Let's remove everything unnecessary from the game altogether?

GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

I don’t understand which clever guy took to remove the pulse effect from the game ... But I think we should not stop there. Sarcasm.

When the agent launches the game, what does he see? A company logo that glows for a few seconds. In the field, every moment is important for an agent, so we need to remove the pre-display of the company logo (we already know who made the game).

Next is the logo of the game, the version of the game and messages for small players from Pokemon Go in the style of do not cross the street at a red light. This also needs to be removed by showing it only once. The current agent knows perfectly well what game he is playing, and I will remind him that every second is precious for him, separating him from recharging the portal after receiving a notification.

Then comes the animation of the globe. This is a few valuable seconds + resources stored in the device's memory. It is necessary to remove the earth too, the real agent knows where he is at a given moment in space and time.

The map has opened (finally). On it, the animations of portals, links, field textures loading memory, so much that eats RAM and discharges the battery ... It is necessary to remove the animations as well. Why do we need them? And without them everything is clear. It would be nice if the portals were displayed as in the intel map ... simply and tastefully. Why do we need all these bells and whistles and bells and whistles ...

Menu animation can also be removed so that it does not hang in the RAM.

Inventory ... There is a separate topic with bouncing items, why do our agents need all this animation? not only does it make some players feel nauseous, but flickering can also cause epileptic seizures. Why rotate resonators and bombs ??? Let each type of object be not a 3-d model, but a simple picture, like media. And we will save memory, and in general it will be simpler, new agents will be especially pleasant and understandable.

The player's cursor should also be made flat, we don't need all these excesses.

In general, it's better to remove all the animation, everything that made our scanner not repeatable, to remake it into a kind of analogue of a browser game from the 90s.

What do you think about all this, write in the comments. Maybe it was not necessary to remove the pulse? or maybe it was necessary to remove something else ...?

I'll add, the scanner is less and less like a scanner. with the removal of the basic elements that have been in the game for years, you only spoil the situation ...

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Comments

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    The pulse was removed according to Brian due to performance reasons. Well ofc we could remove more things but i mean why? Should the game look like old DOS game from 90s now?

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just because something has been removed doesn't mean it can't come back. If it's causing performance issues, perhaps seeing what causes it could also help with displaying other items in the game altogether.

  • oscarc1oscarc1 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There's a post by ofer2 that explains why some of those animations are in place - it's to hide the fact that the game is still loading:

    We definitely want to streamline as much as possible. That being said, many animations are often (in almost every game) used to hide the fact that loading is happening. We could disable the animation, but you still wouldnt be able to move on because things havent loaded yet (prime example here is the globe spin). Again, we are also working on making loading happen faster which should also lead to the animation cutting out faster, but that is more opportunistic work.

    No doubt there could possibly be more optimisations to reduce the loading time of actions (recharging portals is an absolute pain for example), but Niantic have limited resources and have to balance what they are focusing on. If it's a significant enough issue and you can provide enough reason for why it should be looked at, post in the Report a Bug forum and you might get lucky enough for it to be addressed.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    And everything goes to that, instead of optimizing the game code, they take the most gorgeous animations. Soon the game will turn into an analogue of Google maps. I wonder how many percent of all the resources consumed by the game did the pulse consume?

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2020


    Post edited by GreenVam on
  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    @GreenVam want to play on intel.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    I want to play a battle, a colorful spectacular battle that you plunge into.

    Do you know what a Christmas atmosphere is? It is unforgettable, this green tree, this scent of tangerines, the light of garlands, and painted Christmas balls ...


    Now tell me what is the atmosphere of the scanner?

    An atmosphere of total incompleteness. The black abyss instead of the sky, the streets are also not pleasing with beauty. Go out into the field and you will see that your cursor is just hanging in a black void. The gorgeous workout ends at ... And what begins? Something like a beta version of something incomprehensible, there are no textures, everything hangs in the dark, something like that, alas, but something like that.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2020

    I am not an artist, but I would like to see something more pleasant than darkness.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    The streets layer would be based on what OpenStreetMap has for that area. The most recent update to that layer in the game shows they are providing more visibility to the trails, sidewalks, and streets.

    Sadly, the display you get is based on the contributions on OSM. They went this route in place of Google Maps due to the insane increase in prices for using their API. Yes, Niantic Labs when they operated as Keyhole created what we know as Google Maps today but they are no longer part of Google. Google has also been wanting to do more things with their own Maps API as well.

    Other companies have been switching to either Foursquare's Swarm map, MapBox, OSM, HERE Maps, Bing, or Facebook's map when it comes to showing any map-related data. I don't think Niantic would want to create a propitiatory map for their Real World Platform as they have enough trouble with their POI database. That's the current issue with the map layer in their games.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2020

    Ingress terrain map design is just awful! Harry Potter's map is visible on a bright sunny day very clearly, in Pokémon as well, in ingress gray streets on a pitch black background are not visible at all. Add textures for earth and sky and that's it, the problem is solved. Even in their new dice game, the card is prettier than the ingress.

    In which game is the map with buildings better visible?

    Here is the ideal portals display for me, it looks modern, the color scheme is perfect, Everything is clearly visible, I admire this image.


    Post edited by GreenVam on
  • @GreenVam I have to disagree here. While that map in your screenshot is very pretty and polished, it's also very busy. I dont know what game that is from but I guess those arrows and dashed lines mean something and are not just for decoration? I can tell that the bright blue lines are important but why are some of them bent... oh wait, those ones are country borders. And what do the small red lines mean? Are they part of the game or are they roads?

    My point is, if the purpose of the scanner interface is to convey game data, then the gameplay elements should stand out. In that Ingress screenshot, the fact that you are playing under a field is IMO more important than being able to see the building outlines. The OSM map overlay is meant to give the game elements context within the play area, and maybe to orient your direction, but not primarily meant for navigation. I've always thought the Pogo map was way too bright and pastel anyway; in HP at least the colors are toned down and game elements stand out a little better.

  • I have a question. Flip your issue on it's head.

    What did the pulse improve?

    The problems is that you're looking at this as a "loss". But aside from causing nightblindness, headaches, incessant noise and apparently performance issues, what did the pulse gain?

    I'd be happy with a thin line like Redacted, with audio tied on the Background thread, but the Prime pulse caused visibility issues in it's troughs, made them turn down the vibrancy of fields, caused constant noise on the effects channel...

    So don't start with "YOU TOOK OUR STUFF!" think about it from the other side. What was the point of the pulse in the first place?

    It replicated a Redacted effect, but the Redacted effect was implemented very differently. In Redacted, it was unobtrusive and silent during normal play. Turn on Background and you'd get a low thrum, and when you navigated to a portal, you'd get a useful sonar ping that would speed up when you got closer. What it didn't do was affect the visibility of fields, blind people at night or make constant noise that was only removable by turning off all sound.

    So the question is not "Why did we lose it?" but "Why do you want to keep it?".

  • grendelwulfgrendelwulf ✭✭✭✭✭

    Why do I want to keep it? Because it is part of Ingress's flavor.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    For now, it seems there's also something causing the scanner to "flash" fields after remote view and/or hacking an adjacent portal to the fields. The pulsing can be improved if the overall coding can be improved.

  • Yeah that would be a huge QoL improvement if we have the option to turn off those images in comms etc.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2020

    Why, tell me, should we keep the animation of rotating objects? Many players get their heads spinning from this constant rotation.

    There is such a thing as style. And there is such a thing as a well-chosen set of accessories. There is eye-candy. And then there's the atmosphere of the game.

    Let me give you an example. There is a series of films "mission: impossible". When you hear about the new part, you imagine a high-tech action movie starring Tom Cruise. The main role is not played by Snoop Dogg or even Jamie Oliver, Tom Cruise, here is the main actor. And he will not "ride little girls on a pink pony in the land of amazing Young Moon Princess Goddesses." He will fight the bad guys inside out.


    At the moment, both the game interface and the gameplay do not have the atmosphere of a secret agent tool. The interface looks like retro neon signs from the 80s. The textures of the fields resemble this.


    What is the impression of the player who came to our game after playing console hits and games in the style of cyberpunk or about secret agents? And I'll tell you, most of our newbies have confidence that the game is still in development. There are no map or sky textures in it, there is no clear bundle of the game's plot, game events, and gameplay. "- ah? What? Where did this medal come from with an incomprehensible head in my profile? What kind of incomprehensible **** is going on here? What kind of piece of paper did I drop from the portal? Where should I put it?" Nah. This "beta" version of the game does not explain where the next event came from, why it is taking place and what is going on around. After completing the training, the agent finds himself in a routine monotonous conquest of territories.


    Gameplay interaction between factions generally sucks, because lately, they regularly try to make friends with rivals, and the result is a decrease in the atmosphere of battle to 0.


    The plot is replete with inconsistencies in style, we have defeated exogenous creatures, but be afraid of the Shapers! The atmosphere of intense struggle, which had previously encouraged us to act in the rain and snow, disappeared. Events in the style of let's cooperate with the enemy completely destroyed the team spirit.

    Go to Pinterest and see what interfaces for modern maps are being drawn by modern artists.

  • @GreenVam

    The style is fine, and that's why they're keeping all the non-obtrusive things. If the pulse was minimal, and didn't have all the negatives, then it would have been left there.

    But with all those negatives, and no actual purpose, there's no justification to keep it.

    "Sir we need to stitch up the bloody gash in your arm!"

    "Nah, leave it there, it provides flavor"

    "It's also bleeding profusely."

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    You have no sense of style, the dark gray streets on a black background are tasteless, gloomy, and ugly. In Pokemon, Harry Potter and other games there are textures of the sky, earth, a bunch of effects, and I note that in these games no one throws anything out of the game, on the contrary! They even add new visual effects, making the world come alive.

    Take hearthstone as an example. the game has a lot of cards and many have unique animations, or let's take pubg. A whole huge island with a bunch of objects. and a bunch of models of weapons, cars and other vehicles, there are even flowers, stones and trees. And nothing hangs, but what do we have in our game? The circle diverging from the cursor eats a lot of RAM. Ugh. Here it is not just a circle, it is a whole thing. Most newcomers do not have that magic scanner atmosphere that gives a pass to the world of agents and active battle between the two factions.


    Here! Even a small detail removes this pitch darkness and radically changes the scanner's vision.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    But that black void is due to the OSM layers...

    I have been digging into OSM for a while now and just found how to import footplans that Microsoft shared for specifically open source. That's how some cities have all of the homes shown when looking at the scanner.

  • @GreenVam:

    You have no sense of style, the dark gray streets on a black background are tasteless, gloomy, and ugly. 

    Actually, I don't have your sense of style. I think Pokemon Go looks like a pastel hellscape designed to torture babies.

    Ingress has always been a dark screen. The streets have always been grey. That's how science fiction themes generally work.

    The circle diverging from the cursor eats a lot of RAM.

    This is the least significant reason to remove the thing, to the players who don't want it. Only @NianticBrian mentioned this as a reason to remove it. Everyone else who wanted it gone, did so for appearance and experience reasons.

    A pulse may not be bad, if it were implemented subtly, and didn't cause headaches or louds noises. I'm not against the idea of animations as a whole.

    The pulse we had was a broken piece of junk that not only caused performance issues on low end phones, but broke night time contrast, caused green and blue fields to be far too dim when not being passed over, caused loud static on the effects channel, and generally damaged the user experience.

    While that might not matter to Niantic, it sure as hell is an improvement for many players.

  • Also, your screenshots were intentionally misleading because your argument is bad. This is what most people see.

    Plenty of details if you don't pick a portal at a deserted crossroad in the middle of nowhere.

  • edited December 2020

    And for reference, Pokemon Go is simply different colors.

    Post edited by Perringaiden on
  • NineBerryNineBerry ✭✭✭✭✭

    Can you imagine going to a club to dance and there is no flashy light show, no strobe, no fog machine?

  • This isn’t supposed to be a seizure inducing mess this is supposed to be playable. Prime has always had a problem with being too flashy so they have had to change things

  • That being said I would like better antialiasing on the fields but the fact is that our phones aren’t as good as the latest gaming computers or game consoles so mobile games aren’t going to look as good. Also prime suffered from long load times on launch. Do we really want that to be a problem again?

  • I really couldn’t care less about graphics. I think that gameplay is more important. Personally as someone who’s first console was a Nintendo DS I think we’ve been spoiled by all of the flashy games that have come out recently. Also the new photorealistic FPS games make me want to throw up. I want a return to fun gameplay. That being said there are a few exceptions but excessive photorealism is not a good thing

  • Can you imagine going to a club where they turn halogen floodlights completely on for 1 second, then off again for 1 second, then on again? No-one would come back to that club.

    You know where they do do that sort of lighting? Guantanamo Bay. The pulse as it was implemented, is near torture for some people.

  • DSktrDSktr ✭✭✭✭

    And again,isn't it better to put fps/portal photo/comm photo/language/blur/pulse/animations/field shadows/flames(yes,they still exist sometimes)/whatever - to "additional settings" which we had in pre-release HPWU? Ingress is still a beta stage for any new things Nia want to introduce in their other projects,so why shouldn't there be such "advanced" button. I don't think it's too hard to add it.For now Ingress chooses itself if it's a higher or lower detail graphics simply by device RAM. I faced that with Samsung A7/2016 with weak CPU but 3gb RAM.

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