Getting Started

Let's Use The fpxEngine

Getting Started

The fpxEngine pinball table system was designed for everybody, from people with NO scripting experience, all the way up to the advanced coder who wants to work with a powerful, full featured and extremely flexible system.

Even if you are design impaired, the fpxEngine has your back, each of the vault items are fully built for you and coded with far more advanced routines than any other template.

The fpxEngine complete system was designed for everybody, from people with NO scripting experience, all the way up to the advanced coder who wants to work with a powerful, full featured and extremely flexible system.

Even if you are design impaired, the fpxEngine has your back, each of the vault items are fully built for you and coded with far more advanced routines than any other template.

Let's Play a Table

Fun First, of course...

By now, you should have a good idea about the FP editor, so now it's time to start working with the fpxTemplate.And of course you are going to want to play it to test it out. Open up the template from the location you stored it in. As you can see, it's not exactly a lot there, it pretty much looks like the basic "new_table" that fp has, but it's not the looks that matter, it's what's under the hood that counts.

Still, press play and have a go at what's there. You will notice some pretty high end features, like the display text and the lights, that just isn't there in the new_table template. In fact, the fpxEngine is the third most powerful engine released, only shivaEngine2 (for old vp) and propst (for FP) are more powerful, but then, fpx also happens to be the easiest to use not matter what template you look at, or what skill level as a coder you are. In fact, the entire object of the fpxTemplate is to make it as easy to use for people who don't even know how to code, and there really isn't anything like it (as far as I know at least)

Have a play or 2 and then come back here. If you look in the actual editor, there are a group of triggers (the funny looking star shaped objects) to the left of the table. (You may have to increase the magnification, as FP likes to just show the table dimensions, and not what is outside the table in the editor)

You will notice a menu system comes up. This is where you can change balls per game, skill levels, set to use the arrow keys before you hit enter etc . This is a built in feature of the engine, more options will be added soon.

Download!

- I Mean a Actual Game!! -

fpxEngine will come (soon) with sample tables, built entirely with Vault Items, but in the meanwhile, there is a fpx Game available, by me!!!

Jungle Girl fpx was built with version 1.0 of fpxengine, and contains a lot of custom code added to the engine. This is a very good example of just how high end fpx tables can be, and is well worth the download just to play.

In fact, starting with fpxEngine 1.5x series, releasing soon, it will use all the features already built into Jungle Girl, like more advanced routines, the ability to pick from multiple soundsets, and far more complex lighting/display/ light Attract routines, among others.

You can grab the latest version of Jungle Girl fpx right here.

These are the preset features built right into fpx. There's not a lot (at the moment) but that will change in time. When you do open the script editor, you will be able to change the text that is displayed when a ball rolls over the trigger (you don't have to if you don't want to) or change a number (you don't have to do that either, only if you want to) and maybe just copy and paste the code if you want to duplicate a feature and have 2 of the same feature in your game. These triggers are coded in the "_Hit" section, I go through each one of them in the beginners guide, as you move down the script and tell you what they do, but you actually don't have to change them.

For Beginners

Baby Steps...

fpx comes with a bunch of examples and code already done for you, and these are the ones you can play with. You can find a complete walkthrough in the Beginners Guide in this manual. These examples uses the trigger objects, and have a different feature assigned to each trigger (one adds a extra ball, one scores the jackpot etc) so just select one, look at the name of the trigger at the top left OPTIONS bar, hold the left mouse button down, and then just drag it onto the table, press play and it will work. Once you are done, drag it back to where it was in the editor, and drag another in it's place.

The Vault

Feel The Power

Of all the unique features that fpxEngine has, nothing out there is comparable to the Vault system. The vault is a collection of premade templates complete with code that you can copy and paste right into your design (or use multiple vault items to make a complete design) and within minutes, have a fully working, complete with code, table. In fact, there is no engine, template system, or sample tables out there there have the level of sophistication and polish that the vault items have. Most templates are very basic, knock some targets down, get a basic score, and then pop them back up. The target vault items in fpx do far more, they have complex lighting and flashing routines, multiple levels of scoring, and even has built in player memory that will carry over to the players next ball. And it's all adjustable. Powerful routines built in such as advancing score, jackpots, and alternating lanes, with multiball and lane change coming among others. All with a simple copy and paste that should take you no more than a minute to add.

Easy Huh?

The vault is only just beginning, already there are vault items for several Future Pinball table objects. Soon, new vault items will be added that will be based on the actual arcade pinball tables, and you can mix and match vault items however you see fit. Consider it a simple jigsaw puzzle, but for pinball table design.

There will be more examples and code added, but ultimately, that's all you would really have to do. And even if you are unsure, a lot of help is written right in the script, and usually a far more long winded version will be here in this manual.

- Opening The Script Editor -

So, done playing? Ready to go? Oh, you want to change something already? You can, by making simple changes to the script...

Open the script editor (left side menu in FP, says script) and the script editor appears. This is a very primitive version of notepad, and contains the code for the fpxEngine. If you have never scripted before, a quick review of the "If you have never coded before" section may be in order. It just explains the multiple green lines are in fact just instructions to help you along
the way.

The Dreaded Script...

Something you need to know first

Because the main engine contains code that only advanced scripters should change, the FPX Template is designed to give absolute beginners the ability to customize their tables in as easy a manner as possible without having to dig through very confusing and easy breakable advanced code. But, dipping into the script may be needed.
So, to make things as easy as possible, the script is split into 2 main sections, the user define section, and the main engine code.

The USER DEFINE section was written to give access to all the main things you would want to change, like sounds/lights/ display messages, without having to search through thousands of lines of code or accidentally modifying engine code that could break the script.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHANGE ANY OF THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO!

These are just presets, if you like it the way it is, leave it alone. If you do want to experiment then this is a great place to do so, as since this is outside the main engine code, you have a safe place to learn without causing errors to the engine.
(And if you do, let me know)

- I'm Still Not Sure... -

About This Scripting Thing...

If you are brand new to scripting (or coding as it is also called) the first thing you are going to say is

"There is no way I can do this"

Well you can. Most of the writing (75% of it in fact) in this script is in fact me telling you how to do things. The entire concept of fpx is to take as much coding off your hands, instead, I have done all that for you, all you need to do is make some very simple changes to what I have done, but only if you want to. The engine is automated, it will work all by itself if that is what you want and decide to not touch it at all.

What About that "Other Section"?

You do not need to touch

Look, Scripting is hard. It's incredibility boring, takes forever to get to work properly, and even longer than forever to debug the code and test it out hundreds of times. Anyone that sniffs at you and tells you scripting is easy you should grab their pocket protector from their front pocket and beat them to death with it.

But the MAIN ENGINE code you can leave alone, all of the code you may even want to modify is pointed at the top of this script, and done as simple and as easy to understand way as possible. fpxEngine contains "Hooks" within the main code, and give you direct access to the main routines (or "parts") of the main engine without wading through that complex code. This helps prevents errors (even placing a line of code the wrong order can cause errors) You don't have to worry about it now, 99.9% of your code will be just changing lights, a number or text messages, even if you mistype it, easy to fix.

From the very startup to the end, all the grunt work and engine stuff is done for you, just add anything special you want to it. No matter what, you are still going to have to learn some scripting, but the Beginners Guide even explains that for you.

It really is the easy way to do things.