DLC Release Date

[pinbot-76]

What kind of fool would I be if I didn't part with my money quickly?

I do play other online games though.

 

[Nik Barbour]

This is another superb reason for going with Xbox 360 for TPA. Eventually we will get all the DLC tables and have them forever and forget that we had to wait a bit longer. And then people will just remember that there is flipper lag and other oddities on the ports that aren't present in the lead SKU.

Wow - missed that thread / post first time around.
Had no idea everything was ported from the xbox version.

Does the rest of that post mean the lighting will (after update) look better than the ps3 lighting?

Having played this title exclusively (mame / other emulators not touched for 5 months now) using my tiny phone screen, I was already impressed with the un-updated graphics.

 

[Brandon Debes]

Does the rest of that post mean the lighting will (after update) look better than the ps3 lighting?

Yes, presumably the pending title update will leave the Xbox graphics/lighting looking as good or better than the PS3 ones look now. This was previously promised as a part of this update and hopefully is still in it.

 

[Jeff Strong]

From Beelzebozo's link, back in May:

There are 2 lighting improvements. The first one fixes the blown out textures which make everything impossible to read. That is going to be in the next update.

A 2nd improvement will be in an update after that to have the Xbox 360 match the post processing technique of the PS3. I'm not sure when exactly this will be out.

Mike, is that 2nd improvement in the update?

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

From Beelzebozo's link, back in May:



Mike, is that 2nd improvement in the update?

Not yet. The lighting looks really good on the Xbox version without that modification. They matched the lighting pretty close on both platforms without it.

 

[bavelb]

Nice, the least postprocessing the better imo.

 

[Richard B]

What is post processing?

 

[bavelb]

What is post processing?

To quote wikipedia:
"post-processing is commonly used in 3D rendering, especially for video games. Instead of rendering 3D objects directly to the display, the scene is first rendered to a buffer in the memory of the video card. Pixel shaders are then used to apply post-processing filters to the image buffer before displaying it to the screen."

In other words it improves the rendered imaged after it is processed by applying filters to it. While this sounds great in theory (and often is considered to be by the general public) it can be quite taxing on the hardware (shouldnt be an issue with this game), makes stuff look less realistic (more artistic, like motion blur, lens flares and bloom...I hate bloom), and in this particular case runs the risk of causing input lag (as any processing done AFTER the image is created is causing a certain delay untill the filter is applied and actually shown to the enduser). It's my personal opinion that in this particular game there should be as little as possible time to both render the image and then displaying that image. Dynamic lightning, shadows, aliasing, bloom and what not be damned...gameplay and solid controls is key here.

 

[PiN WiZ]

I've been wondering if the post-processing on the PS3 has something to do with the lag many people are experiencing. If so, then thank you FarSight for not using post-processing on the Xbox 360 and please stay away from it in the future.

 

[Nik Barbour]

Nice, the least postprocessing the better imo.

Excellent recommendation!

Android version, which used to play well has become overtaxed due to graphics optimisation - which ultimately spoilt my enjoyment of TPA on Android.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I've been wondering if the post-processing on the PS3 has something to do with the lag many people are experiencing. If so, then thank you FarSight for not using post-processing on the Xbox 360 and please stay away from it in the future.

I don't think so since it's not present on all TVs....and some people experienced it in PHOF and other games as well.

These consoles should be able to handle this level of graphics just fine.

 

[PiN WiZ]

I don't think so since its not present on all TVs....and some people experienced it in PHOF and other games as well.

These consoles should be able to handle this level of graphics just fine.

I think some people may have just been able to eliminate or lessen the lag on the PS3 using certain TV settings. It's just funny how the PS3 is the only version using post-processing at the moment and it's the only version that many people are experiencing lag on.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I think some people may have just been able to eliminate or lessen the lag on the PS3 using certain TV settings. It's just funny how the PS3 is the only version using post-processing at the moment and it's the only version that many people are experiencing lag on.

I'm not sure what's causing it, but some folks had lag on PHOF as well, and that didn't have the post processing...Some are speculating that it's Bluetooth related....I don't think it's the post processing because the lighting actually got better in the last update while many reported less lag....if it is indeed the post processing, I guess Farsight needs to optimize their code and lighting tech even more because the PS3 has plenty enough power to produce this level of graphics.

It runs just as smooth as the 360 version for me on my PC HD monitor, and looks way better too.

 

[PiN WiZ]

I'm not sure what's causing it, but some folks had lag on PHOF as well, and that didn't have the post processing...Some are speculating that it's Bluetooth related....I don't think it's the post processing because the lighting actually got better in the last update while many reported less lag....if it is indeed the post processing, I guess Farsight needs to optimize their code and methods even more because the PS3 has plenty enough power to produce this level of graphics.

It runs just as smooth as the 360 version for me on my PC HD monitor, and looks way better too.

I just hope, for the sake of some PS3 users, that FarSight gets the lag issue figured out and corrected.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Definitely agree.

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

Xbox 360 does have post processing, it just uses a different method than PS3. Both are able to do the post processing and rendering in the same frame, so there isn't any delay or lag from it. We just use bloom type post processing to make the lamps look like they glow.

Aside from the TV issues, I would imagine the lag on PS3 is probably a controller, Bluetooth, or issue with the PS3 libraries for controller input.

 

[PiN WiZ]

Xbox 360 does have post processing, it just uses a different method than PS3. Both are able to do the post processing and rendering in the same frame, so there isn't any delay or lag from it. We just use bloom type post processing to make the lamps look like they glow.

Aside from the TV issues, I would imagine the lag on PS3 is probably a controller, Bluetooth, or issue with the PS3 libraries for controller input.

Thanks for the clarification...just glad to hear that the Xbox 360 version is going to remain lag free.

 

[Ozzpot]

I'm not sure what's causing it, but some folks had lag on PHOF as well, and that didn't have the post processing...Some are speculating that it's Bluetooth related....I don't think it's the post processing because the lighting actually got better in the last update while many reported less lag....if it is indeed the post processing, I guess Farsight needs to optimize their code and lighting tech even more because the PS3 has plenty enough power to produce this level of graphics.

It runs just as smooth as the 360 version for me on my PC HD monitor, and looks way better too.

Are those experiencing lag on PS3 sure that it's not their TVs? I know that when I got my LED TV, my Guitar Hero and Rock Band games suddenly became unplayable. You couldn't really see it, but you couldn't hit a note and had no idea why. I recalibrated numerous times (using the in-game calibration) without success. Eventually I found that the TV had a "Game mode" where it turns off all the blur reduction and various other postprocessing effects. It worked instantly and beautifully.

Are we sure that people aren't just experiencing this same problem? I admit it seems odd that no-one on Xbox 360 has mentioned an issue, considering they are just as likely to not have Game Mode activated as a PS3 user, but it just seems so familiar to me.

I know that there are inexplicable inconsistencies with this Game Mode thing. Some people claim it makes First Person Shooters unplayable, but I never noticed a problem playing those. Only the music games.

So perhaps there is something that TPA does on PS3, something that makes the user's TV have to work overtime to process the images, and therefore introduce lag?

Just a thought.

 

[bavelb]

Are those experiencing lag on PS3 sure that it's not their TVs? I know that when I got my LED TV, my Guitar Hero and Rock Band games suddenly became unplayable. You couldn't really see it, but you couldn't hit a note and had no idea why. I recalibrated numerous times (using the in-game calibration) without success. Eventually I found that the TV had a "Game mode" where it turns off all the blur reduction and various other postprocessing effects. It worked instantly and beautifully.

Are we sure that people aren't just experiencing this same problem? I admit it seems odd that no-one on Xbox 360 has mentioned an issue, considering they are just as likely to not have Game Mode activated as a PS3 user, but it just seems so familiar to me.

I know that there are inexplicable inconsistencies with this Game Mode thing. Some people claim it makes First Person Shooters unplayable, but I never noticed a problem playing those. Only the music games.

So perhaps there is something that TPA does on PS3, something that makes the user's TV have to work overtime to process the images, and therefore introduce lag?

Just a thought.

Yes we are 100% sure its not the game mode or just their tv..

-There are people (like me) with both xbox and ps3 that get lag on one (Ps3) and not the other (xbox).

-There are also people (like me) that get lag on their tv with the ps3, but no lag on their pc-monitor.

-There are also people (not me) that claim when using another controller, or when wiring their ps3 controller, the lag dissapears

-Then there are people (not me) that claim the recent ps3 update removed the lag.

Riddle me this, riddle me that...it's a conundrum...and as it's so hard to reproduce or get a cionsistent cause, I don't have much faith FS can solve it in the bearby future, so I'm sticking to the 360 from now on.

Don't think this is the place to discuss this though, there's a dedicated thread in the ps3 section for that.

 

[aangel]

You guys are so off topic! lol!

Question: Is July 17th the suspected submission approval date or DLC release date or both?