Chaos Axe question. Is a bug? - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

breaking-benjamin

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2006

28 Aug 2006 at 17:02 - 1

Hello ^^

Well, today I noticed a weird thing about the Chaos Axe.

Its the "shadow" of the weapon. Looks very strange, and not like the weapon does.

I better post a pic so you'll see what I mean:

I don't know if its a bug, or it was like that always, or its problem of my graphic card... dunno.

Can someone confirm this?

Any help to clarify this is appreciated. Thanks

!

prism2525

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Among dead bodies.

The Republic of Sky Pirates

E/

28 Aug 2006 at 17:32 - 2

unless this happens to everyone whenever they equip one i suppose it's a prob/glitch with your graphics card. Try to update the driver if possible. might help.

Ghull Ka

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

Seattle, WA

Grenths Helpdesk

N/

28 Aug 2006 at 17:34 - 3

Take another screenie without your shield and see what that looks like maybe? I don't know if what I'm looking at is the shield's shadow or the axe's shadow.

Hand of Ruin

Banned

Join Date: Jul 2006

28 Aug 2006 at 17:35 - 4

I think it looks better

Balance

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2006

NYC, US

red basilica [isis]

R/

28 Aug 2006 at 17:37 - 5

Its like this for every one. The chaos axe is weird :P

Yanman.be

Banned

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

[ROSE]

A/

28 Aug 2006 at 17:46 - 6

The shadow is made from all the angry spirits in the UW/FOW!

breaking-benjamin

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2006

28 Aug 2006 at 17:56 - 7

someone have an chaos axe and can post a pic or confirm its look like that?

My Sweet Revenga

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

28 Aug 2006 at 18:03 - 8

The storm bow has the same issue. You can see the lightning arcs on the storm bow, but the shadow shows 2 big rectangular blocks where the lightning arcs should be. Probably has to do with the way the shadow layer takes reference from the weapon's skin. The lightning on the storm bow only appears to be lightning because everything around it is set as transparent. But the shadow takes all information from the weapon skin and projects it as a shadow so what appears to be transparent on the weapon won't necessarily be transparent on the shadow.

tuperwho

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

Tenacious Knights of Doom [TKD]

28 Aug 2006 at 18:10 - 9

Myself and multiple guildies have all seen this error when we have our bazookas.... err, I mean chaos axes.... equipped.

frojack

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2005

London, UK

Rite Of Passage [RP]

E/Mo

28 Aug 2006 at 19:32 - 10

The reason the shadow is a 'box' is because the chaos axe is actually just a rectangular polygon with an alpha mapped (transparent) texture on it. The shadows in GW are created with just a basic 'shadow map' system. To get the accurate shadows would require either Ray-traced shadows (way too expensive), a special form of Stencil-shadows (again expensive), or a proxy shadow object.
All of which are more expensive than it's worth...

Shadow Kurd

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2006

Netherlands

Scouts of Tyria

P/

28 Aug 2006 at 19:44 - 11

I got the samething with my Stormbow

xiao1985

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2005

29 Aug 2006 at 04:04 - 12

agreed with frojack

althought my initial suspicion was that the object's shadow was not mapped... so the client displays the basic of an item, ie a box...

Livingston

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2006

The Edge of the World

[L] [GET]

29 Aug 2006 at 09:15 - 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by frojack

The reason the shadow is a 'box' is because the chaos axe is actually just a rectangular polygon with an alpha mapped (transparent) texture on it. The shadows in GW are created with just a basic 'shadow map' system. To get the accurate shadows would require either Ray-traced shadows (way too expensive), a special form of Stencil-shadows (again expensive), or a proxy shadow object.
All of which are more expensive than it's worth...

What makes them expensive to do? Is it the software needed or what?

Livingston

xiao1985

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2005

30 Aug 2006 at 04:03 - 14

the more detail, the more expensive it is to do... for 1 item it's probably noting, but consider the great number of items... it can be quite resource consuming...

also, i remember last time i checked, you only see your shadow in detail, never other characters or npc's....

jimmy_logic

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2005

R/

30 Aug 2006 at 14:27 - 15

Same thing happens to me... don't have Guild Wars installed (Posting from my phone) so I can't check. But my shadows are on "LOW" detail.

Sora

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Hong Kong

Guardian of Old Ascalon (GoA)

E/

30 Aug 2006 at 15:58 - 16

Yeah I've noticed that problem long time ago.
I had post it in the Screenshot Exposition a few months ago.

Kaguya

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

Moon

Mo/

30 Aug 2006 at 16:06 - 17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livingston

What makes them expensive to do? Is it the software needed or what?

Livingston

Raytracing isn't expensive moneywise, but it is very, very, very, very... ...very, very, very expensive computation power wise. You'd spend half an hour rendering the lights for one single frame using raytracing, and that really isn't very smooth gaming experience.

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

30 Aug 2006 at 16:09 - 18

That's the shadow of the bounding box for the bow/axe. It's probably no coincidence that the two weapons showing this effect have special skins with lighting effects.

lyra_song

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Oct 2005

R/Mo

30 Aug 2006 at 16:38 - 19

Other things that use alpha transparencies:

Anything partly clear.
The spiky fins on your dragon mask
the teeth on your pumpkin mask
Any really skinny skinny weapons that have intricate shapes (butterfly/wingblade is one)

The special lighting effects are not applied to the shadows, so ya...its one of those "meh...we can overlook that" sort of deal, imo.

IllusiveMind

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2005

Mehtani Keys

The Extraordinary Revolution [ReVo]

P/W

30 Aug 2006 at 17:05 - 20

I get the same glitch with Chaos Axe.

Quote:

The reason the shadow is a 'box' is because the chaos axe is actually just a rectangular polygon with an alpha mapped (transparent) texture on it. The shadows in GW are created with just a basic 'shadow map' system. To get the accurate shadows would require either Ray-traced shadows (way too expensive), a special form of Stencil-shadows (again expensive), or a proxy shadow object.
All of which are more expensive than it's worth...

You should write a book! Nice output.

Livingston

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2006

The Edge of the World

[L] [GET]

30 Aug 2006 at 17:07 - 21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaguya

Raytracing isn't expensive moneywise, but it is very, very, very, very... ...very, very, very expensive computation power wise. You'd spend half an hour rendering the lights for one single frame using raytracing, and that really isn't very smooth gaming experience.

So when they say expensive they don't really mean expensive? They just mean that computers can't handle it?

If that's the case what do games like DDO use?

Livingston

Kaguya

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

Moon

Mo/

30 Aug 2006 at 19:05 - 22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livingston

So when they say expensive they don't really mean expensive? They just mean that computers can't handle it?

If that's the case what do games like DDO use?

They can get it expensive moneywise too if they buy the technologies from other sources, but they can always make their own, but most of rendering techniques used in commercial stuff (movie making, advertising etc) take a long while to render (most modern movies take huge server farms to render and calculate the computer parts of the graphics). Just too heavy to apply in gaming as is, so what we have in games are much cruder and faster rendering (and much more unrealistic) graphics.

I'm not that familiar with the technologies used in games as I'm not that heavily into that stuff, but there's a lot of reading at wikipedia on 3D computer graphics. Or of course someone more savvy in more indepth knowledge could post up :b

And of course, the computing power part is coming less and less an issue like stuff as Crysis points out, and emergence of new technologies like HDR