Pinball FX 2 or (soon to be released) Pinball Arcade?

[maxsayo]

I was wondering if there is a setup that would allow me to play these two games with the current 3d driver. I am going to be getting my oculus rift soon but I was messing around with just the Side by Side functions of the dirver with Pinball FX2 but it doesn't seem to work. I was just making sure that the game runs with actual 3D models so maybe I am missing something, maybe someone else has tried this? I am just wondering. Thanks for any response in advance.

[ChrisJD]

My immediate thought is that it wouldn't make for a good Rift experience. But then I thought about it some more and decided it's actually pretty dependant on how the camera works. 3D pinball could actually be pretty cool if the perspective was as if you were standing over the table and could look around. If the view chases the ball around the table like the 2D pinball games I used to play as a kid it probably wouldn't be great.

How does pinball fx's camera work?

In regards to getting it working. Copy one of the existing profiles in the profiles.xml cfg and edit the copy so that the game_exe name matches the games executable name (case sensitive), change the game_type value to 10 and set the separation and convergence to 0.

Then start Vireio and try running the game.

If that has no effect (crashing would be it having an effect) then try copying d3d9.dll and libfreespace.dll from the bin folder into the same folder where the games executable is located and try again.

If the above doesn't have any effect or crashes the game then it'll need a programming based fix.

If one of the above does work then you have it working in mono. This is likely as good as it will get without further programming related work at the moment. But if you are lucky an existing game_type might work in stereo.

If you want to try for Stereo:

Try adding a bit of separation by pressing F3 and see if the views separate or if something weird happens. If the views separate with no issues then you have Stereo working and should be very surprised.

If nothing happens of something weird happens. Go to the profile you created and try a different game_type. (I'd try 101, 201 and 601 and then accept defeat.) Set the separation back to 0 and see if the game loads OK. If it doesn't try adding some separation with F3 again.

Repeat until something works or you run out of types to try.

At this point the only way stereo will be made to work is with some programming attention.

[mr.uu]

Pinball FX2 (game_type="601")

working

[am1001]

Hi

For people trying with gametype 601 how is pinball fx with oculus - can you post some impressions? How good is the 3d and how does pinball play with oculus - is it a good experience?

thanks from all those who don't have a rift yet!

[maxsayo]

Thanks for the response, I am very excited to try it out. thanks for the input!

The camera has I think 3 functions, two of which are not beneficial for playing pinball well and the last one which is more practical. 1 and two follow the pinball or change dynamically based on what section of the machine the pinball is located. these methods are waay to confusing for actual pinball (in my opinion). The third one is just looking down on the pinball machine. These are all 3d model machines. I am more excited for Pinball arcade because the console versions have the camera walk up to the pinball machine in an arcade, so there is actually a sense of space when you play. Plus on top of that pinball arcade will have machines that were actually made by real companies (like williams, bally, stern, gotleib, etc.)

[maxsayo]

So I tried getting this to work, following the steps and choosing game mode 601, I just get a black screen, could anyone show me what settings they used in the profile configuration? I think that might help to know. Thanks in advance.

[rand023@live.com]

i got pinball fx2 working with these settings with the D3d proxy may 4th verison of Vireio.
<profile game_name="Pinball FX2" game_exe="Pinball FX2.exe" game_type="601" separation="0" convergence="-0.1476" swap_eyes="false" yaw_multiplier="25" pitch_multiplier="25" roll_multiplier="1" />
the menus do not work but the tables do so launch game without vireio and figure out the key pushes to load a table, then launch with virieo... i had to copy the .dlls to game directory. hit keystrokes to get to table and have some fun. C changes camera in game