kimkom
Member
- Jan 28, 2013
- 914
- 1
Firstly, and as most members here will know, I'm a big fan of TPA.
Until recently, I have been restricted to playing the first few tables which were released on Xbox 360. Now I'm pleased to be able to offer feedback and bug reports on the PC Beta.
So, having spent quite some time with the beta, and having been able to test the later and more recent table packs, I have to say that I'm a little concerned that the quality of the latest table releases may not be of the same high standard as seen with the core packs and early tables. Surely, quality should be increasing over time as the development team hone their skills and improvements are made across the board? At the very least, standards should be maintained.
Instead I feel that standards are slipping. With a small team trying to cover so many platforms and constantly churn out two tables per month, maybe this comes as no surprise.
As an example...
I've just finished testing RBION, which has a few artwork issues on the PC beta. Nothing major or game breaking, and no doubt easily fixed. What stood out for me though, was that the flashers on this particular table work quite well. Yes, it's quite obvious that a graphic overlay is being used to give the illusion of a very bright flash of light emitting from the bulb. But at least the bulb housing changes to a brighter colour and the effect is quite convincing.
Moving on to Whirlwind, Pinbot and various other tables, and the same effect has been applied very lazily indeed imo. A very harsh overlay is used, sometimes not even emitting from the bulb itself. Then the housing doesn't even change colour. Instead this is concealed with the heavy-handed and rather vulgar overlay.
My point is that this is just one area where compromises in quality have unfortunately been made. It's not good enough, again imo.
Every one of the tables being chosen for conversion to TPA deserves the utmost respect, and every effort should be made to convert these classic (and expensive) licenses into the best recreations possible. Instead, I feel that opportunites are being wasted and QA is constantly being pushed further aside in order to get another table pack out of the door.
For the PC version, a higher graphic fidelity is required. Better lighting, rendering and higher resolution textures are needed.
FarSight, please try harder to maintain and improve quality, even if it comes at the expense of delaying releases.
Having said all the above, I very much thank FarSight for bringing us TPA. It's a wonderful product.
Please though, let's make it better!
Until recently, I have been restricted to playing the first few tables which were released on Xbox 360. Now I'm pleased to be able to offer feedback and bug reports on the PC Beta.
So, having spent quite some time with the beta, and having been able to test the later and more recent table packs, I have to say that I'm a little concerned that the quality of the latest table releases may not be of the same high standard as seen with the core packs and early tables. Surely, quality should be increasing over time as the development team hone their skills and improvements are made across the board? At the very least, standards should be maintained.
Instead I feel that standards are slipping. With a small team trying to cover so many platforms and constantly churn out two tables per month, maybe this comes as no surprise.
As an example...
I've just finished testing RBION, which has a few artwork issues on the PC beta. Nothing major or game breaking, and no doubt easily fixed. What stood out for me though, was that the flashers on this particular table work quite well. Yes, it's quite obvious that a graphic overlay is being used to give the illusion of a very bright flash of light emitting from the bulb. But at least the bulb housing changes to a brighter colour and the effect is quite convincing.
Moving on to Whirlwind, Pinbot and various other tables, and the same effect has been applied very lazily indeed imo. A very harsh overlay is used, sometimes not even emitting from the bulb itself. Then the housing doesn't even change colour. Instead this is concealed with the heavy-handed and rather vulgar overlay.
My point is that this is just one area where compromises in quality have unfortunately been made. It's not good enough, again imo.
Every one of the tables being chosen for conversion to TPA deserves the utmost respect, and every effort should be made to convert these classic (and expensive) licenses into the best recreations possible. Instead, I feel that opportunites are being wasted and QA is constantly being pushed further aside in order to get another table pack out of the door.
For the PC version, a higher graphic fidelity is required. Better lighting, rendering and higher resolution textures are needed.
FarSight, please try harder to maintain and improve quality, even if it comes at the expense of delaying releases.
Having said all the above, I very much thank FarSight for bringing us TPA. It's a wonderful product.
Please though, let's make it better!
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