Apparently you've never heard of the "Standard Code Rant". Unless you are a developer of THIS game using THIS engine, you really need to not throw around terms like "it won't cause lag" and "this would be okay/easy".
Any of those effects DO cause a lot of lag. They have to be processed and sent, that's why we don't have weather. This has been discussed at length, though not very recently that I recall. I do believe it's in one of the sticky threads, but I'm not sure.
Have you looked at the threads about the 5th Anniversary test server pictures? How people are pissed that "they didn't show up" or "where am I" - it's because the engine can only render a certain number of things before it just gives up and you lose information. That's why hamidon frequently vanishes, if you're on a raid, or during a Zombie attack, you may not see people very close by any more.
Any additions - you've got to look at the lowest end machines, AND the lowest end connections.
Now, with that said, I would love to HAVE weather, but ... not at the cost of missing the rest of my team mates images, or losing too much other data.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
My computers have a habit of hiccuping pretty hard when I do a flyby of an AE building, especially a crowded one.
They don't do that around crowded other buildings.
Purely anecdotal, but there you go.
The game's had a lot of graphical tuneups, and the computer that could run it full blast at launch now cannot run it (at an acceptable speed) even with all graphics set to low.
Dawncaller - The Circle of Dawn
Too many blasted alts to list, but all on Virtue.
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The game's had a lot of graphical tuneups, and the computer that could run it full blast at launch now cannot run it (at an acceptable speed) even with all graphics set to low.
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QFT. My comupter used to could run CoX at least at performance level. Now even on minimum it starts to chug.
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This has been bugging me for a while. Since the release of the AE system, I looked at the building.. and thought.. this is beautiful.. whey can't all of the buildings look like this. So I thought that maybe... instead of lead (Pb) windows, there are windows we can actually see through.. with workers doing work, chaos.. etc. It really would make it feel like a city, instead of a bunch of NPC's walking around the streets into buildings that seem like the place where vampires like to live. If you guys made the buildings see through, it would seem like a real city.
Not to mention the sky. It's obvious that the system generates marquee clouds... but why not more? Add some rain marquee.. add some snow. Make it so you can't actually vividly see the sun as it moves across the sky. I'm pretty sure that in real life, it isn't sunny every day. And this should affect the lighting too. I want the ability to change how vivid the sky is. And you guys probably think, well we couldn't incoporate rain.. it would cause map lag!... wrong.. it's all about what the camera sees. If you make it appear as if rain is falling (but on the map itself, it's not) it will feel like rain, and cause very little lag. There should be water spattering on the streets, and puddles should form when the 'rain switch' turns on. It's dissappointing that they haven't integrated this.. I feel that the one turn off about this game is the unrealistic feel that the environment gives. If we had rain, lighting effects, realistic buildings... reflective glass, and more.. then it really would feel like a city. Obviously, people will have the option to turn off rain and weather effects, as well as lower the quality of buildings.. that way people aren't lagged out of this update. I know people want it for the genuine feel of it, so please discuss. With enough support we can cause change.
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Every building that actually has characters inside spikes the bandwidth load. Normally, when you go through a door to a store/police station/etc., you are actually taken to a different map. (I think these submaps are actually "below" the city map.) Wentworth's and the AE buildings are different in that the people inside them are actually still on the main map. That's why many people experience a pause when they get near one of them, because the data for ALL those characters has to be sent to your computer, whether you can actually see them or not. Turning down graphics settings doesn't affect that. So putting in more of that kind of building would make it even harder for people with older systems to run the game. Not A Good Thing.
And reflective windows? Do you have ANY idea how much computation goes into reflective effects? Your graphics card (or your computer) would have to trace the line of sight from your camera position to the first pixel in the window, calculate the reflection angle, and then trace the line of sight until it intersects something, or reaches the limit of visibility. And you better hope that what it intersects isn't another reflective window or it will have to keep going. Then it would have to do it again for the window pixel next to that one. And the one next to that. And next to that. For every pixel in the window. And the window next to it. And next to that. For every single reflective window visible on your screen.
And now you moved. So start over, with the first pixel in the first window.
Reflective windows would be nice, but I'm not sure even the best home system could handle THAT load.
Weather effects are asked for regularly. And are shouted down regularly because they WOULD affect people's graphics load. If you make them lightweight, so they don't reduce visibility, then people are going to complain that they aren't realistic, that they are breaking their immersion. And if they DO affect visibility, then you're handicapping people's play for nothing but an aesthetic effect. And other people are going to complain because now their system can't even run the game at all.
Splashing puddles and falling snow would increase the graphics load, because how do you think they get animated? Every single thing in the game that you can see moving is calculated by YOUR system. So that's going to increase the load on each person's machine, and you're going to force many people who can run the game adequately now to lower their graphics settings. Again, Not A Good Thing.
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(I think these submaps are actually "below" the city map.)
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Yes. There used to be a bug where you could get under the Steel Canyon map and explore the University Campus before that was ever opened. The hole people used to get there has long since been closed (in fact, I think it only ever existed on the Test Server), so no need to go look for one.
The physical location of all inside buildings is pretty much exactly below the placement of the structure they correspond to. I'd gauge they're about as far removed from 'ground level' as the map ceiling is.
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
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And reflective windows? Do you have ANY idea how much computation goes into reflective effects? Your graphics card (or your computer) would have to trace the line of sight from your camera position to the first pixel in the window, calculate the reflection angle, and then trace the line of sight until it intersects something, or reaches the limit of visibility. And you better hope that what it intersects isn't another reflective window or it will have to keep going. Then it would have to do it again for the window pixel next to that one. And the one next to that. And next to that. For every pixel in the window. And the window next to it. And next to that. For every single reflective window visible on your screen.
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I just want to comment on this, real quick.
with the proper graphics settings (read: high end graphics cards with lots of visual settings turned way up) water is reflective, mind you, it doesn't work very well, it doesn't do all of the calculations you mentioned, so it's kind of cool, but sometimes can look really stupid because you *know* that's not what it should look like.
No
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
I think you underestimate our fools, sir.
Why /duel is a bad idea
Let me put it much more simply:
Anything - ANY thing - that adds ANY graphics complexity, DOES add lag and processing issues. Even switching from Hero to Villain side has people scrambling around here asking why their machine won't work right or why can't they even enter Grandville without crashing. The issue is graphical and processing power, and you cannot get away from those problems if you add anything to the visual appearance of any game.
@Psyonico - I like how the water looks, actually, it IS a clever little trick, it's not "real" reflection (and also, notice how many costume pieces and sometimes whole areas of your character simply *vanish* under water?) but it does look pretty cool, enough to fool you into thinking you're seeing a reflection.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
[ QUOTE ]
Let me put it much more simply:
Anything - ANY thing - that adds ANY graphics complexity, DOES add lag and processing issues. Even switching from Hero to Villain side has people scrambling around here asking why their machine won't work right or why can't they even enter Grandville without crashing. The issue is graphical and processing power, and you cannot get away from those problems if you add anything to the visual appearance of any game.
@Psyonico - I like how the water looks, actually, it IS a clever little trick, it's not "real" reflection (and also, notice how many costume pieces and sometimes whole areas of your character simply *vanish* under water?) but it does look pretty cool, enough to fool you into thinking you're seeing a reflection.
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ATi cards actually project a reflection of players and object geometry on the water, but it's a broken implementation whose intention is under dispute.
This has been bugging me for a while. Since the release of the AE system, I looked at the building.. and thought.. this is beautiful.. whey can't all of the buildings look like this. So I thought that maybe... instead of lead (Pb) windows, there are windows we can actually see through.. with workers doing work, chaos.. etc. It really would make it feel like a city, instead of a bunch of NPC's walking around the streets into buildings that seem like the place where vampires like to live. If you guys made the buildings see through, it would seem like a real city.
Not to mention the sky. It's obvious that the system generates marquee clouds... but why not more? Add some rain marquee.. add some snow. Make it so you can't actually vividly see the sun as it moves across the sky. I'm pretty sure that in real life, it isn't sunny every day. And this should affect the lighting too. I want the ability to change how vivid the sky is. And you guys probably think, well we couldn't incoporate rain.. it would cause map lag!... wrong.. it's all about what the camera sees. If you make it appear as if rain is falling (but on the map itself, it's not) it will feel like rain, and cause very little lag. There should be water spattering on the streets, and puddles should form when the 'rain switch' turns on. It's dissappointing that they haven't integrated this.. I feel that the one turn off about this game is the unrealistic feel that the environment gives. If we had rain, lighting effects, realistic buildings... reflective glass, and more.. then it really would feel like a city. Obviously, people will have the option to turn off rain and weather effects, as well as lower the quality of buildings.. that way people aren't lagged out of this update. I know people want it for the genuine feel of it, so please discuss. With enough support we can cause change.