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Blood Machines (Original Table)

Original VPW table based on the Seth Ickerman/Carpenter Brut sci-fi film, with IP permission secured from the director. Notable for under-playfield mini-game, ball teleportation mechanics, 15-ball multiball, wizard mode design, and the most extensive original table rules discussion in VPW history. Primary designer: sixtoe.

Build Story

Development began January 2021 with paper sketches and ran through 2023+ with rules refinement continuing through 2025. Sixtoe designed the layout and core mechanics, iaakki led rules programming and wizard mode design, apophis79 contributed scripting, and multiple community members debated rules design principles. The table started from the Orbital Framework base template and proved the layout with placeholder art before investing in 3D modeling.

Table-Specific Details

Mechanisms & Hardware

  • Under-playfield mini-game: Uses negative Z positions for all elements (flippers, walls, kickers, targets). Main playfield made transparent above the sub-game area. Fall-through kickers at playfield holes catch balls and redirect to under-playfield level. Return via VUK launching balls back up.
  • Ball teleportation: Entry point destroys ball, exit point creates new one with transferred velocity. Exit angle: Exitangle = Angleorig + (tp1angle - tp2angle). Must capture all ball properties BEFORE DestroyBall.
  • Ball accelerator: Hidden trigger multiplying activeball.velx and vely by 2x. Trigger must be thin enough for clean pass-through.
  • 15-ball multiball: Ball saver returns max 10 balls. First 5 balls drain very fast. Can crush lower-end systems at 4K. Ball shadow limiting recommended for performance.
  • 3D dust particles: Three layered primitive planes at different heights with sinusoidal BDL animation using phase offsets (DustLayer1.blenddisablelighting = 7 + 6 * sin(radians(dlangle+90))).
  • LCD-style sling plastics: Dark alpha-channel texture with high BDL values creating a backlit screen effect.

Rules Design

  • "Final Chapter" wizard mode (renamed from "Grand Wizard"): Requires completing ALL multiballs AND all missions. Three phases -- Phase 1: under-playfield orb shots with ball saver; Phase 2: additional objectives; Phase 3: 15-ball multiball finale.
  • Wizard mode design principles: (1) Always include ball saver (8-10 seconds). (2) Multiball should not start wizard -- play out multiball first, then light wizard on return to single ball. (3) Extra ball stacking must work properly. (4) Everything resets after wizard fail/completion. (5) Turn off unrelated shot lights during wizard. (6) Do not tune exclusively for top 0.1%.
  • Wizard start sequence: Physical ball trap holds ball during intro. GI off, DMD intro text, character lighting, ~5 second intro, wall drops, ball saver activates. Disable flippers during intro if multiball active so extra balls drain first.
  • Free play bypass: Comment out lines containing Credits=Credits-1.

Art & Visuals

  • playfield_mesh must be named exactly -- VPX treats it specially as the replacement physical playfield surface. Holes cut with beveled edges allow balls to fall through.
  • VR backglass depth bias: BGBright (lit) = -500, BGDark (unlit) = 100. Desktop values may not work in VR.
  • IP licensing secured from Seth Ickerman (director). Carpenter Brut's music requires separate purchase per the licensing terms; the agreement covers Seth Ickerman's film IP only. Non-commercial/free distribution simplified the agreement.

Known Issues

  • Kickers render through everything in VPX (always on top regardless of Z position). Workaround: invisible kicker with separate tracking primitive for visuals.
  • Destroyed ball references not detected by IsNull() -- must use Is Nothing check or boolean alive flag.

Techniques Developed Here

See Also