So. It was brought to my attention that some private servers ban black ice building pieces.
The reason for this is that it causes lag due to poor optimization of the texture and image mapping.
Is there validity to this? A way to check?
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I can tell you from my own personal experience that this used to be true a couple of years ago. Back then, I could see some notable differences in the client-side performance between a black-ice build and a DLC T3 build.
Several things happened between then and now: black-ice stopped being as popular as it was on PVE-C servers, I bought a new computer with better hardware, and Funcom kept optimizing the game.
It’s that last one that I wonder about. Am I not having any problems with black ice because people don’t use it as much, or because my computer can handle it better, or is it simply not a problem anymore because Funcom optimized it away?
The only way I can think of checking this is building two big T3 builds away from each other, one w/ black ice and the other with some DLC material, and then have someone run to one and then to the other and tell you whether they can see a notable difference. That someone would have to have a hardware that’s closer to the potato end of the spectrum 
That said, one thing that I can confirm is that it’s never been a cause of server-side performance problems, at least not in my experience.
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Never heard of that. However, I just don’t use black ice on principle that it’s boring. Only time I use it is when I’m trying to build a foundation or something underwater to give a floating effect. It’s slightly bluish black tone blends best with under the water and feels more like a shadow at first glance.
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Never heard of this myself. I’ve built structures in excess of 50,000 pieces (used for an admin made dungeon) out of Black Ice and never saw or heard of anyone reporting issues.
I’m going to chalk this up to a myth alongside foundations causing more lag than pillars surrounded by walls. There’s still a few that believe in that one too.
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Sometimes, when this one was on the bare minimum to run the game (un enhanced ancient PS4) console black ice would render in slowly and bizarrely, a glossy black sheen. It was sorta nifty.
This one is still disappointed that Stormglass build set uses hard brick rather than Black Ice, especially for the windows…
That said, this one frequently has heard discussions of how OP Black Ice buildings are because they don’t need Hardened Bricks, instead use ng a material directly harvested in the wild… But… Meh?
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So one of the reasons why a lot of PVPers use it is for the ease of which you can produce it, the faster the better as @LostBrythunian has pointed out. This is true and many comparisons have been done among the community including myself.
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Ok, so aside from checking in game, is there a way to look at the asset itself in another way?
In consoles we never had performance issues with black ice. The only black ice issue we had in history was this…
In the past a lot of myths created. I remember someone yelling at me because i didn’t loot the whole chest and “bug it”
. Yes there was a bunch of people who believed many outerspace theories about this game and had strong voice too.I am not a pc player @Kikigirl but i can guarantee you that the most private server admins i played was helping people to gain easy bricks so they won’t choose black ice and ruin the “esthetics” of their server.
I always loved black ice, i still do, but like every other tier 3 set we have, i don’t use it in landscapes that doesn’t fit (my opinion). Still we speak about pvp, isn’t it? So i use whatever i have plenty and available the soonest possible, defense comes first.
Either your admin is convinced, either uses cheap excuses. That’s how it looks to me!
You haven’t seen it load in with a shiny, almost wet look? looking much more like black ice than the build pieces usually do?
Also, when do we get the frost giant style added to the Bazaar as an expansion for Black Ice set?
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I’ve done wrapping on 3D models so it can absolutely be a possibility.
I’m also a graphic designer that has produced many publications that are printed en masse. If you don’t reduce the size of your assets to optimize the file it is humungous.
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Oh yeah, I’m well aware it’s easier. I just play on PvE, so I have very little use for it. I do use it on my ships and boats as a foundation though, for the reason I mentioned.
i can check it out in devkit and see if the textures are higher def (as an example) or if the static mesh “costs” more to render. Those are the only thing prgram wise that i would think would feed this thought process.
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i hvae noticed that wet look. When i try and build a “hidden” black base in volcano, frontier was a better blend in than the shiny black ice.
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Side note, i really only used black ice in the structure parts not seen because of ease to get black ice. The visible walls would be a dlc T3.
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I don’t see how black ice is more detailed than other crafting pieces.
It’s not about it being more detailed, it’s how the images that are applied to it are optimized.
Imagine taking a picture frame that is 10x8" and cramming a 40x32" picture inside. In the digital world this is possible because depending on the application you’re using you can manipulate the visual size. Except if you don’t go through the process properly, that 40x32" image is still the same, there have been no changes to the resolution or cropping. So now imagine applying this to a black ice foundation. The skins you see on any building piece are images crafted by artists and must go through an optimization process as well.
The concern is that this has not been done at all or properly. My secondary concern is it causing lag to players, especially on more vulnerable systems like PS and on official servers where lag is a huge concern. On official PVP in particular, because black ice is such a bountiful and easy to come by resource that is leagues faster than it’s hardened brick equivalent, there are many bases in black ice. So they’re all (possibly) causing lag issues for players.
@CodeMage did point out this which is a consideration as well:
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That would be much appreciated. I’ve never tinkered with the devkit myself and don’t know my way around it. Please let us know
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Here’s another example of optimization:
You know how most social media, forums and other platforms require you to have a profile image a certain size and file type?
This is because if everyone used the native file type and size that it originated from it would slow down the app or website forcing users to load the image for much much longer, bogging down the servers as well.
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Heard the same from people in game that was probably a modder or a curious IT professional. Due to my poor setup i has fps drop near every building, even sandstone huts lol.
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Before i start thanks a million for the respect you apply to all your readers. You know This is the way to gain respect and many people ask why they don’t get any. You tried to come down to my level of understanding, there for congratulations and thanks a million again!
I do understand mostly what you say, it’s crystal clear. What makes me wonder is the incident you see above to my first post. I cannot recall exactly the period, it was surely before 2.4 that we accepted an update that gave the snowy looks on black ice, or cow looks like many in this period said.
Even if this detail slipped from their attention on the original planning, this bug would force them to search everything in order to fix it, isn’t it?
Ofcurce in every update, every code must be rewritten, so we can assume that something went bad in this. Yet, you have humongous experience in pvp servers, so, what about you? Did you notice any gamimg anomalies by using black ice?
I personally didn’t so far, yet theres one thing that bugs me after this conversation. My toon sometimes turn the head to one direction and looks pinned there no mater where i turn my cursor. This happens a lot in the mount of the dead and most of the times this area is builded with a lot of black ice pieces among others of course!
Last but not least i play on console and it’s highly possible to have different customizations than pc, maybe!
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