Kindle Fire Version 1.17.0 Discussion And Feedback

Please post your Kindle Fire version 1.17.0 feedback here!

If you want to report bugs or other problems with this version, please use THIS THREAD and follow the guidelines in the first post.

FAQ : Why Has the Launch Button Moved to the Top Right of the Screen?

This is weird.. the icon on the Amazon App Store shows the new Terminator icon, but it doesn't see it as an updated version when clicking on the Amazon App update button.
You have to delete it and reinstall in order to get it.

T2 table looks pretty good to me. It has a little slowdown on the Kindle 7" version, but the 8.9", with faster (1.5Ghz) CPU is perfectly smooth.
I still wish the pinball had a little shine to it.

The table graphics look a little too low res to me. The AUTO FIRE - BALL RESCUE label is almost illegible.

Here's the uncompressed shot from the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" version:

So do anyone know why the iOS version looks better than the Android/Kindle Fire HD?

I guess the Kindle Fire versions isn't all that popular #nudge#

It's popular with me.


But it's hard to say why the difference; but it may just come down to hardware differences. Like the difference between what a high end graphic card and do and a middle of the road one. Unless lower resolution textures are being used in the Kindle version. Unless there are different versions for the different Kindle Fires they may aim right for the lower end Kindle when it comes to texture resolution, etc.

its actually all down to the gpu unfortunately. We package the exact same textures for all and let the gpu do its thing. There is something called anisotropic filtering that some gpus support, unfortunately Kindle fire is not one of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisotropic_filtering

OK, that makes sense

Ryan Routon said:

its actually all down to the gpu unfortunately. We package the exact same textures for all and let the gpu do its thing. There is something called anisotropic filtering that some gpus support, unfortunately Kindle fire is not one of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisotropic_filtering

Click to expand...

I appreciate the reply, but I'm not sure I understand it.
Why would a render filter make only certain graphics look bad and illegible while others look perfectly fine?

Most games that I've played on both iOS and Android look nearly identical. Games like Flick Golf, Zen Pinball, Plants Vs Zombies, etc.

It's too bad because most other commercial games look I incredible on this Kindle Fire HD. I specifically went with an 8.9" model to ensure I would have the faster CPU and 1080p support for TPA.

No disrespect, but I'm a little disappointed knowing other companies don't seem to have this problem rendering graphics on Android..

None taken, it has to do with what they call mipmapping. Every image that is blurry has what is called a mip map chain where an image is halved until very small. (ie 64x64, 32x32, 16x16, 8x8 so on..)

The gpu then picks which image fits the pixel size of the screen. So if at an angle an image only takes up 16 pixels it will pick that one, hence perhaps blurry. The hardware filtering seems to pick the next higher one to work on, so that's why it looks different on some androids that have that hardware capability. I can look into maybe adding a feature to turn off mipmaping but i think you will find performance hits, ours is a very intense game both in the cpu and gpu side and we are one of the few games out there that needs to run at high frame rate. There are some beautful games out there but a lot of them run very slow

ok i am going to add an option to turn mipmapping on and off on the compressed textures, this should fix your blurry problem =) just hope it doesn't kill performance too much

Much appreciated on the option, I've been trying to figure out how to document this myself.
Good job. If I wouldn't have remembered eventually what it said, I`d have no clue

Not to hijack the thread but any love for the keyboard option? I'm sure I'm going to bust this poor screen
Thanks again Ryan and the gang!

the bluetooth keyboard you mean? Yes, every time i have some free time I try to work a bit on it =)

Thank you good sir! I appreciate it very much!
Yup just a humble old 11$ BT KB.
You da man!

I did try the beta version you had posted a bit back and it seemed to work fine although I am admittedly too slow on the brains most of the time to use the nudges.

I also look forward to playing with the new GPU option as I've just brushed up on the emulation status a bit and am curious to see how my not-so-speedy hardware handles it on a table by table basis. Any other options you can expose would be fun to play with too but I know you've already got plenty to do.
Thanks again!

Fantastic option for the both the mipmapping and the BT keyboard Ryan. I look forward to it some day. ( though hopefully I will be playing on the PC soon ) Nudge on the Kindle Fire HD is awkward at best.

Ryan Routon said:

ok i am going to add an option to turn mipmapping on and off on the compressed textures, this should fix your blurry problem =) just hope it doesn't kill performance too much

Click to expand...

Thanks Ryan!

I'm really glad to hear that. I hope developers like Farsight take note of the growing number of gamers buying Kindle Fires.
I have always been a big Nintendo and Sony portable gamer & still play them, but I became tired of companies releasing $40-$50 games when you can buy
the same exact version on iOS/Android for a few bucks and even have the option of outputting them to a big screen.

I also LOVE the screen on the Fire HD. I would even say it looks better than the beautiful OLED Vita screen.

The keyboard option would be great too. I am not a fan of touch screen controls. Pinball really needs a couple clickable buttons!
Being able to use both left and right SHIFT keys would work well. I have been using my mini PS3 keyboard to play a few other games
Some games even allow you to use a Wii Remote to control the game. I'm not going to ask for that since I know it would probably be
too much trouble/legal issues/etc..

Thanks again.

Also,
if it's not too much trouble, a way to set the buttons you wish to use on a BT keyboard would be great.
So you could do something like Left Flipper = Left Shift, Right Flipper = Right Shift, Left Nudge = Z, Right Nudge = ?, Plunger = Enter

Bump +

Ryan Routon said:

ok i am going to add an option to turn mipmapping on and off on the compressed textures, this should fix your blurry problem =) just hope it doesn't kill performance too much

Click to expand...

Hey Ryan,
Thanks again for this. Do you have an ETA on when this will make it into the code?

Also, is there any chance you could add support for a Wii Remote?
The Kindle doesn't have much in the way of controller options, but I've been seeing new emulators popping up with Wii remote support and it
works PERFECTLY!

I actually went out and bought another Wii Remote just for the Kindle. I'm not sure if it's hard to implement or the legalities behind it.
Perhaps it's just a Bluetooth driver with mapping for Wii Remotes.

Thanks

spoonman said:

Also, is there any chance you could add support for a Wii Remote?

Click to expand...

As much as I want native controller support, I definitely do not want Wii-Mote support as the one type baked in.

Either open Bluetooth HID that can be keymapped, or I strongly urge for the Moga Pro API. Anything that gives the option of analogue nudging, plunging and will put native control on par with console controller game handling I will support over just having push button on/off states, every day.

netizen said:

As much as I want native controller support, I definitely do not want Wii-Mote support as the one type baked in.

Either open Bluetooth HID that can be keymapped, or I strongly urge for the Moga Pro API. Anything that gives the option of analogue nudging, plunging and will put native control on par with console controller game handling I will support over just having push button on/off states, every day.

Click to expand...

+1

netizen said:

As much as I want native controller support, I definitely do not want Wii-Mote support as the one type baked in.

Either open Bluetooth HID that can be keymapped, or I strongly urge for the Moga Pro API. Anything that gives the option of analogue nudging, plunging and will put native control on par with console controller game handling I will support over just having push button on/off states, every day.

Click to expand...

What would be the harm with having the Wii controller as an option?
It takes very little resources and is not forced.

Many people have an extra Wii remote or two sitting around and the Wii Classic controller has better shoulder buttons than the PS3 IMO.

I use the Wii remote on all of the emulators.
It's compact and nobody does D-pads like Nintendo. It's accurate and has zero delay which would be perfect for TPA.

What controllers do you like for the Kindle Fire?
From what I've seen there is only one that's officially supported by Amazon and it's overpriced at $45.
It also looks bulky like the first generation Xbox controller.

Keyboard support would be fine too, but I've found it hard to use without hitting other nearby keys, especially on the mini Bluetooth KB's.

Bump