Suggestion: Invisible head/torso/arms/legs options

[biostem]

So my suggestion is pretty simple:  We have options for head, torso, arms, legs & feet that allow you to basically just glow a certain color.  Once concept I'd like to be able to explore would be an animated suit of armor that has nothing inside of it.  To that end, what if we could simple have our head, torso, arms, legs & feet be invisible?  Perhaps in PvP, you are forced to have a glow effect, so you couldn't be completely undetectable.  You could then layer over the various armor pieces or patterns, to your liking.  Your thoughts?  Thanks!

[GM Sijin]

I believe this is unlikely purely for the reason that they do not want you to have an actual invisible character in any form, even ignoring PvP concerns. I love the idea, but I think a better implementation would be a "hollow" set that doesn't have the body there (or has options for the body including 'none') but forces an additional layer on top of it so the invisible character problem is bypassed.

[biostem]

7 minutes ago, GM Sijin said:

I believe this is unlikely purely for the reason that they do not want you to have an actual invisible character in any form, even ignoring PvP concerns. I love the idea, but I think a better implementation would be a "hollow" set that doesn't have the body there (or has options for the body including 'none') but forces an additional layer on top of it so the invisible character problem is bypassed.

Makes sense.  Thanks!

[Crysta Clear]

Just invisible feet then, and nothing else? Players of ghost characters rejoice?

[srmalloy]

21 hours ago, GM Sijin said:

I believe this is unlikely purely for the reason that they do not want you to have an actual invisible character in any form, even ignoring PvP concerns. I love the idea, but I think a better implementation would be a "hollow" set that doesn't have the body there (or has options for the body including 'none') but forces an additional layer on top of it so the invisible character problem is bypassed.

Not to mention the problem of having to redo many of the art assets. There are lots of costume pieces -- typically Chest Detail, but also Belt -- where at certain angles you should be able to see the 'back' of part of the costume piece... and there's nothing there. The costume part has a texture for the 'outside', and there's nothing on the 'inside'. Which is reasonable, because for the vast majority of situations that's not an angle that you're looking at the character from, and it just doubles the amount of work the renderer has to deal with (cf. Grandville, whose framerate issues back on live were reportedly due to having ordinary building textures under the Arachnos structure textures, doubling the visibility checking overhead). If the character model itself were transparent, you'd be seeing the 'back' of most of the costume pieces when you look through the character, and if they're all transparent from the back, it destroys the visual you're trying to create.