The suggestion to turn off external power effects would be pretty useful in crowded environments where people leave their auras and powers on auto, especially in Auction house areas and Pocket D.
Turning off the little buff/debuff special effects might also be good too.
But as far as turning off the floating pieces of paper and leaves in the wind is concerned, this is already something you can disable under Physics quality, turn it off and it should stop rendering all those physic effects, either that or you could turn down the maximum particle effects on the graphics slider.
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/signed
The one in particular I've asked for is actually one I think I recall being available back in I3 when I started, before the options menu went to a windowed version. Unless I'm horribly misremembering, we used to be able to turn off the floating numbers such as damage/healing/etc. done and all those other things that come up over a toon's head during activities. Not only does that require a bit of incorporation into the visual display but it also involves quite a bit of data transfer from the servers and, for me, it is very disruptive to my immersion.
I would love to have a greater degree of control over what's being displayed and what's not.
--If we can have huge sig images, why can we have only five lines of text?
--...faceplanting like a Defender pulling an AV (Nalrok_AthZim)
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...
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Actually no, it requires nothing extra from the server. Your client displays those numbers based on what the server is already sending it for Hits/Misses/Heals.... Look at your combat tab, Everything you do is sent there, the client then rounds that up/down, and floats it over your, and others heads.|
Originally Posted by CoyoteShaman
the floating numbers such as damage/healing/etc. done and all those other things that come up over a toon's head during activities. Not only does that require a bit of incorporation into the visual display but it also involves quite a bit of data transfer from the servers and
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That said, I'm all for more options.
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You've just contradicted yourself, or you don't understand what I said. That information is being sent and doesn't need to be. Unless you think the client is handling the subtraction of enemy hit points based on damage sent from the server, which it isn't, the numbers are being sent distinctly. That's why if you select an enemy and hover over their health bar in the target window you'll see a current health number rounded to the nearest 5 even though actual damage is done in .01 increments. The only thing that needs to be sent from the server is current health status which is sent completely separate from those detailed numbers which wind up being added to the display.|
Originally Posted by Neo Shadowdream
Actually no, it requires nothing extra from the server. Your client displays those numbers based on what the server is already sending it for Hits/Misses/Heals.... Look at your combat tab, Everything you do is sent there, the client then rounds that up/down, and floats it over your, and others heads.
That said, I'm all for more options. |
Further, incorporating 2d displays in a 3d rendered image does require additional resources. That's slight but the resources needed to make them all float and scale appropriately and decide which numbers should be shown and which shouldn't based on which numbers are already floating there (ever notice how sometimes you'll see "DEFLECTED!" and sometimes you won't, even when it's happening? or how sometimes you'll see one set of floating numbers from one set of attacks but a different set that should be there aren't?) do have an impact that could be reduced by just giving us the option of saying we don't want/need them. (hurray for run-on sentences!!!)
That said, I acknowledge and appreciate that you're agreeing with us that more options are a good thing.
--If we can have huge sig images, why can we have only five lines of text?
--...faceplanting like a Defender pulling an AV (Nalrok_AthZim)
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...
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This can be set by particle physics quality/count in your options already.
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Originally Posted by Aerofiel
Enable/Disable Extraneous environment effects: This would remove effects like floating newspapers and garbage, leaves, and the like, increasing performance, if disabled.
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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(Preface: In this post, I am not referring to particle effects. While some things I will say can relate to particle effects, the sheer mass quantities of the particles puts them in another category of speed analysis.)|
Originally Posted by CoyoteShaman
Further, incorporating 2d displays in a 3d rendered image does require additional resources. That's slight but the resources needed to make them all float and scale appropriately and decide which numbers should be shown and which shouldn't based on which numbers are already floating there (ever notice how sometimes you'll see "DEFLECTED!" and sometimes you won't, even when it's happening? or how sometimes you'll see one set of floating numbers from one set of attacks but a different set that should be there aren't?) do have an impact that could be reduced by just giving us the option of saying we don't want/need them. (hurray for run-on sentences!!!)
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There's really two kinds of 2D elements: user interface, and billboarded textured quads. (Or in some cases, textured quads without billboarding.)
UI is (generally) rendered on top of the 3D scene, and requires a change in several parameters on your graphics card. In computing terms, this is a slow operation, but a human still wouldn't be able to notice it unless it's happening a hundred time a second or more, or if your graphics card really sucks.
Textured quads are simple quadrilaterals with an image on them; they're generally billboarded as well, which means that the quad is always facing your screen. Unlike UI, this doesn't require changing the graphics card's presentation parameters. In fact, it's just like drawing a 3D model which only has 4 vertices/2 polygons. Generally, that's exactly what it is.
Neither UI nor textured quads add enough to your computer's workload to make any difference. The ONLY way you'd notice the removal of the 2D elements would be if you were running a debug version of the program and measuring the CPU timing with and without the 2D rendering. -- And this is speaking from experience.
Your slowdown is not being caused by the existence of the 2D elements in the game, unless:
- The 2D elements are causing a memory leak, in which case everyone else would have noticed such a glaring problem, and removing them from rendering wouldn't help anyway.
- Your graphics card's pixel shader is broken*, in which case it's a problem with your computer.
- The dev team switches between rendering modes repeatedly during a single frame, in which case everyone else would have noticed such a glaring problem.
- Your graphics card sucks.
* It is possible to write pixel shader code which slows things down substantially on a perfectly fine GPU, but I can't think of any effects in the game which would require a pixel shader that complex.
Now, #1 and #3 are unlikely, or else everyone in the game would be experiencing severe problems. I know you don't want #2 or #4 to be true, and for all I know, they aren't. It is safe to assume that any speed problems you have are not related to any 2D elements in the game. That leaves 3D elements and networking, both of which are very good at slowing things down. If you want to make suggestions to help seed up your computer without upgrading it, I suggest you concentrate there.
tl,dr: Even removing every single 2D element in the entire game won't speed up your game enough for you to notice the difference.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Even single 2-texture planes pull cycles, because on even the most advanced graphics card, every texture matters, even just slightly. Especially when they're being animated(moving in one direction, or if your camera angle is changing, a time where low-end graphics cards often experience the sharpest lag).
In the meantime, this isn't just about making the game more playable on low-end systems, but also for making it more enjoyable for players who simply don't want that extra noise. Also, toggle effects do not all use this billboarding effect, in fact, many use transparent render effects, i.e. "Bubbles" combined with an animated polygon effect, hence why the polygon "rotates" ever so slightly. Combine that with the effect it creates over the objects behind, and it can put a bit of a hit on older, lower-end cards. But that aside, some players simply don't want to(or care to) see it.
I've seen numerous complaints of "I wish I could turn off your armor effect" as well, i.e. when ice armor is cast upon you by another player, and you simply don't want to see that on your player(It looks particularly funny on Khelds, for instance). This isn't just about increasing compatibility; This is about increasing customizeability. Allowing each player to make each install truly their own in every way. If the number of possible vectors of customization in character generation were available for interface customization, that'd make for a very interesting gameplay experience.
This could easily be taken much further. I'm sure there're players who don't care about global textures beyond flat colors as well, though this is a bit of an extreme. "Disable World Textures", perhaps? It worked very well for Katamari, in that it allowed the lower-end CPU of the PS2 to render Far more on the screen with far greater efficiency. Some players might want the immersive full-city texture effect, but some players may simply not care. Something to consider.
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Hitting your 'W' key uses more cycles than the visual effects of a full tray's worth of inspirations.
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Originally Posted by Aerofiel
Even single 2-texture planes pull cycles, because on even the most advanced graphics card, every texture matters, even just slightly. Especially when they're being animated(moving in one direction, or if your camera angle is changing, a time where low-end graphics cards often experience the sharpest lag).
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http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
I'm always running low-end computers barely (and sometimes not quite) up to minimum specs and I can't say I've ever noticed any lag from the floating indicators from buffs and insps. A million other things, sure, but not that.
Dec out.
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maybe if your running a low end performance computer you should try not running at the closest to max settings you can?
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Originally Posted by Aerofiel
Even single 2-texture planes pull cycles, because on even the most advanced graphics card, every texture matters, even just slightly. Especially when they're being animated(moving in one direction, or if your camera angle is changing, a time where low-end graphics cards often experience the sharpest lag).
In the meantime, this isn't just about making the game more playable on low-end systems, but also for making it more enjoyable for players who simply don't want that extra noise. Also, toggle effects do not all use this billboarding effect, in fact, many use transparent render effects, i.e. "Bubbles" combined with an animated polygon effect, hence why the polygon "rotates" ever so slightly. Combine that with the effect it creates over the objects behind, and it can put a bit of a hit on older, lower-end cards. But that aside, some players simply don't want to(or care to) see it. I've seen numerous complaints of "I wish I could turn off your armor effect" as well, i.e. when ice armor is cast upon you by another player, and you simply don't want to see that on your player(It looks particularly funny on Khelds, for instance). This isn't just about increasing compatibility; This is about increasing customizeability. Allowing each player to make each install truly their own in every way. If the number of possible vectors of customization in character generation were available for interface customization, that'd make for a very interesting gameplay experience. This could easily be taken much further. I'm sure there're players who don't care about global textures beyond flat colors as well, though this is a bit of an extreme. "Disable World Textures", perhaps? It worked very well for Katamari, in that it allowed the lower-end CPU of the PS2 to render Far more on the screen with far greater efficiency. Some players might want the immersive full-city texture effect, but some players may simply not care. Something to consider. |
But it's so PRETTY! 
I push it a little far, myself, and then just put up with the hiccups...
Dec out.
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Did I misspeak and say I was noticing a slowdown? I don't recall that but I might have. I said it's a lot of crap going on (mostly in data transfer but additionally in presentation, the latter of which you may or may not have debunked; I wouldn't know because my area of expertise is data transfer and not graphics and I don't know what your area of expertise is) and that it interferes with my immersion. It's the latter which makes me call for it to be able to be toggled off.
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Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper
(Preface: In this post, I am not referring to particle effects. While some things I will say can relate to particle effects, the sheer mass quantities of the particles puts them in another category of speed analysis.)
There's really two kinds of 2D elements: user interface, and billboarded textured quads. (Or in some cases, textured quads without billboarding.) UI is (generally) rendered on top of the 3D scene, and requires a change in several parameters on your graphics card. In computing terms, this is a slow operation, but a human still wouldn't be able to notice it unless it's happening a hundred time a second or more, or if your graphics card really sucks. Textured quads are simple quadrilaterals with an image on them; they're generally billboarded as well, which means that the quad is always facing your screen. Unlike UI, this doesn't require changing the graphics card's presentation parameters. In fact, it's just like drawing a 3D model which only has 4 vertices/2 polygons. Generally, that's exactly what it is. Neither UI nor textured quads add enough to your computer's workload to make any difference. The ONLY way you'd notice the removal of the 2D elements would be if you were running a debug version of the program and measuring the CPU timing with and without the 2D rendering. -- And this is speaking from experience. Your slowdown is not being caused by the existence of the 2D elements in the game, unless:
* It is possible to write pixel shader code which slows things down substantially on a perfectly fine GPU, but I can't think of any effects in the game which would require a pixel shader that complex. Now, #1 and #3 are unlikely, or else everyone in the game would be experiencing severe problems. I know you don't want #2 or #4 to be true, and for all I know, they aren't. It is safe to assume that any speed problems you have are not related to any 2D elements in the game. That leaves 3D elements and networking, both of which are very good at slowing things down. If you want to make suggestions to help seed up your computer without upgrading it, I suggest you concentrate there. tl,dr: Even removing every single 2D element in the entire game won't speed up your game enough for you to notice the difference. |
--If we can have huge sig images, why can we have only five lines of text?
--...faceplanting like a Defender pulling an AV (Nalrok_AthZim)
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...
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As Aerofiel so precisely stated, for many it's got nothing to do with performance. I notice no lag except in the most extreme situations because I've spent way more money than I ever should have on this blasted game to which I'm so very addicted.
Instead, for many of us, it has to do with immersion or some other idiosyncracy of our personal preference that means we would like to be able to turn off effect X. My personal pet peeve is the floaty numbers. I don't mind the insp indicators at all. They do nothing to my immersion. Having a bunch of numbers and words float around the damn screen, on the other hand, draws my eyes and my attention to those things. I'm very language oriented and can't tune words and numbers out as well as perhaps some other people can. I know I'm not the only person with this issue. I can already turn off the word bubbles if I want. I would like to be able to turn off the (what I consider to be ridiculous) floating numbers and words.
Just sayin'. More options = good.
--If we can have huge sig images, why can we have only five lines of text?
--...faceplanting like a Defender pulling an AV (Nalrok_AthZim)
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...
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If your area of expertise is in data transfer, you should realize that there is no difference in data transferred with any graphical effects on or off. That is, unless you're talking about transfer from RAM to the GPU, in which case we're really getting into the realm of computer graphics and parallelization.
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Originally Posted by CoyoteShaman
I said it's a lot of crap going on (mostly in data transfer but additionally in presentation, the latter of which you may or may not have debunked; I wouldn't know because my area of expertise is data transfer and not graphics and I don't know what your area of expertise is)
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http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Well I was hoping a quick Texture replacement might have fixed the float displays, but sadly they are generated from a print call, using in game fonts, I was able to remove the correct font, and it just defaulted to the next in the list... so basically I would have to remove all fonts from the game for that...
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In light of the recent Ultra Mode additions to the city of heroes games, perhaps it is time to also increase the ability to disable unnecessary and/or redundant specific occurences to increase in-game framerates for players on slower systems?
Enable/Disable/Only Self: Visual Toggles: Allows you to disable the visual effects shown by the toggles of all players, reducing the necessity for on-screen particles and clear textures being shown, as well as other effects of the like. Only toggles on yourself will be visible, whether cast by you or by others when Only Self is selected.
Enable/Disable Visual Inspirations: Those little rotating icons around a player while they're using inspirations don't seem like much, but in mass amounts, they can lower framerates on lower-end systems. This would allow you to disable this visual effect.
Enable/Disable Extraneous environment effects: This would remove effects like floating newspapers and garbage, leaves, and the like, increasing performance, if disabled.
There are other effects similar to this that may improve in-game performance, I am sure. Let's hear what everyone has to suggest in this! Even for players that have a high end system to work with, this may assist in simply removing unnecessary or undesireable(to some) effects, allowing each player to tailor their game to their individual liking.