New Avatar Creation System scheduled for 22 January 2013

You know that thread doesn't said it will be this year, just mentioned the date :)

 

I truly hope that it goes that way. The only way I can see it working is if they finally move to direct X 10 and if we are really lucky direct X 11!!! :D Currently we are still using 9 but the engine was designed to work with 10! This is what has plagued this game with its bugs but most of all the lag that we see every day. With the move to the newer direct X, or graphics cards can be utilized properly, and reduce the heat and over run we have now with the cards.

Of course 11 does this even better but I will settle for 10!! ;)

 

Holy Crap they are putting it off till 2019????

 

so, uh, the 'other' want you poster isn't from the new system? ;)

 

Sorry all I read from this was BoooooooBs... Rather that's all I wanted to read from it!! ;)

 

Hmm I just had another thought... Now I kinda wish I had a female avatar!! ;)

 

Not entirely no, but when they moved to Cry 2, they modified the code to use exclusively direct X 9. In doing so, they could do two things.

1. Transfer the existing code from the older engine with smaller amounts of work in the upgrade process.

2. Take their time in updating and utilizing the game while still using the engine.

In reality this was a cost effective, and less time demanding way to upgrade. The side effect was a less efficient, and more bug ridden game. This also makes it very hard for them to find and fix the bugs that are out there.. Not sure the benefits out way the problems. I guess time will tell, when the upgrade happens..

I also could be wrong with my guess that they are going to 10, but it only seems logical when Kim said that we should see an increase in speed with the update.. I'm crossing my fingers!! ;)

 

hmmm.... I'm not convinced by these comments... might ask my friend who works for Crytek. Certainly I think based on what he has said before, if ma moved to ce3 we would see a speed increase. Not sure about 9 to 10 though... or even 11. From what I remember 10 only got us more visual niceties (I mean as far as Crysis went) but I don't pretend to be an expert in direct X at all ;)

I'm very suspicious about all the secrecy around the new avatars... I see 2 possibilities... either they are so freakin' amazing that its going to wow the world ie press release time, a real visual hook to get new players in (or maybe functionality?/movement?/dynamism? eg avas that scrambled or climbed using hands and feet would be new)

or... they are going to be very so so and nothing really worth while.

Personally... given history, I'm expecting to be underwhelmed. Now, the real question, does Lykke know anything? ;)

Wistrel

 

Well, I'm no direct x pro either, but did try to teach myself direct x a few years ago when I was in to programming and wanted to get in to game programming, etc. (one of the reasons I have an account over at turbosquid, lol). However, based on my little bit of knowledge, the upgrade might indeed make things better since the entire com programming stuff behind the scenes changes with every new version of direct x. Of course though, the new upgrade might make older hardware obsolete... several years back, I had to upgrade my machine since some vu change in eu caused my computer to just see a big black screen when I tried to log in since the computer was not ready for it. Since lots of folks play on laptops, and older software, it'll be interesting to see what happens after this change. Mindark might cause a bigger portion of the population to no longer be able to log in than happened back at vu 10???

 

There is more to it then direct X yes, but the underlying problem is the older version. I'll use this analogy: think of Direct X as the middle man, translator/director of a show. He translates between hardware and software.. Thus making things run smooth. If you have an old translator who is not up to date with the new "language" he miss interpret things, and give components the wrong directions.. Red means stop, green means go, and amber means.. Hammer it!? ;)

When we had XP as the main operating system, we had games that used the hardware and software that was available at the time. As hardware changed, so did the software. In doing so, they had to change the middle man, ie. direct X.

The direct X was the piece of software that checked the hardwares firmware ( an imbedded software in every hardware that tells other hardware and software what it is and how to use it ). ( a mouthful for sure ;)) it then went to the software that you wanted to run and checked what it needed to run correctly. Then it could utilize the resources that where available in the hardware.

Now the problem with using older Direct X versions is that they don't know anything about the new hardware that is out. It would check and see some of the other things it could recognize and use it but if the program you wish to run utilized the newer features, the Drict X would be somewhat confused, and by default only use the items it could recognize. This causes problems like over heating or using less of the resources of the vid card for example, thus cuasing hang ups, lag, pixelizations, and other nasty things. It would also see things it didn't understand, and try to use them. This would cause " bugs"... Lets face it, direct X 9.0c had its day in the spotlight, but it is old and antiquated. ;)

With the newer Direct X versions, they now recognize the newer hardware, and software, and knows what to do with it. It also has an updated version of Direct X 9, but it isn't the same. This is why some people who have vista and up that try to run EU, have to reinstall direct X 9. It is also a Microsoft thing as well and isn't entirely the games fault. ;)

One last thing, when MA moved to Cry 2 engine, they modified it a lot in order to make it work for them. Cry 2 wasn't designed to run MMO's. In doing so, they had to strip certain things like, crossfire, and sli, just to name a few. The result was a faster transition to the new engine, but created a lot of problems as well. They are also forcing an engine that uses direct X 10 as its base to use direct X 9. This is like forcing a square peg into a round hole. It can be done with a lot of force, but there are consequences in doing so.

Hope that explains it a bit better. The end result is, if they finally move to the newer version of direct X, we should see vast increases in speed/fps and less graphical bugs as well. This is of course, they didn't mess up the coding. Maybe that is why they delayed it by a few months? :D

 

@ Mastermesh... The older direct X could have caused this problem with compatibility as well. If they tried to update the coding but changed how it recognizes the hardware, you will get this problem. I still have an older comp running AGP graphics card and I can still run EU on it, with medium graphics settings. I did this with XP, Vista, and now Win 7. All this with 2 gigs of ram, and 256 megs of ram on vid card. :D

If they do change the Direct X with the Ava update, it should still be able to run on older machines running XP. It should but your right, depending how they update the coding, it could scramble a few comps. Lets hope not. A simple fix could be just downloading and updating the direct X, but for people who run XP... Not soo good.. Hopefully, they didn't mess around too much with the version of 10, as so to not disturb the version of 9 imbedded in 10. This way people who are running XP, will still be able to play, with the added benefits of the newer version of 9. ;)

 

How about added pictures of what we would like to see in the new avi update. I want to color my hair like this :)

 

I like optimism, even if its completely off. ;)

 

does everyone get his old dirty shirt converted into some cool armour? :D

 

There was a reason why I wanted to post up here but I've fogoten what it was