Plungers

Plungers are physics objects that can launch a ball by moving along their stroke. They are commonly used for manual ball launchers, auto-launchers, and kickback mechanisms such as an outlane ball saver.

Setup

Add a Plunger Collider to the plunger object to make it part of the physics simulation. The plunger can then be wired through the Coil Manager or Wire Manager, depending on whether it is controlled by game logic or player input.

The most important plunger settings for gameplay are:

Stroke: total travel distance of the plunger tip.
Park Position: normalized rest position from 0 to 1, where 0 is fully forward and 1 is fully retracted.
Speed Fire: release speed used when the plunger fires.
Speed Pull: pull-back speed used when the plunger is pulled back by a coil or input.
Mech Plunger: enables synchronization with analog plunger input.
Auto Plunger: makes the plunger rest at Park Position and fire from full retraction when triggered.

Coil Modes

The plunger exposes multiple coil items. Pick the one that matches the real mechanism or the original VPX script behavior.

Coil item	Inspector label	Coil enabled	Coil disabled	Typical use
`c_pull`	Pull back	Pulls the plunger back	Fires from the current position	Manual launch plunger wired to a button or input
`c_autofire`	Auto-fire	Fires the plunger	No action	ROM-controlled auto-launchers where the plunger returns to rest naturally
`c_fire_pullback`	Fire and pull back	Fires from full retraction	Pulls the plunger back	Kickbacks that call `Fire` on solenoid on and `PullBack` on solenoid off

Manual Launchers

For a normal shooter lane plunger, map player input to c_pull. Pressing the input pulls the plunger back, and releasing it fires from the current position. If the table uses analog plunger input, enable Mech Plunger so the physics plunger follows the analog input position.

Auto-Launchers

For ROM-controlled launch buttons, enable Auto Plunger and map the game logic coil to c_autofire. In this mode the plunger rests at Park Position. When the coil fires, VPE launches from full retraction, which gives a consistent launch impulse.

Kickbacks

Some VPX tables implement kickbacks with a plunger object and script the solenoid like this:

Sub SolKickback(enabled)
	If enabled Then
		Plunger1.Fire
	Else
		Plunger1.PullBack
	End If
End Sub

Use c_fire_pullback for this pattern. It fires from full retraction when the ROM enables the coil, and pulls the plunger back when the ROM disables the coil again.

VPE also applies the disabled state once when this coil mode is mapped at startup. This mirrors VPX tables that call PullBack during table initialization, and ensures a kickback starts clear of the ball path before the ROM has emitted its first coil event.

For kickbacks that should not block the outlane while idle, enable Auto Plunger and set Park Position to the clear/resting position. This keeps the physics target at the parked position while idle. If the original VPX table uses a small park position such as 0.1666, start with the same value and tune only if the VPE geometry needs it.