What's up with particle physics?

Serious question here, no philosophy, no contemplation: What's going on with particle physics in the game?

Let me explain. A few years ago, City of Heroes introduced support for the the Ageia PhysX card, which was later enabled for all newer nVidia cards after nVidia bought Ageia. This allowed the game to display real time physics objects, such as shell casings ejected from guns and tumbling on the ground, garbage blasted out of nearby garbage containers, the leaves shedding off trees and so forth. And it was awesome. I've had a decent card with the right drivers for years and I've run this at full settings (the one that amusingly says "Not recommended without PPU" despite Ageia's PPU having gone defunct since 2008 as far as I know) and it was great. After a big fight with the Council, for instance, I'd look around and see the ground covered with shell casings, or after shooting someone in the face with a fireball, little embers would scatter from the explosion and fall to the ground.

This doesn't happen any more. It hasn't happened pretty much since I21, probably earlier without me noticing it. And now my Electric Melee character's sparks no longer "fly out," they spawn around the enemy hit and just gently float up into the ceiling in a straight line.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Issue 21 updated the PhysX engine and a fair number of physics effects have been pretty wonky ever since.
To me the more obvious one is ragdolling. Which looks at least as odd as the sparks, but can also be quite advantageous.

AR Corruptor here.

Going from the 2 inch knockback of buckshot to the wierd contortions as they lay lifeless on the ground is a bit extreme.

Latest info here.

I've noticed the ragdolls acting ... odd, recently.

Anyways, on the particles physics, mainly bullets, I've noticed a distinct change.

Back when I first started playing, a fight would usually end with a carpet of bullets on the floor. Now though, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'll be lucky if there's two or three on the floor.

Any idea why this is? My drivers are always updated and my graphics is cranked up quite high .. though I may need to go and check again, I often still have to turn it down when going on Incarnate Trials.

EDIT: Yep, Max Particle Count is cranked as high as it can go. Still lucky if there are one or two bullets on the floor. A shame, it made playing a Thugs or Mercenaries Mastermind good fun

There's something else I just noticed. I know I talked about the sparks that electrical powers toss out when they impact, but did you know the "fingers" of electricity that extend out of your target when you hit are also apparently affected by physics? I think they are, because now when I hit something, electricity arc "fingers" extend in all directions, then their tail ends float up, causing the arcs to elongate drastically before they disappear. It looks really weird.

Between ragdolls, particle physics and special effects floating straight up out of the universe, there seems to be something seriously wrong with the physics engine, and I sincerely hope this gets fixed sooner, rather than later. I don't just say this to complain, this really is making the game look much less attractive than it is. A lot of the time, it's the little things that can make or break the appearance of a game, and shell casings hovering in mid air and defeated enemies turning their heads 180 degrees like they came out of The Exorcist is a LOT of little things.

*edit*
And I also realised what the title implies. I got a chuckle out of the Wikipedia link

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I, too, have noticed something. The knockback heavy Kheld of mne has become all the more effective in combat, since the mobs I knockdown have a chance of snagging on something and getting stuck there.

Another issue I noticed since coming back is that enemies will often get stuck on the roof of a narrow map. They'll be standing on air with their feet hanging down through the roof polygon, unattackable.

Could this be why my Gravity/Earth Dominator is having such disappointing results with the lack of rubble being formed from his attacks?

I was wondering about that! Not only the weird ragdolls, but the total lack of shell casings. That always made me giggle before, finishing a big fight on my Mercs or Soldier, and looking down to see a ton of casings on the floor. Sadness. I hope they fix this soon.

I like it when mobs get stuck on ledges and suddenly they start dancing around the length of it like some twisted form of Levitate is being used on them. It's also cute when some of them float away up into the air and disappear like Tsoo Ancestor Spirits after they're defeated.

Yeah, something is very borked.

I can actually confirm that the debris left over from Propel is looking like a whole lot less lately, as I have two Gravity controllers.

RAGdoll? Try SNAGdoll.

--NT

Just sounds like the lowered the limit of debris left over on powers that leave things behind (like bullet casing for guns.) Probably is a performance issue change. Which means it may not go back.

Now remember though, particle affects is not the Ageia thing. That's the setting near the top of your advanced settings (Aegia FX (TM) blah-blah.)

Still here, even after all this time!

I was never that big a fan of the ragdoll physics when it was introduced, and
with the lastest renditions of it since Freedom release, I find it grotesque.

I'd really like to see it get fixed or possibly even removed.

As for particle effects, I like those (excluding lag they sometimes cause).
Pretty Powers? Yes, Please!

And, I chuckled at the mention of the LHC / Higg's Boson project - well played


Cheers,
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