The PS3 "super patch"

[spoonman]

Does anyone notice more jaggies after the patch?

Certain tables such as RBION and Funhouse seem to really show off the jagginess more than ever.
I really think TPA could use some Anti Aliasing on the PS3.

I don't have any way to make a screen shot, but on RIBION it's most obvious on the gold metal "wireframe" ramps.. <- sorry I forget what they're called at the moment.

 

[crazyflipperfingers]

Just a quick tip...
For those who have purchased every table in Season 1 and/or Season 2, It's much quicker to go to the PSN Store and download the full Season Packs then it is to do while in TPA. I just grabbed and qeued both and let them download in the background.

PLEASE NOTE: This will also queue up the Vita versions as well since they are bundled together, but I suggest exiting out of the store once you get them all set and then delete the Vita table DLC from your "Download Management" on your XMB if it's unneeded.

In addition to that, if you select TURN OFF SYSTEM, and check off Turn off system automatically after background download.

It will auto install all of these packs for you as well. It works out well for me since I don't have time to play them right now, but I will later tonight so if all goes as planned they should all be downloaded, installed, and ready to play.

spoonman,

I found the Season 1 pack in the PSN store as "Season 1 Bundle", but I cannot find how to download all of season 2 (there is no "Season 2 Bundle"). I own all the tables for the second season and "Season Two Pass" is all I can find in the store and I only have the option to purchase it, not download as with season 1. I've tried browsing everything under "Pinball Arcade" and searching for everything containing "season" and "bundle" with no luck. How did you do it?

 

[Lazareth]

With the release of this megapatch FS can attempt to fix little issues found in the PS3 tables with no problem now, right?

 

[spoonman]

update #5, 4/8/2014

I think Farsight has done a great job with this patch. Everything looks to be much improved!

Here's my attempt at compiling a changelog based on comparisons from pre-Super Patch data.
If anyone has anything to add please let me know and I'll update it and give credit.


Added to TPA via Super Patch:
1. More responsive flippers.
2. Stereoscopic 3D *press triangle /\ and use right analog stick to adjust strength.
3. Audio mixing via sliders (sound effects / table music / menu music)
4. Default *Ching* sound removed when typing initials for high score allowing you to hear the intended sound effect.
5. Global contrast and saturation improvements on most table assets.

Changes noticed on tables:

ATTACK FROM MARS
Pop bumpers are improved *
Black seam half way up playfield art is now gone *

BLACK KNIGHT
No more scorch mark on the playfield!
Balls don't travel through the table.

CACTUS CANYON
Improved colors
Better camera angles (you can now clearly see the right outlane.
Guns look better (might be from better lighting?)

CIRQUS VOLTAIRE
The screen is much brighter and looks fantastic. Perhaps they are using a higher resolution scan?
The neon reflects on the insides of the table (nice effect!).
The whole table feels less floaty and much more fluid.
Ringmaster looks more 3D and polished looking.
Added lightning bolt sticker on neon tube & sticker to left of DMD on back wall & sticker on the highwire ramp.*

DR DUDE
Wow! The colors really pop on this.
Not much else noticed.

ELVIRA AND THE PARTY MONSTERS
Black seam half way up playfield art is now gone. *
Texture added to translucent Party Punch Ramp.

FIREPOWER
The pop bumpers are vastly improved. *

FUNHOUSE
The plunger now pulls back all the way *

HARLEY DAVIDSON
Table contrast and color saturation has been adjusted. No more "pale rider"

NO GOOD GOPHERS
Contrast and muted colors were adjusted.
The playing field might be a little bit too dark compared to other tables.
Ramps are a nicer and more colorful shade of blue.

RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT
Probably the best looking table now!
Sharper table graphics.
Rails look more golden and now cast shadows onto table.
Ramps cast light differently and are a deeper red.

STAR TREK TNG
Table is no longer giving off a pink hue.
The table is much brighter and colors more vivid.
The gamer angle for probe launching has been improved.
The blue shield lights above the Enterprise are now correctly aligned. *

T2 JUDGEMENT DAY
Colors are more accurate.

TEE'D OFF
No more pink hue.
Palm trees look improved.

TWILIGHT ZONE
Better colors (no more pink hue).
Pop bumpers have a better than texture and look better when lit. They have a shiny 3D look to them.
Metal ramp looks improved.
Gumball machine looks awesome now!

WHITE WATER
It no longer crashes the PS3!
Table graphics are much cleaner.
Colors are more accurate.

* = submitted by shutyertrap
* = submitted by Grashopper


FUTURE PATCH REQUESTS ...."Mega Patch" ?
1. Ability to play custom music either via the XMB or in game menu. (Would be perfect for Arcade Ambience mp3 background sounds!)
2. Online co-op play with option with voice chat.
3. The Pinball Arcade main menu overhaul.
4. Lighting day/night slider. (This was discussed by Farsight quite a while ago, but as of yet, not implemented.)
5. Improved pinball flyer scans (1920x1080 pixel or higher would be idea for consoles)
6. Further refinement and replacement of blurry table graphics (I.E. CFTBL - Title card, instructions, Universal Monsters sticker, and the bumper next to the KISS lane, Victory playfield is low res. )
7. Seperate savable camera view option settings for EACH table for every option: (submitted be Neil L.)
8. The ability to view table instructions while game is paused. (New)
9. Option to remove HUD when table is in "pre-play" panning attract mode.
10. Option for table glass and reflections (like in Williams Pinball Hall of Fame)
11. TATE mode for PS3 version. Perfect for rotatable screens.
12. Multi-controller support. (Submitted by MonkeyGrass)
12. Add Hall of Fame Scoring. (Submitted by Grashopper)

Spoonman, don't forget to make an entry for Firepower. The pop bumpers are vastly improved.

Thanks man!

Spoonman,

Can you please add multi-controller support to your wish-list of updates for future patches? That is literally the ONLY thing I'm still dying for over here. Hosting TPA tournaments is a real bear with only one active controller!!

Tnx

Got it! Thanks for reminding me on that.

spoonman,

I found the Season 1 pack in the PSN store as "Season 1 Bundle", but I cannot find how to download all of season 2 (there is no "Season 2 Bundle"). I own all the tables for the second season and "Season Two Pass" is all I can find in the store and I only have the option to purchase it, not download as with season 1. I've tried browsing everything under "Pinball Arcade" and searching for everything containing "season" and "bundle" with no luck. How did you do it?

Weird.... I just checked for it on the web version of the PSN Store and I don't see it either. Perhaps they removed it to change something in time for Tuesday's update.
I can check later on the PS3 to see if it's showing up.

All I did was search for Pinball Arcade and then clicked on "Add-Ons" and Season 1 and Season 2 bundles were there.
If nothing else you can still queue up each table pack and save some time from doing it within TPA.

 

[ScotchYeti]

Some of the tables I tried felt very responsive now but its still noticeable that something is slightly off on the tables that have been the worst offenders historically, like CFTBL and TOTAN.

Ah, ok, the first table I tried was TOTAN, and MM behaved in a similar way. That's no problem though, the tables look much better now, even in 720p!

Talking about TOTAN, when you pull the plunger the ball isn't always shot into the hole at the top.

@maezun,

Try MMOGA: http://www.mmoga.co.uk/
They are reliable and send you the code within 5min. They might want to call you when you do your first order.

 

[Jan Duin]

Well I couldn't help myself and deleted the EU version and downloaded the patch on my US account. Only tried the 4 standard tables but they look and play so much better! Ball physics have really improved. I always suffered from flipper lag and for me it's still there in 1080p but I noticed that switching from L2/R2 to L1/R1 improves the responsiveness of the flippers considerably.

I've re-downloaded the EU version again last night in eager anticipation of the patch (wizard goals and high scores were still there..) Bring it on!!

 

[grashopper]

@spoonman how does co-op work? One of you is the left flipper and one the right?

I would like to see the hall of fame scores make their way to consoles if you're taking suggestions.

 

[DarkAkatosh]

No listing for Taxi? The colors are right up to where they were in PHOF if not better.

 

[Morg]

There was no complete Season 2 Bundle for me either. I wasn't too surprised as the same thing happened when I bought Season 2 originally. It came with the first 4 or 5 packs but I had to go back and get the rest one at a time. Maybe the option that is there contains all that was released up to the time when they put the full season up for sale? I even had to re-download a table or two from the first season which I didn't remember needing to do the first time(Gorgar was from Season 1, right?).

It was still a good bit faster than getting them all from in-game at least.

 

[maezun]

@maezun,

Try MMOGA: http://www.mmoga.co.uk/
They are reliable and send you the code within 5min. They might want to call you when you do your first order.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll have a look

 

[shutyertrap]

Talking about TOTAN, when you pull the plunger the ball isn't always shot into the hole at the top.

Was just playing a beautiful TOTAN yesterday, flawless. I pulled the plunger all the way back, and the ball hit the back wall of the skill shot and bounced to the middle. In order to make the top shot, you had to back off a touch. There were also a crazy amount of time the ball jumped from right by the lamp, over the ball lock plastic, into the right loop lane.

It's fun getting the chance to compare an immaculate version of a table to TPA. I just know if those random ball hops to different areas of the playfield happened in TPA, they'd be pegged for a bug!

 

[BBIAJ]

Well I couldn't help myself and deleted the EU version and downloaded the patch on my US account. Only tried the 4 standard tables but they look and play so much better! Ball physics have really improved. I always suffered from flipper lag and for me it's still there in 1080p but I noticed that switching from L2/R2 to L1/R1 improves the responsiveness of the flippers considerably.

I've re-downloaded the EU version again last night in eager anticipation of the patch (wizard goals and high scores were still there..) Bring it on!!

Do you know if there a way to enable 3D in the demo? I'm in the UK, and the wait is killing me, so I've downloaded the US demo, in the hopes of checking out the playable tables in 3D, but unless I'm having a major derp moment, I can't see where to activate it?

Holding down Triangle in-game isn't bringing up any kind of 3D menu.

The only other thing I can think of is that the Stereoscopic 3D option data is contained within the tables that need to be redownloaded from the PSN...

Ah well, I'll keep waiting, I'm really looking forward to it!

 

[spoonman]

@spoonman how does co-op work? One of you is the left flipper and one the right?

I would like to see the hall of fame scores make their way to consoles if you're taking suggestions.

It could be the same as local co-op except your friend(s) can be anywhere in the world and you could chat while playing.
Then it could have other online modes like Zen has.

Added request.

 

[spoonman]

No listing for Taxi? The colors are right up to where they were in PHOF if not better.

Yeah, it looks a bit better. I'll just keep that under
"5. Global contrast and saturation improvements on most table assets." for now.

I still think it needs some major graphical improvements. The table graphics look much lower resolution than most others. It's more apparent in the attract mode.

Do you know if there a way to enable 3D in the demo? I'm in the UK, and the wait is killing me, so I've downloaded the US demo, in the hopes of checking out the playable tables in 3D, but unless I'm having a major derp moment, I can't see where to activate it?

Holding down Triangle in-game isn't bringing up any kind of 3D menu.

The only other thing I can think of is that the Stereoscopic 3D option data is contained within the tables that need to be redownloaded from the PSN...

Ah well, I'll keep waiting, I'm really looking forward to it!

I didn't think you guys in the UK received the Super Patch yet.

Anyway, you would have to see an option for "Enable 3D" in the main settings screen.
The triangle + right analog stick is only to adjust the level of 3D separation.

 

[Daniel Osborne]

When is it available in the UK? I finally got my terminator kickstarter reward and want to play the ps3 version.

 

[BBIAJ]

Yeah, it looks a bit better. I'll just keep that under
"5. Global contrast and saturation improvements on most table assets." for now.

I still think it needs some major graphical improvements. The table graphics look much lower resolution than most others. It's more apparent in the attract mode.




I didn't think you guys in the UK received the Super Patch yet.

Anyway, you would have to see an option for "Enable 3D" in the main settings screen.
The triangle + right analog stick is only to adjust the level of 3D separation.

We haven't yet, that's why I downloaded the demo from the US (which then had a patch), the initial 4 tables, and maybe the handful of others that are also demo-able, certainly look different (Black Hole is massively improved from the PAL version, you can actually see the table now, rather than it looking like you're playing in pitch black!), there is sadly no option for 3D in the demo, I've looked every where.

Fingers crossed then that the patch arrives tomorrow for us EU PSN users.

 

[maezun]

We haven't yet, that's why I downloaded the demo from the US (which then had a patch), the initial 4 tables, and maybe the handful of others that are also demo-able, certainly look different (Black Hole is massively improved from the PAL version, you can actually see the table now, rather than it looking like you're playing in pitch black!), there is sadly no option for 3D in the demo, I've looked every where.

Fingers crossed then that the patch arrives tomorrow for us EU PSN users.

I downloaded the U.S demo too. The 3D options menu is in the main "options" screen when you load up the demo (where you choose what season etc.). Cheers.

 

[BBIAJ]

I downloaded the U.S demo too. The 3D options menu is in the main "options" screen when you load up the demo (where you choose what season etc.). Cheers.

Thanks, I'd already looked there, and it wasn't there, so I booted up Zen Pinball 2, knowing that that should ask me if I wanted to enable 3D, which it didn't, so I then went via my PS3's display settings, only to discover that for some reason, 3D viewing needed to be re-enabled.

So after all that kerfuffle, I can finally see the 3D Mode: On/Off option, but when I turn it on, it says "In order for display changes to take effect you must restart The Pinball Arcade". Doing this, presumably by quitting and reloading the game, does nothing, and just continuing to play the game with the 3D toggle turned on also does nothing.

Am I missing something really obvious here?

 

[Daniel Osborne]

Still no eu update, and season 2 now disappeared from the main screen, and my code for ps3 T2 was not valid or outdated. What's going on?

 

[Jan Duin]

I'd expect the update to be available with the EU PSN Store update tomorrow afternoon.