Bad Cats (Williams 1989)¶

Long-running System 11 build spanning original release through toolkit 3.0, notable for brad1x's complete vector art redraw of all playfield and plastic assets. Covers the full evolution from pre-toolkit to VPX 10.8 toolkit pipeline, with extensive work on plastics rendering, render probe performance, and B2S backglass editing.

Build Story¶

Bad Cats development ran from June 2020 through December 2023 with contributions from brad1x (vector art), benji084 (plastics/rendering), iaakki (scripting/inserts/GI), rothbauerw (physics/Fleep), apophis79 (toolkit integration), and clarkkent9917 (Blender/flipper meshes). The table served as a proving ground for the transition from pre-toolkit to VPX 10.8 toolkit rendering, exposing performance issues with render probe roughness and overlapping refractions.

Table-Specific Details¶

Mechanisms & Hardware¶

System 11 table -- uses relay-based flashers in the backbox producing an audible click (confirmed via Williams schematics). Not all flasher outputs use relays; flasher 14 "BAD CATS" is an exception.
Cat's Meow custom ROM: Community-developed home ROM with ball save functionality, applied as a patch to the original. Compatible with VPW build (Pinside thread: pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-cat-s-meow-a-new-home-rom-for-bad-cats).
Fleep sound package uses the Bride of Pinbot cartridge since both are similar-era Williams.

Art & Visuals¶

Playfield and all plastics were completely redrawn in vector art by brad1x using Adobe Illustrator, then exported to Photoshop for compositing and saved as PNGs. Credited as "re-drawn" rather than "remaster" to distinguish from filter/upscale work.
Insert meshes shared with Whirlwind (1990) -- same era Williams inserts are interchangeable.
Moving target (fish bowl, cat) tracks ball position but needs Z-height guard (if ball.z > 53 then ignore) to prevent tracking balls on ramps above.
Flipper switch triggers on ramps must be assigned to the correct surface -- sw16 (fish bowl ramp wire switch) was not associated with any surface and did not animate until assigned to the "60h" wall surface.

Physics & Gameplay¶

Ramp "roof" added as invisible non-collidable primitive above ramps to prevent ball escape. Must extend past the first bend where balls tend to jump. Test with shot tester at kicker strength 200.

Known Issues¶

Overlapping bumper cap refractions caused more performance issues than ramp refractions. Removing bumper cap refractions had more impact than removing ramp refractions.

Techniques Developed Here¶

Plastics material settings -- static rendering off, hotspot lights with transmit = 1, two light elements per bulb
Glass dust effect for transparent covers was documented here by tomate80
System 11 flasher relay sounds were confirmed as accurate via schematics
Render probe roughness performance -- setting roughness to 0 was discovered/validated here alongside Police Force and GnR
Environment image impact on table appearance was extensively explored here
B2S editor limitations -- cannot replace images in existing elements, must create new and delete old