Pinball FX 2 - bugs/issues and recommendations

[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]

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]

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).

[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).

[BarbieBobomb]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[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.

[zaphod77]

I recommend handling stuck balls this way.

have a "call attendant" choice.

To prevent abuse. it will

a) disable all ball savers
b) nudge the table all directions without a tilt (freeing any balls that can be freed by a nudge)
c) force the flippers down for 30 seconds.

If the balls do not drain during these 30 seconds, then the following happens.

a) Multiball is ended if it's in progress
b) all balls on table are deleted.
c) a ball is place din the plunger lane.

If they DO drain, ball over for trying to abuse it.

[BallsofSteam]

stuck balls suggestion

I see there are quite a few cases of stuck balls. I had this happen last night in Spiderman (on my best game ever btw, very first ball with 3 extra balls saved up, Jameson event at level 46 grrr! My best so far is lvl 81). I wasn't concentrating but the ball went somewhere on the right of the playfield and then disappeared (stuck/lost). Tilt couldn't work (nor end the current ball), nor could exiting (auto-save) and re-entering, or starting a different table and going back to Spiderman, or completely exiting and re-entering Pinball FX 2.

Also: I installed steam on my laptop to test it out to see if it was localised to a single machine. Started up Pinball FX 2, selected Spiderman single player mode and there was a cloud save of spiderman so I hit resume then the game immediately crashed. Started the game up again on my laptop, table started without crashing ... but ... the saved game was gone. Gone on my main PC as well.

A brother of mine who has the game also said he's had a ball stuck/lost on Rome.

Very annoying but it made me think of real pinball tables and I have a suggestion: Some kind of ball search mode if the ball gets stuck and if it can't "find" the ball a new one appears.

Or at the very least - and yes this is designing a feature purely for people who experience a bug - having an option (with a confirmation dialogue box) that will basically "tilt" the table, giving the effect of a ball out, and refreshing the playfield. No advantage is given to a player for doing this.

[ClarkKent]

You can change table settings but then your scores wont be posted..

The slingshots can also be adjusted?

[LoadedWeapon]

You can change table settings but then your scores wont be posted..

[ClarkKent]

This was done intentional. Zen wants the tables to be easy for the beginners, so they shrunk the gap between the flippers and made the slingshots weak. With the weak slingshots the ball rarely gets flung into the outlanes.

Then there should be a "Pro"-setting with regular slingshots. At the moment the slingshots are that weak that it even too easy for beginners. That's really not a challenge at all...

[ZenPinballFan]

For me the tables are way too bright and I wish we could control it from within the game. I ended installing SweetFX that someone recommended. It basically allows you to change dozens of DirectX settings to tone down bloom, brightness, contrast, etc. Otherwise wear sunglasses when playing. I did for a while.

Thanks! I'll try that.

[shogun00]

But the slingshots are all way too weak - this is totally unrealistic. I know no pinball machine with slingshots THAT weak!

This was done intentional. Zen wants the tables to be easy for the beginners, so they shrunk the gap between the flippers and made the slingshots weak. With the weak slingshots the ball rarely gets flung into the outlanes.

[Roo5676]

I found Pinball FX2 a short time ago and played it a little bit. Physics are really nice, especially the ball movement looks very realistic. But the slingshots are all way too weak - this is totally unrealistic. I know no pinball machine with slingshots THAT weak!

As I'm also a cab user I really want to see that the DMD could be placed on another monitor (in my case 3rd). As most cab users have the DMD-monitor mounted in different ways I would recommend a freely moveable DMD to place it on the right position.

And it would be cool to have a backglass for each table. Same as above, same as on a real cabinet.

Freely selectable keys for control would be also very nice.

All other things seem to be ok for now - but maybe I'll find something more to say in future...

Hey Clark, I think I recognize you from vpforums. Take a look at the cabinet thread here. I think movable DMD and re-mappable controls are two of the most requested changes (even for desktop users) right now.

As for slingshots, that's one of the things they do to design their tables for "home play" as opposed to real-life tables that have to eat your quarters at a reasonable rate to pay for themselves. Weaker slingshots, closer flippers, "older" rubbers, etc. You'll find that your games last longer with less cheap drains, but that means they can make complex, deep missions and modes. Neil actually had a nice post on Steam about it...maybe I'll dig that up later.

[ClarkKent]

I found Pinball FX2 a short time ago and played it a little bit. Physics are really nice, especially the ball movement looks very realistic. But the slingshots are all way too weak - this is totally unrealistic. I know no pinball machine with slingshots THAT weak!

As I'm also a cab user I really want to see that the DMD could be placed on another monitor (in my case 3rd). As most cab users have the DMD-monitor mounted in different ways I would recommend a freely moveable DMD to place it on the right position.

And it would be cool to have a backglass for each table. Same as above, same as on a real cabinet.

Freely selectable keys for control would be also very nice.

All other things seem to be ok for now - but maybe I'll find something more to say in future...