Missing graphics options?

thelata

since the recent patch some of my graphics options have changed or dissapeared,screen space ambient occlusion now has 3 settings,off low or high instead of just on or off and use full detail charactor animation has dissapeared under max physical debris,and GPU accelerated particle option has disappeared aswell,is this normal? thanks

gaevsman

They are consolidating some settings for the change to ViL, it seems, you need to reset your settings to default, so the new settings work properly, besides that, it's not a bug

frtoaster

I guess not everyone pays as much attention to the game's graphics options as I do. Cryptic changed "Screen-space ambient occlusion" and "Shadows" in Season 14.5.

Holodeck 04/02/2018: https://imgur.com/a/DkisM
Holodeck 04/04/2018: https://imgur.com/a/ZiK0r

frtoaster wrote: »

4. Cryptic has been tweaking the graphics again. A diff of my gameprefs.pref files shows the following difference in graphics settings:

65a66
> PrefEntry GfxSettings.ShadowResolution 2
69c70
< PrefEntry GfxSettings.SSAO 0
---
> PrefEntry GfxSettings.SsaoLevel 2

The in-game "Graphics" tab shows changes as well. "Screen-space ambient occlusion" is no longer a simple On/Off option; it now has "High" and "Low" settings. They've also added back the "Low" setting for "Shadows". I have no idea what any of these new settings does yet.

"GPU-accelerated particles" and "Use full detail character animations" were removed almost a year ago in Season 13, along with many other graphics options. For details, see the comment linked below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/60kkxl/pc_alarming_gfx_ingame_control_settings/df7oz48/

Cryptic often tweaks the game's graphics without saying anything in the patch notes. I know about the changes, because I keep screenshots of my graphics settings and copies of my gameprefs.pref files, and I often compare them to see if anything has changed. Even then, I don't notice every change, at least not right away. Sometimes, they tweak the graphics without changing the options, and often these changes show up as bugs. For example, the following bug has been happening since Season 14, and I still don't know if anyone's even looking into it.

frtoaster wrote: »

3. Before Season 14, I reported in the Tribble forums that movable objects like ground weapons and tribbles were flickering. You don't see flickering when Lighting 2.0 is turned on, but that doesn't mean Lighting 2.0 is working correctly. Instead of flickering, what happens is that sometimes the objects appear too dark and other times they appear too light. In some environments, this also happens when Lighting 2.0 is off. On ESD, for example, ground weapons don't flicker, but small changes in where your character is standing can drastically alter the brightness of your weapon. It's possible that these lighting problems have spread to other areas with the release of Season 14.5.

Flickering tribbles on Federation fleet starbase
Flickering ground weapons

frtoaster

gaevsman wrote: »

They are consolidating some settings for the change to ViL, it seems, you need to reset your settings to default, so the new settings work properly, besides that, it's not a bug

I would say that it's a documentation bug. These things should be included in the patch notes. I don't know why Cryptic treats graphics changes as not worthy of mentioning.

engineerb4

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gaevsman

engineerb4#4806 wrote: »

Patch notes are compiled by the Producers and are usually generated by either the existence of a large feature or written by the person doing the task in question. Graphics updates are done by our Core Graphics Engineers. Those updates apply to both STO and Neverwinter. As those engineers aren't directly part of a game team, the Producers aren't necessarily aware of the changes to graphics.

Seems logical, BTW I think they could implement a shader based SMAA antialiasing, its as fast as FXAA but have better quality, and also, the "high" setting SSAO, is HBAO or a more precise implementation of SSAO?

Thanks!

engineerb4

.

frtoaster

engineerb4#4806 wrote: »

Patch notes are compiled by the Producers and are usually generated by either the existence of a large feature or written by the person doing the task in question. Graphics updates are done by our Core Graphics Engineers. Those updates apply to both STO and Neverwinter. As those engineers aren't directly part of a game team, the Producers aren't necessarily aware of the changes to graphics.

Let me see if I understand you correctly. Changes to the graphics system are made by the core graphics team rather than the STO team. Each release, the STO team merges changes from the "core" branch into the STO branch for that release, and the producers aren't aware of what those changes are. Who's responsible for the final product that goes out? Is it the producers? I'm somewhat confused by the titles used by the video game industry and how they seem to come from Hollywood rather than the software industry in general. As a player, I have to say that often bugs in the core systems have a greater impact on my gameplay experience than any content update or new feature; for example, the reversed normal maps that we had for a month and a half before the release of Season 13, and the flickering that began with Season 14 and is still present.