It's out! (PC Initial Release Discussion And Feedback)

[superballs]

The Cab support will most likely happen before any "HD" Remake.

It looks like most of the textures look a lot better when looked at from the top down as it is anyway.

 

[goo_back]

We weren't sure if 19 would get in, in time so we didn't want to promise it.

Well you pleasantly surprised me.

 

[Gozer]

Anti-aliasing causes an image to become blurrier the higher it's set. It's by design, the interpolation of colours smooths the sharp jagged lines. Balance between stair-stepping and blurriness

What type of in game AA are they using?

 

[rehtroboi40]

I believe the only way to change resolution is if you select to run the configuration utility when hitting play in Steam. It should definitely not be inferior to the 360 version unless your PC is really bad.

Well, it's no Alienware PC, but it does have Win7, a 2GB NVidia GeForce 610, and 3 GB ram, with DX11 capability. Only crappy thing is my 2.6 GHz AMD Athlon LE-1640. TPA does run well-except Star Trek TNG and RBION both run better on my less-powerful nexus 7.

Until there are notable improvements, I'll hold off on getting season 2 and beyond-at least for PC.

 

[Retron]

Hi Guys, sooo glad we finally got this....just FYI...

UK season pack purchasing seems to not be working at the moment, if you try to purchase a season pack it just hangs then kicks you back to the previous page....
Also the prices are marked as (ERROR)???

Hope I can spend some cash for TPA soon!

It seems to be fixed now, or at least it works for me. The Season One Pro pack came up as £29.99 (as opposed to $39.99 as I understand it in the States - and with VAT, that converts to £30.03. A good conversion ratio for once, which is a nice surprise!)

 

[Retron]

, a 2GB NVidia GeForce 610

There's your problem. The 610 is so cut-down as to be almost worthless - it can barely run Aero smoothly, let alone games! It's less powerful than a mediocre GeForce from 7 years ago. A 640 (for $80) is around 4 times as powerful and would give you a much better experience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_600_Series

 

[JPelter]

I have to note that the game is surprisingly hard on the CPU. My graphics card has no trouble running it (switching between 16xAA with post process and high ball reflect and nothing enabled has no performance impact), but if I stream while I play I get slight slowdowns on some tables. This isn't really a complaint since I understand streaming while playing isn't something developers really prep for. I'm just saying that the game performance isn't strictly graphics card based.

 

[BonzoGonzo]

well gotta chime in - pc version is really, really nice (been used to the xbox360 one)

 

[superballs]

I have to note that the game is surprisingly hard on the CPU. My graphics card has no trouble running it (switching between 16xAA with post process and high ball reflect and nothing enabled has no performance impact), but if I stream while I play I get slight slowdowns on some tables. This isn't really a complaint since I understand streaming while playing isn't something developers really prep for. I'm just saying that the game performance isn't strictly graphics card based.

The physics and the ROM emulation are going to keep your CPU busy.

 

[Retron]

Yes, the PC version is generally excellent - it's exactly what I was hoping for. (I'd tried the Mac version on a Mac Mini I used to own, but the integrated HD 3000 graphics couldn't run it smoothly in HD resolution - so it was swiftly uninstalled).

The only odd thing is that there are several complaints elsewhere about the pricing. I reckon people have become spoilt by app stores! In the 90s it was entirely normal to pay £30 in the UK for the likes of Pinball Dreams, Tilt! and Psycho Pinball and they usually only had 4 tables each. Heck, even the gorgeous Timeshock was £30 for a single table - history has proved that was well worth it, I must have logged hundreds if not thousands of hours playing that table. The only similarly episodic PC game back then was Epic Pinball (which offered 3 packs of 4 tables for something like £20 each) and again that seemed fair at the time. Then commercial pinball games all but disappeared for the best part of a decade as 3D games became all the rage.

So, considering the history of PC pinball £30 for a season pack is an absolute bargain, especially when you consider that £30 in 1994 pounds is equivalent to £50 now!

 

[Ripley]

Just bought Seasons 1 pack , great game, thanks for your work. Runs fine on my PC : AMD PHenom2 X4 970@3,8Ghz, 8GB RAM, GTX 560TI.

 

[infernogott]

Damn I just had a great game on Scared Stiff and than the freaking ball can't be found after my last ball even with Tilt. Can't finish the game

 

[CycOd3liC]

Awesome release, no complaints here.

 

[Larry]

Not a new issue but...just turned on Post Processing, I kind of knew what was going to happen and Yup..it looks pretty rough around the edges even with Forced 16x AA running... it can use some tweaking for the AMD side

With PP off, it looks Amazing anyway.. No worries, no hurries

I run forced settings in the Catalyst Control Center
Edge Detect AA 24xEQ 16x AF & AMD optimized Tessellation
ATI 7770 Video AMD1045 CPU Kingston 4GB HyperX RAM Win 8 O/S

 

[streetsonfire]

I've been having a great time with Pinball Arcade so far. I've recently come back to playing pinball with PinballFx (the last 'real' pinball I played was 15+ years ago), but there are a few things I think that could be improved:

The leader board is kind of a mess when compared to PinballFX. It would be nice if there was a way to compare your score to that of your friends on Steam. Also, a fast restart option would be nice. Balls drain pretty fast, so it would be great to be able to restart with a single button press, or something faster than going back a few menus like you currently have to do.

 

[Krooze L-Roy]

My hands are screaming with pain from gripping a controller all afternoon, but before I reconfigure the buttons to accommodate my newly acquired handicap, I figured I'd drop in here and give kudos to everybody at Farsight. It's a wonderful thing you've created, and I'm positively in hog heaven right now.

 

[Just Some Guy]

IOS tables do not carry over to steam or any other platform. Any IOS device will have your tables. Did you choose the Kickstarter tables for IOS or did you select PC? If you selected IOS then you will need to purchase the tables

That sucks. I thought the reason Pinball Arcade was on everything was because you were getting a cross-platform license for the tables.

Anti-aliasing causes an image to become blurrier the higher it's set. It's by design, the interpolation of colours smooths the sharp jagged lines. Balance between stair-stepping and blurriness

It shouldn't when implemented properly, but some games require compatibility bits to be set to render correctly.

Normally I just do a search to see what the best compatibility bits are for a game because I don't play them so shortly after release. Here, I spent some time testing a variety of settings. Anything that did not end with C1 seemed to crash.
So far, 0x000000C1 seems to be the best I have found, but doesn't fix the table graphics being blurred.

No AA:


32xCSAA+TrAA:


8xSGSSAA using 0x000000C1:


8xSGSSAA without compatibility bits:


As you can see, there's no difference in sharpness between NoAA and CSAA, you just have less aliasing.
When you compare SGSSAA on its own to SGSSAA with the compatibility bits, you see it is very blurred. 0x000000C1 only seems to fix the objects on the table (e.g. the hands at the left & right) but not the table graphics though. (e.g. "Escape Route" text)

I still wouldn't recommend anything beyond 32xCSAA if you care about the tables being rendered correctly, unless you can find compatibility bits that work. 0x000300C1 fixes some elements of the table (color of the graphics at the top of the table) but makes other parts look wrong.

 

[mkulczyc]

Nice to see another Canadian.
Anyway, my first thoughts: it's a solid build, i like how it plays. Post processing needs more polish, i recommend to play without it..controls are great, everything looks better than PS3 version. Needs few fixes but it's definitely there for me.

Thanks VenomPlug! I've noticed that there are a lot of us Canadians on Steam.

 

[morenoquinteiro]

Thank you, thank you Farsight. I just downloaded the PC version of TPA and... thank you again.

I have just played before the PHOF:Williams Collection, both in Wii and Xbox 360. I remember when I was playing (totally addicted to it): "damn, it would be awsome if they make a PHOF part 2, they have to do it, they HAVE to do it!". And now, we have something much better, with constant releases of new tables, companies not only Williams, but Bally, Gottlieb and so on (and I love them all). The simulation is so much improved, the ball feels even more real (I thought PHOF: Williams Collection did a very good job already). The lighting, which was one of my biggest complains (tables looked so bright, losing that arcade spirit of the real tables) is now really getting you into the mood...

Well, thank you and congratulations on the good job.

 

[vpalmer]

just played my first few games on Genie - beside graphic issues which i already mentioned in Genie table section i can add what texture resolution is low - in FP version of Genie playfield looks much better and not such muddy. physics of ball feels well for me and i need some time to feel comfartable with analog nudging =)
bottom line : tables have some problems (many of them) but you still can get fun with game. worth to buy.