Pinball FX 2 - bugs/issues and recommendations

[morphine]

Hello, i get big performance drops after every ball launch, ball transitions and when camera moves from flippers to launch pad and vice versa.

Go into the Nvidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Pick/add Pinball FX2 -> Set "maximum pre-rendered frames" to 1.

Problem fixed.

To the devs:

1) Can you fix the bug described above? I'd guess that 99% of people with Nvidia cards will just think that the game engine is slow and not buy the game. I nearly didn't until I googled for this fix.

2) Please have an option to choose bloom intensity, or disable it at least. It makes the table elements much harder to spot in tables that have many different colors, like Biolab.


PS - Awesome game. It's been many, many years since I got addicted to a video pinball game, and I've played almost every good one since the 90s.

[BarbieBobomb]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Roo5676]

Real Plunger Trouble

I've had the real plunger on my pincab (Nanotech Pinball Wizard kit) working since launch using the x360ce software to emulate the right trigger of an Xbox 360 controller. This works perfectly for moving the onscreen plunger when pulling it back, but has always been flaky when releasing the plunger to launch the ball. More often than not I have to manually move the plunger in with my hand, rather than just releasing it. Otherwise it doesn't launch it, it usually just shakes the ball a little or shoots it 1-2 inches.

Well I think I finally have a theory on what the problem is. It seems like there is a maximum speed at which it will accept the input to launch the ball - if you do it too fast, it won't recognize it. If I manually move the plunger in slowly, I get an underpowered shot like you would expect. If I do it as fast as I can, it doesn't launch the ball - same as when releasing it on its own. But if - like Goldilocks - I do it just right (quick but not too quick), I get a nice full power launch.

Now it's probably impossible to hit this limit by pulling and releasing an Xbox 360 controller's stick or trigger, but a real spring-loaded plunger is very fast when you release it.

If this could be investigated, I would greatly appreciate it. Right now skillshot-based missions are pretty frustrating (Captain America, BioLab, GhostRider).

[spett]

Controller lag on PC?

Hi!

I'm making the switch from 360 to PC, and when i play Pinball FX 2 with my wireless 360-pad i get the feeling that the response is a little slower on the PC-version. Something i have not noticed in other games.

I have played A LOT of PBFX 2 on 360 so i'm really used to that feeling. It could ofcourse be something that's just inside my head.

Has anyone else noticed this or is it me who's crazy? All I wanted was a Pepsi(and pinball).

[BarbieBobomb]

Hi!

I'm making the switch from 360 to PC, and when i play Pinball FX 2 with my wireless 360-pad i get the feeling that the response is a little slower on the PC-version. Something i have not noticed in other games.

I have played A LOT of PBFX 2 on 360 so i'm really used to that feeling. It could ofcourse be something that's just inside my head.

Has anyone else noticed this or is it me who's crazy? All I wanted was a Pepsi(and pinball).

There are some suggestions here, let me know if they work or not

[spett]

There are some suggestions here, let me know if they work or not

Turning off v-sync and changing pre-rendered frames to 1 as adviced in that thread made the input-response silky fast(?) again! Highly recommended for all PC pinball fx-players.

I believe a v-sync on/off-settings in the game would make this problem even easier for people to fix. Something for a feature-wishlist maybe.

Thank you so much for the help!

[BarbieBobomb]

Turning off v-sync and changing pre-rendered frames to 1 as adviced in that thread made the input-response silky fast(?) again! Highly recommended for all PC pinball fx-players.

I believe a v-sync on/off-settings in the game would make this problem even easier for people to fix. Something for a feature-wishlist maybe.

Thank you so much for the help!

Awesome, glad it's working for you now

[rooter]

I've had the real plunger on my pincab (Nanotech Pinball Wizard kit) working since launch using the x360ce software to emulate the right trigger of an Xbox 360 controller. This works perfectly for moving the onscreen plunger when pulling it back, but has always been flaky when releasing the plunger to launch the ball.

If this could be investigated, I would greatly appreciate it. Right now skillshot-based missions are pretty frustrating (Captain America, BioLab, GhostRider).

I had no idea this was so close to working in Pinball FX2. I've found my plunger pretty much useless and it's just plain confusing for my friends playing the game. I really hope they get this sorted out. Does the x360ce software help with any other games? My Nanotech plunger is pretty much worthless in Future Pinball and a pain in the butt to get working in Visual Pinball.

[bgroode]

Suggestions: Command line params - Better reflections

Hi,

I suggest

a) command line params which skip intro and start a table directly!
b) better quality reflections. BECAUSE on my GTX-570 with best settings on 1920x1200 FX2 runs on INSANE 200+ FPS. WOW, I have never seen that before in a game. Much room for better graphics

[Roo5676]

I had no idea this was so close to working in Pinball FX2. I've found my plunger pretty much useless and it's just plain confusing for my friends playing the game. I really hope they get this sorted out. Does the x360ce software help with any other games? My Nanotech plunger is pretty much worthless in Future Pinball and a pain in the butt to get working in Visual Pinball.

Well, you shouldn't need x360ce for other games that support standard joystick input. But since PBFX2 only supports keyboard or Xbox 360 controller, the only way to get analog control of the plunger is by emulating a 360 controller.

I haven't tried FP on my cab. As for VP, I think the support of the program itself is fine, but whether it works in each table is a crapshoot. There are apparently different methods people have used to create the plunger. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it moves it but won't shoot the ball, sometimes nothing happens. You can search threads over at vpforums if you want, but honestly I haven't bothered yet. I don't think I've touched VP since PBFX2 came out, actually.

It is embarrassing trying to explain to friends how to launch the ball in PBFX2 with a flaky plunger, though.

[cminneapple]

Two issues I'm surprised I haven't seen mentioned...

1) In Star Wars Episode V the ball return 'thingy', the wand, when it has more than one ball to kick back, it kicks it back into the drain lane. It's as if it goes too quick and thus spits the ball haphazardly - nine times out of ten right into the drain lane. Frustrating.

2) Spider Man center lane 'hole', ball gets stuck. Bumping the table doesn't correct it for me.

[cminneapple]

To clarify my earlier post regarding Star Wars Episode V - the thingy is the lightsaber (didn't realize that 'till I went back). In whatever multi-ball, when returning a ball (or moving it from the upper field to the lowere) via the LS, the ball doesn't go in the lane it was intending to. And not it faking you out, even if you sit there not anticipating getting the lane lit, it seems to go too quick when trying to return the balls and in veritably sends it into the drain lane.

And like I said. Really frustrating as I haven't done anything wrong or deserve a drain. It's simply moving balls in play and draining them.

Thanks!

[BarbieBobomb]

Thanks for the reports!

[LeanderL]

Not necessarily a bug but how is audio coded in the game? Everything (music, sounds etc.) was louder on my old speakers. Now I got new speakers with a built-in subwoofer and all audio is lower in volume but only in Pinball FX2, not other games or applications.

[Sir Cheddar]

I have some issues while entering highscores after the keyboard configuration update (but regardless of the issues, thanks for giving us that update )

When I enter a highscore pressing left or right moves me 2 letters forward or backward instead of one.
When pressing enter to select a letter I get 2 letters instead of one.

This is of course connected with my key mapping, due to having a cab I mapped my flipper buttons to the keys that are predefined by game for menu navigation.

My key mapping:
Filpper left: left arrow
Flipper right: right arrow
Plunger: enter
camera view: tab
nudge left: up
nudge right: down

If I change the flipper buttons and Plunger key to anything else than the left/right arrows and enter the issue goes away. But I lose the ability to navigate the menu on my cab

Tested on W7 x64 with Mars and Excalibur on my cab. Reproduced the issue on a Vista x86 desktop system.
Note that Steam seems to have synced the settings between my cab and my desktop, so if there is any weirdness in my game profile it might have moved from one system to the other.



A note about the new keyboard configuration and cab use:
It helps a lot. It makes one thing possible that wasn't possible before, people who use nudge keys on their cabs can map those to up and down and dual use them for menu navigation.

It would be nice if there was also an option to configure the menu navigation keys (currently arrows, enter, tab, esc)
Those settings don't need to be in the in-game options - it might even be better if the are not accessible in-game.
Some ini or xml file or some environment or registry variables would do.