LOD has been downgraded again (on PC)

  • ItsPorkchopFu
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    @oheck said in LOD has been downgraded again (on PC):

    @personalc0ffee said in LOD has been downgraded again (on PC):

    @andreas5524 It isn't about low and high. It's about advantage. Player rending and ship rendering are specifically kept in line to one another.

    Sure you can see farther but you still can't hit anything cause it isn't there yet.

    Player rendering distance, sure. We are properly screwed on that. Rendering distance of high res island models? That doesn't affect pvp at all. They should have a higher setting for PCs. I get a 140-155 fps on the ocean.

    There is no reason to not implement this if it does not affect PVP interaction. Why hold back? This game is supposedly going to be developed over 10 year period. Why hamstring your own game and how it CAN look? I'm sure every artist and modeler, effects and shader employee would love to see the title they worked on looking as good as it can look.

    One other thing, why does it seem like there are pretty much two levels of LOD on these islands? I mean they look like melted icecream and suddenly pop in to a full high res model. Is there a problem with having multiple LOD displays for models? Isn't that the whole purpose for them is to help manage resources but also do it in a way where it isn't so obvious to the player?

    I'm curious how many LOD models they have for player characters at long range?

    The ‘correct’ way to implement LOD is to gradually stream in a series of increasingly more detailed models/textures as the viewport gets closer, until full detail is reached. In the Unreal engine, multiple LODs can be easily added to a model mesh and viewport distances corresponding to each LOD automatically calculated.

    In addition, streaming volumes should be configured to load and unload key areas/maps, relative to the player location and viewport, so only the player-visible meshes are rendered to increase performance.

    Detail should be increased in small enough increments so the shift from low LOD to high is seamless, as opposed to instantly changing from low to high with a jarring game stutter as it is currently implemented.

    I’ve included some relevant links on the subject for your viewing pleasure.

    https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Content/Types/StaticMeshes/HowTo/AutomaticLODGeneration

  • OHeck

    @itsporkchopfu Great post. Thanks.

  • ItsPorkchopFu
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    @oheck said in LOD has been downgraded again (on PC):

    @itsporkchopfu Great post. Thanks.

    You’re welcome. I’m glad you liked it. I’ve been known to nerd out on occasion. 🤓

    ::My wife rolls her eyes in the background::

  • NollaZero
    Ship Mate

    @vanderslyce It would create unfair advantage when competing with other crews and create unbalance inside crews when someone can see what others cannot.
    One solution that comes to mind is that when doing crossplay, the weakest in pack decides the pace meaning pc's are throttled to console level when necessary and when doing pc only then just go nuts with it.
    E: Somehow I left this out of my comment; What I meant was that go with Rocket League style and make crossplay optional.

  • ItsPorkchopFu
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    @nollazero said in LOD has been downgraded again (on PC):

    @vanderslyce It would create unfair advantage when competing with other crews and create unbalance inside crews when someone can see what others cannot.
    One solution that comes to mind is that when doing crossplay, the weakest in pack decides the pace meaning pc's are throttled to console level when necessary and when doing pc only then just go nuts with it.
    E: Somehow I left this out of my comment; What I meant was that go with Rocket League style and make crossplay optional.

    I’m fine with all platforms being even, it just needs to be fixed at a distance that makes the spyglass relevant. At the moment, the spyglass is useless on Xbox as well as PC.

  • DeeMcGee90
    Founder

    what does LOD mean? ... as I have only ever heard/seen/taught it as view distance.

  • Kmorrax
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Better graphics on distance NOT AFFECTED on distance for kill players or give u aventage...

    Just make game beatiful, i cant have a potatoe...

  • Musicmee
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Moderator
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @deemcgee90 Ahoy matey!

    LOD = Level of Detail

    The thread is asking for better LOD form further away...

  • Admiral RRRSole

    @nd3e said in LOD has been downgraded again (on PC):

    .... If you have to downgrade the LOD because of the weak computing power of the consoles, then fine... but leave the PC out of this. I did not spend 500€ for a video card and 350€ for a CPU to play with console potato settings.

    I'm sorry mate but I can't understand how this can be posible. The world map is made for all platforms where any combination of them are played on the same server at the same time.
    I dunno, maybe things have changed since I made maps using LOD terrain for games that are now over a decade old but the fundamentals should remain the same.
    I'm pretty sure that they didn't made the LOD terrain twice. One LOD for PC and another LOD for Xbox. I may be wrong but it just doesn't sound feasible. All platforms would load both simultaneously if that were the case.

    So they can't tweak the same LOD for one platform and not the other. It's all or nothing.

    I can sympathize with you having spent that much on your system where as I have a very cheap and nasty PC that barely scrapes through the minimum requirements. But I still envy you.

    Regardless of the developer's reasoning or how much they felt the need to pat themselves on the back for working out a new way to handle LOD, which was probably found on any Unreal4 egine based editing forum (it was posted by the big-noter graphics designer himself then copied to these forums by a deckhand), it's agreed that the LOD rendering has deteriorated somewhat since launch for everyone.

    My frames haven't increased any since launch and at a max of 20 fps my system is 10 frames less than the Xbox cap.
    The horrid change in draw distance is even noticeable to me on this el cheapo PC so who's it benefiting? Absolutely nobody.

  • SappyElephante
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    So exactly how close do I need to get to the islands now before they render... I mean come on lol

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  • entspeak
    Captain
    Insider

    For me, the view distance for animals and beach objects has increased. The LoD load time may be slow at times, but I’m on a potato. Island LoD’s have no gameplay impact, so I don’t understand why they can’t be different based on hardware quality. A tree that looks like a blob is still a tree, so nobody gains an advantage just because they see a higher quality version of it.

    The two areas I’d like to see improvement with are with Ship LoDs and render distance for characters. If a ship is at a dock with sails up, there should be a low poly LoD with sails up - you only really need three states for the low poly: up, half, and down and swap between them based on how much the sails are raised. And, I agree about character view distance. If I am able to hit it with my Eye of Reach, I should be able to see it with my Eye of Reach. Sometimes, I have to aim for the wheel and pray the character is there.

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    I often depend upon my telescope to determine the best way to approach an island or outpost. This ability has been degraded considerably. That’s not even mentioning the disappointment aesthetically. I do hope this is addressed soon.

  • Kmorrax
    Master
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    Founder

    Show this rare!!!

    alt text

  • fluidsc
    Master
    Insider

    @m4dkraut said in LOD has been downgraded again (on PC):

    I've noticed that pig eyes (in cages) become lod-blurry at 1 Meter distance already...

    I am on PC legendary settings

    Pig eyes do not become blurry, they legit disappear leaving nothing but eye sockets. lol... it is super creepy.

  • Johnson Carl
    Captain
    Insider

    This LOD render distance can also cause rubberbanding issues for PC and Xbox players. Some outposts like Dagger Tooth or Ancient Spire are especially bad.

  • Kmorrax
    Master
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    Founder

    @personalc0ffee Sorry about that man, but on at work and Tablet are hard wen try reply… Sorry again… but not kill me :S

    Some peoples say this problem too on Xbox...

    The players of xbox before the exit of the first patch they saw it better and they did not have problems to play.
    It is not the correct way to optimize the game, they are breaking the game

  • MarsMayflower
    Captain
    Insider

    @iceman-0007 said in LOD has been downgraded again (on PC):

    Same thing happens to us "couch console" users..lol Each time they release a patch it gets worse. You can see galleons through the spyglass but it looks like the galleon is sinking and sails are up. Then until your right on top of them does it render in to show the sails down and ship floating fine. Same with barrels on islands the skeletal frame will show first then load in right when you are within 15ft of the island. I agree pc users should not have to endure this as they have more horsepower but it's not just limited to high end pc users either. And it has gotten worse since early early alpha days.

    too many hours to count on x1x and I have never seen the issues you describe.

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