So how did Star Trek turn out?

[Metalzoic]

Good? Great? Hellishly, horribly hideous?

 

[Sporadik]

I'm really not impressed, I was hoping it would be decent. It looks as good as the worst looking Vita tables.

 

[Sinistar]

Good? Great? Hellishly, horribly hideous?

It's a COMPETENT table release the ugly textures prominent in Vita releases are back , particuliarly on the launcher boxes I noticed . But turning my Vita on here are some quick notes:

*coin door texture blurry / low resoloution (who cares it's a static graphic not relevent to gameplay)
*playfield in front of table is in higher resoloution than middle or rear playfield (Farsight uses this trick to save time on renders and increase frames per sec )
*bumper side railings are very fuzzy resoloution (laziness, those front side rails in better resoloution should not affect frames)
*playfield art texture of aliens is low resoloution

in short they basically did the same as Scared Stiff and Twilight Zone, a focus on making the game intro show off high res. backglass , high res. table pans , it's only when you start the game that the TRUE GRAPHICS are shown . There's a lack of shadowing , lack of dynamic lighting , and model textures are in basic colors .
I'd rate the table graphically a C + . Below par of what the PS Vita is capable of rendering , but worth owning .

It is my estimate that when they discovered a formula to make 30 FPS , they render all Vita games the same way.
+ front bumpers high res models
+ balls high res
+ everything else low res.(most models, rails, toys)
+ game intro pans of backglass and playfield high res.
+ 2-4 lighting effects
+ no shade rendering/ no relflections

Farsight makes their Ps Vita tables like painters paint oil paintings , you dont paint in every detail and it's best enjoyed as whole package , when we play the game and the ball is flying , you dont notice everything. In short this is a better translation than TwilightZone was , but could be better?

UPDATE: patch 1:09 was the basis of this review, new version in patch 1:10 introduced tonight with slight improvements across the playfield, sharper textures , table now rates B- , glad I got some screenshots to compare it with.

I may have been wrong about any improvements , it's hard to discern differences that I thought I was seeing , can you see any?

above images 1.09 patch versions

Below images version 1.10

 

[ScotchYeti]

Could you post some screenshots? I am really curious how much worse the table looks compared to the PS3 version, which is awsome.

 

[aagstn]

You only have to look for a second to see how awful it looks compared to the PS3 version, but its very playable and I'm enjoying it on the vita. So far I haven't run into any major technical issues so I will take that. Any time I start to feel negative about the past few releases I go and play Black Knight to see that it could be much, much worse.

 

[Metalzoic]

Thanks for the update. Glad I passed on it.
It may look great on PS3, but I'm so sick of these guys that I'm no longer giving them my support.

 

[Sinistar]

Thanks for the update. Glad I passed on it.
It may look great on PS3, but I'm so sick of these guys that I'm no longer giving them my support.

whoa hold your horses Metazoic from out of the darkness tonight a ray of hope . Version 1.10 on Vita came out , which has from what my old eyes are seeing upped the details of several tables , Scared Stiff still not great, but you see they are making strides with the classic tables and some of the old tables were improved.

I think the PROBLEM is FarSight optimises the game for people using the mostly discarded vertical field view , that forces you to use touch screen to use the flippers , the game always looks better that way, BUT no one can get good ball control by turning Vita on it's side for game playing, so we play it horizontally naturally.

 

[VenomPlug]

So, i decided to compare Vita and SGS3 (android) STTNG versions. Well, sad to say but Vita just isn't there for me.

As you can clearly see, Vita version is too blurry, resolution is noticeably lower, Android version looks more crisp, clear and solid. Farsight really should put some more power to Vita, saying.

*EDIT* Vita version right ramp has artwork missing, left ramp's artwork is too transparent, like a blurry mess.

 

[Sinistar]

Looking at your screenshots , there is no lie or my doubts about them just porting the mobile Android versions to PS Vita , any longer , the yellow colored rails which are aqua blue on PS3 , are on both versions. So there's the problem , Zen Studios makes their games to be played on Ps Vita , FarSight is just borrowing their PS Vita version from a template they made for mobile devices . Which is why they dont use advanced PS Vita GPU or multicore CPU . Vita deserves better than sloppy mobile ports . I will also throw in Farsight's defense , that the PS Vita takes screenshots that look lower res. than the game , but not significantly lower .

 

[VenomPlug]

FarSight is just borrowing their PS Vita version from a template they made for mobile devices . Which is why they dont use advanced PS Vita GPU or multicore CPU

That is absolutely correct, and there's no excuse. Vita is (at least) twice as powerful as any android device out there. Also, i don't understand why some of the artwork is missing, i mean Android version is old, months old.

 

[Metalzoic]

whoa hold your horses Metazoic from out of the darkness tonight a ray of hope . Version 1.10 on Vita came out , which has from what my old eyes are seeing upped the details of several tables , Scared Stiff still not great, but you see they are making strides with the classic tables and some of the old tables were improved.

I think the PROBLEM is FarSight optimises the game for people using the mostly discarded vertical field view , that forces you to use touch screen to use the flippers , the game always looks better that way, BUT no one can get good ball control by turning Vita on it's side for game playing, so we play it horizontally naturally.

I only play in portrait view as the touch buttons are just as responsive as the actual buttons (except for Monster Bash which actually has broken camera views).
The view really makes no difference as it looks like complete ass either way. The Star Trek table does look pretty awful though. It's pathetic how much better looking that Android screenshot is.