On June 01 2010 10:31 FC.Strike wrote: I'm fairly certain cloaked units produce the distortion effect even when standing still. The reason it's more apparent when it's moving is because your eye notices the distorted background moving across the screen.
Testing now, will post pictures to confirm.
Edit: Too lazy to post pictures, but this is what I found.
1. Cloaked units always produce the distortion effect as I stated 2. Cloaked units are easier to see when the background it's distoring has a texture 3. Low shader effect creates bland, textureless backgrounds 4. Because of points 2 and 3, it's more difficult to see cloaked units on low shader settings
I noticed that turning the shader setting from low to medium had a huge impact on the terrain which makes cloaked units much easier to see even when standing still. That said, I doubt you'd find it unless you were actively looking for it or it was parked over something highly textured (like the edge of a ramp, a building, or a unit).
Ah I see anything else I can do besides changing the shader and the texture? Because I don't think my computer can go above low in the shader lol. I will try changing the texture and see how it works. And actually its pretty easy to spot if you wanna see if theres an observer scouting or if you are looking where to scan.
I have a similar problem. I have all my graphics on the lowest possible for performance reasons (including resolution/color depth), but I can hardly tell where cloaked DTs are when they're attacking me. I don't know what the minimum is to see where the attacking DTs are clearly or whether or not that's within the scope of my system. Any information on making the more obvious is helpful.
I wonder if bit depth has anything to do with it...
Just want to confirm that u idd see cloaked units standing still on lowest. Being greedy zerg newbie player that never makes overseer until forced to i freq see observer standing still, no problems. (32bit depth however) edit: maybe it has something to do with nvidia panel settings whatever, but i dont think so.
As far as I know if you turn up your gamma you'll be able to see them a bit easier...of course that will make all the other colors a little weird...but it helps
On June 01 2010 12:31 Pull wrote: As far as I know if you turn up your gamma you'll be able to see them a bit easier...of course that will make all the other colors a little weird...but it helps
Yeah tried that too but didn't work My graphics get really screwed up.
On June 01 2010 16:16 DarkwindHK wrote: I feel the observer is still quite hard to spot even when you are the owner!
dude, so true, they just blends in with the buildings/your own units! gaaaa
just to add i have all setting on max/ultra and i can see everything / clocked units fine. Of course a single non-moving dt is hard to spot, but i think that's true for any setting.
Are you sure your monitor is ok? Do you have decent brightness/contrast levels? Gamma in general (not from SC) can be edited too.
The reason I'm saying this is that I played it in 1280x1024 on Low (ex-video card) and on Ultra (current one) and I could see observers and such just fine on both.
So unless it's a resolution thing, I think it most likely has to do with brightness or colors or something. Do you have the same problem with distinguishing force fields and such?
Bump, since I think I found something people in here obviously don't know. =X
For those really confused about what the problem is, remember the ripple effect from the old SC1 when you didn't have detection for the opponent's cloaked units? SC2 has it too. Except on for some people, like me, SC2 doesn't have it at all. Makes DT/Banshee harass much harder to deal with, obviously.
I've done a lot of tests with different settings using replays for convenience, and I think the problem is probably a software/hardware issue. I've played around with every single one of my graphics settings and I'm also wearing good glasses (hah!). My suspicions are only heightened since some people (including some of my friends) have a really easy time spotting an opponent's moving cloaked units while others find it impossible, and the former are obviously terribly confused by the difficulties of the latter.
It's not a graphics setting thing because I've played around with all the settings possible and it doesn't make an inkling of a difference. I've adjusted individual settings, put them all on the highest possible for my system, and put them all on the lowest possible. No effect. Four banshees can still fly around a base and it's impossible to see any sign of anything on my computer.
Therefore, chances are that the light warping feature is something that requires some kind of software or hardware which I simply do not possess. DirectX 10, perhaps? A more advanced graphics card than my measly 64 mb ATI mobility radeon? I think it's directX 10 personally but I don't have any vista or 7 system so I don't really know.
Heres a quick video showing the problem, it occurs no matter what map, what race, or even graphics settings so long as the lighting effect is on low, if you adjust the lighting effect to a higher level it should be fine.
I am pretty sure, that there was a pro-gamer on TL who said on his stream, that there are two graphic options you should turn on high. The other ones should be turned on low. This way cloaked units can be seen better - but i don´t remember which settings you should turn low. Does anyone remember that?!
EPT
My graphics get really screwed up. 
