Can YOU see a cloaked Recon? | Forums

[Freelancer852]

I'm fairly confident Cortexian is talking about me in this post. I don't play with Low settings I play on High and 9/10 times I can spot cloaked enemies, but sometimes lose them shortly after depending on how hectic the battle is at the time. The only difference, based on the 3 settings mentioned is my resolution. I play at 1920x1080.

Yeah I'm pretty sure it was you, and maybe my resolution theory about texture scaling was completely incorrect then if you're at 1920x1080. My 16:10 aspect ratio 1920x1200 shouldn't cause any kind of issues like that over a 16:9 1920x1080.

It must come down to something else again. Maybe it's not even hardware related, and it's just a luck-of-the-draw error that causes some Recons to not render the appropriate effects. I know there have been changes to make the cloak more and less visible over the builds, maybe that code is still in the game and its somehow tripping up and using old code every now and then.

[Compassghost]

Here's a 720p at Medium on a 460M. It's tough to spot in the video, but when I peek around the corner here:
In the freeze-frame of the video, you can also see some of the texture distortion effects. Observe the Recon's legs and you'll see a telltale distortion that appears to make his legs appear baggier than normal.







Look at the door frame.

The top part is crisp and clean. The bottom part is fuzzy.

A good telltale for a cloaked Ghost is when any vertical texture or object appears to be rippling, from my point of view. Once there's no textures to compare to, I'll lose track of the Recon, but as long as they're against a vertical texture, you'll notice tearing effects.

[MightyDC]

Ifyou cant see cloaked recons you must be either blind or you dont pay enoughattention.

I didn't start this thread to call people out for "being idiots that don't pay attention". I feel it's a viable problem that needs investigation by the dev's based on convo's I've had with my peers.

Ithink it helps that I've been playing TF2 on a fairly high level server for thelast 3 years, so seeing cloaked enemies comes fairly easily (****ing spiesmeng)

With lower graphics you shouldn't have that big of a problem

I have over 3,000 hours as a spy on TF2. The spy's cloak is 100% invisible to the enemy team unless the following happens.
a) bumbing into enemy players
b) running out of cloak
c) jarate
d) fire
e) water dripping (some people say they can't see it. it's based on graphics settings)
f) being shot at or being near explosions
g) changing disguise WHILE cloaking (big mistake).

Someof us have machines that can handle the high setting.

And this is the other problem.
My stats are
AMD 1095 x6 3.4 ghz
8 gig ram
2 crucial 120gig ssd's running raid
gtx 560 ti v2

Alot of us DO have systems that SHOULD be able to handle the game. However some of us can see the cloak, some can't. And that is the main point of the thread. Just for kicks I'll stick my 2 gtx 470's back in during phase 3 and compare notes with Cort.

My main theories are bump mapping, texturing quality, possible phys x/tesilation. Only way to control most of these are through your cards driver panels, since there are no advanced settings in game (yet).

[MightyDC]

nice vid, and yeah i had no problems spotting him until he hit the dark area. There he appears to go off toward the elevators.

[BigGuyWhoKills]

Can see cloak? - Yes
Graphics Card - ASUS nVidia GTX 560, driver 295.73
Resolution - 1920x1200, windowed, maximized, on the primary of two monitors, in-game detail set to high, nVidia Control Panel set to a few global overrides (nothing specific to GRO).


I have missed cloaked recons before, and I have sprayed a full clip into an area where I thought a recon was when nobody was there. There are enough graphical anomalies in the game to make me second guess myself. However, since I play recon more than the other classes (even though I usually equip oracle), I would say that I have a heightened perception for it. If I have a sniper pinned down, and he cloaks before popping up in the same place, I will headshot him 95% of the time because I anticipate that move.


I want to say that cloaked recons SHOULD be detectable when we pay enough attention. The current experience (last beta round) seems fair to me as far as perception and duration are concerned. Having said that, I would prefer that they not be able to take more than one shot before decloaking, regardless of the weapon. It would be nice if collision with the environment (falling, bumping into walls) or other players would remove the cloak as well. I would also prefer that the cloak be less effective when moving, and exponentially less effective the faster the recon moves. However they should still be detectable when stationary.

[TheUnrest]

I saw them more in Phase 1 and in phase 2 as recons got faster armor, I had a harder time seeing them while paying attention to everything else going on. I am actually much better at just hearing footsteps and shooting them out of cloak, but by no means to I usually see them as clear as day like some people claim.

The key to staying cloaked is walk/run around instead of making straight shots towards people.

I've also played some players that tend to see cloak almost as if you aren't cloaked, which made me a bit skeptic of the game. It was always the same people killing me in cloak while against other players I could at least kill them first before being noticed.

Sometimes if I am scoped out ona gun I'll think I see a fuzzy ghost and shoot, but nothing is there.

HIS ICEQ 6870 - newest drivers.
I always run at highest settings 1080p.

I tried low for about 10 minutes because I heard people claiming it was much better at seeing the enemy, not just cloaked...but all enemies... I found it looked way too bad with no relative performance boost. All it seems to do is take away lighting FX. The textures are all the same...or so it seemed to me. It's very bare bones settings. You have no direct control over other FX like you do in most games, but it is beta..so...

[Freelancer852]

I know what the Recon effect looks like, I can see the effect but only when someone is extremely close to me or if I'm looking through a zoom scope and they start running right at me.

Some people appear to be able to pick people out who are all the way across the map (80+ yards) and pop them in the head like they're not cloaked. With the cloak effect that I see that would be impossible unless they were running straight at me from that distance and I happened to be zoomed in directly at their location.

If this weren't a beta I'd be raising complaints about possible ESP/Wall hacks that are highlighting players. Fortunately I have enough confidence in this community to rule that out 99.99% of the time.

Basically, if you can see players cloaked from a distance you're not experiencing the problem. Coming into this thread and saying "I can see cloaked players fine, they're not 100% invisible and you're blind" isn't helping us find out what's actually wrong.

[pitsl4yer]

Yes
Nvidia GTS 260
1920 X 1080

The yes does not mean that I can see every cloaked player whenever they are on my screen., If I could... it wouldnt be cloak, now would it.

I have no problems spotting cloaked recons:

1. When they move in front of a dead body or another team mate. The motion blur is quite visible, and objects blur noticably when they are moving.

2. When I am counter-sniping. Again, when zoomed in on a position, the motion blur when the heads comes out is quite noticable depending on the lighting situation. If there are bright lights, or they are backlit.... they are toast. dark zones.... not so much.

3. A lot of recons think that when they press that button no one can see them, because they have fully cloaked on their own computers. There is about a 3 to 4 sec fade time that I have noticed. If you cloak and move, the server has not caught up to you on most occasions. I regularly pick of recons coming out of cover who are not fully cloaked yet. My rule of thumb is to wait at least 3 sec after cloaking before popping up, and this is generally successful.

I think the cloak is pretty well rounded at this point. it recharges slowly, and if you are not careful with it, you can be spotted by people who are heads up. If you are not looking for it, or do not know what to look for, you will never see it. Thats the way it should be.

[elke_10]

Ok i stated yes i could see cloaked people but theres also times that i can't. I play on low settings cuz well my laptop just can't handle the graphics with the way they are now.

I personally don't think this is at all a graphics issue that people can't see them. I think this is more of the game model and personally not a issue at all. Everyone is just assuming it's graphics error right off the bat. Nobody thought of game modeling and the way it may be set up. Or even what their looking for. Here's my opinions on this:

1: It's very realistic recon shouldn't be perfectly cloaked. This is light being bent around a object it's not perfect.

Ok now some reason why you may or may not see a cloaked recon.

1: May favorite think ahead where recons maybe lurking. Once you start doing that they seem to stand out like sore thumbs.

2: Watch snipers with cloak people have this major issue of only moving 1-3 inches after a shot where you knew where they were. Then thinking i'll step to the left cloak then pop-up they'll never see me. I personaly love people that do this. Because they always shout how'd you see me i was cloaked when you popped them in the face at range. This cloak can be seen well by the smudgey outline on the background their standing against. Aim for the middle of the rounded outline FACE POP! Also tip for other snipers if it looks distorted and it's around cover take a crack at it most likely its a cloaked recon.

Ok now this one is the biggest and way i feel some can't see cloaked recons. As this is more on game play and game physics then any sort of graphics issue.

Ok i am going to try and explain this the best i can. So here goes,

In the game you have i believe it's a 90* FOV now if you got a cloaked recon standing right in front of you their pretty easy to pick out. Now to use game physics to your advantage makes a good cloaked recon. Standing and facing the target you want to kill or rushing straight at him makes you stand out and noticed. Now think of real life and your peripheral vision. A good recon will try and stay cloaked using the 90 FOV to his/her advantage. This implies running or straffing at 45* angles this is why most people lose the recon when he gets close and runs by making them hard to track. The reason behind this is simple their presenting a smaller player model profile. Instead of being head on with a wide player model. You start running at angles and you now are a slim player model profile which in turn makes the cloak ripples harder to see.

[CDSOTO]

I don't see it!

Here's a 720p at Medium on a 460M. It's tough to spot in the video, but when I peek around the corner here:
In the freeze-frame of the video, you can also see some of the texture distortion effects. Observe the Recon's legs and you'll see a telltale distortion that appears to make his legs appear baggier than normal.







Look at the door frame.

The top part is crisp and clean. The bottom part is fuzzy.

A good telltale for a cloaked Ghost is when any vertical texture or object appears to be rippling, from my point of view. Once there's no textures to compare to, I'll lose track of the Recon, but as long as they're against a vertical texture, you'll notice tearing effects.