Pool players, attention!

[Skybird]

Celeris marks the official release date for Virtual Pool 4 as August 15th.

Was about time, I thought they never would make it.

I expect nothing less than the best billiard simulator ever. :salute: The title so far is held by Virtual Pool 3.

[Skybird]

klick for TRAILER! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K0bwJWXCws)

[Skybird]

Countdown ticking, one more week until release of the offline version (online follows in Decembre). I need to find a way to do the transaction, I want this beauty, really.

Video (August 8th) with many new clips and a long interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=110DEXLJdpo&feature=player_embedded

Article:
http://www.povpool.com/2012/08/08/the-world-of-virtual-pool-4-with-steve-chaplin/


Most games tend to be games about something. If you play a football game or a baseball game, it's a game about that - it's not like playing football or baseball. Virtual Pool is different, it's likle really playing pool. Everything you learn in Virtual Pool is applicable to a real pool table.

August 15th, 30 dollars.

To imagine that Celeris started as a defence contractor!

In 1984, he quickly decided to form his own company called Celeris Inc., to focus on Aerospace sub-contracting for various companies. It wasn***8217;t long after this that Steve was back at The Lockheed Corporation, this time armed with several of his own employees, developing display applications for radar, weather tracking, air defense systems. For Lockheed, Celeris Inc. also developed cockpit displays for F-22 Raptor fighter jets, command and controls systems and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) systems.

[Red October1984]

Is there a demo of any of the pool games? I love playing pool.

But, i need to get better if i want to beat my friend who has the table.

I'd like to try this out sometime. :shucks:

[Skybird]

There is a demo version of Virtual Pool 3, which I know and can testify that already this 12 year old version is an extremely, and very good pool simulation. The full version now costs only 10 bucks, since VP4 is being released.

I have VP3, and have constantly played it since 12 years. If your machine cannot handle the new version, don'T be shy to try the old version, just because it is old. To say it is gold is closer to the truth. At least the CD version of VP3 is 12 years old, any computer today should be able to run it, I assume.

The unique feature setting it apart form other pool sims is that the mouse represents the lower end of the queue that you hold with your hand. The way you move the mouse directly tanslates into the way the cue is moved in the sim - no power slider you set and then hit a button, instead you just move the mouse - gently or hard, long or short. It translates into the shot. The physics already in VP3 are very good.

http://www.celeris.com/virtual_pool_3_windows.html

I just don'T know if this - newer - download version has adaptable screen resolutions that can project 16:10 screens. The first CD version - that I have - offered only 4:3 aspect ratios, so that I had to accept black bars left and right on my 2 year old 16:10 LCD screen. But I think they have implemented that in the later VP3DL versions.

The AI opponents (plenty of them) ranged from very beginners to extremely tough ones, almost perfect shooters. Only Snooker - that was the one type of ballgame that the AI did not manage to handle. Which was no loss, since I cannot play snooker well, too. That one is to avoid, really (I like to watch it on TV, though, to me it is the queen of all billiards). Most seem to prefer to play it online against other virtual pool players anyway.

P.S.
Guckst Du hier:

HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCeLiMr3oL8&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=virtual+pool+3&oq=virtual+pool+3&gs_l=youtube.12..0.63.7372.0.9368.16.14.0.0.0.0.38 0.1875.1j12j0j1.14.0...0.0...1ac.Eau8vA8Pzo8

[Red October1984]

Cool! I am going to try the free version of VP3.

Pool is a great table sport. I dont care which version you play. 8-Ball, 9-Ball, etc. :arrgh!:

[wamphyri]

I think I have the CD for the original VP sitting around here somewhere. I played the crap out of that game. I love pool, it's too bad it doesn't like me back.

[Red October1984]

Wow. I like that demo. I might have to add this to my "Amazon Order" list.

Pool is a heck of a game, I'll say that. :up:

[Skybird]

Wow. I like that demo. I might have to add this to my "Amazon Order" list.

Go for the DL version from Celeris, which has 16:10 resolutions I am quite sure. The old CDs you sometimes find second hand, are the first version of VP3 with 4:3 screen ratio exclusively. You can increase the screen resolution to 1600x1200 max - but only in steps that all represent 4:3 ratio.

[Skybird]

Wow. I like that demo. I might have to add this to my "Amazon Order" list.

Pool is a heck of a game, I'll say that. :up:

VP4 is now listed on their selling website, and is on sale from tonight (midnight) on. Check the offer and check the specs, which are surprisingly low (CPU, GPU). Maybe your (older?) machine still does meet them.

http://vponline.celeris.com/vp4offprod

[Skybird]

Okay, I just have reinstalled my system yesterday evening and this night, and then I used somebody else'Sspaypal account to buy the game this morning, it is out since a couple of hours. And yes, I did it with his knowledge and permission :D

First impression was a downer. The download is over 500 MB (in Europe 25.10 Euros, btw), and during installation and when launching first time, I ran into problems, regarding some preference files being faulty, and the game freezing and crashing during registration. I installed with deactivated Anti-Virus as they recommended, and then switched it off a second time for the first attempt to start the game, after the initial failures. I also then used not the link on desktop, but the exe in the folder - and voila, suddenly it worked all nice. After that first registration and first successful launch, I can leave AntiVirus active again all the time. The game since then runs stable since several hours now.

And that was the end of the disappointment phase. The rest is "being blown away in awe and wonder".

The sim uses the same music tracks like VP3, plus a couple of new ones. The playing sounds however have been replaced and tremendously beefed up: this sounds like the massive, heavy clickadiclack of real balls on a real table: the sounds are amazingly good, and very closely match reality. You can almost feel the weight of the balls when you hear them colliding.

The places to play in also are known from VP3, the same names, the same layouts, but evertyhing has been polished up. No table-location must be unlocked as in VP3, but every table can be choosen from beginning on. Also, every table can be beamed to any location, the tables are no longer linked to the place. Also, all tables can change colour, and even the exotic colours look wonderful and playable. There now is green, blue, red, tan, purple, and black. And I will use all colours, that is certain! It's pure joy to the eye. Not only are all locaiton tables of different layout, size and voisual design, but you can choose three basic schemes from novice to pro for every table's setup, influencing their speed, bounce, pocket size, plus in another menu you can alter all these factors much more precisely, and finetune it to your liking.

The tables look fantastic, and truly photorealistic. You can choose whether they should show some (very believably looking and not overdone) wear and tear, or should look like new from the factory.

The balls - incredible. Seeing is believing, it looks perfect, down to the reflections of lights and surrounding, and distortions of these reflections on every single ball, depending on the angle of view. By looks, table and balls are perfect.

The AI is wildly varied, like in VP3, from novice to pro, there are very many different opponents to chose from, and they play in a believably human way, the novices I had so far did not smack the ball basing on time statistics - one mistake every four strokes - but vary in their individual performance and include missed shots quite subtle, and convincingly: what they do is what you see players doing in misses and fails when watching the ordinary audience playing in a pub. Feels very good, plays even better!

The AI is competent, if you unleash it. Very. It is so competent that now it makes sense to play snooker or 3-ball billiards (there are billiard and snooker tables, yes). I let one of the top AI players go for snooker, and he produced 35-45 point breaks, the AI has - different to VP3 - understood what the point in Snooker is. It is not as perfect as the pro players you see on Eurosports when going for the world championship, and century breaks should not be expected maybe, but would that be even desirable - when you play against these perfect maniacs? An AI opponent delivering you 35 point breaks in snooker already is more than most of us can handle.

Heck, I forgot how intimidatingly huge in size a snooker table is...

The sim comes with almost two dozens varaiats of pool, from 8-Ball World Rules, to 4 ball and 9 ball or English pub (with red and yellow balls only). Whatever you are looking for, you should find it in here.

Now the most important part: physics, and handling. Well, physics are - well, if they do not meet reality than I am not competent enough to be the guy sphwing where they are wrong. To me, this feels like the real thing, and yes, I also think that somehow, in some way, this indeed is an improved physics engine over VP3. Massé shots, Spin shots, Jump shots, and English - the balls do it. What is even more wonderful is: the AI players try them, too. The novice players suck like I do. The better ones implement them well. Handling is like you know it from VP3, the mousemovement decides your power, with the left hand you handle the keyboard for options to manipulate quick changes in viewing and aiming. Handling and physics probably is where the fate of a pool simulation is decided, and here you have the best there has ever been on a PC. It is damn close to perfection, it really is.

They also included many nice options to help beginners, different helping cues to teach you where to aim to hit the point ball correctly, to train your eyes to adapt to the needed way of correctly aiming on screen, it goes far beyond just a simple cue line. You can combine them, and one by one switch them off, slowly increasing difficulty that way, and finally playing without any help at all. This training help is much better than it was done in VP3, which was quite difficult for novice players to get into.

Your matches can be easily recorded and afterwards watched, with all breaks and delays automatically being edited out of it. Very well-done feature. Revisit your glory, get reminded of your agony!

There are several training videos that allow you after one lesson to immediately and repeatedly try yourself.

The game offers quick play, hustler mode and pro tournament mode. i have not checked the modes, only tried quick play. Hustler uses virtual money which I think allows you to buy additional cues (and these are works of art and beauty).

Online playability will be added early 2013.

So, it is a wonderful, great and close to perfection simulation of pool and billiards. It looks great and plays even better. If balls on a table ayre your thing - try it.

My recommendation is to experiment with mouse sensitivity, to make it match your need so that you can indeed vary your power and make soft and hard pushed with the needed security. The default setting for my taste was a bit too sensitive.

The only thing I do not like is that apparently all community activity and support is done via Facebook. And that is unforgivable. You need to sign up there in order to access them and post your question, if you have any. And that is a very very bad thing, and I think they deserve a spanking for this. If you do not accept to sign up to Facebook Kraken, and you run into problems, then you are screwed and can only hope for their email support, if there is any. It may be a cheap solution for them, but I would have preferred to pay not 25 but 30 Euros, but then get a proper forum access. Facebook is a total no go for me. That damn Kraken already knocked on my door after I was redirected to the very first Facebook page, and apparently managed to bypass my block, since Facebook is set to be blocked on my system.

Well. That'S how it is, folks: technical difficulties in the beginning, then stability and a hell of an almost perfect simulation of pool, and Facebook. Everybody must decide for himself what he wants to make of this combo. But judged as a pool simulation exclusively , this is perfect stuff. :yeah:

[Skybird]

This is an automatic Irfan slideshow with 16 pics 1680x1050 that illustrate the enormous visual quality and colour diversity. It does not show you the wonderful gameplay and physics, but you can safely assume that they are easily en par with the visual impression you get.

Download it here, button in the right top corner:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xy5exk6qdym8rzr/VP4%20slideshow.exe (https://www.dropbox.com/s/xy5exk6qdym8rzr/VP4%20slideshow.exe)

I played it all day long today. It's playing superb.

[Skybird]

First video (HD) of a short break in 9-ball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmCsXtRUgmA

The recording function cuts all delays and pauses out automatically, that's why the shots follow so quickly.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4487/vp4ss001.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/42/vp4ss001.jpg/)

[Skybird]

I get snookered...? The Ai snookers me - even in 8- and 9-Ball...??? :o Wowh!

Some 140 computer opponents there, all of different skill levels - but also different playing styles - even of different tempers.

And some of them are witty enough of trying to snooker me when that seems to be the best option...?

:D

:up:

:yeah:

This is pool heaven. I played VP4 all past days, must have played 60-80 rounds per day, maybe more, plus practicing on the pocket-free billiard table to get a feel for the physics and handling and how the balls interact and react to effet, bouncing off the rails, and such things. One needs to play more precise in VP4 than in VP3, some pocket shots you got away with in VP3 will not be rewarded here, but jump out, like they should. It's superb, superb, superb. Even Massé shots now feel right (and are not easy to get judged well).

And the video lessons with Steve Daking. Some very good stuff there, very very helpful basics and good advice, and opportunity to practice right within the lesson. Usually they print such stuff in books and demand money for it. 26 Videos, many of them in several parts to allow practicing.

After having tested this extensively, I ignore the Facebook flaw, and reward this with a total score of 99 out of 100 points. I can not imagine how this could get improved.

To imagine that almost 20 years ago, there was something like Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker for the Amgia. PC pool has really come a very long way!

[Skybird]

The beauty in the game: pieces of art.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7056/vp4ss000.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/100/vp4ss000.jpg/)

Yes, perlmut inlays change pattern and colours if you change viewing angle.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1027/vp4ss007.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40/vp4ss007.jpg/)

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/9760/vp4ss002.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/vp4ss002.jpg/)

Feels better to play with one of these! ;) Feels snobbish! :D

There are maybe two dozen queus in the game, plus three jump queus and four break queus and three different tips. In
Hustler mode, you need to make wins against betting opponents to get the mony to buy queus and challenge players. In
free and practice mode, you can pick whatever your choice is.

What I like is that in Quick Play and Practice - the two modes I spend most time in - all locations, tables, queus and
opponents are already unlocked (was either not possible or locke din VP3). You can decide freely what table in what colour with what parameters in what location
with what queu against what opponent. This sim is so good that it does not really need AI opponents or career modes - using
it for training your situation assessment and judgement of what kind of ball to play next and what spin to implement in order
to place the cue ball in what favourable position, is already fully satisfying in itself. In these regards I am convinced indeed
that this sim can be a very valuable training tool.

[Skybird]

Last chance, final sales!

Due to the very high demand :D another downloadable Irfan show with three dozen slides from my pool cache. All locations shown. No more interface interfering.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4hbxb4tov5gua6a/VP4%20slideshow%202.exe

That was it, no more stuff on my table.

[Skybird]

I liked this drill. Nice music matching the action, and a competent master who first had some fun, and then makes the drill following the joking looking so breathtakingly easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbByBpwnBLg

[Skybird]

I found that there now is a free demo of 57 MB available. Don't know since when, or I forgot it.

http://vponline.celeris.com/vp4offprod

For free trying, you cannot go wrong here. It's an almost perfect simulation of its topic.

It has seen several updates over the course of this year. Small tweaking and refining subtle details. It's a compliment to any developer if he cares for such things that much to even release updates.

Still one of the very best titles on my HD.

If you try it, be sure you set up the mouse comfortably and well, eventually experiment with the settings. Good mouse handling is key to this pool simulation's absolute superiority over any other title of this branch. Make it such that you can vary the stroking power nicely from very soft and gentle to very hard.

And do not forget that this sim not only offers all English plays, but does so with extreme physical competence. It has taught me to care for my effet play, really! :yeah:

[Skybird]

The looooong awaited online mode finally has been released, it seems. Adding that option to existing installations costs nothing. New customers of VP4 will get the online mode included automatically, again for free.

Existing installations must update to version 4.1.2.8

Business model is such: players meeting to just play each other privately will go free. Participants in events and organized tournaments however will have to pay a starting fee.

Facebook or such is said to not be necessary to meet people for playing them.

I f you are interested now, please visit their site and find out yourself, I personally do not care for online pool and thus do not know more about it than the news I posted.

[Skybird]

Zombie resurrection :D

Just wanted to say that since summer 2015, Virtual Pool 4 is on Steam, and since summer this year Steam also features the online MP mode, the non-steam verison of MP was available since longer.

Its still the by far best pool sim on PC. And yes, I still play it, continuously since years. Its brilliant as ever.

Cannot comment on the online part, however, never tried it myself. The business model seems to attract criticism, but I have not further examined it, I am not interested in online.

---

On Android, I found that the tablet conversion of VP4 has gotten strong competition. The handling of VP4 on Android is the issue here, while it is not really problematic, it also is not - well, something may keep you away form it, and its hard to say why this is so. The relatively new Pool Break Pro for Android however has good graphics, smooth, user-friendly handling, and plays surprisingly well. It features several Pool versions, Snooker, Carom and Krokinole. You have all kinds of English, fade, spin and massé shots. Physics are solid. Maybe the balls lose movement a but to abruptly, I mean they maybe fade out and stop a bit too abruptly, but it is within the limits where you can tolerate it. Maybe the best pool game on Android currently. The AI I do not comment on, I tried it to rare3ly, since I tend to play virtual pool games always all alone, like in training.

But on PC, there is no alternative to VP4.

I found on PS4 that Pure Pool is also a cool game, featuring several Pool and Snooker versions. Presentation is very slick and stylish, handling is well-solved for gamepad. Physics are solid and okay, but nothing touches Virtual Pool 4 in the physics department. Still, a really good Pool game for PS4.