The physics on all tables are off - here's how

[Chyros]

I completely love this game, and what it's trying to achieve. I think FarSight are absolute heroes for trying to preserve this beautiful type of amusement. My hat off to them. However, I've played this game for quite a bit now, and I've noticed something endemic to the game.

I've played plenty of machines in arcades, and moreover, I've owned two pinball tables since my childhood - both of which are in the game. There are three physics problems that plague ALL tables in TPA:

-The tables are not slanted enough. In real life, balls drop down MUCH faster than they do in TPA. The ball in TPA feels like it's on the moon.
-The flippers are too slow and weak. This is incredibly obvious if you've ever played a pinball table. On any real table, flippers switch on and off INSTANTLY, there's no visible delay at all. TPA flippers are quite delayed, and therefore harder to time, and extremely weak, which makes shots near the centre disproportionally hard.
-The rubber on TPA bands is slightly too springy. The ball hops across pins much too easily, and sidebands bounce back too far.

I guess it'd be hard to correct this now without wiping the leaderboards (not that I care about those, I just want to have a fun time), but I genuinely hope they allow individual users to adjust physics settings like these to match up more closely with real-life physics.

[Lord Squeak]

with fresh rubbers on a real table, you get quite a lot of bouncing.

I would recommend turning off V-sync to deal with the flipper delay problem.

[Mal]

Originally posted by Chyros:

-The tables are not slanted enough. In real life, balls drop down MUCH faster than they do in TPA. The ball in TPA feels like it's on the moon.

Table pitch is set by the owner/operator. The setup on the table you owned would not be the same as the one I own.

Originally posted by Chyros:

-The flippers are too slow and weak. This is incredibly obvious if you've ever played a pinball table. On any real table, flippers switch on and off INSTANTLY, there's no visible delay at all. TPA flippers are quite delayed, and therefore harder to time, and extremely weak, which makes shots near the centre disproportionally hard.

Input delay is caused by pre-rendered frames and is usually a problem with Vsync. Turn Vsync Off, or use Adaptive/Fast Sync and set the pre-rendered frame to 1 in your video card driver suite.

Originally posted by Chyros:

-The rubber on TPA bands is slightly too springy. The ball hops across pins much too easily, and sidebands bounce back too far.

This is a table to table issue, and there are different underlying physics depending on season.

Originally posted by Chyros:

I guess it'd be hard to correct this now without wiping the leaderboards (not that I care about those, I just want to have a fun time), but I genuinely hope they allow individual users to adjust physics settings like these to match up more closely with real-life physics.

The physics in TPA are the most accurate and real-to-life of any video pin software.

[baddog993]

I agree 100% with Mal's opinion. The physics in TPA are the most accurate that I have played. I have other pinball games but this is the best one for realistic physics.

[LeeVanCleef]

They get my vote for best physics in video pinball. It would be nice to think that Farsight's hard at work tweaking the physics and they'll release an even better build soon. That's probably very wishful thinking.

[RONC1692]

OP is right about the flippers. I worked for a vending company as a second job for many years and played most of these machines, but playing these flippers is like slogging through mud,I wish it wasn't true, but in all honesty, there horrible!

[Miro Sato]

Originally posted by RONC1692:

OP is right about the flippers. I worked for a vending company as a second job for many years and played most of these machines, but playing these flippers is like slogging through mud,I wish it wasn't true, but in all honesty, there horrible!:pba_flipper:

It's a software/hardware problem on your end. It's instant for me after setting maximum pre-rendered frames to 1 in the Nvidia control panel and V-Sync to off.

[Chyros]

Maybe "delay" isn't the right word. They're just a LOT faster in real life. If translated to a program, a real flipper would switch between off and fully on in a single frame basically. Here you can clearly see the flippers go up, they're a lot slower than they are in the real world.

[Hitpawz]

It's not that I dislike the physics in TPA, but it's far from the most accurate. I would give that crown to Pro Pinball. Timeshock Ultra's physics are beyond this series' and the difference is very noticeable. Compare how the ball feels like it has weight in that game to how it feels like a ping pong ball in TPA. Again, I think the physics in Farsight's games are good enough, just not where they COULD be.

[Tempest]

The flippers are delayed a tad with the keyboard. If you use a gamepad there is no lag. The physics are generally fine but as I mentioned a while ago it would be great if the plunger worked better with the gamepad and if you could push the plunger; and it would be great if the ball could bounce off the floor of the table and even hit the glass like in real life.

[CashBailey]

I need to join the chorus in saying the flipper lag is taking any enjoyment out of this game.