Pinball FX2 Running in Virtual Pinball Cabinet with 42" 1080p Screen - Portrait mode

[allmodcons]

Pinball FX2 Running in Virtual Pinball Cabinet with 42" 1080p Screen - Windows 8

Here is a video of Pinball FX2 running in 'cabinet mode' in my Virtual Pinball cabinet under Windows 8.

http://youtu.be/1j3bY8_kX3g

Currently only one screen is supported by Pinball FX2 for Windows 8. My cabinet already runs Visual Pinball and Future Pinball under Windows XP 32-bit. I added a second drive with Windows 8 installed on it, and boot from this drive to play Pinball FX2 (screen is rotated in Windows 8 using Portrait mode display mode). All menus can be navigated using the Virtual Pinball Cabinet buttons.

Each table has about 8 views some of which are locked not to scroll. Initially I thought I would only ever use a locked view, however surprisingly I found that for most tables by using one of the discrete scrolling views like 'View 3' or 'View 7' it gives you a better feeling of depth and '3Dness' as the cameras hovers/floats a little over the top of the table.

In my opinion the tables are much more playable in 'cabinet mode' than on my Xbox in non-portrait mode as you can see the whole table. The force flipper feedback also adds a lot to the experience. The Pinball FX2 engine has superb lighting with shadows and reflections in real-time on the table surface and in the chrome rails, etc. The video doesn't show off the quality which in reality is much better.

No stuttering or performance problems experienced - a great job by Zen.

Ball trails and arcade effects (floating scrores, etc.) have been turned off - of course.

My post and cabinet build thread on VPForums:
http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?sh...=3#entry205202

[MarkItZeroSmoky]

Very cool! I've read about people doing this, I take it you can only set something like this up if your running through a pc? That'd be awesome down in my man cave! Excellent work allmodcons! I'm green with envy!

[MOKTango]

Awesome

I have been toying with the idea of doing a hyperpin for a while but it looks pretty complicated. I have a few pins on my Windows 7 PC on VP and future pinball. I've been waiting to see if Zen would make it possible for their games cause I spend so many hours on them. I was wondering if an 2 hard drives with different windows would work and now you've done it. Well done. Solitude eluded to multi screen support in a new version soon so if there's a second screen option and possible dmd that would be perfect. I guess you would just integrate it into your existing system . It would be good to see if you do so keep us posted. Maybe I might have a big project to do later this year Will have to learn lots in the mean time.

For the meantime I'll have to do with Xbox 360 version and Android.

Awesome job OP!!

[allmodcons]

Very cool! I've read about people doing this, I take it you can only set something like this up if your running through a pc? That'd be awesome down in my man cave! Excellent work allmodcons! I'm green with envy!

Thanks MIZS! Yes it is only possible on a PC at the moment. It might be worth waiting for the full-blown PC version rather than going for the Win8 one.

I have been toying with the idea of doing a hyperpin for a while but it looks pretty complicated. I have a few pins on my Windows 7 PC on VP and future pinball. I've been waiting to see if Zen would make it possible for their games cause I spend so many hours on them. I was wondering if an 2 hard drives with different windows would work and now you've done it. Well done. Solitude eluded to multi screen support in a new version soon so if there's a second screen option and possible dmd that would be perfect. I guess you would just integrate it into your existing system . It would be good to see if you do so keep us posted. Maybe I might have a big project to do later this year Will have to learn lots in the mean time.

For the meantime I'll have to do with Xbox 360 version and Android.

Awesome job OP!!

Thanks . I was tempted to hold off for the full PC version but as I managed to get a cheap upgrade from an old XP licence and had a spare drive I thought I would try the demo. It was so good that I ended up buying most of the tables. If the multi-screen support comes along I will definitely go for that, hopefully running under XP.

Good luck if you build a cab. As you probably know already there are a lot of really helpful people on VPForums and on the Hyperpin forums so you should get lots of tips.

[Kian]

Great job !!

[Croftanator]

Indeed, great job allmodcons

I imagine if it had 3D support as well, it would be even more realistic to play on!

Would love to get one of these in the office as well

[snarfo]

Indeed, great job allmodcons

I imagine if it had 3D support as well, it would be even more realistic to play on!

Would love to get one of these in the office as well

If this is your way to tease us with 3D support in Windows 8, I have a 73" 3D tv in my living room (running on a Windows 8 i7/old nVidia GTX480 box) that I will tip on its side for that :-) Make it happen!

[markmon]

So 3D support is possible via the 3d Apis in today's drivers. I don't think it will require software support in pinball fx.

I have my hyperpin cabinet running windows 8. It successfully runs pinball fx in portrait as well as the hyperpin front end. It's very easy to navigate and switch between the two. The hyperpin stuff all runs great on windows 8. The system boots to the windows 8 screen. The two side buttons on each the side of the virtual pin cabinet are configured to the four arrow keys and launch is enter. All the game software supports this button configuration.

A couple simple scripts using the free irotate.exe allows the monitor to be automatically rotated when loading and exiting hyperpin. Based on this, pinball fx never needs to support rotated screen view. Just portrait view as it does on windows 8. I can easily navigate all the menus in both systems and exit back using a very small amount of buttons. I never have to pull out the keyboard other than buying new tables.

If we had a hook such as a registry key that could be monitored or if pinball fx could call an external exe every time a different table was selected on the table selection screen, I could update the second monitor with a backglass easily with a small utility I wrote. I currently have the Dmd on the lower left and it fits in the apron. Not as authentic but fully functional.

I plan to write up a detailed tutorial shortly. If the pinball fx team would benefit from a cabinet in their USA office, I could discuss building one for you.

[Roo5676]

Nice video -- thanks for sharing.

This has been discussed a few times before, including this thread where I asked about cabinet features and Solitude replied that they are currently planning on having a general Windows release with more customization options.

I recently ordered a cabinet from http://virtuapin.net/. Not cheap, but professional-grade quality. Not sure if they can ship to Hungary (or how expensive that might be!).

I'm greatly looking forward to any official announcements about the general Windows release! Although it's good to know you can get a working portrait mode and a reasonable "kiosk mode" going with a little work (thanks markmon).

I don't really care about 3D. In my opinion the ultimate would be head-tracking, maybe through something like the Kinect for Windows. Check out this video (skip to 1:10). Imagine if you could move your head around the cabinet and it looked like you were actually seeing it from different angles.

But I'll settle for a full Windows 7 release with two screen support!

[allmodcons]

Thanks for detailing how you handle rotation markon. I have a finely tuned XP config for HP/VP/UVP/b2s/b2sServer and couldn't face trying to get it all running under Win8 so thought I would dual boot for now to play Pinball FX2 and will wait for the PC version. However it's reassuring to hear you have the VP stuff all up and running in Win8 so a tutorial would be excellent. Did you need to tweak performance in Win8 by stopping unnecessary services, etc. to get all the VP stuff running smoothly? BTW: your idea about changing the backglass image for the FX2 table that is launched is a good one if Zen can oblige . I currently have a Mars themed back glass for all tables.

Roo5676: Glad you like the video. Also good choice going with the Virtuapin. By European standards those cabs are a bargain as parts are much pricier to source from here if you build yourself. I purchased the Ultimate Widebody cab kit, plus other bits and pieces from Paul and it's all top quality authentic stuff and can't recommend them enough. Excellent service too.

[allmodcons]

Indeed, great job allmodcons

I imagine if it had 3D support as well, it would be even more realistic to play on!

Would love to get one of these in the office as well

Thanks Croftanator. Keep those awesome table designs coming

[allmodcons]

Hi barbie - I now have purchased 17 tables for my cabinet (in addition to my Xbox purchases) and there is one problem on quite a few tables which is really noticable in portrait mode under Win8, and that is the far too excessiveness brightness of the ball.

It is like the ball is way too reflective. I don't know if this is related to the 'new' camera angles and the way the ball 'absorbs' the surrounding light but it really makes some tables unplayable. Some tables are fine like biolab, but the best ball is when the lights go down in pasha. The balls isn't ultra reflective which is perfect.

This might be worse on a 42" screen like I am using due to the size. I have experimented with multiple TV settings and nVidia driver settings and although the tables look awesome the ball really let's some down which is a shame as it is almost perfect .

Is there a possibility that the devs could allow us to tone down the ball brightness in the settings or select a certain ball ? A friend of mine who plays the xbox FX2 really noticed this as well, so it would be great if this could be changed. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: something that may be relevant. I play with no ball trails as it more realistic, so maybe this makes the ball brightness much more noticeable.

[surf1der]

Does the lighting seem to be worse on the lower playfield? I have the mac version of zen pinball 2 and it also suffers from too much light reflecting off the ball, but mostly just on the lower part of the playfield near the inlanes and flippers. This causes a bad washing out effect around the ball that makes it difficult to visualize the outline of the ball. Not the best thing for making aimed shots.

[allmodcons]

Does the lighting seem to be worse on the lower playfield? I have the mac version of zen pinball 2 and it also suffers from too much light reflecting off the ball, but mostly just on the lower part of the playfield near the inlanes and flippers. This causes a bad washing out effect around the ball that makes it difficult to visualize the outline of the ball. Not the best thing for making aimed shots.

Yes exactly the same for me too. It is much worse in the lower half of the table. Even turning playfield reflections off doesn't help. As I said some tables aren't as bad as others but almost all could do with the ball brightness being taken down a notch or twot (eg: to the level in Pasha when the table light go out) - so hopefully this is a simple adjustment that can be made by Zen.

Are you finding some tables worse than others?

[surf1der]

Yes exactly the same for me too. It is much worse in the lower half of the table. Even turning playfield reflections off doesn't help. As I said some tables aren't as bad as others but almost all could do with the ball brightness being taken down a notch or twot (eg: to the level in Pasha when the table light go out) - so hopefully this is a simple adjustment that can be made by Zen.

Are you finding some tables worse than others?

There aren't many tables available for the mac platform and it lacks a lot features so I have only have 4 or 5 tables. I know Sorcerer's Lair, Fear Itself, and Blade (daylight mode) are pretty bad. Not sure about the rest.