How do you switch off the goony 3D animations?

[Mirabilis]

Every table seems to have some kind of daft 3D animation on it, including the Williams tables. The animations are poorly implemented, distracting and goony-looking.

I can't find a way to switch them off. Is it possible?

[Pinballwiz45b]

On the Williams tables, there is a button you can press on either controller or keyboard, to disable the extra animations. You'll have to look in the settings / list of controls to find it.

[Max Velocity]

To disable the animations [or toggle them on/off] you need to press the 'Visual Mode' button which is set by default to the 'B' button on controller or the 'G' key on keyboard.

[Mirabilis]

Thanks folks!

[Jambon Emmental]

I do wonder what proportion of users opt to turn off the animations (can Zen collect stats on this?). I suspect at first they seem quite impressive for a lot of folk when they see them in a trailer but they end up being irritating and distraction imho. Appreciate that they give us the option to turn them off. Would be great if they gave us the option to ignore the game room and its (in my case) empty shelves and plinths. I wonder why they don't.

[Yakass]

Originally posted by Jambon Emmental:

I do wonder what proportion of users opt to turn off the animations (can Zen collect stats on this?). I suspect at first they seem quite impressive for a lot of folk when they see them in a trailer but they end up being irritating and distraction imho. Appreciate that they give us the option to turn them off. Would be great if they gave us the option to ignore the game room and its (in my case) empty shelves and plinths. I wonder why they don't.

I suspect some people don't even know they can be turned off and just learn to live with it. All that added "flair" really is just a distraction and it's not particularly helpful on the frame rates either.

Zen, I get it, you want to add your "touch" to these tables. But really you're wasting time and effort because no one I know appreciates this. Save this sort of thing for the original tables where it makes more sense.

[Matt Beeching]

Originally posted by Yakass:

Originally posted by Jambon Emmental:

I do wonder what proportion of users opt to turn off the animations (can Zen collect stats on this?). I suspect at first they seem quite impressive for a lot of folk when they see them in a trailer but they end up being irritating and distraction imho. Appreciate that they give us the option to turn them off. Would be great if they gave us the option to ignore the game room and its (in my case) empty shelves and plinths. I wonder why they don't.

I suspect some people don't even know they can be turned off and just learn to live with it. All that added "flair" really is just a distraction and it's not particularly helpful on the frame rates either.

Zen, I get it, you want to add your "touch" to these tables. But really you're wasting time and effort because no one I know appreciates this. Save this sort of thing for the original tables where it makes more sense.

The option to disable them is blatantly not clear enough as this keeps getting raised - I suspect most players look in the graphics settings rather than controls.

I have mixed opinions on the Visual Extras, I do still use them on some tables and there's minimal performance overhead (IJ being a possible exception). However I can't stand stuff like the bulldozer and SFX on Roadshow.

Most of the new inner blade art looks fantastic and I often wish that was available as a separate option.

[Yakass]

Yeah, I had to ask around to figure it out at first. And yes performance overhead is minimal (on my system anyway) but its there. Players with lower end systems are probably well advised to switch it off for this reason alone.

I dunno, I guess some people like the flair of it all but it's just an unnecessary distraction to me. I'm certainly not alone in turning it off so I do wonder if its even worth Zen's time and effort doing it. Makes sense for their originals sure, not so much with Williams tables though

[Jambon Emmental]

Originally posted by Yakass:

I dunno, I guess some people like the flair of it all but it's just an unnecessary distraction to me. I'm certainly not alone in turning it off so I do wonder if its even worth Zen's time and effort doing it. Makes sense for their originals sure, not so much with Williams tables though

My theory is many people are *initially* impressed with these effects when they see them in trailers etc so Zen continues to add them because they help drive sales, even if in practice most folk end up turning them off (or wanting to turn them off if they can't find the button) after 2 mins. In other words, it's mainly a marketing gimmick. Of course, there will be some people who genuinely like the effects (which is obviously fair enough) but i do wonder how many.

[FoxyLoxy]

According to Mel Kirk at Zen:

"98% of people who play Williams games, will play the Enhanced version"

What the details are, I don't know.

Regardless: it's a button press to disable the effects.

But I do think they should add some UI to let people know the effects can be toggled on/off easily.

[Jambon Emmental]

Originally posted by FoxyLoxy:

According to Mel Kirk at Zen:

"98% of people who play Williams games, will play the Enhanced version"

What the details are, I don't know.

Regardless: it's a button press to disable the effects.

But I do think they should add some UI to let people know the effects can be toggled on/off easily.

Good stats finding thanks! (assuming Mel Kirk was telling the truth ...). I wonder what % it would be if having the effects off was the default. It's human nature to just go along with the default (there's quite a lot of behavioural psychology research that points to that anyhow). By the way, i'm not moaning at Zen here and applaud them for making it optional. Just find it an interesting topic.

[Yakass]

"I wonder what % it would be if having the effects off was the default. It's human nature to just go along with the default"
Exactly

[Rainy]

I like the effects

[FBlue]

Originally posted by Jambon Emmental:

I do wonder what proportion of users opt to turn off the animations (can Zen collect stats on this?). I suspect at first they seem quite impressive for a lot of folk when they see them in a trailer but they end up being irritating and distraction imho. Appreciate that they give us the option to turn them off. Would be great if they gave us the option to ignore the game room and its (in my case) empty shelves and plinths. I wonder why they don't.

I have them both on and off depending on the table. Some of those animations are really hard to play with. I would like a third option of keeping on the extra art on but no animations. A forth option of toning down the animations would be nice too but probably too much work for them.

[FBlue]

Originally posted by Yakass:

"I wonder what % it would be if having the effects off was the default. It's human nature to just go along with the default"
Exactly

Yes it's human nature to go along with default. Who knows how many of these people ever really played real tables or older tables. For someone that likes older tables one reason I put off playing this game was the animations. If I would have known I could turn them off earlier I might have gotten the game sooner.

[Crysta]

I for one didn't even really know what the extra visual effects were and just went along with it until I found this thread... and now the tables are SO MUCH EASIER to play without the distracting stuff going on. I turn the effects off now.