Master List of Issues: Pinball FX

[Pinballwiz45b]

Version 1.0.5 released yesterday on Playstation:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PinballFX3/comments/13e35q1
Notes mostly copied over from Reddit to the original fix list that included Twilight Zone. This set of notes will be finalized when the Steam patch arrives, so this list may be incomplete.

Pinball FX v1.0.TZ Steam - Unofficial Changelog

Spreadsheet link to Master List: Version 1.0.4.76100 Fixes (FULL STEAM AHEAD!): Williams Attract Mode no longer works when enabled. / Refined Attract Mode settings. Cabinet Mode: Framerate is cut in half when activating the feature with an extended DMD. GPU usage is likewise cut in half. Disabl...

docs.google.com

 

[smbhax]

Thanks for tracking all this, PW! I'm pretty late to this reboot PFX party and was kind of shocked when I finally tried this latest Pinball FX out last night and loaded up Monster Bash on PS4--the lighting is all blown out! It's like the bad old days of Pinball Arcade! = o

Looking at videos on YouTube, it looks like "1 year ago" the lighting was about the same as in Pinball FX3, ie quite smooth and pretty much what you would want--maybe just a hair less vibrant than 3's? Still nice though:

(PC version shown)

And then at some point between then and this video from "6 months ago" it got blown out and gross, like, I don't know, maybe they tried to increase the contrast or something, but yikes:

(PC version shown)

Was this the "update 0.1.1.47645 (Williams graphics/lights, May 5, 2022)" ( https://digitalpinballfans.com/threads/master-list-of-issues-pinball-fx.14353/post-297044 )?

Have they said anything about further plans for the lighting? Man, it looks gross.

I may be mistaken but my impression was that the LCD was slightly blurrier now, too.

The other thing I struggled with was that there doesn't seem to be a way to turn off their silly added-on animating 3D action figures and pop-up things. In FX3, you could turn those off. Sheez.

The new physics stuff feels really nice though, especially with the steeper table incline in Pro mode, so dang I guess I'm stuck with this graphical downgrade. It's like they're pulling a FarSight or something. = o They were so solid on the graphical front up to this point.

Oh but the colored flippers are totally sweet. Whoa except the person who made that second video turned them off, what a nutter.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Lighting changes can still be made. I'm honestly in the realm of Monster Bash's general illumination fine as it is, but I won't object to any further refinements. There's a Monster Bash Remake near me and it looks very much like the current FX lighting setup. Early Access was just too dim.

You can turn off the Visual Extras on Williams tables in FX the exact same way as in FX3. There's an option in Controls that allows for that.

720p videos shouldn't be as reliable source compared to 1080p. That's probably why it looks low-quality in the first place. TPA's version uses lower-quality graphics, anyway.

 

[smbhax]

Yeah I just found it was Circle to toggle the "animated toys," ah that's good. : ) They sure didn't make that obvious as far as I noticed. (What's weird is I actually kind of like them in Monster Bash...and the side art and colored flippers that come with them.)

I was going off my own impressions from playing in 1080p more than the video I linked, that was just to confirm the lighting was that way on PC too, and by what date it started.

From that first video it does look like it was slightly too dim originally. I definitely preferred how it was in FX3. It's too bad they can't just have an in-game option to adjust it, besides just the gamma slider. I suppose they must still be baking in the lighting to a certain extent.

You might be right about the current Bash lighting; maybe it's more some kind of overall color contrast effect, I dunno. It's just a bit harsh. Well, it definitely is slightly blown out near the lamps. But I should count myself lucky that it's not as hard to look at as the colors in some of the tables, like Indy and AfM.

 

[smbhax]

Still can't turn off the Match for Free Game sequence, so everybody gets 10 seconds of their life completely wasted after every single game. = P Is there any reason that should be on?

 

[gameaddict4life]

Hmmm, I've found that in the new PFX the lighting was too dim at first but setting the Gamma to 2.8 seems to be the sweet spot. I'm on Xbox Series S with a standard 1080p PC monitor. To me the lighting and physics are quite an upgrade over FX3. It also helps that all the tables i want cost me nothing since I'm using Microsoft Rewards points. I'll check out the lighting on Indy and see if it's blown out. It's the next one I'm going to get. 15 bucks for one table is pretty high but for 2 weeks worth of rewards points? Why not?!

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Still can't turn off the Match for Free Game sequence, so everybody gets 10 seconds of their life completely wasted after every single game. = P Is there any reason that should be on?

Williams Pinball Attract Mode. Settings -> Gameplay.

 

[smbhax]

OH wow! So that doesn't actually turn off the Match sequence (isn't that just a dip switch setting on the actual tables?), but for some reason, setting that option to ON lets you skip the Match sequence by pressing X. That is super-unintuitive! = o But sheesh I'm glad it's there, thanks a TON for the tip!! Holy jeepers!

I did find a bug with it:

1) On PS4, start a game of Monster Bash, Pro mode
2) Set Settings - Williams Pinball Attract Mode to OFF
3) End the game by draining all balls
4) During the Match for Free Game sequence, set Settings - Williams Pinball Attract Mode to ON

==> When the Match sequence ends, the game stays showing the table and the LCD screen, with no other UI present. /\ still works to toggle the camera, and Circle toggles animated toys, but X does nothing, and you are stuck unless you use RESTART GAME or EXIT TABLE from the PAUSE MENU.



Actually, the first time I ran into that, once I got back out to the lounge/cabinet view and pressed X to start another game, Pinball FX crashed:

An error has occurred in the following application.
(CE-34878-0)
Pinball FX



But I haven't been able to get the crash to happen again. The stuck with no UI to advance thing (short of going to the pause menu) reproduces every time, though.

---

Just figured out another bug In the PS4 version:

1) Start a game of Monster Bash, Pro mode
2) Set Williams Pinball Attract Mode to OFF
3) End the game by draining all balls
4) During the Match sequence, start mashing the X button, and keep mashing until you get back to the lounge/cabinet view

==> This screen has a menu in the lower right corner showing "X Play," along with other controls, but pressing X here now does nothing.



I have to press a different button, like /\ or [], then Circle button back to that menu before X will start a new game.

^ Fixed in 1.07.

---

It should really be a single button press to start another game after ending the previous one--currently, you get sent back to the lounge/cabinet view first.

I wish you could save separate LCD colors per game...although I guess I can see why sometimes you would want every game to have the same color. But having them colored to match the game is fun too.

Oh yeah also the LCD screen, when at Top Center, can cover the top of some tables even in fairly high-up views, because it's set down some way from the top of the screen. Ideally it would be positioned much closer to the top of the screen so as to overlap the tables as little as possible. In PFX3 it was right at the top of the screen.

While I'm wishlisting, don't pinball tournaments often set the flippers slightly farther apart? I don't think the Pro mode here does that, which is maybe too bad.

 

[smbhax]

Hmmm, I've found that in the new PFX the lighting was too dim at first but setting the Gamma to 2.8 seems to be the sweet spot. I'm on Xbox Series S with a standard 1080p PC monitor. To me the lighting and physics are quite an upgrade over FX3. It also helps that all the tables i want cost me nothing since I'm using Microsoft Rewards points. I'll check out the lighting on Indy and see if it's blown out. It's the next one I'm going to get. 15 bucks for one table is pretty high but for 2 weeks worth of rewards points? Why not?!

Yeah, I seem to have settled at 2.7, so pretty close to that. : ) It's brighter than I would like normally, but the contrast at lower settings is too harsh, at least on MB.

Other tables, like CftBL, still have quite nice lighting. : )

 

[Rayder]

One complaint I've always had about Zen tables has to do with the views. Many of the panning views don't pan back down to the flippers fast enough, causing you to miss a proper flip reaction. Now that the physics have gotten much more realistic (faster) that problem is exasperated and makes many of the views mostly useless. I'm forced to play in the locked views or the one that zooms in and out to play properly because of it.

I don't know the technical term for it, so I'll call it the "pan point", that is, the invisible line the ball crosses to pan the table towards the top or bottom. That pan point needs to be adjusted more towards the top of the table (like 2/3 up the table, as opposed to something like halfway that it seems to be now) so it returns to where you can see the flippers faster when the ball is racing back down towards them.

This has been a persistent issue in EVERY version of Zen pinball I've ever played. Seems like it should be an easy fix to adjust that invisible pan point farther up the table a bit.

 

[gameaddict4life]

An issue that's really glaring is the audio on the tables peaking and breaking up during play. It's more noticeable on some tables like Medieval Madness and Space Station. It can come and go, very strange. Crow's live FX streams on Youtube show the problem, especially Medieval Madness on PC. On Xbox it isn't as bad but it still happens.

 

[smbhax]

An issue that's really glaring is the audio on the tables peaking and breaking up during play. It's more noticeable on some tables like Medieval Madness and Space Station. It can come and go, very strange. Crow's live FX streams on Youtube show the problem, especially Medieval Madness on PC. On Xbox it isn't as bad but it still happens.

Like here, I guess:

I was wondering if it meant Crow just had the game volume set too loud in his own recording set-up but it sounds like something more internal to the game...not that I can tell for sure just from watching that bit.

 

[smbhax]

It's too bad they haven't got ROM audio set up with the various volume sliders on a lot of the tables yet (according to the spreadsheet). The Voiceover Volume slider works with a lot of the voices in Monster Bash but I don't think it works for any of the voice samples in Party Zone; the PZ voices are so quiet you can't even make out what they're saying a lot of the time.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I think ROM audio fixes are yet to be finalized, given the circumstances revolving Bride and FunHouse currently. We've seen some improvements over FX3, but there's still work to be done around the Yamaha and DCS sound emulation.

 

[smbhax]

Even w/ Motion Blur & Ball Trails off, after-images linger behind the ball. (Shown: The Party Zone on PS4)

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

That's the side-effect of Temporal Anti-Aliasing, or TAA. Most noticeable on the DMD using View 8.

 

[smbhax]

That's the side-effect of Temporal Anti-Aliasing, or TAA. Most noticeable on the DMD using View 8.

Shoot. Maybe FXAA would'a been a better way to go, because this is a distracting artifact--but there are no AA options whatsoever in the PS4 version.

 

[Crazy Newt]

Have they already abandoned the Steam version? No updates since launch, and there are some egregious bugs that need some attention.

 

[smbhax]

Have they already abandoned the Steam version? No updates since launch, and there are some egregious bugs that need some attention.

I tried the Steam version and got 2-3 frames more input delay (6-7 frames) than the PS4 version (4 frames) in very rough testing. My 2020 laptop doesn't quite meet the recommended spec, but lowering to lowest detail didn't lower the lag at all. = /

 

[gameaddict4life]

Have they already abandoned the Steam version? No updates since launch, and there are some egregious bugs that need some attention.

Really?! I think there's been an update on console to fix flipper lag which I never experienced in the first place. On June 8th new tables are coming so if there aren't any major bug fixes with that update, well.... the game is sitting at a 1.9 out of 5 user score on Xbox. BTW, the current Event season kind of blows. The only Williams thing is a poster you get early on and the rest of the rewards are pretty bad if you ask me. I don't have much motivation to play the Events since I already got the achievement from the first Season. Also having a placeholder name doesn't help!