Android - Bug Observed Bugs in Twilight Zone (v1.7.0 BETA)

[Ryan Routon]

Ryan - will there be an option, to go back to the default ball, which is only drawn the once (as ver01)?
Lag is pretty bad in ver02 on my older device, I've gone back to ver01.

That is actually the intent of the gray texture, to revert back to the original ball. I will try to get the right texture again (the dark one) but I am not sure why you were seeing slow down unless it was only on TZ or the ball was transparent bug was happening.

is it a lot of slow down?

 

[Nik Barbour]

That is actually the intent of the gray texture, to revert back to the original ball. I will try to get the right texture again (the dark one) but I am not sure why you were seeing slow down unless it was only on TZ or the ball was transparent bug was happening.

is it a lot of slow down?

Slow down is only in ver02 beta.

Only experienced the slow down in TZ, but I haven't really played the other tables since we got TZ.

I thought you mentioned in an earlier post, the slow down was due to the balls being drawn twice, and because of this system expense, we were experiencing the slow down?

My previous question referred to being able to get back to ver01 performance via a switch.

Lag is bad enough to make me reinstall ver01 beta which played beautifully even during 6 ball multiball.

 

[Ryan Routon]

ok it seems we are getting similar reports of slow down "near the flippers" from other platforms. We may be dealing with a different issue than the ball textures, because when we are defaulting to the gray (and the ghost bug is not happening) there should be no extra draw calls, etc.

We are going to look into it on our side but it may just be a coincidence

 

[Ryan Routon]

Also, you guys are seeing slow down tables other than TZ? We are trying to track this down and want to eliminate any variables here (in otherwords TZ might be heavier in general)

 

[Ryan Routon]

Slow down is only in ver02 beta.

Only experienced the slow down in TZ, but I haven't really played the other tables since we got TZ.

I thought you mentioned in an earlier post, the slow down was due to the balls being drawn twice, and because of this system expense, we were experiencing the slow down?

My previous question referred to being able to get back to ver01 performance via a switch.

Lag is bad enough to make me reinstall ver01 beta which played beautifully even during 6 ball multiball.

That slow down of drawing twice will only occur with a custom balls. The gray one will only draw once (that is of course unless its transparent then its blending).

 

[Ryan Routon]

Nik i want to test something, im going to make a build with the ball tech reverted. I want to see if you still see the issue in lag.

 

[Nik Barbour]

That slow down of drawing twice will only occur with a custom balls. The gray one will only draw once (that is of course unless its transparent then its blending).

It was the grey one in ver02 I was experiencing lag with.
It was mainly around the flippers, and could also be felt in the flippers when the slowdown occurred.
Multiball magnified the effect severely.

 

[Ryan Routon]

interesting, yeah we are seeing this on other platforms as well, we are trying to profile to see what piece of code is causing it, it might actually not be the custom balls, im testing something now then i can make a new build without the ball tech to see what that will do

 

[Nik Barbour]

How's your neck after the smash?

Is the car totalled - or repairable?

I was rear shunted years ago - whiplash was not pleasant.

 

[xAzatothx]

the slow down issue I am having is as follows. Start TZ and it plays fine, after x number of minutes the frame rate suddenly drops and stays that way for the entire game. Starting a new game fixes issue. I could play for 15 mins before it happens. I've not seen it playing Gophers. (I've not touched any ball texture settings either). I can't beleive my Nexus 7 hasn't the power to play this game, although I cannot rule out a hardware/software problem with my device if no one else is getting same as me?

currently trying to get a video of the issue to show you.

 

[Nik Barbour]

The slow down I had wasn't increased by play time, or reset with new game.
It ebbed in and out, but was fairly constant, and present from start of play.

 

[xAzatothx]

sadly - i can't get a video anytime soon camera is broken. I'm more than happy to test anything you want to send my way to try and help debug this.

 

[netizen]

The only time I have seen any appreciable slow down was when I try and play a more trap and pass style of play. IDK if it is because I am making an effort to keep the ball under much stricter control, or what. Even then the slow down isn't that much that it makes the game unplayable. There is no difference between the skins used or whether I am in multiball. What I do notice about longer game play is the tendency for the flipper control to drop more frequently the longer the game goes. I know there's the pause/resume method to regain control, but when I have just under a GB of Ram and a hard limit of back ground processes there is likely a different problem than the usually pointed out "Android just doesn't handle ..."

I know my Galaxy Tab 2 is woefully under powered compared to the Nexus 7's floating around this group so I have to wonder about the hardware side of the issue re: slowdowns, the transparent balls etc.

Or is my device not running the app at full speed to begin with?

 

[netizen]

How are you able to focus on that corner of the table in exploration mode? When I try it it will only zoom in and out or pan left and right, I could never get it into that corner.

I was going to ask the same thing. I can't explore any tables either :-/

Fully zoomed out, finger at top middle of screen, pull down (this will roll table down to plan view).
Then pinch zoom in, and left - right sweeps to pan to desired corner.

I still think 'table exploration' mode controls are a steaming pile of cr@p. No offence to anyone at FarSight, but where is the rotate camera option?
I won't be buying many pro packs!

Yeah, this doesn't work. As mentioned left-right and zoom are good, but any actual exploration are a no go; which is weird. When I first installed the pack I could explore the table but after that initial look, no more up down movements.

Another hardware issue to look at Ryan?

 

[Nik Barbour]

@ Netizen - are you sure it doesn't work.
I have very little control over mine as well, simply because the controls are cr@p.
It's more luck than control to be honest.

 

[rob3d]

@ Netizen - are you sure it doesn't work.
I have very little control over mine as well, simply because the controls are cr@p.
It's more luck than control to be honest.

Yea your method definitely doesn't work for me either. I've tried everything several times and it will not pan up just left and right.

 

[netizen]

@ Netizen - are you sure it doesn't work.
I have very little control over mine as well, simply because the controls are cr@p.
It's more luck than control to be honest.

Oh I am sure it doesn't work. When it did move it moved easily. There was no delay in the up-down motion, no 'magic' spot to press. I merely had to drag in a top to bottom motion to move up-down, and side to side for left-right; pinch to zoom obv.

I've tried everything several times and it will not pan up just left and right.

This is where it stands presently for me too.

 

[rob3d]

I was going to ask the same thing. I can't explore any tables either :-/



Yeah, this doesn't work. As mentioned left-right and zoom are good, but any actual exploration are a no go; which is weird. When I first installed the pack I could explore the table but after that initial look, no more up down movements.

Another hardware issue to look at Ryan?

Seems like it the problem with table exploration might be specific to the nexus 7. I just tried the same build on my kindle fire and the method Nik mentioned works exactly as described.

 

[rob3d]

Here's a strange one after I was done messing around with the table exploration mode I went to play a round paused briefly and ran into this

If I swiped downward from the pause button the ui went away and the coordinates show up in the corner. From there touching or swiping on different parts of the screen gave me complete control of the camera. I could rotate in any direction and pan and zoom without limits. Zoomed in on all areas of the table, coin door, legs even the back of the room the table is in which is just a black abyss.

I was able to consistently activate this "free cam" everytime I paused just by swiping downward. But then I quit the app and haven't been able to activate it since.

Anyone else run into this, and is there a surefire way for getting it going again?
I wish the table exploration option actually worked like this.

 

[netizen]

Anyone else run into this, and is there a surefire way for getting it going again?
I wish the table exploration option actually worked like this.

I was able to replicate this 'mode' following your instructions, but I couldn't move the view around too much as my touch zones were active to the flippers,plunger and the random menu actions. If i tried to move too much I would get the leaderboard suddenly, or other menus.