Author Topic: Shadows (and/or Shaders) have no intentional gaming use at our current state (Read 2227 times)

Mysteroo · March 19, 2013, 10:22:16 AM

Quote from: Marcem on March 18, 2013, 10:41:42 PM

It always looked bad without shaders. The old shading system was horrible, and the lack of shadows on bricks and from baked lighting was pretty terrible.

Honestly, the game doesn't look the best right now. The shadowing doesn't have any form of smoothing applied (like CoD or, closest to Blockland, CS:GO), nor can it use multiple light sources. It's also slow and quite low-res. I really hope future updates can focus on improving the speed of shading and the look of it.

Unfortunately I don't think they're planning on updating the shaders any time soon. I imagine that running BL on torque engine has made some pretty hard obstacles to get over in making good looking shadows and shaders, what we have now may sort of be the limit to how good they can get. Unless we were to switch engines, which I doubt will happen.

If I'm wrong on this feel free to correct me, I really don't know much about the engine

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Shadowed999 · March 19, 2013, 10:51:00 AM

>Turn on the "fog-of-war"
>???
>Profit

I mean really, if you want to limit the player's view of something, just turn the fog on(or is it visible distance down?). It's not the player's fault for not being able to run shaders, they just have requirements that the computer can't meet. This is not "cheating".

joe411 · March 19, 2013, 03:27:06 PM

I keep it off because
1. It's gets blockland laggy.
2. In some buildings it can extremely dark with shaders on without a light built in or your light on.
3.They look very ugly and pixelated.
I want the maps back.

nixton · March 19, 2013, 03:56:59 PM

I just wish that there is a way to adjust the level of PC technology involved in running shaders so other people with crappy computers can run it. I don't know what's the problem with BL's shaders because I play games like GTA, Skyrim, and other high-quality games with shadows and shaders on but they don't seem to reduce the gaming performance wheras BL just completely kills the FPS.

StrangerManger · March 19, 2013, 06:52:00 PM

Quote from: Trogtor on March 17, 2013, 09:17:42 PM

We could if it was a required graphics option but since our younger community do not have the ability to purchase hardware for it, Blockland wouldn't make much money and would have a bad rating from a younger community.

You say "Our younger community", as if that doesn't describe the entire community. Seriously, I was 11 when I first picked up this game, and I have yet to meet another person who isn't five years old.
inb4 oldcigaretteging

StrangerManger · March 19, 2013, 06:55:28 PM

Quote from: ravencroft on March 17, 2013, 11:47:04 PM

Just because people have an intel card in their computer, doesn't mean it's stuffty. I run blockland fullscreen with maxed out graphics settings(besides shaders) with an intel card, and never lag.

Are you a wizard? My Dell Inspiron (which is one month old), can't run stuff.

BlockoCrafter · March 19, 2013, 07:00:03 PM

Quote from: ravencroft on March 17, 2013, 11:47:04 PM

Just because people have an intel card in their computer, doesn't mean it's stuffty. I run blockland fullscreen with maxed out graphics settings(besides shaders) with an intel card, and never lag.

I share the same boat, except my graphics card isn't Intel and it's nearly good enough for the OpenGL version Blockland uses.

Mysteroo · March 19, 2013, 07:29:30 PM

Quote from: StrangerManger on March 19, 2013, 06:52:00 PM

and I have yet to meet another person who isn't five years old.

You must have met some genius five year olds then

Operator� · March 20, 2013, 05:15:27 AM

Quote from: StrangerManger on March 19, 2013, 06:55:28 PM

Are you a wizard? My Dell Inspiron (which is one month old), can't run stuff.

It's not exactly designed for intensive gaming.

Trogtor · March 20, 2013, 09:05:25 PM

Quote from: Shadowed999 on March 19, 2013, 10:51:00 AM

>Turn on the "fog-of-war"
>???
>Profit

I mean really, if you want to limit the player's view of something, just turn the fog on(or is it visible distance down?). It's not the player's fault for not being able to run shaders, they just have requirements that the computer can't meet. This is not "cheating".

You realize that "exploiting" is totally different from "cheating" right? Plus fog doesn't work without shaders if you haven't noticed, and it looks ugly and totally different when fog is off

Chrono · March 20, 2013, 09:54:54 PM

Quote from: Shadowed999 on March 19, 2013, 10:51:00 AM

>Turn on the "fog-of-war"
>???
>Profit

I mean really, if you want to limit the player's view of something, just turn the fog on(or is it visible distance down?). It's not the player's fault for not being able to run shaders, they just have requirements that the computer can't meet. This is not "cheating".

I'm not blaming them. I'm really blaming the people making the servers.

The people with shaders on are getting a poor gameplay experience for wanting the game to look nice. They can't see a thing while players with shaders off feel as if they're walking in broad daylight.

I keep telling people to adjust their environment settings to either allow everyone to see better by making the shadow color less intense, or make it harder for everyone to see by making the ambient light and sun light darker.

I don't like constantly adjusting my settings every time I go to a new server.

Igloos · March 20, 2013, 09:58:00 PM

I never use shaders. People don't realize that they can modify their environments in their servers. At least I know how to do it.

Wynd_Fox · March 20, 2013, 10:06:34 PM

Quote from: Trogtor on March 20, 2013, 09:05:25 PM

You realize that "exploiting" is totally different from "cheating" right?

Not really. Exploitation is a way to cheat.

Torin0101 · March 20, 2013, 11:01:54 PM

Quote from: joe411 on March 19, 2013, 03:27:06 PM

I keep it off because
1. It's gets blockland laggy.
2. ~~In some buildings it can extremely dark with shaders on without a light built in or your light on.~~
3.They look very ugly and pixelated.
~~I want the maps back.~~