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Forums > Home› Test Servers› Tribble› Tribble - General Discussion and Feedback

"Updated" Textures Feedback (before/after)

averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
edited June 2013 in Tribble - General Discussion and Feedback
When I heard there was an update to "all" the textures, I couldn't wait to see what they did. Having been with the game since day one, I've seen all its changes, good and bad. I have to say, though, I'm not at all impressed with this more recent change.

It looks to me that they just used a sharpen filter and then recompressed the textures. In some cases the compression is worse than before. It makes the environment look overly sharpened and in some ways is hard to look at.

I took some quick shots and composed some before and afters.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/2486/comp1s.jpg
You can see the texture in the silver structure is degraded.

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1995/comp2w.jpg
Here you can see the background consoles are much sharper, as is the carpet.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8759/comp3q.jpg FIXED
But when you get closer, they are a lot worse than before. And these textures were never great to start with, which was a big complaint when this bridge set was released. It was never fixed and now getting worse.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/9963/comp4m.jpg
There isn't much of a noticeable difference here, but you can see in some places that the textures were sharpened.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1787/comp5b.jpg
It does seem that the shadows are darker. Possibly the AO has been darkened some.

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7540/comp6v.jpg
Here you can really see the difference with the windows on ESD. They almost stand out too much. And Earth... well, that's a bug, but they are all dead now. Maybe the Roms can move there once the atmosphere is back. ;P

Anyway, this is just one player's opinion. I'm not really digging this at all. Especially the downgrade in textures (consoles) for a paid for C-store item.

I really hope you guys (TACO) will continue to make adjustments. At this point I'd prefer to keep what we currently have. Give me an option at least. XD


EDIT: Some new ones.


http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/5330/comp7.jpg
The paintings got screwed up just like the consoles did. Might need to replace them as well. I checked a couple bridges and they all had lower quality paintings on Tribble.


http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/691/comp8.jpg
When you know what you're looking for, you start to see it all over. It's muddy looking, filled with artifacts. This was in the medical section of ESD.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3637/comp9r.jpg
Again in medical on ESD. The original had some artifacts to begin with, but the update made it all sorts of worse.

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6236/comp10o.jpg
Most people wouldn't even see this unless they really looked, but on the highlighted area you can see that the new one is just not as smooth as the original.

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/985/comp11r.jpg
These are probably the same textures used above, but in another area.


And some more...

DS9

http://imageshack.us/a/img692/6246/comp12.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img42/6403/comp13.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img29/5976/comp14q.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img40/1183/comp15l.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img526/3604/comp16.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img835/5677/comp17.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img708/9553/comp18.jpg
The iconic Quark's light/mural thing got hit. -_-


First City

http://imageshack.us/a/img267/1941/comp19.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img9/1282/comp20.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img405/9085/comp21.jpg

Most people wouldn't notice the walls, but if you look close you can see that there is a loss of detail. The first is missing a lot of cracks and the last is just muddled that most of the dark spots are just gone.
Post edited by averis76 on
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Comments

  • grnlbrtnfrntgrnlbrtnfrnt Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Overall, If I didnt know they had changed I never would have noticed.

    Now I have always though the game looked great and my only issues were some amatuerish lighting issues - which some have been fixed.

    I am wondering if some issues could be that we need to re adjust some of our settings. Ive had the same ones for years.

    I also wonder if they will offer an NVIDIA profile now or optimal settings info
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  • cuatelacuatela Member Posts: 296 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    averis76 wrote: »
    http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1995/comp2w.jpg
    Here you can see the background consoles are much sharper, as is the carpet.

    http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8759/comp3q.jpg
    But when you get closer, they are a lot worse than before. And these textures were never great to start with, which was a big complaint when this bridge set was released. It was never fixed and now getting worse.

    Carpet looks about the same to me, maybe even a little better (more accurate?). I do agree on the consoles though. They look better from a distance, but up close they look pixelated, at least in your picture. I haven't checked myself, but I will after the new patch (that might be fixing some or all of these "issues" anyway).

    averis76 wrote: »
    http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7540/comp6v.jpg
    Here you can really see the difference with the windows on ESD. They almost stand out too much. And Earth... well, that's a bug, but they are all dead now. Maybe the Roms can move there once the atmosphere is back. ;P

    I tend to agree on this one. ESD looked almost movie-accurate as it was. The windows are a little too "bright" now.

  • lord7tareqlord7tareq Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I like the starbase, it looks more similar to how I remember it from the show (i.e. bright windows). Overall the changes seem okey, though I wonder why they don't use separate textures for everything, one for far away and a higher resolution one for when you are closer.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    Join the Romulan Praetorian Guard and teach those epohh loving hippies what it means to be a true Romulan!
  • averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I guess not that many are bothered by this. I would think more would at least be bothered by the lose of quality in textures for a paid-for item. This is kind of disappointing.
  • amosov78amosov78 Member Posts: 1,495 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I have another issue regrading recent texture upgrades to certain starship classes, but I've already explained that here.
    U.S.S. Endeavour NCC-71895 - Nebula-class
    Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
    Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
  • grnlbrtnfrntgrnlbrtnfrnt Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    averis76 wrote: »
    I guess not that many are bothered by this. I would think more would at least be bothered by the lose of quality in textures for a paid-for item. This is kind of disappointing.

    its so hard to compare. i mean they changed ALL (or so they say) textures.

    With out a side by side actually in the game I cant really tell. Some stuff looks better. or seems to. Some things seem to maybe not look as great and most everything looks the same.

    The one console image to me looks like its was a size issue. Like it needed to be (made up) 4x4 and its only a 2x2
    [SIGPIC]PWE IS NOT A REPUTABLE COMPANY[/SIGPIC]
  • shapeywhelmshapeywhelm Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    looks like some got a pass through photoshop and had sharpen applied a few times.
  • szerontzurszerontzur Member Posts: 2,724 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    As I understood, a lot of the graphical changes, new lightning engine included, was to make the game run better for a wider range of people.


    I kind of agree with the sentiment though. I kind of prefer the more muted look. It doesn't cause the eye to focus on things as much and encourages overlooking lower quality textures that improve performance.
  • trhrangerxmltrhrangerxml Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    After I got don't with this painfully slowly loading patch the game decided for me that it would load off my Intel HD 4000 graphics instead of my video card. I was actually surprised at how well the game played at basic settings (native resolution and graphics bar at 3/4). I found out the hard way, because I decided to crank the settings, how I play on Holodeck and the game took a dump. So there are improvements that the integrated graphics can handle STO a lot better.
    Hi, my name is: Elim Garak, Former Cardassian Oppressor

    LTS, here since...when did this game launch again? :D
  • darkfader1988darkfader1988 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    grnlbrtnfrnt wrote: »
    its so hard to compare. i mean they changed ALL (or so they say) textures.

    With out a side by side actually in the game I cant really tell. Some stuff looks better. or seems to. Some things seem to maybe not look as great and most everything looks the same.

    The one console image to me looks like its was a size issue. Like it needed to be (made up) 4x4 and its only a 2x2

    Not sure what monitor you have then, but its more then clear just by moving your camera that all textures are shimmering as hell..
    MT - Sad Pandas
  • lostusthornlostusthorn Member Posts: 844
    edited May 2013
    Anyone else has wildly flickering character skin textures?
  • averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I really would like a reply from a dev on this.

    http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8759/comp3q.jpg

    I don't like that something I paid for is being degraded with this update. We buy these things for how they look. If this can't be reversed, give us an option to opt out of the "upgrade" because -this- is not an upgrade at all, it's a downgrade.
  • aexraelaexrael Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    lostusthorn wrote: »
    Anyone else has wildly flickering character skin textures?

    Face? http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=619811

    Latest Nvidia beta 320 driver fixes the flickering/black/green textures. http://www.geforce.com/
  • grnlbrtnfrntgrnlbrtnfrnt Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Since reading this thread I have noticed most consoles have issues. They get very pixalated. And its a very chunky pixalation. Like a tiny image has been blown up way too much. You get a certain distance and its fairly bad.

    Also since the patch yesterday, Over all to me all the graphics seem downgraded. Nothing is crisp or what I am used to. Every thing seems a bit hazy.

    It is most noticable in space battles. All the energy weapons fire is no sharp or what I am used to these past few years.


    The only way I know how to describe what I am seeing today is muddy,

    IMO what I am seeing is NOT high rez. My card and monitor are what would be labeled "high end". Tons of RAM and my bandwidth is really really high.

    This morning I feel like I am playing on a cheap lap top.
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  • grnlbrtnfrntgrnlbrtnfrnt Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Tried to do screen shots but it doesnt really explain what I was seeing.

    ON Taris' ship, the mission where you fight waves of Remans... the doors all have a red or green light in the middle. This changes at least 3X I could notice.

    A few feet away it was the chunky pixelation, Get a little closer and it changes to a nearly normal look. Get a little closer and it gets pixelated again but slightly finer.


    On my Romulan ship, down in engineering and in the halls, most wall monitors are very chunky pixelated. NO straight lines but rather stair step looking ones. Getting closer only makes them become a bit more blurred. Being farther away never makes them look normal.
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  • darkfader1988darkfader1988 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Perhaps something is wrong with some filter applied to the textures? Or isnt? lol
    MT - Sad Pandas
  • longasclongasc Member Posts: 490
    edited May 2013
    Not good! :(

    Rework of the consoles is the minimum they have to do.
  • averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I just checked the recent update (3rd) and on the Belfast bridge at least, it looks like the console textures are back to how they used to be. I took screens and compared and they are the same as they are in the live game again. Hope they stay that way. :)
  • averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    AH! I found another texture set that got garbled on bridges.

    http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/5330/comp7.jpg

    The paintings got screwed up just like the consoles did. Might need to replace them as well. I checked a couple bridges and they all had lower quality paintings on Tribble.


    PS. Yes, I'm obsessive. I'm also a graphic artist and 3D modeler. I can't help but notice these things. XD
  • grnlbrtnfrntgrnlbrtnfrnt Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Here is an example of a very muddy texture. It looks a bit worse in game when its larger and you move around. There is very little detail on the shuttle and its all kind of just melts together.

    http://postimg.org/image/7g8wx24a9/

    http://postimg.org/image/qcqyi501j/
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  • longasclongasc Member Posts: 490
    edited May 2013
    averis76, good job, you are doing us all a big favor with your before/after images by making it easier for Cryptic to find and hopefully correct those muddy textures! :)
  • colonelchenchuancolonelchenchuan Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Sometimes it looks like a texture is loading. Like you arent simply getting closer to it or farther from but a different texture appears depending on your position. Step forward one texture, step back another.
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  • averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    longasc wrote: »
    averis76, good job, you are doing us all a big favor with your before/after images by making it easier for Cryptic to find and hopefully correct those muddy textures! :)

    I wish I had more time to look around and compare. Sadly, once the expansion goes live we won't be able to look back and see what was affected by this change. So now is the time to look for these messed up textures. There are probably countless thousands of texture files for this game. The devs can't look through them all. We could be finding these kind of issues for years to come. :(
  • averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Found a couple more. The more I look around I can see it all over. It looks like overly compressed JPEG artifacts. As if they recompressed the original JPEGs again after applying some filter. Most people probably won't notice, but they might not even realize why things feel a little degraded as most people probably don't know what to look for.

    I'll add these to the OP as well.

    http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/691/comp8.jpg
    When you know what you're looking for, you start to see it all over. It's muddy looking, filled with artifacts. This was in the medical section of ESD.

    http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3637/comp9r.jpg
    Again in medical on ESD. The original had some artifacts to begin with, but the update made it all sorts of worse.

    http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6236/comp10o.jpg
    Most people wouldn't even see this unless they really looked, but on the highlighted area you can see that the new one is just not as smooth as the original.

    http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/985/comp11r.jpg
    These are probably the same textures used above, but in another area.

    I'm sure I'll find these all over if I look, maybe I should try DS9 next. I can only imagine how many assets on planets and in missions were hit with this "update".
  • averis76averis76 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Alright, this will be my last batch. It is everywhere. Not on all textures, but on enough that I can find them. Some are more outstanding than others.

    DS9

    http://imageshack.us/a/img692/6246/comp12.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img42/6403/comp13.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img29/5976/comp14q.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img40/1183/comp15l.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img526/3604/comp16.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img835/5677/comp17.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img708/9553/comp18.jpg
    The iconic Quark's light/mural thing got hit. -_-


    First City

    http://imageshack.us/a/img267/1941/comp19.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img9/1282/comp20.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img405/9085/comp21.jpg

    Most people wouldn't notice the walls, but if you look close you can see that there is a loss of detail. The first is missing a lot of cracks and the last is just muddled that most of the dark spots are just gone.


    I can't look through every location, but I think the point has been made. I hope the devs can take the time to reverse some of this, if not all of it.
  • neotrident12neotrident12 Member Posts: 287 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I really noticed a difference on the Emblems at the Accademy, all the Fleet Logos and Academy logos are extremely degraded.
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  • longasclongasc Member Posts: 490
    edited May 2013
    Please note the patch notes of April 29th read "Updated every texture in the game, everywhere."

    "Updated" is something else than "Upgraded"! :(


    I am afraid it is an Age of Conan goes F2P style adjustment of textures for lower end systems.
    Funcom called it optimizing the engine and graphics performance.
    In STO Cryptic simply downgraded the textures just like Age of Conan did. The only textures that got some extra attention were apparently those of ESD.

    I will check for space background textures, these are quite beautiful. Ground terrain in STO has rather low res textures anyways, so I hope the negative impact of this texture downgrade is mostly visible in ground interiors.

    This texture downgrade seems to be the major reason why we got a low res UI reskin touted as LCARS with some changes, sold as "UI revamp".
  • vladdievladdie Member Posts: 117 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Basically, they reduced all of the textures ingame. Why? Better performance allows for better framerates which allows for more detailed and diverse landscapes.

    On holo, my computer locks up on ESD (and I have a fairly badass computer) from v-lag. On tribble, I am running around not knowing what to do with my 40fps.
    Barihawk.jpg
  • hyoukihyouki Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    cuatela wrote: »
    averis76 wrote: »
    I tend to agree on this one. ESD looked almost movie-accurate as it was. The windows are a little too "bright" now.

    Now that you mention it, though, the first one looks like it might in an atmosphere, with air diffusing some of the light coming out of the window back to soften it overall; I think a structure in actual vacuum would have the higher contrast and sharp edges between light and dark.

    The fact that Earth didn't have its atmosphere for the second pic might also be affecting our perception of it, though.
  • maxdredmaxdred Member Posts: 97 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    averis76 wrote: »
    Alright, this will be my last batch. It is everywhere. Not on all textures, but on enough that I can find them. Some are more outstanding than others.

    DS9

    http://imageshack.us/a/img692/6246/comp12.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img42/6403/comp13.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img29/5976/comp14q.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img40/1183/comp15l.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img526/3604/comp16.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img835/5677/comp17.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img708/9553/comp18.jpg
    The iconic Quark's light/mural thing got hit. -_-


    First City

    http://imageshack.us/a/img267/1941/comp19.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img9/1282/comp20.jpg

    http://imageshack.us/a/img405/9085/comp21.jpg

    Most people wouldn't notice the walls, but if you look close you can see that there is a loss of detail. The first is missing a lot of cracks and the last is just muddled that most of the dark spots are just gone.


    I can't look through every location, but I think the point has been made. I hope the devs can take the time to reverse some of this, if not all of it.


    This is terrible :( Cryptic, please reconsider this. The game is already full of PS2 textures. You should be trying to move forward not backwards.
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