A VERY dangerous thread!

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night

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May 18, 2012
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I like the rail shadows. I've been complaining about the CHROME inconsistencies, like the chrome by the apron is perfect then 2 inches away on the right its bronze and to the left its grey....chrome its kinda important to PINBALL just look at the ball.

Exactly. Chrome, electricity, reflections, light en shadows. Pinball is a little like Las Vegas. That is simulation. For Android and iOS you have the pinball game Revenge of the Rob-o-Bot: when you play it you see the reflection of the table glass. You know, this gives the illusion of reality, such a simple thing and it works, you feel it, it's glass!
 

dtown8532

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Apr 10, 2012
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There's been lots of serious issues discussed in this thread. Here's a petty one. I never cared for the way the camera pans over the table at the conclusion of a game. It focuses too much on the non-animated backglass and not enough on the playfield "game over" sequence. I wish there was a way that you could NOT see the high scores just after a conclusion of a game and just look and listen to the lights and sounds after losing that last ball.
 

Jeff Strong

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Feb 19, 2012
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Because I just can't stop b!tch!n' about it, I made an example of how (in my opinion) Twilight Zone for the iOS/Android should look like. I don't understand why FarSight released such an expensive table without shadows. The elements have become a clutter, they float around, no visual differentiation. It is a busy table with lots of elements. If you leave the shadows out, everything will blend with the table art. And about the table art, the blue color on my iPad so WAY(!) to oversaturated.

Ok, so I just picked a screen grap from TZ from a post and did a quick 'n dirty Photoshop on it, just to show how much more 'together' TZ can look like by adding shadows. Left is the 'shadow' version' right the original. Look at all the elements in the back for example! I replaced the clock as well, and this needs no explanation why I did this.. Also the metal parts in the back (I have no clue how to name them in english) are more chrome looking. (I took them from AFM, where they look just excellent.)

TZ.jpg

Unfortunately, those shadows didn't even make it into the PS3 version either, and the ramp doesn't even look like its metal.
 

SoonPoker

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Jul 19, 2012
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IMO (iOS) :

1. Front nudging
2. Customisable positionning for action zones
3. Possibility of Playing in "real credit mode", I mean not in freeplay mode, but with specials that gives 1 credit more, and score to get special moving up and down in function of the last scores, just like a real arcade pinball table.
4. High scores in tournaments might be recorded in Hall of Fame

Thanks Rob !
 

Pinballfan69

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Mar 28, 2012
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Options/operator's menu standard or not as much as you guys are charging.


I was curious about the 'pro mode' so I clicked yes to take me to the cart in the PSN store. $4.99 for options to change things around if you want to make the table more difficult? Outrageous. It cost just as much as a table for options and maybe a few tips from the pros. It should be standard. What If you want to hold some type of tournament and want to get rid of extra balls?
 

Matt McIrvin

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Jun 5, 2012
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Another request I didn't mention: persistent settings. The general lack of them has been a problem ever since Pinball Hall of Fame.
 

Palmer Eldritch

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Dec 17, 2012
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Another request I didn't mention: persistent settings. The general lack of them has been a problem ever since Pinball Hall of Fame.

Yes! I was about to post this.. I think with things like Funhouse rotating what Rudy calls you, the phantom flip in MB and the powerball in TZ there should be a persistent save.. Those tables were designed that way for a reason and always rebooting the machine every time you start it up kind of sucks because I'm the type who will play one table, then want to jump to another if things go sour, then maybe go back to what I was playing before...
 

brakel

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Apr 27, 2012
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Yes! I was about to post this.. I think with things like Funhouse rotating what Rudy calls you, the phantom flip in MB and the powerball in TZ there should be a persistent save.. Those tables were designed that way for a reason and always rebooting the machine every time you start it up kind of sucks because I'm the type who will play one table, then want to jump to another if things go sour, then maybe go back to what I was playing before...

The tables starting at the same known start each time you start the table is done deliberately. Emulation of a ROM is not the same as using the actual ROM. Each game gets more likely that the emulated ROM will be in an unstable state. Going back to the known state keeps the table less likely to do wonky things.
 

Matt McIrvin

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Yes! I was about to post this.. I think with things like Funhouse rotating what Rudy calls you, the phantom flip in MB and the powerball in TZ there should be a persistent save.. Those tables were designed that way for a reason and always rebooting the machine every time you start it up kind of sucks because I'm the type who will play one table, then want to jump to another if things go sour, then maybe go back to what I was playing before...

Actually, I wasn't so concerned about the table state as about user options for shake, camera positions and HUD displays. It's irritating having to re-set them over and over.
 

angrytilter

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Jan 20, 2013
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The tables starting at the same known start each time you start the table is done deliberately. Emulation of a ROM is not the same as using the actual ROM. Each game gets more likely that the emulated ROM will be in an unstable state. Going back to the known state keeps the table less likely to do wonky things.

That's what I thought until I saw Gofers on PHoF-Williams. I'm not so sure that's the case.

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...ch-randomization?p=54749&viewfull=1#post54749
 

k88dad

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Nov 9, 2012
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What's chapping my ass today:

1. Mac UI (the iOS UI doesn't cut it)
2. Mac control preferences (the Shift keys don't cut it)
3. EM score reels should behave like EM score reels (I swear there's a scoring bug in Big Shot, but who can tell)
4. End of game initial entry fails (fails for two players & fails in AFM if, for example, you get the most Martians)
5. AFM: ball exiting the right orbit often goes SDTM (unlike RL)
 

brakel

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Apr 27, 2012
2,305
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The tables starting at the same known start each time you start the table is done deliberately. Emulation of a ROM is not the same as using the actual ROM. Each game gets more likely that the emulated ROM will be in an unstable state. Going back to the known state keeps the table less likely to do wonky things.

Sorry, I didn't understand that. Could you elaborate?

When you start a table from the main menu the ROM emulation starts from the same place. This is what FarSight calls a "known stable state". The more you play the table the further you get from this known stable state and the more likely something wonky will happen. The known stable state was probably the state the ROM was in when it was completely reset before emulation began. As you play things change in the ROM emulation. Memory is used, games are played, high scores recorded, matches awarded, etc. Each change has a chance for something to go wrong in the emulation. Even real physical ROMs need resetting occasionally. Anyway, to reduce the chance of weird things happening, FarSight decided to build in a ROM reset whenever you start a table from the main menu bringing the ROM emulation back to that known stable state.
 

Sean DonCarlos

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Mar 17, 2012
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When you start a table from the main menu the ROM emulation starts from the same place. This is what FarSight calls a "known stable state". The more you play the table the further you get from this known stable state and the more likely something wonky will happen. The known stable state was probably the state the ROM was in when it was completely reset before emulation began. As you play things change in the ROM emulation. Memory is used, games are played, high scores recorded, matches awarded, etc. Each change has a chance for something to go wrong in the emulation. Even real physical ROMs need resetting occasionally. Anyway, to reduce the chance of weird things happening, FarSight decided to build in a ROM reset whenever you start a table from the main menu bringing the ROM emulation back to that known stable state.
Actually, the Pro versions of the tables do save their state permanently, across plays of other tables, closures of TPA, even re-downloads of the table. This is easy to test with Twilight Zone Pro. Play a game with the Pro mode on, and load the gumball machine so that the Powerball is not in the top position. Finish your game, then go and play other tables, etc. When you come back to TZ and re-enter Pro mode, take a look at where the Powerball is; it should be where you last left it. It will also remember your score from the last Pro mode game you played and will display it on the DMD, even though that game may have been played weeks ago.

Note that the Pro tables only have persistent state while they're actually in their Pro mode. If they're in regulation mode, they act like the normal tables and reset whenever you quit mid-game or exit to the main menu.
 

brakel

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Apr 27, 2012
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Actually, the Pro versions of the tables do save their state permanently, across plays of other tables, closures of TPA, even re-downloads of the table. This is easy to test with Twilight Zone Pro. Play a game with the Pro mode on, and load the gumball machine so that the Powerball is not in the top position. Finish your game, then go and play other tables, etc. When you come back to TZ and re-enter Pro mode, take a look at where the Powerball is; it should be where you last left it. It will also remember your score from the last Pro mode game you played and will display it on the DMD, even though that game may have been played weeks ago.

Note that the Pro tables only have persistent state while they're actually in their Pro mode. If they're in regulation mode, they act like the normal tables and reset whenever you quit mid-game or exit to the main menu.

I wasn't referring to pro mode.
 
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