suggestion about player in water

[browserice]

I have a few suggestions I want to make specificly for when a Player is in water. If you want to reply, please stick to this subject and do not bring things of other situations.

- if camera moves underwater, you see the water surface as if it is a thin layer but everything else below it looks unaltered just like in the atmosphere above water. There is no discolorations, no refractions, no effects at all. You do not feel you are under water at all. Please add some effects to really give the impression the camera is under water. As an added bonus, maybe having distorted sounds too ? (I sent a ticket for that one)

- if player just stands still in water and is idle, it is always the same animation sequence that plays. I mean, if player is idle on the ground, you have several idle animations, so why not in water ? The player is just looking streight ahead and waves hands and feet to stay afloat. Have him look around, dive a bit to refresh his head, loose balance for a second or 2, ...

- another point when player is just idle in water, there is no water sounds ! He is displacing water to stay afloat and you see small ripple of water but there is no water sounds that goes with it.

- on Silan, in the underground tunnel half filled with water, you have water reflections on it but of the sky. There is no sky visible in the tunnel. It gets even worst, when it is night time, the water reflection in those tunnel is a night sky. Have the reflection changed for the tunnel ceilling. (I sent a ticket for that one)

I have been playing for almost 3 weeks and sent 10-15 tickets so far (bugs and suggestions). I do not remember all of them. I will try to post suggestions in this forum instead (unless we have to do it in another forum ?)

Any other suggestions related to player in water ?

[23857628]

*scratches her head*

Underwater Sphere:
Well, I think adding underwater graphical effects would slow down the game very badly, especially in the Liberty Lake.

Idle Anims:
I like that idea.

Swimming sounds:
I never noticed there wasn't any. High time to add it then, GF!

Water Surface:
There was a discussion about 'jumping' in Universe channel last night and I learned that the game is not real 3D. I think the same applies to water. It just applies the skylayer to it's reflection/refraction shader, as it doesn't even know, that there is a three dimensional ceiling above, except for the sky.

Ergo: I think it would take the same amount of code rewriting as for jumping, though I never understood why one would want to jump in a game he can reach anything ment to be reached on "flat" terrain.

[tr808]

Retorical question (probally typoed that one ) Ive read all ur post and suggestions, it makes me wonder if u are enjoying the game or are just looking around to see what can be aproved, the thing i would like to say to you is: try to enjoy the game as it is, if all the suggestions u are putting in dont get fixed u will only get dissapointed at some time, im not saying i disagree, but in all the beauty that Atys has to offer imo these are small points. I rather have the devs fixing real isuess like the heal bug in PVP. Please dont misunderstand my post and read it as a flame cuz it isnt ment in any way as that.

[odyvek]

I agree there with Mokdarion, while your suggestions are good. And i do agree with you that if they were implemented the world of Atys would be nicer. But most of what you suggest would indeed require an extensive code rewriting for the game, and id rather see devs spending their time on real bug fixes. pvp heal , broken quests etc.
Just my 2 cents

[iwojimmy]

Something I would like to see with water in computer games .. not just Ryzom .. is wet sand along the water line.
almost every gmae just has a straight transition from dry land to underwater, with slight ripples in the water surface but no ~zone~ of transition.

Maybe Far Cry did it, cant remember now, and they are advertising some kind of wave mechanics in Crysis, but generally speaking computer games dont do water very well at all.

I think the original Quake had visual distortion underwater - if you were running in software graphics, but if you were using 3Dfx Glide it had the reflective/translucent film surface then perfect transparency underneath.

Anyway.
These would be nice effects, but pretty much insignificant to the game. I would have no idea at all how hard they would be to implement,but given that no-one else does it either, Im not going to expect the Devs to put any time towards it.

Especially since the underwater scenery is so pretty - they probably dont want to mess up the view

[kaetemi]

- on Silan, in the underground tunnel half filled with water, you have water reflections on it but of the sky. There is no sky visible in the tunnel. It gets even worst, when it is night time, the water reflection in those tunnel is a night sky. Have the reflection changed for the tunnel ceilling. (I sent a ticket for that one)

You should go in there once while it's snowing ^^

There was a discussion about 'jumping' in Universe channel last night and I learned that the game is not real 3D. I think the same applies to water. It just applies the skylayer to it's reflection/refraction shader, as it doesn't even know, that there is a three dimensional ceiling above, except for the sky.

It is 'real' 3d, however, the thing is that environment borders are just layers of 2d maps with lines, if i remember correctly, and not the client checking the 3d environment itself, which would probly require a completely rewritten system to allow them to specify 'through' which borders you can jump.

[23857628]

It is 'real' 3d, however, the thing is that environment borders are just layers of 2d maps with lines, if i remember correctly, and not the client checking the 3d environment itself, which would probly require a completely rewritten system to allow them to specify 'through' which borders you can jump.

Heh, that's what I ment in the first place. Was just describing it the wrong way.

[kaetemi]

Heh, that's what I ment in the first place. Was just describing it the wrong way.

And for water reflections, I think they use pre-rendered reflection textures or something, because rendering real reflections like in HL2 and all that, takes a bit of rendering time =)

[browserice]

Retorical question (probally typoed that one ) Ive read all ur post and suggestions, it makes me wonder if u are enjoying the game or are just looking around to see what can be aproved, the thing i would like to say to you is: try to enjoy the game as it is, if all the suggestions u are putting in dont get fixed u will only get dissapointed at some time, im not saying i disagree, but in all the beauty that Atys has to offer imo these are small points. I rather have the devs fixing real isuess like the heal bug in PVP. Please dont misunderstand my post and read it as a flame cuz it isnt ment in any way as that.

Au contraire mon capitaine, I enjoy the game alot. In fact it turned out to be my favorite game. I am merly doing suggestions to improve the game. The game is great but it still has lots of potentials and improvements needed. That doesn't mean that I play like 30 second and then all of a sudden "Hey a bug" or "Hey an improvement". I don't go around looking for things to report. I play the game.

Also, why do you think the game has different level of graphic setings for ? Maybe not all people can afford to have underwater effects but if the Ryzom folks made HIGH graphic available, then it is for those that can afford it. So if people cannot afford to have underwater effects, then simply do not choose the setings for it.

I am not talking specificly to you to get back at you. My response is aimed at the general public.


Also, I am aware of how long it takes just to implement code : analysis, implementation, testing, approval, update, acceptance testing, beta testing, schedule the change, addit into a patch, distribute the patch. You are looking at a minimum of 6 months just there. I have done application support for 10 years on major projects with 100 times more money involved then this.

[browserice]

And for water reflections, I think they use pre-rendered reflection textures or something, because rendering real reflections like in HL2 and all that, takes a bit of rendering time =)

I know what you meant. Just take an image and use that image as reflection. It is a faster process then reflecting real world surroundings. But again, if different graphic levels are available, then consider having real reflections as UBER graphic level.

These are just suggestions, the DEV can do whatever they want with them, even not looking at all. Anyone can make suggestions. It will be up to the DEV team to decide what to do with them, not the community. Everyone has to right to express their opinions, I always respect that and in fact, encourage it.


Oh and I forgot, my posting in here is following a CSR suggestions.