Win 8 App vs Steam release

[rivermonster]

Best advice is to wait for the Winter sale on Steam. It's only a few months away, and it lets you see what Zen will be doing with both versions.

Often what Zen says they "want" or "will" do with a port isn't exactly what happens. The Win 8 version plays well and looks great. Steam looks great too. If you already have the tables, I'd honestly recommend holding off and judging the best course of action by what the future holds.

You've seen the tables go 1/2 price on the Steam sale. You'll see them do that every steam sale, and maybe during Winter even a 75% off flash or community sale.

Cheers and hope this helps.

[Markeen]

The Steam version is quite more buggy than the Windows 8 version. On Steam I get crashes on startup since the last version, I get a crash when I use the Win+Shift+PgDown shortcut keys to change monitor and I get in-game slowdowns even with my GTX660.

I currently have both versions installed on my PC and I mostly use the Windows 8 version.

[kaiyara]

Actually I have a similar issue with my Surface Pro! Happens maybe once every 30mins or so in the same situation described above. Hitting the keyboard or screen but it doesn't flip and the ball just rolls down the hole.

[iCub]

The windows 8 version has a low quality mode that is missing from the Steam version; It performs much better on lower powered hardware.
Not entirely sure what is adjusted but it seems to be mainly to do with transparencies. It's very playable on my laptop which only has Intel Series 4 gfx whereas the Steam version is more like a slideshow. I am hoping they bring this mode to the Steam version too as that is the one I bought tables on (expecting it to perform the same :-( ) and would like to be able to play it away from my desktop. Also, I think it would be worth adding so that people who own low powered Intel Atom Win8 tablets will still be able to pick the game up on Steam.

I only have the free Mars table on the Windows 8 version but notice that when in low quality mode, the walls of the table are solid, whereas in regular mode they are transparent. Also, the lights on the surface of the table aren't double layered in low quality mode and seem less colourful.

Perhaps Solitude can explain the differences in more detail?

[allmodcons]

It's really not a big deal dude. What you paid a whole $3 per table? I mean if you can afford to build a cabinet this is peanuts. I ended up buying all the games again for the steam platform, which cost like $57 or something. Hardly a life changing amount of money and in my opinion, the developers deserve it as this product is fantastic. So now my cabinet runs them both ways. The steam version seems to integrate a little better (I wrote another long thread on all the cabinet features I have working for it including table-matching backglasses on my other monitor). But the windows 8 version seems to be a little better performing - although not a lot better. There are also some tables currently only available on one of the two platforms, so it's a good reason to have both anyway.

I found the same as well that the Windows 8 version seems to perform slightly better than the Steam one. There is the odd stutter in the Steam one for me, although quite infrequent.

[markmon]

This is bad. I just bought al lot of tables for the win 8 version one day before the steam app came out.
And I have a pincab.
Is there a way to transfer tables from the xbox to steam account?
it's on the same computer anyway.

man I miss the times when you bought something and it was yours. not this modern "we steal all your money with DLC" bu****hit.

It's really not a big deal dude. What you paid a whole $3 per table? I mean if you can afford to build a cabinet this is peanuts. I ended up buying all the games again for the steam platform, which cost like $57 or something. Hardly a life changing amount of money and in my opinion, the developers deserve it as this product is fantastic. So now my cabinet runs them both ways. The steam version seems to integrate a little better (I wrote another long thread on all the cabinet features I have working for it including table-matching backglasses on my other monitor). But the windows 8 version seems to be a little better performing - although not a lot better. There are also some tables currently only available on one of the two platforms, so it's a good reason to have both anyway.

[mpad]

We'll probably continue to have more advanced graphical options on the Steam version, but both platforms should get regular table additions, including new ones as we launch them on other platforms. Steam will also get pincab-related and other features that likely won't come to Windows 8.

This is bad. I just bought al lot of tables for the win 8 version one day before the steam app came out.
And I have a pincab.
Is there a way to transfer tables from the xbox to steam account?
it's on the same computer anyway.

man I miss the times when you bought something and it was yours. not this modern "we steal all your money with DLC" bu****hit.

[Solitude]

We'll probably continue to have more advanced graphical options on the Steam version, but both platforms should get regular table additions, including new ones as we launch them on other platforms. Steam will also get pincab-related and other features that likely won't come to Windows 8.

[Roy_VI]

Been loving Pinball FX2 originally on 360 where I bought most tables - then moved back to PC gaming and bought a few tables in the Win 8 version, re-buying a lot of the ones that I had on the 360.

Now I see there is a Steam release, with some different tables, and different (graphical) options. Thing is, the Steam version is *far* prettier, with everything maxed - the Win 8 App doesn't have the AA settings of the Steam version. I've forced FXAA etc. in the Nvidia control panel, but it's still nothing on the Steam version. Therefore I'm tempted to re-buy all my tables (for a third time) in Steam instead, so I was wondering if a) the Win 8 version is likely to get a similar graphics settings update, and b) if some or most of the tables from the other versions will eventually be coming to the Win 8 version as well?

Grateful for any info, don't want to fork out for all the tables again if eventually the versions are going to be technically the same.