From Glass to Crass

[Coldphyre]

 I've been using the Portraits in my decoating to achieve a uniqe wainscot panelling look for quite a while.

Picture 1http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h.../Wainscott1.jpg

I was in the process of moving to a new 3 room house in Freeport when the backs of all the paintings turned to a dark semi-transparant glass. 

Picture 2http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h...inscott2-me.jpg

The really odd thing was that after a week or so, a guildie was able to see the portraits like normal while I still saw them as glass.  (Screenie courtesy of Inivo, a guild mate)

Picture 3http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h...ott2-friend.jpg

I was hopefull that with GU46 going live, I could return to work on my house.  Sadly this is not the case.

Picture 4http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h...t3-postGU46.jpg

Now instead of the rich mahogany look on the back of the portraits, I now have the plain look of plywood.  I have seen this on the back of the larger paintings and that is why I kept to the smaller mastercrafted portraits and the "painting of a teenage girl" portraits.  I've also seen others use the plain wood backing to great effect with the larger paintings.  So please don't think I want all the portraits to have the darker wood backing, just the smaller ones that had it originally.

Please change them back.  Please give us the mahogany look back to the smaller portraits.  It completely ruins the effect as it stands.

[Sapphirius]

Well... That is certainly odd. I wonder where things went wrong?

[Coldphyre]

Many people noticed the glass look in the portrait frames around a month ago after the previous update.  Devs told us they were fixing it so I was waiting until 46 went live so I could go back and work on my house. 

Now I don't know whether or not to tear the whole thing down and try for something completely different or hold out in the hopes that they'll change the portraits back to the original look they've had for the past several years.

[Roybob]

As to why your guildie didn't notice the transparency, I'd guess (based largely on the bands seen circling the pillars) that he runs EQ2 in a lower quality mode than you, one where transparency is disabled.-Roybob

[Crymsyn]

They changed the mahogany look on the smaller ones too? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I hadn't gone into my house last night.. I think I will cry if I go in now and see that.

[Sapphirius]

/comforts.

They need to restore these pictures back to the way they were before they changed them all up. People have been using these things for 3 years now, actually longer in some cases. Changing them up like this is like pulling the wool out from under us. First, I nearly cried at the change to rough linen portraits because it messed up homes I'd had for a long time, a so-called fix they made to reduce lag. They get that resolved, and now they changed the back of these.

/sigh

I love the art department. Really I do, but if it's not broken, don't fix it! BTW, yeah, they became clear glass in the same update where they "fixed" the rough linen porttraits by changing those to mahogany instead of pale wood and ebony frames.

[Coldphyre]

/grouphug

Yeah, I was all excited going in my house last night... Excited and a smidge apprehensive that I'd still have glass walls.

Me: AAARRRRGH!Guildie: Mer?Me: *grumbles* Well I have solid walls now...Guildie: That's a good thing right?Me: /sob Not necessarily...

And that's a good thought Roybob. I see what you mean and I hadn't noticed it earlier. I tried cycling through several of the settings from High Performance to High Quality that night. All of them kept the transparancy. The only difference I could tell was that he runs Soga models. *shrugs*

[Beckah]

I really hope someone sees this post and tries to at least to make an attempt to fix it.I am really sorry to hear that it has put some of your very hard work to thoughts of tearing it down.

[Snowdonia]

I just wish I could see the pictures.

[Sapphirius]

Caesindara@Nektulos wrote:

And that's a good thought Roybob. I see what you mean and I hadn't noticed it earlier. I tried cycling through several of the settings from High Performance to High Quality that night. All of them kept the transparancy. The only difference I could tell was that he runs Soga models. *shrugs*

It looks like he's got a different graphics card from you, perhaps not entirely compatible with EQ2 graphics? I also noticed the black wrapping where the dead vines on your pillars are.

[Coldphyre]

I've updated the original post Snowdonia.  I've got embedded links as well as the full link right above each picture.  Hope that helps!

/hugs  Thanks Lillyanna.  I appreciate it.

/shrugs  It's possible Sapphirius.  I only know enough to be dangerous around a computer.  I do know that he saw the transparancies through the frames when it first happened.

[Transen]

How bout we pray to the tradeskill gods to make rich mahagony-looking dividers instead (small-sized only without trim and completely flat...and not requiring rares)?

[Crymsyn]

What I find almost as disturbing as the loss of the rich, elegant mahogany look is that these seem to be a different depth because now almost all of my paintings show on both sides, not the backs of them.

[Snowdonia]

Caesindara@Nektulos wrote:

I've updated the original post Snowdonia.  I've got embedded links as well as the full link right above each picture.  Hope that helps!

Thanks for that Caesindara. Unfortunately, it didn't help but I did figure out what was going on. hehe It wasn't your pics or anything on my end, turned out photobucket had been hacked and they were working on fixing it. Since I didn't see the pics before that happened, I didn't have them cached.I can see them now though so looks like they got it sorted out.That sucks about the pictures though, I wonder why these pictures keep having their backs mucked about with. /shrug

[Sapphirius]

Well, I take what I said earlier back. The rough linen portraits did regain their pale wood backs, but instead of the ebony frames around them (for a nice black & white effect), their frames are mahogany! Infact, the backs of the rough linen portraits now look exactly like the backs of the portraits you have pictured up there.

As for being set back as you described? Yes, the one of the devs posted that he was setting them to sit flush against the wall instead of sinking in... which has led to some interesting effects in my characters houses. It looks like I'll have to rearrange all those pantings. I'll post pictures of what it did to my wall partitions tomorrow as well as the comparison of how the rough linen portraits are still messed up.

[Crymsyn]

Has anything been said as to WHY this was done?? What is so wrong with having a different texture on the back of the different paintings? I mean a rough and casual looking wood on one and a more elegant and distinguished on the other? Seriously at this point I'm so sick I don't even want to zone into my house, and... the houses were the main reason I play eq2 still vs other games. *sighs*

[Coldphyre]

I know what you mean Crymsyn.  I know what you mean.  I've pretty much been avoiding my house for the last month since the portraits went glassy.  At least then I was holding out hope for a return to solid.

It's a texture, but it means a lot to us housing people.  Or at least this weird housing nut in particular.  If the portraits are now considered "fixed" as they stand with the plywood backing, can we have a small rectangular pannel with a raised border/frame of the same size with the mahogany finish on both sides?  Cause I know as a mid level carpenter, we could always use more recipes through the levels! 

But I'm sure that's wishful thinking on my part.

Another thought... Should I add the wrong texturing to the Buggy House Furniture sticky thread?

[Domino]

Haohmaru is out of the office for the remainder of this week, but I'll check in with him next week on what's happening with these.  In the mean time have a relaxing weekend and try not to worry about it!  We know how much people love their decorating. 

[DCarnage2]

DominoDev wrote:

We know how much people love their decorating.  " width="15" height="15" />

Yes, we do love our decorating.  Is there any we you can make the other devs raise the item limits in the houses so we can have more elaborately (<-- is that a word?) decorated houses?  Pretty please with JumJum on top? 

[AvalonSpirit]

the reason he could see them solid while you couldn't is based on profit ui.  the dark bands on the pillar and the light contrast of the pic are sig marks of profit's "nightvision".  really messes with graphics, but handy for nighttime travel in a dark forest.  i use mine so much i usually forget that its on until i see something that gives me black bands like those pillars /giggle

[Firecracker]

The way I see it, is we want the red backing or not on all the everling picutures is the choice we may only have in this case. Hoahmoru was wanting to make them all the same. I would prefer the red backing myself. As has anyone else noticed that you can't get into little secret rooms anymore in the 5 room house in Freeport after GU 46 when it was made possible I thought. I am not sure if this effected Qeynos side yet.

[Kethaera]

Cinnimon wrote:

The way I see it, is we want the red backing or not on all the everling picutures is the choice we may only have in this case. Hoahmoru was wanting to make them all the same. I would prefer the red backing myself. As has anyone else noticed that you can't get into little secret rooms anymore in the 5 room house in Freeport after GU 46 when it was made possible I thought. I am not sure if this effected Qeynos side yet.

Hmm, I noticed I couldn't get into my secret room in my Qeynos house when GU 46 was on Test, but since I'm a recent returnee, I thought I had just misunderstood about being able to get into them in the first place. Should've bugged it, my bad.

[Sapphirius]

Cinnamon, what we want is the solid red mahogany backing returned on the rare protraits, which they had before they all got messed up and turned to clear glass. A number of us want the coarse wood and black frame backing returned to the rough linen portrats (a common recipe), which was that way before they changed them to solid mahogany.

Right now, they "fixed" what they broke earlier (in an attempt to "fix&quot by making both the rough linen portraits and the rare portraits exactly the same on the back. They're now both coarse wood with mahogany frames.

Rare portraits = solid mahogany on the back

Rough linen portraits = course wood with ebony frames on the back

Make sense?

[Beckah]

It seems as though something is in the works to fix...the fix..of the fix? (lol!)  So I think, that is a good sign.As far as the secret room in Qeynos, I was just in mine yesterday but I have not been into a freeport house to check there.

[Firecracker]

Sapphirius wrote:

Cinnamon, what we want is the solid red mahogany backing returned on the rare protraits, which they had before they all got messed up and turned to clear glass. A number of us want the coarse wood and black frame backing returned to the rough linen portrats (a common recipe), which was that way before they changed them to solid mahogany.

Right now, they "fixed" what they broke earlier (in an attempt to "fix"" width="15" height="15" /> by making both the rough linen portraits and the rare portraits exactly the same on the back. They're now both coarse wood with mahogany frames.

Rare portraits = solid mahogany on the back

Rough linen portraits = course wood with ebony frames on the back

Make sense?

I am aware of what you wanted but I got the impression the dev wanted them ALL TO BE SAME!  I know what they looked like before so you didn't need to explain how it was before. As I said in my 1st post the dev wanted them all to be same and they are all the same!

[Sapphirius]

Calm down. Take a breather and step away from the computer until you aren't quite so aggressive, hun.

This thread isn't about what the devs wanted. This thread is about what we want. We want them back to the way they originally were before all these changes.

[Domino]

Once again, please have patience.    We know what you want, we know what has been said, and when there is news you shall hear it, but continuing to post about it or get upset isn't going to make news come any faster.   Go forth and enjoy the weekend! 

[Domino]

These should be reverted back to the way they were originally.  It looks as if this will most likely happen with GU47, however when I know for sure I will confirm it (and I'm sure the folks on Test server will also).    Sorry about the confusion!

[Sephira]

Domino, You're awesome! Thank you for letting us know

[Coldphyre]

Thank you for getting back to us on this.