Guild Wars 2

Before patch, mini disappears when I change maps

After patch, my unlocked equipped miniature has been auto-hidden so many times
when I see a group of players playing guild mission (I just pass by…)
when I doing events alone, and suddenly the event scales up by many strangers
when I stand there watching my mini, and a group of players run pass by
when I doing events at dry top, and the mini hidden every five minutes

I do see the Game Update Notes says that:
“Miniatures are now culled by the Character Model Limit option in the Advanced Settings menu in Graphics Options.”

BUT, I want those stranger players been hidden for performance, and the mini that I choose to stay around me, not been hidden every five minutes

OR can you fix it and make the mini comes back automatically after the zergs leave?

They managed to achieve what I thought it was impossible: make minis even more useless and meaningless.

I’m 100% sure this is a bug.

I was trying it out yesterday and I noticed the following:

• In cities, (including LA), WvW, Heart of the Mists and instances minis work as described in the patch notes.
• In explorable maps they’re hidden “due to rising player population” even when there’s obviously very few people on the map (definitely less than LA).
• It’s not affected by culling settings. I have it set to the highest number of players and high model quality and it was working as normal, including showing everyone’s minis in cities but in explorable areas I couldn’t even see my own.

Not really a bug. The limiting of miniatures is connected with server resources. The regular culling setting in your client is a separate unrelated matter.

As servers have to calculate the movement of all minis on the map they might need to sometimes limit their numbers so that they don’t exceed resources available for a map instance. As minis are more convenient to use now a lot of people will start having them out permanently. That’s up to 150 minis that need their behaviour/movement calculated. Possibly (just hypothesizing) the “spots” available for minis on the map might be connected with number of other NPC/mobs that there are on the same map. Cities don’t have mobs. WvW maps have greater population limit in general.

They have set the limit right now to be quite low and they will slowly increase that when they get more data on the impact a certain number of minis will have on the server in live environment.

Culling connected with personal game settings is a separate manner and that works in a way similar to player model culling .

Yep… All those players are really killing the server… It was a brand new map with 3 people on it… Better hide those minis!

Haros.4297:

The limiting of miniatures is not connected with culling setting in your client but with server resources.

As servers have to calculate the movement of all minis on the map they might need to sometimes limit their numbers so that they don’t exceed resources available for a map instance. As minis are more convenient to use now a lot of people will start having them out permanently. That’s up to 150 minis that need their behaviour/movement calculated. Possibly (just hypothesizing) the “spots” available for minis on the map might be connected with number of other NPC/mobs that there are on the same map. Cities don’t have mobs. WvW maps have greater population limit in general.

They have set the limit right now to be quite low and they will slowly increase that when they get more data on the impact a certain number of minis will have on the server in live environment.

That sounds like it could be the case, but I find it hard to believe that LA at peak times on patch day with commander icons crowded all sides of the mini map had less models that needed to load than a copy of Gendarren Fields where all the meta events had gone to their worst extreme (meaning all the preceeding events had failed) and only 1 person answered when I asked if anyone else was on the map.

the minis are stealing away to hang out with rytlock    z__z

If it is really such a ridiculous setting for mini, at least make mini reappear automatically. I’m really tired of hitting H and click it again and again.

Danikat.8537:

That sounds like it could be the case, but I find it hard to believe that LA at peak times on patch day with commander icons crowded all sides of the mini map had less models that needed to load than a copy of Gendarren Fields where all the meta events had gone to their worst extreme (meaning all the preceeding events had failed) and only 1 person answered when I asked if anyone else was on the map.

It’s completely unconnected with the number of models. Normal culling takes into account models near you. The server doesn’t care about the models or animations aside from just hit boxes and maybe some other info. On the whole map there might be more NPC/mobs/minis in total than there is in the city. They might have assigned the numbers manually at a very low number (at like a dozen) for a start. They might look at it now and increase the limit every couple hours…. who knows. They just treated Cities a lot more lenient than they did combat areas. WvW maps might have more resources available and they set the limit there to be higher as well.

Haros.4297:

Not really a bug. The limiting of miniatures is connected with server resources. The regular culling setting in your client is a separate unrelated matter.

As servers have to calculate the movement of all minis on the map they might need to sometimes limit their numbers so that they don’t exceed resources available for a map instance. As minis are more convenient to use now a lot of people will start having them out permanently. That’s up to 150 minis that need their behaviour/movement calculated. Possibly (just hypothesizing) the “spots” available for minis on the map might be connected with number of other NPC/mobs that there are on the same map. Cities don’t have mobs. WvW maps have greater population limit in general.

They have set the limit right now to be quite low and they will slowly increase that when they get more data on the impact a certain number of minis will have on the server in live environment.

Culling connected with personal game settings is a separate manner and that works in a way similar to player model culling .

It’s not regular culling. If it were regular culling, then as soon as you change from grey to someone where I see your back pack, surf board sized sword, halo, whatever, I should then see your mini-pet, if you have one.

They have been demoted to sub-standard culling priority, and they still expect us to be happy with the money we paid for … nothing, essentially.

Many of us buy these mini-pets just as you would buy an armor skin, outfit, weapon skin. You like how it looks, and you’d like to show that to yourself and the community. It’s how you want to represent your character to the world. A mini-pet is no different than that.

Their whole thing is that what you strive for is awesome skins and things to show the world, not a gear grind. That’s fine. What sort of message does it send when they decide, after two years, and letting us buy 400-600 G pets and enjoy them, that they now don’t count as much as other things you buy and show off?

It’s reprehensible, unwarranted and it sends the message that people that value ridiculous surf board sized swords are more important customers than those who would like to buy a mini-pet instead and show that off with their character.

oh…my, at first I did not think of how much gems and golds I spend for minis, now you make me really upset….>.<

FrostwindTTw.9015:

oh…my, at first I did not think of how much gems and golds I spend for minis, now you make me really upset….>.<

And here’s the best part. By making it easy for every to just check a pet and turn it on, Fire and Forget, the number of people that are trying to have pets out are now effectively griefing us by taking advantage of a game mechanic to prevent us from enjoying our purchases. I should be able to report everyone I see on my screen for griefing.

The bottom line is, the culling rules need to treat mini-pets equally to other skins. That’s it. It’s not hard to figure out. If it decides it shouldn’t show your mini-pet to me, if you have one out, for performance reasons, then it should leave you grey and not show me your armor, outfits, swords, back packs, etc. Or, hide you entirely. When it’s ready to Show Me The Mini!, then it can show you and all your other shiny skins.

did you right click the mini and “add to wardrobe”?

my prob with mini is they are so slow.

ANET please make minis run faster

I don’t care if I could see other player’s skin or mini. At least let me see my own mini!!! I spent gems and golds on it!!!

I already added it to wardrobe, but when there are more then 10 players around me, the mini just ran away……..

FrostwindTTw.9015:

I don’t care if I could see other player’s skin or mini. At least let me see my own mini!!! I spent gems and golds on it!!!

I do care. The gems I paid to show my mini to the world should have the same weight as the gems someone paid to show an outfit or weapon skin to the world. Period.

GG arenanet, you managed to make me log in the forums for the first time in two years of playing time… and to complain, nonetheless! -_-

I was in southsun cove today, doing a round of gathering a dozen minutes after karka queen had been killed… there were so few people in the map, that the game urged me to switch to a more populated map; and yet, my mini had to stay hidden because, apparently, those people that were too few to keep a map open were too much for our computers to handle if I had a tiny hippo running alongside me -_

I’m seriously considering contacting customer support and ask them to tale my minis off the collection and put them back in my bags… If I knew minis would become unusable after collecting them, I would have left them taking space in my bags! The special collection minis cost real money, so the situation we have now is unacceptable.

I really hope this is a bug, because it puts minis (and the money we spent on them) completely to waste -_-

That’s the thing. It’s not about culling rules that work with skins etc. That comes in when there are too many things in a small area around you that need to be rendered. It’s about server having to calculate movement for up to 150 miniatures at the same time as it calculates it for every NPC and mob on the map (alongside other calculations). When the message about miniature limit shows up it’s not a matter of showing the mini on your PC. It’s the matter of server having to calculate what the mini does. What every mini on the map does in that moment. It requires extra server resources. For the server it doesn’t matter how sparkly the character is. It has to process information about every player regardless of the fact that you might not see them at all. Most of the time it won’t matter but if there are a lot of (as in almost every player on the map having like 2 of them) player summons for example you might experience mob AI just stopping and not doing anything. That happened a few times.
They have turned the limit very, very low playing it on the safe side (even too safe perhaps). They will turn it up – quite a lot probably, when they see what number of minis works safely on each particular map. Probably very Soon™

Again emphasis on that one thing: It’s not about your computer performance. It’s mostly about the performance of the server

Well, if it’s really a matter of server having to calculate everything, their servers must be hamster-powered since an empty map (where I got the “we’ll kick you out in an hour if you don’t go away on your own free will, since the map you’re in is a wasteland”) gave me the “too many players” message and forcibly hid my mini :P Just a handful of karkas around, then only rocks and rocks as far as the eye could se… :P

Haros.4297:

That’s the thing. It’s not about culling rules that work with skins etc. That comes in when there are too many things in a small area around you that need to be rendered. It’s about server having to calculate movement for up to 150 miniatures at the same time as it calculates it for every NPC and mob on the map (alongside other calculations). When the message about miniature limit shows up it’s not a matter of showing the mini on your PC. It’s the matter of server having to calculate what the mini does. What every mini on the map does in that moment. It requires extra server resources. For the server it doesn’t matter how sparkly the character is. It has to process information about every player regardless of the fact that you might not see them at all. Most of the time it won’t matter but if there are a lot of (as in almost every player on the map having like 2 of them) player summons for example you might experience mob AI just stopping and not doing anything. That happened a few times.
They have turned the limit very, very low playing it on the safe side (even too safe perhaps). They will turn it up – quite a lot probably, when they see what number of minis works safely on each particular map. Probably very Soon™

Again emphasis on that one thing: It’s not about your computer performance. It’s mostly about the performance of the server

I don’t care, they were demoted.

I spend gems on a mini the same way someone spends gems on swords, outfits, backpacks, etc. I want to show them off to the world. I have been able to for 2 years. They have made us new minis and put them up in the shop with the intention of being able to do that. In fact, there’s a brand new pack with 2, and the past week, they even put some old ones on sale for us to buy, to show off to the world.

Regardless as to whether it is using the same mechanic right now, it ‘should’ be using the same mechanic. My gems shouldn’t be treated less than the gems someone spent to show off their sword.

As such, if there are two many things on the screen, then remove ‘people’ from my sight.

If I see you, I should see your mini, if you have one. If that means someone else has to drop off my screen, so be it.

Your mini being seen by me, if you have a mini out, shouldn’t be treated less than me seeing the sword on your back.

How about a Ranger pet? Let’s say for sake of argument, that the number is 30 people. If all 30 of those people are Rangers, do 15 people turn grey or disappear under the current system?

Minis should be treated the same as me seeing the other skins on your back, otherwise it devalues them completely.

This warrants a public (i.e., acknowledging that they screwed a lot of people as they did with the wardrobe system change) buy back program at the same level as the wardrobe system.

Yup, the minis ppl bought with real money to show off ingame…….don’t show up ingame. Brilliant!!!!

I would rather see the person standing next to me’s mini, so I might ask them about it, or compliment them on it, than the armor of someone standing 10 ft away from me, or if necessary, the person standing 10 ft away from me at all.

I’ll chime in on this. It’s BROKEN!

I was in Dry Top and tried my mini again and got an error about the rising player population. Literally 2 minutes later I get a pop up that says the population is low and the instance will need to close in an hour and asked if I wanted to switch to a higher populated instance. Go figure.

Charrbeque.8729:

I’ll chime in on this. It’s BROKEN!

I was in Dry Top and tried my mini again and got an error about the rising player population. Literally 2 minutes later I get a pop up that says the population is low and the instance will need to close in an hour and asked if I wanted to switch to a higher populated instance. Go figure.

then……I hope that arenanet would apply some kind of asura magic to solve their server problem, or they should ask Evon Gnashblade for tips about mini refund.

Compliments of the botched mega server “feature”.

Silvia.9130:

They managed to achieve what I thought it was impossible: make minis even more useless and meaningless.

I was so disappointed with minipets always hiding. I hope they work on a solution quickly.

SO ANNOYING!

i just tested with minipets that i had twice:

if i use “mini brown bear” for example with the new minipet slot and activate it… it wont even show in many maps and if just a few people are around….

if i use it the old way by doubleclicking it it works fine everywhere…

this means i just made my whole minipet collection useless by unlocking them for my acokitten cause i cant even see them and cant show others that i have those minis????

edit:
in open world it seems to disappear immediatly when just a few people are around
and in heart of the mists it doesnt even show AT ALL!

in Lions Arch though for example the minipet appears without any problem even if 20 people are around…

Orangensaft.7139:

SO ANNOYING!

i just tested with minipets that i had twice:

if i use “mini brown bear” for example with the new minipet slot and activate it… it wont even show in many maps and if just a few people are around….

if i use it the old way by doubleclicking it it works fine everywhere…

this means i just made my whole minipet collection useless by unlocking them for my acokitten cause i cant even see them and cant show others that i have those minis????

what!!! what did you say?!
oh dang it….ToT I want my minis unbound…!!!!

Arenanet, tell us quickly, what should we do???
should I use client support to ask for mini unbound….

Yeah, I’m sad that I unlocked two of my favorites and now they’re invisible wardrobe pets, but I’m just not pulling any more out of the bank, and leaving the ones in my inventory where they are. At least when I use them from inventory I can still see my mini, even if I do have to double click on it when I zone.

kitten mini! >.<

The updates to the minis feature was the one thing I had hopes for in this update and they even manage to trashcan that. I just bought new minis, too. The least they could do is let you see your own and cull everyone elses.

Orangensaft.7139:

SO ANNOYING!

i just tested with minipets that i had twice:

if i use “mini brown bear” for example with the new minipet slot and activate it… it wont even show in many maps and if just a few people are around….

if i use it the old way by doubleclicking it it works fine everywhere…

this means i just made my whole minipet collection useless by unlocking them for my acokitten cause i cant even see them and cant show others that i have those minis????

edit:
in open world it seems to disappear immediatly when just a few people are around
and in heart of the mists it doesnt even show AT ALL!

in Lions Arch though for example the minipet appears without any problem even if 20 people are around…

No!…the old way to use mini does not work as well,
I just brought an unbound mini to a Tier 5 dry top map, then I went to the highest spot of dive point where I can’t see any player there in my screen.
However, neither the account bound mini nor the unbound mini can be seen for even one second, all I got is the yellow stupid sentences full of my chat channel.

This is really a most stupid upgrade patch ever………>.<

Now they said that this is currently working as intended………
We have to find a empty map to let mini out? but how?
Mini becomes a meaningless item, not to mention how to enjoy it, you can never see it since the mega server send you to a map full of players

hope that arenanet fix this problem quickly, and not try to test players patience…..

AlexEBT.7240:

Yup, the minis ppl bought with real money to show off ingame…….don’t show up ingame. Brilliant!!!!

Someone actually thought this was a good idea, that’s the scary part.

Please see duplicate topic.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Miniatures-Have-Been-Hidden/page/2#post4392943