Transition between glowing dot and planet model

Mephane · Dec 31, 2014

I am talking about this effect*:

In this particular example, it happens at ~3Ls, but it always seems to depend on the size of the planet or moon. I remember this transition occurring much earlier and much less obvious than this.

Was this mentioned in some patch notes? Is it even a bug, or intended behaviour?:S

*Sorry for the appalling quality of the GIF, I used the first free online GIF maker I could find. Here are the source images in full quality:

alkemdah · Dec 31, 2014

Mephane said:
I am talking about this effect*:

In this particular example, it happens at ~3Ls, but it always seems to depend on the size of the planet or moon. I remember this transition occurring much earlier and much less obvious than this.

Was this mentioned in some patch notes? Is it even a bug, or intended behaviour?:S

*Sorry for the appalling quality of the GIF, I used the first free online GIF maker I could find. Here are the source images in full quality:

I've noticed this too. It should change from bright point to actual planet model further out to allude to actual visible distance from point

Mephane · Dec 31, 2014

alkemdah said:
I've noticed this too. It should change from bright point to actual planet model further out to allude to actual visible distance from point

That's what it did before release. I have been out exploring for most of the Gamma phase, approached so many planets and never did I even notice this transition, it always happened so far away that it felt entirely natural.

Lobstris · Dec 31, 2014

Yeah, they changed it for the release, and it looks really bad, especially with ringed, gas-giant systems where the rings are plainly visible, but the planet isn't (and all surrounding moons are much brighter and more visible). Hopefully it will get reverted to the beta approach, or at least we'll get a slider to control the transition.
.

Janichsan · Dec 31, 2014

Could this be some settings and/or hardware (or driver) related thing? I'm running the game on an Nvidia GT650M (and Win 8.1) with high settings throughout and the transition is completely smooth and barely noticeable for me.

re7rix · Dec 31, 2014

I've noticed this recently too. It is quite immersion breaking. I'm sure I didn't notice it during Gamma. I think increasing the draw distance to maximum has helped but its still not right.

alkemdah · Dec 31, 2014

I'm on max everything settings wise. Honestly this is an easy variable change

Mephane · Dec 31, 2014

Janichsan said:
Could this be some settings and/or hardware (or driver) related thing? I'm running the game on an Nvidia GT650M (and Win 8.1) with high settings throughout and the transition is completely smooth and barely noticeable for me.

780 Ti here, everything set to maximum, and I have the jarring transition.

Edit: Another example of the effect, here we see the planet's actual model in a half-transparent state, therefore seeing through it onto the rings behind:

Janichsan · Jan 2, 2015

I actually had this pop-in effect yesterday also a few times and made an observation: it only occurs (for me) when the server connection is bad. Most of the time, the transition is fine for me, but when I had the pop-in, I always also had other problems with the connection, like long delays when dropping out of supercruise/hyperspace, and even disconnects.

Draven Darken · Jan 2, 2015

I've noticed this same change since the gamma, mainly on large planets, and I don't like it either. It temporarily destroys any suspension of disbelief in the game world. If this is a performance enhancement, I think they ought to provide us with a graphics slider to choose how far out we want those transitions to occur, because I'd definitely opt to make my transitions occur further out again given that I didn't have any particular performance problems in the gamma with the old behavior in place.

Ogidch · Jan 2, 2015

I get this also, all High settings using aan AMD Radeon HD6770, my system is only an i5 with 4GB ram and about 3 years old.
The game is playable even in Ultra mode, just had issues with frame rates with lots of ships at resource points, so toned it down to High.

Executive · Jan 2, 2015

All a matter of optimization and fine tuning, I am sure they will do that at some point - maybe because you pointed it out, thanks!

Muthax · Jan 2, 2015

AMD 280x and not seeing that too much, I get it sometimes just before the game 'skips' so to say, but that is not very often.

BTW I am on ultra with ambient occlusion and distance maxed, have you checked if your settings haven't reset?

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Janichsan said:
I actually had this pop-in effect yesterday also a few times and made an observation: it only occurs (for me) when the server connection is bad. Most of the time, the transition is fine for me, but when I had the pop-in, I always also had other problems with the connection, like long delays when dropping out of supercruise/hyperspace, and even disconnects.

Yeah this too, I had it a bit last night while I was getting all the transaction errors