Stern Pinball Arcade for Gear VR

[HotHamBoy]

I saw a gameplay video for Star Trek and it looked terrible, granted this is Android we're talking about here. Hoping that the Steam product is a hell of a lot better.

I have no doubt that the non-VR versions will perform as well as TPA. But I hope for better...

 

[The loafer]

Hothamboy: I remember hearing that if you place the phone in airplane more or at least disable Wireless features, the Star Trek table played smooth. Have you tried this and what phone are you using?

 

[Kolchak357]

I have no doubt that the non-VR versions will perform as well as TPA. But I hope for better...

I'm with you. Better have that new and improved feel when it hits in "late fall".

 

[nudnick]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Gear VR and can say that before the AC\DC update, tables were unplayable due to lag. Now after the AC\DC update ... and they also added Harley Davidson ... play is much smoother. Not perfect and still a little bit of lag in multiball and here and there at random times, but much much much better now. Its actually playable now and I've purchased some more tables due to the improvements. The graphics seem to be slightly touched up a bit as well.

Screen shots that Lettuce posted up above are definitely not from the Android VR version as the lighting is not dynamic like that. Still fun on Gear VR though ...

 

[HotHamBoy]

Hothamboy: I remember hearing that if you place the phone in airplane more or at least disable Wireless features, the Star Trek table played smooth. Have you tried this and what phone are you using?

Galaxy Note 5

Yes, I play like that. I went ahead and bought AC/DC and it's... Okay. They absolutely shouldn't be charging $10 on Gear VR because the performance is not there. Ball lags randomly, getting bad frame rate drops regularly enough to be annoying. Multiball is underwater on every table. Performance seems to get worse the longer the app is in use.

Turning on Airplane mode does help, but what I described is what I get when it's on. It's not very tolerable , otherwise. I have to turn bluetooth on to use my controller, though. I noticed that performance is way better when bluetooth is turned off, but that's not a viable option because the touch pad only let's you flip both flippers simultaneously with a single tap.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Screen shots that Pinballwiz45b posted up above are definitely not from the Android VR version as the lighting is not dynamic like that. Still fun on Gear VR though ...

Fixed it for ya.

OP: Agreed that the tables are still not looking finished. But it's getting there. I guess we have until Fall for that.

Or is it...winter?

 

[Gorgar]

I don't think anyone posted about this, but the homepage on sternpinballarcade.com says that Whoa Nelly (and Ghostbusters, but we knew about that already) are coming soon.

Edit: and Mustang

 

[Gorgias32]

I don't think anyone posted about this, but the homepage on sternpinballarcade.com says that Whoa Nelly (and Ghostbusters, but we knew about that already) are coming soon.

Edit: and Mustang

I am totally psyched for Stern Pinball Arcade to come to Android - I have a modern stern TPA wishlist and it is already starting to come true (Mustang).

Others I would gladly pay $10 for in SPA:
- Metallica
- Iron Man
- Lord of the Rings
- Spider-Man
- Tron:Legacy
- Kiss

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Of those 6 - Kiss will definitely happen since it's post-Star Trek, with the assumption being that Stern started including digital rights in all table licenses from at least Star Trek, and possibly, anecdotally, Metallica.

So Metallica might also be a gimme, too, but surprised it's not part of the opening line-up so maybe not.

Might get Spider-Man Vault edition.

Personally I'll take LotR, KISS, and Metallica of those. Never played Iron Man or Spidey. Played Tron a couple of times, didn't get it.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Iron Man isn't bad, I wouldn't mind it

Spider-Man Vault Ed. is awesome, a new favorite since the place I frequent got one.

Agree about Tron, I've never seen what was so great about it. Doesn't get me goin'.

 

[Heretic]

tron was a very fine french movie

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

tron was a very fine french movie

I think you're thinking of True Lies.

 

[Ben Logan]

Personally, I think Tron is one of the more fun modern Sterns. Great flow. Fast action. Cool lighting. What's not to like?

 

[karl]

I agree. I think Tron is great. It can seem a little simple at first and the rules are not that deep. But this one and Iron Man actually benefits from having simple rules. It is all about choices and how you utilize them. I love Tron. The sounds and mood of the game is second to none. But I fear that we will not see Tron, unless Stern comes out with a vault ed of the game. Probably too expensive license to buy digital rights to on its own. Never say never, though

 

[Kolchak357]

I enjoy Tron as well. Thought it conveyed a great sense of speed and excitement. Fun pin imo.

 

[francis247uk]

Stern Pinball Arcade has its own Facebook page now - hoping to see some news about other platforms soon!

 

[Kolchak357]

So AC/DC was released on Gear VR. Anybody played it yet? Would love to hear about it.

 

[HotHamBoy]

So AC/DC was released on Gear VR. Anybody played it yet? Would love to hear about it.

I have it. It's playable but it's very unenjoyable. I'm using a Note 5 in Airplane mode and it runs pretty bad. Lots of slow down, especially when the ball nears the flippers. Multiball is a slideshow.

I can't believe they are charging $10 for these new tables on Gear with no trial to test performance. That was the first and last one I will be buying on Gear. Thing is, $10 is a completely fair price if the tables run flawlessly. I'm sure they'll run just fine on other platforms. But it's a total waste of money on Gear VR, the performance is debilitating, I feel like I got fleeced.

 

[Kolchak357]

That's a real bummer. Sounds like it wasn't ready yet. Hope they get that straightened out.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I've heard Star Trek is just as bad, too. This has been out for months and they haven't made any improvements to existing tables. To my knowledge they haven't even acknowledged that there are performance problems or that fixes are coming.

EDIT I just fired it up and gave AC/DC and SST a try again. SST is actually fairly smooth, most of the time. I do get occasional slowdown and framedrops but nothing too serious. Sometimes it's worse than others, I don't know why, because I've had worse slowdown in previous sessions. That said, multiball is still a mess and everything starts to move like it's underwater.

AC/DC, on the other hand, is just constant slowdown and never runs as smooth, even for a few seconds. Something I noticed this time is that AC/DC does not feature a ball shadow while SST and MSF do. Even with shadows removed, AC/DC runs like crap.

I don't know why FS chose this as the test platform but it's seriously insulting that they charge $10 for the new tables, which run terribly, and are releasing new ones instead of fixing what's already there. And who knows if GearVR is really even a viable platform for the demands of the game or if FS will get it to an accepatable state.

Like I said, when SST feels like running well it's a cool (albiet it very grainy/fuzzy) experience. But i would caution anyone against paying for these tables.