"Smoothly-flowing" powers?

[biostem]

I know this has been brought up a few times in the past, but there seem to be times when you can use 1 power after the other, and the transition is smooth with no apparent breaks or interruptions, while other times your character  seemingly stops dead in their tracks, pauses for a moment, then resumes their attacks.  Is this an actual thing with how powers work, or is it more about network or input latency?  Maybe some sort of disconnect between back-end calculations and what the character models depict?  All of the above?  Some other factor(s) I'm not taking into account?  Thanks for reading!

[Lockely]

I know for some it's a case of the redraw animation as you 'swap' between weapons (even if theres no swap taking place, see maces and mace mastery), but I wonder if there's an internal 'weapon' that doesn't actually render for weapon-less powersets and you have an invisible 'redraw' period going on.

[Sovera]

20 minutes ago, biostem said:

I know this has been brought up a few times in the past, but there seem to be times when you can use 1 power after the other, and the transition is smooth with no apparent breaks or interruptions, while other times your character  seemingly stops dead in their tracks, pauses for a moment, then resumes their attacks.  Is this an actual thing with how powers work, or is it more about network or input latency?  Maybe some sort of disconnect between back-end calculations and what the character models depict?  All of the above?  Some other factor(s) I'm not taking into account?  Thanks for reading!

 

The, still, best example of this is Katana. Soaring Dragon knocks a mob in the air and then Golden Dragonfly does a knockdown. Used back to back it's really beautiful with the move visually going up, tossing the enemy in the air, and then GD being a little jump before slamming the katana down and the mob is slammed to the floor while still in the air from Soaring Dragon.

[ZemX]

20 minutes ago, biostem said:

Maybe some sort of disconnect between back-end calculations and what the character models depict?

 

It kind of sounds like you're describing ArcanaTime, except the longest pause that would be added to a power's animation time in this case is 0.132 seconds, which isn't the sort of delay I'd really call a stop in the action.  

 

I would think the only time you could notice such a delay is if there's a mismatch between the cast time and the actual animation time.  i.e. If the animation time is noticeably shorter than the cast time then you'd notice your character pause because the game will still wait the full ArcanaTime of the power before allowing the next power to begin.  But I don't have an example.

 

Unless you're just talking about animations that seem to flow together better because one picks up close to where the other left off.  Like a left-then-right punch combo instead of two left-handed attacks (looking at YOU Dark Melee).

[ZemX]

2 minutes ago, Sovera said:

The, still, best example of this is Katana. Soaring Dragon knocks a mob in the air and then Golden Dragonfly does a knockdown.

 

Counterpoint: Sky Splitter does both the knock up and slam down and then Innocuous Strikes stabs them repeatedly in the nethers while they are on the ground.

 

Just sayin'

[Luminara]

It's real.  It's most apparent, for me, with /Martial Assault.  If I use Trick Shot after Thunder Kick, there's a pause before the shuriken throw animation begins.  Using Spinning Kick or Dragon's Tail immediately after Thunder Kick, though, the Thunder Kick animation transitions straight into the next kick.  Kick -> throw, hitchy.  Kick -> kick, buttery.  Throw -> throw, buttery.  Throw -> kick, hitchy.

 

It kept bothering me until I reworked my attack chain to pair kicks with kicks and throws with throws to iron out some of the animation hitches.  I preferred mixing the two, but the pause was too annoying.

 

[Sovera]

Isn't this the aftercast? The Arcana time?

 

Not all animations have perfect loops though where the animation ends precisely when the animation lock  ends. Sometimes the animation ends before the lock and we are still there waiting. Granted, not a long wait, but, still noticeably there.

[Luminara]

19 minutes ago, Sovera said:

Isn't this the aftercast? The Arcana time?

 

No.  Referring back to /Martial Assault, when I chain Thunder Kick -> Trick Shot, my character stops between the two, like she's trying to remember what to do next.  When I chain Thunder Kick -> Spinning Kick, Spinning Kick's animation begins the instant Thunder Kick's ends.  If Arcanatime were causing that pause between Thunder Kick and Trick Shot, it would also create the same pause between Thunder Kick and Spinning Kick.

 

Furthermore, both Spinning Kick and Trick Shot are 1.17s animations.  Both round up to 1.32s with Arcanatime.  Trick Shot has a pause at the beginning if used immediately after Thunder Kick, though.  Arcanatime would have to create the same pause before Spinning Kick started, and the same duration, if it were the reason that pause exists, because it's a constant, identically applicable between the two powers in question.  That doesn't happen, though.  Spinning Kick's animation chains so perfectly with Thunder Kick's that it looks like one animation.

 

50 minutes ago, Sovera said:

Not all animations have perfect loops though where the animation ends precisely when the animation lock  ends. Sometimes the animation ends before the lock and we are still there waiting. Granted, not a long wait, but, still noticeably there.

 

It's not that, either, and the same evidence that proves that it can't be Arcanatime works here.  If the pause existed at the end of Thunder Kick, it would be evident no matter which power was used next.  Like Arcanatime, it would be a constant, something always present regardless of what sequence you use.  That there is no pause if another kick is used after Thunder Kick is sufficient to prove that there isn't a baked-in pause.

 

It's something else.  Something to do with sequencing, I'd guess, but animations are well outside of my usual research areas.  The last time I did anything with graphics was when I made my avatar, and that was almost 25 years ago.