Portrait Centering: Flippers or Playfield?

Should the Portrait Mode cameras be centered on the flippers or playfield?

  • Flippers

    Votes: 12 17.1%
  • Playfield

    Votes: 58 82.9%

  • Total voters
    70

superballs

Active member
Apr 12, 2012
2,653
2
FYI, after doing some further research on this I have discovered that the issue does not appear when using any 16:10 resolution, such as 1680x1050 or 1920x1200, but it does not look right with a 16:9 monitor in portrait mode, such as 1920x1080 (in portrait 1080x1920) that I use as my main gaming monitor.

We were clearly not looking at the same issue when you were using 1680x1050, as I can also reproduce a perfect circle using this resolution. Unless something changes in the future, it looks like I will need a 16:10 monitor to play in portrait mode with full screen support to avoid seeing anomalies with stretched objects.

This means we will need someone with a 16:9 monitor to run the same test as me.
 

Crazy Newt

Member
Dec 2, 2012
351
12
This means we will need someone with a 16:9 monitor to run the same test as me.

I already did this and I get 53x63 pixels. I'm even using the Faststone trial to make sure I was duplicating everything that you were doing. You should be able to download my screen capture above and test this in any image viewer/editor. I grabbed the screen using FRAPS and the pixels match the resolution I was using, 1080x1920. From what I can see, the game is not maintaining the original aspect ratio with at least some of the textures in certain views. While I have not done any exhaustive research on this, what little data I have seems to suggest that this is happening with 16:9 ratio screens and probably not with 16:10 versions. My iPad has a 4:3 ratio, and portrait would be 3:4, but I see a similar issue with stretching on that device as well.

Edit: got my x:y coordinates mixed up in iPad screen ratio...fixed
 
Last edited:

superballs

Active member
Apr 12, 2012
2,653
2
Yeah I got the same approximate ratio when I did the test woth your screenshot. Faststone is pretty awesome btw. Even has screen recorder and a ton of capture options like scrolling window
 

lio

New member
Jul 24, 2013
210
0
at a first glance: the playfield. thinking again: the flippers, somehow.
or yet another option: render the playfield centered but render the actual view at an inclination as if your head was centered between the flippers (i don't know how the correct term for that kind of viewpoint rendering is - basically what VP does when you play around with the inclination setting which determines how much of the sides of an object you can see regardless of the rendering angle but not for the horizontal facing sides towards the player but the vertical ones).

In reality I guess most stand centered infront of the cabinet BUT shift their upper body/head ever so slightly (after all the flipper center is just a few cm to the left compared to the cabinet center) that they actually look at the flippers in centered position - I know I do...
So render the table as if you were looking centered at the flippers but move the visual output so the playfield appears centered on screen.

or better yet, include more predefined camera angles (and the free camera) and make it up to the user.
 
Last edited:

RetroDude

New member
Mar 24, 2012
246
0
In reality I guess most stand centered infront of the cabinet BUT shift their upper body/head ever so slightly (after all the flipper center is just a few cm to the left compared to the cabinet center) that they actually look at the flippers in centered position - I know I do...
So render the table as if you were looking centered at the flippers but move the visual output so the playfield appears centered on screen.

Use the display with it centered on the flippers but hold your controller off to your right a bit That would allow you to simulate it perfectly.

:cool:

(the camera doesn't simulate where your hands are or your body position, just where your eyes are)
 

imagamejunky

New member
Sep 2, 2013
28
0
So it's been 17 days now since this poll was started. Centering on the playfield is the CLEAR WINNER without question. When are we going to see an update to TPA that either fixes this or allows us to pick our preference???

Once again, I am saying that this just looks horrible on my cab. I played TOM today and it looks so off center and rotated that even my 5 year old can see it! I play hundreds of FREE virtual pinball tables on my cabinet that are perfectly centered and squared. I also play FX2 which is centered. So why is it that the ONE virtual pinball program that I paid THE MOST for looks so wrong?? The truth is, if this was free software like VP or FP then I would have nothing to complain about. But I paid good money for this so I am definitely going to speak my mind...

Fix this guys!
At least give us a progress report.

Junky
 

superballs

Active member
Apr 12, 2012
2,653
2
We could only wish that polls on this forum were in any way binding to Farsight. I'm sure they will fix it in time but they are quite busy on some desirable things.
 

Roo

New member
Jul 5, 2013
158
0
So it's been 17 days now since this poll was started. Centering on the playfield is the CLEAR WINNER without question. When are we going to see an update to TPA that either fixes this or allows us to pick our preference???

Once again, I am saying that this just looks horrible on my cab. I played TOM today and it looks so off center and rotated that even my 5 year old can see it! I play hundreds of FREE virtual pinball tables on my cabinet that are perfectly centered and squared. I also play FX2 which is centered. So why is it that the ONE virtual pinball program that I paid THE MOST for looks so wrong?? The truth is, if this was free software like VP or FP then I would have nothing to complain about. But I paid good money for this so I am definitely going to speak my mind...

Fix this guys!
At least give us a progress report.

Junky

I'm just glad we have portrait mode to tide us over until the proper cabinet mode is released.
 

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