Graphics downgrade since 1.0.1 patch

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    There's a pretty noticeable graphics downgrade since 1.0.1 patch, especially in the LOD distance, quality/number of dynamic lights and the rendering distance of players/creatures and interactable items.

    I do understand that the game is meant to be runnable on a potato, but what was the point of impacting higher settings such as Legendary or Mythical aswell?

    I have a 5yo mid-range PC, the game was already running great before the patch, these tweaks brought ZERO framerate improvements but now the visuals are overall just duller and unlit, with anything at mid-far distance appearing low poly and devoid of any detail. As a side result of these tweaks, some gameplay mechanics are now half-broken or way less immersive than before: using the spyglass to scout a far island for goodies is borderline useless and so is trying to understand if the crew is on a distant ship or on the island next to it, since they won't be rendered at all until one is way, way too close.

    I understand most of these changes were meant as a form of optimization for xbox, but there's no acceptable reason they had to carry over on PC aswell, certainly not for balance or equal-grounds reasons, since the draw distance has been and still is exactly the same on both platforms. Moreover, on PC there are already several sliders to adjust visual quality and -if anything- it's the lower ones that should have been tweaked, not the highest. The irony here is that even console players are complaining about the quality degradation these tweaks brought, while not really benefiting from improved performance either.

    Please @Rare-Employee (maybe @Deckhands could reach them?) let owners of a decent PC enjoy the fancy graphics, instead of dumbing everything down for everybody. Please reconsider tweaking at least Mythical to how it was before the patch and keep the rest of these changes for lower settings, as it should be.

    Thank you.

    Update after 1.0.2 patch: Although lighting quality seem improved compared to 1.0.1, LOD/players/items rendering distance is still the same as 1.0.1.

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  • Roane112
    Marauder
    Insider

    Rare, PLEASE FIX THIS!!

  • syntxerr
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Yep, I agree. Please leave mythical as it was. The lighting was so beautiful and the game ran fantastically on high end PCs with max settings, so there is absolutely no need for it.

  • Pilks4k
    Founder

    Thought I was imagining the graphics quality drop....I know they dumbed down the Xbox X graphics slightly but didn't think they would do that on the PC too... As it wasnt needed...u

  • xXdbssXx

    They really did this?! I play xbox but was thinking of buying a pc to play. Hmmmm

  • Dyson XP

    Can't see anyone on enemy ships till they are right in ma face!

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @Dyson-XP Exactly, it's not just a matter of how the game looks, these tweaks had an impact on the gameplay aswell: assets on an island will now start to load only when you're very close to the island itself, same goes for players on a ship. Snipers are semi useless from afar, spotting treasures/bottles/players on a far beach using a scope has become impossible...

  • ORANGEDRONE
    Rogue

    It’s baffling that game devs would mess with the graphics a mere week after launch. That’s practically unheard of.

    The game looked AMAZING!! on the X at launch. Post patch it looks noticeably worse. Lighting, foliage and textures no longer pop.

    They should roll back these graphic changes or at least let us choose to turn them on or not. Perfomance VS graphics. The crazy thing is the graphical changes they made don’t seem to be helping performance anyway!

    Friends and I had to crank our TV’s color settings to near max in an attempt to get this game looking more like it did at launch.

    Rare, please revert these graphic adjusments!!

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    I would love to receive an official response about this issue...

  • Myrm

    I play on XB1X and after the latest patch I too thought to myself the sea seems to be not quite as awesome looking. I thought I was just imagining things, but now it appears not.

  • LoboFH
    Ship Mate
    Founder

    Really?

    My performance was perfect in max settings. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, Thanks.

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    Shameless bump for visibility ;P

  • Johhn0
    Master
    Insider

    Thought I was imagining it also, fix it.

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    Thanks for keeping the dream of reverting graphic nerfs alive, guys!

  • Mastucauz
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @super-poopsy
    Agree

  • Capt Cocatox
    Captain
    Insider

    when will we get a fix?

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    Unfortunately i think we're still in the 'if' phase rather than the 'when' one :(

  • Kapitan Klaps
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @super-poopsy didn't notice anytthing on mythical.

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @Captain-Surgee
    Ok, thanks for your feedback!

  • Kapitan Klaps
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Just checked my wife's xbox one X and it all looks the same and I co sider myself a graphics wh***(I work as a designer so I need to be) odd. Maybe I just need some coffee.

  • Lord Trunky
    Founder

    If this has been done, it's been done with a few Xbox users in mind as they were suffering a bit of slow down/ issues.

    Cross platform! It's the future! Sign up, sign up...*

    *PC graphics may suffer but you won't notice, honest i***n.

  • Artophwar

    It really seems like they messed with the LOD of the islands and the water. I can be on big islands now and the not even half way to the other side everything is less detailed. I can see the edge of the water in a square around me now. It has all texture within that square and then outside there is nothing. It is quite jarring. I should have taken a screenshot but forgot. Never had these issues before the patch running at max setting.

  • McDoll
    Castaway
    Insider
    Founder

    Noticed that they've nerfed the already woeful draw distance.
    The incompetence knows no bounds.

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @Captain-Surgee
    As it is now, everything looks exactly the same as before, but only for stuff that is very close to the camera. What's changed is the distance after which the game starts using lower quality assets and removing lights and items (including other players).

    As others have already pointed out, everything that -before the patch- was fully lit and detailed from a certain distance, now looks flat and blocky at the same distance.
    On an average PC, the change was completely unnecessary.

    There's another thread reporting exactly the same issue specifically for xbox-x users and unfortunately i share @Lord-Trunky 's belief that PC is paying the consequences of something Rare had to fix for consoles.

  • Kapitan Klaps
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @super-poopsy If it's true I think it was unintentional. During the alpha few months back, it happened multiple times that with a patch that wasn't supposed to touch graphics stuff, they got downgraded. Sometimes to the point where player characters were visible only from like 20 meters away.

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @Captain-Surgee I agree, there's a chance, but it surely was intentional to a certain extent since a more colorful description of what happened is in the patch notes.

  • Captain Aircool

    I knew something was different, I thought I was just imagining it, especially when looking through the telescope.

    Seriously, I have no need for 300+ frames per second on Mythical. I don't know whether it's some marketing nonsense to make the xboxonex or whatever it's called 'look better than the PC', but I was attracted to the game by how utterly stunning it was.

    If Rare don't bring Mythical settings back to what they used to be, at least add a higher setting for those of us with a half decent CPU/GPU, otherwise the reduced graphic fidelity that was introduced after release will just be another negative point too add to all the others that are cropping up.

  • MattyDove74
    Marauder

    @super-poopsy No everyone has to equally have sucky graphics or it wont be fair that xbox players look at c**p and I look at a work of art

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @MattyDove74 Extreme fairness f*w!

  • Wolfstryd3r
    Marauder
    Insider

    Thank you for bringing this up on the SOT forums. I made a similar post on Reddit. My game ran buttery smooth before the 1.0.1 patch (i'm on PC). In the way the textures "pop-in" when you get close enough now it actually performs worse when you consider you get that fps drop for a split second when they load in. Never noticed it before the patch. Always had great textures far out. No issues. Now islands look awful with blocky textures and trees floating in mid air. Don't even want to use the spyglass anymore since it looks so bad. Even the waves that are not up close don't look as good now. The difference from before and after the patch is very jarring to the point where it makes me feel like not playing sometimes. Please allow those of us using Mythical settings to have max graphics again.

  • spec24

    Nice going Rare. Keep up the good work. Smh.

  • CattaleyaAthena
    Founder

    you have to understand that they only have this in mind and not you or anyone else

  • Trenix90
    Marauder
    Insider

    So much with "treating PC players with respect".

  • Super Poopsy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    I wish the thread had a little more visibility to at least grant an official comment from the devs :(

  • MykeMichail
    Founder

    I think it's a balance issue guys.

    If a Xbox player is obscured by an object that renders for you, but when roles are reversed, you're not obscured by an object that doesn't render for him, then you have a situation where player A can see player B but player B can't see player A.

    Always been an issue with low-end vs high-end systems. If you ever played Arma, Arma 2 or Arma 3, you'll know how much of a PITA it was when grass obscured your view of someone because you had the settings on high, but they had the settings on low and you weren't obscured by grass on their screen.

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