Islands rendering/loading

  • Denimcoo
    Marauder
    Founder

    Hello mateys,

    I have a problem regarding the islands. When i'm at a distance and look true my spyglass the islands look like, how do i explain this, unfinished clay projects. When i sail closer the details on the island suddenly pops in. It's almost seems if the game is to late loading in the islands. My biggest issue with this: the loading of the islands freezes the game for 1 second.

    As far as i know friends of my don't have this problem. Is this a commen issue? Has this something to do with my GPU or driver or anything else?

    i5 2.70 GHz
    8GB RAM
    AMD Radeon r9 380x (driver 18.3.4)

    Kind regards.

    EXAMPLE
    Added this short video as an example on 18-04 with patch 1.0.4. Rendering/loading and freezing starts at 15 seconds: https://youtu.be/p1Cv78uJAFY

    UPDATE ON TICKET
    On april 9th i sumbmited a ticket to Rare and explainend the proplem. Some of you are interested what the response was.
    Thus far they responded by saying: Thank you for reporting this issue! Your report has been sent over to our Test team for further investigation.
    They changed the ticket status to 'solved'. I replied by asking to keep it open, because obviously it isn't solved yet.

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  • CharlesMint
    Insider
    Founder

    I had something like this happen once althought it took 5 minutes after I reached the island to fully load. Couldn't even walk on the island till it finished. I think it has something to do with hard drive or network speeds since I was downloading something when it happend to me.

  • Denimcoo
    Marauder
    Founder

    @charlesmint Thanks for replying. You discribe a one time incident. In my game it's all the time with every island.

    I doubt it has something to do with my internet connection cause i have fiber optic, it's is fast. And the harddrive is a Samsung SSD.

  • CharlesMint
    Insider
    Founder

    @denimcoo thats really weird. I think I do recall now though seeing people having issues with the game on AMD gpu's. Normally though I think issues with stuff loading in slow has to do with something memory/storage wise possibly. Are your gpu drivers up to date? Edited*

  • Tyburn Ketch

    Draw distance has changed since launch. 100%. Many people have noticed. It’s starting to really affect gameplay Rare. There has been no mention this has changed but it definitely has. Please please extend the draw distance back to how it was at launch. It’s basically made the spyglass obsolete which is a disaster for the game. Seeing objects suddenly appear is a horrible experience!

  • TheeOdee
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @tyburn-ketch Yeah it's crazy right now. You pretty much have to stop and wait for a minute within 50 meters of the island to know what's actually on it. And player models disappear while they're still very visible, like 80 meters away or something. You see him there, clear as day, take a step back and p**f gone. Should definitely not be like this.

  • Tyburn Ketch

    And it’s not hardware related as it was seamless at launch. I believe it was after the first patch the draw distance changed. Is such a shame. Please Rare. If you’re reading this - change it back to how it was at launch.

    Just to note - it’s affecting both console and pc players.

  • xixxo123
    Marauder

    I get the same problem and i have:

    i7 6700k OC'd to 4.7ghz
    16gb DDR4 OC'd to 3200mhz
    ASUS Strix GTX1080ti OC

  • Tyburn Ketch

    @xixxo123

    I don’t think it’s hardware related. Everyone I’ve played with is seeing it. (or not as the case may be)

  • Youe Chester

    It's quite ridiculous. You can see ships details but not the pirates on it. You really need to be VERY close to see them, or any details for that matter.

  • QuietRobot
    Champion
    Insider
    Founder

    I get the same problem, It looks ugly, you can not see other characters, check animals, etc.

  • Denimcoo
    Marauder
    Founder

    @tyburn-ketch said in Islands rendering/loading:

    Draw distance has changed since launch. 100%. Many people have noticed. It’s starting to really affect gameplay Rare. There has been no mention this has changed but it definitely has. Please please extend the draw distance back to how it was at launch. It’s basically made the spyglass obsolete which is a disaster for the game. Seeing objects suddenly appear is a horrible experience!

    Wow. I did not know that. I honostly tought i was going crazy. Cause i'm playing SoT sinds the alpha and the couple of day's i was asking myself: did i always had this problem with the drawdistance? And i simply can not remember. But your reply gives me a bit of hope, cause it probably hasn't got anything to do with my hardware, and on the other hand is a shame if Rare turned down the draw distance.

    I hope Rare can clarify this issue.

  • TheeOdee
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    It might be that they tried adjusting it (hopefully temporarily) to fix some performance issues.

  • GRIZLEDORF
    Marauder

    they changed how far you can see recently and it's ruined the immersion for me.

    Pop in is very ugly to me and before the change, there was no pop in and I loved the immersion. Now it's a joke how bad the pop in is, it's like watching a pop corn machine

  • xixxo123
    Marauder

    Lets be fair, the view distance as it currently stands has probably been set to reduce the reports of griefing and harrasing pvp players.. We can still see people within 10 squares of eachother, any more than that then it is less likely to spot another ship.

    I have always said it has been FAR too easy to spot ships on the horizon, even with the lights turned completley off you can tell a ship from an island easily. I've got no issue with the view distance being reduced slightly.. the game still looks georgeous.

  • Tyburn Ketch

    @xixxo123
    Looking gorgeous it does... when it has been rendered. When you sit there watching things pop into focus - and worse watching things try to pop into focus but all you get is a spotty shadow - is not gorgeous. It’s horrible - and it wasn’t like this at launch! Regardless of how it looks it is seriously affecting gameplay. You practically have to land on an island now to see the objects on the beach. The spyglass is practically useless. It’s gamebreaking. And it needs to be seriously looked at Rare!

  • TheeOdee
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @xixxo123 You still see ships clear as day popping up on the horizon though, it's everything else; player models, animals, barrels, trees, rock, etc. All the things you want to see when on an island or passing by. It has to fixed, honestly.

  • syntxerr
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    They changed draw distance as part of the Xbox one X and screen tearing „fix“. However it is really horrible and does affect gameplay negatively.

    Please fix this Rare, it is really annoying how late items and models / players load on islands. And it is especially frustrating if you are being chased by a ship, even not too far away but you still can’t see any crew on it.

  • Kosh Vorlonn
    Ship Mate

    Yeah, it's the medium-close range draw distance change that needs to be addressed. It has definitely been reduced since beta/launch, most likely relating to performance and/or bug issues. Hopefully we see a return the further draw distance very soon.

  • KiNG KiRiASU
    Seafarer
    Insider

    There was a significant downgrade in draw distant / graphics quality with patch 1.0.1. Imho, it even affects gameplay.
    The main thread was locked and moved to the Developer Updates section for Insiders only. I re-opened the thread under a different title, so that anyone can discuss this ongoing issue furthermore, but no one replied.
    Hopefully, Rare finally acknowledges that this isn't just some isolated problem for only a few players, but a widespread one. Even if it's not recognized by or doesn't bother everyone.

  • Tyburn Ketch

    @king-kiriasu

    Yup. Completely agree. Obviously.

  • ERaaam
    Marauder
    Founder

    They locked the main thread and hide away the new 1 in the insiders hub, they didn't understand the issue even after explaining it a bunch of times and are trying to say they didn't change anything.

  • LarryLongplay

    Perhaps they truely didn`t change anything .. but oh boy since the 1.0.1 Patch the game definatly handles the rendering in ways which could just be described as goofy. Something has happend between Beta/1.0 and 1.01/1.02 and it makes the spyglass a must not be used object cause now it has no purpose. the time you can check out the island with it you may as well as swin the 5 m to check directly.
    Perhaps serversided it behaves like befor but on the clientside its a hard step backwards.

  • ERaaam
    Marauder
    Founder

    @larrylongplay No they changed it. They did make updates to the game lod etc but the results had unintended side effects. All the proof was posted in both the locked thread and the new insider only thread. The dev didn't read the thread properly. To their credit they did say if it changed they didnt mean to.

  • LarryLongplay

    @eraaam that was what i meant ... sorry if i wrote a bit complicated. I tend to do that.
    :)
    Something changed ... we all can see it. But perhapps as you wrote the intension was to change something else and this is a unwanted side effect.
    I really hope that the Pop UP Ilse will go away soon.

  • Denimcoo
    Marauder
    Founder

    Yesterday i have reported this problem as a bug tot Rare.

    I recommend every one who encounters this issue does the same and hopefully Rare can deal with it.

  • Mr Spiderhead
    Marauder

    @airikr01 They've claimed over on the developer posts section (can't quite remember what it's called) that they haven't changed anything and they've asked people to file support tickets about it. So, either it's smoke and mirrors and they're hoping people will forget it and attribute it to the Mandela effect, or it's an unintended effect of an unrelated change or a result of overstressed servers. Hopefully it's a bug they can fix, because neither of the other options bodes well for the game's future.

  • OHeck

    To tell us that they changed nothing, yet islands viewed through the spyglass show a horrendous low poly LOD model for those islands, up close and ugly. Why would ANY developer accept that as is? Unable to see player models at short distances leaving other ship decks empty. Really..this is how you wanted your game displayed? Everything working as intended?....come on now. Paid 60 bucks so you can ruin the experience weeks into gameplay?

  • ERaaam
    Marauder
    Founder

    @denimcoo said in Islands rendering/loading:

    Yesterday i have reported this problem as a bug tot Rare.

    I recommend every one who encounters this issue does the same and hopefully Rare can deal with it.

    Please update the thread if you get any reply, i've never been given an answer via support. They literally binned my ticket and never replied.

  • syntxerr
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Opening a ticket is a good idea.

    Personally, I don’t believe this was an accident. The wanted to fix screen tearing and fps drops on console and the easiest way of doing that is reducing draw distance. That’s obvious. They should however optimize further and increase draw distance to previous levels again, because currently we are having an impact on gameplay which is quite significant with all the ghost ships and islands.

  • TheeOdee
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    I put in a ticket as well. See what happens.

  • GiggleSnarf
    Master
    Founder

    The islands have always looked a bit less detailed at a distance, but they definitely did something to the render distance and now there is fog.

    I'm on Xbox one and up until the last update, I could see exceptionally far. Don't listen to the kids who try to blame us console players. The game performed just fine during the alphas and betas.

  • Denimcoo
    Marauder
    Founder

    I have got a response to my ticket in a half hour, but i somehow missed it. My fault.

    "Thank you for reporting this issue! Your report has been sent over to our Test team for further investigation."

    They changed my ticket status to 'solved'. I replyed by saying i disagree and the status should remain on open because the problem hasn't been solved yet.

  • Tyburn Ketch

    I’ve been strongly going over this issue all over the forum ... at every opportunity I’ve had ... on every thread there is on the issue.

    Submitting a support ticket really seems the only option. Many of us have noticed this change since the first patch. I reiterate: the effects are gamechanging! Reducing the spyglass to practically obsolete is a major problem for the game. Having to practically board an island to have items “pop” is surely not what Rare intended.

    Please submit support tickets to get Rare to react!

  • Hudson RL
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    The Xbox one X degrade has been so disappointing since launch. Something else on the list of disappointments.

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