Goffstown, NH
Thanks PZY, nice work man. I'll say to those who said we should have shot them all from the same spot that yes, we tried to get everything back to the same spots on all the machines, but we had to move the tripod out of the way to get glass on and off, and this was shot in all kinds of different sequence. So, we did the best we could. I think it came out pretty damn well.
As promised, my other thoughts on the glass are below. For the TL;DR crowd: BevelGlass is an improvement over the standard sheet on your pin right now. The game below seems to pop and is clearer than even a new sheet of the tempered stuff. There may be a slight glare reduction if you play in an environment with a lot of overhead light. Sound dampening? If it's there it's hardly noticeable. Comparable to PDI? No. But a bit better than standard.
After a few nights of playing with "Bob's Ultimate Pinball Glass" on my Theatre of Magic, my immediate thought is "anyone who's comparing this to PDI glass is going to be disappointed". Which is accurate to begin with, since the glass was here since my friend "PZY" had taken up the task of comparing this thick, heavy, beveled glass (herefore known as Bevelglass™) to the PDI glass sitting on the AFM next to me. But it's an unfair comparison, no different than comparing a Prius to a Corvette. Sure, they're both cars, but that's about it.
Let's talk specifically about Bevelglass in comparison to standard glass:
Visual: There is a clarity and level of detail to the game below that is better than the standard sheets I've had around the house. The insert colors seem to have a bit more contrast and clarity with Bezel glass on. When it comes to glare, the glass performs about as well as a standard sheet. Spots of light from backglass or DMD don't seem to have a much of a difference between the two. If like me, your machines are in an environment that has a lot of natural light, you may not notice much of a difference between the two. Once the light levels go down, there is a marked difference between them. Bevelglass does seem to perform better with background soft light in a darker room. In that darkened room, the glass produces a clearly better result than standard glass, and comes close to the PDI "The glass is not there" effect.
Sound dampening: I touched on this earlier in the thread, but there doesn't appear to be much difference between the two glasses. I've posted some audio with the two glasses installed and posted them here: http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-amazing-pinball-glass/page/6#post-172136
The Bevel: I'll call this out as I assume it will be a sticking point for some people. The glass has about a half-inch bevel on the left and right sides of the playfield. It's important to note that sides at the top and bottom of the playfield do not have the bevel. This is good because, as a player standing at the game, the bevels aren't really noticeable. People surfing over your shoulder will notice a prism effect of double vision when looking through the bevels, but it shouldn't have any effect on your gameplay. Some people will probably dislike the bevel (I know I was on the fence) but after seeing it on the machine it doesn't bother me and it looks nice (in my opinion).
Comparing BevelGlass with PDI Glass: This is a tough comparison for the Bevelglass. If you haven't seen PDI glass installed, it is almost completely imperceptible from the bottom of the playfield to about 2/3 of the way to the top of the playfield while playing the game. The effect is nothing short of amazing, and it makes you almost forget the glass is there. BevelGlass doesn't have that same effect, and seeing that it doesn't go through the same process it seems almost unfair to compare the two. BevelGlass does seem clearer than standard glass and almost invisible in optimal lighting conditions (no hard overhead lighting, no hard reflections from the DMD or backglass, etc). PDI glass shows some glare with hard overhead lighting, but it's much less noticeable than BevelGlass.
DMD Glare Guard: I had a chance to test the BevelGlass with a DMD glare guard from Wrong Crowd. As expected, this provided a dramatic difference in the upper half of the playfield by blocking DMD glare without obscuring anything on the game itself. With this on the BevelGlass had a much clearer top half (again, lighting condition specific!) and was notably better looking than standard sheet glass. When testing the glass on Cirqus Voltaire (DMD below the glass), the effect was similar to using the Glare Guard on LOTR and ToM. The glare guard also made a difference on PDI glass on my AFM. If anything, this has sold me on buying glare guards for my other pins, and I can't recommend them enough.
Misc. Thoughts: The glass is HEAVY, or at least feels heavier than a standard sheet of WPC glass. The images depicting the glass as not having a green edge tint are accurate. The bevels actually made it a tad easier to slide in to the rails, and it doesn't feel like it's loose in any way. In fact it's quite snug in there. Finally, when cleaning this weekend, I flat out dropped the Bevelglass to the floor (idiot, I know!). No scratches or dings, and the thing is in one piece. Clearly it takes a lickin!
