Відео

No, too many hoops to jump through to get it installed. I did try a year or so ago, but whatever file I tried to install was flagged as malware.

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 Oh man you're missing out. The range of tables and the level of emulation is out of this world especially by VPW team. There's also a vey easy installer (Baller-Installer) that can set it up for you now.

I am using special hardware for flipper control yes, and also have a high end system as well as using settings that give me excellent performance. I'm using an X-Arcade tankstick, which I have modified pretty heavily. This feels way more like actual pinball to me, which was important for me to achieve, because I have decades worth of muscle memory built up from playing the real thing. FYI, I use to own a STNG machine (bought it the day it was released). I tried playing digital pinball with a keyboard, but it sucked. Tank stick made a big difference for me. I've cut down the overhanging sides of the ex-arcade because they kinda bothered me, repositioned a couple of buttons as well. I honestly don't know why more people aren't using these. My system is a 7800x3d, 4090 GPU, plenty of RAM. I run at 4k with DLSS Quality & RTX turned on, framerate capped at 240. I can maintain 240 fps constantly and according to nvidia experience I'm getting zero latency. Power profile in nvidia ctrl panel to max, low latency mode on, texture filtering high performance, v-sync off.

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 Incredible! Thank you for the detailed and concise answer. I appreciate it. That is an incredible setup you got there, one that I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate 😆 lol However it does shed a lot of light on why our handling of the ball differs so much. I'm going to see if I can finagle something by mapping analog controls to the keyboard or something to give me more subtle control over the flippers. I've been getting back into pinball since I became part of a group of pinball gamers on Twitch but this table is affecting my will to live (kidding) haha. Thanks again!

@@therexbellator Yep, for sure there would be a difference in feel and responsiveness if you're playing on significantly lesser PC hardware but depending on the hardware being compared, the differences aren't as high as I think some people think it is. I say that because I have read comments from players who think the only reason I get high scores is because I have a powerful rig. I upgraded my system just over a year ago, but despite having a more powerful PC (and a 240hz monitor), I'm still chasing high scores that I set on my previous rig, which was an i7800k processor with a 3070 GPU on a 165hz monitor. That said, I wouldn't even bother trying to play this game anything less than 120fps / 120hz. The tankstick was a game changer for me. I went from looking like I'd never played pinball before in my life to playing much like I always did with real pinball.

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 Oh no while I'm sure ensuring max frame rates helps I have no doubt of your incredible skill. My rig isn't so bad even though it's aging, I get a consistent 120fps on it at 2K, but I really wish Zen would improve flipper response on KB because it feels like they're putting way too much english on the ball causing it to spin itself out in situations where the ball should be going straight. I just want to do the best I can with what I have and maybe get back into the top 25 if possible lol Thanks again man! Appreciate the time you take to respond!

@@therexbellator Don't get me wrong, stepping up in hardware certainly helps, but for me it really just meant I could play at 4k with ray tracing turned on, without ever having frames dip below the hz rating of the monitor, which I think is important. What sort of monitor are you using? For 120fps to really feel like 120fps you'd need a monitor capable of running 120hz. Frame tearing would be a problem otherwise, and the vsync workaround for this would introduce latency. Do you have a nvidia card? If so, what sort of latency reading are you getting? The x-arcade is basically just a keyboard emulator (the computer thinks its a keyboard) and the switches on these things are identical to arcade buttons, nothing really special about them. The advantage of using it basically just boils down to it just feels more like pinball, and for me that means slap saves, drop catches, etc, are all performed exactly the same as they would be on the real thing.

Warps is a big part of my scoring strategy, but not for warp 9 awards, rather to double the spinner value. You can get that spinner up to awarding 25 million per spin, at which point you're scoring nearly half a billion with every good shot into the spinner. If the super jackpot value is high and combine this with max spinner value, you can easly score in excess of 1 billion per shot. So advancing warps as many times as possible is a big part of my early game strategy. The sooner I can get that spinner maxed out, the better because the spinner value stays current throughout the game and does not reset. I'm the only player I know that hyper focuses on the spinner like this. But I don't select the warp 4 option because I use all multiball modes to stack up on warps and it only takes 2 or 3 shots to get to warp 4 anyway. And by using Borg multiball to advance warps I'm scoring super jackpots as I go. As such, activating multiball indirectly advances my warps anyway, so it's a kill 2 birds with one stone tactic to choose lite lock. I don't usually select "start mission" until lite lock awards are no longer available, or it simply makes more sense to

Me to. Its not the first time I've used it in a video :-)

No I'm not very active on Discord. If Pin FX had a realtime multiplayer element to it I'd probably hang around the server to find players to compete against but "Pinball Royale" never materialized.

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 It is OK. You accidentally participated in a tournament called Cons Gang tournament and I was looking to see if you are there. Great score on Star Trek the Next Generation. Not only you are the top global scorer but your tournament score places you also as a global 2nd rank player. Congrats!

@@clapiotis Thanks, STNG is my favourite table. I use to own the actual machine (purchased the same day it was released). I still haven't been able to crack my highest score on the real thing (266 billion) with Pin FX, but I'm getting close. I would have beaten it by now but Zen saw fit to nerf the available extra balls in this game (and most Williams tables) to half of what was possible with the real thing.

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 I will forward to our group your reply so other players can read it if that is OK.

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 Some comments from other players for your information: 1. Malarkeyness 🇺🇸 - Today at 03:46 I still will never understand why they removed EBs At least for classic solo mode 2. wilbers 🇬🇧 🏆 - Today at 10:33 the issue with EB's was on those tables where it was theoretically (and turned into actually doing so by a very few players) possible to near infinite it where there was no cap on extra balls. The better solution would have been to limit how many could be obtained (e.g. redline mania on The Getaway make it an extra ball only for the first 2 or 3 of those [not many will ever get 3 redline manias in one game to begin with], but that isn't what was done, and its inconsistent between Williams tables [think on Zen's own tables they are all capped per game, so its maximum 5 extra balls on all of them, with no restrictions on which ordinal ball you can collect them on].

You're welcome, good to know you're gained something useful from it :-)

Most of these techniques will work in the original tables, but not really with the same results on a few of the trickier techniques. I don't play the originals as a general rule, although I did quickly fire up one of the few that I do own to test drop and live catches, and due to the reduced speed and weight of the ball it is different. A little easier to pull off these moves, but the ball doesn't respond quite the same way. Admittedly, I only really put it to a 3 minute test.

Re: not holding left flipper... that's because I didn't know about that trick until just now, so thanks for the heads up. I shall incorporate that into my game. However I don't find shooting for the center targets terribly risky so long as I only use the right flipper to hit them. Re: catching ball from saucer. Sometimes I'll use drop catches, but if I'm trying to play a little safer I'll perform a quick flip a nano second before the ball hits the flipper in order to encourage it to roll safely under the slingshot. I use this technique in a lot of tables. And yes I do play real machines, although its more accurate to say I use to play religiously until Williams dropped off the radar. I use to own and operate a bunch of machines, but as the industry started drying up I stepped away from it all. But in all honesty I was a better player on real machines than I am digital ones back in the day. Partly because I played daily and also because the guys I played with were also really good players, so we kept each other on our toes. I could perform drop and live catches with more reliability on real machines, and I put them to use far more often than I do on Pin FX. FYI, I play Pin FX on a modified X-Arcade Tank Stick, which is roughly the width of a pinball machine with flipper buttons where you'd expect to find them. It emulates the real thing quite well, so all of the muscle memory I built up from decades of pinball carried over.

It depends on what the ball is doing. If the ball is moving precariously towards the outlane relatively quickly and I feel a nudge is required I'll usually default to a forward nudge, mainly because forward nudging provides more movement (and thus influence on the ball) than sideways movement. If I can see that a nudge left or right might help I'll often combine it with a forward nudge. And if a ball is already past the outlane post and is almost certainly on its way to drain I'll try a little juggle to pull it back out. An example of juggling the ball back out of the outlane would be a quick left / right (or visa versa), possibly a left / right / forward. One thing I learned about forward nudging in FX is that you need to time it differently (than FX3) to get the same effect. I am nudging ever so slightly sooner than I would in FX3, or even real pinball for that matter.

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 Thank you for the reply, it was very helpful!

Yes. That's why I wrote this "Beginner to Advanced Pinball techniques" in the description. Emphasis on "beginner", and including the nudge pass is precisely why I worded it that way. Also, this is actually an advanced technique on a real machine. Some people will tell you it can't be done (those guys protest the existence of it in Pin FX for this reason), but it can. But it is difficult to do, and the lat time I tried I nearly broke my 50+ year old wrist. Piece of piss in Pin FX though.

It's crucially important for all pinball games.

Yeah, I've been working on hitting the Picard Manuever directly from the Borg ship ball launch and have reached a point where I'm hitting it more than I'm missing. This was really yard to do on a real machine so I rarely even tried it, but I'm finding it a little more consistent with Pin FX, so I've incorporated it into my strategy for this table

Good to hear watching my vids is helping improve your game. 2 Billion in Adams Family is a damned fine score, especially on the Pinball FX version. Well done!

You're welcome. The main secret to scores like that in CFTBL is to multiply jackpot scores during multiball with the left ramp before trying to score any jackpots. Catch one ball with the left flipper and use the right to keep hitting that ramp until 4x is up, then start hitting jackpots. I do much better in this game if I play slow and methodically, more so than just about any other

I'm working on a strategy guide for this table that I'm pretty sure a lot of players will find very helpful, especially with respect to amassing bigger scores. Also includes a couple of very useful tricks that I didn't show off in this clip. Should be ready to go in a couple of weeks

lol

Still slaps

Still rocking. Also, it's not even that old...

Yeah, I would have made this clip years ago if I had the hardware and software available to do it, but up until just recently I didn't. To make a clip like this one needs Doom to run at ultra nightmare graphics while recording at 4k at a minimum of 120fps, and editing software that will let you work with 120 fps footage

And?

Yeah, sometimes you just get on a roll :-)

Thanks mate. That's years of experience honed on real machines manifest on a simulation. I think it speaks pretty highly of Zen's accomplishments in recreating these as faithfully as they have

Yeah, you're probably right about that. Funny, after I published it and watched it back I saw another issue with them and regretted not fleshing that out a little more. I kinda regret leaving out a couple of tricks as well so I might do a fuller version soon and if so I'll try to redeem myself

Yeah, it's tough for sure. Really got to have your eye in for STNG because missed shots are usually punished!

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it

By trying my best to consider the tilt bulb timeout duration and being aware of how many tilt warnings I have already generated. Same way I try to avoid tilting on a real machine

Thanks for the comments. STNG is a tough nut to crack, struggling to crack my own PB as well. One of the hardest pinnies ever made, which makes it my favourite. This might help give you a few ideas: ua-cam.com/video/aTl-4w5g4_U/v-deo.html

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 Thanks for the response man. Since I left this comment I finally beat my old high score but only by a 100 million or so; I didn't even move up the list lmao if you scroll down from your #1 spot you'll see me sitting at #25 😆 I'm trying though. I came real close to getting my second Final Frontier!

I'm on PC and use a modified X-Arcade Tank Stick which does a respectable job of simulating playing a real machine. I did try a keyboard setup initially but I play much better with a tank stick

@@scootinlootinnshootin683 thanks so much! Just got into Pinball pretty recently (specifically pinball FX)and have been playing on Xbox… lol. The flipper lag as well as having so little/no control to do micro flips and precise movements because of the Xbox triggers is getting a frustrating. I’ve been wanting to find something like that X Arcade Stick so I can move over to pc and have a more realistic playing experience for a while now. Anyways, thanks so much for the response!