Graphics... fix this now!(I want, we want...)

[MacIronhawk]

Notice the Man o' War in this picture.
This is on high graphics. Before the update ships did NOT look boxy from far away. They looked pretty decent, but now... I want to ask who thought of this. I don't care if it takes away lag, I want to see real looking ships.


From Sven Niscadae in another thread.(after going to the panda 3d website I actually saw many posts on their forum where people asked if the memory leak would ever be fixed)

If Disney wants to combat performance issues, they need to seriously look into fixing the memory leak that their Panda3D games have had since they engineered it. There's really no reason why this game should be taking 50-70% of a computer's CPU when the same computer can run a much more graphically advanced MMO while taking only 20-30%. I don't really have too much hope for that solution though. ToonTown Online has been plagued by the same memory leak since its inception. If you contact Disney, support is likely to say to just restart the game or close any other open programs. Not a good solution, imo.

So... why have they been wasting time downgrading graphics instead of actually work on trying to fix that?

POTCO would be great if they didn't have bugs like this. So wouldn't it make more sense to be working on upgrading graphics and having more options as far as graphics?

With the new update a "new" fog system came out. Why can't be turn it off, because it looks hazy. I'm so picky when it comes to graphics, but I'm sure some of you are, too. So why Disney?

Come on, work on upgrading graphics and fixing that leak Disney. POTCO and toontown both have potential, but if you constantly put performance before graphics, the game is going to look ugly eventually. Fix that leak and then you won't need to worry about making ships boxy when they're far away.

That's just my opinion, though.

P.S. Just shot a ghost ship. No sounds for when the cannon balls hit it. They went right through the ship, but did damage.

The graphics stayed boxy until it was a war ship away from me. The masts moving is cool, but it's not realistic. One mast even jumped from the ship when it went off! If you're going to work on cool things like that, don't do a muddy job...

[lostmymarbles]

I understand your frustration Mac. I've long mourned the loss of swaying trees. The only place you can still see them is on Cuba and the other small islands. Not to mention the loss of farm animals wandering around town.

I really miss the better graphics.

[CarribeanThunder]

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

POTCO would be great if they didn't have bugs like this. So wouldn't it make more sense to be working on upgrading graphics and having more options as far as graphics? Yes, it would.

With the new update a "new" fog system came out. Why can't be turn it off, because it looks hazy. I'm so picky when it comes to graphics, but I'm sure some of you are, too. So why Disney?

Come on, work on upgrading graphics and fixing that leak Disney. POTCO and toontown both have potential, but if you constantly put performance before graphics, the game is going to look ugly eventually. Fix that leak and then you won't need to worry about making ships boxy when they're far away.
Toontown hasn't been getting much attention lately.

That's just my opinion, though.

P.S. Just shot a ghost ship. No sounds for when the cannon balls hit it. They went right through the ship, but did damage. It does that, which would kinda make sense, since it is a "ghost" ship. But it's solid, so that doesnt count.

The graphics stayed boxy until it was a war ship away from me. The masts moving is cool, but it's not realistic. Moving sails is cool, but the fact that they wobble when hit ( unless that's what you mean ), THAT'S not realistic. Or it could be, if they worked on it a little bit more, and tried to find the proper way to balance it out. One mast even jumped from the ship when it went off! If you're going to work on cool things like that, don't do a muddy job... The sails have always jumped off. Most likely, if you were really shooting a cannon at a REAL mast ( mainly a small one ), it would likely jump off when the cannonball collides with the wood. The Main Masts just fall right down. So there's your realism.

Comments are within the quote.

[MacIronhawk]

By jump I really mean JUMP.

These masts are like bunny rabbits. Real wooden masts would jump exactly like that. Odds are they would a bit, but it wouldn't look like that. They'd be better off making them fall down like in the movies.

Also... wood splintering in the future would be nice.

Whatever compelled the guys at Disney to make POTCO look like Runescape is an evil, evil thing...

Not saying I'm against the guys at Disney, I just wish they would work on making the game better... :/

[Cpt. Charlotte Doyle]

i seem to have memories of splintering wood at some point... anyone else? or is that the rum?

[JakeTheSnake]

I hadn't noticed the ships looking that boxy that close. Maybe I haven't seen a really big ship like a Man-O-War from far away yet, though, as I've mostly been hanging out around PR and Tortuga. I'll have to look again.

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

I don't care if it takes away lag, I want to see real looking ships.

So you're saying you'd rather play with ships sliding around on the water and barely able to hit them because of the lag? Personally, I'd rather actually be able to sink the ship at 50% visual perfection than have a lag-unsinkable ship at 100% visual perfection. But that's just me.

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

Whatever compelled the guys at Disney to make POTCO look like Runescape is an evil, evil thing...

For what it's worth, the image you posted above is a far, FAR cry from:

[william kid]

remember the skele figure that used to be on the ships- It seems the more they mess with it the more they mess up- I like the new game content they have put out in the last while but they need to leave the graphics be

[Dockwrecker The Privateer]

Just curious.Did they take drivers off ships too?Because I haven't been seeing any.

I'm so picky when it comes to graphics

I'm OCD about them.

[ex8404]

Originally Posted by william kid

remember the skele figure that used to be on the ships- It seems the more they mess with it the more they mess up

Wow. I completely forgot about the Skeleton Figureheads on the ships... Ships are like a plain brown paper bag now... it's a shame, really....

[Dockwrecker The Privateer]

I think if we want to change many things back we should tell D as soon as we can and continue to say such so that they know it is a large problem.

[MacIronhawk]

Originally Posted by JakeTheSnake

I hadn't noticed the ships looking that boxy that close. Maybe I haven't seen a really big ship like a Man-O-War from far away yet, though, as I've mostly been hanging out around PR and Tortuga. I'll have to look again.

So you're saying you'd rather play with ships sliding around on the water and barely able to hit them because of the lag? Personally, I'd rather actually be able to sink the ship at 50% visual perfection than have a lag-unsinkable ship at 100% visual perfection. But that's just me.

I'm sorry that you couldn't see the boxy man-o-war in the picture, but I can, and it looked much better before the update.

Sliding around the water? Even when it's laggy ships don't "slide" on the water. It's more like twitching. And is it really that bad to ask for them to keep it the way it was before the update?

Ships up close look great! However, from far away I think most of us can agree that it looks like a few sticks stuck on a boxy. The sails are completely flat and straight, unlike before the update where from far away they looked fine. There wasn't much lag because they lowered the graphics on ships.

The close you got, the better they looked.

Now... it's either boxy, or great graphics.

Also, it took me a total of seven minutes to log on today. Before the update, it took maybe thirty seconds. It shouldn't take that long.

(I'm running on a windows vista and experience no lag what-so-ever for long periods of times. I don't understand why they downgrade the graphics so there's less lag when better computers with more memory are coming out.)

Not to mention if the panda3D engine itself has a leak, they should FIX THAT, and NOT lower the graphics. This game is beautiful up close but from far away... it's just ugly.

At least, Disney, make it so players can take away the boxy graphics through options so we can CHOOSE whether we want lag or not.(depending on your computer)
Like I said, beautiful game, but Disney keeps making it ugly because they'd rather downgrade graphics than fix a memory leak.(they also think the majority of their players play on a windows 98...)

Off the soap box... again.

[william kid]

I noticed tonight that when you shoot the sails they no longer get holes in them or didn't look like it to me-is it important, is it critical to game play-no but it just makes the game less real and as Mac said ugly

[JakeTheSnake]

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

I'm sorry that you couldn't see the boxy man-o-war in the picture, but I can, and it looked much better before the update.

Like I said, beautiful game, but Disney keeps making it ugly because they'd rather downgrade graphics than fix a memory leak.(they also think the majority of their players play on a windows 98...)

Off the soap box... again.

What I originally meant was that I hadn't noticed it in the game. I can see it clearly in the screenshot, but it looks like they've fixed that. Possibly with that short update they did a couple days ago. On live I'm not seeing them be that boxy model that close. I think they turn into the boxy model from a long way away, but it's really hard to tell. One that that is not fixed is the flat sails, which is really annoying, because it seems to be a medium distance that they suddenly go flat. From far away they're curved and billowing, then as you get closer they go flat, then they go curvy again. Really weird.

Also, I find it terribly hard to believe that they're not willing to fix a memory leak and instead would resort to downgrading graphics. Not to mention that the two really don't have much to do with each other - downgrading graphics is primarily a graphics card issue where a memory leak is a CPU/RAM issue. Where did this memory leak rumor even start? Is there any proof to it or is it just something that someone took out of context and now is being blamed for everything? Don't get me wrong, I think D went way too far in trying to make the seas run smoother by giving us boxy models, but I also know how forums can be in that one person makes an unsubstantiated claim and suddenly everyone takes it as the gospel truth.

[ex8404]

Is it just me or did this game run WAY better 6 months ago? You know, before all the improvements?

[Aaron McEagle]

Test seems fast since padres update...

They are listening and graphics seems a ton better