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Virtual Reality (VR) Pinball is the missing link between Virtual Pinball & Real Pins


ItsUrFeminitzNYImNietYoma

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Update: If you're new to this thread, just skip to post #47 as we're not using the Remap board as discussed up until then.

 

I just got a PS VR and am enjoying Pinball FX2 VR on my PS4. I must say it's a real game changer.

 

I own 2 real pinballs (and am/was(?) in the process of building a VP - long story) and I've heard others say that VP is crap because it's just not the same as real pinball (being 2d and all). Now with VR pinball, I personally feel that 'just not the same' feeling has been removed. Playing tables in VR feels like you're playing at a real pinball. Having played the tables in Zen Pinball, I must say it's amazing playing the same tables in PBFX2 VR, going from a flat 2d playfield to a fully immersing 3D playfield.

 

And now with the PinSim (http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/569647-how-build-pinsim-virtual-reality-pinball-machine/) you can make it feel like your standing at a real table while playing VR pinball.

 

The above link is for an Occulus Rift/PC version, but with this PS4 remap board (

) you can build your own PS4 PinSim.

 

I've ordered a remap board and @hotty's gonna help me build one (and thanks to @DallasJ for steering me in the right direction to find the remap board).

 

Watch this space for more details in the (hopefully) near future... Now, if only Pinball Arcade went full VR on a PS4!!

Edited by ItsUrFeminitzNYImNietYoma
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How about this, have a slide resistor on the negative only (pull) and have the end of the plunger hit a momentary switch for the positive (push)?

That way you have variable power between -10 through to 0 and then full +10 once the switch is pressed (values for explanation only).

That way you only need to line up where the end of the plunger will hit the switch

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How about this, have a slide resistor on the negative only (pull) and have the end of the plunger hit a momentary switch for the positive (push)?

That way you have variable power between -10 through to 0 and then full +10 once the switch is pressed (values for explanation only).

That way you only need to line up where the end of the plunger will hit the switch

 

The trick there is fooling the ps4 into thinking we're going all the way to full forward without stopping first at 0, because if it registers as 0 before registering the hit on the momentary switch, it will think you let go of the stick instead of pushing forward all the way from pulling back (remember, if you let go it goes back to rest? You have to physically push forward).

 

I think crazy-j and I are on the same page. I just have to explain it properly to hotty and dallasj next time I see them (in 3 Wednesdays... actually I'll see hotty on Saturday. I'll explain it to him then).

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The trick there is fooling the ps4 into thinking we're going all the way to full forward without stopping first at 0, because if it registers as 0 before registering the hit on the momentary switch, it will think you let go of the stick instead of pushing forward all the way from pulling back (remember, if you let go it goes back to rest? You have to physically push forward).

 

ok then....

 

Reed switch, mounted at -1

as the plunger passes through its full travel, it will hit the reed switch into the closed (on) position, then when coming back to rest will open the reed switch again for the next use.

It won't matter much if the switch is held closed, as once the ball has left the plunger, it will have no use until the ball returns back to it's starting point.

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ok then....

 

Reed switch, mounted at -1

as the plunger passes through its full travel, it will hit the reed switch into the closed (on) position, then when coming back to rest will open the reed switch again for the next use.

It won't matter much if the switch is held closed, as once the ball has left the plunger, it will have no use until the ball returns back to it's starting point.

It's an analog control though. I think he still wants to be able to "semi pull".

 

Sent from my HTC 2PZF1 using Tapatalk

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It's an analog control though. I think he still wants to be able to "semi pull".

 

Sent from my HTC 2PZF1 using Tapatalk

Then back to dual sliders.

One needs to be linear for the negative range, and one logarithmic for the positive.

If you want a mid range zero, then set both at 50%, which will give one a steady range backward from 50-0% resistance (set at 5/10)... and the other a sharp increase from 50-0% resistance (set at 8.5/10)

Basically play with the two position settings to get the ranges correct.

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Been some great stuff posted here since I last saw it. Nice one guys.

 

Inspired by goings on here I'm going to trial a bit of VR PInball too. I've been reading up on the 'Oculus Thrift' which uses a HMD (head mounted device) and a decent smartphone with accelerometer and gyro.

 

I'll be using my S4 in conjunction with Trinus VR app on the phone and Tridef on the PC. This streams any PC game to your phone and splits the image on your phone screen into stereoscopic images for rendering in your Head Mounted Device.

 

I've seen a lot of interesting stuff on youtube that shows me this is a pretty decent and very cheap way to get into VR if you don't want to spend a fortune. (I spent $15 on a VR Box HMD which will fit my phone)

 

Apart from PC games and Steam VR etc I'll be experimenting with Visual Pinball 10 in VR. I'll be using my full size VPin to stand in front and utilise the controls of, while wearing the VRBox. This should give me any table from any era in VR.

 

If it's any good, I'll post details here too.

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Hopefully it will end up being that simple but I suspect it won't.

Depends how "programmable" the brook board is I guess.

 

They also sell an encoder for pc to run inputs for virtual pinball...be curious to see how that's set up firmware/software wise

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:redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface

 

:sorry: I need to apologise profusely to @hotty, @crazy-j187, @redferatu and @DallasJ for wasting your guy's time, in that you all went out of your way to think of possible ways to get the plunger working, going off my description of how (I thought) the plunger works on the ps4 controller.

 

I don't know where I got the idea that 1) if you pull back and let go, that it goes back to rest and 2) that you have to then push all the way forward to plunge.

 

I gave hotty all the parts last night and he asked me to check again how the plunger works in PBFX2 VR. Lo and behold, tonight I try it and ALL GAMES plunge like a normal pinball plunges. I.e, you pull back at various tensions and let go!!!

 

I then tried it on TPA and Zen Pinball 2 and lo and behold, they also work in that way!!

 

WTF was I thinking :realmad: :blink: :101: :shrug: :hairpull: ????

 

I thought maybe I got the idea from playing TPA and Zen on my ps3, but again, I tested it and they ALL WORK LIKE A NORMAL PINBALL PLUNGER on ps3 also!!

 

Again I apologise to you guys for wasting your times.

 

Hopefully now it's just a simple matter of wiring up a sliding pot (maybe OzStick's) to the Brook Board's Rx/y connections. I'll discuss it more with hotty and update you as soon as we settle on something.

 

:redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface :redface

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A lot of progress:

 

BrookPSTestRig.thumb.jpg.83952d8935134cddf786c30ea5864b11.jpg

 

@hotty has wired up a knob pot (he had one lying around) to the Brook board to test if a sliding pot (he didn't have one lying around) will work as it's the same principle. If it works we'll get the sliding pot setup from @OzStick and wire that up to the brook board (hopefully doable if it's a normal sliding pot).

 

Hotty also wired up some buttons and a joystick to the test rig for navigation. All looks good in windows when testing. Hopefully when I test it on the ps4 (and 3 while I'm at it) all will be good.

 

Will advise outcome over the weekend.

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Here's the test rig now with pot (top left) for testing by hand and exquisite hand drawn artwork by @hotty (expect this on ebay when we're finished with it :lol).

 

BrookPSTestRig2.thumb.jpg.0227137e22c7924e3c8f75074e367716.jpg

 

I've quickly tested the pot at 3am in the morning and noticed it worked fine in Pinball FX2 but then acted erratically in Pinball Arcade. It kept interfering with the tilt and on the PS4 it kept disconnecting the controller it seemed like every 8 minutes (but this brook board is meant to have the "No 8 minutes timeout issue (PS4)"). I'll have to research this a bit more. I didn't get a chance yet to test in PBFX2 VR (as I was too tired) but will test this thoroughly tomorrow and update again.

 

From these preliminary tests, it looks like @OzStick's sliding pot plunger may work. Fingers crossed.

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I'm glad to say after some thorough testing, the knob pot works perfectly in PBFX2 VR. It also works in Zen Pinball 2 (ps4/3), but there were some issues using it in Pinball Arcade (ps4/3). Turning the knob would cause the table to nudge erratically and cause the table to tilt before you could plunge the ball.

 

With a bit of help over the phone with @hotty, we were able to overcome this by wiring up a ps stick controller in series (???) with the knob pot and this made it better, still not 100% but much much better.

 

Next thing to do is to buy a sliding pot from jaycar to test it with the plunger as I noticed if the pot was turned all the way to the left or right, it interfered with navigating through menu's. So we may have to put stoppers on a sliding pot so it doesn't go all the way up or down. Not sure how this will affect plunging until we try it.

 

Will update again soon, whenever that is.

 

Oh and there is an issue with an 8 minute timeout when plugged into the ps4 (google "8 minute timeout ps4" if you want to know about it) which this board is meant to overcome. Apparently it happened with the latest ps update, but Brook know about it and will release an update asap apparently according to this reseller.

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IMG_1164.thumb.JPG.50a03a0a8638b858677b0418be8ec735.JPGIMG_1166.thumb.JPG.5a540364915913edd473833d0e56f63d.JPG

 

This is the VR pinball controller I made for my Oculus Rift for use with Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade, when it is released for the Rift.

 

It has a plunger, registers nudge with two mercury switches, and arcade controls so I can use it with my retro arcade games.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

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[ATTACH]109467[/ATTACH][ATTACH]109468[/ATTACH]

 

This is the VR pinball controller I made for my Oculus Rift for use with Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade, when it is released for the Rift.

 

It has a plunger, registers nudge with two mercury switches, and arcade controls so I can use it with my retro arcade games.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

 

Yep, that's where I got the inspiration to build a PS version for the PSVR. The Tested Pinsim article is what got me started. As I don't do pc gaming but a lot of PS and at the time had TPA and Zen Pinball 2 on ps3 and 4, I wanted to make a PS version of the pinsim as I was just about to buy a PSVR and PBFX2 VR was on it. But all of those components only work on PC.

 

Luckily I was accidentally put onto the Brook Fighting Board by another AAer, which allows use of the analogue left and right sticks of a ps3/4 controller, which we're now currently testing for real plunger use with the above test rig. The above test rig is just a test rig. When we get everything working (the plunger!!), it will end up looking like yours but have PS3/4/pc compatible internals.

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Yep, that's where I got the inspiration to build a PS version for the PSVR. The Tested Pinsim article is what got me started. As I don't do pc gaming but a lot of PS and at the time had TPA and Zen Pinball 2 on ps3 and 4, I wanted to make a PS version of the pinsim as I was just about to buy a PSVR and PBFX2 VR was on it. But all of those components only work on PC.

 

Luckily I was accidentally put onto the Brook Fighting Board by another AAer, which allows use of the analogue left and right sticks of a ps3/4 controller, which we're now currently testing for real plunger use with the above test rig. The above test rig is just a test rig. When we get everything working (the plunger!!), it will end up looking like yours but have PS3/4/pc compatible internals.

 

Yours is coming along well.

 

Thanks for the link to the Brook Fighting Board. I might try that one on another project down the track.

 

I'm just waiting now for the release of the Pinball Arcade for Rift. With these pinball controllers and a good VR headset, it is the closest you can get to the real thing. I can't wait to play the Classics in VR, because I sure as shit can't afford to buy the likes of Medieval Madness or Adams Family et.al in real life.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

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