IRNV and Smoke.. Wtf?

[Rabbit]

Is anyone else having trouble seeing through smoke with an IRNC scope? I have almost every setting on ultra with the exception of a couple that don't make a difference at all or I just don't want to see (such as Flora), yet when using an IRNV scope I can't see through smoke. Whether using one, or not, all I see is a big black cloud and no heat signatures (friendly or enemy) on the other side. What.. the hell.. is going on? Other people seem to see me just fine, or at least I assume they do since I'm still taking a lot of fire through it.

I've scoured the net and have found no one else having this issue. I'm looking for a screenshot or video I've taken of it but such things may have gotten deleted. I will take another when I get the chance.

[ZeroConnor]

It probably has to do with not seeing through spawn room shields with IRNV scopes. It's in today's patch.

[EchoVictory]

If it's something new, knowing this game, it's a bug. Graphics wise they've added a bloom checkbox. Maybe it has an effect?

I have almost every setting on ultra...

Only "Texture Quality" has an ultra setting. Did you mean everything is as high as it goes? For "Graphics Quality" has a large effect on IRNV performance. High gives the best contrast and effect distance and in the distance will show a blurry image. Medium is usuable but trades the distant blurry image for blackness. Low practically makes the IRNV scope useless.

Other people seem to see me just fine, or at least I assume they do since I'm still taking a lot of fire through it.

Other people are probably pressing Q repeatedly then firing just bellow the Doritos of who they just blindly spotted. Unfortunately effective. They may also be firing toward your tracers or muzzle flash.

[Rabbit]

Yeah that's what I meant.

Anyway, here's a video of what I'm talking about. I know it has nothing to do with the recent update as it has been going on for weeks now, actually, since before shields were changed. I tried to take a screenshot but apparently you need a third party program to reliably take them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjTXPjsRo6E][/youtube]

Basically the smoke is just a big black cloud that can't be seen through. I've tested it at different distances so I know distance is not a problem. I'm not sure if it's a graphics issue or something related to running the game in 64bit. Regardless, it's quite annoying to not be using the scope and not being able to make full use of what it is intended for.

[Blazer]

Is the effect the same with a smoke grenade as with the underbarrel?

[Rabbit]

Is the effect the same with a smoke grenade as with the underbarrel?

Yes. Doesn't matter which ones I use. That's actually why I tested it with Underbarrel because I wasn't sure if it was the grenades or the launcher. Same effect.

[Vengeance76]

Is the effect the same with a smoke grenade as with the underbarrel?

That was my thought too. Is it just your smoke (that one's that you deploy) or is it all smoke (from other players)?

I would try a video driver reinstall (or rollback) and if that doesn't work, a game reinstall. I know that the latter is a pain in the ass, but it tends to solve problems. I had to do both because I was getting a slideshow in game. I did a "Factory reset" of the graphics settings and then tweaked from there until it was good.

Do you run through Steam? If so, try a "Validate game assets" as well. If not, a reinstall is in your future

[EchoVictory]

Smoke to me in game doesn't look pitch black. It looks... well... smokey. Medium to Dark gray. Check in the useroptions.ini file under the game installation directory. In that text file under [Rendering] check to see if ParticleDistanceScale=0.650000 (by default). Changing this can cause some very weird particle issues.

In the past having Steam "validate integrity of game cache" led to issues. Sony suggests opening the launcher and clicking on the wrench symbol (bottom left) and selecting "Validate Game Assets".

Before a complete reinstall try moving your useroptions.ini file to a back up location. Launch the game and it will generate a new default file. Change your graphics setting along with mouse and other preferences back only using the in game user interface. If you full reinstall this file along with writing down your custom key binding will make it less painful.

[Rabbit]

Doesn't matter what the source is from--grenades, under-barrels, myself, others--it all looks pitch black. Being totally blinded by other players and not being able to retaliate even with the means to do so was getting very annoying.

Also, I don't run through steam but I wanted too in the past. I can reinstall the game and run it through steam but didn't want to do that but if I have to reinstall I may do that anyway simply because I like Steam for the most part.

Good ideas though, thanks guys.

3cho

Tried the validate integrity option ages ago when it first started happening to no avail. Doesn't change anything.

I haven't made ANY changes inside the UserOptions.ini file that I'm aware of so it should still be the default file, but that's a good idea to at least try it since it doesn't take but a minute to do anyway. One thing I noticed, though, is that I don't have ParticleDistanceScale at all. My Rendering section looks like this:

[Rendering]
GraphicsQuality=2
TextureQuality=0
ShadowQuality=0
RenderDistance=6000.000000
Gamma=0.350000
MaximumFPS=250
UseLod0a=0
OverallQuality=-1
LightingQuality=1
FogShadowsEnable=0
EffectsQuality=3
TerrainQuality=3
FloraQuality=4
ModelQuality=3
ParticleLOD=3
MotionBlur=0
UseAspectFOV=1
VSync=0
VerticalFOV=74
AO=0
Smoothing=0
BloomEnabled=0

Maybe I should try adding that in? Also, do you guys think that forcing the client to run in 64bit might be causing it?

[Figdbl]

Forcing 64 bit? If your compy is 64 it will do it auto. If it's 32 the you shouldn't force 64 anyway.

[EchoVictory]

I wouldn't worry about particle setting being missing. Usefence, GPUphysx and lots of specific LOD setting have been removed from the user options file run and ran as default in the game code somewhere else. Particle settings have probably had the same treatment.

To tell witch bit client your running start the game then look in windows task manager. The planetside exe name will end in "x86"=32 bit client or "x64"=64bit client (A.K.A the client that has yet to solve anything issues it was intended to do.) I suspect it's running the 64 bit client. You could try forcing the 32 bit. It's easy to try.

It's almost as if your missing textures for the smoke. It has the shape of the smoke and then doesn't bother to render what's behind it. If forcing 32 doesn't help. The only thing left to try is reinstall. Which is what SOE tech support will have you do. If reinstall doesn't fix it open a support ticket.

[Rabbit]

I'll try forcing 32bit and see what happens the next time I get a chance to play. Somewhat of a shame it's come down to a reinstall. I was hoping it was something that wasn't such a big PITA to do.

[Rabbit]

So an update on this issue if anyone else gets it. Smoke is finally working correctly; it is back to its greyish color and can be seen through by IRNV scopes both from underbarrels and grenades.

Apparently there was some corruption of the asset files so I deleted those (from the launch pad) and reinstalled them. Kept me from having to redo all of my keybinds at the very least.

Anyway, if you get the bug, that's how you fix it.

[Vengeance76]

Thanks for having a stressful, frustrating, and painful detriment to your fun so we don't have to. You're the man

[Rabbit]

No problem! Lol.

Hopefully no one else gets this issue because it does make the game very frustrating when smoke is used, but at least there's a simple fix.

Only problem is you do have to redo your mouse sensitivity and graphics settings. :/