The new Apple TV

[Jay]

When the new Apple TV was announced last week, they indicated that any app that you have on Mac or iOS would automatically be available through your iCloud account on the new device. That would be truly great news with TPA, if that's correct. It'll be nice to have a bigger screen on which to enjoy the game without having to pay out yet again, as we have to do with iOS and Mac.

 

[MontanaFrank]

Howdy Jay,

I just read this article today. I don't know if will apply to TPA, but it's worth a read.

http://www.cnet.com/news/new-apple-tv-shuns-thousands-of-web-powered-apps/

 

[Worf]

It depends on the developer. Some developers will have truly universal apps that one purchases works on iPhones, iPads and AppleTV. Others will just have AppleTV only apps. The apps are completely different (which is why Apple calls the OS on AppleTV "tvOS" rather than iOS).

Most likely, Farsight might have a separate app not linked to iOS.

 

[Jay]

AFAIK, the WebKit apps are a holdover from the days of the original iPhone, which would only run web apps. I would be very surprised if TPA used that old tech, since TPA is adapted for multiple platforms. If it does use WebKit, though, that might explain why it performs poorer on Apple devices than other platforms.

 

[Heretic]

If it does use WebKit, though, that might explain why it performs poorer on Apple devices than other platforms.

What makes you say this?

 

[Jay]

I assume that a WebKit app isn't going to be as optimized for the OS as a native app. TPA on Macs is graphically inferior to many other versions, even though Macs have capable graphics.

 

[MagnumXL]

I assume that a WebKit app isn't going to be as optimized for the OS as a native app. TPA on Macs is graphically inferior to many other versions, even though Macs have capable graphics.

Due to pure laziness and/or cheapness on Farsight's part.... They promised keyboard selectable controls two years ago form what I've read. Still not there (worse yet, the camera select key is the same key as the plunger so it's constantly getting turned on/off by accident here). I'd ditch the Mac guy and get someone that actually knows how to program a Mac game and doesn't take two years to add a simple keyboard control selector (I made entire dip/option and custom option menus for Visual Pinball in less than an hour for god's sake). There is no reason the Mac version shouldn't have the same graphics as the PC version either (including DX11 version). Metal has been available for iOS for some time now and will be available on OSX at the end of the month (already available to developers).

Many graphic glitches that have been fixed on the PC version are still screwed up on the Mac (and I assume iOS) version. For example, the slingshot and returns are LIT on Twilight Zone for the PC, but are dark on the Mac version (even though a lit light bulb appears under them). I don't mean just not lit "well" like many tables, but just flat out difference graphics are being used (I assume OLD ones). You can tell they are different graphics with 100% certainty. Look at the ramp return end stops. They have the blue rubber damper on the Mac/iOS version (that the real table uses), but the PC version just has a plain metal stop. Ironically, for that one thing at least the Mac version is correct and the PC version wrong in that case. I see under the "Master List" of issues that the Twilight Zone glitch for iOS is supposedly "fixed" where you don't get a white Powerball if you use the default ball image. Well, that SAME glitch is still there on the Mac version over two years later!!! I just checked it to be sure. Yup. I only get the white Powerball if I change the ball image. The ONLY difference is that if I THEN change the ball image BACK to the default image, the Powerball stays white now. But the table loads up with the Powerball looking like a regular ball, making me have to change the image to something else and back again each time. You can report these things here, but they don't get addressed because the Mac version is a "who cares" platform.

I've set up Steam up in VMWare Fusion with Windows XP and after adjusting VMware to use VSync and play in full screen Window mode (to get rid of the flipper lag), the tables all now play smoothly on my 2012 Mac Mini and they LOOK a LOT better for the most part. If VMWare would support DirectX 11, I could play that version with Windows 8 or 10 instead (can't install them with Boot Camp at the moment because I use RAID 0 internal drives and you can't put Boot Camp on a RAID drive and I don't want to slow down OS X just to play a pinball game. It'll have to wait for my next Macbook Pro, I guess (current Macbook Pro doesn't support DX11 in its GPU so there's no point putting Windows8 or 10 on there for that reason). I bought a full version of Windows 8.1 Pro (with optional free upgrade to Windows 10 that I don't want at the moment due to M$ spying built-in) just to play DX11 Pinball Arcade (would speed up other games as well like Borderlands 2, I'm sure to boot into Windows instead), but because of the RAID drive issue, I can't use it at the moment without changing my internal drive configuration (would need to go to SSD to improve it on both ends and 2TB worth of SSD is super expensive).