Curse

deadman_uk · Jun 13, 2007, 11:06 AM // 11:06

A few posts up I said I asked Guild Wars support why the textures have been lowered in outposts and towns. I got a response asking for screenshots. I sent them the 2 paragon shots I have above. I now got a reply...

Quote:

Hello,

Thank you very much for contacting the Guild Wars Customer Support Team. After checking the information that you have provided and your problem description, we can confirm that the "problem" you described is actually working as intended. The quality of the textures in an outpost is lowered to improve the performance of the game. Unfortunately, there is not any option to improve the armour textures in outposts.

However, after reviewing your email, we decided to forward the information to the developers so they can have a closer look. The Guild Wars development team is continually making changes to improve the game and looks at your feedback very closely to make this happen.

If an option to fix this problem is implemented, such information will be normally be released to the public on our official website www.guildwars.com as soon as it becomes available. You might also want to visit the numerous Guild Wars fansites and forums ( http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/ ) where you will also be able to find a lot of information regarding Guild Wars.

Please note that in addition to writing us, you should always feel free to post your constructive opinions/feedback/suggestions on any of the numerous Guild Wars message boards ( http://eu.guildwars.com/community/ca...ting/fansites/ ), where your fellow players and the dev team will be able to view them first hand. Thanks again!

Again, thank you very much for sharing your views on the game with us. We really appreciate you trying to help us make the game as good as possible, and if only by showing up negative or positive aspects they encountered while playing the game.

Regards,
GM Benito

Guild Wars Customer Support
NCsoft Europe
http://www.guildwars.com

I replied asking what areas would the performance suffer in e.g server, client, etc. Let's see what they say...

bhavv · Jun 13, 2007, 11:24 AM // 11:24

Nice! First reply I have seen like that from the support team. Lets hope they implement this.

deadman_uk · Jun 13, 2007, 12:02 PM // 12:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhavv

Nice! First reply I have seen like that from the support team. Lets hope they implement this.

I just got a new reply and it's a dissapointment...

Quote:

Hello,

Thank you very much for contacting the Guild Wars Customer Support Team. Unfortunately there is no information available on the subject you inquired about. Such information will be normally be released to the public on our official website www.guildwars.com as soon as it becomes available. You might also want to visit the numerous Guild Wars fansites and forums ( http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/ ) where you will also be able to find a lot of information regarding Guild Wars.

Anyway, we would like to thank you for your feedback and, as we said, we will forward the information to the developers so they can have a closer look.

We are sorry that we can not help you in this case, but please feel free to contact us again in case you have other questions.

Regards,
GM Benito

Guild Wars Customer Support
NCsoft Europe
http://www.guildwars.com

nevermind, at least the previous message sounded positive.

freekedoutfish · Jun 13, 2007, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Quote:

..."The quality of the textures in an outpost is lowered to improve the performance of the game"....

I'm tempted to go with "I told you so", but I wont!

deadman_uk · Jun 13, 2007, 01:07 PM // 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

I'm tempted to go with "I told you so", but I wont!

I told you so? dude I knew that there would be a performance issue, I never said there wouldn't be.

freekedoutfish · Jun 13, 2007, 01:59 PM // 13:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadman_uk

I told you so? dude I knew that there would be a performance issue, I never said there wouldn't be.

I'm kidding, notice the tongue!!

salvinger · Jun 13, 2007, 03:22 PM // 15:22

Umm hi, are some of you guys actually suggesting the server sends to your computer all of the textures while the game is running? The graphics are stored client-side, the server does not need to know a thing about your graphics options. All the server has to do is send someone's location and the type of armor he or she is wearing. The client then draws the armor based on your graphics options.

David Lionmaster · Jun 14, 2007, 01:31 AM // 01:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

Im not an game designer expert, but im going to make a speculation (I could be wrong).

Regardless of what graphics level you have your game set to, whether it be high or low, the models and textures still all contain the same amount of information.

The only thing which changes is whether that texture shows all that information, or hides parts of it (i.e it looks focuses or blured, or it shows the bump maps or not etc etc).

If you hide bits, then it makes it easier for your PC to render it. But all that information still exists within the texture and the model. Information which needs to be sent and recieve by the server.

At the minute lag issues are small for most players. The textures and models have been optomised to cut back on such issues, which is why their not perfect.

This being the reason why you see lesser detailed armors inside towns and outposts. To cut down on lag when surrouned by dozens of players.

If we increased the information for the textures and models of each player, its is adding alot more information to be sent and recieved for each player ingame, at that time.

Yes you can turn down your graphics level and your PC would be able to handle it from a stand-alone point of view. But from a server point of view, your adding alot more information to send and recieve.

It isnt a simple task, because it has knock on effects throughout the entire game. Consider how many people play GWs every hour. Imagine increasing the information stored for each of those characters 5x-10x-50x.

It would probably be the equilivant of what you see when a new campaign is released. Major lagging and rubber banding and erro7s for the first few weeks until it calms down. But it wouldnt calm down because its would be a perminant change.

Yes it would be nice, but its not a priority. If you play an MMO online game, you have to expect the graphics to be worse then a stand alone offline game, due to optomisation for the servers.

And it is a 2 year old game. Its like buying a first generation model mini and expecting BMW to upgrade it to a 2000 Mini Cooper. You bought the game knowing it was 2 years old so I would have expectations would have been well-grounded.

Maybe GW:EN will add new graphical touches here and there, but I wouldnt expect any major texture improvements.

I'd personally rather the graphics were a bit low-spec then have to endure lagging and rubber banding.

But dont get me wrong, I appreciate that the hardcore gamers with their expensive rigs want big, flashy graphics. But I think you'l have to wait until GW2.

NOTE: I could be completely wrong, and maybe better graphics wouldnt affect the entire game. Is so then woop! But if it was possible, im sure Anet would do it.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't cause lag, because the graphics are all handled by the client, not the server. The same thing is still going to be sent to the user from the servers. The servers don't send the textures to the client, the textures are already on the client computer. The server just has to tell the client what the other players armor is, and the client handles the textures. All they have to do is have the client load the higher res texture instead of the low res one.

The reason why they have the other players with low res textures is because when the game came out, most graphics cards wouldn't be able to handle loading high res textures for a ton of characters in the same outpost. Today's graphics cards are more than capable of handling 100+ characters with high res textures.

They should have an option to have high res textures for other characters in outposts. That way people like you with lower end computers can still play the game, but people with high end computers can have higher res graphics.

So to sum it up, /signed for having the option for high res textures on everyone.

Rhia Aryx · Jun 14, 2007, 07:45 AM // 07:45

I do find it frustrating when I'm looking at a friend's new armor and, to me, it looks 10x worse on my computer than on theirs. /signed.

deadman_uk · Jun 17, 2007, 04:18 PM // 16:18

I'm almost certain it won't cause lag either, I just hope this will be implemented. For those who want it implemented too, rate this thread, and email guild wars support about this too.

[email protected]

Lonesamurai · Jun 17, 2007, 04:39 PM // 16:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadman_uk

I'm almost certain it won't cause lag either, I just hope this will be implemented. For those who want it implemented too, rate this thread, and email guild wars support about this too.

[email protected]

Cos of course they probably haven't read this thread already and will just ignore the posts as they'll just gum up the already laggy and slow "support" section

*EDIT*

Besides the fact that you'll only get an automated response saying the "problem" is being looked into and then its not a support issue as NCSoft only really deal with support and bug issues for Guild wars, everything else is dealt with by ANet themselves and a support ticket on it would probably be closed straight away

Shadow Kurd · Jun 17, 2007, 05:26 PM // 17:26

/signed

I wanna show of my armor in high res

freekedoutfish · Jun 17, 2007, 09:22 PM // 21:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lonesamurai

Cos of course they probably haven't read this thread already and will just ignore the posts as they'll just gum up the already laggy and slow "support" section

*EDIT*

Besides the fact that you'll only get an automated response saying the "problem" is being looked into and then its not a support issue as NCSoft only really deal with support and bug issues for Guild wars, everything else is dealt with by ANet themselves and a support ticket on it would probably be closed straight away

I have to agree that emailing support wont really accomplish anything. This isnt a support issue, its not an error with the game or even a problem.

The system has been purposely designed this way for a reason. Emailing them and asking them to fix it as an error wont do anything.

As Lonesumria says, they will have read this, or atleast know its an issue for alot of players. But because its purposely done, they wont put priority on changing it, unless it compromises gameplay.

I expect even the people at Anet who play the game, would like better graphics. Its just something we will have to wait until GW:EN to see if they make any changes.

It would be too unimportant a change to impliment now. I hope they do it, if they can. But id rather they kept on other things for now, as other things are more important (an example being all the changes they just implimented - 17 june 2007).

deadman_uk · Jun 21, 2007, 12:43 PM // 12:43

I'm sure Anet have read this thread, we can do nothing now but wait, it's very unlikely this will be implemented but if it is, I will be the first person to cheer!

deadman_uk · Jul 05, 2007, 01:06 PM // 13:06

I'm going to bump this thread up and give people who haven't seen this thread before a chance to view it.

KlutzySpy · Jul 05, 2007, 01:17 PM // 13:17

/signed

I cant see any reason not to offer highend computers highend graphics

TheLordOfBlah · Jul 06, 2007, 06:23 AM // 06:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

But this is an online game and I still stand by this believe that improving textures in outposts would have some kind of lag effect. Otherwise why would Anet make such an obvious difference with textures in instances and outposts?

I can only assume they must have 2 sets of textures! Those which exist inside instances and those which exist inside outposts! One being more detailed and one being less! One contains less information and the other more.

Im sure you can where im going with this, concerning the sending and recieving of information for the servers!

Lol... Once again, all the textures are stored locally (as demonstrated by the fact that everyone is modding the textures now). changing the quality wouldnt be sending any more or any less information.

pumpkin pie · Jul 06, 2007, 06:39 AM // 06:39

I thought we already have this option, in the option menu?

maybe people want high end PC so they won't lag and can kill more luxon before luxon kill us/me.

Dervish Warrior · Jul 06, 2007, 12:11 PM // 12:11

I Reckon apart from just visually looking better, 15k armour should provide a little bonus compared to normal armour, just for that bit of extra effort in obtaining it

fenix · Jul 06, 2007, 12:34 PM // 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dervish Warrior

I Reckon apart from just visually looking better, 15k armour should provide a little bonus compared to normal armour, just for that bit of extra effort in obtaining it

What effort....? I'm serious here, what effort?