Changelog
04.12.2014
- Improved formatting
- Added an FPS improvement tweak for users having problems holding steady 60fps
- Added changelog
02.12.2014
- Initial Release

Ahoy Pinballers!

I finally got around to writing down the tweaks I've been using to improve my Pinball Arcade experience. I will improve and expand this guide as more information becomes available, as Pinball Arcade is improved, and as more tweaks are discovered. I originally planned to include a section detailing how to improve the graphics with SweetFX (a postprocessing suite) but I've not been able to build a configuration that works for all tables in TPA. Plus, DX11 can't be far off now... can it? ;-)

I've spent countless hundreds of hours working with the physics in the Future Pinball engine. These endless sessions of testing and tweaking taught me that physics calculations for pinball games are incredibly dependant on timely CPU response, because otherwise you may as well not have any response at all. A skillgame based on reflex simply must calculate and give feedback instantaneously. Any kind of delay: slow computer, antivirus program, crashed programs in the background, game settings adjusted too high for machine spec, physics moment calculations excessively complex/buggy/broken, and many many more other conflicting concerns can cause the physics calculations in TPA to suffer and your gameplay experience to degrade.

It's true that TPA physics aren't exactly like the real life tables -- they cannot be because they aren't the real life tables and current physics simulation technology (more specifically the compromises that must be made in their implementation) is still inadequate for such a complex task. Real life tables are based on a seamless, instantaneous, and supremely accurate physics system that functions in harmony with thousands of human engineered variables to give you the final table experience. To recreate this experience with the best results possible, for as many configurations as possible, Pinball Arcade must be a compromise.

Once properly configured and running smoothly Pinball Arcade proves that even with "only" a subjective 90-95% level of reproduction accuracy it is still more than adequate for enjoyment of all these classic tables. In fact, most of the time Pinball Arcade's physics are spectacular.

Here's what you need to do to enjoy them properly:

First, in TPA's setup screen turn off Antialiasing and Texture Filtering, and if your computer is reasonably good turn on Post Processing and set Ball Reflection to High.

- Reducing lag / improving response / improving graphics quality -

• Download NVIDIA Inspector or equivalent ATI/AMD tweak tool (Radeon Pro?). See attached screenshot for relevant settings. Make sure to add pinballarcade.exe (\SteamApps\common\PinballArcade) to the profile you create.
  
• This screenshot is for high powered computers. 3ghz+ and GTX 480, 670, 680, 770, 780, and similar cards (and equivalent ATI cards) all should be fine.
  
• If your computer is not powerful, don't change antialiasing settings or texture filtering LOD bias.
  
• UPDATED 4/12/2014 If your computer is mid-range or you need to improve your FPS because you're having trouble getting a steady 60fps but you really don't want to lose antialiasing then use 2x multisampling, 2x sparse grid supersampling, and change the LOD bias to -0.500 instead of -1.000. Follow the rest of the guide exactly as before.
  
• Note that some of the settings are greyed out as if they have not been changed, but I've actually changed them in the default NVIDIA profile (symbol showing this is the gear icon on the left, colored grey instead of blue). You still need to change these for your TPA profile (or in the base profile, as I have done). These include: Anisotropic Filtering mode User Defined/Off, Anisotropic Filtering setting 16x, Texture Filtering Quality High Quality, and Vertical Sync Force on.

An explanation of the relevent settings follows:

• Antialiasing Mode, Antialiasing Setting, and Antialiasing Transparency Supersampling - Controls "jaggies" and makes the graphics look much smoother and more realistic. Transparency Supersampling primarily controls the antialiasing of detail textures. These settings all work together.
  
  
• Texture Filtering LOD Bias - This helps re-sharpen blurred detail textures, required because we are using transparency antialiasing and anisotropic filtering in tandem.
  
  
• Negative LOD Bias (Allow) - This must be set to Allow, which is the default, but I mentioned it because it is important, otherwise the LOD Bias change does nothing.
  
  
• Anisotropic Filtering - This makes textures sharper.
  
  
• Texture Filtering - If your computer is even remotely decent you should always set this setting to High Quality in the NVIDIA driver default. NVIDIA has always defaulted this to Quality instead of High Quality because they want to be able to perform driver tweaks to improve framerate at the expense of image quality. It makes them look better on benchmarks and (usually) doesn't have a big impact on image quality. Prevent any doubt by setting this to High Quality.
  
  
• Maximum Pre-rendered frames (for ATI this is called Flip Queue) - This must be set to 1 or 0 depending on driver version. It prevents the game from writing (anticipating) frames ahead. It is a well known tweak for many games to improve input response and reduce perceived lag. VERY IMPORTANT SETTING FOR ENJOYING TPA.
  
  
• Triple Buffering - I have this set to On because of habit, but I don't actually think it does anything because we are limiting writeahead frames to 0/1. I don't think the buffer ever gets extra frames to fill up with, but I could be wrong. Maybe someone else can contribute this information.
  
  
• Vertical Sync, Vertical Sync Tear Conrol, and Vertical Sync Smooth AFR Behavior - Helps to reduce input lag and improve response. You do not have to use Adaptive Tear Control, but Vertical Sync must be Forced On. As far as I can figure out TPA's physics engine calculates at 60 FPS, and you should keep your framerate locked into sync with the physics engine for best results.
  
  Note on ATI
  
  Steam user TheScissors said that he achieved perfect results on his system via Flip Queue Size 1, Triple Buffering 0, Vertical Sync off, and Dynamic Framerate Control 120. He used the tweak program Radeon Pro. I provide this information merely for completeness, I can not vouch for its accuracy as I do not use ATI myself.
  
  If you still have problems after using this guide install FRAPS or some other framerate display test and check your FPS during gameplay. You will probably find that bad physics and framerate drops go entirely hand in hand. Get your FPS locked to 60 all the time and your problems should disappear.
  
  This guide will be updated regularly, and I can be contacted at bigsilverhotdog at gmail dot com with information, questions, or improvements to the guide. If you ask stupid questions that prove you didn't really read the guide properly then don't expect any response.
  
  Happy pinballing, and FFS FARSIGHT BRING BACK THE OLD UI OR AT LEAST UNSUCK THE NEW ONE.