RockBand.com

  • 09-08-2012 03:01 AM
    JQTNguyen
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Munnchy View Post
    I noticed :( Clearly I was doing something very wrong if you were able to beat my scores by that much though :P Congrats!

    Hahahaha... I'm sure I'm still chasing after you on a bunch of songs! Good times.


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Alpha2 View Post
    As an intermediate player (or compared to some of you still a beginner), it strikes me a s bug, simply because it's not intuitive. There's nothing in the tutorials, interface, or anything else about the game that suggests why I'm breaking a streak just by switching lanes and still not missing the next note.

    If it can be fixed it should, it's not the fault of the gamer if the gamer isn't being prompted as to what he/she doing wrong, Either adjust the visuals so the gamer can see what he/she has done wrong or adjust the game so that the gamer who's playing it as they were taught to play it isn't unfairly penalized for something that isn't their fault.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by LunaticSoul View Post
    I disagree. You have to count that:

    1) The timing window of one note is kinda long, probably somewhere near +35 ms and -35 ms
    2) most of the times you try to switch when one note has just passed, hence you can go inside the +35 timing window and break the combo.
    3) you just have to be careful when you shift; don't mean to brag, but I've got atm some pretty good scores made with Jackpot/Flame Notes combo, and to get a lot you have to shift lanes pretty quickly. You just have to be careful, leaving enough space between the shift and the note that passed.. That's all. If HMX releases a patch to resolve this, they would have to reduce the timing window and then you would see a lot of threads complaining about it being too strict..

    I don't think it would be fitting to call this a bug. It's just like LunaticSoul said, the window of opportunity is intentionally larger than the note itself to give the player some leeway in hitting the note.

    In other words, this whole thread could probably be summarized with this: if you're having this problem, re-calibrate. If the problem persists, try to manually re-calibrate using this video as a guide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GZdZX9f_-U. Failing that, and without the option of playing on a display that has no latency, adjust your gameplay.

    I was technically doing the latter before I manually re-calibrated, and was still able to Gold Star songs and post some leaderboard scores despite the lag by just knowing when it was and wasn't safe for me to change lanes based on my calibration settings.

    tl;dr: This isn't a bug. Re-calibrate, manually re-calibrate, and/or adjust your gameplay if you are experiencing this problem.
  • 09-09-2012 01:23 AM
    Epsilon82
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by LunaticSoul View Post
    I disagree. You have to count that:

    1) The timing window of one note is kinda long, probably somewhere near +35 ms and -35 ms
    2) most of the times you try to switch when one note has just passed, hence you can go inside the +35 timing window and break the combo.
    3) you just have to be careful when you shift; don't mean to brag, but I've got atm some pretty good scores made with Jackpot/Flame Notes combo, and to get a lot you have to shift lanes pretty quickly. You just have to be careful, leaving enough space between the shift and the note that passed.. That's all. If HMX releases a patch to resolve this, they would have to reduce the timing window and then you would see a lot of threads complaining about it being too strict..

    Once again, why do people assume that they would have to reduce the timing window? Do people really think that the game necessarily HAS to enforce hit detection across all of the lanes at one time? Surely that's what it does, which is what's causing this issue. And it's true that reducing the timing window would help alleviate the issue. But it doesn't follow that reducing the timing window across the board is the only way to do it.

    Like I said before, there's no reason why the game can't simply negate hit detection on notes that originated prior to the time of the switch. The game obviously knows the key pieces of information here: 1) the exact time a note starts (because it has to place those notes on the track in the appropriate place, 2) the time at which the user switches lanes, and 3) the lane the user switched to. All they'd have to do is modify the hit detection routine to check the time switched against the time of the most recent note on the track that was switched to, and if the note originated before the switch, do not count it as a miss on the strike line. This could have the side effect of causing a mis-hit for the people who have gotten used to hitting "phantom notes" that have already passed, but that's a far more logical result than what presently happens.

    Personally, I've kind of gotten used to it at this point and have subconsciously altered my playing style to account for it to whatever degree I can. But it's pretty absurd to suggest it's a sound design mechanic to expect players to have to hit notes that have clearly already passed the strike line at the time of a switch on a properly calibrated setup.
  • 09-09-2012 01:36 AM
    RobbySuave
    It's good to know that this is happening to other people. I thought it was just me.
  • 09-09-2012 01:37 AM
    Epsilon82
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JQTNguyen View Post
    I was technically doing the latter before I manually re-calibrated, and was still able to Gold Star songs and post some leaderboard scores despite the lag by just knowing when it was and wasn't safe for me to change lanes based on my calibration settings.

    tl;dr: This isn't a bug. Re-calibrate, manually re-calibrate, and/or adjust your gameplay if you are experiencing this problem.

    The point is that you shouldn't have to fudge your calibration to achieve gameplay results consistent with the visuals on the screen. The people who are manually re-calibrating are intentionally giving up the back end of the timing window in order to "trick" the game into behaving normally on lane switches. They shouldn't have to do that. The game was designed to have pretty generous front end and back end leeway on the timing window. But the nature of the game also dictates that you can switch lanes at any time. A logical expectation of the player is that a hit requirement should only be enforced on a note that is visible in a given lane at the time of a switch. The game is simply not accounting for this expectation because of the particular way it handles enforced notes. It could (and should) be adjusted to account for it without having to resort to intentionally miscalibrating your system to take away the back end almost entirely, which skews all of the gameplay since you can then hit notes WAY before they hit the line visually and nary a microsecond after.

    Call it what you want, a bug, a flaw, or whatever, but there is no earthly way you can call a scenario in which an invisible note must be "hit" to avoid breaking streak an intentional or fundamentally sound design choice in a game of this nature. That would be just a completely insane violation of first principles of rhythm gaming. It's pretty certainly merely an oversight given Harmonix's superb pedigree in this genre. The game is enormously complex and it's easy to see how this could have happened, but "manually screw with the timing window so the game sort of matches what your eyes see, but only in this specific case because now you'll be able to hit notes way early without penalty" is not a valid answer to the issue.
  • 09-09-2012 01:40 AM
    www1221
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by www1221 View Post
    Are we seriously still talking about a user error?

    .
  • 09-09-2012 02:02 AM
    Iceman71421
    If you have your RB3 settings automatically calibrated from a strat controller, you should use them or between +5 and +10 on both.

    On RB3 my strat controller gives me +26 audio and +28 vid. I play with +30 and +30 on RB3 because it feels the most comfortable. (the controllers normally underestimate the lag)

    I have had tons of frustration on blitz getting the correct calibration. I know my rhythm is spot on and I manually calibrated audio on blitz +32 based on an average of 10 tests. My video calibration average based on 10 tests was +69 which is horribly wrong based on play testing. I am now playing with +30 aud and +30 vid in Blitz ( same as RB3)

    Im actually pretty pissed they didnt include an automatic calibration function in Blitz.
  • 09-09-2012 02:04 AM
    Iceman71421
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Epsilon82 View Post
    Call it what you want, a bug, a flaw, or whatever, but there is no earthly way you can call a scenario in which an invisible note must be "hit" to avoid breaking streak an intentional or fundamentally sound design choice in a game of this nature. That would be just a completely insane violation of first principles of rhythm gaming. It's pretty certainly merely an oversight given Harmonix's superb pedigree in this genre. The game is enormously complex and it's easy to see how this could have happened, but "manually screw with the timing window so the game sort of matches what your eyes see, but only in this specific case because now you'll be able to hit notes way early without penalty" is not a valid answer to the issue.

    I have to double post here and agree. I have been rhythm gaming for a "hot minute" and completely support this.
  • 09-09-2012 01:41 PM
    CharityDiary
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Epsilon82 View Post
    The point is that you shouldn't have to fudge your calibration to achieve gameplay results consistent with the visuals on the screen. The people who are manually re-calibrating are intentionally giving up the back end of the timing window in order to "trick" the game into behaving normally on lane switches. They shouldn't have to do that. The game was designed to have pretty generous front end and back end leeway on the timing window. But the nature of the game also dictates that you can switch lanes at any time. A logical expectation of the player is that a hit requirement should only be enforced on a note that is visible in a given lane at the time of a switch. The game is simply not accounting for this expectation because of the particular way it handles enforced notes. It could (and should) be adjusted to account for it without having to resort to intentionally miscalibrating your system to take away the back end almost entirely, which skews all of the gameplay since you can then hit notes WAY before they hit the line visually and nary a microsecond after.

    Call it what you want, a bug, a flaw, or whatever, but there is no earthly way you can call a scenario in which an invisible note must be "hit" to avoid breaking streak an intentional or fundamentally sound design choice in a game of this nature. That would be just a completely insane violation of first principles of rhythm gaming. It's pretty certainly merely an oversight given Harmonix's superb pedigree in this genre. The game is enormously complex and it's easy to see how this could have happened, but "manually screw with the timing window so the game sort of matches what your eyes see, but only in this specific case because now you'll be able to hit notes way early without penalty" is not a valid answer to the issue.

    <3

    This
  • 09-10-2012 10:13 AM
    Epsilon82
    I'll also add to this that I think Blitz mode is what really exacerbates this problem. It makes me wonder if they may have sped up the scrolling speed of Blitz mode rather late in the cycle, because the issue is obviously much less noticeable when you're not in Blitz mode (meaning that the visual gap on the timing window is much smaller with the slower scrolling speed/zoomed out track), and it would be less obvious if the scrolling speed were a bit slower. Maybe that's how it slipped through the testing cracks.