Full screen glow

[Boven]

I've mentioned in other threads my concerns regarding the new antialiasing methods and full screen glow in beta. I suspect the latter is responsible for the eye discomfort I experience after playing the beta for 45 minutes to an hour.

Whether it's glow, the new antialiasing methods, or both, characters, objects, terrain and such all seem to have a more blurred or fuzzy appearance to them in my opinion. The other night, I decided to try to take some comparison screenshots to try to see the difference between live and beta side by side. I re-copied my Tauren shaman over to the beta server and tried some shots in a few different locations in Thunder bluff, trying to match the location, camera angle and character pose (why do idle animations always seem to kick in over and over when you're trying to get a standing shot?). I've uploaded one set for comparison purposes.


Here's Klarisse standing in front of the bulletin board in Thunder Bluff on the live server:




And here she is in about the same position on the beta (even got the same idle animation).




The one thing I forgot to do was to change the assorted graphics settings before taking the live screenshot. On the beta, everything is set to Ultra by default. On live, I have a number of them set one notch lower just to help out when raiding. The antialiasing in the beta shot is the default setting (CMAA I believe). To me, there's a noticeable difference. It seems especially apparent in the bulletin board itself. The logs and paper on it look much sharper (at least to me) in the live version. The colors in the beta shot also seem a little washed-out.

It may just be me, but I find myself thinking the current graphics actually look better.

[Vephriel]

This is a growing concern for me too, especially regarding the anti-aliasing. I've been following a few threads on the official beta forums begging for Blizzard to implement another method to preserve the smoothness that you can reach in the current live game, but it's not looking good so far. Apparently they might be commenting on the matter at some point in an Artcraft, but it almost sounds like it will be them reasoning the change instead of offering alternatives.

Honestly if WoD releases with the graphic settings that are in beta it's going to be a huge blow to my enjoyment of the game. There's a reason I have a gaming system built to play things on maximum settings, I'm very particular about the look of the game, and having WoW look subpar when it should be at its highest quality yet is a real upset.

I just really hope something changes or we get through to them before release, I can't fathom the mindset of putting all this work into new character models and high quality environments when the graphic settings won't reflect them to the best degree.

[Boven]

Yeah. I can't figure out why they'd want to 'hide' the details and improvements by forcing effects/settings. It makes me think of the days when movies and tv shows would smear the camera lens with stuff to create a blurry/fuzzy image in order to indicate a woman being filmed was 'beautiful.'

[Danielfboone]

I'm okay with the AA in the beta but I do want the option to turn off the glow. I have always found it annoying and turn it off in every other game. I really think the glow is what's making things look different in those two screenshots more than the AA. The colors look more vibrant in the WoD shot and not washed out at all. That may be because of the glow too.

[Doc Privas]

I read somewhere (maybe MMO-C) that this was only the base for then later implement new technologies for the AA, but I don't remember if it was just speculations, or a blue Tweet.
Anyway the AA on the beta screenshot here doesn't seem that bad imo, but I agree that the glow is annoying to look at (I can't stand bright lights so I will probably start wearing my sunglasses when playing WoW )

[Krysteena]

*wanders off to the side* I quite like the look of the beta myself. I've always imagined when they beefed the models up (pun not intended, what with Tauren and beef) they took into account that they've removed this and replaced it with that. Then again, I've no idea what this whole shebang people are going about. I only realised I play with the Anti-aliasing on because my hunters eyebrows weren't blocky

[Vephriel]

The anti-aliasing is hard to translate into screenshots, but it's very noticeable to me in game, and I can't stand the jagged edges. Still crossing my fingers something else will be implemented.

[Shade]

What exactly anti-aliasing? What I looked up didn't make too much sense.

I will say the beta screenshot hurts my eyes to focus on it for too long.

I have to play the game in the lowest settings-considering how old my computer is. I read someone expressing concern about graphics updating too much and making the game unplayable on the older computers-and a blue tweet responded saying that if you can play the live game now, you should be fine to play the next expansion.

Does the anti-aliasing have to do with lowering the quality of these new graphics so that they work better for older machines?

[Vephriel]

Here's a couple ongoing topics on the official forums (among many). Anti-aliasing smooths out the edges of models, and for people who can run it on the highest settings it makes a huge difference to the look of the game.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... 490?page=1
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... 529?page=1

There's also one about the full screen glow:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/13734733513

[Boven]

*wanders off to the side* I quite like the look of the beta myself. I've always imagined when they beefed the models up (pun not intended, what with Tauren and beef) they took into account that they've removed this and replaced it with that. Then again, I've no idea what this whole shebang people are going about. I only realised I play with the Anti-aliasing on because my hunters eyebrows weren't blocky

Personally, I tend to notice AA more when moving. It's a lot easier to see how good or bad an antialiasing method is when there's motioned involved. If those pictures had been video and I'd been moving forward, backward, or to the sides, the places it'd be noticeable (if at all at those settings) would probably be the angled/curved beams of the inn on the right in the background.

Really, I think it's more the glow that kind of fuzzes things up. I've had it turned off in WoW ever since I first learned about it long long ago because I found it annoying.

[Lisaara]

I think this should be noticed...

https://twitter.com/Zorbrix/status/499037315927269377

Result of an upgraded game engine?

[Boven]

I think this should be noticed...

https://twitter.com/Zorbrix/status/499037315927269377

Result of an upgraded game engine?

While I'm not surprised they built a new engine to handle the new model and update things a bit, I'm disappointed that it'd be more limited in some ways than the one it's replacing. I wonder if whoever designed/built it figured that since ffxglow didn't have a control panel option any more, it wouldn't be missed. I should hope it's not a matter of someone thinking it was a way of slimming down the graphics engine.

I really do want to stick with WoW, but if I have the same eyestrain issues when WoD goes live, it's gonna be the end of my time in Azeroth. Maybe I'm part of a small group for which the glow effect (or something else that's changed) causes issues. Heaven knows I've my share of vision issues (the yellow-green fel flame like the stuff you'd see doing the dailies up in Blades Edge in TBC was uncomfortable for me, too) and I know they can't cater to the needs of everyone, but it's kind of a big deal for me.

[Lisaara]

I'm sure they'll work on it. Blizz isn't known to let issues like this go unnoticed.

[Danielfboone]

Maybe it's my imagination but the glow seems less in the latest beta build. Does it to anyone else?

[Boven]

It looks as if the console command still works, sorta. It does turn the glow off, but seems to sometimes get reset when one logs off. I created a macro on my accounts to hit whenever I notice it's on. It sure makes things easier on my eyes.

Also, for those who are getting the horrible flickering sky effect due to SLI/Crossfire (or even some single AMD video cards), the console command /console skycloudLOD 0 can help. It stops the flickering, but only for a little while and it apparently gets reset whenever one zones.

[peanutbuttercup]

It looks as if the console command still works, sorta. It does turn the glow off, but seems to sometimes get reset when one logs off. I created a macro on my accounts to hit whenever I notice it's on. It sure makes things easier on my eyes.

What's the command that turns the glow off? It hasn't completely driven me nuts yet, but I know it'll get too me sooner or later and would rather head it off at the pass than let it turn into a problem.

[Boven]

It looks as if the console command still works, sorta. It does turn the glow off, but seems to sometimes get reset when one logs off. I created a macro on my accounts to hit whenever I notice it's on. It sure makes things easier on my eyes.

What's the command that turns the glow off? It hasn't completely driven me nuts yet, but I know it'll get too me sooner or later and would rather head it off at the pass than let it turn into a problem.

The glow is /console ffxglow 0 It can make a huge difference (to me at least) in some zones with intense colors. I couldn't even look at the screen when I was dead and waiting to resurrect in one of the graveyards in AV this past weekend. It was just too horribly glaringly bright.

Which reminds me, I need to remember to try another old flag /console ffxdeath 0 That shut off some of the screen effects when one was dead in the old days.

[Lisaara]

I haven't noticed any glowing of any kind.

[Danielfboone]

The glow is very apparent if you turn it off with the command /console ffxglow 0. Here is a comparison with glow on in the left picture and off in the right one.


It doesn't stick when you reload the UI or log off so it has to be applied again. I made a simple macro to do it.

[Vephriel]

I'm glad the console command is working again. Some zones it isn't very noticeable in, but in others the lighting just washes out all detail and looks quite frankly horrible. Hopefully they'll make it so that the option sticks and we don't have to do this every time, but at least it's something.