Hello!
This week’s Ghosts of K’aresh PTR includes changes and improvements to the Spell Density graphics setting. Previously, this option would dynamically reduce the amount of spell visuals being displayed, based on your current framerate. This has been helpful to players with lower-performance systems, but we want to improve it, with the goal of giving players more control over how spell visuals in combat look, regardless of performance.
The Spell Density system is first designed with a focus on improving players’ visibility of important information in combat, so that players can better see and respond to combat mechanics. The new system provides game designers and artists with improved controls over which spell visuals get displayed and how, so that there can be a reduction of visuals that do not convey useful information to the player about the state of combat.
How It Works
The Spell Density system can only alter spell visuals initiated by other players in your party or raid, and can either skip a visual entirely or cause it to be rendered in a less-visible way (e.g. more transparent, smaller, or an entirely different visual).
There are situations in which the Spell Density system will never alter visuals.
- Your (and your pet’s) spell and ability visuals will always be displayed at full intensity, regardless of Spell Density settings.
- NPC spells and abilities will always be displayed at full intensity.
- Enemy player spells and abilities will always be displayed at full intensity.
- This is subject to change in future iterations of the Spell Density system. We recognize that PvP combat has different criteria for which visuals are important for combat decision-making.
In this week’s new PTR build, there are now three Spell Density options:
- Everything
- Reduced
- Essential
Everything, as the name suggests, causes all visuals to be rendered at full intensity. This is how visuals were rendered before this update.
Reduced and Essential activate different levels of the Spell Density system. Reduced is tuned for what we consider to be ideal for dungeon and raid content. Essential is for players who need the most reduction possible while still retaining WoW’s iconic combat look and feel.
We plan to continually update and iterate on this system throughout the Ghosts of K’aresh PTR and for the foreseeable future, and your feedback is highly valuable. Please test this new system in your content of choice and when you leave feedback, please note the type of content you were in, which setting you had the Spell Density option set to, and any specific spell or ability visuals that are relevant.
Thank you very much!
