and so the cat is out of the bag! EA has done it again! [High Rez Textures Thread]

Chivalry1978

I find it funny that ati drivers had issues as when i was beta testing it I was using a apu system with no video card and had not a single problem with it....then again the drivers for that and a video card are very different as well as handling. Still...when you dealing with code trying to isolate a single issue amongst a great amount of issues tends to cause issues....fixing one issue tends to make something else not work. Its kinda like the puzzles in some games where you have 5 options to pick you pick 1 and 1 and 3 light up you pick 2 and 2 and 4 light up but one shuts off....it becomes a game of trial and error to get all components to work as best they can and saddly sometimes features are disabled and worked on to be implemented at a later date.

When I get a chance I will see if any of my former employees still employed with ea have any info on this as all this psuedo I know all gamer speculation is doing nothing more then causing more drama.

 

Chivalry1978

Originally posted by Digna

I have a high end system and would love to run the game at max-tippy-top settings. *shrug* I can't. I still like the game.

 

The big thing for me will be what they fix in the 'big  patch' looming out there.  I know a lot of folks in my guild are in the same boat so I assume a lot of folks across the board are as well. Fixing things like today's patch (resetting intances) and last week's (fixing the Sith title) are minor updates basically candy. Fix the issues that affect people seriously.

 

We'll see over the next few weeks if they actually do something that is of value. I'll decide to play going forward on that and that alone.

would agree but sometimes you have to stabalize the small things before you get to the big ones...kinda like when your searching a collapsed building you cant just grab a big piece and pull it out you may end up killing others...Sometimes you have to go slow with small shit before you can work on bigger more critical things...Though to be honest with all the resources that ea can and could divert to making this a viable product you would think these issues would have been fixed but again Ea is not known for support.

SpottyGekko

Originally posted by Royalkin

Originally posted by SpottyGekko

It does not excuse the "deception", but the deception may not have been intentional. They could very well have been trying everything under the sun to tweak the engine performance until the last minute, and indeed even after launch.

But eventually it became apparent that it was not going to fly (even though they thought they could do it), and they had to come clean.

The question in that last month was probably: "Do we announce NOW that we might not have high-res textures ingame, when the techies are saying that they MAY be able to swing it somehow ? It will probably affect our sales, and it may not even be an issue, is it worth it to scare everyone, possibly fo nothing ?"

 

That is really irrelevant, at least my opinion. Honesty is always the best policy, and I will always have more respect for a developer who is honest with its customers. Shoving things under the rug and blaming it on bugs and the ignorance of its customers will cost them.

They might have lost some customers by stating the truth before launch, but by hiding it, they will loose more from their dishonesty and deception.

"Promising more than you can currently deliver" is a very common practice in business. It often happens during the "sales phase", when potential customers are promised the moon and sun, just to close the deal.

 

Having made the sale or won the contract, the company has to hire extra workers or buy more machines, etc. so they can meet their obligations when it becomes time to deliver.

The proof of the pudding is whether the company who made the promises can deliver on them. If they can, the "deception" is not apparent, and becomes a non-issue. However, if they can't meet their promises, all hell breaks loose, and their reputation suffers.

 

"Everyone lies, but only those that actually get caught are known as liars."

Axllow18

Originally posted by JeroKane

Another nice post in the HighRez topic, about all the short cuts they seem to have taken and as to why a lot of graphic options have suddenly been dissabled/removed:

Originally Posted by Alkasar

well for once they probably don´t want to do hi-res textures because they have to redo a lot of them to some extend because they seem to have cut quite a few corners:



http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...rormirror.jpg/

republic fleet for example uses imperials reflection mapping as you can see, when you put force the LOD to render in high detail

Oh wow...

 

That is... I don't even...

solarine

Originally posted by Axllow18

Originally posted by JeroKane

Another nice post in the HighRez topic, about all the short cuts they seem to have taken and as to why a lot of graphic options have suddenly been dissabled/removed:

Originally Posted by Alkasar

well for once they probably don´t want to do hi-res textures because they have to redo a lot of them to some extend because they seem to have cut quite a few corners:



http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...rormirror.jpg/

republic fleet for example uses imperials reflection mapping as you can see, when you put force the LOD to render in high detail

Oh wow...

 

That is... I don't even...

 

Just lol.

Maybe it's metaphorical and only the dark-side aligned characters see it that way? :P

 

drbaltazar

i dont want that when was the last time you saw a polished floor stay polished with people walking and hovercraft flying around you dont it gets smeered it get dusted you can still see the shine but also the dust over it ,i dont know you but on my system it looks pretty much like it would in a real life floor

tom_gore

Originally posted by drbaltazar

i dont want that when was the last time you saw a polished floor stay polished with people walking and hovercraft flying around you dont it gets smeered it get dusted you can still see the shine but also the dust over it ,i dont know you but on my system it looks pretty much like it would in a real life floor

/facepalm

Jounar

Originally posted by drbaltazar

i dont want that when was the last time you saw a polished floor stay polished with people walking and hovercraft flying around you dont it gets smeered it get dusted you can still see the shine but also the dust over it ,i dont know you but on my system it looks pretty much like it would in a real life floor

 

fundayz

Originally posted by dubyahite

I don't really see how this is false advertising. Most games advertise with cutscenes and not in engine actual gameplay footage.



To me, this seems more like an attempt to fix performance issues. That's a good thing.

1. They demo'd and beta tested the game with High Res textures. This heavily implied these would be the settings at launch.

2. When asked about the problem they first blamed the customers for having HDDs and not SSDs.

3. Then they said it was a bug and that high res textures where going to be implemented.

4. Now they say that it was working as intended the whole time...

5. How does the fact that they are trying to improve performance excuse them from having terrible textures? The fact is that even if it had amazing performance (it doesn't) SWTOR has some of the worse textures of any recent MMO.

 

What I don't get is how "Bioware", having the biggest MMO budget EVER, managed to put out a game with less features, worse graphics, more bugs and less content than Rift....

 

AZHokie54

Originally posted by fundayz

and less content than Rift....

 

LOL, just no.

 

By this time in Rift, I already had a level 50 and at least one alt over half way there. I'm only 36 in SWTOR. Nevermind the fact that there is more to do waiting on me at cap.

fundayz

Originally posted by AZHokie54

Originally posted by fundayz

and less content than Rift....

 

LOL, just no.

 

By this time in Rift, I already had a level 50 and at least one alt over half way there. I'm only 36 in SWTOR. Nevermind the fact that there is more to do waiting on me at cap.

Did I say "leveling content"? No, I just said content.

The fact is that once the storyline is completed you have almost no content left to do. At max level you have 3 warzones and 2 bugged OPs. That's it.

coldcut333

I was pretty dissapointed with how the game looks and runs.No reason for them not to have the high rez with option to turn down,makes no sense at all not to have the option.

Wickedjelly

Originally posted by drbaltazar

i dont want that when was the last time you saw a polished floor stay polished with people walking and hovercraft flying around you dont it gets smeered it get dusted you can still see the shine but also the dust over it ,i dont know you but on my system it looks pretty much like it would in a real life floor

Lol...balty.

You are one of a kind my friend. One of a kind.

XD

Olgark

I knew there was a difference in textures from day one of playing the game. The actual game play graphic textures are blotchy to say the least, but when in a cutscene they are very crisp and sharp showing off a lot of detail.

 

My PC can run Eve Online at full settings without any slow down with up to 800 people in the same system even more at times. Who are they to say my PC is not capable of runing their cartoon graphics?

I run Skyrim at max setting without slow down as well. Even with FRAPS runing it doesn't even cough. I built it 5 years ago and I make sure its future proofed for games with regular updates in drivers and hardware.  I would say its their servers that can't handle the calculations rather than what the players machines can run.

Dracill

I know this doesn't apply to you, because most players here have some knowledge in IT.
But when you design IS the first thing to remember is: users are stupid. If you include anything in your system that can be used wrong it will be used.
If BW include high settings in the game most people will use it, it doesn't matter if they can use it they will use it and then complaint because the game run slow.

Again this doesn't include the advanced users only the other 1.9 million users of the game.

Now, if you should chose between the 0.1 million hardcore users and the 1.9 million average users. What would you chose?

Professor78

Originally posted by Dracill

I know this doesn't apply to you, because most players here have some knowledge in IT.

But when you design IS the first thing to remember is: users are stupid. If you include anything in your system that can be used wrong it will be used.

If BW include high settings in the game most people will use it, it doesn't matter if they can use it they will use it and then complaint because the game run slow.



Again this doesn't include the advanced users only the other 1.9 million users of the game.



Now, if you should chose between the 0.1 million hardcore users and the 1.9 million average users. What would you chose?

ANd thatnk god for the 0.1 million or things would never evolve!

sevitoth

Originally posted by JeroKane

Another nice post in the HighRez topic, about all the short cuts they seem to have taken and as to why a lot of graphic options have suddenly been dissabled/removed:

Originally Posted by Alkasar

well for once they probably don´t want to do hi-res textures because they have to redo a lot of them to some extend because they seem to have cut quite a few corners:



http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...rormirror.jpg/

republic fleet for example uses imperials reflection mapping as you can see, when you put force the LOD to render in high detail

Lol. That's funny as hell....

 

 

Dracill

@Professor78; Sorry, got lost by your reasoning. What things evolve that way?

Because I'm trying to think anything and I don't remember any innovation because of that 10%.

adam42003

Cutscenes will always look better than the gameplay. This shouldn't be news to anyone. When a game is rendering a cutscene, your computer no longer really has to calculate as many things as it was when you were playing the game. All your control inputs, other players, physics, changing the camera angle, so that frees up resources to make cutscenes look better. Did no one play Metal Gear Solid 2 on PS2? The cutscenes in that game were at least 50% better than the gameplay graphics. Its just the way its always been. If Bioware found a way to get these magical high resolution textures working in the main game, they could then do "super high resolution" textures in the cutscenes. There will always been a difference in quality. I like how the solution to this problem is to not make the cutscenes look better and no one would know. Thats sad that they would have to do that to please some of you.

Professor78

Originally posted by Dracill

@Professor78; Sorry, got lost by your reasoning. What things evolve that way?



Because I'm trying to think anything and I don't remember any innovation because of that 10%.

If everyone was just "ok" with the way things look, why would developers ever spend money advancing when its not needed.

 

Axllow18

Originally posted by Dracill

I know this doesn't apply to you, because most players here have some knowledge in IT.

But when you design IS the first thing to remember is: users are stupid. If you include anything in your system that can be used wrong it will be used.

If BW include high settings in the game most people will use it, it doesn't matter if they can use it they will use it and then complaint because the game run slow.



Again this doesn't include the advanced users only the other 1.9 million users of the game.



Now, if you should chose between the 0.1 million hardcore users and the 1.9 million average users. What would you chose?

So remove a feature because some people are dumb?

I have worked in construction and fabrication for 11 years, I have never not installed an air-conditionig system  in a building "Because there are people who will turn it all the way up and complain about thier electric bill." 

And isn't that why most games auto-detect settings in the first place? I could swear almost every other MMO out there used high res textures that some machines can't handle, and worry more about offering the most DIVERSE set of options to their playerbase.

This is really a rather pathetic excuse, especially since they continue to use high res textures in all their press packs. So now they are down right ignoring the fact that all the pictures these news sites are showing off are completely impossible to replicate ingame.

Sorry, no dice.

Professor78

Originally posted by adam42003

Cutscenes will always look better than the gameplay. This shouldn't be news to anyone. When a game is rendering a cutscene, your computer no longer really has to calculate as many things as it was when you were playing the game. All your control inputs, other players, physics, changing the camera angle, so that frees up resources to make cutscenes look better. Did no one play Metal Gear Solid 2 on PS2? The cutscenes in that game were at least 50% better than the gameplay graphics. Its just the way its always been. If Bioware found a way to get these magical high resolution textures working in the main game, they could then do "super high resolution" textures in the cutscenes. There will always been a difference in quality. I like how the solution to this problem is to not make the cutscenes look better and no one would know. Thats sad that they would have to do that to please some of you.

I like the way Rift has actually been using ingame gameplay for their trailers, no false advertising there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxyIir2TjK4

Souldrainer

Originally posted by fundayz

Originally posted by AZHokie54

Originally posted by fundayz

and less content than Rift....

 

LOL, just no.

 

By this time in Rift, I already had a level 50 and at least one alt over half way there. I'm only 36 in SWTOR. Nevermind the fact that there is more to do waiting on me at cap.

Did I say "leveling content"? No, I just said content.

The fact is that once the storyline is completed you have almost no content left to do. At max level you have 3 warzones and 2 bugged OPs. That's it.

 You have 2 OPerations, like 10 hard mode fp's, Ilum content, and more new content coming in 1.1.  To say the game doesn't have much endgame content is true, but don't inflate your point with lies.

Professor78

Originally posted by Souldrainer

Originally posted by fundayz

Originally posted by AZHokie54

Originally posted by fundayz

and less content than Rift....

 

LOL, just no.

 

By this time in Rift, I already had a level 50 and at least one alt over half way there. I'm only 36 in SWTOR. Nevermind the fact that there is more to do waiting on me at cap.

Did I say "leveling content"? No, I just said content.

The fact is that once the storyline is completed you have almost no content left to do. At max level you have 3 warzones and 2 bugged OPs. That's it.

 You have 2 OPerations, like 10 hard mode fp's, Ilum content, and more new content coming in 1.1.  To say the game doesn't have much endgame content is true, but don't inflate your point with lies.

At this stage didnt RIFT have 3 warfronts, 2 Dungeon Raids, 12 Planar Raids, (a couple of would boss raids) and 10 Dungones in both Easy and Hard modes. Without even mentioning the large list of World event types in each zone.

xenogias

I'm only playing for the story and I will be canceling as soon as I'm done with the Sith Inq story. This will happen before my free month is up. I'm happy with my purchase since I purchased it as a single player rpg with the exception of the graphics.

That said, there excuse for the graphics is extreemly lame. There is no defending poor programming both in the game engine and on the game itself. That is the simple truth of it. Its not limitations on hardware but limitations on the talent of there programmers. With the amount of money they have/had there is simply no excuse.

Bioware must have forgotten they where making a PC game. PC gamers want OPTIONS. Do I want to sacrifice alittle bit of framerate to make my game look good? Thats my choice. I dont spend thousand(S) of dollars on a PC to be TOLD my game has to look like crap. I can understand that form an indie developer who HAS to make choices on there game based on funding. Alot of times that choice is less graphics, more game. Sometimes its good graphics, good gameplay, poor Voiceacting and/or poor music/game sounds. On a AAA title with the funding Bioware has I find the graphics (and there excuse) fairly unacceptable.

Again, with how they explained it what it boils down to is a bad engine and bad programming. Period.

Also, before anyone thinks I'm just hating on the game. No, not really. It has the Bioware storyline and I would reccomend the game based on that alone for the box price at least. I am also looking forward to GW2. However GW2 will NOT have the story this game does so that wont carry that game on its own like SWTOR does. If the graphics are as bad in GW2 (everything points to it being great graphically) I simply wont play it. Not because I HAVE to have awesome graphics. But because I pay for a PC that can handle top of the line graphics and its being developed by a team I expect higher quality from than alot of indie games I play.