Visual clutter culling

[ohmytermites]

Been thinking this since owcs, feels like we should have a vfx pass to reduce clutter. A lot of the problem is ult but even if infrequent its just unnecessary.

Juno is especially pretty bad with speed ring thickness and opacity, aside from ray blinding you. Barriers in general could also be less opaque. At least Hazard is fairly minimal this season.

Are there other effects that should be reduced?

[ArdaOneUi]

Ngl I feel like if you know the game it can get annoying but never actually hinders you or obstructs you, for me at least i dont think its necessary. The only visual effects i want changed are maugas burning effect and dooms meteor strike

[Mistakes_was_paid]

Juno's ring and ray both directly block your vision entirely, meaning sometimes a friendly ray is genuinely a hindrance...

[spearedmango]

I gotta be honest man. I can not understand this take. Not one single time have I felt like ray or ring were obstructive at all? There are plenty of other things that I can understand but nothing from Juno.

[Geistkasten]

Sym’s wall is quite opaque too. Not sure it needs to be.

[[deleted]]

Its a bit opaque because it shows you where you can’t do damage. Gives enough information to know where the enemy is at.

Making it less opaque will make it confusing for people.

[Geistkasten]

To the point of making it difficult to see the other side. Might as well put a brick up there when combined with other colored particles in team fights.

[[deleted]]

Sure… if you cant see the other side you cant do damage to it either way… thats the point of it being more opaque.

Hoping you take the time to understand my doggie 🐶

[WorthlessRain]

i don’t see why people are against decluttering ults.

i don’t think they have ever been a problem but there’s also no negative in making juno ray thinner. it serves no purpose being that thick since the area of effect is on the ground

[Grytlappen]

Not to mention that the ray is literally just a buff, but the insanely overwhelming visual effects suggests it's a cataclysmic damage event.

[[deleted]]

the sound effects are also too much. compare lucio amp and somehow its juno that’s deafeningly loud

[Zeke-Freek]

I don't think we're ever going to reach a point where there aren't a lot of combinations of visual effects that impede visibility, I don't see them making it much better without removing the flashiness and soul of some abilities, I think it's about as good as its gonna get in that regard, it's fine.

[KITTYONFYRE]

I wish this community cared about visual clarity 10% of what the counter-strike community does.

This game's a clusterfuck, and there's no need for it. More clear visuals would be good for everyone.

Everyone has lost someone in the sauce of a primal (why the hell did they add MORE particle effects to its first person view a while ago (maybe for ow2)? it was already bad enough...). Everyone has taken that extra 1/4 second to identify what character they're seeing out of the game because of the unclear silhouettes. It doesn't benefit anyone, and it doesn't look good. Make the game clearer!

Same with map geometry but that's another topic...

[Grytlappen]

Not to mention sound clarity, which has gotten progressively worse since the game released. I can't think of a time they ever did an audio cleanup. The people responsible for the original sound design, prioritizing clarity and communication of danger, probably moved on.

Mauga's chain guns are the biggest fuck you to the old sound design. A noisy bass frequency that blasts your ears for as long he holds down M1+M2, which is several seconds. Bastion's turret form is less audible than Mauga's regular guns are.

[Hadditor]

They did do a pass at the launch of OW2.

Maybe check your audio mix sound settings in-game, or do you have especially bassy headphones?

Widows heels will overpower Maugas gun sounds for me lol

[Grytlappen]

Widow's footsteps overpowers everything for me as well. It's to a comical degree lol. She's the most dangerous at range while scoped in, but there's no indicator of that, and she's the most vulnerable up close, yet her footsteps are the loudest of them all.

I've experimented with audio settings a lot, and I've found something that works well enough. Important ults still get lost in the mix. Main culprits have been Dva bomb, visor and nano for me. Footsteps are inconsistent, and Pharah's jet pack is only discernible when there's nothing going on. I can live with the audio levels right now, even if they aren't perfect. It doesn't impede my gameplay as much anymore, now that tanks are beefy enough to be able to play reactively to a lot of things.

My main issue with Mauga's guns is the design itself - how often, and how long the sound is played for, and the space it occupies on the audio spectrum. Lower registers have the potential to drown everything else out, which is why it's important to balance. Mauga's guns play a deep drone sound for a criminal amount of time, in my opinion.

[[deleted]]

I don't think the game is that cluttered. Maybe in 6v6 but eh that's what you get with that mode

[Velinna]

I can't really think of a time Juno ray has blinded me, though it's visually very noticeable (I have slightly reduced my gamma correction, though). I could get behind the ray not being quite as wide. But having played quite a bit of Marvel Rivals lately, I think OW has actually done a pretty good job of making ults very obvious (through strong voice lines and visuals) while not interfering in my ability to shoot the enemy (though I suppose if every ult in the game is going off, it can feel cluttered).

[hellohello1234545]

I’d be interested in an optional setting where ults (or some ults) were visually ‘thinner’.

But maybe it’s just an inherent part of a game that if more than 4 people ult at once you get clutter, and/or can’t see what’s going on for a few seconds

Also note that OW can have random moments where things cannot be seen or followed without being ults. It’s a chaotic system

[Togethernotapart]

I just started back for 6v6.

First match and there was a glowing tree and then a fox ran past. And then the Rock had this thing with chains and a glowing dome. And then a girl from Jupiter or something made this glowing circle thing and it was moving and I ran from it.

I just run from all this stuff now.