Missile and Artillery Effects Disappear / Become Invisible
Missile flame and smoke trails disappear or become completely invisible, along with artillery shells, when two large ships engage each other at close range. The attached save is set up to demonstrate this, all you need to do is follow the closer ship and observe. At first, the artillery barrage is clearly seen, but when the ships close to gatling turret range, the missiles and artillery become completely invisible, though you can see they are still "there" causing damage. Moving around the combat zone will sometimes cause missiles to appear and disappear randomly. No graphics or game setting seems to fix this problem. Of course it is very disappointing because it removes the best part of an epic battle - the visual exchange of fire.
The way these objects appear and disappear depending on angle of view makes me wonder if missiles (includes artillery) are being culled by the gatling tracers? However, I turned off these tracers by setting ProjectileTrailProbability to 0 in the Ammo.sbc file, and the missiles are still invisible... I suppose if culling is based on physical entities rather than visual shaders, this might make sense. Anyway, I'll let the professions figure it out ;)
I have the same bug
I can confirm this is sometimes the case, it is annoying as you do not se the enemy shooting or incoming fire, and so can't dodge accordingly.
I can confirm this is sometimes the case, it is annoying as you do not se the enemy shooting or incoming fire, and so can't dodge accordingly.
I did some further testing, where I increased the range of missiles to 1200 meters, and missile / artillery visuals work flawlessly for me at these extended ranges. It definitely seems (at least for me) that the problem is caused when gattling guns start firing.
If the issue is by design, due to a hard-coded limit to how many projectiles the game can draw at once, I would strongly suggest that small bullets (gattling and interior turrets) be moved to the lowest priority rather than the highest. Personally I think missiles with smoke should get top priority, followed by artillery, and then finally bullets. Players are not going to miss a few hard-to-see gattling gun tracers (especially in battles with dozens of these firing at once), but we definitely notice when rockets and artillery fire becomes invisible.
Thank you!
I did some further testing, where I increased the range of missiles to 1200 meters, and missile / artillery visuals work flawlessly for me at these extended ranges. It definitely seems (at least for me) that the problem is caused when gattling guns start firing.
If the issue is by design, due to a hard-coded limit to how many projectiles the game can draw at once, I would strongly suggest that small bullets (gattling and interior turrets) be moved to the lowest priority rather than the highest. Personally I think missiles with smoke should get top priority, followed by artillery, and then finally bullets. Players are not going to miss a few hard-to-see gattling gun tracers (especially in battles with dozens of these firing at once), but we definitely notice when rockets and artillery fire becomes invisible.
Thank you!
UPDATE - I was able to trigger the disappearing missile trails and artillery tracers WITHOUT gattling cannon fire (small bullets), disproving my previous theories. I did this by replacing one of the big ships with four small ships (large grid, but much smaller). Here's the irony, the smaller ships combined have way less PCU than the large ship they replace, and the battle played flawlessly at max FPS, no stuttering. However, when near the large ship, I could no longer see tracers or smoke trails. But because there was not gattling fire blocking my view, I CAN see the actual artillery shells and rockets. Of course without tracers / smoke, they are very hard to see and nowhere near as "spectacular" as they are with tracers and smoke. So the problem is definitely very specific to missile / artillery tracer and smoke, not the "rounds" themselves, and it appears to be independent of CPU / GPU load or number of projectiles in the air (though perhaps it is related to number of missiles / artillery rounds).
If you'd like to me include a save of this latest test, let me know. I can also provide details about my hardware if that helps, though others have the same problem.
UPDATE - I was able to trigger the disappearing missile trails and artillery tracers WITHOUT gattling cannon fire (small bullets), disproving my previous theories. I did this by replacing one of the big ships with four small ships (large grid, but much smaller). Here's the irony, the smaller ships combined have way less PCU than the large ship they replace, and the battle played flawlessly at max FPS, no stuttering. However, when near the large ship, I could no longer see tracers or smoke trails. But because there was not gattling fire blocking my view, I CAN see the actual artillery shells and rockets. Of course without tracers / smoke, they are very hard to see and nowhere near as "spectacular" as they are with tracers and smoke. So the problem is definitely very specific to missile / artillery tracer and smoke, not the "rounds" themselves, and it appears to be independent of CPU / GPU load or number of projectiles in the air (though perhaps it is related to number of missiles / artillery rounds).
If you'd like to me include a save of this latest test, let me know. I can also provide details about my hardware if that helps, though others have the same problem.
UPDATE 2 - I'm flip-flopping on whether small arms fire (anything in the "projectile" category in the Ammo.sbc definitions) is causing the problem. I've rerun the simulation over and over, and it does feel like gattlings trigger the disappearing smoke and artillery tracers, even if it's just one projectile that fires to "flip the switch". When the battle starts at long range, where only artillery and missiles (modded to 1200m range) can fire, everything seems fine, even with swarms of missiles and barrages of synchronized artillery shells. But as soon as even one projectile weapon fires, then my OP bug seems to activate.
I don't mean to spam this report, I'm just trying to update you with what I'm seeing as I experiment. One thing is certain, it's very easy to replicate this bug, and it happens with very different grid combinations (I've swapped out the ships, reduced PCU, etc).
UPDATE 2 - I'm flip-flopping on whether small arms fire (anything in the "projectile" category in the Ammo.sbc definitions) is causing the problem. I've rerun the simulation over and over, and it does feel like gattlings trigger the disappearing smoke and artillery tracers, even if it's just one projectile that fires to "flip the switch". When the battle starts at long range, where only artillery and missiles (modded to 1200m range) can fire, everything seems fine, even with swarms of missiles and barrages of synchronized artillery shells. But as soon as even one projectile weapon fires, then my OP bug seems to activate.
I don't mean to spam this report, I'm just trying to update you with what I'm seeing as I experiment. One thing is certain, it's very easy to replicate this bug, and it happens with very different grid combinations (I've swapped out the ships, reduced PCU, etc).
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