How many tables will you eventually own for Pinball FX3?

The majority of Pinball FX2 tables will work with Pinball FX3, and owners will be able to import them into the new game for free.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/06/28/many-tables-will-eventually-pinball-fx3/

More than I should. Just like Pinball FX2.

http://imgur.com/s1TnIeQ

Hm. I wonder what the justification is for going with a new numbered release. Just the multiplayer stuff?

Supposedly, they will harness “extra GFX power” to make tables “more beautiful” including the old tables.

4K, I assume.

It’s a new platform, that allows them to relaunch with all the bells n’ whistles, to attract new players.

Supporting old DLC with new platform releases is a very smart strategy. Harmonix should have done the same thing.

Harmonix did do the same thing.

From what I remember, you can only transfer some song “packs”, not every song. But I could be wrong?

Unfortunately it was a flop for Harmonix.

I hope they can catch lightning in a bottle again with something else. But still, god bless them, they continue to release DLC to this day for Rock Band 4.

No, they have pretty much everything covered, except Beatles Rock Band. Those can’t be exported, and therefore can’t be imported into Rock Band 4.

[quote]Disc Export Availability (Exportable Tracks):
Rock Band 1 (56) - Released
Rock Band 2 (70) - Released
Rock Band 3 (83) - Released ($15 USD)
AC/DC (18) - Released
Beatles (0) - Never
Green Day (44) - Released
Green Day Plus (50) - Released
LEGO (42) - Released

DLC Export Availability (Exportable Tracks):
Rock Band Blitz (25) - Released
Rock Band™ Twenty Free Track Pack (Rock Band 2 Bonus Tracks) - Released
Rock Band 3 Pre-Order Pack (20) - Released
GameStop RB3 Pre-Order Tracks (20) - Released (XB1) / Mid-2016 (PS4)
The Doors RB3 Free Launch Pack (3) - Released
RB4 Pre-Order DLC Bundle (30) - Released
30 Song Mega Pack (RB4) - Released
Rock Band Free Pack 1 - Released[/quote]

OK. I’d like to amend my post to “Smart, they’re doing the same thing as Harmonix!”.

I’m in for the new version if they make it easier for dufuses like me to figure out where I need to hit the ball to complete certain tasks.

I find this a bit concerning. The majority? Why not all? And which tables are we losing to licensing limitations? Their teaser had a conspicuous absence of anything licensed. And do we have to pay for the ones that are excluded from those terms, or do we just not get them at all?

I’m assuming all the Marvel and Star Wars stuff will be a package deal, since they’re all Disney. And if those were out, I don’t think the language “a majority of tables” would apply. So that’s gotta be among the tables that carry forward for free. That leaves, uh, Walking Dead, the Aliens tables, South Park. What am I missing?

-Tom

Bethesda, Portal, and PvZ but I would hope those aren’t a big deal to get licensed.

Could be the original Pinball FX tables can’t be easily moved to 3 for technical reasons…

Nope, I take it back. Just saw this: Pinball FX3 Beta Sign up :: Pinball FX2 General Discussions

This will mostly just take larger, better looking textures… certainly less work than rebuilding tables from scratch.

Pinball Arcade season 1 and season 2 look quite bad at 4k for this reason, they just didn’t capture the textures at a high enough res when they started.

Maybe some of the one-off tables like Ninja Gaiden, Ms Splosion Man, or Street Fighter II.

There’s also those soccer team tables that have already been pulled from FX2.

With the possible exception of the very pink Ms Splosion Man, I’m totally fine with those tables being gone. However, the Bethesda tables Telefrog mentioned have to stay. Or I will briefly and maybe even privately internet rage.

-Tom

What I’m most interested to learn is if I’ll be able to import all the tables I bought on 360 into the Windows 10 version of the game. I still have some there I never rebought on PlayStation or Steam.

FX2 is pretty old, from 2010 or so? So we’re due, and I’ll absolutely take it! But…

  • pinball isn’t super amenable to fancy graphics (I’ll elaborate on this)

  • FX2 was built for PC and scaled down for X360/PS3 so it aged pretty well, on the whole – for a 7 year old engine it’s obama-not-bad.png

  • sorry Zen Studios, but the art on a lot of the FX2 tables barely rises above the “we hired some dude to airbrush our carnival ride” level in the first place, so it’s … I dunno, the idea of a next-gen Iron Man table just made me throw up in my mouth a little bit 🤢

I doubt a next-gen FX3 engine focused on PS4 and Xbone is going to be that big a deal, visually. More polygons? Meh, not noticeable on a pinball table. Higher resolutions? It’s nice, helps to reduce aliasing, but … pinball table. There is one huge by large exception and that is lighting.

If they can improve the lighting model, that’s a big deal, because pinball tables are 80% light effects, and the DX11 changes to Pinball Arcade about 2 years ago really proved that:

As I think I mentioned before, hi-res textures are also significant for next gen (4k and so on), but FX2 had decently sized textures to start with thanks to their PC pedigree.