issue 26 Patch Notes for August 22nd, 2019

[ceaars]

9 hours ago, Leandro said:

"Ragdoll is still broken, but it's broken in new and different ways."

Yep.  Overall it does look better.  More specifically:

 

About two thirds of the time they at least fall more "naturally" (variation as expected, but mostly sort of tip over ... kind of limp but not to the 'all joints turned instantly to teflon and gained 360 degrees of movement' from before).  About one third of the time their "spine snaps off at their pelvis" and they twist pretty wildly around their waist.

 

Still, gotta admit - it looks better overall.  Nice!

[EggKookoo]

5 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

Probably gonna sound a bit ignorant here, but what's the advantage of running in the 64-bit client over the standard client anyway? I never paid much attention to the bit differences when programs use it.

As has been said, it's mostly about memory management. Strictly speaking the 64bit client won't get better FPS than the 32bit. However, by improving how the application handles memory, it frees up your computer to do more things at the same time (probably why PhysX was separated out). This can create an effective performance increase just by virtue of that alone.

 

Also, there are subtle things. I'm not really seeing a framerate improvement by way of /showfps, but the game sure feels smoother. This suggests to me that my framerate is more consistent under the 64bit client, which is probably due to it better handling multiple asynchronous threads.

 

It's also possible I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I feel like I've gleaned something about how this stuff works over the past few decades.

[InfamousBrad]

The version that's on Justin had maybe a couple of hundred new decor items, like round walls and Clockwork King lair decor. None of those seem to have made it into today's build. Still coming?

 

Edited to add: I see the Concealment improvements from Justin also didn't make it into this patch. Are both of these things still planned for an upcoming patch?

Edited August 23, 2019 by InfamousBrad

[rebussohal]

Any chance the hc-bin(xx) parts in the manifest can be put before the hc-beta bits? Slow and patchy internet makes having the download any beta changes before actual changes before being able to play a bit annoying. I made my own local mini manifest to use once it start downloading beta bits to skip straight to that bit it but it would be appreciated if it could be changed so there was less messing around when patching.

 

Editting my edit: Normally I just launch direct from the exe with command line extras while skipping tequila entierly. Now this just crashes instantly with but launching from tequila the 32bit version works.

Edited August 22, 2019 by rebussohal
Another edit

[Umphrey37]

My video driver is current, as is the manifest.  I can't get past this, but I don't see anybody else asking about this problem.  Is it just me?

[AboveTheChemist]

3 hours ago, Cinnder said:

Further update on the RSHIFT situation: I don't know how I got it to work for one character, because it's not working on any others except when I run Safe Mode.

 

Tried going to Safe Mode and manually re-entering the bind, then running 32- or 64- but no luck.

I have one tray of powers set to activate using LSHIFT + NUMPAD 0-9. That has stopped working in 64-bit if I press LSHIFT then a number pad number. However, if I press the number pad number first, then LSHIFT, the powers in that tray activate as they should.

[voyager2001dl]

Since this update, I have periodically been getting a different splash screen on CoH, and occasionally the server list comes up with a single server, either "Justin" or "UNNAMED".  When It comes up with UNNAMED, the client hangs, and can only be closed through task manager (Running Windows 10).  This seems random, please tell me if there is something I am doing that may be causing this to happen in a seemingly random fashion.

 

Thank You

Galelleo

 

PS, a restart of the game usually alleviates the issue, though I have had the list with only Justin happen twice in a row.

Edited August 22, 2019 by voyager2001dl

[PepperAngel]

I uninstalled COH from my mac (by uninstall I mean I took the COH file that was in applications and I took the Island Rum file and put them in the trash, emptied trash). I opened terminal, installed home brew, then did the brew install wine line, and it looks like it did something, but I do not see the COH application installed anywhere? Am I missing a step? 

 

editgal$ brew install wine

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/wine-4.0.1.sierra.bottle.ta

==> Downloading from https://akamai.bintray.com/8d/8dfb2b70d3587b88a00b3bf3cce39

######################################################################## 100.0%

==> Pouring wine-4.0.1.sierra.bottle.tar.gz

==> Regenerating font cache, this may take a while

==> /usr/local/Cellar/wine/4.0.1/libexec/bin/fc-cache -frv

==> Caveats

You may also want winetricks:

  brew install winetricks

==> Summary

🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/wine/4.0.1: 8,972 files, 656.1MB

[silencer_pl]

I literally just discovered Homecoming and are looking forward to a nostalgia run. Was about to create a character yesterday but was too tired (all the costume options compared to live ;P) and today bam, 64 bit client out of beta.

I applaud your work and your dedication dev team, thanks.

Edited August 23, 2019 by silencer_pl

[AtomicJr]

I use creamsoda, Im getting a window telling me I have the wrong version and to do a patch, How do I got about doing this?

 

[arcane]

Been trying to figure this out all evening. Managed to install brew and wine. But then I click play in Island Rum, it says "Launching" for about 5 seconds, and then goes back to "Ready To Play" and nothing happens.

 

I feel like I've tried everything over the last three hours. Probably just not going to be able to play this weekend at this rate. 

[thunderforce]

I've got a curious graphical glitch - roadsigns are now a sort of olive colour. I wonder if more serious graphical issues may turn up, and if this affects everyone or just me?

 

Old client:

New client:

Edited August 23, 2019 by thunderforce

[Rockfall]

14 hours ago, Leandro said:

Input

• The game no longer uses DirectInput due to incompatibility with Mac OS Catalina, and now uses standard Windows messages for input. For the most part you should not notice any difference, although players with international keyboard distributions may have issues entering non-English and special symbols.

I do see a difference -- I had to un-reverse my mouse buttons, because suddenly CoH played nice with my leftie mouse on linux using synergy to control windows running CoH. GG A++++ would run a modernized program again.

 

It makes me wonder (and maybe I'll test tomorrow) if scroll would work for me (over synergy), without having to have a scroll wheel device plugged directly into the windows box.

[Siphonic]

4 hours ago, PepperAngel said:

I uninstalled COH from my mac (by uninstall I mean I took the COH file that was in applications and I took the Island Rum file and put them in the trash, emptied trash). I opened terminal, installed home brew, then did the brew install wine line, and it looks like it did something, but I do not see the COH application installed anywhere? Am I missing a step? 

 

editgal$ brew install wine

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/wine-4.0.1.sierra.bottle.ta

==> Downloading from https://akamai.bintray.com/8d/8dfb2b70d3587b88a00b3bf3cce39

######################################################################## 100.0%

==> Pouring wine-4.0.1.sierra.bottle.tar.gz

==> Regenerating font cache, this may take a while

==> /usr/local/Cellar/wine/4.0.1/libexec/bin/fc-cache -frv

==> Caveats

You may also want winetricks:

  brew install winetricks

==> Summary

🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/wine/4.0.1: 8,972 files, 656.1MB

I'm also not seeing the COH application installed anywhere.

[Derek Icelord]

Any ETA on the powers changes currently on the Beta server?

[zuel]

Just tried the 64-bit client, and the "vis_scale" command doesn't appear to be able to change the value. By itself, the command returns "2.0", but when I type "/vis_scale 6" and check, it still returns "2.0".

 

Otherwise, amazing work on updating the client!

[Jarrett89]

I had island rum and coh working just fine on my mac...until the update. Tried to fix things...no luck. So I deleted the whole folder. Now I:

1) Download and run island rum. (it downloads 182 files) - - - though when I look in the folder several of them are .exe (even though I'm on a mac)

2) Final file size about 4.66 GB

3) Island Rum says "ready to play". I click the button and get a green check. Then...nothing happens. It just sits there.

 

Any ideas?

[Flitwick]

I got the game to work... but no sound. Any help on what might’ve gone wrong?

[Marine X]

I updated and then got on for a while with no issues, then It dawned on me that I did not specify which version to run, so I don't know if it was 32bit or 64bit. Will log in later tonight and see how the 64bit Version of City of Heroes goes. Thanks for your time and effort on this. It was a necessary change for the newer Mac Users, but also a Huge step toward future-proofing the Game. It was going to have to happen at some point and can't wait to see the Processing Benefits in action.

[Duuk]

Strange question, but since my daughter's laptops both use integrated intel graphics:  Will this engine update eliminate the "OpenGL" requirement?  I'd love for them to be able to play CoH with me.

[PaxArcana]

3 minutes ago, MadCow99 said:

Will this engine update eliminate the "OpenGL" requirement?

Highly unlikely; changing from 32 to 64 bits isn't going to eliminate the need for components of the graphics engine.

[Duuk]

17 minutes ago, PaxArcana said:

Highly unlikely; changing from 32 to 64 bits isn't going to eliminate the need for components of the graphics engine.

Here I was hoping they could update the graphics engine to remove an antiquated relic while they were updating the rest.  This is my sadface.

[Abraxus]

12 minutes ago, MadCow99 said:

Here I was hoping they could update the graphics engine to remove an antiquated relic while they were updating the rest.  This is my sadface.

Somewhere down the line, perhaps they will.  But, that would be a pretty fundamental change to implement in just a couple of months from being back, and before they know for sure how long it will be around.  Once that deal is done, and the future is assured, I'm sure they would be willing to look at a bigger scope of things to go after.

[GM Capocollo]

Rewriting the engine in DirectX or Vulkan would require a complete, top-to-bottom rewrite of the client code from scratch.  I don't think that's in the cards for HC.

 

Depending on the chipset, you may be able to apply a driver shim to add the necessary OpenGL support to the Intel drivers; search the forums for the procedure.  However, this is unsupported by Homecoming and tends to be a fragile fix.

Edited August 23, 2019 by GM Capocollo

[WanderingAries]

Thanks especially for the Social things. I've been away from CoX for a bit, but tried out the 64bit for a brief time and had no issues. I "think" things were a little crisper, but that's possibly just me being away. Win7 x64