Multimorphic P3 October 2016 Public Update

OP
Quoted from solarvalue:
I'd like to see a better picture of the underside of that playfield. I'm having a hard time understanding what I'm looking at.

That's likely because the features visible in the pic are features that only the P3 has, including the large playfield display, the wall/scoop assembly, and the multi-position trough. The versatility in the features is what makes the P3 capable of so many gaming configurations.

Quoted from Mbecker:
Anyone know the back box width? I've been interested in p3 and glad to see an update -- wish it would have come to the nw show by now as I'd love to play one. If it won't fit thru the narrow basement door frame though maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up haha! Wonder --Does the back box detach easily with minimal cabling to disconnect?

The P3's backbox is the same width as a WPC backbox: 28.75". Removing it, however, is much easier than with WPC. The cables that connect the backbox to the main cabinet are easy to disconnect (power, video, usb, LED ribbon cable, another LED cable, and subwoofer cable). Disconnect those cables, remove the two main hinge bolts, and the head lifts off.

- Gerry
http:www.multimorphic.com

#10 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Our playfield display is a ruggedized commerical 1080p display. I doubt many would be very happy with the price of a 4k one at this point. Then again, median prices for even single-themed machines seem to be catching up and passing us.

Regardless of price, there are a lot of other variables that go into such a decision, like rendering power (CPU and video card) and content development, and we've sized our computer system to be powerful enough for new titles for [hopefully] years. Most of the content in games like LL-EE is rendered dynamically. We're not just showing video clips. Generating 4k quality content would be an expensive proposition, and we see very little value in that now. Our focus today is on fun gameplay. IMO, a 4k display won't make games any more fun than a 1080p for the next few years.

All that said, our system is designed to allow quick swaps/upgrades of components like the display (and almost everything else). The display literally slides out of the front of our (now patented) playfield rail system. Upgrading the 1080p display to a 4k one in the future would take all of about 30 seconds.

That was the long version. The short version is... we'll be sticking with 1080p for now, but upgrading to 4k in the future will be easy.

- Gerry
http:www.multimorphic.com

#12 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Quoted from 27dnast:
If you can truly create compelling layout diversity from game to game, it's going to have a lot of buyers!

We truly can... and will. Others can too. We continue to work on our 3rd party development kit.

#14 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Quoted from scott_freeman:
just curious, how much does a P3 weight? (range of weight)

We haven't gotten a final weight on our production samples, but our final prototypes (very similar) were 330 lbs with 17 balls installed. That's with the LL-EE playfield installed. Both LL-EE and CL playfields weigh 24 lbs.

#16 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Quoted from Rondogg:
Sssssss-eventeen balls?!?!

Since the P3 is a multi-game platform for which games will be developed for the foreseeable future, we can't predict how many balls a game will need. Lexy Lightspeed - Escape From Earth has an 8-ball physical ball lock that can hold 8 balls while a separate 4 ball multiball (Target Practice) is running. So it needs 12 balls minimum. Who knows what other games will need. So we designed our drain and trough system to not be limited to a specific amount of balls (other than the physical space will allow, but that space is about 4 feet long).

#20 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Quoted from Sticky:
What other main games are coming or how far away are they? There's Cosmic Cart Racing, right? What else?

Quoted from Rondogg:
Just between us can you tell us what licenced themes you are considering?

Moving forward, except in special cases, we'll not be discussing new themes and new game dev until the games are ready to be released.

Quoted from Mbecker:
How possible are homebrews with this system? On one side the hardware seems like it's pretty straight forward to me but as a guy with no graphics design background that part of it seems a little daunting.. I'd love to think that if I bought a system I could potentially develop a module but I am wondering how realistic that is?

We'll provide tools and examples of how to do almost everything you'll want to do. Making actual playfield modules for the P3 will be much easier than building full machines because we've already done most of the work. You'll just cut an upper playfield out according to our upper playfield template and install your devices and controller boards (PDBs and SW-16 boards).

Regarding software and graphics... our dev kit will give you a working game example and all of the features you'll need to implement a game on the P3. We chose to leverage the Unity3D game engine for graphics as it's the game engine used for a large majority of games in the mobile, console, and PC gaming markets, and it has an enormous and helpful community. Further, there's the Unity Asset Store that has a large supply of graphical content and feature scripts, oftentimes for free, to help you realize your vision.

Helping others make games for the P3 is an important part of our business model. We're spending a lot of time on the tools and back-end software to make it easier for you to develop and deploy new games (with or without playfield modules).

#23 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Quoted from Mbecker:
ahh - so any lower PF control boards are permanently under it and all boards to control upper switches, lamps, etc. are under the upper PF then? I hadn't really considered that factor --are there extra unused switch positions under the lower at all?

The modular nature of the P-ROC/P3-ROC control system allows us to implement support for the core features of the platform and have a simple interface for custom modules. We expose standard connectors to the upper playfield modules so that playfield designers can implement support for their playfield features with local boards that connect back to the main control system.

If you want to swap out our stock button boxes, flipper assembly, or side modules with custom versions, there are easy hooks to tie them back into the control system as well. We designed the system to be highly extensible.

Quoted from Mbecker:
Again -- thank you for all the information, you are really selling me on this concept, although I really wish one had come to the NW so I could put a little time on it. I watched most of the videos I could find but it's hard to replicate the actual experience of playing it I think and that's a lot of money to put down on something w/out being able to try it.

We had the machine at CAX in 2015. Sorry you didn't get to play it then. This year RMPS was our only trip out west. Next year there will be lots of P3s in the wild; so getting your hands on one shouldn't be too hard.

Quoted from Mbecker:
I guess at this point since there are no pre-order incentives left (right?) it makes just as much sense to wait it out for manufacture and hope that a game goes public somewhere close before ordering...?

We call it a "pre-order", but really it's just a free place in line. That line has grown pretty long though; so if you're interested, I'd recommend getting on the list now. We won't ask for any payment until it's time to order parts to build your machine. You can decide then whether to follow through or fall off the list.

#27 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Quoted from Zitt:
The point I'm making is Gerry obviously has a small group of volunteers who spend their nights and weekends working on the machine. AFAIK; they haven't spent any customer money to develop the machine(s). It's clear to me that it takes a WHOLE lot of man hours to iterate and engineer a completely new pinball platform with this level of technical complexity. I'm perfectly OK with Gerry's team taking the time to get the machine RIGHT and engineer properly before they ship. Spinning up subcontractors and manufacturers for these parts WILL take time... and it's clear from what I've seen that they are making progress.

Thanks for the support, John. Yes, we've been lucky to receive a lot of help from people with regular day jobs; it shows the passion of the community and the willingness to jump in and help with a project people believe in. Just to clarify though, we do have a team of full-time employees (myself included of course) that's working tirelessly to get the P3 into production. The bootstrap budget and small team isn't something we hide behind; it just hopefully helps to give perspective.

The amount of work required to bring a traditional-style pinball game to market is enormous. Multiply that by 2 or 3 to bring an innovative multi-game platform to market, complete with the tools and software necessary to make it successful. Yes we hoped to raise significant capital and do it the easy way, but it didn't go that way. So we've absorbed the risk ourselves and are making it happen. That we've nearly reached production in just over 4 years says a lot about the team.

#28 7 years ago

GSS

gstellenberg

Quoted from PinballShoppe:
Hi Gerry. Are the flipper buttons using leaf switches? I'm curious if the flipper action is all digitally controlled, or if they are "traditionally" powered flippers. Will we be able to do things like tap passes?

I love watching the tap pass at 0:32.

Our button boxes support any kind of button configuration you could dream up, but our current setup uses leaf-switches. We're pinball players too. The playing experience is the most important part of any machine, IMO.