PanzerFreak I have an Ultra VP 5.0 - I've had it since October 2021. I ordered it in April 2021 but there was a long delay due to "supply chain issues" - it really was painful waiting so long. These do come from China, but Roland told me he works directly with his supplier there to create the Ultra VP to his specifications. I read you're going to get the 6.0 which will be even better than mine.

I gotta say, the 5.0 I received is simply amazing. It is a wonderful machine for playing virtual pinball, what with all of the force feedback... surround sound (exciters/transducers strategically placed on the inside of the cabinet to make the ball sound like it is traveling where you see it), virtual plunger, several real solenoids that fire when you would expect (for pop bumpers, slingshots), gear motor (enhances the realism, for example Indiana Jones spinning idol or The Addams Family bookcase), shaker motor, RGB lighting, etc. Like you, I always wanted a virtual pinball machine but couldn't imagine building one for myself. The build for these Ultra VPs is top notch - there are switches to turn features off (such as the tilt bob, a switch on the bottom front left of the cabinet lets me turn it off) and it is easy to turn down the intensity of the shaker or gear motors with dials dedicated for such purposes.

As far as updating the Ultra VP with new tables as they are released, it isn't too difficult at all. I've only done it for Visual Pinball mind you, but since those are the best emulations that's all I really play anyways. I scan the vpuniverse and vpforum sites regularly, looking for updated tables that interest me. You mentioned the STTNG update. That one involved downloading the update, which is really a .vpx table script "diff" file. The instructions point you to a URL for the "original" table (without the nfozzy fleep sounds lut updates). You simply download that original table and the "vppatch" tool (also linked in the instructions), run the "vppatch" tool and load the original table plus the diff file for this update. Click the button to basically merge the two and you have a new table. The guy that released that STTNG update has made several updates this way (BoP, Funhouse) but he is the only one I've found that is using this method. Most tables, especially the VPW tables, are complete tables which don't require the "vppatch" tool at all. Oh I should mention my favorite new table is the VPW Lord of the Rings table, with all new amazing art for the playfield and the backglass. It is simply stunning! I've owned the real LOTR table for years in the past and it was always a favorite of mine. This VPW emulation comes mighty close to the real thing!

Visual Pinball table files have a .vpx extension and backglass files have a .directb2s extension. The filenames (up to the .extension) need to match for the emulator to display both the table and the backglass (note, you CAN play a Visual Pinball .vpx table without a .directb2s backglass).

That clone device you bought (recommended by Roland) is really cool. In addition to cloning your drive (which you should do right away), you can connect that device to your home PC or laptop via a USB cable (which it comes with). Plug it in, turn it on with the original (or cloned) drive and you have access to the drive's files from your pc, where you can explore the directory structure. You will find there is a "vPinball" directory at the root level of the drive. This directory contains all of the tables and associated media for all of the emulators used by the Ultra VP. If you're updating a Visual Pinball table, you'll want to go into the subdirectory "VisualPinball". From there, you'll see a "Tables" subdirectory. This is the place you copy any new .vpx (table) and .directb2s (backglass) files.

This directory structure is obviously the same as the one on the Ultra VP. What I do is copy any updated .vpx and .directb2s files to an external hard drive mounted on my home PC - which I use to do all my web surfing and downloading. BTW, I also have Visual Pinball installed on my home PC so I can try out tables quickly there and make any code updates I may want from there, where it is more comfortable (don't worry, you don't have to do a lot of code updates unless you want to!) Then I disconnect the drive and plug it into the Ultra VP. There are USB ports on the bottom of the machine around the soft shutdown button, but I plug a 6' USB 3.0 extension cable into the back of the Ultra VP - there are air vents in the access door that allow the cable to poke through. I just keep that cable connected all the time, and plug my external hard drive into that.

Turn on the Ultra VP and when it boots up into the Pinup Popper menu, just press x. You are then in windows, with a HUGE 49" screen to work from. You have to stand on the left side of the machine with your little wireless keyboard on top. Open windows explorer (I use <windows key>+E to do that) twice. In one explorer window, navigate to your external hard drive. In the other, navigate to the Ultra VP's C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\Tables directory. You can copy your new files right there for brand new tables, because there won't be name conflicts. (If you just want to update an existing table, there is a much easier way by simply using the application "Pinup Popper Config" - ask if you want more details for that.) You can just double-click on your new .vpx table to load and run the table in Visual Pinball to try it out. There may be some things to change in the script that is part of the .vpx file. The Visual Pinball editor will allow for that - you just have to press q twice to quit the table and go back to the editor. Click the "Toggle Script Editor" button in Visual Pinball (upper left side) and the script will appear. Things you may have to change are variables to set the table into "cabinet" mode (vs. desktop mode), etc. The newer tables have a "user config" section at the top to change all kinds of things, like side art vs. black walls. If you change anything, just File/Save the table to keep the changes. You can also use the editor to change the lighting for the whole table (day/night cycle) or even individual bulb brightness. For Twilight Zone, I found the lights around the slingshots were just too bright, so I turned them down and it is so much better. Oh, also for Twilight Zone, the Ultra VP uses "alt sounds" by default. These alternate sounds are done by the original sound engineer Chris Granner but I wanted the original sounds after owning TZ for so long. That change isn't in Visual Pinball itself but is part of VPinMAME. When playing TZ, press the F1 key and a little window will open. Change Alternate Sounds to 0 (from 1 or 2 typically) and it will use native ROM sounds. Also, in that F1 menu, you can't use the mouse, so navigate using arrows or tab and be sure to save your changes. Sorry for the rabbit trail!

If it is a new table you are adding, the next big question is how to get the table in the Pinup Popper menu, which is what starts when you first turn on the machine.

I've written a lot for now and will stop here. If you want more details on these other things, just let me know and I'll explain more. BTW, I'm not an expert or anything, this is just what I've picked up along the way since owning the Ultra VP.

Oh another tip that will help you - when you first turn on your new Ultra VP, hit x after the Pinup Popper menu loads to go to windows. Open a windows explorer. Make a new folder called "backup" on your C:\ drive. Copy the entire "C:\vPinball" directory into this "backup" folder. That way, if you're working on some new update and it goes south, you can just copy the files you modified from that "backup" directory without having to mess with your clone drive.

I don't play those games often enough to notice if it is an issue, but I just loaded both of them up and neither one of them gave me an issue at all. They both took coins and started just fine. I know I've played both of those in the past and don't remember any issues back then either.

If you play for a long time, switching games often, I think there are some glitchy things that can happen - especially if you switch emulation types (Visual Pinball vs. Future Pinball vs. FX2 or 3). Probably due to memory leaks or buggy software. I keep my Ultra VP turned off until I'm ready to play, then I typically only play one or two different games (lately LOTR, but sometimes BoP, IJ or whatever has recently been released/updated). Because of that I think, I don't see those strange issues. I do remember seeing that glitchy behavior when I first got the machine, when I was just trying a lot of games to see what they were like. I found out quickly that I enjoy the Visual Pinball emulations the best, so I'm pretty exclusive to that playlist now.

I posted on the Ultra VP Fans facebook page how to do this, I'm repeating it here for you.

It always bothered me that the "Monster Bash" table fired solenoids for the Bride's head and standup switches. Now, I know the real pinball machine has a small solenoid for the Bride's head, but the loud solenoid in the Ultra VP interrupted her speech as it fires with every word... and in real life, standup targets don't sound like a solenoid when they're hit (a common issue for many tables).

I knew the DOF Configtool allows for customizations to all tables, so I decided to try silencing that one solenoid and a handful of standup target switches. I'm happy to report I was successful in doing so! Here is a quick guide to illustrate what I did.

DOF Config Monster Bash (resized).png

Thanks! As for defaulting standup targets as solenoids on all(?) tables, I agree it is totally wrong and I also ask why did they do that?! A couple of possible reasons for this come to mind - perhaps they only know visual pinball and don't realize it isn't like that on real tables, or perhaps their solenoid DOF sounds are more muted and actually sound fine for standup targets, or maybe they really like hearing more popping! Who knows?!

I started messing more with the pov settings in visual pinball recently too. It's pretty easy to do with the F6 key (or via the menu option) and using the cabinet buttons as directed on screen. There are plenty of ways to reshape a table's pov to fit the cabinet, I've got to give the developers a ton of credit. Not just for that, for everything. And the table developers as well, the entire "team" is incredible.

I've not created my own table yet, but if I were going to try, I would download this for a start. VPW is the best!

https://vpuniverse.com/files/file/7787-vpin-workshop-example-resource-table/

Here is a post I made some time ago on the Ultra VP Fans facebook page about how to add Virtual Pinball tables to the Ultra VP. (I post there under my wife's facebook page, "Art by Beatriz", as I don't have my own facebook account and in general hate social media, lol! Pinside is great though.)

Here's a high-level overview of what you need to do to add tables to the Ultra VP (note: I am only going to discuss Visual Pinball tables here, as IMO those are the best anyways).

IMPORTANT NOTE: ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR DISK IN CASE YOU MESS UP! On my Ultra VP, I noticed there was plenty of space on the hard drive, so I created a C:\Backups folder and copied the entire C:\vPinball folder there - that is one type of backup, and it is very handy to reference "original" configs on the same disk.

Create an account on these 2 websites and visit often to check for new tables:

https://vpuniverse.com/files/
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showcat=50

For vpuniverse.com, when looking for new tables the main categories of interest are "New & Updated Visual Pinball 10" and "New/Updated VPX Hybrid Releases - Desktop/Cabinet/VR".

For vpforms.org, click "Most Recent" and look for new tables.

Both of these sites will have other categories of files you will be interested in when you are ready to add a new table, because you're going to need a backglass and media files for the PinUPSystem (the menu system's graphics, sounds etc.) So if you see a nice "wheel" (the round graphic that displays at the bottom of the menu) or a nice "FULLDMD centered" animation (for the middle monitor) for the new table, grab them!

Download the new tables from these sites and extract the .vpx (table) file. You'll also need a .directb2s (backglass) file WITH THE SAME FILE NAME as the .vpx file (only the file extensions will differ). You can copy an existing backglass file if it is a new version of a table the Ultra VP already has. Copy both of those files to your Ultra VP here:

C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\Tables

(You'll need to turn on your Ultra VP, and when the menu comes up, press "x" to exit to the desktop.)

You can test the table on the Ultra VP by launching:

C:\vPinball\VisualPinball\VPinballX.exe

Navigate to & load the new table to try it out. Note, with these newer tables, you may have to upgrade to a newer version of Visual Pinball - you can download that here:

https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/releases

Note also that these are often "pre-release" versions that may have issues. When you download a newer version of Visual Pinball, you'll want to get the one that ends with "...Release-win-x86.zip". Installing these updates is just copying the contents of the .zip file on top of your C:\vPinball\VisualPinball directory - SO ALWAYS BACKUP THE ORIGINAL FILES FIRST!

Note: some new tables may not work with the Ultra VP DOF (force feedback, i.e., solenoids, flashers, shaker etc.) To address that, I'll make another post.

If your test of the new table works, you'll want to move on to adding the table to the PinUPSystem so you can get to it from your menu. To do that, you'll launch this program:

C:\vPinball\PinUPSystem\PinUpMenuSetup.exe

Click "Games Manager", then click the "Add New Games" tab, then choose "Visual Pinball X" in the "Scan Filter Emulator" drop-down menu, and finally click "Scan For New Games". Find your new game in the list that appears and click it. Then click "Add Games to System". Now click on the "All Games" tab and find your new table and click it. Fill out as much of the information on the game as you want - see other tables for the kind of information they use. Click "Save". This will get your new table onto the menu system but without any graphics or sounds specific to the table, meaning when you go to the menu to find it, it will look and sound very generic but should be there by name and launchable.

If you want to add the menu graphics, back in the PinUpMenuSetup.exe you can click on "Media Manager". Find the new table. You will see different categories of media you can add - topper, backglass, playfield, etc. These are mostly going to be image or video files - NOT the .vpx and .directb2s files - remember, this is the media for the menu system. You'll want a "WheelImage" for sure, and "Apron/FullDMD" is nice. Mostly you'll want something in "PlayField", "DMD" and "Backglass" so you see a preview of the game when you navigate to it in the menu system. You may be able to download all of these, or record them from the Ultra VP by clicking "Batch Auto Recording" or by using the semicolon ; menu while running a game through Pinup Popper. I'll let you figure that out on your own. Just drag the image, video or audio into the proper category's yellow box to turn it green, meaning you have media for that media category.

You will find existing media in the PinUPSystem here - as sometimes you can re-use something that already exists:

C:\vPinball\PinUPSystem\POPMedia

Visual pinball stuff is in the subdirectory "Visual Pinball X", and each category of media is in distinct subdirectories. Most of them are obvious, but the "menu" subdirectory is the "Apron/FullDMD" category.

One final note: I know this sounds extremely complicated and dangerous. But once you do it a few times, it really isn't too bad. I stand to the left side of my Ultra VP with my mini keyboard on top of the glass when I'm doing this.

The DOF Configtool is part of the vpuniverse.com website, so you will use the same login credentials there as you do when you visit https://vpuniverse.com/files/ to check for new virtual pinball tables.

To configure the DOF Configtool for the Ultra VP for the first time, logon to the "DOF Configtool" at http://configtool.vpuniverse.com/login.php, then click on "My Account". Select 1 where it says "Number of Pinscape Devices" and 0 for all of the other devices, then click the "Save Settings" button.

Now click "Port Assignments" and fill it out according to the screenshot below - I've highlighted the areas to fill in with yellow squares. Then click the "Save Config" button.

pasted_image (resized).png

Now that you've configured the "DOF Configtool" website for your Ultra VP, what do you get? Well, some newly released virtual pinball tables that you download and install on the Ultra VP may not have DOF (force feedback, i.e., solenoids, gear motor, shaker motor, lights) working properly. The Virtual Pinball experts at "DOF Configtool" kindly keep a database that defines the DOF settings for all current tables. When a new table is added, they add DOF settings for the table to this database (well - eventually, but it seems pretty quick). If you want the DOF settings for the new table, you'll have to generate a new configuration of DOF settings from this database, translated for your specific Ultra VP "pinscape" hardware that you've defined under "Port Assignments" above.

To do this, login again to http://configtool.vpuniverse.com/login.php, then click "Table Configs". Verify the table you are looking for is present in the "Table Name" drop-down list at the top. If it is, click the "Generate Config" button all the way at the bottom of the page (you can also do this from the "Port Assignments" menu - the same files are created from either place). A .zip file will be created and downloaded (it may take a minute or so). The .zip file will be called "directoutputconfig.zip" and will contain 4 files (as of today at least!) You need to transfer these 4 files to the Ultra VP - they go here:

C:\DirectOutput\Config

Always backup your current files before replacing them! But that's it - when you restart Pinup Popper and load your new table, the DOF should now work.

Thanks PanzerFreak - I'm glad you were able to add the new tables! I agree with you that this Iron Maiden table is top notch, and I honestly don't even care for their music. I think the new Game of Thrones is awesome as well. These VPW guys are really knocking it out of the park.

For my POV settings, I mostly just change the Y scale to make the table more narrow. I like a "standard" size pin to look like it should, and a "widebody" pin to look like it should. Since most are "standard" sized and thus narrower, I narrow the Y scale until the round inserts actually look round and to make the flipper gap not so wide.

I also record the backglass, full DMD and playfield by using the semicolon menu while the game is running. Put coins in the game, hit semicolon, use the flipper buttons to select record options, then choose the screen to record with the start button. When done, hit semicolon again. I record the backglass and full DMD for 5 to 10 seconds each, then the playfield for maybe 30 seconds. Recording these screens in this way automatically saves them to the PinUp Menu system, so when I then exit the table the visuals are there. In doing it this way, I only have to get a "wheel" image and "audio" and maybe "audio launch" media. For GoT, I downloaded the theme song and made that the "audio" track from the menu.

There is a trick to doing a full-screen "loading" video, in case you want to do that. The way the Ultra VP PinUp menu is configured, the "loading" media option defaults to replacing the wheel graphic, not the whole playfield screen. To overcome that, you first add a blank video (use windows explorer to find "blank.mp4" in the c:\vPinball\PinUPSystem lower subdirectories) - drag that to the "loading" option, then drag your full-screen playfield video there. You will be prompted which screen that video should play on - choose playfield.

Yes, that is what I do.

I do both, depending on the situation. Many times there is an older table that gets updated (new/better graphics & physics) - in that case, I just update. With the "PinUP Popper Setup" app, updating is a breeze! Just click "Games Manager", find the game you want to update and drag the .vpx (Visual Pinball Table) file on top of the "FileName" entry. It will ask if you want to overwrite the existing table, say yes, and then if you want to make a backup of the previous table (I say no, but I also have backups!) Doing it this way renames the new table to the old table name, so nothing else has to change - it uses the same backglass & media as before.

Sometimes you get brand new tables, and for that you just add EVERYTHING for that table (.vpx table file, .directb2s backglass file and then the media files for PinUP Popper). I described how to do that several posts earlier.