VFX Issues Thread

ambassadorkael

Hey folks,

While Cryptic continues to look into a solution for the VFX overload some players are experiencing, let's keep discussion of it in this thread. Thanks!

spiritborn

Something I've suggested before is dividing the VFX to "HUD effects" and "World effects" with "world effects" being things like weapons fire and a hand full of effects that exist as part of the actual (as if you took a normal camera and stepped out of the ship those effects would still be visible) and "HUD effects" would be effects that only exists because your sensors are creating them for otherwise invisible effects.

Now have most effects be HUD effects and make an option to either make those less visible or turned off totally, thus leaving only the handful of effects that are suppose to exist in universe as visible things. Making it a toggle allows those who want to see everything happy, while also making those who want reduced effects happy and avoiding the issue games like FF14 have where abilities look weird and weak without the attached effects.

baddmoonrizin

valoreah wrote: »

I am looking into uploading some video captures as well. I assume there are no issues with uploading recordings of gameplay content?

There shouldn't be. Just make sure there is no account identifiable information for yourself or other players in the video.

crypticarmsman

(Trolling comments moderated out. - BMR)

baddmoonrizin

Ok, folks, since this is an official dialogue concerning the VFX issue, let's keep things civil and without the snark. Thanks.

annemarie30

I think a list of the worst offenders should be listed.
For space,
The jellyfish pink bubble
The Maquis twister
Beacon of kahless
Risian lightning

krisxr400

Wow, great screen shots. Oh man I would be soooooo extremely ecstatically happy if i could turn all of it off! And never see or hear it again! (gravity well and tykens rift type stuff are fine to me)

Last night I was waiting for the start timer to tick down for hive onslaught (random tfo), everything in the house is quiet, just sitting there, my mind wandering in thought... BLAMO crash loud sound in my headphones (some team buff tac ability) and I nearly leapt outta the chair! Want to say nearly shat my pants! like 40 seconds still on the timer, so i got to hear it again before the start. Match starts, the other four players immediately full impulse into the wall of borg, aaaand unconscious. So I'm taking them down with my wee little phasers, and they all go unconscious 3 more times before we get to the queen. Of course then unconscious during the queen fight. So tell me how awesome your abilities and consoles are again. And thanks Romulan lockbox ship player who just tickles the borg while they tear you apart, for making me almost mess my drawers.

orangenee

Well here on Xbox, I haven't seen much of the jellyfish menace in a week, guess the novelty wore off. However, the ground set that Valoreah demonstrates up there is another issue. To be fair there's a fair amount of ground stuff I forget the names of that cause issues. I'll see if I can get some snaps off myself.

I will add, Voth capital ships (NPC) are bad for VFX spam too. I have no idea what they're doing when they go full disco.

In fact, I personally feel anything day-glo pink needs to go, swap that colour out for more muted ones.

qultuq

Thank you Valoreah and Kael for coming up with the idea to start this thread and implementing it.

There have been a few ideas about how to fix the VFX issue. Some of the prominent ideas are:

1) Reducing or replacing particularly visually problematic effects like the jellyfish, beacon of kahless, and plasma storm. This would probably be the easiest and less invasive solution.

2) Replacing all effects with new universal effects for categories like targeting self and others. This is something Thomas the cat mentioned in first QA which helped spark the VFX debate. This would be difficult to create because you would have to categorize all the powers and make a program to override the effects. Plus there is a question about the cool factor.

3) Creating a VFX “off” button. This is maybe the medium difficulty option. You still need to figure out how to override just the visual effects, but you wouldn’t need to invest in creating any new visuals.

I think the third option is the most likely solution. But it is a big project comparable to cross-faction flying or a EV suit slot. It is probably take the better part of a year and would inhibit projects like working on doled solutions (unless there is something coming already that we don’t know about).

What do you think. Are there other solutions? Or of these what are most likely?

protoneous

STO players on DS9 celebrating that they now have an official thread dedicated to VFX issues 🎈 🎉✨

orangenee

^^^ Needs more rep flourish.

anusree

Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action footage or CGI elements to create realistic imagery is called VFX.

baddmoonrizin

anusree#7923 wrote: »

Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action footage or CGI elements to create realistic imagery is called VFX.

Thank you, Merriam-Webster. Is there a point to this vocabulary lesson? Because it doesn't actually add to the dialogue here.

qultuq

> @anusree#7923 said:
> Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action footage or CGI elements to create realistic imagery is called VFX.

So VFX is a misnomer if there isn’t actual live-action footage? Or do you think a total CGI composition is entirely VFX—therefore using the term just to refer to the weapons and powers effects is inappropriate?

For lack of a better term, I, at least, think using VFX to refer to our weapons and powers seems fitting. But that is just my opinion on the Great VFX-Definition Debate of 2022.

discodragonftw

Is it possible you can give console player's the option to turn off bloom I think that can help the situation on console

protoneous

This screen capture shows one of the largest visual entities I've ever encountered on the ground. It's overall height is about the same as floor to ceiling.

As can be seen it blocks line of sight. In this case it has the potential to obscure the room's only door as well as the bank and exchange terminals.

From a different angle, several players who seem caught within the entity have only their lower legs visible.

pottsey5g

Visual Spam has now got to the point where parts of the game are near unplayable for me. This was from the recent No Win Space Event TFO and this 2nd screenshot is from a ground Event TFO a while back that pretty much had the entire boss fight just a white screen. (For clarity this isn't from the Beacon effect and the graphic effects like Bloom Intensity are on default)

There are two parts to this VFX problem. One is that objects de-spawn and go invisible until you get to point blank range if there are to many objects on screen. If possbile we could do with the object draw limit being increased. The other problems is to many VFX are stacking on stop of each other and drowning out everything. See below.

davefenestrator

I've been playing the Pahvo space TFO on console for the event campaign and the Jellyfish VFX are so overwhelming they hide the enemy ships. I just go to defend a different station and leave that one to the pink bubble.

This might be too hard to do, but an option for just showing the outline / borders of these area effects would be nice. Like last-century vector graphics / wireframe graphics. For the bubble it might be something like a couple of pink hula hoops (vertical and horizontal), the twister could be an orange circle, etc.

Even harder but even nicer would be a setting to show full VFX for my own actions like a gravity well, but only the circles for other players' powers.

theboxisred

Thanks to those posting the images and to Kael for kicking this concern up the ladder.

For a while I had the impression that the issue would be ignored in perpetuity.

It's good to see this kind of cooperation in action.

Thanks again!