Enemy Merc Identification - We want to help you acquire targets!

[Silvanoshi]

Hello everyone,

As you may have noticed with the latest patch, some changes have been made to the way Mercs are displayed in-game. This was part of a larger change that will take place over a number of updates, however we would very much love to see the examples of Mercs being difficult to see as that may influence how we proceed.

It would be absolutely fantastic if you could take screenshots whenever you come across a Merc who you believe to be particularly difficult to spot, and attach said screenshots to a reply in this thread. The more we get, the better :).

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop them here.

[potty200]

Will be hard to catch in game unless recording becomes more common. Due to the NDA many people do not want to record so won’t be able to go back and look for the enemy in hard to find situations. If they are hard to see and have seen you chances are you are dead before you can take a screen shot.

I guess this would require 2 people joining a server and taking screen shots without playing properly.

[Mustang]

I would have thought the performance issue is what’s preventing people from recording.

[spookify]

I would have thought the performance issue is what’s preventing people from recording.

This.

I can not take my 100 fps and lose 30 more from recording… Game becomes unplayable and then whats the point in recording…

[Silvanoshi]

No need for any video recording. I found myself in multiple situations during which I could spare a moment to snap a screenshot during lunch. I’m doubt that I’m the only one to have that super awesome skill :P.

[prophett]

The beauty of shadowplay - Practically 0 performance loss and ability to go back in time and capture (even if you weren’t recording).

I’ll throw up some examples later.

[Sun_Sheng]

I’ll pick up a few if I play later but from this afternoon, it’s pretty much anywhere where there is lots of brickwork and foliage and with most mercs so, Trainyard is a toughie at range. After that, I remember an open area with lots of grass towards the end of Camden where I was regularly getting slaughtered by a near invisible defence.

I’ll try the in game settings tonight to see if that makes a difference but that’s all I can do. As a photographer i’m running monitors calibrated with iDisplay Pro and everything is nailed on in terms of colour, contrast, etc, etc, so i can’t change those.

[Silvanoshi]

Thanks for the help chaps, much appreciated!

[PixelTwitch]

This is what we have…

but this is what I want…

I would take a light measurement from around the model and then slowly blend between brightness shades. Always keeping the play contrasted from their background. if its bright white u can go the opersit direction and have them slightly darker…

basically not full brights… but halfish brights >.<

[spookify]

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;507251]This is what we have…

but this is what I want…

I would take a light measurement from around the model and then slowly blend between brightness shades. Always keeping the play contrasted from their background. if its bright white u can go the opersit direction and have them slightly darker…

basically not full brights… but halfish brights >.<[/QUOTE]

So almost like a “contrast” of merc vs map… Interesting…

Map 65% Contrast
Merc 100% Contrast

For sure would make the merc stick out. Balance would need to be done so they dont look like angles…

[PixelTwitch]

its why I mentioned taking a reading once every few tick of what the suroundings are like… if your in a dark area it lowers the Emissive properties. if your in a super bright (not that there is any super bright in DB right now) then it could lower it down so the character is darker then the background. you would do this by taking brightness values every few tick and SLOWLY changing the Emissive properties (like a % per second) till it gets to the ideal. if its still wthin “safe range” it will stop changing to prevent pulsating models.

I cannot see why it would not work…
However, I don’t know if it would have a bigger effect on performance then the glow they currently have. getting rid of that glow they have now is good because it showcases the skins better

[spookify]

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;507259]its why I mentioned taking a reading once every few tick of what the suroundings are like… if your in a dark area it lowers the Emissive properties. if your in a super bright (not that there is any super bright in DB right now) then it could lower it down so the character is darker then the background. you would do this by taking brightness values every few tick and SLOWLY changing the Emissive properties (like a % per second) till it gets to the ideal. if its still wthin “safe range” it will stop changing to prevent pulsating models.

I cannot see why it would not work…
However, I don’t know if it would have a bigger effect on performance then the glow they currently have. getting rid of that glow they have now is good because it showcases the skins better :)[/QUOTE]

Sounds Good to me!

Do you have any views of the players backs? I had to do a double take on your screen shot because I am not used to seeing the front of a person

[tokamak]

Discerning enemies is a bigger problem. The HUD clutter and the (worse) way mercs show in the game exacerbates that.

Stronger indicator for friendly team members would help a lot. At least then I can shut fire away at murky splotshes of pixels that don’t carry that indicator.

[prophett]

Lots of other instances on every map where a reddish enemy is standing in front of a red brick wall, on red colored ground, with a red hue/lighting. Very difficult to pick out the character with all of that going on.

[Rex]

[QUOTE=prophett;507267]Lots of other instances on every map where a reddish enemy is standing in front of a red brick wall, on red colored ground, with a red hue/lighting. Very difficult to pick out the character with all of that going on.

[/QUOTE]

Holy f**king sh!t! :eek: Very good examples! Explains the enemy spotting issue I have with the current update.

[rookie1]

Bring back the LED

[Mustang]

Bring back the LED

[Glottis-3D]

what Prophett posted.

[Scarhand]

Needs more r_ambientscale

[INF3RN0]

Hmm I’m baffled as to how I didn’t even notice how bad the model colors got this patch until looking at prophets screenies. Must be because I got so used to pewp frame rates that I developed super human eye sight lol.