Visual Noise / Skill Size Reduction

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

@SakuraJD.4720 said:the giant Skeleton Hands when using Necro Scepter?

I've always been annoyed by those giant skeleton hands, and after I read this patch note the first thing I did was test Grasping Dead... and now it seems to be using the large target version for every target. I'm getting giant skeleton arms towering over even normal human-sized enemies. Is anyone else getting this? Is it a bug?

Please strongly consider providing the players an option to greatly increase the draw/zoom-out distance of the camera... There are way too many effects and things going on during combat that it becomes way too taxing on the eyes...

Yes! I always play with maximum zoom and it's not enough. You could zoom much further out on GW1 - for some reason they reduced the zoom distance for GW2, except for certain boss battles.

[Fipmip.7219]

haha you screencapped at 0 seconds on the elite skill 0.0

[Cyninja.2954]

It's simple really, any content which is not affected difficulty wise by visual noise people are not going to care.

Who cares about open world huge hit boxes when all you do is afk auto attack to kill.

The problems arise in challenging content where visibility becomes dramatically more important. I made a thread last year about Renegade short bow explosions on auto attacks on huge hit boxes (Deimos) which made tanking the boss a pure nightmare due to constant light flashes which scaled to boss size (it was so bad, I refused to take Renegades along for a while even thought they were a decent pick performance wise).

Having an option to toggle would obviously be the best of both worlds, but if one had to chose I'd have to say: game play favoring design beats eye candy even in a game as eye candy end game heavy as GW2.

[Carighan.6758]

@Kal Spiro.9745 said:I'm a fan of this decision. It always seems dumb to hit huge things with these massive attacks that didn't do any more damage than usual.

Same. This fixed one of the biggest issues Guild Wars 2 had since release, that any time more than 2 players fight it was impossible to see anything :(

@ANetdevs: please please please please don't revert this. The game finally feels like it wants to let me see the combat, instead of just the spell effects. :open_mouth:

[Deepcuts.9740]

The new Shatterer event is a cluster cat of visual mayhem.I say disable some more!

[Shikron.1243]

I went from 7 to 15 fps in the Amala fight because of this. I approve.

[Opopanax.1803]

I'm so happy about this improvement. Please don't stop there! Thanks for all your work on this.

[Talindra.4958]

Is the flashing lighting visual effects called visual noise??? Pls reduce that.. i will have to wear sun glasses to play gw2 soon ? or I will be blind before I turn 80. ????

[Orodret.8230]

Nice change, looking forward to more of such.Imo, the biggest problems are all kinds of flashy auras (and all glowing smoky effects, like glow around revenant arms in different legends, ghostly infusions, lightning trails on weapons, especially legendaries, etc...), and big effects for some skills. Mesmer time warp, feedback, spellbreaker winds of disenchantment etc, etc, etc...I understand its really hard to make such changes, since game is designed around spell effects (red circles) on the ground, and not around character model movement animations, and many of those big skills are important to be seen.However, many skills have big effects that are unnecessary. Ranger Call of the wild skill for instance creates big howling wolf with moon and what not. Its a skill that grant 3 boons and a blast, nothing to write home about, and it has visual effect of a elite/ultimate effect like its a game changing. There are many other examples of such unnecessary effects, that create visual noise even when your character is only one on the screen.

[Gehenna.3625]

@reddie.5861 said:

@Blocki.4931 said:Taking part in one Specimen Chamber meta event on Sandswept Isles will tell you exactly why they did this and it should have been done ages ago

but we dont care we play wvw.And we do care because we play pve.

[Tiny Doom.4380]

Without the "visual noise" it might as well be any other MMO. The psychedelic visuals are one of GW2's most recognizeable and important USPs. As many have said, this should be an option not an absolute.

It's not even as though a given player will want to see the same level of effects in every situation. If I'm doing an instance on my own or with one or two others, I may well want to see exactly what I'm doing and have the visual noise at a minimum. If I'm goofing around on the World Boss Train I want to see the biggest fireworks show possible. One size does not fit all.

[SakuraJD.4720]

@Benjamin Arnold.3457 said:I knew this was going to be a controversial change, since it is global with no option to disable it. I do believe it is good for the health of the game, as fun as gigantic ravens was. I will continue to monitor feedback- it is absolutely possible to change scaling rules on a per-effect basis. So, for example, instead of disabling scaling for an effect, we could elect to give it a range of scaling, say between 1 and 1.5x.

cant believe i forgot i even made this post.. but thank you for responding, and i hope i see something later on to maybe make it a client-side option. i loved the scaling, i know others didnt, and i accept that. but yeah. ears to the ground.

[Psientist.6437]

I just returned to Tyria. Effects create "a fog war" that masks the hard work developers put into foe design. I welcome any effort to reduce visual clutter but would hate for my tastes (even though I have the best tastes) to impact someone else's tastes.

[robertthebard.8150]

@Cyninja.2954 said:It's simple really, any content which is not affected difficulty wise by visual noise people are not going to care.

Who cares about open world huge hit boxes when all you do is afk auto attack to kill.

Well, that's certainly harsh, and false for a large percentage of the player base. I'm going to go out on a limb and base my assertion on the number of threads I've seen in a relatively short amount of time complaining about bots. As I type this, there were two on the first page alone. If you have to lie to support a position, there's something wrong with your position. Sadly, in this instance, I can see the arguments made in the other threads about this as valid concerns, it is hard to determine where to stand, or where not to, when the entire screen is a mass of light. So why come here and blatantly lie about why some wouldn't care over much about it?

The problems arise in challenging content where visibility becomes dramatically more important. I made a thread last year about Renegade short bow explosions on auto attacks on huge hit boxes (Deimos) which made tanking the boss a pure nightmare due to constant light flashes which scaled to boss size (it was so bad, I refused to take Renegades along for a while even thought they were a decent pick performance wise).

Having an option to toggle would obviously be the best of both worlds, but if one had to chose I'd have to say: game play favoring design beats eye candy even in a game as eye candy end game heavy as GW2.

Now see, I can agree with this, but you've really put me off wanting to support you by lying about me, in particular, since I don't go afk and auto attack anywhere in the game. It's really sad too, because as someone that suffers from chronic migraines, triggered by these very events, I'd very much like to be able to reduce them. I had to quit Tera because the end game content was full of this very thing, and I tend to not get too worked up about endgame stuff here for the same reason, I've seen how the effects scaling affects me in the OW, I don't want to be in an enclosed space with it.

[sorudo.9054]

i want a mix of the two, it stays small in it's basis but the more powerful i become the bigger the attack.currently i feel weak even while my power is quite high, i just need that visual boost to show i am really that powerful as my stats claim.

[Teratus.2859]

Visual noise is one of the bigger problems I have with this game at times.

On larger creatures it's not so much a problem but on smaller ones it's an absolute nightmare.It's so easy to completely lose an enemy in a total cluster.. of effects and chaos and to be completely honesty I have long wished for an option to disable these effects to some extent.

I think we do need some sort of option here.. a way to customize the visual noise to our individual preferences.Thing's like combo fields have a mechanical necessity to them so they can't be disabled because of that.But elemental shields, Barrage, magic projectiles such as Guardian's Whirling Wrath and Zealots Defense etc.. those effects serve no purpose outside of the users enjoyment so is it really necessary for everyone else to be able to see them?.. I'd argue no and that there should be an option for people to disable specific effects of other players if they don't want to see them.. or at least significantly diminish the flare effects of them to help them run the game better.

[Cyninja.2954]

@robertthebard.8150 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:It's simple really, any content which is not affected difficulty wise by visual noise people are not going to care.

Who cares about open world huge hit boxes when all you do is afk auto attack to kill.

Well, that's certainly harsh, and false for a large percentage of the player base. I'm going to go out on a limb and base my assertion on the number of threads I've seen in a relatively short amount of time complaining about bots. As I type this, there were two on the first page alone. If you have to lie to support a position, there's something wrong with your position. Sadly, in this instance, I can see the arguments made in the other threads about this as valid concerns, it is hard to determine where to stand, or where not to, when the entire screen is a mass of light. So why come here and blatantly lie about why some wouldn't care over much about it?

The problems arise in challenging content where visibility becomes dramatically more important. I made a thread last year about Renegade short bow explosions on auto attacks on huge hit boxes (Deimos) which made tanking the boss a pure nightmare due to constant light flashes which scaled to boss size (it was so bad, I refused to take Renegades along for a while even thought they were a decent pick performance wise).

Having an option to toggle would obviously be the best of both worlds, but if one had to chose I'd have to say: game play favoring design beats eye candy even in a game as eye candy end game heavy as GW2.

Now see, I can agree with this, but you've really put me off wanting to support you by lying about me, in particular, since I don't go afk and auto attack anywhere in the game. It's really sad too, because as someone that suffers from chronic migraines, triggered by these very events, I'd very much like to be able to reduce them. I had to quit Tera because the end game content was full of this very thing, and I tend to not get too worked up about endgame stuff here for the same reason, I've seen how the effects scaling affects me in the OW, I don't want to be in an enclosed space with it.

@robertthebard.8150

I was intentionally harsh trying to explain why visual noise needs addressing. One has to always view work and developer resources in perspective of a cost-benefit aspect.

Certainly visual noise is always distracting (the simple fact that it clouds, obstructs and makes visibility harder should be self evident of this). This alone might not warrant devoting resources to fixing or changing this since most (nearly all) easy content (as in with not a specific difficulty in mind) is so easy in this game that the chance of success or failure is not affected by this hindrance. It makes no difference where you stand in just about any World Boss Fight or event (you might disagree with me on this, sure).

Unlike more challenging content where critical visual cues can and will be missed (hence why we got the yellow border warning now, to help offset some missed cues).

TL;DR: I was not arguing against managing of visual noise. I was explaining exactly as to why it IS of importance to address it even if one might not be affected by it on easy content.

[robertthebard.8150]

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@robertthebard.8150 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:It's simple really, any content which is not affected difficulty wise by visual noise people are not going to care.

Who cares about open world huge hit boxes when all you do is afk auto attack to kill.

Well, that's certainly harsh, and false for a large percentage of the player base. I'm going to go out on a limb and base my assertion on the number of threads I've seen in a relatively short amount of time complaining about bots. As I type this, there were two on the first page alone. If you have to lie to support a position, there's something wrong with your position. Sadly, in this instance, I can see the arguments made in the other threads about this as valid concerns, it is hard to determine where to stand, or where not to, when the entire screen is a mass of light. So why come here and blatantly lie about why some wouldn't care over much about it?

The problems arise in challenging content where visibility becomes dramatically more important. I made a thread last year about Renegade short bow explosions on auto attacks on huge hit boxes (Deimos) which made tanking the boss a pure nightmare due to constant light flashes which scaled to boss size (it was so bad, I refused to take Renegades along for a while even thought they were a decent pick performance wise).

Having an option to toggle would obviously be the best of both worlds, but if one had to chose I'd have to say: game play favoring design beats eye candy even in a game as eye candy end game heavy as GW2.

Now see, I can agree with this, but you've really put me off wanting to support you by lying about me, in particular, since I don't go afk and auto attack anywhere in the game. It's really sad too, because as someone that suffers from chronic migraines, triggered by these very events, I'd very much like to be able to reduce them. I had to quit Tera because the end game content was full of this very thing, and I tend to not get too worked up about endgame stuff here for the same reason, I've seen how the effects scaling affects me in the OW, I don't want to be in an enclosed space with it.

@robertthebard.8150

I was intentionally harsh trying to explain why visual noise needs addressing. One has to always view work and developer resources in perspective of a cost-benefit aspect.

Certainly visual noise is always distracting (the simple fact that it clouds, obstructs and makes visibility harder should be self evident of this). This alone might not warrant devoting resources to fixing or changing this since most (nearly all) easy content (as in with not a specific difficulty in mind) is so easy in this game that the chance of success or failure is not affected by this hindrance. It makes no difference where you stand in just about any World Boss Fight or event (you might disagree with me on this, sure).

Unlike more challenging content where critical visual cues can and will be missed (hence why we got the yellow border warning now, to help offset some missed cues).

TL;DR: I was not arguing against managing of visual noise. I was explaining exactly as to why it IS of importance to address it even if one might not be affected by it on easy content.

That's really the wrong way to go. In a lot of cases, when you start out with something that makes people go "well that's total bullshit", they tend to ignore the rest of the post. In context with the thread, you're assertion was visual noise, that drowned out the greater point being made.

[Graymalkyn.8076]

Mixed feelings here. I LOVE the game graphics, so hate to see them reduced, but having been in countless battles where I've never even seen the baddie, I'm in favor of it.