Introducing Pinball Designer

[@jonnorris4204]

I once had Bill Budge Pinball Construction Set with my first computer- CBM64, around 1983. I spent many hours creating primitive pinball layouts using a computer with only 64K of ram. Glad to finally see a decent looking modern version!

[@pawlowskipinball]

Thanks for stopping by. Some people named dropped you years ago for someone to consult for designs on my pinball project.

[@pawlowskipinball]

I just watched an old video of that Pinball Construction Set. Cool for its time but hilarious looking back. What people don't realize (and I mention in my other video on my channel "How to Make VideoGames") that in high performance video games rendering 120 frames per second, we are also still limited by memory and thinking about as little memory as 64KB of data still.

[@pawlowskipinball]

I will be working on a second update video maybe in a week. This gives me time to just burn through tons of updates and features. I own this software outright, every line of code and work extremely efficiently. I've been building this software since I was 16. It is a very powerful game engine. My original life goal was to build a videogame company, and I've seen saving money my entire life , and working every day on my software and 3D art skills, but I think I can make a bigger impact within pinball. I would also suggest taking a look at my documentary here where I talk about the physical world of making pinball machines. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJKqiaJ3hbVld80

[@majorjohnson8001]

Duuude, this is amazing. I've wanted a pin ball designer since I was a kid (I legit tried to "make" "pinball" "machines" with scrap wood, nails, rubber bands, and marbles). Mad props for working on it for so long and getting all kinds of rad features I certainly never thought about (entire CNC printing, wire bending, and whatnot too!? MAD!) as I was just interested in doing everything virtual. Seriously, you could make some good money from this. Tons of people would easily drop $5, $15, $25 for this on Steam. Checking... there's one existing title that has some of the features you talk about, PinBuilder. It's still in early access for $30 and doesn't have any of the real world exporting features, though its virtual environment is shinier.

[@pawlowskipinball]

@@majorjohnson8001 Just looked it up. Yea, I will be adding some extra graphics features soon to improve the rendering a bit. This software was a necessary tool for my physical pinball company in order to automate manufacturing. It was more aimed for building physical / supporting a super simple custom shop for people that might not want to DIY but have a personalized game for their home/business. I have hardware board support as well. I'm sure this will expand to many more feature requests from end users.

[@Mo_Ketchups]

This is thee most impressive, mind-blowing video I’ve seen all year (no joke). I was around when PinMAME had just gotten started. I remember marveling at JP Salas’s first Taxi table. Then I just kept playing real pins over the last 20 years (& now own three newer ones), only to see THIS TONIGHT?! 👀 😳 🤦‍♂️ HOLY MOSES, man! This is just truly too amazing to get my MELON around!! Kudos to YOU 🫵!! This gets a standing-O from THIS old slob! Take a bow: 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🤘✌️

[@Mo_Ketchups]

@@pawlowskipinball You’re the first & only person who ever took umbrage to a huge, sincere compliment. May I suggest a simple “Thank you” next time you might receive one. It looks better if nothing else. 🤷‍♂️

[@pawlowskipinball]

@@Mo_Ketchups Sorry. I appreciate it for sure and I 100% recognize the sincerity. End of the day I'm just doing what I enjoy doing. I deleted the comment it in case someone else read it that way also since that wasn't the intent. Cool stuff is coming.

[@Mo_Ketchups]

@@pawlowskipinball Of that, you weren’t accused. You’re just not good at taking compliments. It’s not unusual, I’m the same way. I’m glad you love this because you’re giving so many people the ability to achieve the otherwise unachievable (to a very large degree). 🤔

[@DaussPlays]

Incredible software; I've been interested in homebrew pinball and this looks fantastic for prototyping ideas. I would love to see more about exporting the designs for real world use!

[@AdamGtr86]

Follow / get your name on me email list as well on my main web page. Will be focused on getting this out as quick as possible.

[@Vic_VP]

Woah this is insanely amazing and detailed! Thanks for sharing! Makes me wanna design a pin now! And it looks like your software has made things pretty quick and convienent!

[@Variusak]

I expect the first full machine somebody makes will be Space Cadet from Windows 95.

[@Leray21]

Seems very easy to get a pinball build running, wish software like VPX had something more easy to use like this seems to be, however physics in vpx is top tier :) great job!

[@pawlowskipinball]

Not too worried about it. Physics will get there. I made a virtual demo of my foo fighters game last year that I may load back up and take some real videos and compare and make sure it maps nearly 1:1. Good to use a real machine that I know to compare it to.

[@ShaneDocPuff]

Very Excited to see this come out, Looks great.

[@pawlowskipinball]

Hopefully in November.

[@adamboggs4745]

Very excited to see this become available. Our mechanical guy has decided he doesn't have time for the project and this would be much more accessible to us than the CAD drawings he did for our whitewood prototype. I'd be interested to hear more about how you enter the game rules, or if it's mpf underneath or something else. Thanks foe all your efforts!

[@pawlowskipinball]

100% my technology platform. Still working on wrapping up the programming side for ease of use. Right now everything is just code I wrote knowing how my game engine works. So things like like shows and game modes to to be abstracted out and expose to users in a simple way.

[@adamboggs4745]

@@pawlowskipinball That's awesome, I am not a fan of MPF at all!

[@pawlowskipinball]

I've heard that from a lot of people. I've never opened it.

[@drumboy256]

Incredible work sir, really well done 👍🏼

[@johndoe-yw7eb]

My first thought was "why reinvent the wheel when VPX already exists", but it's very impressive that you were able to produce a table of this quality this quickly. Very curious to see how this develops.

[@pawlowskipinball]

Always good to re-invent the wheel. We had Netscape Navigator, then Internet Explorer and now many others. Don't stop innovating. This is all my own code so I built it so I could design and program real physical games quickly and carry it on for a lifetime programming my product line. The virtual side is cool, but the unique portion is taking all the bend and ramp data into real world for a physical reproduction.

[@michaeldonato1236]

This is amazing! I have an idea for a pinball in my head but had no idea how i could make it a reality!

[@SirenBandUS]

Awesome work all around!

[@Phatjax]

This is super cool, and I'm very interested in trying it out! I would also love to hear how you feel this compares to the process of designing a table in VPX, if you have any experience with that.

[@mightystudiosvids]

Can't wait to try this out someday. Looks very useful as a prototype tool, and also just plain fun

[@pawlowskipinball]

The drop target feature will include a drop down for how many drop targets and dynamically create them. I think the biggest drop target bank you can create and fit in a playfield board without obstructive flippers and slingshots is about 40 targets. So yea it will offer some stupid ideas and fun to play around with.

[@loserkidpinball]

This is insanely cool!

[@pawlowskipinball]

This only took me about 50 hours to build the designer software. I would suggest checking out my documentary "Making a Pinball Company" that details 2,500 hours of much harder work.

[@loserkidpinball]

@@pawlowskipinball will do captain

[@xaGe__]

Reminds me a little bit like Future Pinball.

[@GoodwinsPlace]

Is there a release of this? I'd love to give it a go for my homebrew layout.

[@pawlowskipinball]

At least 1 month out (Mid October). Couple small bugs, about 30 features still to integrate. I have to scan in all the parts from suppliers. Working to get it out as soon as possible though. follow here and/or email list on the main page of my business website.

[@Tom_Neverwinter]

This is amazing!

[@pawlowskipinball]

Thanks. Other cool stuff in the pipeline.

[@peggrav8190]

I'm curious to see this in action, especially the exporter. Im on my second homebrew at the moment, and already past design, and whitewood build, but insert, and art would be nice to use to layout art on the playfield, and be able to set that up for a printer to do on my final playfield. Looks very impressive, and look forward to further updates.

[@pawlowskipinball]

You could take a top down photo of your whitewood and import it as the playfield art and use this to place inserts only and generate the data for just those to be cut out. Just drop your whitewood back into a CNC machine and have it do an insert cut pass.

[@peggrav8190]

@pawlowskipinball getting a good angle shot is tough with just a camera to do that, and always seems like something is off. I don't mind doing the measurements. Biggest thing I was wondering, is if it's possible to lay art on my virtual after I build inserts, and do my own art on that setup you have? Or would I need to do that then import it onto the whitewood in your program?

[@pawlowskipinball]

You can drag and drop any image onto the playfield. If its the correct proprtion to the playfield dimensions, then it will map 1:1 to your game. The exported file is the guide. Draw your art and then print. Or if you already had an art file and its the proper playfield proportions, import the image right on the virtual table and place inserts where the art is. So you can work both ways if that's what you are asking.

[@Ethan-lf9jn]

really cool stuff, thanks !

[@SeanStClair-cr9jl]

This looks sick!

[@ununu242]

This is super amazing. Do you know if Stern or other manufacturers have their own software for this purpose? Your product looks like something that could make the design / prototyping process very smooth. I wish you great success!

[@pawlowskipinball]

I have no idea what the other manufacturers do, but I'm setting my own path to mass manufacturing.

[@Mo_Ketchups]

I’m speechless. 👏👏👏👏

[@majorjohnson8001]

I'm curious as to how well the software can handle detecting impossible shots. I did see you mentioned that the physics isn't perfect and that some of the shots are hard, but was that discovered purely through trying to play the resulting design, or is there and automated process that can detect potential issues like chutes that can't be entered, ramps that are too steep, things like that?

[@pawlowskipinball]

I already made a small revision to the physics that feels much better. It's never going to be 100% perfect to real world but well will get you a very close approximation. If you have enough experience playing games, you kind of know how steep the max is. If it ends up that in the real world you find your ramp a little hard, just replace a 4" elevation ramp mount with a 3.5" one and subsequently lower your wireform linking to the ramp. One thing this does have is the feature to move the 3D ball to every x,y,z location within the cabinet (millions of locations) and release to see if you have a stuck ball possibility. I played Jaws last night and got a ball stuck between a ramp and wireform. It happens. So I anticipate it could help in that aspect.

[@Lancebroyles]

Hey! I am designing and building a Bluey Pinball Machine, I would love to use this software to try out different shots and ramps. I’ve already got my White Wood semi populated with lower playfield, and working on upper playfield.

[@pawlowskipinball]

If you already got a partially/fully populated playfield then that is always a better test real-world than a physics simulation. I'm not at a 1.0 release yet, so maintaining a piece of software too early is not only a headache for me, but a terrible experience for an end user.

[@asdftwef]

Amazing work! Where can I buy it or download the software and begin to use it???

[@pawlowskipinball]

Subscribe here or any social media platform under my business name. Likely crank this out quicker than anticipated due to the response. Will probably add about 50 new features in the next 2 weeks. I'd expect this to be out before the end of the year.

[@shaynejudkins1605]

Sooo disappointed. I thought it was already available. This is what the pinball industry needs! As a 35+ year software engineer veteran, my hat is off to you, this is some incredible work! I'll buy a license RIGHT NOW. lol. Need any Q/A testers? HA! (No seriously... Lol)

[@pawlowskipinball]

@@shaynejudkins1605 I may bump up the release date based on the acceptance and feedback. The next video will be another epic update.

[@oliviercaboche2697]

Nice. I was looking for something that simplify the process on my built. Thx

[@ObsidianContraption]

Very cool

[@FlippinFunFlips]

Awesome!,

[@Shazzner]

Is this open source? Is it Windows only?

[@pawlowskipinball]

Windows only. Not open source. Open to feature requests when it comes out if people have them.

[@PinsanityPins]

Wow is that a DIY wireform bender? Does it bend 1/8 rod and is there a build guide for it? 😅

[@pawlowskipinball]

Thought I replied, but must have closed out: Its a custom made wire machine that does 100lb torque at 1" out. It's a mix of a couple designs I found on youtube. I will not be selling the bending machines. This also has an extra tool head that doesnt just feed round rod, it can feed 1" ball guide steel walls and bend those as well. Feed it a 1"x30" 20 some gauge cut and it will shape it up. This can perform 3D bends in the wire and also all the 4 wireforms get exported directly to the machine. Each wire has a slight different in feed length for each bend to shape correctly so its convenient to work with my virtual builder that just does all the work for you.

[@pinballparty]

This is mega dope

[@jeremychassagne224]

Dis you publish it on github or did you sale it ? What is the language used ? Nice job. I am in progress to build my pinball i am so interrested about your software. Kiss from France 🤣👍

[@pawlowskipinball]

@@jeremychassagne224 No github. This is my software and hardware. For sale in a couple of months. Will update when available. C++ and openGL

[@williamheckman4597]

How can we get a copy of this software ?

[@pawlowskipinball]

It will be available in about 2 months. I'm wrapping up a ton of new features and will be working on a tutorial stepping through the whole process from design, programming and then eventually a physical game.

[@williamheckman4597]

@@pawlowskipinball Very Cool let the channel know!

[@armastat]

This is a really cool tool, but let me ask, is this only for designing layouts for real world play fields and not for designing a layout for a virtual game using something like VPX?

[@pawlowskipinball]

The only reason I built this tool was to launch a physical pinball company. This allows me to design and extract all 3 dimensional bend data for wireforms and other parts as well as generate the data for cutting out playfields. It's also nice to play around with shots and wall placement virtually. The programming side gives you access to programming both the virtual game AND a physical game. They run the same executable. It's an entire platform and it's extremely simple. Everything you saw in the video demonstration, if I plugged it into my hardware at the upper right corner it would remove the "hardware not connected" text and instead be in "physical mode". In physical everything on the LCD screen routes to your LCD and renders full screen. The entire virtual world is not simulated or drawing at that point. I will post an update video or do a live demo maybe in a week to answer some questions. Example: I dragged an insert light and named it "Switch1Light". You can write the code "FlashInsert(Switch1Light, RED, 25milliseconds)". The game logic runs regardless of hardware or not. If no hardware, you see the light switch in the 3D virtual machine. With hardware it will just start talking to hardware and update Switch1Light and tell it "hey you need to flash this light on and off at a 25ms rate and color red.

[@armastat]

@@pawlowskipinball dont get me wrong i would find this very useful as well as cool, I was asking because there is an entire community out there that can use something like this. even if they had to pay to get it. the VPX system I mentioned depends on a simple layout to design the virtual game. IE, place a bumper here, a flipper there, then run it, in seconds u have a playable table on the computer. then u add graphics on the objects you placed (just link image to object) and tell the software if it accepts hit events and what points to set to it. the game handles all physics and does all the rendering in real time. Then there is a scripting engine that allows u to have control over virtually all aspects of the game to spice it up. The layout of the table is just simply x/y/z for most items. the layout (which is all I am talking about here) is simple, its the interface to lay them out which is clunky. If it is possible to check into whether your exported layout files are compatible or can be made comparable to the VPX one. (they already have a blueprint export function which exports a layout image similar to yours for graphics workup). But being able to simply place the items like you have demonstrated, test shots in same interface and then export the file that is compatible to load or convert to VPX would be a gold mine for all concerned.

[@AustinSteingrube]

This looks like it would be a great tool. Any thoughts on releasing it for free or at low cost for hobbyists?

[@pawlowskipinball]

@@AustinSteingrube It will be in the videogame price range and will get community feedback via forum for feature requests. If you want plug and play to translate to a physical game: software + hardware cost will still be cheaper than any hardware controller from competitors. Good experience all around.

[@AustinSteingrube]

@@pawlowskipinball I think that’s fair! Need any help with development/maintenance? I do simulations for a living now and I did low level embedded software for nearly a decade before that.

[@pawlowskipinball]

@@AustinSteingrube No help needed. I got this.

[@anthonyebiner8929]

​@@pawlowskipinballThis looks awesome! Just want to put a word in for linux support, it's a pain having to dual boot into windows to use VPX. Totally understand if that's unfeasible though!

[@pawlowskipinball]

@@anthonyebiner8929 Won't happen. Not financially reasonable/timeworthy to port. Not a single videogame company I worked at ever released a game on Linux even with tons of $ and developers. Just not something we deal with. My main business is in mass producing physical games as a manufacturer with low priced, packed games competing in the physical pinball space. The main goal of the software is to support physical homebrew builders. As far as opening and supporting virtual makers/players, that will certainly come but I need some additional input from the community and will have to wrap up some support for haptics and what not.

[@ngreenup]

Can we try to program?

[@pawlowskipinball]

Trying to get this out within the next 30-60 days.

[@modelenginerding6996]

Rad!

[@CementRoots]

uumm... wait a sec....LOL we have been doing this for 20yrs in Visual Pinball... also its how Jack "Danger" ....lol.... (sorry every time I see that dudes name I laugh) designed and built his game... so back to VP... we are at the point were you cant tell this difference from real and VP.... so I'm wondering why build a tool, that there is all ready a superior version of?... just wondering....here is Metallica that was just released.... just as an example kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHunppeQp7eom7c

[@pawlowskipinball]

​​@@CementRoots The owner of vpuniverse website said what I showed here is light years ahead of vpinball just on the virtual game side. I wouldn't know. This was never built for virtual table replication of metallica games. The is a tool suite for manufacturing real games in a cabinet (not virtual cabinet) with a steel ball. If you stick around in a about a month we are going to design, program and build a real game and assemble it. All the virtual ramps and wireforms get cut out.

[@CementRoots]

@@pawlowskipinball ooohhh... Billy said that huh?....lol ..... ok I get it now.... you mock it up on the PC and send the files to manufacture the real machine... neat... VP files can be exported so you could use a CNC... or a wire former.... good luck

[@WillieTheAutomaton]

@@CementRoots It's been 2 weeks did you get your "." fixed or is it still sticking?

[@baltimoreluke]

very very cool idea! i feel like i'll see this on Let's Game It Out in a few months.