule is set up this way in the first
place. The ROM soundtrack is the game's original soundtrack from the
arcade game, so on the real version of the machine, all of the
sounds from the ROM were played back through the real machine's
backbox speakers. So it makes sense that we'd want to do the same
thing in a virtual cab. What about the "non-ROM" sounds? Those are
sound effects that the VP table author added into the simulation of
the table. These are almost all meant to simulate the sound made by
something mechanical on the playfield, like the ball rolling around
and bumping into things, bumpers bumping, etc. So in almost all
cases, you want these to sound like they're coming from the playfield
area rather than from the backbox.
Now let's think about why you might want to override this for some
sounds. Occasionally, you might have a mechanical sound that actually
would have come from the backbox on the original real machine. For
example, some EM-era machines had scoring bells situated in the
backbox. Likewise, any simulated score reel sounds ought to come from
the backbox area. In addition, some tables might have the occasional
added voice or music effect that supplements the game's original ROM
soundtrack, so you might want these to play through the backbox
speakers as though they were part of the ROM soundtrack.
In VP, table sound effects are tied to one or the other set of
speakers (playfield or backbox) on an effect-by-effect basis. All of
the sounds are initially set to play through the playfield effects
speakers. To change an effect to play through the backbox speakers
instead, here's the procedure:
- Launch VP
- Open the game in the VP editor (don't run it)
- On the menu, select Table > Sound Manager
- Find the sound you want to redirect to the backbox speakers and select
it in the list; you can use the Play button to listen to each sound if
you're not sure it's the one you're looking for
- Check its current speaker assignment:
- In VP 9, if the "Import path" looks like a regular file name,
it's assigned to the playfield effects speakers; if it says
*Backglass Output*, it's assigned to the backbox speakers
- In VP 10, the "Output" column will say either Table
(plays through the playfield effects speakers) or Backglass
(plays through the backbox speakers)
- If it's not already on the backbox speakers, click Toggle BG Out
(VP 10) or To BG Out (VP 9)
If you want to go the other direction - change a sound that's already on
the backbox speakers to use the playfield effects speakers instead -
the process is exactly the same with VP 10. Just select the sound in
the list and click Toggle BG Out to switch it back to
Table mode. The process in VP 9 is rather ugly: you have to
export the sound effect to a WAV file and re-import it. What's more,
some VP versions have a bug that won't let you export a sound that's
been set to the backglass output, so you're kind of stuck. The best
workaround would be to download a fresh copy of the table, export the
sound from that fresh copy, and import the sound into your modified
version of the game.
What about changing some of the ROM sounds to play back through the
table effects speakers? Sorry; it can't be done. All of the ROM
sounds are handled by VPinMAME, which doesn't have any options for
changing the speakers for a specific sound. Remember that the ROM
software is more of a "black box" than a VP table, since it's
emulating an old arcade machine that didn't work like a PC with modern
abstractions like WAV files. VPinMAME doesn't have any way to
make a simple list of the sounds in a ROM that you could use to choose
speakers like you can with the table sounds in VP.
How to enable DOF
DOF support is similar to B2S support: for most VP tables and some
later VP 9 tables, DOF support is automatic, whereas earlier VP 9
tables usually require some script modifications. See
DOF Setup for details.
Removing sound effects for DOF play
If you have DOF mechanical feedback devices (solenoids, gear motors),
you'll usually want to disable the digitized sound effects that tables
play back to simulate the same events, since the digitized sounds tend
to sound fake (not to mention redundant) when real mechanical devices
are firing at the same time.
DOF Setup describes how to remove
the unwanted sound effects.
How to fix EM tables that use the wrong coin keys
Some re-creations of EM (electro-mechanical) tables use the "wrong"
keyboard keys for some functions, especially the coin-in buttons.
If you're having problems with an EM game where it won't respond
to your pin cab's coin buttons, this might be the cause.
The reason you see this in EM tables in particular (as opposed to more
modern "solid state" games - the type with electronic displays of some
kind) has to do with VPinMAME. VPinMAME is the part of the Visual
Pinball system that normally handles most of the keyboard functions,
including coin handling. The thing is that EM re-creations don't
typically use VPinMAME, because VPM's function is to emulate the
original ROM software from an electronic game. Part of the definition
of "EM" is that it doesn't have any software, ergo no VPM involvement.
And without VPM, it's completely up to the table script to handle all
of the keyboard interaction, including the coin keys. EM table
authors often hard-code the coin function to a specific keyboard
key, which might not match your pin cab's button setup.
Fortunately, it's not too hard to fix these when you find them.
The procedure is to find the place in the table's script where the
coin key is handled, and change the script to test for the
correct key.
- Open the table in the VP editor
- Open the table's script
- Search for the string "_KeyDown". This should take you to
a line that looks like this:
Sub Table_KeyDown(ByVal keycode)
- Note that the "Table_" prefix might be different in the actual
table, but the rest should be the same. This is the start of the
key handler subroutine. The code we're looking for now is
somewhere in this subroutine, which is all of the code up until
the next line like this:
End Sub
- Most people indent the code in this section to make it easier
to see that all of the code up to the End Sub goes
together.
- At this point, you'll have to read through the code to find the
section that handles the coin input. Hopefully, the table author will
have put in a comment, or at least used well-named variables. Look
for the words "coin", "credit", or maybe something like this:
Credits = Credits + 1
- If you can find the right section, it should be preceded by a
test for the key code. That will usually look like one of the following:
Case 6:
If KeyCode = 6 Then
- The number after "Case" or "Keycode=" might be different. It's
usually 6, which is the scan code for the "5" key on the keyboard
(confusingly!), since that's what most desktop users expect for the
coin-in key. It might also be 4 (the scan code for the "3" key),
since that's another common coin-in assignment.
- If you find that line, change the number to the word AddCreditKey
- Close the script and save the table
The special symbol AddCreditKey is VP's way of referring
to the key assigned to the coin function in the VP option settings.
If the script was using a hard-coded scan code, this change should
make the table use the correct key as set in the options.
