Stuttery, poor framerate on Galaxy S4

[Mark W**a]

When I played Pinball Arcade last year on my sister's Android devices, I could not believe how awful it ran. It was a stuttery, terrible 30FPS at best, with polygonal seems, not to mention crummy color and picture.

I chalked this up to it being an android device that was a few years old. I believe it was the S3 maybe and I forget what her tablet was, but they were from 2011.

So my sisters husband has the Galaxy S4, and while it runs way better, it's still a very juddery, jerky 30-45 fps or so. It runs 60 fps for like a split second when you turn it on, then the framerate is all over the place during gameplay.

I can't believe more people aren't upset by this. I feel like maybe people are afraid to 'offend' Android users or something but I speak the truth, no matter who it 'offends'... so because nobody says anything, I guess Android users just don't know any better , or what they are missing... but it pisses me off personally, because this is the premier Android device and the game runs like ****! That's crazy!! You guys seriously don't know what you're missing with PS3,360 or iOS versions of the game which run a smooth, perfect 60 fps!

What I find shameful is there are over a million downloads on Android. Just think how many users play this version and think oh, this is how the game is, and just delete it. The difference between the iPhone 4s and 5 versions and the Galaxy S4 version is night and day! And the 4S is ancient by cell phone standards...Even my sister who is not a hardcore gamer, was very impressed by the difference. You don't need to know what a 'frame per second' is to immediately notice and feel the difference...

This isn't just graphics: When you have a stuttery jerky framerate like that it effects gameplay. You miss shots or drain because the ball skips around. It really sucks.

I know I'll probably be looked at as some kind of Apple fanboy but jeeze guys, you really need to open your eyes. Go to a kiosk next time you are at a cell phone store and download pinball arcade on an apple device, and see for yourself the difference.

I'm just shocked more people don't talk about this, and act like the two versions have parity.

I will say one thing in the defense of the S4: you can see more detail due to the higher resolution and bigger screen. I found that impressive. But trading that for framerate? No way.

 

[netizen]

What was running in the background?

Most of the S4 users here have no problems like that. Try using the search feature

 

[Mark W**a]

What was running in the background?

Most of the S4 users here have no problems like that. Try using the search feature

Nothing running in background.

They must just not know the difference between 30 and 60 frames per second, and think the stuttering is normal because they don't know any better.

 

[Mark W**a]

The battery was low. Could that have been the reason?

 

[TomL]

Lemme see if I understand the OP...

1. He plays TPA on iOS mobile devices
2. He has tried running TPA on 3 Android OS devices: his sister's two Android devices and brother-in-law's Android.
3. TPA ran poorly in these 3 cases. He concludes that TPA must run poorly on most Android devices.
4. He believes that Android users have a low opinion of TPA based on this poor performance.
5. This widely held but rarely spoken misconception by Android users that "TPA sucks", this is "pisses me off personally".

Do I have that right?

One question: what do you care about what Android users think? How is this detracting from your enjoyment life, liberty and the pursuit of pinball?

 

[PiN WiZ]

Actually, I also purchased a Galaxy S4 last weekend and after testing The Pinball Arcade on it for the past week, I was somewhat disappointed with the framerate. While it is much better than it was on the S3, I expected it to run as silky smooth as it does on the iPad 4. I've done benchmark tests on both my Galaxy S4 and iPad 4 and the S4 beats the iPad 4 in every category which is why I was surprised to find the framerate a bit lacking on the S4. I will bring this up to Ryan during the next Android beta and see if there's anything he can do on his end to rectify this issue.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Silky smooth on my European spec S4 not that I use it for gaming other than the occasional on the fly game. Just as good as my N7 which is for gaming.

You do get the occasional blip, but it's a phone and it's doing its job which is checking for calls, texts, updates, etc...

Did you try Airplane mode? Also press and hold the home button, a list of recently running tasks will pop up, swipe them out or press the kill all at bottom right. Press and hold home button again, press the pie chart symbol and clear out the ram.

 

[Mark W**a]

Yeah well you Brits are used to 50 hz gaming all your lives so I don't trust you.

J/K

I cleared the apps out but not the ram. Ill try that, unless you already have Pin Wiz?

 

[Baron Rubik]

Yeah well you Brits are used to 50 hz gaming all your lives so I don't trust you. J/K

I still have a Cathode Ray Sony Wega TV here.

(I do have a 2nd decent TV too - before anyone thinks we are all technologically backward with bad teeth).

 

[Mark W**a]

Lemme see if I understand the OP...

1. He plays TPA on iOS mobile devices
2. He has tried running TPA on 3 Android OS devices: his sister's two Android devices and brother-in-law's Android.
3. TPA ran poorly in these 3 cases. He concludes that TPA must run poorly on most Android devices.
4. He believes that Android users have a low opinion of TPA based on this poor performance.
5. This widely held but rarely spoken misconception by Android users that "TPA sucks", this is "pisses me off personally".

Do I have that right?

One question: what do you care about what Android users think? How is this detracting from your enjoyment life, liberty and the pursuit of pinball?

1. And 360, yes.
2. Yes + my friends Android I forgot to mention
3. I never said it ran poorly on all Androids. However, now that you mention it, yeah that's definitely a concern. Technically I've tested 4 different devices and if you count Ouya that's 5 where it runs poorly. That's a pretty decent sample I'd say.
4. I would have a low opinion of Pinball Arcade if I didn't know any better, personally. So yes I would assume many others would have similar feelings. My friend bought Twilight Zone but never plays it anymore nor buys any other tables because of, and I'm quoting here "the janked framerate, it's horse****." He is waiting on 360 tables or to get a better Android device, he says.
5. Not sure what you mean here. Like I said, you have potentially millions of people playing a ****ty version of Pinball Arcade. That's a concern. The rest of the sentence makes no sense to me. It does piss me off personally though! I'm an ambassador for the game. When I recommend a product to someone, it's because I would personally use it. And I personally would not play a sub 60 fps version of Pinball Arcade period. So I'm out there recommending to my Android friends a version of the game that I would never play personally. That pisses me off you're damn right.


I want to recommend an Android to a friend that can run the game at a silky smooth 60 fps. Which device should I tell him?

 

[Kevlar]

I started a thread back when the S4 was released saying how disapointed I was with it. A few updates later and nothing has changed, my ipad3 completely kicks the S4's ass in TPA to the point where I wont even play it on the S4

 

[Mark W**a]

Sorry didn't know there was already a thread.

Like I said it's all good, but I mean imagine my shock when a brand new Android phone can't run the game properly. And considering my past experience with 3 other Android devices, it just makes you wonder ya know, if they all are this way.

And like I said, playing Pinball this way is not fun. And it saddens me to think that there are millions of people out there who think Pinball Arcade is this janky, crap pinball experience when it is anything but!

 

[Kevlar]

I have also tried it on my friends HTC One and the result was the same, poor frame rate.

 

[Baron Rubik]

I want to recommend an Android to a friend that can run the game at a silky smooth 60 fps. Which device should I tell him?

Nexus 7 is the perfect TPA device for me.
It's rooted to use with a controller (PS3) - runs all tables as fluidly as my xbox, has portrait, 5 direction nudging as of this week, and I can play while the family hog the TV.

 

[Mark W**a]

People need to know these things. Maybe it just is these 5 devices and every other Android runs the game fine, regardless this should be known and talked about.

It needs to be known especially for those that don't understand framerate. To the casual player, they may play the game, thinking there Android device is 100% up to the task, and just walk away from the experience and go "nah, this sucks."

If I didn't know anything about framerates, and never played the game on PS3, 360, PC, iOS what have you, then I'd have to assume that "this is how the game is" and I'd say that. Because IMO the game is not fun to play all janky like that.

Now to some people maybe they're fine with this, but at the very least they need to know that there are smoother versions available otherwise like I said, they will automatically assume this is 'the way it is' and how it's 'supposed to play', which isn't cool.

I made a joke about Britain earlier but there was a very good reason why the Amiga was so big and earlier consoles weren't as popular over there as they could have been. And that reason is 50Hz standard. Had I lived in Britain I'd have written the MegaDrive off as **** and went Amiga too because, how were they supposed to know that there were actually much better 60hz versions of the games overseas? Playing games at 50Hz is dreadful, btw, and that's only a 10fps difference. What I'm talking about with the S4 is a >10 fps difference. Not to mention at least 50Hz was smooth without spikes and jitters!

Anyways that's my peace on the issue goodnight guys.

 

[xAzatothx]

As much as I like Android and refuse to buy anything Apple, this issue highlights the downside to Android. Too many handsets for FS to test against.

 

[Baron Rubik]

I started a thread back when the S4 was released saying how disapointed I was with it. A few updates later and nothing has changed, my ipad3 completely kicks the S4's ass in TPA to the point where I wont even play it on the S4

It's really strange this - because we are both UK, therefore European spec and although I play TPA on my tablet. The occasional game on the S4 plays smoothly for me, with the odd stutter (approx 2 or 3 mins apart) when it's doing background checks.

Mine is an i9505
The phone is fairly lightly loaded - 3.8gb used / 5.4gb free, and has a 32gb micro SD in it which has a couple of gig free. It's not rooted and is up to date stock OS wise JDQ39.I9505XXUBMEA
Don't know if memory loading makes a difference?

 

[Kevlar]

I've tried closing everything and rebooting the phone. It does improve things a bit but is never constantly smooth like my ipad.

 

[netizen]

As a way to test if it is the phones performance or how third party/installed apps are affecting performance you could boot the device into safe mode

Before you get all gung ho to jump right into safe mode be sure to have a widget/shortcut, however you word it, to TPA on the tool bar at the bottom of the home screen. Otherwise you'll only have access to factory installed apps after booting into safe mode

Most benchmarks are testing CPU performance, for how TPA performs you'll want to test your systems openGL 3D abilities. There's an app called Nenamark 2, by the people who made RobO-Bot, and it will load the GPU with real time 3D rendering and determine a max FPS ability, or try 3D Mark a game oriented benchmark tool.

Another thing to consider is what version of S4 it may have been:
Processor
i9500:
Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5410
1.6 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU
1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
i9505:
Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T
1.9 GHz quad-core Krait 300 CPU
Graphics
i9500:
PowerVR SGX544MP3
i9505:
Adreno 320

Additional Information:
Qualcomm Adreno 320:
OpenGL ES = 3.0, 2.0 & 1.1
OpenCL = 1.2
SVGT = 1.2
EGL = 1.4
Direct3D Mobile
Direct Draw
GDI

Clock - 500Mhz
GFlops - 51.2

PowerVR SGX544 MP3: PPW winner by XDA
OpenGL ES = 2.1 & 1.1
OpenCL = 1.1
SVGT = 1.1
DirectX = 9.0
Direct3D Mobile
PVR2D
OpenWF

Clock - 533Mhz
GFlops - 51.1

 

[Baron Rubik]

Just benchmarked my i9505 S4 using Nenamark2
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.nena.nenamark2&hl=en

60fps no onscreen stuttering.

Just for comparison my N7 rooted stock OS 4.2.2 ran it 54.6fps