The PS3 "super patch"

[Tabe]

Genie actually, to me, looks like it got improved a little bit with a recent updates. Not quite as blinding.

 

[spoonman]

Thanks for the updates Flippy. I look forward to the changes.

By any chance do you know if they were able to add the option to play your own music via the PS3 XMB in this patch?
I've been bugging Farsight since The Williams Pinball Hall of Fame collection and just about a year ago they said this is something they will definitely consider.

This is a feature I use all the time with Zen Pinball and I think it would be awesome to use with TPA as well.
A few if the older games (Black Hole for instance) can get a bit repetitive after a while. Being able to play some 80s music in the background would bring me back to my old arcade days.

Or the other thing I mentioned... Grabbing the excellent Arcade Ambience collections and hearing all of the old arcade sounds while playing pinball.

If this isn't included please take it into consideration for the future. Thanks.

 

[Neil L]

Black Knight looks the worst by far. Genie is the second worst. I don't think anything is wrong with Cirqus Voltaire. Harley and Taxi are the most washed out looking and No Good Gophers is too but not as bad in my opinion. The washed out look doesn't bother me as much as the bright colors of Black Knight and Genie though.

I totally agree on the above.
Now that Black Knight's getting a makeover could the ball number sword be moved up to the top under the score, there's a few more PHoF tables with ball/player numbers at the bottom (Firepower etc) could these also be moved up by the scores?
On the subject of score displays, some seem too far away from the top corner/s and overlap the table a bit (FH & BoP spring to mind)

Looking forward to the update patch.

 

[brakel]

I totally agree on the above.
Now that Black Knight's getting a makeover could the ball number sword be moved up to the top under the score, there's a few more PHoF tables with ball/player numbers at the bottom (Firepower etc) could these also be moved up by the scores?
On the subject of score displays, some seem too far away from the top corner/s and overlap the table a bit (FH & BoP spring to mind)

Looking forward to the update patch.

Sony makes them keep a wide border. It is the classic producing for the masses. Most TV manufacturers ship their TVs set to overscan, including Sony, and most people don't know to change it. So Sony makes them keep essential things far from the border. There are two things that game devs can do to get around this. The first is to have one of those screen setup menus where you set your TV's scan area. The second is to have a setup menu where the user can set up the position of the HUD items. Neither option is likely to be included in TPA. The good news is that Sony will allow a narrower margin for PS4 games because part of the PS4 setup includes setting the scan area. Hopefully FarSight will be able to take advantage of that on the PS4.

 

[Neil L]

Sony makes them keep a wide border. It is the classic producing for the masses. Most TV manufacturers ship their TVs set to overscan, including Sony, and most people don't know to change it. So Sony makes them keep essential things far from the border. There are two things that game devs can do to get around this. The first is to have one of those screen setup menus where you set your TV's scan area. The second is to have a setup menu where the user can set up the position of the HUD items. Neither option is likely to be included in TPA. The good news is that Sony will allow a narrower margin for PS4 games because part of the PS4 setup includes setting the scan area. Hopefully FarSight will be able to take advantage of that on the PS4.

I understand what you're saying here, the HUD is a perfect position in the corner on nearly all the tables apart from a few tables (FH & BoP are the only ones I can think of at the moment)
The overscan problem shouldn't affect the player/ball numbers moving though.
Sorry if my previous post was a bit confusing.

 

[spoonman]

I understand what you're saying here, the HUD is a perfect position in the corner on nearly all the tables apart from a few tables (FH & BoP are the only ones I can think of at the moment)
The overscan problem shouldn't affect the player/ball numbers moving though.
Sorry if my previous post was a bit confusing.

In a perfect world you would be able to drag and drop those to anywhere on the screen.

I hate to say it, but Zen gives you a ton of options when it comes to the HUD.

 

[Lazareth]

On a different note, I can't stand Zen's table views. NONE of them work for me. They just don't feel right. TPA on the other hand, much superior in that dept imo.

Would be nice to be able to create and save custom table views for the Zen tables, even on the TPA it could be cool.

 

[MonkeyGrass]

Hey Flippy Floppy,

Any chance of lightening ToM to match the color saturation levels of the mobile platforms? I love that table but it's exceedingly dark on PS3. Pull it up next to any mobile version and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

As for the rest - BK is far and away the worst offender. Anything you can do to get it back to more of the P:HOF collection version would be much appreciated. Taxi is a washed out mess, as is Genie. NGG could certainly use some love as well.

Thanks again for everything you are doing. I think you are getting a good idea of why so many PS3 players are bummed over TPA versions of tables that played and looked a lot better in the P:HOF series. It's like the whole game took a giant step backwards when it moved over to TPA platform. Flipper lag, lighting and artwork issues, and the loss of multi-controller ability and the Challenge mode were all glaring problems that began with TPA, and improvements in any of those areas would be awesome.

Thanks!

 

[Kratos3]

I think some of the PS3 tables have a dark room lighting scheme.

 

[Byte]

@FlippyFloppy:

what error/issue database is FS using to keep track of PS3 bugs?

For instance, the restart-Funhouse-too-soon-after-previous-game still results in that "lookaround mode" where you have to quit the current game to get out of it.

 

[ER777]

On a different note, I can't stand Zen's table views. NONE of them work for me. They just don't feel right. TPA on the other hand, much superior in that dept imo.

I completely agree with this. It has always bothered me that none of the views in Zen really feel comfortable to me. I've suggested to the more than once that they simply need to add a fixed view that mimics the viewing angle of a real normal-sized person playing a real machine (not someone 4 feet tall or 8 feet tall like the options they have now) and everyone would love it. Unfortunately they never listened.

So TPA is more than superior as far as viewing options go. Independently selecting an angle and then fixed or panning is perfect. The only thing I could see TPA doing to improve it would be to add more angles to the choices, kind of like when they had 5 in PHoF, and standardize them across tables.

 

[Tann]

TPA camera system is far superior because the unlocked camera actually "preceed" the ball movement. It's a little thing, but it makes the camera view & panning very smooth and comfortable while playing.

For example, when the ball is in the upper part of a table (zoomed view), and starts to go down, the camera zooms out before the ball goes down. It's just perfect.

In Zen, the camera always sticks to the ball (like the majority of pinball videogames) and, added to the uncomfortable views, makes the camera system tedious while playing.

 

[FlippyFloppy]

Hello Forum members,

Just wanted to keep in touch and let you know where were at with the mega patch. We talked with Sony today about submitting the mega patch as it was supposed to go in today but it will get pushed back to next Tuesday. So were pretty much getting in our last fixes. I tried to upload a picture of the changes done to Black Knight but for some reason the forum wouldn't allow me to. We were able to change a few of the several of the lamp textures and there was a lighting pass to brighten it up a little but overall, the table would need to be completely overhauled and recreated in the same manner that we create our new tables. Since it was a bonus table with Creature from the Black Lagoon, it is on the low priority list for our artist as they are currently devoted to making the new tables to maintain the S3 standard and Orbals.

So back to the mega patch, since we are submitting it on Tuesday to Sony, we are expecting it to be available in early March. We will announce which day exactly in the upcoming newsletter and I will also post it here in the forums. As much as we tried, we wanted this out in December but we ran into complications several steps of the way. Fixing one bug would create three others or one fix for one platform would disable. But now we feel that we have brought PS3 up to par with the other platforms, the performance has been improved, several textures have been improved, several bugs have been fixed, new menus have been added such as the sound setting and challenge mode, and also the 3D option. If you do play with the 3D option, my favorites are attack from mars, fish tales, and scared stiff!

Thank you all for your patience! Also feel free to email our customer support with any questions or concerns or feel free to send me a private message here in the forums.

 

[FlippyFloppy]

Thanks for the updates Flippy. I look forward to the changes.
By any chance do you know if they were able to add the option to play your own music via the PS3 XMB in this patch?
I've been bugging Farsight since The Williams Pinball Hall of Fame collection and just about a year ago they said this is something they will definitely consider.
This is a feature I use all the time with Zen Pinball and I think it would be awesome to use with TPA as well.
A few if the older games (Black Hole for instance) can get a bit repetitive after a while. Being able to play some 80s music in the background would bring me back to my old arcade days.
Or the other thing I mentioned... Grabbing the excellent Arcade Ambience collections and hearing all of the old arcade sounds while playing pinball.
If this isn't included please take it into consideration for the future. Thanks.

Hi spoonman,
There is a Sound setting that will be in the mega patch. You can change the volume of the SFX, Table Music, and Menu Music.

I think some of the PS3 tables have a dark room lighting scheme.

Hi Kratos3,
I have brought this to the attention of our artist because I had also noticed that we had three different table environments. The third would be Black Rose which now has the darker environment. We are looking into this and I will get back to you when I have an answer.

@FlippyFloppy:

what error/issue database is FS using to keep track of PS3 bugs?

For instance, the restart-Funhouse-too-soon-after-previous-game still results in that "lookaround mode" where you have to quit the current game to get out of it.

Hi Byte,
We use Mantis for bug tracking. I personally know that bug is in our database because I put it in a while back. The problem lies in the delay when the ball is released onto the table and the emulation recognizes that it is in active state. I will follow up on this issue with one of our programmers again on Monday.

Hey Flippy Floppy,
Any chance of lightening ToM to match the color saturation levels of the mobile platforms? I love that table but it's exceedingly dark on PS3. Pull it up next to any mobile version and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
As for the rest - BK is far and away the worst offender. Anything you can do to get it back to more of the P:HOF collection version would be much appreciated. Taxi is a washed out mess, as is Genie. NGG could certainly use some love as well.
Thanks again for everything you are doing. I think you are getting a good idea of why so many PS3 players are bummed over TPA versions of tables that played and looked a lot better in the P:HOF series. It's like the whole game took a giant step backwards when it moved over to TPA platform. Flipper lag, lighting and artwork issues, and the loss of multi-controller ability and the Challenge mode were all glaring problems that began with TPA, and improvements in any of those areas would be awesome.
Thanks!

Hi MonkeyGrass,

I was told there was a lighting pass done on ToM but I wasn’t able to see the before and after pictures. From what I remember, some of the textures were corrected. The mobile version should have different textures from the ps3, from what I understand, the artist create two versions where one is more compressed so that the mobile platforms such as android, ios, and vita will use. Then you have the others which the stronger platforms will use.
Black Knight did have a few changes made. But because of process in order to bring it up to S3 standards, it would require a complete overhaul of the table in which we break down the table and start from scratch. But we were able to make a few minor changes with some of the lamps and a lighting pass was done on it.

As for the flipper lag, several of the tables performance has been increased. From what I have tested, I didn’t notice any flipper lag on any of the tables. I went through pretty much every mode on every table over the past two weeks and I did not experience any performance loss (Tested at 1080p and 720).

With all that said, we are still tackling bugs and trying to make TPA the best pinball arcade experience for everyone. So feel free to voice your opinions by sending our customer support an email.

 

[grashopper]

Thank you for the update. Glad to hear the Super Patch is coming along.

Gotta say though, hearing it's a "low priority" and it being a "bonus" is kind of upsetting. As the tables were being sold to us they were "ground up remakes", after the fact when trying to sell one table they were a "bonus" they they threw in because most of the work was done already. It's been over a year since Bobby King has said that the art would be fixed. Just kind of hurts to have already paid FS for something that you expect to at least be up to the standard as FarSights older product. Yet a year goes by and it still really cant be bothered to be fixed.
Instead of being accountable for the sub-par product it feels like a take the money and run. Time goes by...lets hope they forget. As was the "free ball skin" for PS3 owners for some of the early game breaking patches. Stuff is promised to keep us buying then brushed under the rug when it comes to fulfillment.
I know it's not your decision as to what takes priority so I'm not ripping into you...really, thanks for coming into this section and having the fan interaction. Looking forward to the fixes we will get. Glad it's getting a little love.

Maybe I'm just cranky after hearing Season Pass for season 3 will be pulled before I ever had a chance to buy it as a PS3 owner. Not a good day

 

[FlippyFloppy]

Hey grasshopper,

I understand where your coming from and it's still something I got my supervisor pushing for. It's just the timing right now with our current projects will not allow us to pull resources to fix it in time for the mega patch. With that said, these issues have been rekindled in a way that I can pursue getting the fixes for it. As for the reworks, from what I was told they were tossed in with a developed table. An example would be Creature from the black lagoon was the table sold and Black Knight was reworked and added in. As for the season 3 pass, it will be available after all the tables have been released for season 3. Our team has went through some changes over the past few months (me included) so feel free to email our customer support and were always looking for ways fix any problems, address questions or concerns, or even share a laugh.

 

[grashopper]

Hey grasshopper,

I understand where your coming from and it's still something I got my supervisor pushing for. It's just the timing right now with our current projects will not allow us to pull resources to fix it in time for the mega patch. With that said, these issues have been rekindled in a way that I can pursue getting the fixes for it. As for the reworks, from what I was told they were tossed in with a developed table. An example would be Creature from the black lagoon was the table sold and Black Knight was reworked and added in. As for the season 3 pass, it will be available after all the tables have been released for season 3. Our team has went through some changes over the past few months (me included) so feel free to email our customer support and were always looking for ways fix any problems, address questions or concerns, or even share a laugh.

Yeah I get what your saying. it just kind of stinks to hear they haven't been doing any work in the past year. If they fiddled with it on and off hour here and there it could have been done. When originally selling the two tables they made it out like each one was getting the same amount of work, then recently they turned into "bonuses". I absolutely didn't expect it to be fixed in the span of a month to make it into the "super patch". Just would be great to hear time was being made to get work in on it's major issues.

Anyway, thanks for pushing for it. Really appreciated.
Sorry I kinda was a thread downer.
Wanna share a laugh? If ya are a PS3 owner ya can add me and look at my leaderboard scores

 

[Tann]

it was supposed to go in today but it will get pushed back to next Tuesday. So back to the mega patch, since we are submitting it on Tuesday to Sony, we are expecting it to be available in early March.

What a good news! I hope there will be no "last minute" complications this time. (but it was for the best, as more fixes have been included due to the delay)

I tried to upload a picture of the changes done to Black Knight but for some reason the forum wouldn't allow me to.

Yep, it's normal. Files can't be attached to a message, "in order to preserve server space" (PinWiz quote ^^)

But now we feel that we have brought PS3 up to par with the other platforms, the performance has been improved, several textures have been improved, several bugs have been fixed, new menus have been added such as the sound setting and challenge mode, and also the 3D option. If you do play with the 3D option, my favorites are attack from mars, fish tales, and scared stiff!

Sounds good, very good. \o/ Two questions:

Do you know if the custom ball texture bug has been fixed?

Did you finally succeed to fix the White Water bug?

As for the flipper lag, several of the tables performance has been increased. From what I have tested, I didn’t notice any flipper lag on any of the tables. I went through pretty much every mode on every table over the past two weeks and I did not experience any performance loss (Tested at 1080p and 720).

Will be the famous PS3 flipper lag gone forever? No more passionate debate on this forum about this? We'll see!

Thank you all for your patience! Also feel free to email our customer support with any questions or concerns or feel free to send me a private message here in the forums.

Thank YOU to keep us in touch and provides all these news. It's really really appreciated. PS3 players won't feel alone anymore.

 

[Kratos3]

Hi Kratos3,
I have brought this to the attention of our artist because I had also noticed that we had three different table environments. The third would be Black Rose which now has the darker environment. We are looking into this and I will get back to you when I have an answer.

Don't go too crazy with it. I actually really like the dark room lighting.

 

[FlippyFloppy]

Don't go too crazy with it. I actually really like the dark room lighting.

me too.