New UI Public Beta

[Mike Reitmeyer]

We released the New UI Public Beta. Please leave your feedback and issues here.

To access the beta, right click Pinball Arcade in the steam client and go to properties, then betas tab, and choose teh one that says Public Beta.
Note: To switch back to the current release build change it to Opt out of all betas if you no longer want to use the beta build.

Make sure you back up your save files first. Make a copy of this folder "C:\Users\username\My Games\Pinball Arcade"

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Will check it out when I get home I guess.

 

[relaxation]

initial feedback (video),
#My Top Score & HOF points on Table selection
Top score doesn't include the 10B place value*
HOF score doesn't take into account the missing 10B place value*
*when the score isn't supported by the rom is when it behaves this way

In Portrait,
#Leaderboards
No scores next to names
Highlighting names doesn't match the rest of the UI

pressing down past the 5th goal in the wizard goals area will crash the game

When sort selection was selected but not changed and still open then you browsed the tables and either made a selection or clicked whatever else on the screen the table selection snapped back to the top

some elements not transversable with a controller/keyboard.
controller requires a button push before analog stick moves the cursor, keyboard remains unusable in important menus.

Still no idea what the grey icons mean on certain tables, are those scripted and not emulated?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

some elements not transversable with a controller/keyboard.

Honestly, forget everything else, this is the killer. First rule of UI design is, all options must be easily accessible using all supported input methods. End of.

This is why the Microsoft UI design creed is/was "if there's a button, there's a menu option" (somewhat deprecated since the advent of the ribbon in their modern application UI), since it is always possible to access any menu option using a keyboard.

 

[rehtroboi40]

Tried the new UI beta for a few minutes and promptly switched back to the old one. As much grief as I give the old UI, it's still infinitely better than this new tripe that someone has mistaken for a new UI. At least the old one won't jack up my scores. I've scored a hell of a lot more than just 2B on BoP (like 11B).

I'll keep the old UI and my Wizard goals too, thank you.

 

[pm1109]

Looks like I will be staying with the old UI for quite a while it seems!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Tried the new UI beta for a few minutes and promptly switched back to the old one. As much grief as I give the old UI, it's still infinitely better than this new tripe that someone has mistaken for a new UI. At least the old one won't jack up my scores. I've scored a hell of a lot more than just 2B on BoP (like 11B).

I'll keep the old UI and my Wizard goals too, thank you.

You probably didn't back up your save data, is all. Like you were warned to do in the opening post.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Ahh, I see what's up with BoP. If you hit the Billion shot at any time your score goes in the Billionaires' club leaderboard, not the regular game leaderboard. The regular leaderboard is the one being read for the UI.

HoF points are new on PC, they don't carry over platform-to-platform.

Wizard goals are all there for me.

The UI is tedious to navigate using a controller. Very tedious.

 

[rehtroboi40]

You probably didn't back up your save data, is all. Like you were warned to do in the opening post.

Actually I did back up my data and and always do to my thumb drive. (Some earned wizard goals aren't worth losing). Last time I did that was a week ago, when I beat my top score on TG:HS2. I also do this every time I finish a TPA session and earn any wizard goals. Getting everything back was painless, if annoying. Just like when I got this new computer a year ago.

Still, the new UI looks sharp (and the real "Tommy" song is a long-needed touch) , but I can't help but be underwhelmed by the interface.
And what's up with the gold padlock icons?

Time to resume work on my scores to boost my HoF scores, which I'm sure I'll see when the final UI product drops.

 

[relaxation]

My bad, my controller doesn't use all xbox 360 (xinput) binds.. it's a hybrid of keyboard and xinput.

It's very odd pressing enter on the table selection menu doesn't launch the table though.

 

[invitro]

I watched relaxation's video, and I have to say that I pray this never sees the light of day. Good Lord this is awful, so much worse than the current UI. It's essentially what I'd expect to see from a middle school computer class whose assignment was to duplicate the TPA UI. If this thing replaces the current UI, I might have to think about giving the game a rest for a few years.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

It's a touch-screen UI. It doesn't belong on a large screen or device operated by keyboard/mouse/controller.

The good news is it's going to get a thorough going-over. Pity there's no documentation, would make it easier to work up a test plan.

 

[relaxation]

Someone on steam said their left analog stick controls a virtual mouse? my xinput binds don't do this, I'll look into this further for those who use x360ce.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Someone on steam said their left analog stick controls a virtual mouse? my xinput binds don't do this, I'll look into this further for those who use x360ce.

Yes, it does, and it's slow as molasses. I'm using native Windows 10 drivers, fwiw.

 

[Spork98765]

Some of the same old UI glitches are still in this new UI.

When you are in operator mode and use the left thumbstick to get the virtual mouse pointer it also makes the table view move around, because FS has not figured out to separate the table view control from the operator mode/coin door view.

While doing this new UI it would seem like a good time to go back and work out the bugs on tables that have been there from day one, but the pro modes on CBW and TO are still broken; the coin door buttons are not mapped to make adjustments to the ROM possible. BK is still not ROM emulated, so the lock mechanism is pretty much FUBAR. TOTAN and BOP still do that silly zoom to the skillshot at the opening of the table, and on TOTAN if you plunge early it can freeze on the skillshot view until you lose your ball.

Some of the settings options On/Off are symbolically backwards. In that picture Multiball Cam, Vibration, and Event Cam are all set to off based on game reactions. Invert Nudge is set to ON. Notice how the settings do not match up :/

Cannot enter initials with a controller at the end of a game. I have had to use a mouse each and every time to actually get the select button to select the letter.

On the plus side, the PC version seems to have gotten rid of the weird camera glitches on TOTAN, DD, and HRC where specific spots associated with event cam would cause the camera angle to quickly switch to view 1 then go back to the users selected view. Now if only that fix would be rolled out to other platforms.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Halfway through my write-up. I've got copious notes, plus some screen grabs of a few things. I'm going to put it in a doc to send to support@pinballarcade.com, I'll also upload it to my OneDrive and share a link once I'm done.

 

[relaxation]

Comments about score displays in Portrait at 2160p using DX11,

Big Shot has it's UI moved around.
Central park is a little off center.
EarthShakers rewards still hiding behind the alphanumeric UI, it should be a similar layout to Whirlwind but Whirlwinds rewards UI scaled up too well (it's big).
Eldorado&HS have a thin line above it's alphanumerics UI.
F-14's alphanumerics ui is off center.
BH, BK, FP, Genie, GN, Gorgar, graphics don't scale well, at the same time BK and Gorgars alphanumerics are missing, and gorgars ball in play is over the score display.

I always thought Junkyard was longer than other tables but I noticed the DMD isn't actually off the playfield, usually your design choice is to have camera angles pivot in such a way that any view would have the DMD off the playfield.. was the DMD taking up part of the (mostly uninteractable) playfield intended? Compare that to Starship troopers you give yourselves a little more room away from the table than other tables. Taxi has a similar camera stance to JY.

 

[Tron]

Lets face it the "new" UI is dated as f@£k.

 

[Biff]

Lets face it the "new" UI is dated as f@£k.

Not as dated as the old UI.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I'm done with my notes. Here they are if anyone is interested.

http://1drv.ms/207lF7u