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[Official High Resolution Textures Post] Can we get a clarification on this?


Adelbert

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This is the 3rd post about this issue:

 

1st post (117 pages long): http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=140954

2nd post (112 pages long): http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=151787

 

*New Update 11/01/2012*

 

So here we go. The answer we wanted, and also probably the answer nobody wanted:

 

Hey everyone, thanks for bearing with us as we investigated the concerns raised here.

 

After investigation, it seems that the confusion here is a combination of a UI issue that's been resolved and a feature that's working as intended, but the reason why it's 'working as intended' needs explanation.

 

First, the UI issue. The preferences menu as it is seen on the Public Test Server for version 1.1 of the game is correct - there are only supposed to be two texture choices, 'Low' and 'High'. This replaces the original three-choice preference of Low/Medium/High because in reality, there was never supposed to be a 'Medium' choice - that was a bug.

 

Here's where we need to explain. As many of you have noted, your character in the game world is rendered using lower resolution textures than inside of cinematic conversation scenes. This was a deliberate decision by the development team. To understand why this was done, I have to briefly talk about MMOs and their engines.

 

In comparison to single player games and other genres of multiplayer online games, MMOs have much higher variability in the number of characters that can be potentially rendered on-screen at the same time. In MMOs, even though most of the time you'll see a relatively small number of characters on screen, there are certain situations in which many more characters will be seen. Some examples of these situations include popular gathering places in-game (in our case, the two fleets), Operations with large teams, and Warzones. In those scenarios the client (and your PC) has to work hard to show off a lot of characters on-screen.

 

During development and testing of The Old Republic, our priorities were to ensure the game looked great and performed well. In testing, we discovered that using our 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs. There were a variety of possible options to help improve performance, but one that was explored and ultimately implemented used what is known as a 'texture atlas'.

 

To understand that I've got to get technical for a minute. When a character in the game is 'seen' by another character - ie, gets close to your field of view - the client has to 'draw' that character for you to see. As the character is 'drawn' for you there are a number of what are known as 'draw calls' where the client pulls information from the repository it has on your hard disk, including textures, and then renders the character. Every draw call that is made is a demand on your PC, so keeping that number of draw calls low per character is important. With our 'maximum resolution' textures a large number of draw calls are made per character, but that wasn't practical for normal gameplay, especially when a large number of characters were in one place; the number of draw calls made on your client would multiply very quickly. The solution was to 'texture atlas' - essentially to put a number of smaller textures together into one larger texture. This reduces the number of draw calls dramatically and allows the client to render characters quicker, which improves performance dramatically.

 

When it comes to cinematic scenes, however, characters are rendered using the higher number of draw calls and maximum resolution textures. This is because in those scenes, we have control over exactly how many characters are rendered and can ensure that the game performs well. The transition between 'atlas textured' characters (out of cinematics) and 'maximum resolution' textures (in cinematics) is mostly hidden by the transition between those two states (when the screen goes black), but obviously it's clear if you pay close attention.

 

In summary; yes, we had a small UI bug that unfortunately caused confusion over how the game is intended to work. The textures you're seeing in the course of normal gameplay are optimized for that mode of play. The textures you're seeing during cinematics are also optimized for that mode of play. They are higher resolution, but that's because we're able to control cinematic scenes to ensure good performance in a way we can't during normal gameplay.

 

We understand the passion and desire for people to see the same textures you see in our cinematic scenes in the main game. Because of the performance issues that would cause for the client, that's not an immediate and easy fix; we need to ensure we're making choices that the majority of our players will be able to benefit from. Having 'atlassed textures' helps performance overall, and that's a very important goal for us.

 

With that said, we've heard your feedback here loud and clear. The development team is exploring options to improve the fidelity of the game, particularly for those of you with high-spec PCs. It will be a significant piece of development work and it won't be an overnight change, but we're listening and we're committed to reacting to your feedback.

 

So no, we won't have high resolution textures in a 2012 AAA game anytime soon.

 

Thanks all for the support on this subject guys.

 

New Update 09/01/2012

 

We finally got a first response by Stephen Reid. I'll just quote it:

 

Hey all, wanted to let you know we're aware of this issue.

 

We're tracking down the details with the development team and will give you an update soon - hopefully later today.

 

I'll update this post as soon as we get that info.

 

 

Original 1st post with 117 pages: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=140954

 

I want to thank EVERYBODY for the support we are all giving to this post. Many good opinions here. More than 50 pages in 1 day clearly shows one thing: as customers paying for a 50$ product and worth 15$ a month, we deserve an answer.

 

//Update

 

Ok, since this has become the "official" post for the High Resolution Textures issue, I'm going to update this post for newcomers with the information we have at the moment. So, here are the facts we know:

 

1- The game had high resolution textures during beta. But they disappeared before releasing the live client.

 

2- You are NOT playing in high settings, no matter what your preferences window says. At this moment, medium=high, and there is no high, so you are all playing viewing your char's textures in medium quality.

 

3- This was expected to be fixed in the PTS. However, at this moment the issue hasn't been fixed for 1.1. What is more, they deleted the "Medium" quality option, and now there are only two options. Low and High. And yes, you are right: High is just the new Medium, as you can see in this screenshot:

 

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/9238/swtor3.png

 

More info on this, by MaxWham:

 

Ok, I've made myself to download the whole Test Client, and that's what I've found:

Now there are only 2 options for "Texture Quality", "Shader Complexity" and "Character

Level of Detail":

 

http://floomby.com/content/Unhn91yMJ0

 

http://floomby.com/content/mx3gBmTTkS

 

http://floomby.com/content/axEz2UPYUE

 

This is how the game looks on Low:

 

http://floomby.com/content/5hsuNryE1E

 

And High:

 

http://floomby.com/content/SpcGe55FUk

 

So you see enviroment textures do change, but the character ones are always the same...

The options of "Low" and "High" only affect cutscenes, but unfortunately I can't make screenies during them:(...

 

4- Somehow, the high resolution textures are already in the game. But they are not being used while playing with your character. You can see em during dialog cutscenes. You can see them on your companions wardrobe preview window. And you can see them for 0,5 secs after clicking on your holo terminal in your ship. Here are some examples:

 

Medium: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/screenshot2012010419385.jpg/

High: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/851/screenshot2012010419390.jpg/

 

Medium: http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8974/screenshot2012010710454.jpg

High: http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/553/hirez.png

 

Medium: http://imgur.com/NqI7j

High: http://imgur.com/M7Geg

 

ToonPhil shared with us this one: http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3646/swtorhightextures1.png

 

Another one from Adamant:

 

Medium: http://i.imgur.com/PsqBo.jpg

High: http://i.imgur.com/U1RMk.jpg

 

And yet another one: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r277/UnruheEndlos/The%20Old%20Republic/TORTextureComparison.jpg

 

One of the best high/med comparison photosets I've seen in this forum, by Rhykker: http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5493/hirez.jpg

 

Gif showing the difference between both: http://m.uploadedit.com/bac/1325903803236.gif

 

and another gif: http://i40.tinypic.com/ip8wmb.gif

 

And a video:

 

And a WoW vs SWTOR comparison: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r277/UnruheEndlos/TORWOWComparison.jpg

 

Also, I'm getting this technical information from the user Lemon_King. It's really impressive what some users like him are finding inside the code:

 

FYI: Did some mining, in the Renderer where it handles Dynamic Models - There is code for once it has all the textures for a Player / NPC Dynamic model is resizes the texture by 50%. So forcing MipMap Bias to -1 won't work around this issue.

However, a crafty dll Mod for RemoteRenderer could get around this issue by setting the resize to 1:1 instead of 1:2."

 

XML Data for Controlling Texture MipMaps in RemoteRenderer.dll @ 0x00096B60

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<TextureObject>

<MagFilter>Linear</MagFilter>

<MinFilter>Linear</MinFilter>

<MipMapFilter>Linear</MipMapFilter>

<UAddress>Clamp</UAddress>

<VAddress>Clamp</VAddress>

<WAddress>Clamp</WAddress>

<LODBias>0</LODBias>

<MaxMipMap>1</MaxMipMap>

<Compression>Color</Compression>

<Type>Image</Type>

</TextureObject>

 

Direct Dump from RemoteRenderer.dll @ 0x000944B9

 

Shader Function for Downscaling Textures

Code:

#ifdef PS_1_x.#define TEX2D( value ) tex2D( tex##value, In.T##value ).#define EXTRA_TEXCOORD( value ) float2 T##value : TEXCOORD##value;.#define CONSTANT_SCALE( value ) ( ( (value) > 2.0 ) ? 1.0 : ( (value) / 2.0 ) ).#define RESCALE( value ) value += value.#else.#define TEX2D( value ) tex2D( tex##value, In.T0 ).#define EXTRA_TEXCOORD( value ).#define CONSTANT_SCALE( value ) value.#define RESCALE( value ).#endif.sampler tex0 : register( s0 );sampler tex1 : register( s1 );sampler tex2 : register( s2 );float4 consta : register( c0 );struct VS_OUT{ float2 T0: TEXCOORD0; EXTRA_TEXCOORD( 1 ) EXTRA_TEXCOORD( 2 )};float4 main( VS_OUT In ) : COLOR{ const float4 crc = { CONSTANT_SCALE( 1.595794678f ), -CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.813476563f ), 0, 0.0 }; const float4 crb = { 0, -CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.391448975f ), CONSTANT_SCALE( 2.017822266f ), 0.0 }; const float4 adj = { -CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.87065506f ), CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.529705048f ), -CONSTANT_SCALE( 1.081668854f ), 0 }; float4 p; float y = TEX2D( 0 ).a; float cr = TEX2D( 1 ).a; float cb = TEX2D( 2 ).a; p = y * CONSTANT_SCALE( 1.164123535f ); p += (crc * cr) + (crb * cb) + adj; RESCALE( p ); p.w = 1.0; p *= consta; return p;}........#ifdef PS_1_x.#define TEX2D( value ) tex2D( tex##value, In.T##value ).#define EXTRA_TEXCOORD( value ) float2 T##value : TEXCOORD##value;.#define CONSTANT_SCALE( value ) ( ( (value) > 2.0 ) ? 1.0 : ( (value) / 2.0 ) ).#define RESCALE( value ) value += value.#else.#define TEX2D( value ) tex2D( tex##value, In.T0 ).#define EXTRA_TEXCOORD( value ).#define CONSTANT_SCALE( value ) value.#define RESCALE( value ).#endif.sampler tex0 : register( s0 );sampler tex1 : register( s1 );sampler tex2 : register( s2 );sampler tex3 : register( s3 );float4 consta : register( c0 );struct VS_OUT{ float2 T0: TEXCOORD0; EXTRA_TEXCOORD( 1 ) EXTRA_TEXCOORD( 2 ) EXTRA_TEXCOORD( 3 )};float4 main( VS_OUT In ) : COLOR{ const float4 crc = { CONSTANT_SCALE( 1.595794678f ), -CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.813476563f ), 0, 0.0 }; const float4 crb = { 0, -CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.391448975f ), CONSTANT_SCALE( 2.017822266f ), 0.0 }; const float4 adj = { -CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.87065506f ), CONSTANT_SCALE( 0.529705048f ), -CONSTANT_SCALE( 1.081668854f ), 0 }; float4 p; float y = TEX2D( 0 ).a; float cr = TEX2D( 1 ).a; float cb = TEX2D( 2 ).a; float a = TEX2D( 3 ).a; p = y * CONSTANT_SCALE( 1.164123535f ); p += (crc * cr) + (crb * cb) + adj; RESCALE( p ); p.w = a; p *= consta; return p;}.ps_2_0

 

 

It is important to note that after 200+ pages, Bioware still hasn't said anything about this.

 

I'm also quoting this very well written post:

 

Well, that thread on the PTS forum shows that they at least know about this one and are reading it. I have faith in Bioware to fix this issue, I'm sure they understand the damage to their credit by removing the medium texture setting and changing it to be called "high" and obviously the cat's out of the bag now. I think in general if they answer the following questions here, most of us will be satisfied -

 

1. Please clarify the "work around" requested in the first post of this thread, including a clarification of the sentence: If you installed prior to 5:00AM CST on January 4th, 2012, your graphics will display as "Low" even if actual in-game settings are higher due to automatic preference detection. and if reinstalling the game from origin, or any other source will remedy this issue.

 

2. Please explain the removal of the "medium" texture setting on the PTS and its apparent promotion to being called "high" despite the fact that it still retains all of the characteristics and low quality textures of the current "medium" setting.

 

3. Please indicate if a fix is being worked on/implemented, and if so, when we may roughly be able to expect it.

 

Muddy textures are not a game breaker. You can still, as I have, have an enormous amount of fun with this game. I think we jump the gun if we say that bioware is sweeping the problem under the carpet, without an explanation, we wont know for sure if that is the case until 1.1 goes live.

 

That being said, this is a Triple A title, from a Triple A studio, and a Triple A publisher. We are indeed paying customers who really want noting more than an explanation. I think we all generally understand that this isn't a "snap your fingers" fix, because if it was they would have no reason to hold it back. The frustration from most reasonable people in this thread is one of lack of explanation/communication.

 

We can split hairs about if the issue is lighting, or if its textures (though the visual proof shows textures http://m.uploadedit.com/bac/1325903803236.gif). And we can say "Why not just settle? Its a good game," But the core of this problem is a simple one - missing high res textures, and the apparent lack of information on a fix.

 

Say you buy a blender at Wal-Mart, you have really been wanting this blender. You have read previews about it online, you have been watching videos about it, and have been ooggling at pictures of it. One of its prime features, often advertized is the new "Mega Frappe" button. This button helps to differentiate this blender from its competition.

 

Alas! When you buy the blender and fervently remove it from the box, you find that the Mega Frappe button has been pried out, and the words "Mega Frappe" have been crossed out with a magic marker. Surely you would feel like you have been just been, for lack of a better word, screwed.

 

Now, replace the words Blender, with SWTOR and Mega Frappe with Hi-Res Textures and I think that you will find that the frustration is indeed well placed.

 

I have faith in Bioware to fix this issue, but we really do need to be told what is going on.

 

//Update.

 

So, this is what the official known bugs forums says:

 

If you installed prior to 5:00AM CST on January 4th, 2012, your graphics will display as "Low" even if actual in-game settings are higher due to automatic preference detection.

Workaround: Your graphics setting will display properly once modified and saved.

 

Workaround: Individual preferences will display properly once modified and saved.

 

Also, it was stated on 1.0.2 patch that:

 

Upon a new installation and first launch of the game, settings files and in-game graphics preferences are now consistent with each other.

 

So, please Bioware, can we get a clarification on this? Does this mean that if we reinstall the game using the online installer, we will get high resolution textures everytime and not only during dialog cutscenes?

 

If not, any ETA on when the high resolution textures bug will be fixed?

 

Thanks in advance for answering this confusive situation.

Edited by Adelbert
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Hello all,

 

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We thank you for your efforts in keeping the thread on topic, constructive and respectful.

 

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Hey everyone, thanks for bearing with us as we investigated the concerns raised here.

 

After investigation, it seems that the confusion here is a combination of a UI issue that's been resolved and a feature that's working as intended, but the reason why it's 'working as intended' needs explanation.

 

First, the UI issue. The preferences menu as it is seen on the Public Test Server for version 1.1 of the game is correct - there are only supposed to be two texture choices, 'Low' and 'High'. This replaces the original three-choice preference of Low/Medium/High because in reality, there was never supposed to be a 'Medium' choice - that was a bug.

 

Here's where we need to explain. As many of you have noted, your character in the game world is rendered using lower resolution textures than inside of cinematic conversation scenes. This was a deliberate decision by the development team. To understand why this was done, I have to briefly talk about MMOs and their engines.

 

In comparison to single player games and other genres of multiplayer online games, MMOs have much higher variability in the number of characters that can be potentially rendered on-screen at the same time. In MMOs, even though most of the time you'll see a relatively small number of characters on screen, there are certain situations in which many more characters will be seen. Some examples of these situations include popular gathering places in-game (in our case, the two fleets), Operations with large teams, and Warzones. In those scenarios the client (and your PC) has to work hard to show off a lot of characters on-screen.

 

During development and testing of The Old Republic, our priorities were to ensure the game looked great and performed well. In testing, we discovered that using our 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs. There were a variety of possible options to help improve performance, but one that was explored and ultimately implemented used what is known as a 'texture atlas'.

 

To understand that I've got to get technical for a minute. When a character in the game is 'seen' by another character - ie, gets close to your field of view - the client has to 'draw' that character for you to see. As the character is 'drawn' for you there are a number of what are known as 'draw calls' where the client pulls information from the repository it has on your hard disk, including textures, and then renders the character. Every draw call that is made is a demand on your PC, so keeping that number of draw calls low per character is important. With our 'maximum resolution' textures a large number of draw calls are made per character, but that wasn't practical for normal gameplay, especially when a large number of characters were in one place; the number of draw calls made on your client would multiply very quickly. The solution was to 'texture atlas' - essentially to put a number of smaller textures together into one larger texture. This reduces the number of draw calls dramatically and allows the client to render characters quicker, which improves performance dramatically.

 

When it comes to cinematic scenes, however, characters are rendered using the higher number of draw calls and maximum resolution textures. This is because in those scenes, we have control over exactly how many characters are rendered and can ensure that the game performs well. The transition between 'atlas textured' characters (out of cinematics) and 'maximum resolution' textures (in cinematics) is mostly hidden by the transition between those two states (when the screen goes black), but obviously it's clear if you pay close attention.

 

In summary; yes, we had a small UI bug that unfortunately caused confusion over how the game is intended to work. The textures you're seeing in the course of normal gameplay are optimized for that mode of play. The textures you're seeing during cinematics are also optimized for that mode of play. They are higher resolution, but that's because we're able to control cinematic scenes to ensure good performance in a way we can't during normal gameplay.

 

We understand the passion and desire for people to see the same textures you see in our cinematic scenes in the main game. Because of the performance issues that would cause for the client, that's not an immediate and easy fix; we need to ensure we're making choices that the majority of our players will be able to benefit from. Having 'atlassed textures' helps performance overall, and that's a very important goal for us.

 

With that said, we've heard your feedback here loud and clear. The development team is exploring options to improve the fidelity of the game, particularly for those of you with high-spec PCs. It will be a significant piece of development work and it won't be an overnight change, but we're listening and we're committed to reacting to your feedback.

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Thanks Stephen, but why were we, the customers, not informed of this and your videos and screenshots do advertise with highres textures enabled even tho the engine is not optimised for it in normal play?

 

I was under the assumption, as im sure many others were aswell, that these "highres" textures would work naturally like for all other games, including mmo titles.

 

Will not purchase again. This is just unbelievable.

 

FALSE ADVERTISMENT ON PURPOSE BY BIOWARE EA

 

Alone, that you wont consider giving us the option of it and think choosing for us instead is a smart way, when it did work in beta.

 

How derailed and ultimately alienating.

Edited by Ommm
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I assume you will be removing the High res screenshots from the site that market the game as something that its not. And asking the reviewers to do the same.

 

That's the crux of my issue with the whole thing.

 

Don't advertise high fidelity if you've no intention of giving it.

Edited by Dezzi
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I assume you will be removing the High res screenshots from the site that market the game as something that its not. And asking the reviewers to do the same.

 

If the screen shots come from a cinematic ( which most of them do) it is not a falsity. This is the exact solution I thought they would take with this.

 

If you want to see a perfectly good example of WHY this is a problem. Please see AOC sieges at launch on "ultra" even quad sli'd quad core machines were chugging trying to render scenery, buildings, shadows, and 96 characters at once.

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This is incredibly disappointing, to be honest. I see no reason to completely remove the option.

 

If somebody wants to use the high textures, then they should be able to. There's no reason to completely remove the option, simply because you all feel the game runs smoother.

 

That should be left up the end-user, not ya'll.

Edited by MisterWratten
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I guess my confusion lies in.. Why don't people have a choice in the matter? They cant choose to play with lacking performance, or even test their pc capablities for that matter. Most are forced to play with lackluster models because of some. I don't get that,
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Whilst I am sad the decision was made in the first place without asking the community (BETA testers in particular) I am very very happy about this detailed explaination Stephen. I give you 6 months or more if need be. I love this game and your CLEAR commitment to give us highend users what we desire is plain awesome.

 

Thank you so much. I salute you and your team.

 

I knew you would not let us down.

 

Off to level 42 now. :) With even more vigor!

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Well, thank you for the concise reply, Mr. Reid.

 

However, I have chosen to stop playing The Old Republic.

 

You used the high-resolution character models and textures for hundreds upon hundreds of screenshots and videos that were purportedly showing actual gameplay - for instance, your progression videos which showed combat. Those certainly weren't dialogue scenes.

 

I purchased the game expecting that level of graphical fidelity. I have never seen another MMO use special textures that are unavailable to players in their gameplay videos.

 

Good luck to everyone working on the game and continuing to play it.

Edited by carnac_fett
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With that said, we've heard your feedback here loud and clear. The development team is exploring options to improve the fidelity of the game, particularly for those of you with high-spec PCs. It will be a significant piece of development work and it won't be an overnight change, but we're listening and we're committed to reacting to your feedback.

 

This reply says, well, nothing and above all, makes absolutely no point at all! Thank you for buttering up "We messed up the texturing vs.performance issue because our engine is so full of holes it looks like a sinking Titanic, so we got creative and said that Hey, its a UI bug. We have NO idea how the "high" option ended up in the UI. Damn hackerzzzz".

 

I dont really care about hi-res textures. What I do care about is that my decently rigged i5 cant get more than 20 fps in WZs with everything on minimum. High spec PC users dont want MORE: they want BETTER. They want 40 FPS with everything on minimum if thats whats needed to play fluently in WZs. 150 players in the fleet isnt 20 players in a WZ now is it?

 

Its more than sad: its incompetent on BW part. I shouldn't need a master degree in computer nerdism to have this run at 40 fps in WZs. GET.IT.FIXED.

Edited by Soulaufein
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Wait: So because some people don't have nice computers, people with good computers have to suffer too? The resolutions for textures in gameplay are some of the bar none worst I've experienced in the past six years.

 

DDO does better.

 

You're not encouraging people to remain subscribed to your game.

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Hey everyone, thanks for bearing with us as we investigated the concerns raised here.

 

After investigation, it seems that the confusion here is a combination of a UI issue that's been resolved and a feature that's working as intended, but the reason why it's 'working as intended' needs explanation.

 

First, the UI issue. The preferences menu as it is seen on the Public Test Server for version 1.1 of the game is correct - there are only supposed to be two texture choices, 'Low' and 'High'. This replaces the original three-choice preference of Low/Medium/High because in reality, there was never supposed to be a 'Medium' choice - that was a bug.

 

Here's where we need to explain. As many of you have noted, your character in the game world is rendered using lower resolution textures than inside of cinematic conversation scenes. This was a deliberate decision by the development team. To understand why this was done, I have to briefly talk about MMOs and their engines.

 

In comparison to single player games and other genres of multiplayer online games, MMOs have much higher variability in the number of characters that can be potentially rendered on-screen at the same time. In MMOs, even though most of the time you'll see a relatively small number of characters on screen, there are certain situations in which many more characters will be seen. Some examples of these situations include popular gathering places in-game (in our case, the two fleets), Operations with large teams, and Warzones. In those scenarios the client (and your PC) has to work hard to show off a lot of characters on-screen.

 

During development and testing of The Old Republic, our priorities were to ensure the game looked great and performed well. In testing, we discovered that using our 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs. There were a variety of possible options to help improve performance, but one that was explored and ultimately implemented used what is known as a 'texture atlas'.

 

To understand that I've got to get technical for a minute. When a character in the game is 'seen' by another character - ie, gets close to your field of view - the client has to 'draw' that character for you to see. As the character is 'drawn' for you there are a number of what are known as 'draw calls' where the client pulls information from the repository it has on your hard disk, including textures, and then renders the character. Every draw call that is made is a demand on your PC, so keeping that number of draw calls low per character is important. With our 'maximum resolution' textures a large number of draw calls are made per character, but that wasn't practical for normal gameplay, especially when a large number of characters were in one place; the number of draw calls made on your client would multiply very quickly. The solution was to 'texture atlas' - essentially to put a number of smaller textures together into one larger texture. This reduces the number of draw calls dramatically and allows the client to render characters quicker, which improves performance dramatically.

 

When it comes to cinematic scenes, however, characters are rendered using the higher number of draw calls and maximum resolution textures. This is because in those scenes, we have control over exactly how many characters are rendered and can ensure that the game performs well. The transition between 'atlas textured' characters (out of cinematics) and 'maximum resolution' textures (in cinematics) is mostly hidden by the transition between those two states (when the screen goes black), but obviously it's clear if you pay close attention.

 

In summary; yes, we had a small UI bug that unfortunately caused confusion over how the game is intended to work. The textures you're seeing in the course of normal gameplay are optimized for that mode of play. The textures you're seeing during cinematics are also optimized for that mode of play. They are higher resolution, but that's because we're able to control cinematic scenes to ensure good performance in a way we can't during normal gameplay.

 

We understand the passion and desire for people to see the same textures you see in our cinematic scenes in the main game. Because of the performance issues that would cause for the client, that's not an immediate and easy fix; we need to ensure we're making choices that the majority of our players will be able to benefit from. Having 'atlassed textures' helps performance overall, and that's a very important goal for us.

 

With that said, we've heard your feedback here loud and clear. The development team is exploring options to improve the fidelity of the game, particularly for those of you with high-spec PCs. It will be a significant piece of development work and it won't be an overnight change, but we're listening and we're committed to reacting to your feedback.

 

Glad to hear it! Yes, this all makes sense and was exactly as I expected.

 

It would be really nice if you could allow a "high" or "ultra" option for players with high end PCs, so we could still see those textures in the overworld, but since youre doing the megatexturing / texture atlasing, its not a quick switch. Hmm.

 

I might almost prefer using the higher resolution textures and just setting the number of displayed character models to be much lower. I guess you guys are playing with it and know best. Some way of swapping LOD (Level of detail) between the medium and high resolution for the closest characters and keeping the rest a medium would be best, but it depends upon how hard it is to simultaneously texture atlas the far away characters and swap close characters to higher levels of detail. I'm pretty sure it can be done, but it'll take a ton of work, I understand.

 

That you're working on better graphics options is great, sounds like you did hear us. :)

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Total lack of explanation why this didn't happen in Beta.

This!

 

Actually, we probably know why, the 'reviewers' got the 'hi-def' version, the paying customers ended up with the lo-def one.

 

 

Thus the reviews came out looking great and we ended up with ****.

 

Nice Bioware, really nice, the only MMO developer that has to use 'tricks' because their engine sucks and can't handle hi-def.

Edited by KerinKor
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That's what I figured was the case.

 

That said, I'd like to see a higher rez preview window when trying on gear. More camera controls in that window would be nice too. Right now it feels kinda muddy and low rez compared to everything else.

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Welp, just like I expected.

 

Maybe next time that they decide to make an MMO ( big if) they'll decide to spend more time optimizing their client so it doesn't blow up the moment 30 people walk in screen with high fidelity armor.

 

And yeah, all "ingame" pics and videos distributed should be updated to reflect the current state of the client. Maybe it would give an incentive to the devs to work harder on the issues.

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