Culling is brought up a lot by the devs in the context of WvW, but it affects PvE as well. Super-populated event chains like in Orr and Harathi Hinterlands will have culling, sometimes with entire groups of enemies appearing dead because other players (who you can’t even see) got to them first. Will culling improvements be seen in PvE as well?
There’s a related issue where if too many players are attacking the same monster, not everyone (or no one) gets kill credit for it, i.e., no XP or loot. Are kill credit issues being looked at too?
(I posted this in the sticky discussion thread for yesterday’s blog post, but it got buried. Hope it’s okay to break it out into a separate thread.)
Lately, the few times I’ve done Jormag, I don’t see most of the enemies and probably around half of the players. I’ve given up helping on the first bits of the fight with the wall and join in on the second half.
Well apparently it’ll load enemies before friendlies, this seems like it’d work in pve as well as it’ll work in pvp.
Yes, I’ve experienced ridiculous culling during the hinterlands chain. Centaurs just teleport in already dealing damage. It hasn’t happened often, but it happens. But, you don’t even need to leave LA to see culling issues, just run into the TP there. Often it will be empty for a second or two then suddenly packed with other players. This presents an immersion problem if not a combat problem.
But, I would be surprised if improvements usually addressed to WvW are not implemented universally in the game. That just wouldn’t make any sense. Their loading of enemies before friendlies is just a work-around in terms of the culling issues. They simply need to fix it.
(edited by Raine.1394)
I’d like to see less culling in cities, the increase over the last few months makes them seem relatively empty when I know they aren’t. (On Tarnished Coast.) And I often run right by people without seeing them, and then they’re all ‘y u ignoring me :<’.
Game Director
We’ll be evaluating the culling system fixes we do for WvW, and applying as many of them as make sense as possible to all parts of the game absolutely.
Thanks Colin keep up with the communication you guys are doing great!
I’d like to mention that culling also affects buildings, for example it takes quite a few moments for several buildings, bridges and stairs to load up in Lion’s Arch – sometimes it seems like one is levitating.
We’ll be evaluating the culling system fixes we do for WvW, and applying as many of them as make sense as possible to all parts of the game absolutely.
I’m looking forwards to it… but then again the idea of seeing 50 Blackgates to the left and 50 SoS to the right all charging in on me is a little scary…
Great news Colin. Thanks!
I’d be very interested to hear your views on the kill credit issue I mentioned in the OP and how it factors into making the open world as strong, fun, and rewarding as possible.
We’ll be evaluating the culling system fixes we do for WvW, and applying as many of them as make sense as possible to all parts of the game absolutely.
This rises the question, if the culling fixes will be introduced firstly in WvW only and then some time after, we will see the change in the rest of the game OR, the fixes will be introduced in all aspecsts of the game at the same time?
The number one issue with culling I have outside of WvW is in PvE, Cities in specific. I hate how it looks like a ghost town unless you spend 5 seconds standing right on top of people for them to load in and then as soon as they move a couple of meters they disappear.
I want to be able to see people at the mystic forge from the bank etc. It’s such an immersion killer. It’s been one of my biggest pet peeves with this game so far… the culling it’s the biggest immersion killer and in wvw combat issue.
I would also love to be able to stand on a hill in any zone and see if there’s other around me. Currently not being able to see people 5 meters away from you makes the world feel so empty unless you are doing the same quest. I want to see people around me, it makes the world feel more alive.
(edited by Fay.2735)
We’ll be evaluating the culling system fixes we do for WvW, and applying as many of them as make sense as possible to all parts of the game absolutely.
Colin, I applaud your level of community involvement. This is the kind of interaction that will keep players invested in the adventure. I know your time is valuable so it says a lot about the value you place on the community when we see you here.
The number one issue with culling I have outside of WvW is in PvE, Cities in specific. I hate how it looks like a ghost town unless you spend 5 seconds standing right on top of people for them to load in and then as soon as they move a couple of meters they disappear.
I want to be able to see people at the mystic forge from the bank etc. It’s such an immersion killer. It’s been one of my biggest pet peeves with this game so far… the culling it’s the biggest immersion killer and in wvw combat issue.
I would also love to be able to stand on a hill in any zone and see if there’s other around me. Currently not being able to see people 5 meters away from you makes the world feel so empty unless you are doing the same quest. I want to see people around me, it makes the world feel more alive.
Couldn’t have said this better. It really is an immersion killer. The game just doesn’t feel like an MMO in its current state.
We just need a culling slider!! I will be disappointed if you guys decide to hold back on the amount of culling to eliminate because of “minimum specs” or whatever. Just implement a culling slider for both players and NPCs and allow us to adjust according to our internet/hardware.
Edit: why is NPC culling in the game? That’s not a bandwidth issue correct? There is no excuse for culling of NPCs if you have capable hardware.
(edited by BroScientist.9875)
there’s no reason players or NPCs should ever be invisible when they’re right next to you. we just need sliders for npc and player view distances, and everything closer ALWAYS renders. if it tanks our FPS, then we have the option to live with it or reduce the view distance. just give us that option please.
The number one issue with culling I have outside of WvW is in PvE, Cities in specific. I hate how it looks like a ghost town unless you spend 5 seconds standing right on top of people for them to load in and then as soon as they move a couple of meters they disappear.
I want to be able to see people at the mystic forge from the bank etc. It’s such an immersion killer. It’s been one of my biggest pet peeves with this game so far… the culling it’s the biggest immersion killer and in wvw combat issue.
I would also love to be able to stand on a hill in any zone and see if there’s other around me. Currently not being able to see people 5 meters away from you makes the world feel so empty unless you are doing the same quest. I want to see people around me, it makes the world feel more alive.
I hate when i need to go to Lions Arch because of this.
Going to the trade post is incredibly bad. I see no NPCs, no Players, hear no sound. Only after 10secs or so all things start to appear.
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