pinball physics - how?

just curious, fancied a little play with this, any idea how to make a pinball game in blitzmax? basically the ball would need to understand the concept of over and under also.

I don't want to over simplify things but I would assume the physics simulation would take place in a 3D world and the GFX would be presented as 2d, with some Z positioning of the sprite to ensure it did actually go under stuff.

That was my impression of it too. Now where's that much needed cross platform physics module...?

remember the old amiga pinball games? they used to be pretty cool im not sure you would even need much of an advanced phys system for such a thing (2d anyhow)

pinball dreams etc (thou maybe my memory is clouded with only good memorys of such amiga stuff)

I have one already :) But I did not write it although I think I'm the only one with the source.

Anyone got Cyanides email addy?

thats me ^ im part way to finishing a new faster uberer one actually, i will see if i can get that up in the next day or so.

general @ deviousbytes.com or co.uk

I dont see why you need to dip into 3d, you only need to test a circle against varied surroundings.

for a really primitive flat pinball, yes.

ode is *real* good for stuff with spheres, and other geometric shapes, tri-mesh can be problematic, but is do-able, best of all it will handle surface friction, gravity and mass...

If I understand correctly the only wrapper widely available for ODE in Bmax is JV-ODE? Which, unfortunately, is windows only :<.

There is the official blitzmax module made by mark sibly, which is at 1.0, however I haven't a clue how to use it.

A good link from the GameDev : General collision detection for games using ellipsoids
Just don't Make It Ellipsoidal.

@ alex o theres some free ode stuff on my site, also theres a free ogre wrapper floating round that uses ode...