Thanks Fastlane,

I think part of the problem is my level geometry. Trouble with BSB is that every damn thing needs to be a block. Once I start cutting into the backface to make holes for the balls to fall through and everything gets cut into triangles and the poly count rockets. I don't really want blocks since very little can really be hidden in this type of simulation anyway. Today, I did push my luck by making the pins eight sided. Realisticly, I think four sided is the minimum. Three sided and there is too much chance of a head on collision. I've had a bit of an attempt to search the internet for other pinball simulation development tips, but it hasn't turned up anything useful yet.

The physics are starting to look realistic. I'm starting to get the right number of balls on the screen and they are moving down at about the rate I'd expect from a real machine. Balls are still getting stuck in blocks (usually they find their way out again, but it looks funny). Balls are still getting stuck in funnels 'even if they are models). Also having a little trouble with SED's debugger showing me changes in some variable s (it doesn't like local variables, and some global ones too -don't know what is going on there).


I'm sure there are work arounds for all these things (dicking the balls when they stop moving, transporting balls in funnels, making goal entities instead of chopping holes...). However the more the physics engine can take care of without resorting to those measures the better. I've seen some pretty cool pinball simulations, and I wonder how they pulled it off.

I'm not going to give it up just yet, and the advice I'm getting from Marco and yourself is greatly appreciated.