NCAA Football 12 Visual Issues After the Patch?

[bad_philanthropy]

So it seems there have been a number of threads popping up the past day or so speculating that the patch changed some of the visual aspects of the game in a negative way. I'm not here to debate the magnitude of the issue or complain about it -- I just want to investigate these issues and compile a list of all the issues. It does seem post-patch in general a bit of polish and lustre is missing from the visuals. I could be entirely crazy, but it seems to not look quite as good.

The first issue seems to be dirty unis. White uniforms don't seem to get dirty much or at all in some cases. I can't tell for sure but it looks like there might be a layer of lighting covering it up similar to what happened last year. Here's a quick example picture of the RB's uniform after his 17th carry.



Right now it seems like some of the flourishes like helmet sparkling have been switched off after the patch. I've provided some a pre and post patch example of what I mean. Same team, same lighting conditions (1st qtr in the shoe, 8pm, 1st play of the game.)

Pre Patch







Post patch


I'm also investigating the possibility that field degradation has gotten messed up as well.

If anyone else has any examples or issues to contribute please feel free.

[Bullet Sponge]

If they identified a frame rate issue and wanted to pump it up a bit by toning down some of the graphics, I'm fine with that. I'd rather have less sparkly helmets and smooth gameplay than occasional slow down.

[Rangerneb]

What about variables such as people playing it on 480, 720 and 1080?

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bullet Sponge

If they identified a frame rate issue and wanted to pump it up a bit by toning down some of the graphics, I'm fine with that. I'd rather have less sparkly helmets and smooth gameplay than occasional slow down.

That would be reasonable, but I don't think they mentioned it in the patch notes.

[Bullet Sponge]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

That would be reasonable, but I don't think they mentioned it in the patch notes.

True, but most of the stuff they mentioned were very positive changes. Saying "We made the graphics worse because our game was running too slow" is something I'd just let fly under the radar if I could hehe. Field/uniform degradation may have been toned down for realism. Swapping out a texture from clean to dirty shouldn't affect FPS one bit. Unless the "clean" texture was an undetailed very basic texture (quite possible).

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bullet Sponge

True, but most of the stuff they mentioned were very positive changes. Saying "We made the graphics worse because our game was running too slow" is something I'd just let fly under the radar if I could hehe. Field/uniform degradation may have been toned down for realism. Swapping out a texture from clean to dirty shouldn't affect FPS one bit. Unless the "clean" texture was an undetailed very basic texture (quite possible).

It would be weird after last year though. They stated they actually did significant work on dirty unis and it was a mistake that they got switched off before going gold. Either way, maybe one of the art guys from Tiburon can provide some clarification.

[stoncold32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bullet Sponge

True, but most of the stuff they mentioned were very positive changes. Saying "We made the graphics worse because our game was running too slow" is something I'd just let fly under the radar if I could hehe. Field/uniform degradation may have been toned down for realism. Swapping out a texture from clean to dirty shouldn't affect FPS one bit. Unless the "clean" texture was an undetailed very basic texture (quite possible).

No offense. But why would you let EA walk all over you like that. You spent money on this game, and expect the same game or better than what you played in the demo and saw in pics/vids.

Stop bending.

Those two Ohio St. pics are absolutely UNacceptable.

[SECElit3]

This was mentioned in another thread... and you are absolutely onto something here. I believe field degradation was affected by the patch because I remember seeing it before I installed the patch, but not after.

If you think about it a lot of players were not able to see the visuals before the patch, because I am sure many of them just installed it first thing, after booting the game up for the first time.

Field degradation and uniform degradation both were affected, I am sure.

Houston, we have a problem, EA, your patch is coming off my system.