The Pinball Arcade Is On Its Way To The Windows 8 Marketplace!!!

[Nik Barbour]

I'm quite impressed. I'm more onterested in how it will all run on my now quite modest laptop.

I don't want to jinx you - but I think mine's a write off.
Zen win8 sucks on Nvidia.
Glass half full - TPA might be wonderful.

 

[superballs]

Mines a 2ghz core2 duo with an ati radeon hd2600 pro mobile. No slouch in its time but it's time is not now.

 

[dirtyvu]

#2). In Win 8 version, you must have an internet connection to get to your profile in "XBOX Games" before you can start up any but the free Mars PBFX2 table. If no internet connection, the tables that you have already purchased become limited time trials until you can get back to the internet.

yeah, there's no reason Pinball FX2 should require an Internet connection. there are many Windows Store games that do not require an Internet connection so this must be the DRM implementation that Zen Studios wanted or chose. hopefully they fix it.

also agree about the inability to try out the tables in the Windows 8 version. this doesn't make sense. practically all the Windows Store apps have trial modes. heck, I know a lot of people that get by with the trial mode for many apps (as Windows 8 is very lenient and practically lets you use the trial mode indefinitely so it's almost more of a shareware "honor system" than a true trial mode).

 

[seattlemark]

yeah, there's no reason Pinball FX2 should require an Internet connection. there are many Windows Store games that do not require an Internet connection so this must be the DRM implementation that Zen Studios wanted or chose. hopefully they fix it.

also agree about the inability to try out the tables in the Windows 8 version. this doesn't make sense. practically all the Windows Store apps have trial modes....

I just hope that FarSight Studios doesn't wind up with the same two problems.
Here are what a couple of Zen Studios forum members had said last month, after I initially asked if I had a bug or not with Pinball FX2 under Windows 8:

Person 1's response to me: Yes, you need an internet connection to play purchased tables. It's not a bug; it's a huge design flaw. Though I could not say if Zen Studios or Microsoft is to blame.

Person 2's response to Person 1: It's kinda of both. When the game was in development, MS only had that DRM option available. After the game released, MS decided to lift their DRM policy on games. Zen is working on a fix, but I don't know when it will release.


Person 1's response to me: Likewise, the free "trial game" option is only available after purchasing the table, which makes it completely useless. That one is probably Zen's fault.

Person 2's response to Person 1: Nope! This is Microsoft's fault. The feature is available in Zen's other platforms as well, but currently Windows 8 doesn't support it.

 

[dirtyvu]

I just hope that FarSight Studios doesn't wind up with the same two problems.
Here are what a couple of Zen Studios forum members had said last month, after I initially asked if I had a bug or not with Pinball FX2 under Windows 8:

Person 1's response to me: Yes, you need an internet connection to play purchased tables. It's not a bug; it's a huge design flaw. Though I could not say if Zen Studios or Microsoft is to blame.

Person 2's response to Person 1: It's kinda of both. When the game was in development, MS only had that DRM option available. After the game released, MS decided to lift their DRM policy on games. Zen is working on a fix, but I don't know when it will release.


Person 1's response to me: Likewise, the free "trial game" option is only available after purchasing the table, which makes it completely useless. That one is probably Zen's fault.

Person 2's response to Person 1: Nope! This is Microsoft's fault. The feature is available in Zen's other platforms as well, but currently Windows 8 doesn't support it.

honestly, I read that and it seems that neither has a clue and both are just conjectures. all you can go by is what you see with your own 2 eyes. there are plenty of Windows Store games that don't require an Internet connection (I have yet to run into one that does need it). So you can make your own judgment on what happened. Also, other games have true trial modes so I don't understand why Pinball FX2 doesn't. Both problems are correctable and if Zen doesn't correct them, they'll lose a lot of sales.

I see tons of apps, even free ones, get updated constantly. Heck, I have the Star Wars Almanac app and that's completely free (created by a fan), and it's updated so often, it's insane. No commercial app gets updated as much as this free one.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

On the plus side, Pinball FX2 provides the ability to use an XBOX 360 controller in its Windows 8 implementation (in addition to keyboard and touch window). As I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, the ability to use an XBOX360 controller is a huge benefit to Win 8 desktop users of PBFX2 under Win8, and I hope Farsight can do the same with The Pinball Arcade under Windows 8.

I've not seen or otherwise been involved in the forthcoming Windows 8 version of TPA, but the PC beta for Twilight Zone that I tested a while back (on Windows 7) had 360 controller support.

 

[dirtyvu]

I don't want to jinx you - but I think mine's a write off.
Zen win8 sucks on Nvidia.
Glass half full - TPA might be wonderful.

if you don't like the situation, you need to let Nvidia hear about it. pinball fans are a small group but they can be vocal like other groups. Tomb Raider is really terrible with Nvidia cards right now and their fans are in an uproar. And it's reached all the mainstream gaming sites. Nvidia immediately responded and said they're working feverishly to fix the problems. Yet nobody is publicizing how Pinball FX2 is buggy with Nvidia because the fanbase is too small or not vocal enough.

 

[Nik Barbour]

if you don't like the situation, you need to let Nvidia hear about it.

Thanks but.... - I'm happy with Android for my Pinball and MAME gaming fixes.
I was just 'new laptop' curious really.

 

[shutyertrap]

if you don't like the situation, you need to let Nvidia hear about it. pinball fans are a small group but they can be vocal like other groups. Tomb Raider is really terrible with Nvidia cards right now and their fans are in an uproar. And it's reached all the mainstream gaming sites. Nvidia immediately responded and said they're working feverishly to fix the problems. Yet nobody is publicizing how Pinball FX2 is buggy with Nvidia because the fanbase is too small or not vocal enough.

I'm playing Tomb Raider right now with an Nvidia card and it looks great! My processor isn't powerful enough to handle the graphix cranked up on hair (literally benchmarked at 19 fps with hair on, 65 with hair off!) and what I heard was the tessellation is what Nvidia cards are having issues with (but again, my system can't handle that anyways).

I do know that with Zen, I can't run Pinball FX2 in high res, it just crashes.

 

[esp2000]

Can't wait to buy this on the Windows 8 marketplace. I just wish that they had cross platform support on the stores between the Windows 8 store and the Windows Phone 8 store. That would be great.

 

[dirtyvu]

I'm playing Tomb Raider right now with an Nvidia card and it looks great! My processor isn't powerful enough to handle the graphix cranked up on hair (literally benchmarked at 19 fps with hair on, 65 with hair off!) and what I heard was the tessellation is what Nvidia cards are having issues with (but again, my system can't handle that anyways).

I do know that with Zen, I can't run Pinball FX2 in high res, it just crashes.

yeah, that's the joy of trying to program software for so many different PC configurations. programmers make their games based on their development PCs and the hardware and drivers that they have on-hand. they program to the high level API and depend on ATI, Nvidia, Intel, etc. to implement those API calls correctly.

 

[superballs]

yeah, that's the joy of trying to program software for so many different PC configurations. programmers make their games based on their development PCs and the hardware and drivers that they have on-hand. they program to the high level API and depend on ATI, Nvidia, Intel, etc. to implement those API calls correctly.

Sounds more like "that's the problem with hardware manufacturers not implementing standard apis correctly"

The whole point of having a standardized API like DX is to prevent this very thing. Sad thing is that Microsoft and Windows tend to get most of the blame on the basis that Windows98 was an unstable piece of junk.

 

[dirtyvu]

that's the thing with drivers. these graphics card companies are in an arms race and release video cards so quickly. and it takes a few revisions before a solid driver comes out with the card. but then they can make changes which break things in previous driver revisions. and before they get it fully right, they're on to the next generation of graphics cards.

yes, the point of standard APIs is to make programming easier. you write that you want to add 1+1 to DirectX (just a concepts example). your Nvidia/ATI card has to take that instruction and make a calculation from it. so it's like the English guy is sending a message to the translator and that translator delivers the exact same message to a pair of Spanish guys. and each Spanish guy can interpret and execute that exact same message differently and produce a slightly different result. So it's up to getting each Spanish guy to handle the message in exactly the same way. and that's the role of AMD/ATI or Nvidia. getting their graphics card to produce the correct result.

right now, the great programmers have to take into account the unique characteristics of each card to avoid each card's "problems" even though standard APIs are supposed to solve that problem. if you have an ATI card, follow this path. if you have an Nvidia card, follow this path. that's the allure of consoles and mobile devices. very limited sets of hardware that you know all the faults that can be avoided.

 

[esp2000]

I think this is great news! I hope that in this TPA on Win8 they enable XBOX Controllers (like Pinball FX2 supports under Win8). Flipperwise, I find it much easier to use the triggers on the XBOX controller when I play Pinball FX2 on my Windows 8 desktop PC, than using my Kindle Fire tablet's glass for the flippers buttons in TBA. Same is true for the nudge. As far as the picture, I use my monitor (and sometimes my TV) with the Fire on TPA and with the Win8 PC on PBFX2. Although I think the picture from Windows 8 with PBFX2 is benefiting because my graphics adapter on my desktop PC is a lot more powerful than on my Fire.

I really hope they have the Xbox 360 controller support as well. I bought a controller this weekend for plaing PFX2 while I hooked my laptop up to my TV through the HDMI output and it was great. If this is done this way then I will be buying all of the tables again for sure.

 

[grunger106]

Looking forward to this - Surface RT ready......

 

[iCub]

Mines a 2ghz core2 duo with an ati radeon hd2600 pro mobile. No slouch in its time but it's time is not now.

I have Pinball FX2 running on just such a laptop as well as on an Intel Series 4 gfx laptop. Both work fine at 1280x800 provided you enable the lower quality graphics mode. This cuts out features like ball reflections, advanced lighting, transparencies etc (On Mars, the table walls are solid like the original ZP rather than the transparent versions on ZP2).

In response to Nik Barbour, Pinball FX2 on Win8 is actually visually superior to the PS3 version. I did a side by side comparison of the Mars table in High Quality Mode on my desktop and there was a noticable difference in texture quality on the Mars table (see background starfield) not to mention the boost in resolution. Transparencies are a weakness on the PS3 and so the sides of the Mars table look blocky compared to the Win8 version too.

Where I did sense a difference, and this is entirely subjective, is the physics, that seems ever so slightly dulled on the Win8 release.

Zen have also confirmed that they are in talks with Steam about getting a Win7 verison on there in the near future. They have said that it will have more advance graphical options to take better advantage of powerful PCs along with universal scoreboards and steam integration.

 

[dirtyvu]

Where I did sense a difference, and this is entirely subjective, is the physics, that seems ever so slightly dulled on the Win8 release.

I've never thought physics has ever been a strong point of Pinball FX2/Zen Pinball 2. The game is cool and all. But it doesn't feel like pinball. It's way too easy to do things like trap the ball. The ball movement is way too predictable and controllable in the video pinball. The game is actually much easier than real pinball.

I don't have the same tables between the PC and the Xbox because I don't like to repeat-buy so i can't do a direct comparison (well, I guess I could go off of demos) but they don't seem different at all. Using the exact same controller on both (just resync it to the PC and then back to the 360).

 

[Robert Hunt]

Why is this forum so dead? Where is TPA for the Surface RT? I just talked my pops into ditching his Nexus 10 for a Surface RT tablet, and now he wants to know why the only pinball he sees in the store is Pinball FX2! (Okay maybe it's me that wants to know.)

And before anybody tells me I was crazy for suggesting he make that switch (or that he was crazy for listening to me) save your breath. The Nexus 10 is an amazing achievement (and will clearly render TPA better) but the Surface is in an altogether different league when it comes to both web surfing and basic productivity tasks. People who knock it simply don't know it.

 

[shutyertrap]

I'd say the this thread in the forum is dead because there's nothing to really talk about yet!

 

[dirtyvu]

yeah, FarSight has so much on their plate and they're struggling to get things done. so many platforms, so much left undone...