City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Why am I reflective when I turn off Environment Reflections?

Gemini_2099

By Gemini_2099,
Posted on: 2011-11-12 11:02 in CoH and CoV General Discussions

 

Posted

I made a character on an alternate computer with lower graphics setting using the Armor Plate settings. When I made the character I noticed the updated Armor Plate pieces had this cool reflective quality that worked well to make the character look like Brass. I liked it.

I got home to my high end machine and started playing with my friends and I noticed the Armor Plate pieces were no longer reflective. I started looking into why; visiting the tailor, changing graphic settings, etc.

What I found is if I turn off Environment Reflections under my graphics settings options my character once again looks reflective! Wait, that's totally counter intuitive to me. Why would the Environment Reflections options turn my costume pieces non reflective?

Moonlighter

50s include MA/SD, MA/SR, DP/Elec, Claw/Inv, Kat/Dark, Kat/Fire, Spine/Regen, Dark/SD

First Arc: Tequila Sunrise, #168563

 

Posted

I think it has to do with bit maps, If I recall correctly

My green shield on my helmet was shiny but I turned down the bit maps (original of launch) and that is the result.

If someone knows for sure that would be nice. I know environmental reflections effect turned on makes water shiny.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moonlighter View Post
I made a character on an alternate computer with lower graphics setting using the Armor Plate settings. When I made the character I noticed the updated Armor Plate pieces had this cool reflective quality that worked well to make the character look like Brass. I liked it.

I got home to my high end machine and started playing with my friends and I noticed the Armor Plate pieces were no longer reflective. I started looking into why; visiting the tailor, changing graphic settings, etc.

What I found is if I turn off Environment Reflections under my graphics settings options my character once again looks reflective! Wait, that's totally counter intuitive to me. Why would the Environment Reflections options turn my costume pieces non reflective?
There are two techniques the game uses to create reflections. The first is called "environment mapping": it overlays the surface with a generic "surroundings" image and distorts and shifts that image to give the impression of reflectivity. This can be done on almost any graphics card, but if you pay attention, it looks extremely fake. The other does some sort of fancy work with graphics shaders to actually show the surrounding area. It's not perfect (it tends to break down at close distances and sharp angles), and it requires a reasonably powerful system.

I suspect what's happening is that the low-power system is using environment mapping (easy to see), while the high-power system is using shader reflections (harder to see, until you know what to look for). Try going somewhere with large, strongly-contrasting objects (such as the Magesterium section of Nova Praetoria, or the central street of Steel Canyon), switching between Environmental Reflections settings, and moving around (shader reflections are easier to spot when you're moving).