Budget Virtual Pinball Build

[jammin0]

The weather is starting to get a little bit nicer and I'm tired of being cooped up without a project so time to get going again I guess. 

I've cobbled together a few parts to build a virtual pinball table and I have to say that I am getting pretty excited about it.  There are actually some pretty cool things going on that I hadn't heard much about before.  So far I am running an AMD dual core processor with 4 gb of ram that I found at the local goodwill for $3.  Added in a harddrive that I had laying around and then spent $25 on a used GTX 550ti 1GB graphics card.  Main playfield will be my old 42" westinghouse TV, probably 4 or 5 years old now and kind of a beast but still working great. (Upgraded at Christmas time and probably not worth a ton anymore to anyone else)

I've been playing around with Future Pinball and the BAM mod and some PS3 eye cameras that I picked up on ebay for $5 or $6 each.  Last night I got some IR point tracking going on.  Kind of rough at the moment since I wasn't using much precision in my setup but wowed me enough that I want to pursue it for the cabinet.  Here's a quick video with my 6th month old squawking in the background.


Pretty cool 3d effect that you can get out of it.

To do:
Find a suitable (cheap or free) monitor for the backbox.
Find either a thrashed widebody cabinet to rebuild or start building from scratch.
Work on getting Hyperpin installed and interfacing with the different Future Pinball tables that I want to run in it.

I'm excited to get help and feedback from anyone who has embarked on this one before.

[wp34]

That actually does have a nice 3d effect to it.  Can you give some more detail?

[jammin0]

I take no credit at all for the project, check out this guy who is doing all the work on it and doing a killer job I might add.

http://www.ravarcade.pl/

[thatpurplestuff]

It's just amazing how advanced these virtual pins are getting... would love to be able to build one someday!  Good luck with the project!

[wp34]

Thanks.  I haven't been paying attention to virtual pinball much lately.  That is a real interesting development.  How is it to play with the BAM mod?

[Speed Racer]

To do:
Find a suitable (cheap or free) monitor for the backbox.
Find either a thrashed widebody cabinet to rebuild or start building from scratch.
Work on getting Hyperpin installed and interfacing with the different Future Pinball tables that I want to run in it.

I'm excited to get help and feedback from anyone who has embarked on this one before.

Another vpin build. Nice 

Some recommendations from my build:
* Hyperpin is ok, but most find Pinballx to be the more user friendly front end. I've found it is easy to setup and am happy with it so far.
* The 3D effect through BAM is a neat feature....
* .... but I trialled it and couldn't get it to work very reliably using facial recognition. Are you using facial recognition or some sort of wearable sensor?
* BAM however is very useful for getting Future Pinball tables working with the right physics version.

Good luck with your build 

[jammin0]

Thanks.  I haven't been paying attention to virtual pinball much lately.  That is a real interesting development.  How is it to play with the BAM mod?

I have only about 5 or 10 minutes playing with it since I got it setup last night, the ergonomics of my TV setup on a desk are not great to really tell but it seemed pretty slick.  One of the coolest parts is that when everything is setup correctly it goes into normal/static mode when there are no IR dots detected and turns on automatically when they are present so you can easily run it both ways without having to change any kind of settings.

Another vpin build. Nice 

Some recommendations from my build:
* Hyperpin is ok, but most find Pinballx to be the more user friendly front end. I've found it is easy to setup and am happy with it so far.
* The 3D effect through BAM is a neat feature....
* .... but I trialled it and couldn't get it to work very reliably using facial recognition. Are you using facial recognition or some sort of wearable sensor?
* BAM however is very useful for getting Future Pinball tables working with the right physics version.

Good luck with your build 

Awesome, thanks for the tips.  I mostly thought Hyperpin just because I've used Hyperspin in other cabs of mine but I'll have to check out Pinballx.  I'm using 2 PS3 eye cameras for the tracking in BAM.  I removed the IR filters from the cameras and then used an old piece of processed 8mm film as a bandpass filter to block out visible light.  It took a little bit of tweaking but seems to be really solid now.  I read a lot of people saying that the effect stuttered pretty badly with some of the other methods or else the lighting had to be just right.  The drawback is that the user has to wear an LED.  I prototyped it for the video by putting an LED in a baseball cap but I will probably try something a little bit more elegant.  It seems like some people take the frameless safety glasses and remove the plastic lenses and mount an LED on the side of the ear pieces.  Something akin to a gheto google glass.

[jammin0]

I spent a little bit of time trying to fine tune the tracking.  Decided to use the glasses method instead of the baseball cap.  The cord is pretty annoying so i might try and make a version 2.0 with button cell on the side or something.  Here's a quick shot, you can see the led on the side of the frame.

[jammin0]

Ok, here's one more shot of my test setup.  I've toned down the effect a little bit and think it is looking pretty good.

[jammin0]

Finally started building. I had hoped to find a donor cab but no such luck. I didn't realize how much people wanted for even old run down pinball machines. I have a few hurdles to overcome such as a lockdown bar and side rails, I'm thinking of doing them out of wood somehow. I decided i should stop thinking and start doing and hopefully some inspiration will kick in. Anyone have an old coin door they would want to part with for cheap?

[jammin0]

Here are a few pictures, it's been slow in coming but things are starting to come together.  I did have a question for the gurus out there. . .I have a set of larger AC fans that came off of a cheapo air hockey table.  I wanted to use them as my main cooling for the table where I force air in through the bottom and then simply vent it out the back top under the backbox.  Since these fans were made for air hockey they are pretty intense, I would like to run them at 1/2 to 1/3 of their original speed.  Is this possible?  I'm used to working with DC fans where adjusting voltage adjusts speed which won't work here.  Would it work to use a fan dimmer like the ones used for ceiling fans?  Maybe like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-RTD01-10W-IllumaTech-Control-Single-Pole/dp/B0002YWN7W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436144147&sr=8-1&keywords=ceiling+fan+dimmer+switch&pebp=1436144232441&perid=00GKZYZG6WQKQNZDD4F7

[vwalbridge]

Hey jammin0 this is really awesome. I'm so glad someone is doing this kind of build. I want to do a VP cabinet for my next build for sure so this is great timing!

I remember seeing someone use an Xbox 360 Kinect to do this same 3d effect. You can find it on youtube.

It's my understanding that the Kinect works by itself without the need for glasses or LEDs. Do the PS3 eyes work better?

[jammin0]

Hey jammin0 this is really awesome. I'm so glad someone is doing this kind of build. I want to do a VP cabinet for my next build for surs so this is great timing!

I remember seeing someone use an Xbox 360 Kinect to do this same 3d effect. You can find it on youtube.

It's my understanding that the Kinect works by itself without the need for glasses or LEDs. Do the PS3 eyes work better?

I have a kinect but haven't tested it out with BAM yet.  It looked from the documentation that the kinect had more stutter/lag.  I can do some better tests once I have the cabinet body made up and everything going.  I'll probably have the whole thing functional and up and running before I even start to think about the backbox.

[vwalbridge]

Hey jammin0 this is really awesome. I'm so glad someone is doing this kind of build. I want to do a VP cabinet for my next build for surs so this is great timing!

I remember seeing someone use an Xbox 360 Kinect to do this same 3d effect. You can find it on youtube.

It's my understanding that the Kinect works by itself without the need for glasses or LEDs. Do the PS3 eyes work better?

I have a kinect but haven't tested it out with BAM yet.  It looked from the documentation that the kinect had more stutter/lag.  I can do some better tests once I have the cabinet body made up and everything going.  I'll probably have the whole thing functional and up and running before I even start to think about the backbox.

Cool, good to know. Can the 3d effect be turned off quickly? In case someone just wants to play regular? Maybe via some hotkey combination?

[jammin0]

Cool, good to know. Can the 3d effect be turned off quickly? In case someone just wants to play regular? Maybe via some hotkey combination?

With the PS3 eye cameras it turns off as soon as it doesn't have an IR LED to track.  You have a little bit more customization running in "Arcade" mode which is different than the 3d mode.  I think I might just double up my tables and then run them from HyperPin so that there is a table for 3d and a regular table.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Good lord, that 3D looks amazing! Just out of interest, does it work on a regular monitor orientation (non 'tated)?

[stuckpixel]

My god - thank you for sharing BAM with me.

I don't have space for a virtual pin (..yet)-- but hell if this isn't motivating to make it happen anyways.

[jammin0]

Good lord, that 3D looks amazing! Just out of interest, does it work on a regular monitor orientation (non 'tated)?

good question, I'm not sure.  It has you input all the dimensions of the table so with a lot of tweaks you might be able to get it to work.

[jammin0]

Some people get pretty fancy and add solenoids and bells and all sorts of things to their virtual pinball.   Well, I'm going for budget on this so I figure if I can take care of a little force feedback on the flippers I will be good. I found these continuous car starter s solenoids for $9 shipped on Amazon. Here's a video of it firing.

[stigzler]

Nice build - following the whole 3d pin table thing with interest. Those solenoids are a must - pinball just wouldn't feel right without that!

Also interested in the different 3d approaches, especially those that don't require glasses/anything - does the kinnect method track your head/eyes or something? No idea how all that works! Mind you, I'm old and the NDS3D made me head pop.

[Scotty_C]

this is very awesome! What TV are you running?

[DeLuSioNal29]

With a dual core setup, how long does it take for tables to load?

D

[Peabo]

Nice work, love the BAM.  One day I'll add it to my fullsize cab.

Gratuitous video of my fullsize cab running Elvira and the Party Monsters Physmod 5 table in VP.  Camera is mounted on a monopod hanging off the back box.

[jammin0]

this is very awesome! What TV are you running?

nothing fancy for the screen. I'm just using an old Westinghouse 42" that I used as my main TV for a few years.  The backbox gets a27" RCA.

[jammin0]

With a dual core setup, how long does it take for tables to load?

D

Depends on the table most load in 10-20 seconds. I have one that takes about a minute.  Once they are up and running they seem to be solid.

[Scotty_C]

this is very awesome! What TV are you running?

nothing fancy for the screen. I'm just using an old Westinghouse 42" that I used as my main TV for a few years.  The backbox gets a27" RCA.

DOH! Guess if I were to read the first post I would have known...Man I thought you had to use a 3D TV to get that effect. I've been hunting for an LG 42" Cinema 3D one for a little while.

[jammin0]

Got some work done on the backbox today.

[jammin0]

I've been neck deep in home projects but did find enough time to get a little work done on the pinball cab.  It's playable now but probably only about 75% complete.  Here's a video:

[DeLuSioNal29]

That looks pretty darn good!  Are you planning to upgrade to a real DMD in the future?  (For now I understand it's a budget build).  Looks like there would be room to put that upgrade in.

Nice work so far!  I love it.

DeLuSioNaL29