What's up with particle physics?


Arcanaville

 

Posted

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 View Post
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Posted

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.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Schismatrix View Post
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.
Oh, right, that! I meant to talk about that, too. There was a patch note which said that ragdolls have been fixed so they shouldn't get stuck as often... And they get stuck many times more often now. Almost half the time, actually. Worse still, even when they don't get stuck, they do REALLY weird things. People's knees will bend the other way, their heads will rotate back, their waists will bend at uncomfortable angles and the bodies will contort horribly in other ways. That seems like a downgrade to me.

Well, at least I know it's not my hardware or software that's doing it. It's disappointing, though. Coll physics were one of the big parts about why City of Heroes looked as good as it did, especially with the subtle physics effects in powers. This seems like a big botch that really hurts the look of the game, and it might explain why everything looks uglier to me these days.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
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.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
Oh, right, that! I meant to talk about that, too. There was a patch note which said that ragdolls have been fixed so they shouldn't get stuck as often... And they get stuck many times more often now. Almost half the time, actually. Worse still, even when they don't get stuck, they do REALLY weird things. People's knees will bend the other way, their heads will rotate back, their waists will bend at uncomfortable angles and the bodies will contort horribly in other ways. That seems like a downgrade to me.

Well, at least I know it's not my hardware or software that's doing it. It's disappointing, though. Coll physics were one of the big parts about why City of Heroes looked as good as it did, especially with the subtle physics effects in powers. This seems like a big botch that really hurts the look of the game, and it might explain why everything looks uglier to me these days.
It's an upgrade in some cases in that on slopes and other conditions enemies will sometimes be locked into ragdolling for a much longer time making them less of a threat. To me the increased spasming and twisting makes defeated enemies look more like partially inflated parade balloons snagged on something during a windy day.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Schismatrix View Post
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.
Or disadvantage if your a MM. My damn pets have been getting stuck much much longer in this new ragdoll and it completely turned me off the AT again.


 

Posted

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.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Schismatrix View Post
It's an upgrade in some cases in that on slopes and other conditions enemies will sometimes be locked into ragdolling for a much longer time making them less of a threat. To me the increased spasming and twisting makes defeated enemies look more like partially inflated parade balloons snagged on something during a windy day.
This explains the oddity I've been noticing in PI; I've been going around hunting Fake Nemesis for Unveiler, and it seems that about half the time I use Air Superiority, rather than flipping and landing on its back, the Fake Nemesis winds up curled up sobbing at my feet, sometimes failing to get up before I finish beating it down.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by srmalloy View Post
This explains the oddity I've been noticing in PI; I've been going around hunting Fake Nemesis for Unveiler, and it seems that about half the time I use Air Superiority, rather than flipping and landing on its back, the Fake Nemesis winds up curled up sobbing at my feet, sometimes failing to get up before I finish beating it down.
I had a huge Behemoth Lord do something similar yesterday in the Portal Corps parking lot. He got knocked down and it was like "I've fallen and I can't get up!" Eventually he did get up, but it happened a second time before I dispatched him. Verrrrrry strange.


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Posted

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


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Posted

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 View Post
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.

 

Posted

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.



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Posted

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


 

Posted

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.


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Posted

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.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowzone View Post
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 actually going to ask about this, but I neglected to do so. I don't have any characters with Propel to test this with, but having seen what smaller particles do, I had to wonder what's the status on the larger debris from Propel. Are those floating up through the ceiling or down through the floor, too?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
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.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
I was actually going to ask about this, but I neglected to do so. I don't have any characters with Propel to test this with, but having seen what smaller particles do, I had to wonder what's the status on the larger debris from Propel. Are those floating up through the ceiling or down through the floor, too?
Could check in AE with Longbow Bosses - some of them use Propel.

I'm sad that there is now no kalamari being formed when Lusca perishes.. I liked seeing all the fishy bits!


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Originally Posted by Wavicle View Post
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Posted

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.


 

Posted

RAGdoll? Try SNAGdoll.

--NT


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
I was actually going to ask about this, but I neglected to do so. I don't have any characters with Propel to test this with, but having seen what smaller particles do, I had to wonder what's the status on the larger debris from Propel. Are those floating up through the ceiling or down through the floor, too?
Never took the power on my dominator, but I *DID* solo Dominatrix a couple weeks ago, and it appeared to be working fine the 6 or so times she shot at me.


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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shubbie View Post
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Posted

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!


 

Posted

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


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by NuclearToast View Post
RAGdoll? Try SNAGdoll.
Better than a mag 500 hold. If this happened to a Giant Monster, you could solo it easily.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Schismatrix View Post
It's an upgrade in some cases in that on slopes and other conditions enemies will sometimes be locked into ragdolling for a much longer time making them less of a threat. To me the increased spasming and twisting makes defeated enemies look more like partially inflated parade balloons snagged on something during a windy day.
I've seen things that can only be described as the NPCs going zombie. I was on an outdoor map with Council, and I killed a bunch of council in roughly the same spot. One of them fell down onto the other bodies twitching, and then a few seconds later flipped onto his stomach and swam away down the street before then diving head first into the ground and disappearing over thirty feet away.

I was so shocked it didn't occur to be to record it in any way. Which is a shame, because I haven't been able to reproduce that occurrence in quite as dramatic a fashion, although I've seen simpler renditions of it, generally involving critters with weapons.


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