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Since the entire playing field is no more than 50cm diameter, and there are a lot of small objects, I think the scale should be something like 1 quant = 0.5mm (a pin wouldn't be much more than 1mm diameter in any case).

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If the scale were 1q = 0.5mm then gravity would need to be set to -7620 (381*1/0.05 -isn't that right?).

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It would actually have to be set to -19.6 kq/s/s.

[ (1q) / (.5 mm) ] * [9800 mm/s/s] = 19600 q/s/s

My advice with gravity is though don't use physical numbers. Tweak it manually till it "looks" and "feels" right...it's not the real world inside your computer, so why be bound by it's numbers.

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That being the case, should I use geometry for the pins, or entities (set up somehting like ph_settype(pin, ph_rigid, ph_cylinder) ?)

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To shoot the balls onto the field, would I create the ball at its start position and use phent_adforcelocal()? This command is difficult for me to understand ,so some light on how this could be made to work would be useful.

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I have no idea what the mass of a pachinko ball would be. I'll try and ask someone.

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There are spinners in the machine too. I haven't got to thinking about how they would be made to act.

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Digest the above and then we'll move to contraints. A spinner will not be difficult at all.


(PS: lose the yellow virtual world...one can harldly read it and yellow is a HEADACHE color in my book.... )

// pachinko2.wdl





path "C:\\Program Files\\GStudio6\\template";	// Path to WDL templates subdirectory



include <GSjanFX.wdl>;



var ball_pos[3];





//function declarations

function create_ball();

function init_sphere();

function init_pin();

function set_pins();











//string pachinko2_wmb = <pachinko2.wmb>;





function main() 

{      

     level_load ("pachinko2.wmb"); 

     wait(3);

     

     

     camera.x = 0; 

     camera.y = -6500; 

     camera.z = 1500; 

     camera.pan = 90; 

     ball_pos.x = 900; // initial value, ranges from -95 to 105 

     ball_pos.y = 0; 

     ball_pos.z = -750; 

     

//     set_pins();

     create_ball();

}











//entity* ball_ptr; 

 



function create_ball() 

{ 

	

	ent_create("pachi_ball.mdl", ball_pos, init_sphere);

	



 

} 



function init_sphere() 

{ 

		my.scale_x=2.5;

		my.scale_y=2.5;

		my.scale_z=2.5;

		my.pan=90; 



     phent_settype(my, ph_rigid, ph_sphere); 

//    Enable physics for this ball; it will behave like a sphere when it comes to collisions 



     phent_setmass(my, 0.05, ph_sphere); 





     phent_setfriction(my, 30); 

//    Friction = 30 (could be 0...100) 



     phent_setelasticity(my, 60, 0); 

//    Bounce a little (value = 30, could be 0...100) 



     temp.x = 0; 

     temp.y = 0; 

     temp.z = -360; 

     ph_SetGravity(temp);  

//    Set gravity for the sphere (temp.z = -380 corresponds to the earth gravity factor, g = 9.81 m/s2) 



		//punch ball out shoot	

		phent_addforcelocal(my,vector(0,20000,0),nullvector);	



     while (my.z > -1000) {wait (1);} 

//    Wait until the ball has fallen off playing field



     phent_settype(my, 0, 0); 

//    Now stop the ball; A6 commercial allows us to use one object (ball) at a time 



		wait(1);

		ent_remove(me); 

} 



function init_pin()

{

	phent_settype(my,ph_rigid,ph_cylinder);

}

	

	





function set_pins()

{



//this doesn't work properly yet

  

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The collision detection is terrible. Even though the walls are at least ten quants thick, the ball often goes through them. It doesn't even seem to matter what speed the ball is travelling at.

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ROFL. Sorry, not laughing at you, but this is a "classic" 3DGS PE bug/problem. The solution for the time being is to, well, make sure you're balls aren't going fast enough to go through the walls. Also, one thing I found helped me alot was to set the friction of the walls to 0% and elasticity to 100 as well. These "smooth" and "perfectly elastic" walls are less likely to have objects go through them.

Also, I notice you have a 50 "gram" mass(my.mass =.05) for your balls. Again, this is a realistic number, but realistic don't fly to well yet with the PE. Again, to minimize "punching through" a wall, set this mass to at least 10 or 100. Changing your mass won't affect your falling rate as long as you have no drag, so play with that number.(well, rather it shouldn't...i've noticed some discrepancies in this area)

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The ball performs better when I use a spherical model. When I try using a sprite, even though I have set it to behave like a sphere, it doesn't. Also, when it gets in a narrow place, it sometimes slows down then speeds up again -not very realistic.

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How about if they are just being used for their collision hull (cylindrical pins)? or their elastic, friction-free surface (the level itself)? For the balls that aren't in the playing field, perhaps I could use "Fake Fizziks"?

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Anyway, it's all for naught if the collision system can't handle small steel balls wizzing around hitting pins and other small objects (ramps, spinners, rails). At any scale the pins have to be small in comparison to the balls. No pinball simulation is possible without that.

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Though I haven't tried scaling the larger sized blocks down yet. Notably the invisable "glass" front.

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For the balls outside the field just disable physics again: phent_settype(my,0,0); will make my an obstacle for other balls but not move my anymore.

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