Details on PC Cabinet support for TPA

[L33]

I'd have thought cab support would be quite high up on the to do list, now that there are a great deal of tables to choose from. If Farsight can provide a 'build ur own' cab body, graphics, parts etc, or be in partnership with companies that already provide this service, then I reckon there's a fair amount of money to be made. I've stopped buying tables since season 2 cause I don't get full enjoyment playing them on a tablet. And I tried playing them on ps4 but with no way to flip the screen, it's no fun either. And whilst it is possible to use the pc and flip the view, my tv doesn't come with a stand that allows it to sit upright. TPA...It's like owning a Ferrari but only being able to drive it round a car park.

You can't beat real pinball, but I reckon TPA in a cab would be the next best thing. I'm not enjoying tapping the iPad with my thumbs anymore and look forward to the day that I can play TPA in a cabinet, effects booming out of the inbuilt cab speakers, looking up at my score on the DMD and thinking...yeah, I might be pants at this, but this is great fun!

If anyone does have a clue if this is ever gonna happen, then it'd be great to know. Think it was Mike R who mentioned it was in the works so to speak, so if there is any further info that'd be most welcome. If its many months away, then I can switch off, forget about it for a while, but if it's something that could happen real soon, then at least I can then start on trying to convince the wife that she really needs a pinball machine in the dinning room, cause that will take some doing!

 

[Michael DiFilippo]

We'd all like an update on Farsight's ToDo list and where they are at with most of the hot topics everyone is eager to get their hands on believe me. Plain in simple. Where is a thread on that subject.

Less speculation would be nice. Ever notice the forums here get very quite. The issue is that dev work aside from monthly releases has never been made public. So I don't expect to hear much news, but I hope they can improve on that.

eg.
dx11 support - 1 to 2 months
cab - 1-2 years
new physics
a. iOS - 1 2 months
b. android 3- 6 months after
etc.

 

[shutyertrap]

DX 11 is of top priority right now. It should be coming this month too, but we'll see. After that, I believe tournament and difficulty setting are being worked on. They said this is a labor intense process, that they will start with 8 tables and then build from there. New physics = new engine, so I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. New UI is fairly low on the totem pole, but I think you'll even see that first. Cab support is slowly being worked on, as they've now had working tables at a few shows. It's not going to be a huge money maker though. They teamed with Virtua Pin (I believe) but they are not going to sell the cabs themselves. All they are selling is the game, which you've already bought. In comparison to mobile and PC, the cab enthusiasts are a niche corner that isn't going to stuff FarSights coffers with riches. As such, it's pretty low on priority.

 

[Kratos3]

Cab would be nice, but yeah, it's probably still a ways off yet.

Xbox 360 new sales will be huge for them.

 

[Jeff Strong]

It has very little to do with the difficulty of porting it to cab. It is all about priority.

Especially after the team got smaller last year they have prioritized things that will make them more money, who can blame them. They have made 2 new apps, (bowling and that other one) made Ghostbusters, ported tpa over to the next gen consoles, handled another kickstarter, worked on 360, etc, etc.

My only hope is that since most of those things are done now, Mike(and his helpers) will have at least a couple of days every month to work on this and dX 11. I am betting dx11 will come before cabinet, still (and it should).

Other platforms is also looming in the distant future, like Nintendo for instant. This, along with a new UI and other things like new tournament settings means that it could be a while yet until we see cabinet support since they have given no real update to tell us cab is a priority.

If the team had just a couple of weeks to work on cabinet, alone I am betting they could finish this thing. PS! wasn't there also some license issues that popped up regarding cabinet? I might remember wrong here. Let's hope I do

Good post man. Hopefully those other apps are actually making some money. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they probably took a loss on Orbals. :/

 

[LockeCole]

On the PS4 stream for Addams Family we got a little bit of news on Cabinet Support. Seems it's number 2 on the priority list and right now. He said that Priority 1 (DX11) should be nearly done so fingers crossed that we get it in the next few months.
They mentioned earlier in the stream (the first part) that DX11 support should be very very soon.

Here's a link to his discussion on cabinet support...
He responds to someone asking the question in the chat at 7 minutes 30 seconds.

 

[chinzman93]

Since the 'Timeframe on DX11' thread is closed.....Any update?

Too Soon??

Just joking......

 

[mpad]

Please wait until the beta is over

 

[Spitfire]

Hi all I received this from PA Facebook department on April 14 after I asked this question,

"Hi any updates on Cabinet Support for this great game? Thx Joe"

"Not at the moment, we're still working on it in spare time."

Doesn't give me much confidence that it's just round the corner however it is still coming it seems so something to cling to I guess.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Like said above, there is no point thinking about it while DX11 is still in beta.

Once DX11 is officially released I expect we will hear more about what is happening next on PC.

 

[chinzman93]

Since the 'Timeframe on DX11' thread is closed.....Any update?

Too Soon??

Just joking......

Sorry about all of the confusion.....I know this is still in Beta....I was simply trying to make a joke....ala Jeff Ross style....

 

[Flipperdeflip]

Happy 2nd birthday to this thread!

 

[Busol]

Happy 2nd birthday to this thread!

Like!

 

[Aurel]

It's not finished yet.

Ok so no news form this short one...

I think FS is far to understand what we need for cab support... We won't a finished version, it's not possible at all to release a finished pincab support as they are too many sorts of pincab configurations.

All we need for pincab support is a config file that we can edit for every tables in order to adjust the camera positions and angles, and also to deplace and resize the dot (or score panel) on the full screens area.
In fact we don't need more than that !!
A poor and ugly text file like Zen did for FX2 dot position is enough for us !
Pincab owners have enough skill to test and config it as wanted.

So please stop to work on an unless pincab support and just give to TPA the ability to load camera and dot values from a config file for every tables. It's probably only a few hours of work and it will be far enough for us (and way better than the not working and useless pincab support on which you are working on)

 

[chinzman93]

Ok so no news form this short one...

I think FS is far to understand what we need for cab support... We won't a finished version, it's not possible at all to release a finished pincab support as they are too many sorts of pincab configurations.

All we need for pincab support is a config file that we can edit for every tables in order to adjust the camera positions and angles, and also to deplace and resize the dot (or score panel) on the full screens area.
In fact we don't need more than that !!
A poor and ugly text file like Zen did for FX2 dot position is enough for us !
Pincab owners have enough skill to test and config it as wanted.

So please stop to work on an unless pincab support and just give to TPA the ability to load camera and dot values from a config file for every tables. It's probably only a few hours of work and it will be far enough for us (and way better than the not working and useless pincab support on which you are working on)

Thank you for making that blanket statement for the entire Pin Cab community.....Perhaps, "We"...should be changed to "I"....

 

[Aurel]

Thank you for making that blanket statement for the entire Pin Cab community.....Perhaps, "We"...should be changed to "I"....

No "we" and not "I", please read again : FS plans to propose a pincab support => nice! But as it takes so much time (years!), we can imagine they want to propose something like a "pincab mode on/off".
So yes, perfect but in this case how will it work? 2 screens, 3 screens? DMD on screen 2 or screen 3? using lowres DMD or a rotated split screen for the DMD ? With a vertical or horizontal screen for the backglass? What about the grill for 2 screens configurations, what about the aspect ratio ? The supported resolutions ? ...........

So I think they plan to release something working for the cabinet they purchased months ago... So as 95% of the pincab howners didn't purchased the same (because they built them themselves), the probability it works for most pincab owners is approx zero....

Zen has offered a very poor and quick config file for the DMD size/position without any gui and information (a few minutes of work I think) and it has been very ok for every pincab owners.

 

[DaPinballWizard]

Mike keep the awesome work up. My cab is singing these days. The tables are all fresh again. Needs backglass support and some tweaking a little here and there but THANK YOU!!
How is the backglass support coming along? Xenon would sure be a great table for the release of backglass support.

 

[poposchmatzer]

Please give us an update!

 

[Nate]

yea this has got to get some priority, the text config file would do the trick for sure, I know what resolutions and what height and width as well as the X and Y coordinates of what would work for my dmd and backglass and im assuming 99% of cab owners know their setups well enough, these guys are right and a simple config file for those options would be good enough, and let people know their wont be any tech support until their is an official release that is configurable thru the gui so if you dont understand the .cfg text dont edit it!

 

[LucidLight]

I would buy almost every table tonight if a cabinet option was ready....just saying!