Essence Swapper Size Comparisons (lots of pics)

[Quiv]

If you aren't aware, Essence Swapper is an item that lets you modify Hati's appearance to match your currently summoned pet (albeit with lightning shockies still). You start the quest that rewards it by being a 110 BM hunter, walk into Trueshot Lodge and turn right. Go down toward the Scouting Map, but on the right hand side of the wall, theres a little pad (next to the Grand Challenger's Bounty treasure chest). Walk up to the pad and Mimiron will show up and offer a quest.

Anyway, super cool item and all but I am noticing some odd inconsistencies with the size of transformations. I know the below doesn't account for every single look, but it hits the major variants of each family. Unable to test on most spirit beasts and a few mechs due to their rarity/mechanics

The majority are approximately the same size, slightly varying larger or smaller. However the below are the ones that really vary. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason for the variance. For example, the white crane I tamed in Pandaria was different, but the one in Broken Isle was the same. Edit: Upon further testing, it looks like all cranes are the same smaller size.

Edit, forum post about it: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20745707122

Some are obviously smaller, even teeny.






While others are larger, some downright monstrous.

[Wain]

Wow, they still haven't fixed that!? I (and I'm sure others) reported it a long, long time ago. But I've had Hati as a moose (which is a reasonable size) for so long now I hadn't checked it in ages.

Anyway, that was a some great, comprehensive testing there If you post anything on the official forums please put a link here and I'll be happy to support it.

[Quiv]

I did a bug report in-game. I can do one on the forums, should this go in the Legion Bug forum or the Hunter? Never sure the best place.

[Rhyela]

Are they reverting to whatever size they'd be in the wild? That's the only thing I can think of.

[Quiv]

Nope, the sizes are almost random. Some are bigger than their wild counterpart, some smaller.

I went ahead and posted on the bug report forum: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20745707122

[Bendak]

Wow, they still haven't fixed that!? I (and I'm sure others) reported it a long, long time ago. But I've had Hati as a moose (which is a reasonable size) for so long now I hadn't checked it in ages.

Anyway, that was a some great, comprehensive testing there If you post anything on the official forums please put a link here and I'll be happy to support it.

Well, they still haven't fixed pet abilities, so who knows where this one is on the priority list? At least there's still time between now and Legion actually launching where this could become an issue.

Another weird thing is that Thok has his super loud stomps as Hati but not as a normal pet.

[Rhyela]

That is so weird, then! I wonder what's causing it. To be completely honest, I kinda like some of the bigger ones. XD

[Shade]

Curious-I know mounts change size depending on what race your character is-does that matter for hunter pets or a essence swapped Hati? (My hunters are both tall races-Dranei and Blood Elf so I am not sure, but) I see you are on a human toon for all of these photos-have you tried the same thing on a Gnome or say a Tauren to see if that has any effect on pet size as well?

Also, could the essence swapper be reverting their images to what they were pretame? So if you tamed one of the giant Silithid Colossi, it is copying the image from before the pet was tamed-thus that is why it is so big? (In other words have you tried comparing the size of the essence swapped pets to what that pet looks like in the wild?)

[Quiv]

I took back my statement on the cranes in the OP. I thought they were different swapped sizes depending on the individual NPC tamed. Further testing of about 8 different crane NPC show they are all the same smaller swapped size. So my theory is it is indeed based on model since that was the only exception I observed.

Curious-I know mounts change size depending on what race your character is-does that matter for hunter pets or a essence swapped Hati? (My hunters are both tall races-Dranei and Blood Elf so I am not sure, but) I see you are on a human toon for all of these photos-have you tried the same thing on a Gnome or say a Tauren to see if that has any effect on pet size as well?

Also, could the essence swapper be reverting their images to what they were pretame? So if you tamed one of the giant Silithid Colossi, it is copying the image from before the pet was tamed-thus that is why it is so big? (In other words have you tried comparing the size of the essence swapped pets to what that pet looks like in the wild?)

I know its not copying the wild version of the pet I tamed. The Silithid Colossus I tamed was much smaller than the wild version, though the swapped version was bigger than the pet.. N.U.T.Z. is another example, his swapped is much smaller than the wild NPC.

As for race, this is my only 110. Someone else would have to try it unless I get a random race/faction change on the Beta.

[Wain]

From memory, each model ID specifies a default scale for a tamed version of that model. So, by setting the scale to 1.2 or 0.8, instead of 1.0, it's easy to scale a tamed model to be a bit bigger or smaller than its wild size. In the case of Hati transmog, it looks like some sort of scaling IS being applied, as the final size of the look doesn't necessarily seem to be related to the default size of the beast he was transmogged from. But the scale is out, so I'm not sure where they're getting it from. One thought is that maybe the scale is accidentlally being applied twice, so that models with a scale greater than 1.0 end up being disproportionately large, and those with a scale < 1.0 end up disproportionately small. But I haven't checked that.

[Quiv]

Interesting. So would that mean that most have scaling below 1.0 since wild versions of beasts are most often bigger than their wild counterpart? If thats the case, the Silithid Colossus would be scaled low to like 0.5 or whatever, but his Hati swap is bigger than the pet version.

[Wain]

I'm not sure. I'd have to investigate. I'll try to read the tables and see what I can come up with :/

[Boven]

That is so weird, then! I wonder what's causing it. To be completely honest, I kinda like some of the bigger ones. XD

Is it bad that it makes me want to tame that purple/blue boar just so I can say to the raid tanks "Remember how you used to hate all the pets around the boss during Stampede?"

[Quiv]

All the draenor boars do this so go grab one of them!

[Nachtwulf]

Oh man. Now -there's- a Hogzilla...

[Maizou]

If I had to guess - I'd say it's probably a bug with the fact that pets change size based on what level you are. The pets that seem to shrink are all relatively low level when you tame them, apart from the Tortos clone.

The ones that are big are either high level when you first tame them - OR they are scaled down versions of huge models, like the Wasps from Sholazar, etc. (If you recall, the wasps in Sholazar used to be massive because they were actually scaled down models, and when a hunter tamed them, they were scaled down versions of the -original- model [AKA the skin, not a particular beast, aka Wasp-Blue, instead of Sholazar Wasp], and not scaled versions of the Sholazar model) Likewise, Caterpillars were infamously huge in MoP beta because their models are huge, and had to go through severe scaling to get to the proper size.

So I'm guessing that the issue is that the item is drawing the skin ID, rather than beast ID, and thus it's scaling it based on the skin's dimensions, causing the random size discrepancies. I could be wrong though.

[Xella]

Wow, they still haven't fixed that!? I (and I'm sure others) reported it a long, long time ago. But I've had Hati as a moose (which is a reasonable size) for so long now I hadn't checked it in ages.

Anyway, that was a some great, comprehensive testing there :) If you post anything on the official forums please put a link here and I'll be happy to support it.

Well, they still haven't fixed pet abilities, so who knows where this one is on the priority list? :? At least there's still time between now and Legion actually launching where this could become an issue.

Another weird thing is that Thok has his super loud stomps as Hati but not as a normal pet.

Looks like it's not just Thok—Artichoke (my green riverbeast) is pretty quiet when he's on his lonesome but I just picked up the essence swapper and as Hati he's huge AND noisy, ditto my green devilsaur. Well, the green devilsaur is pretty close to the same size for both normal and Hati versions but there's a big discrepancy between the two riverbeasts.

It doesn't really make for great screenshots but since "Move To" now affects both pets at once, it's great for getting size comparisons. Sort of. lol.




I can't think if I've got any other pets that are stompy in the wild to see if it's all previously-stompy pets or just certain families or what. I can say that it doesn't look like it's necessarily based on wild size at previously tamed level + extra size per level for usual pet scaling, as I tamed a wild blue riverbeast fresh and swapping it produced the same size as Artichoke-Hati, who was tamed from Rockhoof in Shadowmoon Valley.

It does make a very nice three bears-esque family portrait, though!

[zedxrgal]

This bug making it to live would almost make it worth while to wait till 110 (which is stupid) to get the swapper. Almost.
But that's so epic.

We have wee, not so wee and FRIGGIN HUGE!

[Rawr]

I am King, fear me and my wormy minions, whahahahahhaaaaaa! (Yeah this really needs to be fixed)

[Xota]

I like the worms, Ohmu would be back to his original size.