I'm still building mine, drafted it in sketchup. I'll be doing a mini pin, already have the monitor (think it's 23", but now can't remember), and will just be using an external computer. Basically, using the cabinet as a sort of peripheral.

I started cutting my cabinet, but had a pretty severe allergic reaction to the MDF. I'm trying to get my dust collection system in place and a better mask before I start that again.

Oh man.. watching video of Tron on these things makes me REALLY want to complete mine! Anyone experiment with head tracking?

That's awesome that FX2 added that second screen support. Does it stop zooming when you plunge, too?

Lots of exciting things on the horizon for virtual pinball!

That looks nice. I've been looking into 8020 to rebuild my own rig. Would you mind sharing some plans if you have them? It's sort of daunting to enter the world of 8020..

I've always wondered about angle of the monitor. I can definitely see what you mean. I also think it looks best to at least tilt set the monitor into the cab at least a little bit. The cabinets with the screen set flush to the top (or close to it) look pretty unnatural.

Anyone build a virtual pin cocktail cab? I've been thinking about it.. it would be nice to have something that doesn't necessarily take up the space where a machine could reside. I've also contemplated making into more of a bar table..

I've also thought about making a controller stand (similar to what's in that VR video) and wall mounting a TV on a swivel so it could go landscape or portrait. I like the upright cabs that VP cabs makes, those look pretty sharp.

Congrats! I'd love to hear about what the experience was like.

For those that are utilizing the pinball download site, how are you actually downloading the tables? It seems like you're forced to use 'mega', which has been a pain in the ass for me to try and work around without signing up and paying a subscription, etc.

I was looking at www.virtualpinballdownload.com. I was under the impression vpforums had been taken down, and I always had issues finding roms there anyway.

Thanks, I'll check that out.

I've been a little fatigued in keeping up with my real machines lately. I started messing with the FX3 app on android a bit. I was pretty annoyed that there isn't a straightforward way to buy the williams tables. I like the fx3 physics overall, at least for a mobile experience. I decided to give the 'free' sessions a play to mess around. It's actually pretty fun, it feels like pingolf, and allows you to earn 'parts' toward the offline versions of the tables. I have basically everything I want now to the level2 (where you can play full games in offline mode) and bought points to purchase the pro physics (cost me about $5, which I would have happily paid for access to these tables in the first place). Overall it gives me a pretty casual experience while the wife and I are hanging out on a weeknight, etc.

Otherwise I'm trying to get a controller built to take advantage of VR. In some cases I think I'd rather just play on a monitor, but don't really want to dedicate the time/space to a dedicated cabinet. For now swiveling my monitor and playing at my desk seems like it will meet my needs. I just need to work on getting everything configured again..

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I've done some searching but I'm not quite clear on a few things (at least not in 2021)...

- What front-end should I use?
---- I'm mostly interested in functionality and ease of use than anything else. I'll be playing in VR (any such front-end that supports that?) and a rotated desktop monitor.
---- I'd like to be able to click a desktop shortcut, rotate my monitor, and getting into a machine with as little hassle as possible. I'm fine with work up front to achieve that.

- What should I look for to get the most out of a single monitor setup?
---- I want to run in 'cabinet mode' but with just the playfield monitor. I would prefer to have a smaller version of the dmd/score display visible on that same monitor (ideally with the ability to move as needed between different tables)

I figured I'd probably need to run through 2 different setups, but didn't want to figure out later that it wasn't necessary. Thanks, I'll check into it.

So what are my options for 1 portrait screen and a frontend?

Yeah, I think claiming that virtual pinball will never place real pinball is maybe a little short-sighted. Things have advanced really quickly. I feel like the physics are pretty good even in the mainstream releases at this point. I know everyone likes to blame something when they drain, "bad physics" seems like it will be the cry about virtual pinball for quite a while.

Also if anyone can recall some helpful posts in the last 7(!) years (especially if they're relevant today), it would be pretty cool if you could just give me the post numbers or general page ranges and I'll link them as key posts.

So what's the best keyboard encoder to go with? I'm looking to just get an external controller together to plug into my PC and set my monitor to portrait.

Thanks for the advice! I went with the ipac2. I thought about opting for a cheap option for my sim golf box I was going to build, and then I thought I might actually be able to dual purpose my pinball controller into a sim golf button box as well. Going with the good option makes a lot of sense if I can make that work in both use cases. I'll post updates as I have them!