PFX Memory & Performance Testing

CirithValaria

Both sliders on lowest (default):

Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you?
In small scale battles it was better than before, but bigger ones are still a bit chaotic (but improved).

Did you see all the important effects happening around you?
Almost all the time (excluding the 10+ impulse spammers around me situations, but I guess those are rather important to see too:)

Did you always see effects from your own abilities?
Mostly, but few effects disappeared. For example: occasionally my cleansing ritual completely covered my rune focus (never happened before).

Are the UI sliders useful to you?
I would say so yes. Sliders are always only good! More sliders please.

Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle Density” further than the current minimum setting?
Default as it was now is good, but option to reduce it further would be great (for some situations).

Does this system improve your overall combat experience?
It does. Particle systems and distance on default had 20-30 better fps on large scale battle than what it had on when particle systems were maxed.
Visually battle was slightly clearer, but I think biggest +++++ was the improved performance.

Overall:
I think it was good!
No crashes for me - better performance - slightly better and clearer visually.
BUT I'm not sure if I got my headache from being in sauna too long before pts or was it these new pfx particles that messed my brains - or the whiskey....

Circuitous

1. Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you?
   • I saw bats a lot. With so many healing and buff effects happening at once, it's hard to sort the good from the bad unless it's a big red ring.
2. Did you see all the important effects happening around you?
   • How would I know? Seemed like I did. Novas and Storm Atronachs and other big AOEs that often seemed neutered in big battles were in full effect. I kinda preferred them neutered, though... easier to see what was happening around them.
3. Did you always see effects from your own abilities?
   • Yes.
4. Are the UI sliders useful to you?
   • No. They do explain what they do, but the explanations aren't really meaningful. Is it 1,024 individual particles? 1,024 total effects with x many particles? What area does the density even cover?
5. Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle Density” further than the current minimum setting?
   • I maxed them out.
6. Does this system improve your overall combat experience?
   • I had much higher FPS in battle, but the battles were never especially large (maybe 20v20 max). Still a noticeable improvement even with the settings maxed and tons of effects going off.

JackFourth

Hello fellow adventurers,

It was really fun playing with the devs and I've recorded a bit, so I could rewatch the fight and give a more detailed opinion about PFX.

For information, I turned the particle distance all the way up and didn't change the other slide. I think my fps didn't drop to low, although I didn't turn my fps counter on.

1. Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you?
Yes, always, so I new when I should hide or not. I was ranging from the Keep's wall as a Nightblade, so I didn't get hit really often and when I did, I always saw the effect.

2. Did you see all the important effects happening around you?
I saw all effects on everybody, so I could know when some players were in need of help, it can help healers a lot in that matter.

3. Did you always see effects from your own abilities?
Like I said, I was ranging, so I didn't pay attention to my targets once they ran away, but I didn't miss any effects of my abilities hitting the target and some effects being applied on them, like for Focused Aim. I could also see the glow from swallow soul, so I knew when the healing effect of this ability was still active.

4. Are the UI sliders useful to you?
Yes, I don't have anything to say about it.

5. Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle Density” further than the current minimum setting?
My PC could handle the particle distance turned all the way up, so for me it wouldn't be something that should be done, but for other players, it might help for performance.

6. Does this system improve your overall combat experience?
Quite a lot, I always saw when I was on fire, so I could switch to my Dual Wield bar and use Dark Cloak to remove the effect. I didn't notice any other effects, but I didn't pay much attention.

So, basically, I didn't see many changes in performance, but this wasn't a fight like on the live server. We should test it with a lot more people. I don't really have anything to say about PFX, everything went correctly. No crash, no effect bug or anything wrong.

Dev The Naked Nord was the best player out there. Keep up the good work guys and I hope you'll PvP with us again soon.

Lord Stark

Survey Questions

Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you?
Yes I did.

Did you see all the important effects happening around you?
Yes.

Did you always see effects from your own abilities?
Some times I got a lag in the animation switching weapons, but never any problems seeing my ability effects.

Are the UI sliders useful to you?
Very useful.

Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle Density” further than the current minimum setting?
Not me personally I prefer to play on ultra all settings turned up.

Does this system improve your overall combat experience?
Yes very pleased with the system and not having some of the same hitches I was having on the NA server definitely a step in the right direction.

Nice to see all you guys, come to the NA server one of these weekend nights and play with us in eg

Sacadon

Really enjoyed the PTS event today… Next time, minimally please give us enough AP so we can purchase forward camps etc...

Major issues:

• I was not able to break ANY CC... regardless of how much stamina I had or how many times I hit dodge-roll. I don’t think this is a new issue BTW??????
• My ultimate (Rite of Passage (Practiced Incantation)) did NOT work. This is the first time that I have experienced this in PvP or PvE. Specifically, I was NOT immune to enemy control effects or damage and died in under 2 seconds. Thinking that I may have hit it late or something was stacked on my, I tried again and same behavior.

Survey Questions

• Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you? Not always. I was knocked down twice. One moment I was standing, the next I was flat on my back. There was never a visual cue
• Did you see all the important effects happening around you? Most of the time.
• Did you always see effects from your own abilities? Yes
• Are the UI sliders useful to you? I believe they did change behavior. I’m not sure that everyone knows what “particle systems” are and the effects of changing them. How do I know when I’ve reduced this such that I will no longer see that someone next to me is attacking me? I know this is new, but this is vital information. The explanation on “particle distance” is clearer in what it changes but with no indication on distance.
• Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle Density” further than the current minimum setting? Would like to know what the in-game distance scale is and total number of enemy particle systems the sliders allow us to control. Initially I had both settings on default. After experiencing lag, I reduced both of them to their minimum and lag went away. As per my unknown events mentioned above where I was flattened w/out any cue… If I was able to reduce the settings past a point in which I don’t know who rolled-me, then the settings need a visual cue or warning to let us know they’re going to get hit by things they’ve no idea about in advance or afterwards.
• Does this system improve your overall combat experience? I do think having the flexibility to control this is beneficial. Just need better understanding on the impact of what is changed.

Misc:

• Looks like another sound was added for horses (sigh). When I land after jumping there’s a loud thump that is excessively loud relative to all else... mostly just a nuisance. I get that for RP and PvE this could enhance immersion, but the sound still needs to be leveled and not sure we need it in PvP.
• The sound on Force Shock was over-amplified with Update 3 and has a similar boom to the new horse landing. This one is better and more visceral than it was before, but it needs to be leveled.

Thanks!

Hookgrin

Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you?
With all the effects going on, it would be hard to know when you were failing to see one, but I was not aware of any missing.
Did you see all the important effects happening around you?
As far as I was able tell.
Did you always see effects from your own abilities?
I believe so.
Are the UI sliders useful to you?
I have not been in enough groups to play with the settings to see what effect they have, I left them at default for the test.
Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle Density” further than the current minimum setting?
It does get rather busy around flags and such but I would be afraid to dial it down and miss something I needed to see. My PC could handle the effects before the update, so no real need to lower them. Maybe in time after fiddling with the settings I might find an ideal setting. Now for those with PCs that can't keep up, I would think the ability to dial it down would be helpful.
Does this system improve your overall combat experience?
I had no problems with combat before, this certainly did not hinder it as far as I could tell. Though I did spend 2/3 of the hour riding a slow horse all the way back from the nearest Keep.

My only real issue during the entire test (lack of AP, etc. aside) was the ongoing problem with the mouse cursor losing focus after interacting with the UI, like bringing up the map etc. After you close it, the mouse has lost focus on the game, clicking in the game window does not fix it, your only option is to reach waaay over with your thumb to hit the period key every single time. It really adds significantly to the extra wear and tear on this old man's hands and wrists during PvP. I remember this being an issue in PvE a long time ago and it got fixed, but it has been like this in Cyrodiil all the time, for me anyway. Now if you could fix that, the Cyrodiil environment would be almost problem free for me.

Ravalox

Had loads of fun today! was nice play against the Devs, really made me feel good when able to cut them down and watch them fall into the muddy waters of death. .,.. er, um. I mean friendly combat.

Really; lets do these more often! Great interaction and allows for almost real world
visibility of how the mechanics will actually work.


Survey Questions

1. Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you?
   Yes, consistently too!
   
   
2. Did you see all the important effects happening around you?
   Yes.
   
3. Did you always see effects from your own abilities?
   Pretty sure I saw all of them occur and on time!
   
4. Are the UI sliders useful to you?
   Yes for sure.
   
5. Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle
   Density” further than the current minimum setting?
   Absolutely. I noticed that the Particle Range Slider was initially set to "1" and once I slid it up to test, I couldn't bring it back below 50. My FPS never fully recovered to what it was prior to messing with the slider either. (in other words, if the 1 was a real representation, then it would be beneficial for medium to low end systems to allow it to slide lower)
   
   I would think the same should apply to the PFX slider too, though when maxed out the effects were terrific!
   
6. Does this system improve your overall combat experience?
   No question. Keep up the great work!
   
   I would strongly suggest having at least two more of these events prior to publish. (especially have one after each up issue patch. Try to give us more time before having the event, and maybe make the event a little longer.
   
   Getting more and more Live server folks to download and play on the PTS in focused events is critical (IMHO). Today was good, what would be better is four times the number of players in one spot.
   

Looking forward to some more game time with y'all!

SLy_Kyti

Survey Questions
Did you see visual effects originating from enemies who killed you?

There were so many animation effects going off around me (especially around the flag) that it was like a fireworks show. In my face.
Orange circle- our Standard or theirs?, red circle? bad, green circle?good.
--- all on top of each other= move. Bat swarms? see red circle....input overload
However I did see the names of those who dared to kill me-- Dev Sage and Dev Patrick.


Did you see all the important effects happening around you?

I believe that combat cues, animation effects from skills being used against me and by me were much too bright, overly embellished and resulted in missing what might be called "the important ones" i.e. the tiny red or blue flags above the enemies head.


Did you always see effects from your own abilities?

No. in fact when playing on the PTS since patch 4. several skill effects were missing. I sent in a bug report.
And as mentioned above, I believe the animation effects are trying too hard to be an action flick. More is not always better.


Are the UI sliders useful to you?

No. If they weren't there I wouldn't miss them, except in the fact if they could be reduced, I would do so. Not from a FPS standpoint but because I miss too much peripheral information due to the garishness of them. So if they can be reduced further I would use them, if the sliders had better tooltips saying what they do for the not graphic lingo inclined it would be better as well. Density I understand, systems though?



Would you like to be able to reduce the “Particle Systems” or “Particle Density” further than the current minimum setting?

As stated above yes. Much more so.


Does this system improve your overall combat experience?

No. Stacking Siege in inventory- yes. Having a chance to earn more AP points to buy Forward camps- yes. Adding particle systems-no.


Suggestions:

• 
  Have the event/social person in charge give adequate notice next time, especially when changing the times. It could have been done the following Friday with more participation (with more notice).
  
• 
  Have more concern for the hard working folks at..well...work...and schedule it for when more are able to participate.
  
• 
  Do not announce which faction the Devs will be running with in advance (or at all). 25 v 30 v 80 is no fun.
  
• 
  Announcing that you had placed a forward camp on a resource for us actually made it a target. While the Devs might have had no notion to burn it down other players had no such hesitancy.
  
• While it was amusing to kill you all as you played your lutes waiting for us to schlep on slow horses from afar it was not lost on us that you were having a good time while we were working for it.

Thank you for allowing us to play with you on the PTS.