- Feb 19, 2012
- 8,144
- 2
1.) In Round 2 of the Q&A, you said that the flipper physics update would probably start to be phased in around the September update. Can you give us any news about these advanced flipper physics? Also, in terms of general physics, when do you plan on updating the older tables to use the improved physics that you've implemented in the newer table releases?
We've done some work updating the flipper physics, but the major aspect of what we want to add is going to be a substantial change that will require a lot of re-tuning once we're happy with it.
Note that the ball going through the flippers on occasion is a frame rate issue. There's a chance that the planned physics improvement will increase the frequency of the ball going through the flippers when the physics update rate drops below 60 per sec (which is why the ball goes through the flippers now), so it's not a sure thing for it to be added on all mobile devices.
We have made an improvement to side flippers which are in TZ. I'll be going back and retuning all of the more vertically positioned flippers as I have time. For example, I retuned the upper left flipper on Black Hole and made several other Black Hole flipper improvements that will be in the next update.
2.) You also said in Round 2 that you envision a lighting slider on the Table Menu for day/night settings. This is one of the most requested features that we see brought up on the forum. Have you made any progress on this, and the lighting in general on the various platforms?
We don't have the tech on mobile devices to do this without at least quadrupling the number of textures per table which would make the size of a table download huge.
On console, we can start looking into this now that we have been training more artists to tune lighting. Adding this feature is not trivial. Altering the lighting involves changing many light sets. It's not just a global setting.
3.) In regards to The Twilight Zone and Star Trek: The Next Generation, are you still on track for the Kickstarter release date timeframes? Have any surprises come up while working on these tables or any interesting tidbits that you can share?
We are on schedule thanks to focusing on just one table for each of these updates. The development has gone well. There have been a couple surprises on the licensing side, but nothing that I can share.
We’re planning that the next release on consoles will be TZ. We’ll jump it ahead of the other packs that haven’t been released yet.
4.) Do you have ROM emulation in place for the early Bally SS tables (Centaur, Eight Ball Deluxe, Xenon, etc.)?
We have been advised not to ROM emulate anything pre-1985. Getting the timing emulation CPU synced with the platform CPU is problematic.
We plan to script the gameplay like we're doing for Big Shot.
5.) Are you considering adding more randomization or variation to certain table events (Kick-outs, for example)?
Yes, we will be improving variation at some point. It complicates the tuning more than you would think because not all the way kickouts are not 100% consistent now.
We've done some work updating the flipper physics, but the major aspect of what we want to add is going to be a substantial change that will require a lot of re-tuning once we're happy with it.
Note that the ball going through the flippers on occasion is a frame rate issue. There's a chance that the planned physics improvement will increase the frequency of the ball going through the flippers when the physics update rate drops below 60 per sec (which is why the ball goes through the flippers now), so it's not a sure thing for it to be added on all mobile devices.
We have made an improvement to side flippers which are in TZ. I'll be going back and retuning all of the more vertically positioned flippers as I have time. For example, I retuned the upper left flipper on Black Hole and made several other Black Hole flipper improvements that will be in the next update.
2.) You also said in Round 2 that you envision a lighting slider on the Table Menu for day/night settings. This is one of the most requested features that we see brought up on the forum. Have you made any progress on this, and the lighting in general on the various platforms?
We don't have the tech on mobile devices to do this without at least quadrupling the number of textures per table which would make the size of a table download huge.
On console, we can start looking into this now that we have been training more artists to tune lighting. Adding this feature is not trivial. Altering the lighting involves changing many light sets. It's not just a global setting.
3.) In regards to The Twilight Zone and Star Trek: The Next Generation, are you still on track for the Kickstarter release date timeframes? Have any surprises come up while working on these tables or any interesting tidbits that you can share?
We are on schedule thanks to focusing on just one table for each of these updates. The development has gone well. There have been a couple surprises on the licensing side, but nothing that I can share.
We’re planning that the next release on consoles will be TZ. We’ll jump it ahead of the other packs that haven’t been released yet.
4.) Do you have ROM emulation in place for the early Bally SS tables (Centaur, Eight Ball Deluxe, Xenon, etc.)?
We have been advised not to ROM emulate anything pre-1985. Getting the timing emulation CPU synced with the platform CPU is problematic.
We plan to script the gameplay like we're doing for Big Shot.
5.) Are you considering adding more randomization or variation to certain table events (Kick-outs, for example)?
Yes, we will be improving variation at some point. It complicates the tuning more than you would think because not all the way kickouts are not 100% consistent now.
