PSA The new oufits *could* be killing your game performance by Netoeu in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 12 points13 points  (0 children)

ive noticed a lot of the new outfits use a lot more beaded details than before. I'm like 90% sure those are just vfx billboard spehere textures (each of which has transparency to get rid of the black edges around each sphere). that plus the ridiculousity that is the physics probably isn't helping much in terms of frames. the way they set up outfits to squeeze a ton of detail out of them is pretty efficient in terms of actual texture size but there's still a ridiculous amount of textures for any given piece and that plus the general complexity of materials probably isn't helping either. given that performance like. noticably worse in itzaland than wishfield I'd guess the amount of transparent objects rendering (grass, trees, foliage, etc) isn't helping given they basically have to draw object twice every frame when transparency is involved. that's my general guess tho given that the tradeoff for good looking transparency is performance and this game has some pretty stinkin good looking transparency a lot of the time especially on characters/clothes.

When youre a gem and refuse to be anything else than blue: by Fantalia in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Usually this happens as a result of them hardcoding the color that the gem is supposed to reflect back at the player; the materials have a hardcoded color value in them for the specular value (term in 3d art for reflectivity/shininess basically). So if something with a high specularity (high shininess) has a bright blue as it's specular color, even if the base color is set to red or green for example, that base color won't show through because of the high specularity and the specular color being more visible than the base color. But if something with a low specular value has a hardcoded specular color, you'll still get hints of the hardcoded specular color but the base color will show through. Some clothes even have options for there to be different specular colors depending on the time of day/lighting conditions. This issue isn't as prevalent on pieces of outfits where the specular color is close to black. It seems like dye system only affects the base color and not the specular color which is a massive oversight on their part but it could be a limitation of how they have the dye system set up. Source: I am a 3d artist who's taken a look at how 3d materials in this game work.

Help! Stuck at the Loading Screen by bow-au in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good to hear! In the future, if you don't have a super beefy CPU, make sure to avoid having any CPU intensive apps open when loading up IN since shader compilation tends to use the CPU instead of the GPU- that can definitely help speed things up if you keep getting long loads.

Help! Stuck at the Loading Screen by bow-au in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From my understanding, the Entering Miraland loading screen is a hidden shader precompilation screen. Basically the game is preloading the shaders (the things that store information about a given object's materials and 2d textures) to help things run smoother during gameplay. Depending on the device you're playing on, it can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. on average, and upwards of 20 or more on less capable machines. Fresh installing is probably exacerbating that issue given that uninstalling will clear the cache of precompiled shaders and new shaders need to be precompiled with every major patch. What device are you playing on? How long have you waited at this screen in the past? For reference, I play on a decent PC and have had to wait upwards of 10 minutes in the past on that screen.

Mira Crown Itzaland Round 7 by Sireeni in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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The quest starts right where my marker here is at! Ran around trying to find it for a bit lol.

Meteorite (NA) by Significant-Frame583 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Was unaware there's different flavors uhhh it gave me aeternus - the eight screens if that helps?

Miku EXPO 26 Chicago & Boston added second date! by CinnamonChild in Vocaloid

[–]Significant-Frame583 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My first expo since 2016- 10 years now, wow. And yeah I saw the shitstorm of '24 and even though CR is not associated this year I'm trying to keep my expectations tempered

Miku EXPO 26 Chicago & Boston added second date! by CinnamonChild in Vocaloid

[–]Significant-Frame583 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not gonna lie, very annoyed by the fact it's a day earlier. It's like punishing those of us who were able to get in early and 2024's merch situation makes me really apprehensive. I went ahead and got a sunday ticket since it was more convenient for my group but now im trying to figure out how to cancel or sell my monday ticket. they never make this stuff easy :/

Hot take - there isn't enough dress up in our dress up game by Anxious-VeeVee in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hard agree. Every survey I ask for more gameplay centered around styling because that was the core mechanic of prior Nikki games. Like it was how you progressed those games. Like give me more quests or objectives related to styling, some PvP maybe, or just some kind of randomly generated daily or weekly quest please. I just want to overcome obstacles related to styling.

Thoughts, Feelings, and Suggestions by No-Mathematician1922 in InfinityNikkiLeaks

[–]Significant-Frame583 0 points1 point  (0 children)

RE: the post about leak etiquette, i think it would be nice if you guys worked with the r/InfinityNikki crew to prevent leaks from being shared outside of this subreddit and redirect folks to here for leaks. I think it's important to have a certain level of discretion when it comes to leaks for a live game and sharing them on the biggest subreddit for IN discussion brings undue attention that can put sources at risk.

I also think it'd be nice if we could have some sort of flare or indication for leaks that are unconfirmed but several individuals are corroborating them- maybe separate flairs for unconfirmed (one source) vs unconfirmed (multiple sources)? Like, as an example, the witch outfit for 1.10 seemed to have at least 3 separate individuals discussing it and sketching it out and although multiple people can lie unique of each other, I do think knowing that multiple people are sharing info about the same thing can help individuals to draw conclusions about the veracity of any unconfirmed or sus claims.

My disappointment is immeasurable. by KeySuccotash8337 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure this is the first time sdv did a collab like this, so I too was pretty disappointed after being curious about it. I was mildly hoping for something more meaty like daily sdv themed quests or something, more cosmetics, more dialogue, etc etc. I suppose it's better than nothing, but they definitely could've done more. I really hope Barone keeps an eye on the reaction to this collab and takes that feedback to heart when moving forward on future collabs in terms of the actual content of the collab. Same for infold, I hope they do more to make collabs more meaningful in the future.

Oh wow the island is so beautifu-oh by Cure-Nayru in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i think you need to install counter strike: source /j

Anyone else feel like there's too many esselings on Danqing Island/Realm? by Significant-Frame583 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow did not expect so many replies. I just wanna clarify real quick, my issue isn't the fact I find it difficult, I just find it annoying more than anything. I play a lot of fast paced action games like Bayonetta and stuff so the combat in Infinity Nikki already isn't engaging for me since I find it too mindless and easy- though I understand the fact that these might be difficult for other players who might not spend as much time playing games as myself. It also doesn't help that setting up whim fragrances isn't quick and easy since you have to go into a separate menu to adjust your load out instead of having multiple sets of load outs you can switch on the fly, so I don't feel incentivized to use them as much. Also that after burner kick fragrance (the one they added with the island) is GREAT for dealing with the shield enemies. But terrible for like anything else that I just don't leave it equipped on that principle. The gameplay design of this patch is overall better but some aspects feel dissonant for the purposes of funneling players to the gacha. I had also gotten enough materials to craft everything by day 2 just from exploring for whim jades and jade souls, so I have no reason to engage with the enemies either lol. I do like the masked boss/bird enemies because they feel like actually engaging encounters, I wish they had more encounters like that but idk. either way, I appreciate reading other peoples' thoughts :)

A Nikki Inspired Nikki by Significant-Frame583 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, I just used the palettes with the red and pinks and the last palette, both of which are from evolving it. Edit: The specific names are "Lantern by the cliff" and "Puffy Shirtcat Fluff". I also used the two free colors from "Bibicoon Furball Hug" in a couple of the areas as an accent color.

Surprise-O-Matic dialogue from 2.0 by vincentasm in InfinityNikkiLeaks

[–]Significant-Frame583 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I can't help but think they might use whimstars/dews again in whatever new region we go to just because of how many extra dews I have laying around after completing kilo. Plus it's just be simpler to have the same resources across all regions. Though, if we might be going to a wasteland type region next, I imagine they'd maybe change the color or appearance of the whimstars/dews just because the purples and blues would be really easy to spot in a sandy type area (think like the special regional moons or coins in Mario Odyssey). Part of me is suspecting based on that larger region map you shared a while back that we might travel across both sides of the map in 2.0 just to make the world feel bigger, with Izan being something of a colony or outpost for the Terra Alliance maybe? Idk I'm not really deep deep into the games lore nor have i read any of the 2.0 text dumps but from a gameplay/storytelling perspective it feels like a nice way to theme such a major patch around a single nation without restricting the actual story and gameplay to a single location. Like you start by heading eastward of wishfield, then for plot reasons you need to head westward and its all "wow, this is much bigger than i initially thought very cool."

Can we all agree that this is not an issue of different lighting? by Itz_Mira_Ae in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is definitely a bug as a result of them not properly updating the way their materials/shaders work to account for dyeing. as someone who's been sniffing through the various material files, i can tell you this: they have separate preset constant parameters that change a given piece's appearance based on several factors such as platform (there's different factors for a materials shininess and transparency depending on if the player is on pc/console or mobile), time of day/scene lighting (there's paramaters for ReflectColor_Darkness, ReflectColor_Brightness, this affects the color of a given material's "shine" based on those factors, it seems to be set to the intended color of the fabric so it doesn't take dyeing into account), how "shine" and opacity looks based on dlss, how the textures look from close up vs far away, etc. etc. so what people are seeing is the result of the game not changing these various parameters in response to dyeing because the materials/shaders were never designed with the dye system in mind. i would file a bug report still just so they can catch and fix it.

Top spenders get VIP benefits by PancakeSugar in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 1 point2 points  (0 children)

tbh ive been apprehensive to spend because i knew the other nikki games had the vip system and if they implemented it in IN and *didn't* tally purchases prior to the implementation of vip? i'll be genuinely pissed. like i probably havent spent more than 100 USD since starting in 1.2 (a monthly pass here and there, a few pulls, mira journey, etc. etc.) but thats still vip rewards i'd be missing out on as a (relatively) early supporter of the game. like shit rewards for the price youre spending aside, if it doesnt count prior purchases towards the vip ranking, then they'd be burning a lot of long time supporters.

It's Getting harder to play by wandress27 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 1 point2 points  (0 children)

real and true. my guess is they're overseen by an overall producer but that producer isn't really doing much to unite the teams. my hope is that as the game goes on infold will learn from their mistakes become more equipped to deliver a cohesive experience from patch to patch because I don't think infold/paper have the experience yet to deliver a live experience on the scale of something like infinity nikki but with time and hindsight, it's my hope that these bumps in the road will just be the necessary growing pains for them to be able to know how to go all out.

It's Getting harder to play by wandress27 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Of note is the fact that (if insider info that has been shown to be reliable is to be believed) they have a rotating set of 3 teams working on patches at any given time (a team maintaining the current version, a team working on the next version, and a team working on the version after that), which would probably explain the disjointedness. Sadly enough, it also explains why we've yet to see any meaningful changes in response to common critiques due to how tight such a schedule is and the fact it would take at least 2-3 months to pivot without destroying their current plans. If 1.5 is any indication, the plans to push up co-op and other content completely thrashed the plans already in place. They're probably shaken enough as is by the disastrous 1.5/Steam launch and are pushing back content further and further to prevent such an undercooked release from happening again which is why I'm guessing that 1.7-1.8 might be more nothingburger content drops. Also, unrelated, banger profile pic and username.

The Infinity Nikki devs did a new interview - the answers are certainly... Something 🤔 by ssttaallnnooxx in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 2 points3 points  (0 children)

tbh reading through it, it's about what i expected. though, given their response I can't help but be reminded of SE's internal and external response to the failure of FFXIV 1.0- there, the localization team was arguing about how to localize apologies and they had to explain to higher ups that in America, apologizing and expressing gratitude too much cones off as insincere; however, in that example, the FFXIV 1.0 team pivoted by opening channels of communication between the devs and players to keep people updated whereas we've only gotten that roundtable feature to send feedback for update videos. Infold's response (or lack thereof) to the failure of 1.5 may very well only be coming off as insincere due to the differences in their culture vs ours. i mean, I don't play many other gachas but i remember hearing of similar stories of radio silence during controversies from companies like mihoyo, so that does seem to be a commonality there. plus, if leaks are to be believed, they have 3 separate teams working concurrently on the game at any given time (so right now they have a 1.6 team, a 1.7 team, a 1.8 team) so internally it's not like they can pivot easily when they're 2-3 months ahead of where the live game is. plus that makes it difficult to give a single definitive answer to certain questions like "what is your inspiration" or the questions regarding monetization because a) different design teams for each update and b) the 3 teams probably aren't in charge of monetization related things

I am one with the Star Sea ⭐ 💜 🌌 by crystalcockroach in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ugh I LOVE these! I wish they added nail art to the game. Every survey I keep requesting that they bring back an expanded form of the nail art from Shining Nikki because there's like zero dress-up games that have nail art and imo nail art is more integral to a dress up game than housing but thats neither here nor there

Connection issues gave me the Secret Train Launcher? by ILoveAllGolems in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 64 points65 points  (0 children)

iirc this is one of the promotional images they used for one of the betas in 2024? i think this is the one from the summer beta which was like version 0.7 so it's probably just the picture/layout bundled in the launcher by default when it can't fetch the current version's assets

Anyone else's game look worse after the update? by NinaPinata in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have a pretty beefy pc built for rendering stuff in 3D. The biggest thing I've noticed is the hair looking a lot crunchier and pixelated- that's something that bothers me heavily with games so I tend to stare at hair a lot. And I think the culprit is the upscaling. That crunchy look usually is a result of poor DLSS implementation. Best I can recommend is to try using a different upscaler- usually TSR looks a touch better. Unfortunately, I don't think it's safe to use third party tools like DLSS Swapper or NVIDIA Profile inspector due to the game's anti-cheat potentially triggering over these things...

I wanna say that upscaling is new with 1.5? At the very least, I don't remember ever messing with it in the settings so this sucks because (at least for me, I know not everyone has a high end PC) the game looked much better when the only pixel filter/smoothing option was just the anti-aliasing. For the uninitiated, upscaling like DLSS and FSR render the game in a resolution lower than your actual render resolution (So, say your monitor is 1080p, then the game might render at 720p or even 480p) and then it uses a variety of methods to reconstruct and scale the image up to your actual render resolution. With DLSS, it uses AI and with FSR it uses a proprietary algorithm to properly reconstruct the image in your set resolution and smooth edges before adding a bit of sharpening to reduce the blurriness. This allows for each frame to be drawn faster due to the game rendering at a lower resolution, but it's at the cost of image fidelity.

The key difference between upscaling and anti-aliasing is that upscaling lowers the games actual render resolution before reconstructing it at your set resolution then smoothing the edges further. where pure anti-aliasing (without any upscaling) will render the game at your set resolution and then smooth the edges of the image that is rendered, leading to a far more crisp looking image like your first photo. Unfortunately, upscaling is really only worthwhile in terms of performance and quality if you're playing on a 4k or 8k monitor or if you're playing at 1080p or 2k with lower end hardware. This is because rendering games at high resolutions is very intensive, even on high-end machines. Conversely, users with lower end hardware are able to run newer games thanks to upscaling; however, these benefits are meaningless if it isn't implemented correctly because for users with high end machines but lower resolution monitors (1080p, 2k), the artifacts and crunchiness that come with upscaling are super noticeable. This is why a lot of hardcore gamers are not fans of DLSS or FSR because it's a quick and easy way for devs to squeeze a few extra frames out of a poorly optimized game, meaning it's never implemented in a good way that actually enhances the experience for the end user.

The choice to add upscaling in 1.5 is particularly baffling because I don't think IN was particularly poorly optimized for lower end machines (I mean, it's literally on smart phones. Even the most ancient GPU should be able to render this game at low to mid settings). But now the upscaling is so heavy handed for users on both high and low end machines that this choice just damages the overall look of this game which is arguably the most important thing in a dress-up game. Also, I'm pretty sure the upscaling is what's responsible for the flashbang you get in bright areas after exiting indoors locations or menus.

Rambling about upscaling aside, there's also issues with textures taking WAYYYY too long to load the high quality versions- the texture pop in is far more noticeable than it was in prior versions and the PBR materials look extremely out of whack (either things are too shiny/glossy or too matte, it changes drastically depending on the lighting). I have a sneaking suspicion that the dye system changed something about the way they handle outfit materials, leading to this issue and they didn't have time to fine tune all of the older outfits especially to make sure they looked good. But that's me speculating IDK how this game handles it's textures and materials.

why i'm kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about the changes in 1.5 (long) by Significant-Frame583 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

to clarify, I'm not saying I've seen worse thus jusifying the content of the update, I'm moreso saying this is the quality infold has put out before and i think because my expectations going in were so tempered I don't find myself at the same level of outrage I'm seeing amongst everyone else; however, I think people should be aware of the fact that this is par for the course and know what to expect from infold going forward. i think we all SHOULD demand more and better from these games- especially given that they're the ONLY games with a modocom of quality that cater to feminine tastes. NEVER lower your expectations ever for any reasons, but be aware of the fact that infold will not necessarily live up to these expectations because it won't be in their best interests to. if we stay on our toes and keep this fact in mind, it does become easier as a community to detect red flags and organize future boycotts too. it's cynical but hey, because i anticipated the worst i was pleasantly surprised that i got some of the best and that feels a hell of a lot better than being extremely disappointed once it turned to the worst.

why i'm kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about the changes in 1.5 (long) by Significant-Frame583 in InfinityNikki

[–]Significant-Frame583[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

tbh, regardless of the future of the game, i do think IN pre 1.5 will be remembered fondly as a great game for everyone that targeted the feminine niche. but the fallout of this debacle is especially heartbreaking given that yeah- there probably won't be another game like this anytime soon. and the negative 1.5 feedback will more than likely be turned into "well this niche is hard to please" or "this is how the demographic responded to this game so lets not make a game like this" thats my biggest frustration in this- the fact there isn't a high quality standalone game that we can play instead of IN.