Yes this was unclear. It sounded like armormechs could re "nearly any" outfit, but no such statement was included in the synthweaving section.. Whats the verdict on this?

Dear Sir, Could you please provide me the instructions on how to remove C2's vocal motivator? Honestly, if I can't shut him up, his lack of combat protocols are going to become a very big problem for him. Just the other day, C2 politely called a Trandoshan friend of mine "fat". If he makes such a mistake with my somewhat moody padawan, I cannot guarantee passion will not win out the day. Further your droid model goes on and on (and on) about needles details over and over (and over) again ... seat cushions and air sents. My crew and I couldn't care less about these things, and frankly got the message the first 150 times we heard them. "A good steward droid is an un-noticed steward droid", I always say. I mean ... my crew and I ... we're busy with weighty issues (I don't mean to brag, but we're literally saving the galaxy here), and to have these moments constantly interrupted with mindless chatter about seat cushions EVERY SINGLE TIME we walk past the unit ... is .. well it tries a Jedi's patience, frankly. If I wanted to know what he's been up to while I was away, I'd interact with him explicitly. I therefore, with great - but taxed - patience, request a modification to the product line to allow for less frequent and repetitive status reports. Yours in The Force, Master Ryce Ashlar of The Jedi Order.

Do you have two sabers, one for the each of me?

And more specifically, they advertise GAMEPLAY (non-cutscene) FOOTAGE using high-res textures which consumers cannot achieve during gameplay (non-cutscene). They've published GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE using high-res textures even after all of this hit the fan on the forums and they publicly admitted hi-res textures were unavailable to players during normal gameplay. shameful from an honesty perspective, and embarrassing from a quality of work perspective.

Not by the consumer who purchased the product based on those ads they can't.

I hear you. I'd asked in one of the previous 500 pages of posts on this "If Bioware were to release a new video tomorrow with gameplay footage, do you think they would use the textures they now claim are the high res versions for gameplay use ... or the versions they now claim are only used for cut scenes?" We have our answer. The previous responses are blatantly false. Those high res textures are NOT meant solely for cut scenes. Those high res textures ARE meant for game play. Bioware uses those high res textures in their gameplay footage they use to sell the game.

This is just getting worse and worse. Now, even after all of this has hit the fan. BioWare releases yet another a trailer which includes gameplay footage ... which uses the hi res textures for gameplay. http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/12/rakghouls-and-raging-hutts-with-swtors-gabe-amatangelo/ This after BioWare tried to sell the "oh no those textures aren't meant to be used for gameplay its just for the cut scenes" nonsense. They demonstrably recognize that their gameplay graphics are so bad, they dare not use them in material presented to prospective new players. They don't use them themselves - they are that bad. But tell us this level of quality (which they have deemed unacceptable for their own uses), is the intended level of quality for their product all along. It's all "as intended" and the expectation for something better (like that which they are willing to use in marketing) is just a big misunderstanding on our part. This is infuriating.

Don't assume I've done so. I read your whole post. It was simply that particular piece of nonsense I wanted to debunk. The Forums DO represent the larger player community. Non-forum going players should not be assumed to be satisfied just because they are non-forum going players.

This is a very common and completely incorrect assumption. just because a player (or number of players) is not a "forum-going player", does not mean they are not as upset by and as interested in a solution for the problems discussed by the forum-going players. It simply means they don't use forums. Silence is not acceptance. Some gamers lurk but do not post - confident that the multitude of posters have already voiced their concerns Some gamers don't visit forums because they dislike the medium ... but that doesn't mean they aren't (like i was) spending 15-45 minutes every night trying to figure out what is wrong with their video card settings. Some gamers don't visit forums because they don't acknowledge a larger community around their game/experience ... that doesn't mean they won't stop playing a game if their game experience is plagued by unresolved issues (which likely are being discussed on forums they don't visit). Some gamers don't visit forums because they only have so many hours they can spend on game time and would prefer to use those hours gaming .. that doesn't mean they appreciate getting a game which CANNOT look like the GAMEPLAY walkthroughs that Bioware used to sell them said game. A silent player is NOT NECESSARILY a happy player. They are simply silent. Bioware can and will lose both silent and forum-going players if they fail to respond to the forum-going players ... after all they are the only player sourced method to represent the larger community, and they probably do that at a pretty reasonably representative distribution of concern/apathy.

well I'll give it another try, but I've tried this before and saw no difference in rendering anything. Others have since confirmed the ini file cannot force this change. /shrug

I'm told this no longer works. There's no way to force the issue via the ini files. ATI card owners have a way to force the issue with the card itself, but I cannot find such a setting in my NVIDIA control panel.

Honestly, how they can sell that 'normal' picture (the one without using the trick) as the 'intended' level of quality for their "AAA" MMO product is beyond me. They should see that and be so embarrassed that they drop everything else and get developers on it around the clock until its fixed. Instead we hear that this 'is working as intended'. Clearly not the AAA studio we thought we were dealing with. A real shame.

wow. (Anyone know how to force this level of detail on NVIDIA cards?)

That's what is driving me crazy. It really should embarrass them that a AAA title would look the way the screenshots in these threads have shown. It really should deeply embarrass them ... and the response they give is "working as intended - but we'll see what we can do". This is what they intended? No it's not. None of their gameplay videos online have anything but high res textures. These low res textures embarrass them enough they wouldn't dare use them in gameplay videos used to market the game. I'd prefer an honest and disagreeable answer to flat out nonsense. I mean I just can't even believe it's a discussion outside of "wow, you guys are right, this is not the quality we want to champion in our product. We will fix this immediately." I've waited YEARS for this game. I'm considering canceling my subscription pending resolution of this. (I Haven't decided yet, but the fact that I've gone to the trouble to find out how I would do that ... is shocking. I've waited YEARS for this game. That's how big a deal this is.)

Actually I work in IT as well, and I dont get called a liar. As for proof, I've provided it (actually Bioware provided it). I've quoted it below. There is nothing conspiracy-theory-esk about this. The game play graphics used to have high res and now we're being told that no, nothing was removed and those textures are only used for cinematics. Thats not true.

Yes. That's the completely bogus BS answer that we would not have liked and needn't settle for. Then came the further 'intentional untruths' being woven in to every response now. That somehow this was all a misunderstanding and nobody ever took away high res from the gameplay - those textures were only ever meant for cinematics. Ask yourself this ... if a new PR video were to be created today ... would they allow it to be created using the textures their potential customers will actually receive or would they continue to use these high res textures they are telling us are not meant for gameplay?

Yes and then he went on to say that those high res textures were only ever intended to be used for cinematics and that they have not removed high res from gameplay. This is completely false at best. Bioware has released gameplay footage (not cutscene) using high res textures. For them to now say "oh those are just cinematic textures, never meant to be used in gameplay" is a complete 100% lie. View Bioware's release of GAMEPLAY footage using those high res textures: It's one thing to give an answer we're not going to like. It's far worse to out and out lie about it and blame us for not understanding how things work.

Again: BS. Stephen, please go review the Bioware released GAMEPLAY walkthroughs. Such as (timestamp 2:35 - 3:00 is a great example) This is GAMEPLAY footage. High res textures CLEARLY IN THE GAME for GAMEPLAY purposes. It is these high res textures that you are marketing in these videos for GAMEPLAY (not cinematic) graphics. You're living in the YouTube age. These sorts of revisionist history statements are NOT serving you. High res textures have always been in the game FOR MORE THAN JUST CINEMATICS. Bioware is PUBLISHING GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE with the high res textures. If you've changed that since (and you clearly have) - you have removed them from gameplay graphics.

Careful. I think the whole remote render DRM thing lives firmly in the conspiracy theory world right now. This issue is important enough not to muddy it with red hearings that can be used to distract/defuse the concern. Besides, frankly, it doesn't matter what the cause is - it simply has to be fixed. Whatever the cause, there's no excuse for a AAA MMO in 2012 to look like this.

oh yes lets give you more air time. welcome to my ignore list, troll. How about the post you just posted (quoted above). Take it to the PM inbox, some of us are trying to have an on-topic conversation.

Quoted for truth. This has nothing to do with how MMOs work. At best/worst it has to do with their failure to code for an MMO instead of Single Player game. Give us an option/slider. Use LOD. This game looks worse than MMOs from YEARS ago even when set to "high". complete BS. We, the playerbase, cannot let this stand. This cannot be an issue/response we just accept or let die away. This is nonsense. The screenshots posted here (and all over) are evidence enough. There is NO excuse for a modern AAA MMO developed by a AAA studio to look like this.

From the 20112 events thread: As you work to keep the game in the public eye and get new people interested in the game ... I wonder which set of textures you'll be using. I challenge you to do so with the level of graphics / textures / details they will actually experience during game play. There's a reason you will not do so ... that reason should be paramount in your discussions around how immediately you will address this problem. Stephen, firstly thanks for the lengthy description of whats going on. I know you're the messenger here, but I have to call foul on this. I bought a brand new highest-end gaming PC with the 3x the needed amount of everything and latest and greatest everything - JUST FOR THIS GAME. My GAMING computer eats SkyRim at all the highest settings for breakfast (and then some), but you're telling me in SWTOR my only option is to look at textures that literally make me ask (yes, I've literally asked this of people) why BioWare hasn't hired artists who could be bothered to draw straight lines and color inside of them?! That's the measure of quality you want to force in your product even for customers who have high end gaming systems?! If this is 'working as intended' and the impact is actually understood ... that's a pretty big problem. I realize this is an MMO, but despite being the new comer aiming to set the bar higher ... it has the worst textures of any other MMO I've ever played (even when I played them on far less powerful systems than I have now). I appreciate your desire to ensure everyone's experience, but the 'solution' here is EXTREMELY over zealous (to the point of causing problems and frustration to your customers) if even the latest and greatest GAMING systems out there are left unable to even tell what the armor REALLY looks like in the preview pain. I have to have my companion character try it on just to know what it probably really looks like. Otherwise, the lines are fuzzy, colors washed out and haphazardly jetting out of their place. Drawn lines that would otherwise convey depth are completely absent. Other AAA MMO titles allow for this lower level of detail for those systems which cannot handle more, but they allow high end systems to leverage their power (which we, your customers, have paid dearly for). At some point, my client performance is my issue to solve not yours. There NEEDS to be an option (you can have it disabled it by default) for us to elect to take the risk of a performance hit and turn on high res textures. If there is no mechanism for this then your controls have gone too far. Look at the examples posted to the forums. It's unacceptable. I'm really really upset by this answer. I nearly cannot believe it.

Stephen, firstly thanks for the lengthy description of whats going on. I know you're the messenger here, but I have to call foul on this. I bought a brand new highest-end gaming PC with the 3x the needed amount of everything and latest and greatest everything - JUST FOR THIS GAME. My GAMING computer eats SkyRim at all the highest settings for breakfast (and then some), but you're telling me in SWTOR my only option is to look at textures that literally make me ask (yes, I've literally asked this of people) why BioWare hasn't hired artists who could be bothered to draw straight lines and color inside of them?! That's the measure of quality you want to force in your product even for customers who have high end gaming systems?! If this is 'working as intended' and the impact is actually understood ... that's a pretty big problem. I realize this is an MMO, but despite being the new comer aiming to set the bar higher ... it has the worst textures of any other MMO I've ever played (even when I played them on far less powerful systems than I have now). I appreciate your desire to ensure everyone's experience, but the 'solution' here is EXTREMELY over zealous (to the point of causing problems and frustration to your customers) if even the latest and greatest GAMING systems out there are left unable to even tell what the armor REALLY looks like in the preview pain. I have to have my companion character try it on just to know what it probably really looks like. Otherwise, the lines are fuzzy, colors washed out and haphazardly jetting out of their place. Drawn lines that would otherwise convey depth are completely absent. Other AAA MMO titles allow for this lower level of detail for those systems which cannot handle more, but they allow high end systems to leverage their power (which we, your customers, have paid dearly for). At some point, my client performance is my issue to solve not yours. There NEEDS to be an option (you can have it disabled it by default) for us to elect to take the risk of a performance hit and turn on high res textures. If there is no mechanism for this then your controls have gone too far. Look at the examples posted to the forums. It's unacceptable. I'm really really upset by this answer. I nearly cannot believe it.

I agree with the whole of the OP, but want to call out the below: This is critical IMHO. Synthweavers and Armormechs have no market among those who wear customizable gear (which is so important in this game), unless they can make the armorings for their type of crafted armor. `

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is nuts. I'm a republic crafter. I want to be supporting The Republic. This is a crazy aspect of the loot tables. Why would a crafter for one side be spending his time arming/outfitting the opposing faction?! This makes no sense within 'story' which is so central to the game design for SWTOR. Further, it makes those schematics of nearly zero use to the crafter. You can't sell / use it within any meaningful market. I want to be supplying my guild, or my buddies, or others on my server I may actually be interacting with. There's no way within the story of these crew missions that my jedi consular should become an arms dealer for the Empire.