Customising your paddle

Though the basic and advanced presets do attempt to approximate the racquets used by many players in real table tennis, the spin and speed settings of each side of the virtual racquet in ETT can be changed. In addition, because of the different grips and adaptors used by many players, bat orientation can be customised so that the virtual bat can be oriented anywhere relative to the controller.

Finding an orientation and paddle settings that are comfortable for you is one of the most important things to do to have a good experience in Eleven Table Tennis, especially if you play real table tennis at a club level.

For the most real life TT experience, don't forget to get an adapter. With it you will feel like holding a real TT racket instead of the often thick controller. This helps immensely with transferring the skills between real life and VR. More in Eleven Table Tennis Adapters

## Customising Paddle Surface

You can use custom presets for your paddle surface which can be retrieved later, either by modifying the "custom" preset or by creating your own preset. Bounciness determines how much speed can be transferred to the ball from the bat, and spin determines how much rotation can be added to the ball. Throw coefficient increases or decreases the 'kick' of the ball off your paddle due to incoming spin (higher value results in more 'kick').

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to surface settings. The best approach is to pick a preset and see how comfortable that feels to you, and if you feel it needs more or less speed or spin, to adjust accordingly. If you are used to real table tennis racquets which are custom assembled with quality spinny rubbers, it is best to start with the advanced preset. If you are not used to racquets like that, and are either new to table tennis, not used to anything in particular or are used to premade cheaper racquets, old worn bats etc, best to start with the default/beginner preset.

Players used to real life table tennis have been finding Throw Coefficient values from 1.10 to 1.15 match their experience best. The throw coefficient is a programmatic multiplier on the effect of incoming spin on the paddle; that is, with incoming topsin to your paddle (held perpendicular to the table surface), a higher throw (> 1.0) will cause the ball to reflect off your paddle more towards the ceiling, whereas a lower throw (< 1.0) will cause the ball to reflect less (and at 0.0 throw, the paddle would not react to incoming spin at all). Similarly, with incoming backspin to your paddle, a higher throw will cause the ball to reflect off your paddle more towards the table. A diagram of what the throw parameter does can be found on the FAQ channel of the official ETT discord : https://discord.com/channels/340715434099605515/404206967691804672/797604385617739816

It is tempting for beginner players to try using maximum spin and speed settings. While this gives you more potential to generate spin and speed, it also makes your opponent's spin and speed harder to handle and control, and may be better to approach gradually as your understanding of and control over spin improves.

As many players of real table tennis have different rubbers applied to each side of their bat, ETT allows you to select "separate sides" so that you can independently select settings for each side.

**Step by Step guide on how to (as of this writing) match up your in game paddle with your real paddle:**

1. Choose the advanced paddle preset, and then choose "create preset". Give it some name. Then switch to it so that you can modify the parameters.
2. Calibrate the bounciness or speed. Drop a ball from a certain height onto your real life paddle. Do it a few times. Then go into the game, and adjust the speed slider until that matches. If your real life paddle is tacky, this is a lot harder to do. In that case maybe try to bounce the ball high enough for the tack not to take effect and then do the same in the game, and adjust the speed slider until it matches. Tackiness isn't modelled in the game at all for now.
3. Take your real life paddle, and ball, and find the angle of the paddle where tossing the ball sideways at the paddle (trying to keep the paddle stationary), will result in a vertical recoil. If your paddle were to be an unrealistic 0 friction ideal surface, this angle will always be 45 degrees. The more friction the paddle surface has, and the more efficient it is at laterally tension, the flatter the paddle angle will be. (again if you have a tacky paddle..this is very hard to do for now).
4. Now adjust the throw coefficient in the game until you can replicate that angle and result. The typical throw of a tenergy rubber would end up around 1.10-1.2 while other rubbers might be 1.05 or less. We'll calibrate more next...
5. Now that you have that angle and bounce fixed, the next step is a lot more vague at the moment, but it works as such: when you try to hit various shots, your paddle will produce a certain amount of spin on the ball. It's hard to read the spin since every aspect of the game is simulated, so it's hard to compare it to real life with so many variables. Either way, if you think you are putting too much spin on the ball (perhaps the curve through the air is too strong), then reduce the spin parameter. To keep the result of step (4), you'd have to adjust the throw coefficient in the opposite direction as you are adjusting the spin slider.

The game's paddle surface engine will keep being updated as more information can be gathered from players, and from research.

## Customising orientation

In the Paddle Position sub-menu, you can alter the orientation of the paddle relative to your controller, saving presets in a similar manner to surface presets. Holding down the grip of either controller will freeze the paddle in place, allowing you to move your preferred controller into the desired position relative to the paddle. You can rotate the paddle 180° so that red and black sides are swapped (but orientation otherwise is unchanged) by using the "Flip Paddle" button in the previous "Paddle Settings" menu.

If you choose a different preferred hand in the Player Settings Menu, your orientation will be mirrored to that hand, meaning that if you hold your other controller the same way, your paddle will be correctly oriented for that hand.

Many players use not only a custom orientation but hold the controllers in very different ways to how they were intended, including 3D printed peripherals.

## Customisation tips

Try comparing VR with your real bat and how much height gentle bounces can give the ball, how much rebound there is from dropping the ball from a certain height etc.