Universal Zen Pinball - by Zen Studios

After more testing, turning off the Dot Matrix Display boosts performance more than anything else on iPad 1, which sucks, but at least there's a way to make it smoother. Turning off Arcade Effects doesn't seem to help much.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a performance update from Zen since even some iPad 2 and 4S users are reporting some choppiness.

 

this is something thats always bugged me about Zen's engine. I've got the PS3 game and so often you get into a sequence where the same pattern repeats over and over again. It really starts to feel like the physics engine isn't very nuanced. The ball will loop up a chute, around and back down a ramp to the flipper, you shoot it back up and it does exactly the same thing over again and again - and you aren't actively trying to do it. I've got Williams PBHOF on the PS3 as well and the tables play in a much more "organic" way afaic. I also find it really hard to aim shots at all in ZP. Its more of a crapshoot trying to target specific things. Also, I find the tables really too busy and cramped.

 

Don't the Xbox and PS3 versions enable you to rotate the image for those people who don't mind turning their screens sideways? Maybe I'm thinking of another game.

Also, are the performance issues just on the two DLC tables? I tried the free one and it's far, far smoother than I expected on my iPod 4th gen.

 

Thanks for the update, I'm going to try that today....honestly I don't always pay much attention to it.....The ball moves so fast sometimes I'm afraid to look around the table much

 

They need to hurry up and bust out with the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four tables; I can fully enjoy and appreciate 5 tables at once.

It would also be cool to see Hulk, X-Men, DareDevil and Avengers tables. Also I'd like to see at least one female-centered table... maybe Storm or She-Hulk?

 

Downloaded Tables

The Free table is by far the best. Then Captain A, and Wolverine being the most boring.

Like all Zen Pinball Games, there are some tables that are bland despite the theme.

Overall, I'm enjoying this much more than War Pinball (Gameprom).

 

I don't remember Pinball Hall of Fame being better in this, but it's been a while since I played it. Maybe I'll fire it up again. In any case while Zen Pinball is fun enough, I'm a *lot* more excited about The Pinball Arcade. I can't wait!

 

I played Medieval Madness a ton in WPHOF and never really had that weird "canned" feeling that I get almost every time I play ZP...

 

Yeah, I'm getting used to playing without it, but I trap the ball constantly, which is usually when I look up at it.....plus it helps with missions, and is kind of required for some of them......but yeah, turning it off makes the game run a lot smoother.

 

First time I played it without it on I realized that I did use it more than I thought......using it to set your camera setting was the first thing I went to do and missed it.....but you're right it did improve the smoothness very much, I'm going to keep it that way !

 

Been enjoying this one, only question so far - is it supposed to take so long to enter your initials? It's certainly easier in real life - the left/right/checkmark buttons all seem very sluggish on my iPhone4...

 

Right on. Maybe they can make a lower res version of the DMD? Or just optimize it somehow?

Also certain camera angles seem to run a bit smoother, too.

 

I thought the same about the highscore initials buttons being laggy too but it almost seems like the hit box for the presses just isn't lined up or big enough. For the right hand side button if if I hit a little to the left of the arrow it works great and for the other side if I hit a little to the right same thing. It would however be awesome if it would remember the last initials I entered to save me from re-typing the same thing over and over

 

That's true. Sorcerer's Lair runs pretty smooth on my iPhone 4 (the same goes for iPad 1 although here on the large screen you feel a tiny difference to iPad 2) and the other two tables seem to have a framerate at (or slightly under) 30 fps on iPhone 4 and iPad 1. But as said and proved before: Quite playable.

iPad 2: All tables perfect smooth and stable, obviously 60+ fps. (All numbers guessed.)

 

I'm finding the game to run much more smoothly on ipad2 with the arcade effects off. I prefer it that way anyway.

Aside from not understanding why I don't have a score in GameCenter, I think that (having played Pinball FX on 360 and Zen on PS3) that this is a fantastic implementation (with reference to playing on iPad). I'm really hoping we get Mars and some of the older designs like Shaman, Tesla, etc.

 

Had the same problem today... had to redownload... but you won't get charged again.

 

I can't confirm that. No stutters, perfect smooth on iPad 2.

I can't confirm that. No difference on my iPad 2. Did you ever jailbreak your device?

 

iPad 2? I can't confirm that. I killed a Wolverine gameplay with the home button and used Safari for a while and played another game. Then I brought up ZP out of the multitasking bar. A menue screen with the "Resume Game" option shows up. After the tap a cue count 3 - 2 - 1 comes and the game resumes without any lag or stutter.

The only thing that I can admit is one freeze of a fraction of a second in 30 min gameplay. But I never had a computer without such minor faults.