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

[Astron_]

Wow, this is really disappointing, but not surprising. Considering that the game has performance issues already even on high-end PCs, I knew there was no way they could allow high-quality character textures without incurring major complaints about performance. SR says a lot of stuff in his post, but the bottom line is that the game's engine is not good enough to offer better quality graphics.

 

I'm going to say what I think a lot of people are probably thinking: the SWTOR engine sucks. I don't use the word "sucks" often. In fact, I think that's the first time I typed that word on these forums. But that's how I feel about it. In its current form, SWTOR is a technical lemon. The story, sound and voiceover is awesome, but the limitations of the engine (not only graphics, but also issues with clunky gameplay and bugs) are severely holding the game back.

 

The good news is it's an MMO, and they can improve it. But they really have a lot of work to do to get the game up to par.

 

Indeed, nicely put. However I doubt I'll be around when they finally have improved their code in this miserable heap of an engine. :/

[monoptic]

That is no better what-so-ever than what it is now.

 

What? I made that post to compare promo shot armor/textures to the actual in-game graphics now. Of course it's a terrible comparison. In-game looks awful.

[MaxWham]

This whole situation reminds me of Rage... But, as I remember, ID admitted, their problems and that it was a failure! Now Bioware its a failure too:mad:, so just have a courage to admit it! If yar "cinematics" textures looked like this:

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/02/Witcher-2-Assassin-of-kings-11-590x331.jpg

It would be ok, but your so called "cinematic" also look average:mad::mad:

And gameplay just a bloody muddy mess!!!

Edited January 12, 2012 by MaxWham

[Proto]

Hey Stephen:

 

If your game never had high-res textures disabled, why is it that when I right-click the launcher.exe file > properties > compatibility > checkbox > enabled Win XP SP3 mode > and click apply........ your game suddenly renders high-res textures on all distant terrain and environments 100% of the time and FPS increases, etc?

 

Can you please explain that to me? Why is it that on my Windows 7 machine I am able to workaround this texture issue by forcing the client into a Windows XP compatibility mode? Why did you just lie to your playerbase? Do you honestly think we're that stupid?

Edited January 12, 2012 by Proto

[BobTheTeepo]

Game runs like crap and looks like a 12 year old doodled it. Excuse? Oh, it'd run poorly if we made it look like it did in the beta. We'll do something a few months from now.

 

Enjoy the server merges before it goes F2P, fanbois. You're not doing yourselves any favors deluding yourselves into thinking this is a quality product.

 

This is why this ENTIRE thread loses all credibility for people who like the game. None of us can take ANY OF YOU seriously because so many are just flaming everyone who dares to actually like the game. Furthermore, it looked like that in beta because there was a small amount of people (I did 3 beta sessions), now there isn't such a small amount of people in the game, so running it on the high levels would kill even a lot of high end computers for whatever reason.

 

Bottom line guys, if you want the people who actually like the game to consider supporting this thread (Or even if you just want to be a... good person? NO, why would we want that?), you need to treat them like human beings instead of being jerks and labeling us all "fanboys" for having different taste.

 

Also, I believe by quarter 1 he's referring to the first 3 months of this year (January, February, March), not the fiscal year or anything. Taking longer than 3 months for the next big patch wouldn't make any sense.

[nonforma]

How many of you received forum warning/s 'cause of how upset you are over this issue?

 

I'm going to smile when Bioware starts to see their lackluster sub numbers in the months to come.

 

So far I haven't nor have I had any posts deleted. As long as you stay civil everything is fine. It's hard not to start the insults with white knights abound but keep on topic, that's why we're all here.

[Aisar]

What? I made that post to compare promo shot armor/textures to the actual in-game graphics now. Of course it's a terrible comparison. In-game looks awful.

 

My bad I thought I clearly read that you said the second one was the current graphics on the PTR and that they were somehow better. /waves hand "move along, nothing to see here".

Edited January 12, 2012 by Aisar

[Zorvan]

Originally Posted by StephenReid

We did not 'remove' high resolution textures - they were always in the game for use in cinematics.

 

I suggest you learn the difference between a cutscene using ingame textures real time and a cinematic which is a pre-rendered movie that uses no ingame resources in its process.

 

Thanks.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Zorvan

[Zezel]

I work in the IT world, users say we lie all the time, which is not true at all. We are professionals that care about our work and want to help the users if possible.

 

That is blatant conspiracy theory territory and I see no reason as an adult to continue to participate in a discussion that is calling Stephen Reid or any other representative of Bioware a liar without definitive and unequivocal proof. Even then, I would not do so in a public manner. I would be equally respectful of other game development teams as well who work hard on a very complex development process, if any would like to know.

 

Proof of what? High Res gameplay in Beta?

[United_Strafes]

Well that response doesn't bode well for me. I regret buying an extra 2 months up front now, with these textures I would happily quit on the 20th, anyway I like the game, don't love it and I'm having fun for the most part, I'll continue to play during my 3 months off and on I suppose, but as for longevity, nope, no way, no how, not with these textures.

 

If the HI-RES textures not some fidelity workaround, aren't present I won't pay to play the game simple as that, with the respose and excuses seen today I regret the $30 I already spent.

[MoonsLightV]

This is why this ENTIRE thread loses all credibility for people who like the game. None of us can take ANY OF YOU seriously because so many are just flaming everyone who dares to actually like the game. Furthermore, it looked like that in beta because there was a small amount of people (I did 3 beta sessions), now there isn't such a small amount of people in the game, so running it on the high levels would kill even a lot of high end computers for whatever reason.

 

Bottom line guys, if you want the people who actually like the game to consider supporting this thread (Or even if you just want to be a... good person? NO, why would we want that?), you need to treat them like human beings instead of being jerks and labeling us all "fanboys" for having different taste.

 

Also, I believe by quarter 1 he's referring to the first 3 months of this year (January, February, March), not the fiscal year or anything. Taking longer than 3 months for the next big patch wouldn't make any sense.

If you had been paying attention to the last 2 threads about this whole issue NOTHING they have said "made sense" and they are being outright deceitful to their paying customers.

[hargrave]

Well thanks for explaining this in detail to us stephen.Ive been a long time supporter of the game and ive met u guys at the comic con event but i have to be honest im starting to get concerned. I understand what youve explained there but what i dont understand is why for the last year or more in beta this wasnt adressed? Im noticing a lot of the bugs I have as well are the same ones i had in beta as well. Im hard pressed to believe this is biowares fault as EA does publishing for the game and what im seeing since launch is everything bieng fixed after the launch like all EA's half baked games are released which i why this is the first ea game ive bought in years oly because of biowares involved...

 

Ill be here either way i enjoy the game and unlike most i realize it hasnt even been out a month yet im getting extremely concerned i have to say......

[CriDaDimon]

This is why this ENTIRE thread loses all credibility for people who like the game. None of us can take ANY OF YOU seriously because so many are just flaming everyone who dares to actually like the game. Furthermore, it looked like that in beta because there was a small amount of people (I did 3 beta sessions), now there isn't such a small amount of people in the game, so running it on the high levels would kill even a lot of high end computers for whatever reason.

 

Bottom line guys, if you want the people who actually like the game to consider supporting this thread (Or even if you just want to be a... good person? NO, why would we want that?), you need to treat them like human beings instead of being jerks and labeling us all "fanboys" for having different taste.

 

Also, I believe by quarter 1 he's referring to the first 3 months of this year (January, February, March), not the fiscal year or anything. Taking longer than 3 months for the next big patch wouldn't make any sense.

 

in beta we ahd 790+ people in coruscant before servers shut down, ive nvr seen over 200 since, that is a lie

[BeeblesTV]

Keep hope alive, Bioware bring back high-res textures as a CHOICE. Don't force your customers to use low end settings on high end machines.

[myrmexaw]

I work in the IT world, users say we lie all the time, which is not true at all. We are professionals that care about our work and want to help the users if possible.

 

That is blatant conspiracy theory territory and I see no reason as an adult to continue to participate in a discussion that is calling Stephen Reid or any other representative of Bioware a liar without definitive and unequivocal proof. Even then, I would not do so in a public manner. I would be equally respectful of other game development teams as well who work hard on a very complex development process, if any would like to know.

 

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/voidstar-warzone

 

Go watch ANY video in the media section they are all using high resolution armor texture ... some are even using high resolution world texture....

[Amarinth]

And on that note, I noticed while I am in those congested areas. My whole graphics card goes into a state at which it think it's idle. If I close every single program, including SWTOR...The voltage drops, core, shader, and memory clocks fall below default level....because it stops working. I wonder why I have low fps? Any other game it works fine.

 

That's called a bottleneck.

 

Your GPU goes to low useage because something other than the GPU is limiting your performance and by affecting the FPS it's in turn affecting how hard your GPU has to work to keep up.

 

If you normally get 100 fps and on the fleet you can only get 20 fps because of bottleneck X, then your GPU only has to work at about 1/5th as hard as normal because it's not going to render any more frames per second than the slowest bit (whatever is the cause of the bottleneck) can keep up with.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Amarinth

[Nonameperson]

Originally Posted by StephenReid

That screenshot is from a cinematic in-game. ... {{snip}}... We did not 'remove' high resolution textures - they were always in the game for use in cinematics.

 

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.

 

This ^^ such a liar

[BobTheTeepo]

If you had been paying attention to the last 2 threads about this whole issue NOTHING they have said "made sense" and they are being outright deceitful to their paying customers.

 

I've been with this thread since the OP made it back a couple of incarnations at around one of the first pages.

 

Furthermore SO WHAT? Why are people attacking the people who like the game because they're angry with the company? That makes NO sense.

 

Also, I think you should know, what they've said makes perfect sense. You may not like it, and you may think you could do things better (which you can't) but what they've said has made sense.

[RyceTOR]

I work in the IT world, users say we lie all the time, which is not true at all. We are professionals that care about our work and want to help the users if possible.

 

That is blatant conspiracy theory territory and I see no reason as an adult to continue to participate in a discussion that is calling Stephen Reid or any other representative of Bioware a liar without definitive and unequivocal proof. Even then, I would not do so in a public manner. I would be equally respectful of other game development teams as well who work hard on a very complex development process, if any would like to know.

 

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.

 

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.

[Harower]

Originally Posted by StephenReid

We did not 'remove' high resolution textures - they were always in the game for use in cinematics.

 

I suggest you learn the difference between a cutscene using ingame textures real time and a cinematic which is a pre-rendered movie that uses no ingame resources in its process.

 

Thanks.

 

This is so true and sad.

 

The guy doesn't even know what he is talking about yet gave us such a massive cop-out reply. -_- Poor guy though, they are really throwing him to the wolves.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Harower

[mcfabulous]

Bioware should just send everyone in game mail containing a photo of their ***, because they basically just said to kiss it.

[Arkanovi]

Fiscal year, look it up.

 

You really think we can't expect 1.2 until April/May? look at the frequency of patches so far, in fact I think I even saw QQ threads about that.

 

I am aware of EA's Fiscal year, in this case however I think it's quite clear they mean calandar year

[Tartilus]

Hey Stephen:

 

If your game never had high-res textures disabled, why is it that when I right-click the launcher.exe file > properties > compatibility > checkbox > enabled Win XP SP3 mode > and click apply........ your game suddenly renders high-res textures on all distant terrain and environments 100% of the time and FPS increases, etc?

 

Can you please explain that to me? Why is it that on my Windows 7 machine I am able to workaround this texture issue by forcing the client into a Windows XP compatibility mode? Why did you just lie to your playerbase? Do you honestly think we're that stupid?

 

Forcing XP compatibility mode only enables the GPU RAM virtualization feature -- which is to say, it doesn't provide higher textures than anyone else is using, it just gives the game the ability to use them much more often. It's completely different from the issue being discussed here and, as such, your question is indeed a little stupid.

[Fellthar]

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/voidstar-warzone

 

Go watch ANY video in the media section they are all using high resolution armor texture ... some are even using high resolution world texture....

 

Yes, we already established this, and even Stephen Reid said they used the hi res textures in testing until they found that performance could be impacted severely (which could have been near the end of beta testing for all we know).

[mcfabulous]

Not to feed the flames here... but I'm extremely disappointed by Bioware's decision on the matter, and I'm pretty confident that their decision to cater to the lowest common denominator and only that, will not work to their advantage.

 

This is the first time I have ever played an MMO where developers have decided to halve the texture quality not as an option but as a mandatory change across all clients. It's unforgivable, and the reasons behind it are ridiculous.

 

Until now, I've been tinkering a lot with the .ini as well as NvidiaInspector to try to force high res character textures.

Thinking it was an LOD bug, I forced the LOD bias to -3.00 and noticed something else happening instead. It seems we may not even be getting the best environment textures the game has to offer because the standard LOD refuses to render them.

 

I've attached screenshots below for comparison between what the game is rendering at standard "high" settings, and what the game renders with LOD bias forced below the standard threshold.

 

Standard LOD:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j136/Cgramnaes/SWTOR_No_LOD.jpg

 

Forced LOD:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j136/Cgramnaes/SWTOR_Forced_LOD.jpg

 

I should also mention that the change has made no impact on my FPS, and has if anything made the game run smoother for me.

 

damn thats a huge change, how can I force that on a gtx550 ti