A player accuses Call of Duty: Modern Warfare that the graphics worsened significantly with update 1.13 in January. He provides plenty of evidence photos and a reason: the Battle Royale Warzone.
What is the problem here? The large multiplayer shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare now faces accusations that the implementation of the Battle Royale Warzone has significantly degraded the graphics quality in some parts of the game.
It concerns certain areas of the “Battle Royale” map Verdansk, which exist in the Co-op mode SpecOps and in the Ground War mode of the multiplayer. In these areas, the graphics have reportedly been significantly downgraded.
Upset players have now posted many evidence photos online with the demand that the “paying players” of Modern Warfare should not suffer because of the introduction of a “Free-to-Play” game.
Player says: CoD MW has worse graphics due to Warzone
What do the evidence look like? “Just-Bioinformatics” created a thread on reddit and compiled all the information he could find during his research (via reddit).
While his evidence focuses on the “Ground War” maps (excluding Aniyah Palace), the issues are said to be present on all platforms. Here are some example images:
What graphic downgrades were there? Along with the images, “Just-Bioinformatics” listed the quality losses:
- Reduction of volumetric lighting (e.g. sunlight rays)
- Worse quality of object reflections
- Objects only pop up when you are close to them
- Overall fewer objects on the maps
- Graphics textures of floors, walls, and objects significantly reduced on all Ground War maps
- Lower shadow quality
- Shorter distances in which shadows are displayed correctly
- Player shadows sometimes render inside buildings at only 30 FPS
- Some rendering distances for players have decreased significantly (especially for shadows or foliage, you now have to get very close for the details to be displayed correctly)
- Due to the reduced distances, there are often “object pop-ins”, as the objects are only displayed when you are close enough
- Far away houses are now displayed very blurred
- Reduction of ambient occlusion (a technique to create shadows independently of the light source to make images appear more realistic)
Why did the downgrades occur? “Just-Bioinformatics” believes that these “optimizations” were necessary to prepare the game for the release of the large 150-player mode Warzone. He even shows understanding for it but does not see why paying players of a purchased title should suffer due to the launch of a “Free-to-Play” game.
Opinions on the downgrade are divided – Author criticized
What do players say about it? The more than 150 comments (May 13, 1:30 PM) go in completely different directions. Some say that they have no problem with it, while others demand that the developers address this issue as soon as possible or at least provide an explanation.
- IsaacLightning: “Honestly, it’s not a big deal. Ground War wasn’t running very well anyway. So I’m glad it runs better due to the optimizations.”
- _baseball: “The ‘Ground War’ textures look really shabby. […] In some spots, the textures look like in Golden Eye 007 before they load properly.”
However, many of the commentators focus less on the topic and rather criticize the toxic tone of the author. In his extensive elaboration, “Just-Bioinformatics” accuses the developers of Infinity Ward of illegal behavior. The wild accusations leave many questioning the author’s motivation:
- dabMasterYoda: “Well formatted and organized is one thing. But the content of this post seems to me like someone just whining and wants to show that it’s illegal.”
Will the old graphics ever return? So far, there has been no statement from the developers regarding possible changes to the general graphic settings. However, if the problem becomes larger because many players are actually disturbed by it, a reaction is to be expected.
Similarly, it went with the cheater problem in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. More and more players have now encountered nasty aim-boters or god-mode hackers in Warzone, and Infinity Ward has now expanded the security measures. There is even a necessary 2-factor authentication on PC.
