RE: Housing and Resolution and Brightness Drop after 5 minutes

Wolf_Eye · April 16

Reduced GPU use during player inactivity (PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5): There's no reason for your device to be working so hard when you aren't doing anything. The game already checks that after 20 minutes of being inactive, our servers will kick players out to the main menu, where power consumption is minimal. Until that happens, though, it can be wasteful. The game client will now drop the resolution in half if it has not detected any input for 5 minutes. It will also impose a 30fps cap while inactive. This results in our power consumption going from 65% down to 24% when in Performance Mode when you are AFK.

Screen dimming while inactive (PC): All major consoles have an OS level setting to do this but there is no PC counterpart, so ESO now includes one built in for PC. At the same time your resolution drops, we will dim the screen on a PC client. We felt it worthwhile since the data we found shows that screens that are not as bright will consume less power, especially for LED/OLED screens.

Look, I get that there are more important things going on right now, and that maybe a lot of people don't care about this, but this kind of bothers me.

The whole reason I buy houses and spend enormous amounts of time and money decorating them is for myself. It's so that I can admire them, and the work I've done. So I can sit back, relax, and pretend that I'm spending an easy day at the beach while at my Grand Topal Hideaway or a relaxing day in the beautiful gardens of the Grand Psijic Villa.

That's going to be harder to do if I have to jiggle my mouse every 5 minutes because the game has decided that my free viewing time is over. There is nothing in the patch notes that suggests that this will be an optiont to toggle on or off, so I must assume that everyone will be forced to deal with this.

And I get that this is trying to be helpful and save us our GPUs and stuff, but it's just one more thing that's taken from our control. We already have a 20 minute logout timer. Five minutes really isn't a long time, and I know for a fact that I've admired a view for much longer.

I dunno. It just bothers me a bit that I'm going to be stress-forcing myself to move every five minutes when I'm trying to enjoy the houses I worked so hard on. I'm sorry.

MoonPile · April 16

That's a really good point actually. It should be optional. Idk if it is since we're all booted now...

What if you're recording video? This might be silly or niche to some but I've done this kind of thing:

https://youtu.be/qubLOd0WEZ0

I certainly don't want it to dim during. And there are surely other use cases besides ours.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · April 16

I’m willing to see it in action first, but I agree this seems like an odd thing to spend dev time on. Take, for example, the current event - there are five minutes between boss spawns. How distracting is this going to be?

Wolf_Eye · April 16

MoonPile wrote: »

That's a really good point actually. It should be optional. Idk if it is since we're all booted now...

What if you're recording video? This might be silly or niche to some but I've done this kind of thing: https://youtu.be/qubLOd0WEZ0

I certainly don't want it to dim during. And there are surely other use cases besides ours.

Yeah they had taken down the servers before I could get home and check to see if it is optional or not.

Given the issues with the PTS, this might be a blessing in disguise for my toons and accounts; I know I probably would have deleted a few of my toons to make a new template toon, and would have been in for a nasty surprise when I found them deleted on live too.

And yes!! Your video is FANTASTIC!!

This is exactly the sort of thing I love, I'm very happy you are willing to share this!!

And yeah, if it's not optional, then you would have to do an obligatory mouse movement or something of the sort in order to keep it from dimming.

Sometimes you just want to admire the view and play music.

Wolf_Eye · April 16

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

I’m willing to see it in action first, but I agree this seems like an odd thing to spend dev time on. Take, for example, the current event - there are five minutes between boss spawns. How distracting is this going to be?

Yeah. I just don't know and I don't think anyone has tested it out yet. The PTS wasn't up for very long, and I'm sure people were more interested in checking out the new houses or the new chapter elements. This was probably not a very high priority item on the list for a lot of people to check out.

And you raise a good point. But also, what would the game consider "activity"? I'm making the assumption that any mouse movement or key movement would keep it from dimming, but what if that is not the case? That's something that needs to be checked as well.

ArchangelIsraphel · April 16

I hope this is optional. If it's a forced setting, then its pretty ridiculous.

I bought my computer, I pay for my electricity. It's my choice as to what I want to do with both. I don't need a company deciding for me that I should be placed in some kind of low power mode I didn't ask for.

And no thank you to the resolution drop. Just don't even touch my resolution. You aren't doing me any favors saving power I never asked you to save.

This is going to be a nightmare for people who need to stay still to pose multiple players in a screenshot also >_>

MoonPile · April 16

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

MoonPile wrote: »

That's a really good point actually. It should be optional. Idk if it is since we're all booted now...

What if you're recording video? This might be silly or niche to some but I've done this kind of thing: https://youtu.be/qubLOd0WEZ0

I certainly don't want it to dim during. And there are surely other use cases besides ours.

Yeah they had taken down the servers before I could get home and check to see if it is optional or not.

Given the issues with the PTS, this might be a blessing in disguise for my toons and accounts; I know I probably would have deleted a few of my toons to make a new template toon, and would have been in for a nasty surprise when I found them deleted on live too.

And yes!! Your video is FANTASTIC!! This is exactly the sort of thing I love, I'm very happy you are willing to share this!!

And yeah, if it's not optional, then you would have to do an obligatory mouse movement or something of the sort in order to keep it from dimming.

Sometimes you just want to admire the view and play music.

Thank you! Glad you like it; I made one of one of the Qanun bards too too, so relaxing. I would like to admire the views and music some more... and now I'm one of the players locked out for several days, due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Fischblut · April 16

I don't have PTS, so I can't test it myself. But based on patch notes wording, I'm really worried

I hope somebody can test it and record video so we all can see it in action.

My display is on low brightness all the time already (it's comfortable and my own preference).
I already limit my FPS at all times to half of my screen's refresh rate, and I use one of newer options in ESO (limit of 30 FPS when game is not in focus).
I do not need any more options, especially those which can change my resolution and set brightness to lowest.

I play in windowed fullscreen mode, because I alt-tab alot in all games and I watch videos almost constantly when playing games (it's not possible to watch videos like this if the game is in fullscreen mode). I also often read different sites and forums, and write posts (like at the moment) while my game is running on the background and my character stands afk in some safe city spot or in housing. I do not understand how will the game behave with new "power saving" options? Will it lower my resolution and brightness while the game's window is not active? I will be very angry if it does

Wolf_Eye · April 16

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

I hope this is optional. If it's a forced setting, then its pretty ridiculous.

I bought my computer, I pay for my electricity. It's my choice as to what I want to do with both. I don't need a company deciding for me that I should be placed in some kind of low power mode I didn't ask for.

And no thank you to the resolution drop. Just don't even touch my resolution. You aren't doing me any favors saving power I never asked you to save.

This is going to be a nightmare for people who need to stay still to pose multiple players in a screenshot also >_>

Yeah it does feel a little bit...."big brotherly" (I apologize, but I don't know how else to describe it). Many people spend lots of money to buy expensive graphics cards, and they do that with the intention of actually using them to their full function. Having an imposed limiter feels like it defeats the purpose.

Especially since all these features are graphics features, which are entirely client side. Screen brightness isn't going to improve the servers, only decrease the amount an individual's graphics card works (and also the amount of effort your monitor works too). Which, if you shelled out money for a great graphics card, is not something you really worry about.

You want to see and enjoy that fantastic full resolution scenary that the graphics card provides, the one you skipped meals saved up for. People like their graphics, people pay for great graphics. All these different GPUs floating on the market would be pointless if that was not the case.

Wolf_Eye · April 16

MoonPile wrote: »

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

MoonPile wrote: »

That's a really good point actually. It should be optional. Idk if it is since we're all booted now...

What if you're recording video? This might be silly or niche to some but I've done this kind of thing: https://youtu.be/qubLOd0WEZ0

I certainly don't want it to dim during. And there are surely other use cases besides ours.

Yeah they had taken down the servers before I could get home and check to see if it is optional or not.

Given the issues with the PTS, this might be a blessing in disguise for my toons and accounts; I know I probably would have deleted a few of my toons to make a new template toon, and would have been in for a nasty surprise when I found them deleted on live too.

And yes!! Your video is FANTASTIC!! This is exactly the sort of thing I love, I'm very happy you are willing to share this!!

And yeah, if it's not optional, then you would have to do an obligatory mouse movement or something of the sort in order to keep it from dimming.

Sometimes you just want to admire the view and play music.

Thank you! Glad you like it; I made one of one of the Qanun bards too too, so relaxing. I would like to admire the views and music some more... and now I'm one of the players locked out for several days, due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I saw your other videos! I will be saving them to favs to revisit for the relaxing vibes. Thank you so much for making them and sharing on Youtube!

I am so sorry to hear about the login issues (related to the PTS issues, I imagine).

I hope that ZOS resolves this issue quickly and gets you back home to Tamriel. Khajiit must play more music!!

I almost got caught up in this, too. If I hadn't been delayed at work for most of the day, I'd have logged into the PTS to explore, too. Just by the skin of my teeth, I never got to log in.

Wolf_Eye · April 29

MoonPile wrote: »

That's a really good point actually. It should be optional. Idk if it is since we're all booted now...

What if you're recording video? This might be silly or niche to some but I've done this kind of thing: https://youtu.be/qubLOd0WEZ0

I certainly don't want it to dim during. And there are surely other use cases besides ours.

I am so sorry, Moonpile. But there seems no way to disable this feature on PTS or turn it down.

I am sorry I did not get back to you sooner. I have been very very sick with a chronic issues lately.

I am very sad this will be implemented.

MoonPile · April 29

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

MoonPile wrote: »

That's a really good point actually. It should be optional. Idk if it is since we're all booted now...

What if you're recording video? This might be silly or niche to some but I've done this kind of thing: https://youtu.be/qubLOd0WEZ0

I certainly don't want it to dim during. And there are surely other use cases besides ours.

I am so sorry, Moonpile. But there seems no way to disable this feature on PTS or turn it down.

I am sorry I did not get back to you sooner. I have been very very sick with a chronic issues lately.

I am very sad this will be implemented.

Hey thank you for replying!

I'm back in the game and PTS now. I do hope they will add the option later, I don't understand why not.

For example, my system is way above spec for ESO, it should be my choice if I want to use this "performance" mode (and honestly I would, most of the time!) or temporarily turn it off for whatever reason.

I left feedback within the game also, though it feels futile.