Patch Notes

[Cadaverine]

I've mostly noticed the low rez textures on pants.  Gloves, and boots seem to be a mix, but I really can't get in close enough to tell if the glove/boot part are low rez, but the gadgets, shin guards, and the like on them look fine.  Chest, weapons, and head slot all look fine to me on all my characters so far.

As far as cut scenes, I'm watching one right now, and I can't see any difference in how my character looks in the gameworld, and how he looks in the cut scene.  My pants are still a blurry mess.

[Rendakor]

My load screens are fast, except for Hoth. Hoth is crazy slow to load up.

Tat and Hoth are my bad ones.

Tat was kinda bad for me too, but Alderaan was worse. So much so that I skipped most of the sidequests and just did my class stuff so I could get off that hellhole. Someone should blow that place up one day...

[Kitsune]

I got Lasa into the best lighting I could and took a screenshot that shows the wide gulf between textures that I see.



Pants/skirts almost always have wretched textures, sometimes the tops as well, and headgear is usually good quality.  Weapons are usually fine too, though I've run across the occasional shitty weapon.  Those giant boxy pistols that NPCs run around with are pretty good examples of bad weapons.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, the pants (or skirts), for whatever reason, seem to be universally asstastic.

[eldaec]

Oh what inquisitors would do to be complaining about texture quality on a wide selection of pants.

[tmp]

Yeah, the pants (or skirts), for whatever reason, seem to be universally asstastic.

I'd guess their "atlas texture" thing allocates similarly sized parts of the full texture to both the small elements like gloves/shoes and large ones like skirts/tops. With the pants/skirts being given smaller area than the top part, the usual reasoning for that being, with the way camera is typically placed there's more focus on upper halves of the characters than on their bottoms. So it's okay to have lower resolution bottoms if it means the tops can look better.

(which is the reasoning i'd argue with because the jump in quality can stand out pretty badly like in SWTOR case, lowering the overall impression more than imo uniform in-between texture quality would... but that's another story. And also would need some tests)

[01101010]

I'd venture to say that the engine has real issues with cloth armor. Robes, at times, can also look like complete shit as well, but pants/skirts are pretty universal.

[jakonovski]

This whole "MMOs are so MASSIVE" excuse for low res textures kind of falls flat on its face when you consider that the game is instanced to hell and back, and there's never more than a handful of players in a place.

[Mrbloodworth]

"Pants" are part of the base model. And likely share the same texture size as other parts. Its just more area to cover. I have seen some that look great, but that's mostly because they are not very detailed and have large detail areas. A Staple of the "painterly" style, witch is mainly used to decrease texture size and place visual emphasis on large detail cues.

The in client screenshot key seems to trigger heavy render load and causes some down sampling.

[eldaec]

This whole "MMOs are so MASSIVE" excuse for low res textures kind of falls flat on its face when you consider that the game is instanced to hell and back, and there's never more than a handful of players in a place.

Also, and this bears endless repeating, when it is a player option in the first place.

[Paelos]

Are you people this zoomed in on your character at all times?

[ajax34i]

No, and I'm mostly seeing a gray cloak backside and hood, so nothing to see there.  However I sometimes do look at the enemy NPC's I'm fighting, and they tend to use the crappy textures too.  Truth is that the interface is clunky enough that I'm often looking at bars rather than at the action.

I do notice shitty environment tiles though. I hope they never lower those textures.

My computer is from 2008, core 2 duo processor, with an NVidia 470 card, WinXP with 2 GB memory.  With everything on "high" except the shadows, computer stutters when loading sounds or the zone graphics, but otherwise runs at 1040 MB memory used, graphics card between 60% and 90% load, GPU temp 41 - 56 Celsius (with the GPU fan cranked up to max).  Nothing's overclocked.  The stuttering is purely hard drive access, as the graphics load and temp drop drastically (to 0) when it's stuttering. 

When other people come into the scene, it stutters a lot.

[jakonovski]

Are you people this zoomed in on your character at all times?

I do it a lot in fact, I zoom in and out and try to immerse myself in the world. It's not a major issue, but I do feel bummed out when my Guardian's chestpiece is a blurry mass (it's also identical to a Smuggler chestpiece, but that's another gripe). 

[tmp]

Are you people this zoomed in on your character at all times?

The view i use typically is fairly close, one which places the character's feet roughly in line with top edge of main toolbar. The low res is more of issue when viewing others' characters, though, as well as the NPCs -- you get good look at them when they're passing by/loitering near, or when you approach one to get a quest.

[Sky]

Personal opinion not withstanding

Actually, it wasn't so much the normal gameplay that was impacted, do you remember the pop-in during cutscenes in the beta? I'd put my money on it being related to that. I had good performance during both beta weekends and the first weekend was on a single gtx 460 (the weekend with the higher res textures).

I also think they did more LoD optimization recently, I've noticed a LOT more pop-in of non-hardbaked statics (boxes, etc) and my dynamics (mobs) are pulled way in. I'd say (unscientifically) the clip plane for dynamics is about a third closer now. Since I had phenomenal performance prior to this and it's not exposed in the settings, not happy about it.

I do know what I'm asking for, the system that was in already. I've seen every game come out of beta and do this, and I understand why. I just have a problem with making sliders that go from 1-60% simply because most people can't stop themselves from pegging them and then bitching about performance. I don't need your BW techspeeks to know what I've seen countless times...when it's running fine on my computer. EQ2 let you push the system beyond what would sanely run...but you could also set profiles. I had a "Neriak" profile that I'd load when I'd go to town that was set lower than my "Adventure" profile where there would be less avatards (I fully understand the amount of overhead in loading in the amount of textures and polys players bring with them in a dense environment, I'm not a moron :p). Hell, go load up EQ2 f2p and look at the graphics options they expose in the settings, THAT's how you let players tailor their experience. Most will just set to presets and be done with it, but having an 'advanced' tab that lets more advanced users tailor to their hardware setup (maybe ambient occlusion is shitty on ATI or w/e) isn't that hard to do.

Point is...let me make that decision. And better yet, give me the option to save profiles so I can run at ultra settings on Voss and then load in medium settings for the Fleet. Every mmo I've played, I clamor for options to allow players control...on an even field (no 3rd party :)).

[luckton]

I understand BW's aversion to allowing the option.  They're trying to avoid the segment of players that will try to play this game at max settings, regardless of what their system is actually capable of, and then moan/bitch/complain, tie up CS lines and ultimately quit because "it doesn't work right" 

And anyone who doesn't understand that clearly as not worked a 1-800 tech support call center before 

[Sky]

Maybe it could poll the hardware? Hardware polling seems awful crappy for setting up graphics options in my experience, but maybe as a way to gate off some advanced features.

I'm 100% sure it's a tech support/customer service issue; I've seen the better graphics running on my 4 1/2 yr old (at the time) pc a few months ago. So much better than I was sure I screwed something up for the turkey day beta weekend, it was so shockingly more lo-res-y.

Anyway, it is what it is. Just a shame, is all.

[Sjofn]

Oh what inquisitors would do to be complaining about texture quality on a wide selection of pants.

You know there are social pants on Balmorra, right? You only have to be social II if I remember right.

[Sky]

Social item bug? (Have to re-equip to apply stats?) Haven't seen it as I don't wear light armor, just saying it might be an issue.

[Mrbloodworth]

I expect more options to come along as time goes on. There are a ton of settings disabled.

IE:

[Sjofn]

Social item bug? (Have to re-equip to apply stats?) Haven't seen it as I don't wear light armor, just saying it might be an issue.

I haven't seen it since I don't actually wear any of it, but for all the fucking bitching he's done about waaaaah paaaaants, I should think that's a small price to pay.

[jakonovski]

That screenshot looks awesome, I may be persuaded to upgrade my graphics card if they implement it in time (even though it would reasonable to expect that a 4890 be able to handle that and much more).

[Kitsune]

I cheated and used the CE vendor to get imperial trooper pants and boots for Lasa.  They aren't a perfect match for the black robey top she has, but they're pretty good.  They're armorish enough to look fairly fitting on someone who runs around stomping other people into the mud, but not so armorish that they look out of place on someone as acrobatic as an assassin.

[01101010]

Pretty sure Alderaan has light armor pants for commendations. One of those planets around that level does. I bought them IMMEDIATELY and it was post-Tattooine.

[Sky]

It's not polite to post a shiny screenshot without info on the hack!

I did tweak a bunch of stuff, but then it became unstable and rather than dick around with it for an hour testing things, I just reverted. Did find a nifty new tool (nvidia inspector).

[eldaec]

Oh what inquisitors would do to be complaining about texture quality on a wide selection of pants.

You know there are social pants on Balmorra, right? You only have to be social II if I remember right.

I'm using pilot pants atm. Fits well with the tatooine commendation chest.

[Merusk]

Oh what inquisitors would do to be complaining about texture quality on a wide selection of pants.

You know there are social pants on Balmorra, right? You only have to be social II if I remember right.

Other alternatives (since he mentioned the pilot pants already)

Buy a security key, wear the dancer's pants.  Slutquisitor!

Or - if you have the CE -  the Rep Officer or Sith Trooper pants from that vendor.

[tmp]

I haven't seen it since I don't actually wear any of it, but for all the fucking bitching he's done about waaaaah paaaaants, I should think that's a small price to pay.

It is indeed not too annoying as it only occurs when changing a game zone. So as long as one doesn't do too much space/ship/planet hopping, it's not hard to live with.

On the graphics spoiler note, the difference between these two seems to be the bottom has reflections turned on, but i get that already without any sikrit tweaking. At lest in republic space station the floors are semi-shiny as it is.

[Sky]

I do not notice any "popping" during game play. I'm sure others do.

Since I bitched about it, here's a representative pop. There are examples all over, I just happened to be passing through here while thinking about it and saw this one.

That's maybe two steps forward.

[Riggswolfe]

I do not notice any "popping" during game play. I'm sure others do.

Since I bitched about it, here's a representative pop. There are examples all over, I just happened to be passing through here while thinking about it and saw this one.

That's maybe two steps forward.

I notice this sometimes as well. I notice it alot on worlds with heavy grass. I can actually see the grass appearing in front of me. I think they must have draw distance set low. I seem to remember browsing through the graphics settings but being unable to find a setting for this.

[Margalis]

Ima say, based on nothing, that when they build a texture atlas all the component parts get equal space, meaning the pants get the same amount of room on the atlased texture as the hood.

This makes sense for a number of reasons, including that it's easy and that you don't have to include extra information about how the texture is being used. Of course this ignores the fact that the texel to pixel ratio is going to be much lower for pants than for hands.

[murdoc]

I notice this sometimes as well. I notice it alot on worlds with heavy grass. I can actually see the grass appearing in front of me. I think they must have draw distance set low. I seem to remember browsing through the graphics settings but being unable to find a setting for this.

The grass grows and the flowers bloom where ever I walk.

[eldaec]

I really noticed draw distance ever since I enabled zooming out more than 19 %. Not enough to really bother me, but definitely notice it.

[Mrbloodworth]

I notice this sometimes as well. I notice it alot on worlds with heavy grass. I can actually see the grass appearing in front of me. I think they must have draw distance set low. I seem to remember browsing through the graphics settings but being unable to find a setting for this.

That's a feature. Grass is also billboards that allays face the camera. I believe its all controlled by the grass slider. Rift also did it. Many engines do.

[Miasma]

I notice this sometimes as well. I notice it alot on worlds with heavy grass. I can actually see the grass appearing in front of me. I think they must have draw distance set low. I seem to remember browsing through the graphics settings but being unable to find a setting for this.

That's a feature. Grass is also billboards that allays face the camera. I believe its all controlled by the grass slider. Rift also did it. Many engines do.

Did you just unironically use "It's a feature not a bug"?  Your defense of badly written lines of code over the objections of the users it is foisted upon is quickly entering delusional territory.  I believe you also called the hero engine, which the vast majority of users have found serious problems with, a "wonderful piece of technology" somewhere today.