Guild Wars 2

Broodix.6053:

Heh. This sounds like The Darkness II all over again.

Thank goodness it’s not quite as bad as that was – I’ll give ArenaNet that. However, looking at Jon’s response, I find it quite ironic that those be the reasons given, yet the game already auto-adjusts your FoV to a higher level during big boss events – which basically renders his first two points completely moot.

So I dunno. I’ve given my lengthy counter-argument a few posts back, but purely considering the boss events and multi-monitor setups, Jon’s response doesn’t seem to make much sense – and I say that, hand-on-heart, with the greatest amount of respect. Perhaps someone can enlighten me, because somewhere, someone has clearly missed the plot.

Plague.5329:

Jon, leave it to the players. If they want lower performance, just have a notification in the slider that tells them they may experience issues. Otherwise, players WILL start developing third party methods of addressing this, as it IS a problem that you should be addressing, not the players. -snip-

Third party methods have already been developed. Unfortunately using it, even though it doesn’t give you any competitive benefit of significance (or any benefit that you wouldn’t already have if you use Eyefinity or 3D surround), is still a ban-able offence. The only hope now, is for ArenaNet to ease the reins a bit with community developed applications.

Xfraze.1704:

Then don’t make it the same for everyone, make it a slider.

The argument that it’s unfair to some players who opt not to play with a higher FOV is out the window since people with 3 monitors or custom resolutions from their video card settings can have a higher FOV.

This … a thousand times, this. Unless I’ve misunderstood one of ArenaNet’s core philosophies, I’ve always believed that they are a company that promotes inclusion and not exclusion. I also believe that general consensus from players complaining about the constricted FoV in GW2, has always been that some choice (i.e. a slider or numeral input – heck, even a command-line parameter) would benefit all.

I’m going to keep linking this video, because it simply refutes any concerns regarding game-breaking issues when you increase the FoV. I don’t quite agree with what’s being said in the video in terms of “what looks more natural”, and that it was made to look worse because of the zoomed-in nature of the comparison … but it illustrates one thing – a higher FoV isn’t as detrimental as it’s made out to be – not by a long-shot and not even in this extreme example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYV8dUQmmk4&feature=player_embedded

JonPeters.5630:

I’ve seen a lot of topics on this both here and externally so let me try and address it. The current FOV is going to stay because increasing it, while having some benefits for some players, has too many drawbacks.

1) performance suffers greatly because of how things are built and view distances

2) art suffers because of texture tiling, LOD problems and just general stretching from the fisheye effect.

3) gameplay suffers because positional awareness becomes less necessary in a game where combat is greatly designed around positioning.

There is a a serious camera problem, however, which is making some players nauseous. We believe a large number of these cases are not FOV related but rather due to bugs in camera smoothing. Because of this we are expediting a quick fix to this issue that is currently in testing and should see the light of day in the next build we do.

Jon

Thank you for your response Jon. With respect, I am perplexed that this issue is only now getting some response from ArenaNet, but I’m nevertheless happy and thankful for your post. Now let’s get down to your points:

Your first point:

Anyone who’s ever adjusted the FoV in a moderate to highly detailed game, i.e. Skyrim, knows that adjusting the FoV to a higher setting means some performance hit. How much of a hit that is, would depend on your system.

Giving players the ability to tweak it themselves, puts that responsibility in their hands – they can adjust it as per their system specs and it doesn’t interfere with ArenaNet’s published minimum or recommended system requirements – much like any other graphical adjustment i.e., the quality of shadows, texture details etc.

Would an increase in FoV be crippling for all? I don’t think so, and here is the evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYV8dUQmmk4&feature=player_embedded

Your second point:

Art suffers when you turn textures down to low. Art suffers when you turn anti-aliasing off. Art suffers when you have shaders on low, post-processing on none … art just about suffers when you run anything low if you compare it to what the engine is capable of. Again, it depends on the rig you’re using.

Edge-warping (or the fish-eye lens effect) on really becomes noticeable if you push things to the extremes and when you sit a comfortable distance away from a fairly large monitor, lets say 22" and up, this effect becomes less apparent (than for e.g. watching gameplay footage on a YouTube video in a small window).

Speaking of YouTube videos … watch this, and judge for yourself if it is quite so bad – and keep in mind, there are plenty of numbers between 75 (feels more like 60 really) and 90 to play around with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReSqqL09Fyw

Your thrid point:

So what about people using NVidia 3D surround or AMD Eyefinity? What about giving players with single monitor setups a choice … at all?

I would easily be content with a slight knock on the necessity for positional awareness and have more awareness in total … period. With respect, I seriously doubt this would affect positional awareness in a game-breaking way, so I guess we can agree to disagree on that point.

In conclusion:

Honestly, it feels a pointless to reason about Guild Wars 2’s FoV anymore. If this is the direction ArenaNet’s going to go, then at least allow applications such as Widescreen Fixer (or other community developed projects that aids the adjusting of the FoV outside of the game) to be used by players – at their own risk. In the very least, give us some choice.

Alexander Quess.1932:

Makovorn.1706:

A short 30 sec example I’ve put together myself, illustrating some of the camera issues. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but hopefully it gets the message across. Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PegX3QH-gy0

I was forced to switch the camera to “Free Mode” which gets rid of many camera glitches but you are forced to control the camera by yourself.

GOOD NEWS for multi-screen users.
Cut-scenes now display correctly on center screen and do not warp characters along all 3 screens.

I’ve got my camera freed up in the options (the camera auto-snapping is horrible otherwise), but unfortunately, I doesn’t really address camera collision much. I’ve noticed that asura characters i.e. like the one I played in my video are most affected for some reason.

In terms of the multi-screen fix, I’m really happy to hear that the cut-scene issues have been addressed. GW2 had vert-minues issues right from the beginning of the BWE’s, so if this is an ArenaNet fix, well done!

Now let’s hope they ease-off a little bit with their policy concerning applications such as Widescreen Fixer or other apps that allows single-screen users to tweak their field of view … or better yet … let’s hope ArenaNet implement such a feature themselves.

So, I started playing an asura today. I’ve longed to delve into that race, but I have to say that the camera collision problems are really spoiling the experience for me at the moment. For some reason, the asura seems more affected … just doing simple stuff, like jumping on steps seem challenging camera-wise.

We seem to have 2 very good threads going on the various camera issues, so I thought it might be a good idea to post this short 30 sec video I’ve made here as well – it illustrates the problems I’m currently having with the camera, and specifically playing the asura:

Redfeather.6401:

Here’s a couple of things I think would help the game in regards to camera functions.

When looking up it would be nice if the camera’s pivot point rises. So that you aren’t looking at your characters semi transparent face polygons when you want to look above their head instead. The camera should pan upwards as it pivots, so that the character is no longer on screen when looking up at steep angles.

It would be nice if terrain and sprites faded when it obstructed camera view, instead of forcing the camera to snap zoom to the character. That would stop the camrea from being so jerky in cramped spaces, and stop foliage from obscuring player view. The queensdale apple orchard always covers the screen when walking under the trees unless I zoom the camera right into my character’s back.

Very well put. Both suggestions would be a very welcome addition to Guild Wars 2. It does seem that they’ve tweaked the camera a few times since the BWE’s – for example, the camera doesn’t seem to go right down to the feet of your character when you view upwards – instead, it’s now more like GW1.

The jerky camera (the camera collision issues) are quite a biggie at the moment. I so want to play my asura character, but just doing something simple as using steps, is painful to watch. I’ve put a little 30 second video together, illustrating some of these bugs:

A short 30 sec example I’ve put together myself, illustrating some of the camera issues. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but hopefully it gets the message across. Enjoy

I wonder how far ArenaNet is in deciding the use of certain 3rd party tools, to e.g. adjust the field of view. It would be great to get clarity on this sooner rather than later. I’ve been very tempted to use the tool that’s out there, but I’ve held off for now. I honestly find it very hard to play the game at its fullest, because of the constricted FoV, and of course, the numerous camera collision problems.

Guildcast touched on GW2’s camera issues in last week’s cast – Link to Episode 42

The discussion starts at around 31:10 with Jon Peters’ post about camera smoothing. It soon starts to get interesting with broader comments like (in no particular order):

• " … their camera isn’t awesome anyway and so, like … their camera is really not awesome sometimes. When you add that with the ?? for people ?? certain mouse-looks and people who are easily ticked off by this ease-in and ease-out, it just doesn’t make for a great experience, especially in high-tension PvP type situations." ~ Elisabeth Cardy, Massively

• “You know, doing an event … a big boss like The Shatterer or something like that – there’s no point in trying to even go in melee and it’s not because you’re gonna get one-shotted – I know people have problems with that. It’s because you can’t see anything. It’s a big purple blob on your whole screen! Like, I wanna zoom out and see the monster from up above and I wanna see how cool this scene is, and see all the carnage and mayhem … and I can’t! All I see is a purple blur in my face. It just drives me nuts.” ~ Richie Procopio, Bog Otter’s Game Station

• “It seems like when I’m doing dub-v-dub, I can’t get the camera low enough and high enough. Like, I can’t see things at different angles and stuff like that. You can’t see up on walls and it’s really kinda hard to position.” ~ Gary Gannon, Gamebreaker TV

• “It’s also really not helpful for most jumping puzzles at all. Like, it does not make anything easier. So I hope that’s something that they’re looking at.” ~ Elisabeth Cardy, Massively

• “Yeah … I need, I need to zoom out more. I really need to zoom out more. It’s just … it’s very claustrophobic, especially when you’re doing the jumping puzzles. You can’t get back far enough to see where your next step is. It’s kinda frustrating.” ~ Richie Procopio, Bog Otter’s Game Station

• “The argument that was used, was that they wanted it to be a character-centric game. It’s the idea that if it’s too far back … you know … it’s still a game!. If the camera is getting in the way of you playing a game, that is in no way a positive thing.” ~ Scott Hawkes, Zam Network

I just want to add in, that unfortunately the discussion pretty much stopped when it was mentioned that perhaps ArenaNet doesn’t want so many characters rendered at once or have such a big view during sPvP. However, please remember, GW2 plus nVidia’s 3D surround/AMD Eyefinity, gives you a wider view anyway, so if you can afford it, you have it.

Also remember that the 3rd party FoV tool out there, gives you a wider FoV without much technical issues (providing your system is powerful enough to render more stuff in one instance). In terms of character renders in WvW – ArenaNet already cull’s living heck out of these situations graphically (another unfortunate issue we have no control over).

A few video examples of the camera collision issues:

Guild Wars 2 Camera Motion & First Person View

Jumping Puzzle Woes

And finally, the Guild Wars 2 sub-reddit link, discussing the 3rd party camera tool – LINK

Now that Guild Wars 2’s most celebrated champions in the media have aired their views, perhaps this will help to emphasize that these issues are in no way minor and are in need of swift attention.

Let’s remember that Guild Wars 2 have been play-tested long before the greater public got their hands on it … and even after numerous threads during the beta weekend events, (some posts going into great detail), a solution has not been forthcoming and feedback from developers have been scarce at best.

All we’re asking, is to be able to play the game comfortably, without these hindrances. I certainly wouldn’t be hammering on about this if I didn’t care. I do … and I love the game and I love the studio behind it … just please ArenaNet, solve this.

I’m really glad the good folks at Guildcast touched on this subject in their previous video: LINK HERE

Camera collision and the non-adjustable, constricted field of view, has been an issue for many players ever since the greater public first got to play Guild Wars 2 in the BWE’s.

Now, a solution to the constricted FoV has appeared in the form of a 3rd party program, only to be snuffed by ArenaNet’s blanket policy of banning players using programs like these … even if it’s just to improve the quality of their play-time.

It has been mentioned by Gaile Gray that ArenaNet might be reviewing their policy in terms of certain programs – the kind that doesn’t involve blatant cheating, like speed-hacks and the likes. While I commend the work of those creating a out-of-game FoV fixer, it doesn’t unfortunately help that the first person who created a tool like this, also created the speed-hack – and it used to be one program (I believe a separate FoV fixer is available now).

I sincerely hope ArenaNet will give us some feedback soon – perhaps they could even implement adjustable FoV in GW2’s options menu, thereby eliminating the need for 3rd party programs. I really don’t know why they haven’t considered this yet … or if they did, at least be open about it to their fan-base. This is not exactly a minor issue.

Indeed it seems to be Matthew Brenher. “Interesting” YouTube show-reel over here:

I’m experiencing the same issue. When you view a vista, the sound generally follows the camera, but when you “flash-back” to your character, the sound doesn’t return. The only way around this (until it’s fixed), is to engage in combat for more than 2 to 3 seconds – you’ll find that your character’s sounds slowly fades back into the forefront.

It’s a known issue and people have been reporting it for almost a month now. Unfortunately, a fix for this bug is not forthcoming yet, but I believe the good folks at ArenaNet’s audio department is looking to find the cause and fix for this bug. You can read more about it in this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Annoying-Sound-Bug/first

Jason King.2647:

Unfortunately, we’re still having problems identifying the root cause of this issue. If there are exact steps you can take to reproduce this bug, please let us know!

On that note, please be sure to keep this thread on topic and only with information related to the “siren” sound bug. If you have other audio bugs to report, please create a separate thread. Thanks, everyone!

Possible Temporary Fix:

Putting your sound-quality and audio latency slider half-way might lessen the occurrence of this bug.

I’m experiencing the same issue and there isn’t a work-around as far as I know.

Yup, same message here – I noticed it first when I was killing risen giants (who of course, summons several phases of grubs). I’m sure it’s only temporary and that it will be sorted by ArenaNet soon enough.

Having played my character’s personal story right up to (but not including) the battle of Zhaitan, I’d like to give some constructive criticism about the story experience as a whole, specifically the sound-effects, voice-overs and music that accompany the visuals.

Missing voice-over’s have been mentioned at length before, so I’m not going to go into those issues – I’m sure the developers are onto it. I found the story incredibly enjoyable, but audio seemed very hit-and-miss at times. It’s almost like the audio and music hasn’t been choreographed properly to go with the visuals. A few examples (I’m keeping it somewhat vague, to avoid major spoilers):

“A Sad Duty” … such a deep part of the story, somewhat spoiled because some cut-scenes doesn’t activate it’s own music track. So, playing out in front of me, a very sad moment indeed … accompanied by a very jolly-sounding music track? Agh no!

“Blast from the past” … when the airship was shot down, there were no sound effects. Also, what was supposed to be a very dramatic moment, turned out somewhat mediocre because of the very “as-a-matter-of-fact” way the voice-overs sounded … almost like “… oh well, there goes the airship, ta ta … moving right along …”.

“The source of Orr” … oh my goodness, such an epic moment. When the instrumental version of “Fear not this night” started to play, I had gooseflesh! But then … boom – music stops abruptly – scene over. Ugh … so badly rounded off this was.

These are just a very few examples of problems that seems to be wide-spread across the entirety of the personal story.

These moments really ought to be aurally choreographed, pre-mixed and then hard-coded into the cut-scenes. When a cut-scene plays out, it should ideally have complete precedence over anything else, such as custom music playlists or lingering in-game music spilling over into the scenes. They are after all, like mini-movies within the game.

I sincerely hope that the wonderful folks at ArenaNet’s audio department will consider polishing these moments in our personal story a bit more. It really cries out for attention. I know that there are many things, perhaps more important things, that requires attention at this time, but hopefully this will make it to “the list” sometime in the not-to-distant future.

“Smithing is thirsty work!” Yeah … the armorsmithing station in Hoelbrak. Admittedly, it doesn’t bother me too much, since I try to vary the locations where I do crafting/banking/trading. I can for e.g. not really stay in Lion’s Arch bank too long, because the kids playing behind it becomes a bit much after a while. “Monster!”

Something that does bother me a bit with the player call-outs, is that I sometimes get some random call-out of a different gender or race, without any other player being around. It used to be frequent on loading screens, but now, ever so often, I get some random call-out from nowhere. It’s close … sounding like it comes from my character.

Side note: Some of the responses in this thread is too funny!

A very encouraging post, thank you Mike.

The benefits of removing accounts using bots can never be underestimated. It makes me very sad when I get gold-selling mails, and rather than seeing some random-letter garbage character name, I see some names that have been given much thought … most likely a beloved character once belonging to a devoted fan and player.

Looking at the time and effort (and care) some players put into their characters, it really puts a dampener on my spirits when I see stuff like this. That is why I truly appreciate ArenaNet being so pro-active with these issues and also giving players advice on security.

Thank you, so much!

I just want to jump in and ask if the issue with the text break-up in the BLTC on a small UI setting, is being investigated? I’ve noticed that when you set your UI scale to small, the font used in the BLTC seems to scale very poorly. I like that font better than the new font they’ve implemented for everything else, however, the new font scales beautifully with all UI size settings.

Although you can still read most of what’s going on in the trade post, it becomes quite difficult when you’re presented with really small text. In some instances, you cannot distinguish 8’s from 6’s or even 0’s, and reading descriptions of items becomes challenging at best. It’s almost like there are pixels missing. Perhaps they could implement the same, new font for the BLTC as well?

Soz, I just want to jump in and say that we’ve got an excellent thread going on other camera issues over here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Camera-control-issues-a-documented-list/first

Perhaps it would be helpful to keep this thread specifically for the issues surrounding camera smoothing. (I’m guilty myself, since I touched on FoV and collision issues briefly in one of my posts here). It would be great if we promote the thread I’ve linked for the other issues, as it’s getting a nice amount of attention and it sums those other issues up very nicely.

I’ve tried disabling the HDMI audio drivers (nvidia) and I’ve also tried lowering both the sound quality and upping the latency slider to “half”. I still haven’t determined if the nvidia audio driver has any effect on this bug, however, I can say that putting the sound quality slider and the latency slider half way, seems to drastically reduce this issue.

This is contrary to what I’ve said before, because as luck would have it, I got this siren sound a few times in a row while experimenting. Quitting the client and the launcher (and in my case, I also restarted my system), seems to have an effect, because if you take the sliders to half-way afterwards, the frequency of this bug seems reduced.

It’s been a few days now without this bug, which is a real blessing, since you get booted out of your WvW queue when you exit the game – and queue’s can sometimes be very. very long, as I’m sure everyone knows.

My advice would be to try this out – make a note of the date, do the above and see if/when this issue comes back. Let’s try and give the audio dev’s as much data as possible to worth with.

gurugeorge.9857:

Sepp.9025:

Is there a specific reason why this game has a camera smoothing?
I have yet to see someone who likes it.

Probably a legacy of console aspirations.

No, I think it’s more a remnant of the Guild Wars 1 engine – it had camera smoothing too. The only place where I find that useful, is when I do machinima – it helps smooth the motion of pans, but that’s it. That’s also the reason why I feel these things should be options, rather than fixed yay/nay choices.

For all it’s goodness, I have to say that the overall customization options in Guild Wars 2 is really lacking. Granted, the first priority for them was to release the game and deal with the launch aftermath, but then, the camera and mouse movement are such fundamental things … with respect – it becomes very hard to understand how these issues gets past years of alpha and beta testing, QA, and all the BWE’s.

To me, it’s almost like purchasing the best computer rig, sparing no expense with components, but then buying a cheap $10 keyboard + mouse combo and forgetting that the input devices with which to operate the rig, is just as important as the rig itself.

JonPeters.5630:

Guild Wars 2 has some camera smoothing built into it. It is generally more intrusive than it needs to be, but it also has a bug with it that makes it feel really bad for people with specific mouse look styles, like mine. This bug, and reducing the amount of smoothing is being actively looked at, but must be done carefully and tested carefully as its impact will effect every single player. Thanks for your patience.

Jon

p.s. These are not the only camera issues, but are far and away the most egregious so we will address them first.

That is why it seems more logical to give players OPTIONS. I’m absolutely delighted that these issues are being looked at (and even being recognized for a start), and you are right – the implications are far reaching … however, I fail to understand why ArenaNet can’t just implement an option to turn it on or off, or a slider to adjust it.

Surely these things need not be hard-fixed. Wouldn’t you agree? I totally respect the amount of R&D that needs to go into these things (even with options available), however I would suggest giving players the option to turn if on or off as a start, as it’s clearly an issue for quite a few players, along with other issues, such as the camera collision and constricted FoV (which is imho, perhaps even bigger issues tbh).

Thank you for taking the time to create this thread. At least, it’s a comfort knowing that these issues are being considered by the developers.

I’m not experiencing this bug anymore, thankfully. Just to add what Siresmith said above, this bug seemed to be tied to certain areas – once I left Bloodtide Coast and entered Lion’s Arch, I was able to use the ‘represent’ function again. Hopefully this will help any who might still be experiencing this issue from time to time (unless ofc it’s been addressed by ArenaNet already, in which case, thank you!)

Rok.2963:

Again, not sure if this is related, but if anyone on the thread is running nVidia graphics cards, can you check in Device Manager, under “Sound, video, and game controllers”, do you have some something like “NVIDIA High Definition Audio”?

Right clicking that and clicking “Disable” has made a great difference with me in minimizing random non-crashing, short freezes; basically like a jittery freeze that doesn’t crash the game, but did worry me. I’m still not 100% sure of this change will help with the “pulsing siren” bug we have in GW2, but I’ll post again if it seems like it makes no difference for this specific problem. For now, though, it seems to improve performance a little, so try that if it is relevant to you, and please let us know if it seems to help you avoid the pulsing siren for a lot longer than you’re used; any sign like that.

Mmm … that’s quite an interesting idea. I don’t really need the audio portion of HDMI, so I guess there won’t be any harm disabling them. I’ll test it out, thanks.

I’m happy to report that this bug is now fixed on Aurora Glade. Thank you ArenaNet.

Cosmo.8176:

Let me say the solution again. DROP SOUND QUALITY A DIAL UNDER HIGHEST. I never had it since i did that.

Unfortunately, neither all-caps or your suggestion works in this instance – at least not for me. I’ve specifically played around with the settings – not just the quality settings but also audio latency settings, and today, while fighting the Statue of Dwayna in a meta event with approx. 20 or so players, I got this siren sound bug again.

The only option that remains, is the lowest quality – and I’m not even going to go there, because if an option for high and the highest quality exists in the game, it should function. My system is more than capable of handling multiple channels of 24/96 – I do sound mixes on projects every day, so it can’t be a system/sound card spec issue. This problem is also unique to Guild Wars 2.

I’m sure the folks in ArenaNet’s audio department is trying to find the culprit behind this bug. Hopefully, it will reveal itself soon … it puts a major dampener on WvW and PvE meta events, and just game-play in general.

This audio bug started to appear on my system while playing WvW, just outside the Green base. It is now a recurring problem and I can’t participate in WvW with my guild properly, because there is no way to stop this siren sound without ending the GW2.exe process – which means, queuing up all over again.

This is not a practical way of playing and I agree , if anything, this falls into the game-breaking category. It’s been almost half a month since this problem has been acknowledged by the ArenaNet developers. Let’s hope a fix for this is forthcoming.

Also (as seen in other, similar threads) this issue is not tied with the Sound Blaster X-Fi. I run a Roland UA-25EX interface.

This skill challenge has been bugged for some time on Aurora Glade [EU]. You can swim down the hole to the sharks, but they stay “green”. You can’t interact with them, or agro them … the event stays stuck on “Brood Killed 1/3”.

Having the same issue. Super frustrating. The represent button just doesn’t do anything at the moment.

I’ve played around with this issue a bit, and it seems one of the biggest culprits is the vista system. When you click on a vista, the audio follows the camera – so say the vista point is on a waterfall, the sound of that waterfall will fade into the distance, and the sounds immediately around the camera viewpoint, will become audibile – i.e. the wildlife etc.

However, when the vista ends (with that blinding dip-to-white transition they chose to use), the sound of your character doesn’t “return”. The camera is now behind your character as per usual, but the audio coming from your character like skills, footsteps etc. isn’t.

The only way around this issue at the moment, is to either log out and back in again, or try and engage in combat. During combat, the sound will start to slowly fade back in again if you’re in combat long enough. Weird little bug this.

I am really surprised that this hasn’t gotten any attention or even a mention yet from the powers-that-be. With the trading post now working most of the time, it’s become very hard to see the text on smaller lettering i.e. like when search results of goods are shown.

The font seems to scale okay when your UI is scaled to ‘normal’, but on small, the font just falls apart – skipping lines/pixels – it ain’t nice. It’s really a pain in the butt to go and change your graphics options every time you wish to use the BLT. I’m sure ArenaNet has bigger fish to fry at the moment, but I really hope they are aware of this and that it makes it onto their to-do list at some point.

I’m noticing a very odd problem at the moment, where there is continual lag spikes – one moment my skills would work okay, but then it starts lagging, up to the point where my character rubber-bands quite severely when I use skills that launch or propel my character forward.

I’ve run the usual diagnostic stuff – tracert to the servers shows no problem (around 280ms, which is quite normal while connecting from South Africa), no packet loss or anything out of the ordinary that I can see. I did double check with our local ISP and telecom provider, no problems there.

The only thing I can think of, is server-side lag. I’m playing on Aurora Glade (EU). Some players have been mentioning network lag in map chat, but it seems very sporadic. Hopefully the tech guru’s at ArenaNet could assist or advise. If any additional info is needed, I’d me more than happy to provide it.

Many thanks.

EDIT: I’ve run the client with the -diag option and I have the info on hand. Is it safe to paste it here, or do I send it some other way i.e. their support system or e-mail?

I have submitted a bug report on this a while back. Yes, it’s an issue for me as well. I run a 1920×1080 setup, (monitor at native resolution) and I prefer to have the interface set as “small”.

The new font or typeface ArenaNet implemented in the game works brilliantly for all UI elements, except for the Black Lion Trading Company interface, specifically the gem shop. The old font seems to discard lines of pixels, making the reading of gem prices and the description of items very hard, to near impossible, to read.

I’ve encountered an issue with certain audio elements from your character disappearing at times – i.e. the footsteps or running sounds of your character, skills sounds etc. This happens regardless of how the audio latency is set in-game. (EDIT: Please see my comment below about vistas – this seems to tie in directly with this problem).

In addition to that, I’ve also noticed that sounds sometimes “boots-up” very slowly when you use the fast-travel system, or if you use a portal or asura gate to port into another section of the game world – basically, wherever you see a loading screen. Some sounds also never appear again i.e. the footsteps example noted above, unless you completely exit the game.

I’m using a Roland UA-25EX sound card, running a Core i7 2600K rig with 16Gb ram and Win7 64bit. If any other other information is required, I’d be more than happy to provide it. Also, I’ve submitted an in-game bug report, but there doesn’t seem to be a sufficient category for this type of stuff, so I wrote this post as well, just in case.