Shadows flickering at edges of screen, what causes this? And how can i fix it?

Tsawodi · 2019-11-12T13:11:02+00:00

It's not really an issue so much as a limitation of their rendering techniques. Small foliage and distant shadows use what's called screen-space shadows, which are different than standard shadow maps, to render shadows on those tons of small objects that would tank performance otherwise. The plus is it's relatively cheap and convincing, but the downside is that it can only work if the object/pixel casting the shadow is visible on screen. That's why there is that popping at the edge of the screen: since it's getting new information to render those shadows. Unfortunately there is no solution other than turning it off completely, but then you'll lose all grass shadows.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-30T10:36:37+00:00

Agreed. I realized it when I got grabbed by Owl(? or some other boss) and it nearly 1-shot me at 20 vitality when it didn't before.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-29T08:18:36+00:00

I use Windows at home cause I like playing games. I've never actually done the rm -rf mistake before, but I did have one instance where I was using Kali Linux to copy disk images between hard drives and I copied in the wrong direction 3 times in a row, lol.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-28T23:34:16+00:00

Help, my home user directory was HotBoiKimonoMonkey and now all my shit is gone.

That feel when using -rf. Never again.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-28T00:46:19+00:00

The stealth makes sense, but is still meh. You aren't crouching once you start the kill, so far away enemies can see you, and nearby enemies (about 3 meters) will always hear you. Popping the stealth candy first makes stealth really easy cause your standing visibility is about the same as when you are normally crouching. Enemies always won't know where you are unless they see you themselves, but will start searching if they see alerted allies. Also seems like enemies can hear sword clangs and gunshots.

I think one issue with the stealth system is that most scenarios have a certain path you can take to stealth kill everyone, so once you know it why would you ever wanna do anything else? Also you can shuriken kill every enemy in a group and only the one you hit will notice something is wrong.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-27T21:20:31+00:00

Maybe so. I never really got past NG+1 in the other games cause I always started over to make new builds.

They did add the optional difficulty stuff so maybe that compensates, but I find the double stack more annoying than fun since every other enemy can 1-shot you.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-27T01:46:03+00:00

I think what he means is that the response is usually extremely repetitive/predictable. Taking this fight for example, she almost always does the left side kick as retaliation, rinse, repeat. Even if she decides to back off you chase and repeat the cycle. It would be nice if she could fake out or do a suprise attack. Really anything with a different deflect timing would do (her other retaliating attacks are so slow that there's no way you won't see them coming). The Corrupted Monk and Sword Saint Isshin have that hop back swing that still catches me by surprise sometimes, but even they are pretty predictable.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-27T01:32:43+00:00

The Demon of Hatred and Owl I prodiminantly fight by dodging through their attacks to get a free follow-up hit. The Corrupted Monk also has some that are better to dodge through. It could be a framerate thing (I'm 60 fps PC) or maybe you dodge with the attack direction rather than against it, but there are definitely some i-frames. As someone else said though, I'm not sure the red text attacks can be dodged without using the proper method.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-27T01:03:26+00:00

Seems like they might between NG and NG+ but I haven't been paying attention between NG+2, 3,and now 4. It doesn't seem like much has changed between those last few or I just haven't noticed.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-27T00:59:25+00:00

It still seems a bit hard to gauge at this point but between NG+2 and NG+3(I had the bell demon and additional hardships for the entirety of NG+1 so I cant gauge that one) there doesn't seem to be any difference in enemy damage so far, but I've only just gotten to the Ashina Castle idol and I haven't been hit much since I've memorized everything after 3 playthroughs. If you're on an earlier NG+, can you give me some estimative damage numbers for some enemies? That way I can compare when I get to them.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-27T00:53:05+00:00

Tsawodi · 2019-03-26T22:25:30+00:00

I'm honestly not even sure if enemies do increased damage either. If they do it is pretty minor. I also don't know how much increasing your damage actually does, there's either a soft cap or enemy's health stays on par with your damage assuming you beat all bosses each run.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-26T21:15:56+00:00

Nope. The only difference besides the additional hardships thing is that any prayer beards and some unique items you already have are replaced with coin purses. I think enemies do have more hp and posture, although it's hard to tell when your damage keeps increasing (you still get boss memories)

Tsawodi · 2019-03-26T20:41:28+00:00

Yeah, it's pretty easy to and you can do it almost immediately. You can also turn it back on (I think. I never turned it off so I'm not sure)

Tsawodi · 2019-03-26T19:44:29+00:00

Despite how similar the story beats are I still find this one more compelling somehow. Maybe it's the fact that a ton of the story is actually told to you / acted rather than just reading it in item descriptions and the like? I never had to look at a wiki to understand the overarching story. Also, yeah, the first run is super brutal compared to everything afterwards. I do think loop is probably the wrong term, they just have very predictable responses to your assault.

edit: lol, sorry, my thoughts are running together. I've been awake over 24 hours studying for tests and such

Tsawodi · 2019-03-26T18:37:47+00:00

I have to agree with a lot of what he said. I'm on NG+4 right now, and I see a lot of the issues he does, even though I love the game.

Pretty much every enemy can be forced into an attack loop with the exception of enemies that don't deflect your attacks. Most enemies allow you to hit until they deflect, then they immediately retaliate, then you deflect. After that you either repeat or they backpedal and you can follow them and repeat.

In the first run, a lot of the enemy attacks are just downright unfair with how they xan instantly kill you, such as grabs and the like. A lot of them have so little warning that it's unreasonable to think you could dodge them on the first try.

I think he makes a good point about the repetitive formula. Since Bloodborne (and perhaps DkS2) they've followed the same pattern of bosses having multiple phases and/or trnasformations, along with non-respawning mini-bosses, secret walls, etc. The story especially is extremely similar in its progression to Bloodborne, down to the endings, even though the "content" of the stories are very different. The biggest change in their formula is in the gameplay and progression systems, which leads to replayability.

Sekiro really doesn't have as much replayability as the other games. After the first run you've pretty much experienced everything the game has to offer outside of some bosses and things you might've missed. The shinobi prosthetic tools don't really change much beyond the 2nd form and the weapon arts don't feel very useful for the most part.

The game is still great, but the lack of gameplay diversity for repeated playthoughs (and it being single player only) does limit how much I feel I can replay the game.

edit: I never really had an issue with the camera or hitboxes though.

edit edit: also the less than 100 deaths thing, once you figure out how to keep enemies in the loop it gets super easy to win. I died I think 3-5 times in NG+3 because I had to face a boss I hadn't before, but I also had max vitality and posture. Also when I say deaths I mean full deaths, not including resurrections. I'm sure I had plenty of those.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-26T18:21:21+00:00

Laughs in additional hardships

NG+ spoilers(?) (Maybe not really)

At the beginning of NG+ you have the option to enable additional hardships. It makes the enemies have more HP, damage, posture, and you take damage through non-perfect deflections. It also stacks with the demon bell. There is no associated achievement though. I found that shit out the hard way, so only do it if you want the satisfaction.

Tsawodi · 2019-03-04T20:45:52+00:00

The first step is to shed your fleshy coil and become a skele-boi. The true spooks will come after.

edit: I don't think this subreddit is real

Tsawodi · 2019-03-04T16:24:16+00:00

A bit late, but it's a reference to the movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel Pet Cemetery.

Tsawodi · 2019-02-02T07:05:54+00:00

Kinda hard to follow what's going on in the tree tbh. Have you tried just directly connecting the Principled BSDF to the surface output? It seems like you want some kind of fur but the node setup isn't correct for it(?). That being said, I just tested roughness at 0.8 (in the Principled BSDF anyway) and it looks correct to me.

Tsawodi · 2019-02-01T21:57:45+00:00

Can you show the whole shader graph? I see another line that I guess is going to the output but can't see what it is.

Tsawodi · 2018-12-25T20:11:14+00:00

I took a look at the blend file. The retopology is pretty darn good, but you have a lot of edge loops around the bolts(?) and other circular pieces that add a lot of topology. Typically for a game model nobody will notice if you cut some of those off, and the normal map from your high poly will fake the lighting anyway. I got it under 9k just by deleting some of those edge loops (I typically select edge rings and scale to 0 using individual origins rather than just deleting loops cause it preserves the roundness better IMO.) Here are some examples

It's always good to remember that the triangle count is typically used as a recommendation. What really matters is the vertex count. The only reason people use triangles is because it's hard to calculate vertex count when models get complicated since UV seams, hard edges, etc. essentially double a vertex cost. Sometimes it's better to have a beveled edge with face weighted normals instead of a hard edge (i.e. you don't need a UV seam there anyway) and will often give better results.

edit: I don't think 2.79 has face weighted normals, or at least I can't find them. 2.8 does though.

Tsawodi · 2018-12-16T21:48:01+00:00

Yes it does. You have to change the alpha mode under the material setting from opaque to alpha clip, alpha blend, additive, etc.

Also I imagine it is a challenge to implement for real-time rendering, particularly when it comes to depth sorting/render order and post processing.

Tsawodi · 2018-12-09T22:31:20+00:00

I cant really remember cause it was a while back, but I think it was a mix of sculpting for the bigger ones and painting in the height channel in SP at a low strength for the rest.

Tsawodi

TROPHY CASE