Gold Road patch notes: New Environmental Sustainability Features... Can we turn these off?

BetweenMidgets · June 3

I agree with others - ZoS should not be making these changes and decisions for us. [snip]

True MVP is definitely @Vynera .

[edited for bashing]

davidtk · June 3

Does anyone knows why the hell is FPS capped at 120 after update?
Even after turning off that "Greta mode" can't go more than 120 fps.
ZoS rly nobody asked for this. I will decide what will run on my PC and not some green eco who knows who.

SkaiFaith · June 3

jaws343 wrote: »

SkaiFaith wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

SkaiFaith wrote: »

Vynera wrote: »

Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\UserSettings.txt

Find and edit following lines:

SET EnergySustainabilityMeasuresEnabled "1"
SET BACKGROUND_FPS_LIMIT "30"
SET USE_BACKGROUND_FPS_LIMIT "1"

1=Enabled
0=Disabled

Edit & Save while the game is fully closed, the settings are applied on the next start.

As someone who noticed these changes on PTS notes and expressed dislike, your sharing is awesome!

Unfortunately those on consoles like me won't have this alternative.

Quite ironically, I think people's opinion on the game will be "performance capped and dimmer"...

Console have literally had screen dimming when idle for as long as I can recall. It has zero impact on virtually anything functionality wise. And if anything, it is a nice visual reminder that I was distracted long enough for the game to start idling.

You are right, and it's always such a good feeling to invest in the "most powerful console" or GPU + TV/Monitor to get frame capped, so, so nice!
Especially for those who record, the dimming thing is a must.................... (If I'm correct, I read after 5 minutes of inactivity, which I think it was 10 or 15 on the console OS, at least back then, I'm not sure now).

If you are sitting around idle long enough for the game to dim or dip in frame rate, you aren't engaging with the game anyways and performance is meaningless.

And console has always been around 5-10 minutes to dim. 15 mins is logging you out for inactivity.

I won't change your mind and you won't change mine - no reason to take further this argument.

Consoles or PCs - many players won't be happy about this, and it's already showing (and it was showing even on PTS).

jaws343 · June 3

SkaiFaith wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

SkaiFaith wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

SkaiFaith wrote: »

Vynera wrote: »

Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\UserSettings.txt

Find and edit following lines:

SET EnergySustainabilityMeasuresEnabled "1"
SET BACKGROUND_FPS_LIMIT "30"
SET USE_BACKGROUND_FPS_LIMIT "1"

1=Enabled
0=Disabled

Edit & Save while the game is fully closed, the settings are applied on the next start.

As someone who noticed these changes on PTS notes and expressed dislike, your sharing is awesome!

Unfortunately those on consoles like me won't have this alternative.

Quite ironically, I think people's opinion on the game will be "performance capped and dimmer"...

Console have literally had screen dimming when idle for as long as I can recall. It has zero impact on virtually anything functionality wise. And if anything, it is a nice visual reminder that I was distracted long enough for the game to start idling.

You are right, and it's always such a good feeling to invest in the "most powerful console" or GPU + TV/Monitor to get frame capped, so, so nice!
Especially for those who record, the dimming thing is a must.................... (If I'm correct, I read after 5 minutes of inactivity, which I think it was 10 or 15 on the console OS, at least back then, I'm not sure now).

If you are sitting around idle long enough for the game to dim or dip in frame rate, you aren't engaging with the game anyways and performance is meaningless.

And console has always been around 5-10 minutes to dim. 15 mins is logging you out for inactivity.

I won't change your mind and you won't change mine - no reason to take further this argument.

Consoles or PCs - many players won't be happy about this, and it's already showing (and it was showing even on PTS).

I think you are missing my point, this is already a thing on consoles. So if you are on console, literally nothing is changing for you. So, there is no need to cry doom on console when this has already been a thing. And the game still functions and nothing is inhibiting players playing on console because the screen dims when they stop playing for a little bit.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · June 3

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

We were complaining about it on the PTS forum too. It was very much active on the PTS, with similar objections expressed.

Hear hear.

Vynera wrote: »

Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\UserSettings.txt

Find and edit following lines:

SET EnergySustainabilityMeasuresEnabled "1"
SET BACKGROUND_FPS_LIMIT "30"
SET USE_BACKGROUND_FPS_LIMIT "1"

1=Enabled
0=Disabled

Edit & Save while the game is fully closed, the settings are applied on the next start.

@Vynera may I add a link to your post in my sig?

Vynera · June 3

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

@Vynera may I add a link to your post in my sig?

Sure, feel free to do so

Alinhbo_Tyaka · June 3

Vynera wrote: »

vsrs_au wrote: »

I can understand making the game behave differently to try to save more power, but dimming the display? That's outside the game's scope, and makes it more like malware.

It might be a wrong wording, it's not changing the monitor/display settings or something beyong the application, it's changing the game brightness or adding an dark overlay effect when this energy saving mode is active.

Here are two screenshots in windowed mode, you can see clearly it's just the game settings that get adjusted. It's not my whole screen or any windows/system/display/monitor things that change.

That's going to make it hard to monitor what's going on in ESO while you are off in another window waiting for something to happen in game. An example is while waiting for other players to show up for a world boss I will frequently catch up on news keeping an eye out for their arrival. Looking at your pictures it appears that won't work well after this update. At least it appears it can be disabled, thanks for the setting info, that is until the next patch and ZOS decides to change the variables or remove them.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · June 3

Vynera wrote: »

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

@Vynera may I add a link to your post in my sig?

Sure, feel free to do so

Done, thanks!

Desiato · June 3

I'm going to give it a shot. The climate crisis is real. One way or another, society will be forced to adapt to it. Proactive adaptation would be the least painful. Our individual contributions to the problem may seem small, but it all adds up to a crisis.

SkaraMinoc · June 3

davidtk wrote: »

Does anyone knows why the hell is FPS capped at 120 after update?
Even after turning off that "Greta mode" can't go more than 120 fps.
ZoS rly nobody asked for this. I will decide what will run on my PC and not some green eco who knows who.

Greta Mode 🤣

davidtk · June 3

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

davidtk wrote: »

Does anyone knows why the hell is FPS capped at 120 after update?
Even after turning off that "Greta mode" can't go more than 120 fps.
ZoS rly nobody asked for this. I will decide what will run on my PC and not some green eco who knows who.

Greta Mode 🤣

Friend came with this, so why not use it 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Tbh, screen dimm ok, without any other effect its acceptable but other not.

Anyway they updated something what capping my fps to 120 what make me rly angry.

Soarora · June 3

davidtk wrote: »

Does anyone knows why the hell is FPS capped at 120 after update?
Even after turning off that "Greta mode" can't go more than 120 fps.
ZoS rly nobody asked for this. I will decide what will run on my PC and not some green eco who knows who.

I saw this on PTS and thought it was weird, I was hoping it’d be just weirdness with the PTS…

Jaraal · June 3

Vynera wrote: »

What an immersion breaking downer. If someone is considering logging off, this should certainly tip the scales. One would think that they would be looking for ways to increase engagement, rather than stifle it.

Thank you for the workaround, though. Much appreciated. I would imagine someone is working on an addon to simplify the process as we speak... although I would assume that that had already been done during the PTS cycle. Perhaps I just missed it.

jaws343 wrote: »

If you are sitting around idle long enough for the game to dim or dip in frame rate, you aren't engaging with the game anyways and performance is meaningless.

There are plenty of times when I may be monitoring guild or zone chat while eating or doing something else, or watching keeps for enemy action, chatting with my group in Discord, being quiet during guild auctions, or something similar. Just because someone isn't pressing keys doesn't mean they aren't actively involved with the game.

Auora · June 3

I am having an issue where my monitor turns off for several seconds and then back on again, randomly, while actively playing. But especially while talking to the flappy winged one from the scribing quest line. I took a video of this, because it was getting so ridiculous.

I have never had my monitor turn off while playing ESO before, and usually this sort of turning off happens when the resolution changes - and I'm obviously not changing the resolution of the game while I am, say, in active combat.

davidtk · June 3

Soarora wrote: »

davidtk wrote: »

Does anyone knows why the hell is FPS capped at 120 after update?
Even after turning off that "Greta mode" can't go more than 120 fps.
ZoS rly nobody asked for this. I will decide what will run on my PC and not some green eco who knows who.

I saw this on PTS and thought it was weird, I was hoping it’d be just weirdness with the PTS…

Interesting, I playing in Window (Fullscreen) mode and there is 120 fps cap.
When I change it to Fullscreen, fps cap disappear.
@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno

Toanis · June 3

Some kudos should also go to the dev who added this setting, even if corporate policy didn't allow it in the UI.

Most of us will have classic LCD monitors with one backlight anyway, on those blocking the light with a screen full of black pixels should actually take an itty little bit of extra power.

Some power can be saved on monitors with dimmable backlight tiles, more on OLED monitors, but the real big deal are those of us stil playing on good old CRTs or plasma displays. 5% brightness = 95% energy saved!!!!!!111One!

SeaGtGruff · June 3

Syldras wrote: »

What counts as "inactivity", btw? Not moving your character around? No typing? No mouse movements?

I'm pretty sure it would have to be all three of those things at once-- i.e., no input being sent to the game client. If the game doesn't kick you to the login menu while you're typing RP messages in the chat, I doubt it will activate these energy-saving features while you're typing RP messages in the chat. But if you're recording bard songs without giving an occasional input of some kind, then yeah, I would think that counts as being completely AFK in the game.

SeaGtGruff · June 3

I'm going to live with these changes for a while before I decide whether or not to join the outrage parade. I have four cats and an elderly parent to look after, so I frequently have to get up for unplanned AFKs of uncertain length. Coming back and seeing a dimmed screen might be a nice reminder that I'd better do something in the game if I don't want to get kicked to the curb.

Syldras · June 3

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it would have to be all three of those things at once-- i.e., no input being sent to the game client. If the game doesn't kick you to the login menu while you're typing RP messages in the chat, I doubt it will activate these energy-saving features while you're typing RP messages in the chat. But if you're recording bard songs without giving an occasional input of some kind, then yeah, I would think that counts as being completely AFK in the game.

I actually got kicked out (back to login screen) once while scrolling through my inventory (I was cross-checking the furniture I have with handwritten notes for a project; with taking notes inbetween it must have been some minutes where I didn't click anything, only scrolled). I can't say for sure whether it was due to inactivity, but the message I got was the same that I had when I got logged off when being afk for some time. That's why I've been wondering what exactly counts as being "active" in ESO.

SkaiFaith · June 3

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

... I frequently have to get up for unplanned AFKs of uncertain length. Coming back and seeing a dimmed screen might be a nice reminder that I'd better do something in the game if I don't want to get kicked to the curb.

That's called FOBKO - the famous Fear Of Being Kicked Out

SeaGtGruff · June 3

SkaiFaith wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

... I frequently have to get up for unplanned AFKs of uncertain length. Coming back and seeing a dimmed screen might be a nice reminder that I'd better do something in the game if I don't want to get kicked to the curb.

That's called FOBKO - the famous Fear Of Being Kicked Out

Two of my cats suffer from that. The other two suffer from FONBLO (Fear Of Not Being Let Out).

Danikat · June 3

I tested this out while reading the patch notes and I don't think it's a big deal.

It only happens when you're completely inactive, if you're doing anything in the game - moving occasionally, looking at menus etc. it doesn't kick in.
It only affects the game window - I had my browser and Discord open on the same screen and both were unchanged.
It reverted instantly when I moused over the game window, back to my usual settings.
At least for me the screen went so dark that I couldn't really see the reduced frame rate (but then I have my screen brightness low anyway, because I use it for work so I'm often looking at text on a white background).

It is basically the same thing consoles already do. I've occasionally left a console game paused and gotten distract with other things and come back to the TV screen dimmed. I actually think it's a good reminder because if I leave it too long the TV turns itself off (I think it takes about 3 hours, but still) and I wouldn't want that to happen and then I completely forget I was running a game and just leave the console on. (Especially if it's the Switch which I normally put in a case when it's not in use so it's not balanced in the dock.)

I suspect most people will never see it, because I doubt many people leave the game running and look at the screen without actually doing anything at all in-game.

ArchangelIsraphel · June 3

Syldras wrote: »

Desiato wrote: »

I'm going to give it a shot. The climate crisis is real. One way or another, society will be forced to adapt to it. Proactive adaptation would be the least painful. Our individual contributions to the problem may seem small, but it all adds up to a crisis.

[snip]

Precicely this. Well said!

Had we been presented with this feature, along with in-game toggles to adjust different parameters within it, I'm sure we'd all feel quite differently.

Instead of setting the feature to "on" by default and providing no in game toggles, they should have done an article on adding it, the potential benefits, and shown how to adjust features and how they might be helpful.

There are likely people who would have willingly used some of the features had education been provided. Forced compliance is a much different feeling from willing participation.

But instead, they chose to treat us as though we are incapable of making choices on our own, and must have them made for us.

Preservation of autonomous decision making is important. Violate it, and people will become deaf to any good intent you might have had.

[edited to remove quote]

SkaiFaith · June 3

I quote the patch notes:

"Reduced GPU use in Contextual Menus (Xbox Series X|S and PS5): When viewing most menus, (eg. managing inventory, achievements, quest journal, etc) framerate is now capped to 30fps. Some menus are exempt on a case-by-case basis (eg. conversations, various mini-games). Testing in Performance Mode while in these menus shows a 50% reduction in GPU consumption, resulting in overall power consumption going from approximately 63% of the maximum possible on a console down to 37%."

Seems like many people are missing this point.

I won't say anything about it. Just wanted to highlight it since "console were always like this" might come from having missed this piece of info entirely.

As said before here by many others: my investment in hardware, my choice on how I make it perform - if you buy an AC and want to keep it on full power all summer it's your choice (just a random opinion, no necessity to look too deep into it).

SkaiFaith · June 3

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Desiato wrote: »

I'm going to give it a shot. The climate crisis is real. One way or another, society will be forced to adapt to it. Proactive adaptation would be the least painful. Our individual contributions to the problem may seem small, but it all adds up to a crisis.

[snip]

Precicely this. Well said!

Had we been presented with this feature, along with in-game toggles to adjust different parameters within it, I'm sure we'd all feel quite differently.

Instead of setting the feature to "on" by default and providing no in game toggles, they should have done an article on adding it, the potential benefits, and shown how to adjust features and how they might be helpful.

There are likely people who would have willingly used some of the features had education been provided. Forced compliance is a much different feeling from willing participation.

But instead, they chose to treat us as though we are incapable of making choices on our own, and must have them made for us.

Preservation of autonomous decision making is important. Violate it, and people will become deaf to any good intent you might have had.

100% agree. I couldn't have worded it better.

[edited to remove quote]

Wolf_Eye · June 3

Hello everyone. I'm....not doing so well lately. I have been very ill, off and on, and still waiting on specialist doctors to go see. So...I have not been able to participate in the forums as much as I would have liked.

I am so sorry for that. Special shout out apology to @Syldras , as I know you sent me private messages to try and cheer me up and I have just not been able to respond. I am so sorry.

I did want to try and write in this thread at least. As I know threads come and go very quickly sometimes.

I wanted to deeply thank you, @Vynera for these settings. I'm very grateful. Very, very grateful. And I wish you great luck in all that you plan to do.

And I'm very relieved to see many more people discussing this. I love sitting in my houses, the houses I worked so hard to build up, and the houses I had spent real money to get. I put so much effort and work into them...and I want to be able to enjoy the scenery I put my soul into making. Having only a 5 minute limit to do this feels annoying at best, and undermining at worst. I want to be able to sit in my homes and enjoy them for more than 5 minutes at a time. It's part of why I spent so much money in the first place; I should get my money's worth.

And like some other people have said, dimming a video game is unlikely to have much of an effect on anything. The sentiment is noted, but the manner of implementation (forced implementation) is not something that sits well with me.

I have said my piece. And I beg you all for forgiveness if I am not able to reply further. Thank you all for putting up with me.

ArchangelIsraphel · June 3

@Wolf_Eye I agree with everything you said, especially about the houses! I love my homes, and the screen going black really interrupts just chilling there.

I hope you feel better and that all goes well for you. You write some if my favorite posts on this forum and I look forwards to your return. Until then, you have my well wishes!

I_killed_Vivec · June 3

But...

PC EU. Haven't they been doing this forever?

I seem to get kicked to character selection after a variable amount of time of inactivity, usually between 5 and 10 minutes.

I get booted from character selection to the login page after 5 minutes (max).

Wolf_Eye · June 3

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

@Wolf_Eye I agree with everything you said, especially about the houses! I love my homes, and the screen going black really interrupts just chilling there.

I hope you feel better and that all goes well for you. You write some if my favorite posts on this forum and I look forwards to your return. Until then, you have my well wishes!

Thanks so much, @ArchangelIsraphel .

I really miss talking to you all.

tincanman · June 3

@ZOS_Kevin
@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom

note to mods: this is not bashing devs, this is a justifiable COMPLAINT about an unecessarily presumptious FEATURE that MUST be modified to meet user needs/expectations.

I have 2 x pv-solar 3.5kW arrays and 2 x 5kW wind turbines powering my home so energy consumption is NOT a problem for me or for the planet and its nearby sun, which are satisfactorily generating most of my power requirements.

Kindly inform the devs to bugger off with this 'feature' as is without a means to disable and/or configure it. This configuration patch must be deployed IMMEDIATELY! None of this "we'll do it some patch or other in future" rubbish - just fix the damned thing and push it to live NOW so I can turn it off because I don't need it as is and I certainly don't want it.

It is a HUGE imposition and they should be utterly ashamed of this childishly presumptious implementation, however 'good' but ridiculously naive the intentions may have been.

/seriously annoyed customer