effect of screen size on perception of game physics?

[TomL]

I play TPA on my 7" tablet mostly, but I'll play on my 5" phone too. I've noticed that going between the two screen sizes that my perception of ball mass and floatiness changes for the same table.

Can people with two different sized devices on the same platform try a few games of the same table on each screen size? Like iPhone and iPad, or PS3 on a small TV and a big TV.

My theory is that a table on a small screen will feel slow and floaty compared to the same table on a big screen will feel fast and bouncy.

 

[danivempire]

I play on my s3 phone and my 10.1 tablet (I play more on the tablet), they have pretty close the same specs but the feeling is not the same. Pretty much as you said.
I won't compare it to pc as it is not the same engine.

 

[TomL]

[MENTION=3666]danivempire[/MENTION], thank you! Does the feeling go away after a few games on the same device?

 

[xAzatothx]

as it is not the same engine.

are you sure about that?

 

[danivempire]

Well, the only thing I can say is that it's not a deal breaker. if I'm at work the S3 is fine and at home in bed the tablet is fine as well ^^
As for the engine, of course I'm not 100 pourcent sure it's not the same engine.
They probably share bits of code among different platform.
But as the pc version is much more pretty and the ball seems to have more weight, so yeah, there must some significant difference.

 

[xAzatothx]

Mike confirmed that all platforms use the same engine. I believe there are table tuning differences though across the platforms.

 

[danivempire]

Mike confirmed that all platforms use the same engine. I believe there are table tuning differences though across the platforms.

Ok then

 

[mikehg]

Are you sure it isn't just the camera angle you're choosing?

I would assume most people pick a lower camera on a smaller screen, to bring the flippers into better view. That's going to mean further up the table, the ball will move less through your field of view per distance traveled... It'll appear to move very quickly when you flip it, then quickly slow down, and that may translate to a 'floaty physics' feel.

 

[TomL]

I used identical camera settings on both devices, so I don't think that matters.

 

[Baramos]

Ball feels slower on tablets compared to PS3, at least say, playing Theater of Magic on an iPad feels way slower to me than the same table on a PS3, at least.

 

[SydyneBall]

Could this be due to the hardware specifications of the devices? I notice good performance on my Kindle Fire. On my low end phone, the performance is slower and the ball tends to fill more floaty, and the game/graphics seem to skip frames to keep the pace going.

 

[TomL]

Could this be due to the hardware specifications of the devices? I notice good performance on my Kindle Fire. On my low end phone, the performance is slower and the ball tends to fill more floaty, and the game/graphics seem to skip frames to keep the pace going.

I dunno, my phone has more processing power than my tablet, and the ball feels floatier on my phone than on my tablet, which is the exact effect you notice even though your tablet has more proc power than your phone.