Grass animation?

Bozrah

Recently i noticed that while looking at the grass and flowers in ESO something i didnt expect happened. While looking down and rotating my screen, i noticed that the grass and flowers both seemed to follow the rotation of my screen. I then looked up and noticed that this also happened with some of the clouds as well, rotating my screen in a circular motion would move the clouds . Is this normal?
My graphics settings are set to ultra.
This really reminds me of old school Doom or Chex quest.


Example : Moving around the ship in the screen shot would rotate the ship to always face you.

[Moderation note: There was something wrong with the embedded image posted - it showed advertisement, so we removed it.]

RSram

Yes, its normal; It is 1981 graphics technology at its finest. Used in the first 2D/3D shooter called Castle Wolfenstein and later in 1993 in Doom.

The grass and clouds are flat images that rotate towards the camera as you rotate your character to give the illusion of 3D. The illusion works as long as you don't view the objects from extreme angles like you posted.

The reason it is still used is because it is an efficient, fast method, and the most compatible method to draw a large number of background objects on the screen.

I turn off the grass because I just notice it too much; ESO still looks just as good without the grass, and it is easier to find nodes to harvest without wasting skill points.

Lord_Kreegan

@RSram is correct. It is a 2D-plane with a texture placed on it oriented perpendicular to the camera view vector (so no matter what direction the camera faces, you get the same view). The amount of memory required to do this is much less than that rquired for 3D objects; the amount of processing required to "animate" it is dramatically less (animation is accomplished simply by changing the texture).

The first time I saw it used extensively in an MMORPG was in LotRO. It was actually quite noticeable. It's not bad at all in ESO unless you're actually looking for it.

log234

Yeah, I generally don't notice it myself. Yet, I really wish there was a really efficient way to render 3D grass/etc., but oh well, that time will come eventually.

RSram

log234 wrote: »

Yeah, I generally don't notice it myself. Yet, I really wish there was a really efficient way to render 3D grass/etc., but oh well, that time will come eventually.

It's already here, but not in ESO. ESO is using five year old graphics technology that was to designed to be compatible with PC, and console systems at that time period. So using 2D planes to render grass and other items at a distance ensures future compatibility.

The latest game engines such as the Unreal and CryEngine can render grass and other items in true 3D, but you need a high end graphics card to take advantage of this option.

The trade off is that ESO can run smoother on more game systems than any of the latest game engines I previously mentioned which translates into more sales and money.

The lag that some players are getting in the PVP areas, I believe is more to do with the network code at the ESO servers than with the ESO game client because the game client has to wait for the ESO servers to send it information before the it can update the players screen. This not easy to synchronize 250 players in PVP where each player is connecting at a different upload and download speeds which also vary in latency.

Gidorick

Sprites! Ftw!