Why mat_picmip -10 was removed.

Apr 19, 2009
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mat_picmip.PNG
 

nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
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this doesn't make sense.

so his point is that it reduces performance, and they didn't mean for the game to look better than it does at default?

wat
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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And it doesn't fix the problem of people thinking higher numbers means more detail. They'll just end up thinking they're running at the lowest setting and that they can't do anything to fix performance.
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
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Sep 28, 2009
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People thought that the lower picmip was, the worse the graphics would be and therefore the better their performance would be. They thought their performance was higher than it actually was.

People who did know that low picmip meant better graphics were unaware that this made Team Fortress unstable.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
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Jul 31, 2009
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So? Remove mat_picmip entirely, and add mat_miplevel that uses a reversed scale.

I'm a little pissed about what they did to sv_showhitboxes and tf_debug_flamethrower as well.
 

Icarus

aa
Sep 10, 2008
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Weren't they giving misleading information?

causing everyone to go OB engine hitboxes suck lololol
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
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Sep 28, 2009
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So? Remove mat_picmip entirely, and add mat_miplevel that uses a reversed scale.

If they remove picmip, that means that they need to change every reference to it. It's easier to cap it instead of just getting rid of it and rewriting the whole renderer.
 
Nov 14, 2009
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Why remove stuff so that noobs don't get confused?

I'm seriously worried with the direction they are going...
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
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Sep 28, 2009
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That wasn't the only reason, it just contributed to it. Because the resources were never made to appear at those settings, they became unstable and could cause random and severe drops in performance and would cause some crashes.
 
Nov 14, 2009
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That wasn't the only reason, it just contributed to it. Because the resources were never made to appear at those settings, they became unstable and could cause random and severe drops in performance and would cause some crashes.

The issue here is that Valve never told anyone to apply the commands, or even suggested that it would help. I used them to make my TF2 look like Crysis.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
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Jul 31, 2009
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If they remove picmip, that means that they need to change every reference to it. It's easier to cap it instead of just getting rid of it and rewriting the whole renderer.

Who said anything about rewriting? Just make it a "locked" cvar.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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Weren't they giving misleading information?

causing everyone to go OB engine hitboxes suck lololol

Yea, that's what i thought too. The hitboxes shown with that command weren't the actual hitboxes used to figure out damage.
 

FaTony

Banned
Mar 25, 2008
901
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Why remove stuff so that noobs don't get confused?

I'm seriously worried with the direction they are going...

Ah, why use GUI when there is good ol' command line? Right? It's all going into the way of usability and intuitively understandable (read: even complete noobs with no brain can use it) way.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
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May 14, 2008
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Yea, that's what i thought too. The hitboxes shown with that command weren't the actual hitboxes used to figure out damage.

Actually, they were the right hitboxes but they weren't affected by interpolation. So they appeared to lag behind, while in reality they worked fine.

So clueless idiots made youtube videos of this trying to prove a point, that hitboxes were broken when they weren't.

With the command gone, we can no longer prove cases where the hitboxes are infact broken though. Like taunts for example (the hitboxes does not move at all when taunting).


Anyway, they removed the command because some people got confused. Which is a shame because It's a very useful command.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
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Nov 2, 2007
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So how do you "lock" the cvar?
Takes mp_waitingforplayers_time for example. It's a cvar but it's locked and cannot be changed, or even seen. But things like sourcemod can change these. This is why our servers have 60 seconds of wait time, I raised it from 30 with sourcemod because we regularily have new maps for download. Other examples include all the scout function variables we messed with for Scout Madness.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
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Jul 31, 2009
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So how do you "lock" the cvar?
As Booj said, it's still there, you just can't see or alter it via normal console means... you need a plugin, and you need to know the variable's name in advance.

Another example would be the curvature, "jitter", lifetime, and travel speed flamethrower projectiles.
 

Jakkarra

L4: Comfortable Member
Aug 26, 2009
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I still don't understand why this nessescitated REMOVING -2 to -10 entirely though, it's an unnessescary punishment almost for all the people who liked the increased graphical quality, like myself, surely they could simply have placed some text when you submitted the command saying "LOWER NUMBERS MEAN HIGHER GRAPHICAL QUALITY" or "YOUR FRAMERATE WILL BE NEGATIVELY IMPACTED BY LOWER NUMBERS" or something.

The game really looked beautiful on Mat_picmip -10.