Just what this game needed, an update to foliage! Not class balance, not bug fixing, none of that; what we truly needed was better looking foliage.

 

Riiiight. Because, as we all know, the people who work on the background graphics in a MMORPG are also exactly the same team who work on the character programming and stats.

 

Get a grip.

The game plays great for me.

 

Yes, I understand there are some people who still have issues.

 

Here's the thing - These updates are good in the long run for this game. It will make the world more dynamic, nicer to look at, provide better immersion. There does run a risk of causing more issues, as we found out in 1.4, though it's not that the updates themselves are bad, but that when they push stuff out with not enough testing with all the various video cards out there. So post-release adjusting becomes necessary. Like when WoW put in some stuff like the water effect updates, it initially caused some problems with some people, but now I don't think anyone would want to go back to their crappy old water effect.

 

Hopefully, they did better testing with this beforehand then they did with the shadows in 1.4. But it is completely possible that the changes made for this really won't effect anyone's systems. Shadows have always been kind of a dodgy, graphics intensive thing.

 

And yeah, I wish people would understand that SWTOR has multiple teams that world on different aspects of the game independently. Add this features has no impact on class balance changes, quests, warzones, operations, etc...

Edited October 29, 2012 by chuixupu

Riiiight. Because, as we all know, the people who work on the background graphics in a MMORPG are also exactly the same team who work on the character programming and stats.

 

Get a grip.

 

 

^

this!

*sigh*... Don´t even try to explain it. People with no clue about game development will never get it.

that is incredible that they are adding sunlight effects! And everyone says how bad this game is. They might want to rethink that.

I love to read about the art end of game design. It's something that is always right in front of us but surprisingly easy to overlook. I have to keep my graphics settings fairly low (this is by no means a top end machine) but even so, I often let myself stop to enjoy the scenery. Nice to see this little upgrade, and a window into a fundamental but little-discussed aspect of the game.

Cut this guy some slack. He loves his job like the guy who loves making coastlines, especially fjords. I'm sure we'll find his signature somewhere on a leaf, or tree, or blade of grass.

 

These guys have produced some of the best looking environments that evoke Star Wars feel.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Apologies Douglas Adams (RIP)

New graphics you say? Will you fix the FPS problems that are in 1.4 for dual video cards?

 

The FPS issues are affecting more than just players with dual cards. They need to fix it for everyone with the problem. I'm beginning to fear how much more 1.5 will break.

I'm holding my fingers crossed this time. Last time 1.4 was released, it generated a new set of bugs that is still not fixed today.

This looks lovely. Thank you. I know there are lots of other challenges the game faces, but that does not take away from the fact that this looks like a very pretty effect and it will be nice to see in-world.

First shadows, now shaders, cleaning up various graphic artifacts....if you guys continue you will leave me nothing graphics wise to complain about

 

Great job. This is one I actually thought could not be accomplished with the engine, and you found a way. Brilliant.

 

Now....if you could only give us a detail distance slider......

So this is one of the guys to blame for the black circled eyes and general stuttering problems in/since 1.4. Something got changed in the way shader complexity works cause the only way to mitigate some of the probs. is to crank it up or all the way down in options.

looks beautiful! can't wait to see it in game, as well as any other graphic enhancements you all come up with in the future. i always thought this game was pretty.

... You know the game already looks amazing but ok. I care more about performance but that is just me.

... You know the game already looks amazing but ok. I care more about performance but that is just me.

 

I think this might just be one of the benefits as they try to get the engine more refined.

 

All I know is the last patch made it so my laptop can run the game at a higher graphics setting with a higher framerate.

Edited October 29, 2012 by jarjarloves

I think this might just be one of the benefits as they try to get the engine more refined.

 

All I know is the last patch made it so my laptop can run the game at a higher graphics setting with a higher framerate.

 

And yet my i7 with or without crossfire can't run in mid quality. And it's just after 1.4, before that was great.

Edited October 29, 2012 by lafr

Very nice, looking forward to it.

 

Keep up the good work. =]

Hopefully, they did better testing with this beforehand then they did with the shadows in 1.4. But it is completely possible that the changes made for this really won't effect anyone's systems. Shadows have always been kind of a dodgy, graphics intensive thing.

 

PTS will be back up soon (it is being patched now) - the more people that can test this patch the better. Especially anyone with an onboard graphics chipset or an older card.

 

As these sorts of changes are made there is a risk (as appears to have crystallised with this update) that older setups won't be able to run the game any more, Bioware need as many people as possible to test so they can see if the number who would gain from better images is outweighed by the number who can no longer play the game at all (i.e. they login and crash to desktop before the world finishes loading)

It makes me feel good that this person seems to take his job so serious but you know he also really enjoys it and has a lot of fun with it. Unless of course he was made to say all of that but I don't want to believe that haha. Can't wait for 1.5 this game is getting back on track

Please ,please,please fix the current graphic issues before creating new ones.

 

I love the look.Really,I do.But since 1.4 my framerate has taken a huge hit,plus 1.4 introduced gave me the buggy looking blaster bolts,that still haven't been fixed.And no amount of driver-downloading or setting-tweaking made a difference.

 

My system was never all that great to begin with,but before 1.4 warzones were somewhat tolerable.I had problems playing melee classes,but did ok with range classes.After 1.4 ,warzones became completely unplayable,I simply lag too badly,regardless which class I played.

 

For many of us,performance and stability are much more important than visuals.

I´d really like a super high end texture pack which makes the world and characters look a little less like plastic/cartoony.

Hopefully one of the next improvements...

This is a nice update unfortunately ruined by the very low draw distance.

 

Sadly seeing the grass grow in front us while running around kills any graphical improvements done. This is where you should have focused your efforts before.

Beautiful changes! I love it!

Looks very good! Will be nice for us with good g-cards to get out more of the game.

To those complaining, stop whining. The Tech Artist isn't going to be involved in fixing most of the bugs you're talking about or balancing issues.

 

It's called role specialization. Learn about it.

Nice but will it come with the lag or am I in wrong department...