Hey guys, I thought I'd share my experience so far with using my stock .30 FW TF700 as a gaming console device. My setup is using a MicroHDMI cable to output to a 55" TV with a 5.1 surround sound receiver and speaker set, and using the dock, I am able to use the wired, PC version of the Xbox 360 controller. There are ways to use the wireless console version using a wireless receiver, but I won't get into that as I have no experience with it. There are, however, how-to's on YouTube and other sources. You can also use Wii and PS3 controllers over Bluetooth. I chose the Xbox controller because I am used to it and more comfortable with wired versus a wireless connection.
First I'll get movies out of the way. I'm using BS Player with the the BS Engine hardware acceleration (after some very basic and general testing I found this option to yield the most/best average frames per sec, which comes out to an average of 23.97 FPS). The video is a DVD rip, standard 700ish meg file. The movie is Snow White and the Huntsmen (I chose this because it has a LOT of dark scenes and dark scenes always yield the worst viewing distortions in my experience). The movie looks and plays perceptibly identical as when I play the file on my PC and output via HDMI to the same TV, so no complaints there. I'm happy with movie playback here. My one complaint, though, is that you are not able to either close the tablet docked or power off the tablet screen and keep playing the movie on the screen. If anyone knows a workaround to this I would really appreciate some feedback. My only workaround atm is to turn the tablet away from me so I don't see the screen glow that distracts me from the movie. This also drains the battery faster if you don't have the option to be plugged in.
For gaming, the first game I tried was Dead Trigger, available for free, using a pay to win type strategy I think. Prior to plugging in my Xbox controller, I did not have any game pad options. After plugging in the controller, I was given a game pad option to map keys, and after that setup, I was able to play the game with my Xbox controller with no problems. Controls are very smooth, but fine tuning options you get on console games are absent, like aim down sights toggle versus hold and release, but I can live with that. When playing through the MicroHDMI cable on the TV, it would be very easy to confuse this game with an Xbox arcade game, if not even a retail title, the graphics are really clean and crisp. This game doesn't have bloom effects and other types of high end graphics tricks, so I'm not sure what it's fully capable of. But I did not notice any difference in performance between playing on the tablet itself and the TV. One hiccup though that I found annoying was that despite using a game pad, I was still required to use the touchscreen to advance through the menu. Maybe there is some mapping options I can tweak to fix this, because it is very annoying with the tablet having to be in the dock to use the controller. If anyone has successfully used a USB to MicroUSB to use the controller without the dock I'd love to hear about it. All in all I was happy with it.
Next game up was N.O.V.A. 3. This game does not appear to natively support game pads. If it does please someone correct me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. In order to address this, I picked up a couple apps off the app store, Joystick Center 6 and Joy2Touch, both by the same author, Poke64738. I'm struggling to get these to work, but I am sure it is ID 10 T error on my part, as many people have had success using his apps to play android games using USB and Bluetooth controllers, as well as keyboard and mouse combos. These apps work by using controller input from USB and Bluetooth devices to emulate touch input on the capacitive touchscreen, and involve a mapping overly while in the game requiring you to touch the screen and map that screen tap to the appropriate button on your input device. Once I get it sorted out, I'm sure it will be right as rain, and if anyone has a source for a walk through or how-to I would greatly appreciate the link, or better yet, a source for Xbox controller profiles would be better. N.O.V.O. 3 loading times seem to take a very long time, which I think is caused by our tablets' I/O issues, and I don't see how JB/Project Butter could address that. But has for video and audio quality, just as Dead Trigger, it looked great and ran at good speed with no tears or artifacts or any noticeable defects. Once I figure out my Joystick Center 6 setup I'm sure this will be a fun game to play.
All in all I'm having fun using my tablet as a console like device, aside from the few minor issues i described. I hope this was helpful to anyone trying to decide if they want to invest in the stuff needed to do this. Also, any feedback for the issues I'm having, apps I'm using, or ways to improve the experience are very welcome, for the benefit of myself and the community.
TL;DR TF700 makes a pretty good gaming console IMO.
WeSiDe said:
Hey guys, I thought I'd share my experience so far with using my stock .30 FW TF700 as a gaming console device. My setup is using a MicroHDMI cable to output to a 55" TV with a 5.1 surround sound receiver and speaker set, and using the dock, I am able to use the wired, PC version of the Xbox 360 controller. There are ways to use the wireless console version using a wireless receiver, but I won't get into that as I have no experience with it. There are, however, how-to's on YouTube and other sources. You can also use Wii and PS3 controllers over Bluetooth. I chose the Xbox controller because I am used to it and more comfortable with wired versus a wireless connection.
First I'll get movies out of the way. I'm using BS Player with the the BS Engine hardware acceleration (after some very basic and general testing I found this option to yield the most/best average frames per sec, which comes out to an average of 23.97 FPS). The video is a DVD rip, standard 700ish meg file. The movie is Snow White and the Huntsmen (I chose this because it has a LOT of dark scenes and dark scenes always yield the worst viewing distortions in my experience). The movie looks and plays perceptibly identical as when I play the file on my PC and output via HDMI to the same TV, so no complaints there. I'm happy with movie playback here. My one complaint, though, is that you are not able to either close the tablet docked or power off the tablet screen and keep playing the movie on the screen. If anyone knows a workaround to this I would really appreciate some feedback. My only workaround atm is to turn the tablet away from me so I don't see the screen glow that distracts me from the movie. This also drains the battery faster if you don't have the option to be plugged in.
For gaming, the first game I tried was Dead Trigger, available for free, using a pay to win type strategy I think. Prior to plugging in my Xbox controller, I did not have any game pad options. After plugging in the controller, I was given a game pad option to map keys, and after that setup, I was able to play the game with my Xbox controller with no problems. Controls are very smooth, but fine tuning options you get on console games are absent, like aim down sights toggle versus hold and release, but I can live with that. When playing through the MicroHDMI cable on the TV, it would be very easy to confuse this game with an Xbox arcade game, if not even a retail title, the graphics are really clean and crisp. This game doesn't have bloom effects and other types of high end graphics tricks, so I'm not sure what it's fully capable of. But I did not notice any difference in performance between playing on the tablet itself and the TV. One hiccup though that I found annoying was that despite using a game pad, I was still required to use the touchscreen to advance through the menu. Maybe there is some mapping options I can tweak to fix this, because it is very annoying with the tablet having to be in the dock to use the controller. If anyone has successfully used a USB to MicroUSB to use the controller without the dock I'd love to hear about it. All in all I was happy with it.
Next game up was N.O.V.A. 3. This game does not appear to natively support game pads. If it does please someone correct me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. In order to address this, I picked up a couple apps off the app store, Joystick Center 6 and Joy2Touch, both by the same author, Poke64738. I'm struggling to get these to work, but I am sure it is ID 10 T error on my part, as many people have had success using his apps to play android games using USB and Bluetooth controllers, as well as keyboard and mouse combos. These apps work by using controller input from USB and Bluetooth devices to emulate touch input on the capacitive touchscreen, and involve a mapping overly while in the game requiring you to touch the screen and map that screen tap to the appropriate button on your input device. Once I get it sorted out, I'm sure it will be right as rain, and if anyone has a source for a walk through or how-to I would greatly appreciate the link, or better yet, a source for Xbox controller profiles would be better. N.O.V.O. 3 loading times seem to take a very long time, which I think is caused by our tablets' I/O issues, and I don't see how JB/Project Butter could address that. But has for video and audio quality, just as Dead Trigger, it looked great and ran at good speed with no tears or artifacts or any noticeable defects. Once I figure out my Joystick Center 6 setup I'm sure this will be a fun game to play.
All in all I'm having fun using my tablet as a console like device, aside from the few minor issues i described. I hope this was helpful to anyone trying to decide if they want to invest in the stuff needed to do this. Also, any feedback for the issues I'm having, apps I'm using, or ways to improve the experience are very welcome, for the benefit of myself and the community.
TL;DR TF700 makes a pretty good gaming console IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you have any pics? i'd love to see some you should try asphalt 7
PantechBurstOwner said:
do you have any pics? i'd love to see some you should try asphalt 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Asphalt 7 won't install from the play store for our device, i had bought it on my phone but am unable to install it.
PantechBurstOwner said:
do you have any pics? i'd love to see some you should try asphalt 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
user311 said:
Asphalt 7 won't install from the play store for our device, i had bought it on my phone but am unable to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll see what I can do....
Edit:
I've managed to dig up an old copy I had of the game and forgot I backed up from my Galaxy, if I can get it running I'll take some pics or maybe a video, but not sure where I could post the video, haven't done this sort of thing before. Youtube? Or this there an easier option?
No need for a video unless you want to, I just wanted to see how that was set up. does it look good on the TV?
Sent from my PantechP9070 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2
Yeah, every thing looks great on the tv, same quality as what appears on the tablet. I had to fiddle with the ratio button on the TV remote to get it to fit right, set it to "Just Scan" and it all fit nicely.
I got asphalt 7 on my tf700, and it runs and plays nice, but it doesn't support game pad natively, so I gotta wait until I figure out the joystick center 6 app. It's starting to seem like none of the Gameloft games have support for game pads built in. I really hope developers get in the habit of including this.
I've tried a couple of games on my TV and I always have a very noticeable, yet small, delay from the tablet screen to the tv screen. I find it makes some games difficult to play. Have you noticed this at all?
Sent from my Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Does anyone happen to know if Shadowgun THD happens to support game pads natively?
newellj79 said:
I've tried a couple of games on my TV and I always have a very noticeable, yet small, delay from the tablet screen to the tv screen. I find it makes some games difficult to play. Have you noticed this at all?
Sent from my Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, fortunately I haven't noticed this issue, not that I was looking for it though. I was having to use the touch screen while playing so I think I would have noticed. But now that you have mentioned it I will keep an eye out for it. Just a shot in the dark, but does your TV operate at 120Hz? Not sure if that would cause the delay, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. Also, it may be the cable. I know that it's a digital signal and a crappy cable is suppose to work just like a good one, but there might be an issue there in the cable. I would try a different cable, and / or a different TV, if you are able to. Then you could narrow it down. If it's still doing it after a different cable and on a different TV, then it's more then likely something to do with the tablet itself.
newellj79 said:
I've tried a couple of games on my TV and I always have a very noticeable, yet small, delay from the tablet screen to the tv screen. I find it makes some games difficult to play. Have you noticed this at all?
Sent from my Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK so I went and did some testing, with games, movies, and web browsing, scrolling up and down and stuff, and I didn't notice any lag between what was being displayed on my tablet and what was displaying on the TV. Hope this is helpful to you.
One workaround to the tablet screen issue is using an app like rootdim to decrease the backlight of your tablet to zero. This would turn the screen off on the tablet and not the tv. Getting the backlight back on wouldn't be too hard since you can use the mouse on the dock to control things on your tv instead of the touchscreen.
Oh and there are some ways to navigate the tablet easier. With the joystick app you bought, it's possible to use the joystick on your controller as a mouse. This could easily be activated with the touch of a button that isn't really used on the controller, making it possible to switch back and forth. A downside of this is that games that natively use the gamepad (such as dead trigger and shadowgun) won't work if you're using the joystick center app.
Another way to navigate is blueputdroid. Simply download this app on your phone and now you have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. This could control virtually everything on your tablet. Games like dead trigger could be navigated from the couch and you could even easily browse the internet since you now have a keyboard.
hajalie24 said:
Another way to navigate is blueputdroid. Simply download this app on your phone and now you have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. This could control virtually everything on your tablet. Games like dead trigger could be navigated from the couch and you could even easily browse the internet since you now have a keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL I was just thinking earlier today "How can I use an android phone to control an android tablet?". Thank you so much for that info, and I am most definitely going to check it out! But wouldn't this require some kind of server app running on the android tablet? I've used my phone as a keyboard/nouse with my pc before, and they all required the pc side to have a server program running in the background.
WeSiDe said:
Does anyone happen to know if Shadowgun THD happens to support game pads natively?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it does.
If you're rooted and have a PS3 controller, you can always install Sixaxais Controller. It lets you maps virtual controls. I've done it with Dead Trigger. It works pretty good, but I can't quite get the movement setting just right.
I risked it and went ahead and spent the five bucks on Shadowgun THD. It does support game pads natively, so that's awesome. Plays like a Gears of War Lite.
My next endeavor will be to get the TF700 LTE model when it comes out, unless a better option comes along. I want to use a data plan with it along with something like splashtop to remote into my pc at home.
I can see it now, grinding out levels in guild wars 2 at the bus stop. I did this over my home wireless network and it worked great.
I'm curious about some things concerning the differences between the current TF700 and the LTE TF700 coming out, but I'm gonna make a separate post about that.
WeSiDe said:
LOL I was just thinking earlier today "How can I use an android phone to control an android tablet?". Thank you so much for that info, and I am most definitely going to check it out! But wouldn't this require some kind of server app running on the android tablet? I've used my phone as a keyboard/nouse with my pc before, and they all required the pc side to have a server program running in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't need an app installed on the tablet because it acts as a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, which the tablet natively supports.
Another alternative to blueputdroid is the app called tablet remote, the buttons are similar to that of a tv remote, so it's not as versatile as blueputdroid, but and you can connect via bluetooth or over wi-fi. You'll need the app installed on both the tablet and phone.
I am curious why most of the games and apps are not supported on Note tab 10.1 while using Galaxy s3 I can download most of them without any problems? I would love to play games on a bigger screen on my freetime/travelling.
First, you can install to your SIII and then backup the app and move it to your Note and manually install most things that the Play store says aren't compatible. You could also get really creative and modify your build.prop file to make the Play store think your Note is a different device. I don't recommend this method, but it's something that worked on my HP Touchpad.
Now, let me tell you about how stupid the Play store is. I purchased Madden 12 during the 25 cent sale they had a few weeks ago. According to the Play store, the app was not compatible with my Razr Maxx, but it was with my Touchpad. The problem is, while it will install on the Touchpad, I've never been able to get any EA games to download the secondary data that it tries to run when it starts. As an added haha, the Razr comes with a demo version of Madden 12 pre-installed so it really makes no sense that it would be listed as incompatible.
So what I had to was install the program on my Touchpad, move the APK to the Razr, run the program on the Razr to download the extra data and then copy that extra data back to the Touchpad.
Here's the best part. Program runs fine on the Razr, still doesn't actually work on the Touchpad. Other than the splash screen, everything else is a black screen.
I just purchased the MK808B and will have it delivered tomorrow. I was curious what to expect with steaming apps. I live in a condo that doesn't allow more than basic cable so I currently use my PS3 to watch movies from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Crackle. I was curious if other apps work like Directv Everywhere, Max Go, Showtime Anytime, etc??
As far as games go what controller do most of you use? I bought the Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 to use for now but I assume I'll want a good game controller.
scmobileman said:
I just purchased the MK808B and will have it delivered tomorrow. I was curious what to expect with steaming apps. I live in a condo that doesn't allow more than basic cable so I currently use my PS3 to watch movies from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Crackle. I was curious if other apps work like Directv Everywhere, Max Go, Showtime Anytime, etc??
As far as games go what controller do most of you use? I bought the Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 to use for now but I assume I'll want a good game controller.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My MD808B arrived today. I bought it through Amazon from Geekbuying. It did come pre-rooted. It's a very fast device that operates with little to no lag. Not the my pleasing (to the eye) homescreen but not bad. I hooked up my Logitech K400 keyboard and was off and running within a minute or two. As I mentioned in my first post my main focus was on the streaming apps. I went to Netflix first, the play store downloaded a table version of Netflix and it ran with no problem at all. I generally use my PS3 and there is a noticeable difference in quality. The MK808B looks much closer to the SD while the PS3 has a nice HD pic. I have limited speed here (about 3MB down) so that isn't helping.
Up next I went to HBOGo. It works as well. The only problem was when you go to the login screen you can't see the text boxes once the onscreen keyboard pops up. Outside of that it seems to work well. Quality is about the same as I get from my laptop, which isn't great but acceptable.
Maybe the most important to me is Directv Everywhere. The app downloaded, fired up quickly and searched moved quickly as well. However I can't get anything to play. It just has a circle in the middle of the screen as if it's buffering. I'll keep working on this one because it's so important to me but I'm not very optimistic.
Crackle's app is small and downloaded with no problem. It's not the easiest to navigate but it did work and the streaming quality was similar to the PS3, not HD but "ok".
I tried Hulu, as most of you know it didn't work. Saying it was't supported on this device.
MaxGo downloaded and starts up with no problem. However when I try to sign in it keeps going back to the main page and without signing in you can't watch the shows/movies.
Redbox Instant doesn't work if you're rooted but there easy work around is to the turn off the superuser features in the SU app. Once I did that I was able to use Redbox but the quality was below average and it buffered repeatedly. At this point it's not usable for me.
As for games I tried a few and so far only Angry Birds works for my setup. Others like Swat FT were impossible because of how it's designed. Temple Run 2 wouldn't start because you can't click on "Play". Real Basketball wouldn't allow me to click on start or click to close the game.
Well it's early and I'm not giving up on the device but right now I would have to say it's far from ready for prime time. It certainly serves a purpose and I'm sure there are ways to make the most out of it but it's more work than I had hoped. Back to more testing!
So I've got my Shield and I'm loving it. However, only about half of my games have Xinput controller support. So I'm trying to figure out how to get either Pinnacle Game Profiler or Xpadder to work with it. I've tried a few things, and I'm not quite getting there. Here's what I've tried:
- Setting up a Profile with Pinnacle for Xbox 360 controller and then launching Big Picture from the Shield. This didn't work (although it works with my regular Xbox 360 controller when not using the Shield).
- Adding Pinnacle Game Profiler as a program to Steam and then trying to launch it while connected with the Shield. It would not open while the Shield was connected to Steam. It did open in Big Picture while the Shield was not connected.
So that's about as far as I've gotten. I do have a few ideas, but I'm not sure how to implement them. One idea is to figure out how to add Xinput to a game. Basically setting up something like Pinnacle or Xpadder to "listen" for a connected Xinput-compatible controller and then activate the proper profile. The other idea is to try and get Windows to see the Shield's controller and then configure Pinnacle/Xpadder in the normal way. I've tried connecting the Shield to my PC with a USB cable, but it only mounts as a Media Drive and the controller feature is not detected by the computer. Someone on the Pinnacle forum suggested trying to find an App for Android that will connect the Shield to my PC as a controller. There are several Apps that can do something like this, but none that look like they would work with the physical buttons on the Shield (if someone knows of a good App, I'd be interested to try it).
So those are my thoughts and where I'm at. Any ideas on what I can try?
No ideas, but bumping for my support... the inability to map the controller to keyboard buttons is the biggest letdown of the system to me. So many awesome games I could be playing on it if we could just map with xpadder.
I'd pay good money to have mapping abilities... anyone feel like a bounty?
It should work in theory if you play through steam, right? Steam recognizes the controller as xinput. If you set it up manually from the PC it seems like it should work!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
jadengore said:
It should work in theory if you play through steam, right? Steam recognizes the controller as xinput. If you set it up manually from the PC it seems like it should work!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that the controller is only detected by the computer while you're in big picture.it disconnects as soon as you exit big picture.