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Re: New Interdictor Effect |
AdmBito Grand Admiral Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: October 04, 2002 Posts: 1249 From: Its hard out here for a pimp
| Posted: 2009-07-02 13:56  
Dear team,
While I cannot be the only player with a craptacular computer playing this game, Im sure I may have one of the oldest. For that, I apologize.
However, the new dictor effects of swirling reds circles arounds planets and ships lags the poop out of me. I dont even think its so much lag as my computer/graphics card is freaking out. With the new sun effects added in, its very difficult to fight around a planet anymore. Am I the only one the has this issue?
Also, the fields are EXTREMELY disorienting. Flying through one into another Ive noticed computer vertigo setting in. Im not sure which was Im going, and while the experience with them has been limited, I have almost veered off course and hit a sun/planet (I do have a history of this, so take it as you will).
Suggestion: Any way we can tone these things down? I like the idea of having a pilot figure out where a dictor is all by himself (it adds a bit of awareness to the game Id say), but if we insist on having some sort of effect, can it be something a bit smaller? How about an effect closer to one of the shock collars for dogs, just a ring 1000 gus away? Maybe three rings along different axes? Red would be much to hard to see in the black of space, so perhaps a bright electric blue to let you know where the edge is?
(If Im the only player this is happening to, disregard this post)
Bito
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Tommas [ USF HunnyBunny ] Chief Marshal Pitch Black
Joined: February 04, 2006 Posts: 581 From: Norway
| Posted: 2009-07-02 14:00  
I got on comp from 2001, works pretty good, just takes abit long time to load up then it used to but eh dont bother met that much.
Anyways what ive done is set the graphic details to its lowest. Works good
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-Shadowalker-™ Admiral Galactic Navy
Joined: September 23, 2007 Posts: 709 From: Shadows
| Posted: 2009-07-02 14:19  
Electric blue sounds nice. I would like it if they would take out the inner parts of the ring and just have the edge as well... its gets quite annoying.
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Pope Fleet Admiral
Joined: June 11, 2002 Posts: 2449 From: World of tomorrow
| Posted: 2009-07-02 14:20  
It's a funny wobbly disc. Why?
It should be a nicely visible marker. Not a funny wobbly disc.
It rotates on all 3 axis. Why?
It should be a plane 1k in radius. Not rotate on all 3 axis.
These things were to plain or to complicated?
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AdmBito Grand Admiral Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: October 04, 2002 Posts: 1249 From: Its hard out here for a pimp
| Posted: 2009-07-02 14:30  
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On 2009-07-02 14:19, -Shadowalker- wrote:
Electric blue sounds nice. I would like it if they would take out the inner parts of the ring and just have the edge as well... its gets quite annoying.
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Thats kinda what I was going for. Just the outside ring, no the inside circle part. Would think that would be lovely. Also, I just figure 3 axes instead of one because this IS a space game, and obviously theres space up there. Even if we cant fly through it...
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Pope Fleet Admiral
Joined: June 11, 2002 Posts: 2449 From: World of tomorrow
| Posted: 2009-07-02 14:36  
Excuse me bito, but
Let's establish the facts, shall we.
a) the interdictor field is a sphere with a radius of 1000 gu.
b) all player controlled objects in darkspace move on the x-y plane.
Therefore we can deduce:
1.) the interdictor field effectively works as a disc spanning 1000 gu on the x-y plane.
We also know that:
c) the visualization is a disc that rotates with the device is is attached to without any adjustment.
This leads us to the observation that:
2.) the interdictor visualization does not represent the interdicted area as it is seen from a players perspective, especially in the case of planetside interdictor bases.
This i would classify as a bug.
Any further questions?
...
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Sardaukar Admiral Raven Warriors
Joined: October 08, 2002 Posts: 1656
| Posted: 2009-07-02 15:40  
I think the current effect is a bug. I had suggested that the red ring- which was originally meant to be flat- looked really nice when you were looking straight at it (it gave the impression of a sphere), and asked if it was possible to have it rotate to always face the player (like a classic sprite) clientside. Doran edited it a bit, and somewhere in the process it apparently split apart and started spinning. I think.
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Fattierob Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003 Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2009-07-02 16:13  
My 2 cent suggesiton: Have one disk on the player's axis thats stationary, and have on oriented "flat" on the Z axis that rotates.
Something like that. The dotted lines would be the rotating one.
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Silent Threat { Vier } Marshal Anarchy's End
Joined: August 03, 2004 Posts: 278 From: Waiting...watching...
| Posted: 2009-07-02 17:29  
Looks like a screensaver as someone said.
While it does look pretty and I get no lag from it, all of it combined can be a little to much. Just one ring would be nice.
I do like knowing if a planet has a dictor field around it before jumping in though and knowing if dictor ships are around and active...
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AdmBito Grand Admiral Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: October 04, 2002 Posts: 1249 From: Its hard out here for a pimp
| Posted: 2009-07-02 17:38  
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On 2009-07-02 17:29, Silent Threat wrote:
Looks like a screensaver as someone said.
While it does look pretty and I get no lag from it, all of it combined can be a little to much. Just one ring would be nice.
I do like knowing if a planet has a dictor field around it before jumping in though and knowing if dictor ships are around and active...
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Normally, when playing in the MV, isnt it just safe to assume all planets have dictors when jumping in?
And re: when knowing a dictor ship is around and working: When one IS around and working, your JD icon on the status of your ship is shaded out.
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spatula 1st Rear Admiral
Joined: May 28, 2005 Posts: 41 From: 192.168.1.1
| Posted: 2009-07-02 18:51  
Quote:
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On 2009-07-02 17:38, AdmBito wrote:
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On 2009-07-02 17:29, Silent Threat wrote:
Looks like a screensaver as someone said.
While it does look pretty and I get no lag from it, all of it combined can be a little to much. Just one ring would be nice.
I do like knowing if a planet has a dictor field around it before jumping in though and knowing if dictor ships are around and active...
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Normally, when playing in the MV, isnt it just safe to assume all planets have dictors when jumping in?
And re: when knowing a dictor ship is around and working: When one IS around and working, your JD icon on the status of your ship is shaded out.
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i think he means checking with nav map, and when theres a group of ships (especially if there are a lot of plats/ai) its hard to to click through all of them to check for dictors, so thats where the red ring would be nice, but whats mainly annoying is that it follows the angle of the dictor ship, so when 2 are in a fight, and they are both turning, it can get very annoying very fast. I think a pulsing ring would be nice, like ecm/eccm/scanner, that way its very easy to know if your being dictored and it will minimize graphics lag. I think a solid red ring would look funky, and if your not at the edge of the dictor theres a good chance (other than a planet one) that you wont see it at all. As for planets, a solid ring would add a cool effect.
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Silent Threat { Vier } Marshal Anarchy's End
Joined: August 03, 2004 Posts: 278 From: Waiting...watching...
| Posted: 2009-07-02 19:04  
[quote]
On 2009-07-02 18:51, spatula_ninja wrote:
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i think he means checking with nav map
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I'd rather Know than Assume.
For the dictor ship, I'm talking about knowing if your friendly dictor is up... [ This Message was edited by: Silent Threat on 2009-07-02 19:05 ]
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AdmBito Grand Admiral Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: October 04, 2002 Posts: 1249 From: Its hard out here for a pimp
| Posted: 2009-07-02 21:24  
I thought about red for the ring/whatever the effect is, but space is, well, dark, and Im afraid it'd be tougher to see than a bright [insert color here] ring. Blue, yellow? Red I think would just blend in to the background of all the other junk floating around in space, plus there are quite a few BIG red nebluae around.
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Grimith Grand Admiral Templar Knights
Joined: August 09, 2003 Posts: 836 From: Your local future farm.
| Posted: 2009-07-02 21:35  
I'd like the effect done away with entirely. No ring. No aura. No radius. No anything. I don't HATE it... but I don't like how it all looks, especially when it all stacks together. I thought it was neat the first time I saw it around a planet, but it just seems excessive.
At the very least, it'd be cool if players could have an option to disable the view of the fields on their own clients. But, since I'm sure that's WAAAY too complicated, I'd rather get rid of the whole feature.
It's not a computer issue. It's an aesthetics issue.
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Lithium Chief Marshal
Joined: June 29, 2003 Posts: 109
| Posted: 2009-07-02 23:52  
Current rings are made of 4 layers of alpha-blending textures.
Big alpha-blending texture causes pretty much per-pixel processing and it spend pretty much memory bandwidth.
I think it should be reduced to 1 layer in LOW texture mode,
2 layers in MID texture mode and no limitation in HIGH texture mode.
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