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Thread: Ancient Dragons head bug and future of Istaria

  1. #1
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    Unhappy Ancient Dragons head bug and future of Istaria

    I am in Istaria for over 12 years ( wow time flies .... ), and since this whole time there is bug with most Ancient Dragon heads which either everyone seems to ignore or don't care / didn't noticed it, however I find it extremely sad that no developer ever wanted to fix this in my opinion one of the most serious esthetical bug. Its only visible on Ancient Dragons, didn't noticed it on Hatchlings and Adults.

    First this one :


    Its a hole in middle of most popular Dragon head...
    Can't see it on darker terrain but for example if you are red and go on snow, it looks just awful.

    Second one :


    Holes visible under certain angle near eyes of most Dragon heads.

    Third one :


    Holes in earfins also in middle of head.

    Forth one :


    Neck hole


    I was contacting developers about this issue 3 years ago and that was their response :
    Greetings, The neck slit / back fin is a complex issue and the developers say that's not something they can fix rig…
    Long ago one person managed to fix it in this thread https://community.istaria.com/forum/...ragon-textures but since at least 5 years ( maybe more ) the mod isn't working anymore.


    Also I was asking developers about planned Unreal update, which I noticed became something of a taboo ...
    Their answer was
    The developers will release more information about Unreal much later in the year.
    yeah well ...
    That was 3 years ago.
    I don't blame developers for almost no progress in Unreal engine porting of Istaria because its almost "unreal" job to do with so low amount of staff working on it, moreover I think its honestly a mistake to be working on unreal engine because none of us will see it done in our lifetimes ( unless a miracle happens and Istaria will suddenly have +20 Developers working on porting to Unreal ).
    In my opinion developers should focus more on fixing and making better "old" Istaria rather that trying to do something nearly impossible ( Unreal Engine ).

    The "old" Istaria is what makes Istaria unique among thousands of other mmos, if it will be ported to Unreal I doubt it will have same functionality as "old" Istaria, especially the whole crafting system and all its formulas will be probably nearly impossible thing to port to Unreal, not to mention all quests and so many races. I mean, look at World of Warcraft ( yes forbidden game name on Istaria forums, sorry ) after several years they are still alive with millions of players and they never switched game to new engine, it still mostly uses one cpu core ( although they tried to make it use more by adding support for directx 12 ) , all they did was just very slowly try to update old engine and push it to the limit by adding new tricks and high res textures, they have nearly infinite money when compared to Istaria and they would never try to move whole WoW to new engine because that is nearly impossible thing to do, they just keep adding new content and thats what Istaria should do too unless developers wanna kill game by splitting it into two games.

  2. #2
    Staff :: Developer Sarsilas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ancient Dragons head bug and future of Istaria

    Greetings Mitar, I'll try to address your post in as much detail as I can.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mitar View Post
    I am in Istaria for over 12 years ( wow time flies .... ), and since this whole time there is bug with most Ancient Dragon heads [...] a complex issue and the developers say that's not something they can fix rig…
    I don't believe anyone has ever not cared or ignored the issue, but rather, it has existed for so many years people have taken it as part of the game and a non-issue. This mindset is pretty common, but it's not always helpful; some issues are things we cannot fix, but asking if we can or bringing ones up that seem fixable (or have been fixed by players) is helpful in getting things done. If we do not know our playerbase's wishes and priorities, we wouldn't know what to prioritize to fix!

    To give some context, three/four years ago, we only had one artist that was present publicly / contributed their experience directly to resolving support tickets; working alone, she was unable to manage all the bugs and issues presented by the game's current state, and in some situations, she wasn't sure if things could be fixed.

    Therefore, in some situations, our default response would end up being an unsure "perhaps this could be fixed, but it seems complex".

    Nowadays, our team is much larger and we can spread out our forces some. I hope that gives you some background as to why you received seemingly an incorrect response.

    That being said, these are in fact bugs we are looking to fix. In the future, we are hoping to fix up the topology of some of the models - including dragons - and when we do these touch ups, we can easily fix the neck hole / flap and eyes holes. If you look at the new heads, you'll actually notice they do not have these issues; we've since learned how to fix them.

    However, the issue with the top-down fin hole and the holes in the frills behind the head are a bit more complex. While yes, you can fix them, and I will be looking into Cobal's mod to double-check how he did so, the reason these issues are present is because the model is a 3D enclosed space, while the textures are a 2D image with transparency. Where the textures do not cover, you can see into the model due to the transparency. With enough texture coverage, you would not see it - I presume Cobal covered just enough to not have the holes in the head.

    It's a little more intensive to look at and figure out, but most likely not impossible, especially since Cobal was able to find a fix in the past.


    Quote Originally Posted by Mitar View Post
    Also I was asking developers about planned Unreal update, which I noticed became something of a taboo ... [...]
    In my opinion developers should focus more on fixing and making better "old" Istaria rather that trying to do something nearly impossible ( Unreal Engine ). [...]
    Unreal, while a project we are working on, is not our absolute only focus and goal. No one - including us! - wants the game to stagnate and die. While it is being chipped away at, our content team is very happily focused on creating new content for you all to enjoy, our artists are coming up with new creations, and our tech team is fixing as many bugs as they can get their hands on. We have an undying dedication to the game, no matter hte engine its on, and we promise we will not let Unreal sway us from knowing what's the most important - the game itself that's kept people around for so long.

    To add, Unreal would only be a graphics overhaul, a superior engine and graphics environment with the same gameplay. Any new technology from that will be used to enhance existing game mechanics, not replace them! Our game will remain largely the same, but just look more 'updated' to fit with modern-day expectations and hardware. After all, Unreal is purely client-side and has nothing to do with our backend systems, which is where essentially all of our data and information is stored. All of our formulas, quests, crafting numbers, etc are stored in the database which will remain the same, while the front-end - the client, what presents to you - is what would change.

    I hope that clears things up for you, but feel free to ask anything else you would like to know.

    Avatar by Scaleeth

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