Nexus 7 and TPA

[noneed4me2]

Thanks for the link just wanted to follow a thread with people who focus on mainly this issue. I am big into emulation and would like some wireless options without rooting for now. Touch nudging is to awkward for my reflexes to be effective (anyone else find themselves moving their body as if they would attempt to nudge a table in real life? I drive my wife nuts when I move like I am going to bump the table.)

So I am waiting for a supported resolution as I am looking into getting a 10 inch tablet as a dedicated gaming system for all my .emu apps with proper rooted controller support. I really don't want to root as I am happy with my N7 as is for now. I am to broke to outfit with accessories right now but it's just for a few more weeks hopefully.

 

[Nik Barbour]

. I am to broke to outfit with accessories right now but it's just for a few more weeks hopefully.

I know that feeling - we're going through that everything breaking down at once phase you hit now and again.

We (the forum users) need to as a group, keep badgering Farsight for custom keyboard input controls for Android. It should be easy for them to implement.

 

[Nik Barbour]

Just learned this technique to force your OTA update.

(in Settings, Apps) find 'Google Framework'.
Clear Data, Force Close, Clear data again.
Go settings, about tablet, system updates, check now.

Should force the update allegedly.

The method is confirmed by others, but I can't test as I'm away from home for a while (no wifi other than mobile tether).

 

[FredFire]

Hi all,

recently got a Nexus 7 32 GB and after reading all the praise about Pinball Arcade on Android (I´m 45 and loved to play Pinball as a kid, my favorite table is Bally´s Centaur) I went for it. But I must say I´m majorly disappointed. The general Android touch input lag (only a few milliseconds, but omnipresent) is annoying when playing with the paddles, but the worst thing is the programming of the ball physics ... how can you all accept that? I´ve played a number of Pinball games on my PC and even on my Amiga, but the physics engine of TPA is by far the worst I`ve ever experienced.

Is there any chance this App gets a complete new physics engine for the pinball?

EDIT: Found the "physics" thread, this might be the better place to discuss this... never mind.

Fred

 

[Robert Hunt]

I think I misunderstood your post at first. Are you saying you find a lag on your Nexus 7 using touch input? I simply don't believe it could be worse than any REAL LIFE "few millisecond" lag you would find on a real table. Do you suppose those circuits are instantaneous?

I can't for the life of me imagine which PC pinball or Amiga pinball experience you ever had that matches the gameplay TPA delivers on my Nexus 7. What I mean is, I don't believe you.

 

[Carl Spiby]

Also on a real table the flipper buttons have travel before they contact.

I'm going to go with, "don't feed the troll" here.

 

[FredFire]

Wow, I thought this was a friendly community of pinball fans, seems it´s not.
I was talking about the general Android input lag compared to other mobile OS like IOS or Windows Mobile. It´s there, and it´s annoying. Ever tried - for a example - to play a mulit touch drum app on Android? it´s impossible because of the basic arcitecture of the OS, And it also affects the reaction of the touch input in TPA. Don´t believe me? See for example:
http://obamapacman.com/2011/12/former-google-engineer-on-android-lag-vs-ios/

Anyway, I don´t need this rude community calling me a troll, I´m outta here. Have a good day.

 

[Carl Spiby]

That article is over a year old, there's been several new versions since.

All I can say is theres absolutely no lag on either my Samsung Galaxy S or Nexus 10, so whatever lag you're experiencing, not everyone suffers with.

 

[Robert Hunt]

Fred you said two things:

You said you bought a Nexus 7 and heard TPA would run great on it, but found an annoying and omnipresent input lag, which you assume would not be present in an Apple device.

Then you said that the TPA physics engine is by far the worst you ever experienced.

Now I have played TPA on the latest iPad, and it IS impressive. The graphics are a bit better and the music is a bit better than what I have experienced on a Nexus 10, but there is ZERO difference as far as touch input is concerned.

I don't deny that certain tasks on an Android phone such as switching between programs can feel laggy compared to IOS, but I absolutely DO deny there is a discernable flipper lag vs the Apple when playing TPA.

As for the physics engine, it may not be perfect, but it's pretty friggin' good. I have played more real pinball in the last few months than I imagine you have played in your entire life, and I am ASTOUNDED at how well TPA brings these tables to life on every device I've seen it (which I grant were all latest hardware.)

Anyone who is "annoyed" by TPA is simply annoyed by pinball. But there are other games or things to do than pinball - you're not alone. You should talk to my girlfriend.

 

[xAzatothx]

I've got the Nexus 7, I'm a techno geek and won't tolerate lag, choppiness or general poor experiences. Nexus 7 impressed me from the word go. TPA plays on the whole beautifully. Physics is great as far as I'm concerned (I've played many pinball variants)....................

odd post, but each to their own I guess.............

 

[jaredmorgs]

Hi all,

recently got a Nexus 7 32 GB and after reading all the praise about Pinball Arcade on Android (I´m 45 and loved to play Pinball as a kid, my favorite table is Bally´s Centaur) I went for it. But I must say I´m majorly disappointed. The general Android touch input lag (only a few milliseconds, but omnipresent) is annoying when playing with the paddles, but the worst thing is the programming of the ball physics ... how can you all accept that? I´ve played a number of Pinball games on my PC and even on my Amiga, but the physics engine of TPA is by far the worst I`ve ever experienced.

Is there any chance this App gets a complete new physics engine for the pinball?

EDIT: Found the "physics" thread, this might be the better place to discuss this... never mind.

Fred

I wonder if you have a bad Nexus 7? Perhaps there is something wrong with the touch interface on your particular device? Have you tried it on a friend's device? I know the Android dev has a nexus 7 as a test device, so I would be surprised if he'd let input lag remain.

 

[noneed4me2]

I have 4 different versions of TPA and by far I enjoy it the most on my N7. On my tf700 their is some frame stutter on the ball which I'm sure is related to software issues as I was able to make it somewhat better by killing apps running in the background but I am hoping it improves with updates to the device and some further tweaking.

On the ps3 while super pretty I have run into the "flipper lag" and while slight it is noticeable, although I read this might be the TV so I am going to experiment later as I have 4 different ones temporarily to play with. If yours is running poorly I would try ram booster pro, but if its physics your disliking I guess just try and find some real pins to play (no sarcasm intended). I for one am happy to be playing at all but agree there is lots of room for improvement.

On my iPhone 5 it is super smooth running and graphically awesome all around but its hard on the small screen. I will eventually be getting an iPad 4 or mini when they update it to a retina display but for now the N7 is tops.

 

[Nik Barbour]

The general Android touch input lag (only a few milliseconds, but omnipresent) is annoying.

I didn't take this post seriously when first posted, but today, whilst on Google Play store I thought I'd read the user reviews for TPA as It's always funny to read the "What, I have to pay to play" type reviews.
But I was very surprised to see at least 2 or 3 people on only the first few pages all complaining of lag or stuttering. 2 have N7's and one an SGS3.

Is something wrong???
My own N7 is faultless, no lag, and not the slightest hint of stutter, but with so many mentioning it. Weird.

 

[Mortado]

TPA was the first thing I bought when I got my Nexus 7 at launch time. My only problem was when the new UI forced landscape mode, however since they fixed that I have no complaints.

 

[noneed4me2]

If I had to bet I would say those with issues are most likely running apps that don't play nice or just have to many processes running in the background. Again I recommend a memory booster app or an auto-app killer in order to eliminate those other processes. I use ram booster pro but there are many to chose from. Most of my apps I run are highly recommended and reviewed.

Even though the nexus 7 has a quad core I don't feel its quite up to task when running processor heavy apps like games and productivity apps at the same time. I went into android knowing its limitations compared to iOS and heavily researched it before purchase and so far it does what I want mostly well but I see either leaner running software or beefier hardware is needed to get iOS like results. Once iget an app running I want to use I tap a little widget button and auto kill any apps not on my whitelist. Even running my neo-geo emulator gets very little slowdown once I tweaked my device a bit.

 

[Nik Barbour]

Good point - I manually kill apps on the nav bar task switcher screen, by swiping them out of the list.
I only keep what I need.

 

[rehtroboi40]

I didn't take this post seriously when first posted, but today, whilst on Google Play store I thought I'd read the user reviews for TPA as It's always funny to read the "What, I have to pay to play" type reviews.
But I was very surprised to see at least 2 or 3 people on only the first few pages all complaining of lag or stuttering. 2 have N7's and one an SGS3.

Is something wrong???
My own N7 is faultless, no lag, and not the slightest hint of stutter, but with so many mentioning it. Weird.

I get the occasional lack of response for the right flipper. Other than that-I'm glad I went with the Nexus 7.

 

[superballs]

I just got the N7 and so far it plays perfectly, though the ball sometimes seems to disappear on me when moving really fast. Though it could be that i'm not used to moving my eyes so far so quickly either.

On my S3, I used to get a ton of stutter (very rhythmic dropped frames type). I killed a bunch of stuff and it's better.

 

[Day]

I just got the N7 and so far it plays perfectly, though the ball sometimes seems to disappear on me when moving really fast. Though it could be that i'm not used to moving my eyes so far so quickly either.

On my S3, I used to get a ton of stutter (very rhythmic dropped frames type). I killed a bunch of stuff and it's better.

congrats Superballs, i'm sure you'll love the experience. the one addition that for me makes this complete is the use of full!screen app. I kept getting collisions with the android navbar even when I was consciously keeping the thumbs well above that zone; nothing more annoying for me than the Google now arc popping up while desperately flailing at the flippers to save a chaotic and out of control ball.
I also bought a ps3 six axis controller hoping to get an advantage in nudging, but TBH I prefer thumb input direct to screen, to index fingers on L1 & R1 so playing almost exclusively in portrait mode, I resign myself to very limited nudging possibilities.
I'd also imagine you're going to see some improvement in your hi-score rankings


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[superballs]

congrats Superballs, i'm sure you'll love the experience. the one addition that for me makes this complete is the use of full!screen app. I kept getting collisions with the android navbar even when I was consciously keeping the thumbs well above that zone; nothing more annoying for me than the Google now arc popping up while desperately flailing at the flippers to save a chaotic and out of control ball.
I also bought a ps3 six axis controller hoping to get an advantage in nudging, but TBH I prefer thumb input direct to screen, to index fingers on L1 & R1 so playing almost exclusively in portrait mode, I resign myself to very limited nudging possibilities.
I'd also imagine you're going to see some improvement in your hi-score rankings


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

I can see where the full screen app is going to be useful, I think that has been my only complaint so far is the soft buttons at the bottom.
On the other hand...instant feedback shake nudging is awesome.