My project, where to start !!!!

[jockinaus]

There's only one certainty here, I'm building a virtual pinball.

Ive built a MAME cab from the ground up,so I'm not exactly new to this, but after spending the last two hours looking at various forums and youtube videos, I'm absolutely lost on where to start .

The bits Ive mostly worked out -

1) I'm running 3 displays, 42 or 46 inch for the main playfield, a 32 inch for backglass, and a 15 inch for the DMD.

2) Its easy enough for me to build a cabinet as I work with CNC routers and CAD for a living, although I am not ruling out buying an old cabinet shell for a bit of vintage meets new tech

Then there's the software, which at the moment feels a bit overwhelming

1) The front end - I'm reading Hyperpin and PinballX a lot . Is it common to launch more than one pin emulator on a virtual pin through a front end, like you would on an arcade cab ?

2) Virtual pinball,Future pinball,both ???

Last Consideration is the PC spec. I understand I am going to need to 1TB vga's for play field and back glass, but I was thinking a usb to hdmi for the dmd ? I use one of those on my current pc for a 2nd screen,works fine and surely a dmd doesnt need a dedicated card ?

Any guidance greatly appreciated

[SubZero]

Move the thread for ya, you'll get better answers here

[xagesz]

I am personally Using Pinball-x Now.

I use to use HyperPin and still do.

VP/FP - Both are great and I use both. It is just a matter of finding what tables you like. VP use to not require a lot of processing or graphics power but has made siginificant changes the last few years and now is on par with FP. I personally use mainly VP and then any custom tables I like I use FP. You can get a PINDMD and a DMD instead of a 15" for a score display. I love this as it requires one less VGA port and Graphics needs.

MY CPU:

i5 2500k OC'd to 4.5ghz

8gb Ram

GTX 760

120gb SSD

I run over 300 tables and with all the videos and graphics I still have room for more with a 120.

CPU it is best to use an Intel as it has a better result with its single core capacity.

GPU is best for a NVidia for the same reason. It just works better. (This is my opinion on both, but I have tried several computers with different parts and imo these are best)

Overall this computer is not an expensive build now and runs EVERYTHING with no lag. My GPU is setup to only run the playfield and the onboard is running my backglass.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask more