Visual Pinball X (VPX) is a free and open-source pinball simulator and table editor. It lets you play and create virtual pinball machines with realistic physics, detailed graphics, and customizable gameplay.

The project started with Randy Davis and was open-sourced in 2010. Since then, it's grown with the help of a dedicated development team and a passionate community. VPX supports modern features like multi-screen output, cabinet controls, and built-in scripting, making it great for both desktop use and full cabinet setups.

• Play recreations of real-world machines and original table designs
• Render 3D tables in real time
• Simulate realistic ball physics and table behavior
• Support ROM-based games using Visual PinMAME
• Output to multiple screens (playfield, backglass, DMD)
• Use touchscreen, keyboard, gamepad, or custom cabinet controls
• Add extras like VR, stereo 3D, addressable LEDs, and head tracking
• Customize table logic using Visual Basic scripting

VPX is used to power over 1,000 recreated machines and many original designs. There's also a huge collection of table mods and variants shared by the community.

VPX comes in a few different builds, each offering different graphics backends and features depending on your hardware and platform.

This is the original and most widely supported version of VPX. It runs on Windows (XP and up) and is the go-to version for most users. It offers:

• 10-bit color rendering (helps reduce color banding, though HDR is not supported)
• Option to request maximum frame latency for smoother gameplay

This was originally developed to support Virtual Reality headsets and later merged into the main 10.8 release. It introduced several new rendering features and enhancements. A system with OpenGL 4.3 or higher is required. While it may run on older versions of Windows, only Windows 10 and newer are officially supported.

OpenGL adds:

• VR support via OpenVR
• Real stereo 3D rendering (for 3D TVs or anaglyph glasses)
• Hardware MSAA (anti-aliasing for both static and dynamic content)
• Hardware adaptive sync for better frame timing
• Enhanced texture compression for better performance

Introduced in version 10.8.1, this build uses the BGFX graphics library to support modern rendering backends, including Vulkan, Metal, DirectX 11, as well as the latest versions of OpenGL and OpenGL ES.

BGFX features include:

• VR support via OpenXR
• HDR display output (on supported monitors using DirectX 11)
• Real stereo 3D support
• Enhanced texture compression
• Variable refresh rate support
• Multithreaded engine (rendering is separated from gameplay for low-latency input)
• Support for additional output windows (e.g., for DMD or scoring)

The VPX Standalone player is a special version that runs outside the Windows environment. It drops the Windows-based editor but keeps full gameplay support.

Supported platforms include:

• Linux (x86 and ARM)
• macOS
• iOS and tvOS
• Android
• Raspberry Pi and similar devices
• Batocera (a lightweight emulation OS)

The standalone build targets systems with Vulkan, OpenGL 4.1 (desktop), or OpenGL ES 3.0 (mobile), and supports GLSL 3.0 shaders.

Note: Table editing is only available on the Windows version.

_{^{Info based on version 10.8.1 Beta}}