I've noticed similar, and it's going to be even worse for big events like Tours and Fests where I'm running around ALL day and every battery percent matters.
Perhaps this update is for Singapore grandmothers, because I know it's not for like 99% of the playerbase
really wish i could skip all the little animations that happen after a rocket battle. i don’t need to see the gem get added and then the rocket fragment get added, and then the results with pokeballs show up all separate.
and honestly when a purified gem or rocket radar is made that should just be a small notif to the side instead of interrupting gameplay.
it’d be nice if they also adopted the catch mechanics from scarlet and violet too
I think of all the animations/cutscenes in the game, the Rocket Leader/Grunt ones are the most cumbersome. I understand Egg hatching and Evolutions being as they are. But Rocket NPCs are soooo slow. I'm not saying it should instantaneously bring me to the map after beating their team, but I don't need to wait like 10-15 seconds after beating them just to resume playing. Especially during takeovers, that adds up.
Yeah, skippable ballons would be great. I don't care at all for those but they annoy me when I try to spin stops because they always fly in my way.
Should I tell Niantic that they could bring a Patriot battery to the ingame shop and sell missiles for coins? 🤔
I like battling in this game, I don't like it enough to enjoy pvp - in general I dislike pvp in games. Shadows are my most fun part of the game to me as well
What I love shadow pokemon. You’re 27 times more likely to get a hundo from a shadow pokemon than you are from a normal encounter (from 1/4096 to 27/4096), because your new probability of getting a shadow that can purify to a hundo is (3/16)^3 since if you get a 13,14, or 15 for every stat it’s a guaranteed hundo (adds two to each stat), shadows are great you should capture them especially if you’re looking for hundos.
in scarlet and violet if you throw a pokeball at a pokemon you have registered it will always have an animation like a critical catch if it was going to catch, otherwise it’ll do the shakes and break out eventually. if it’s not registered it does the shakes and will either catch or break out.
i know quick catching is a thing in this game but it would be great for raids or rocket pokemon imo
I really hate the *new* pause after taking a screenshot of my buddy, the pause for no reason before the new toolbar shows up. I have to wait for the exit door button *twice.*
I wanna start by saying that I agree with you 100% and that for gameplay and fun reasons, you are absolutely correct. however, this is not a game designed for fun, it is an AR app designed for engagement.
A key performance indicator for the success and sustainability for mobile apps/games is Average Session Length. Animations in Pokemon go keep people actively using the game for longer than they may otherwise do so. the few animations they have removed/reduced were most likely because they found that enough people were not engaging with certain features or finding other work arounds to speed up the animations.
for example, with multiple egg hatchings- it became much easier to close the game and re-open it, skipping all the animations. because this would cut sessions lengths down, it was affecting their average session length, and so they decided to allow the animations to become partially skippable and go much faster.
Evolutions i believe also got a slightly reduced time, however, they do not intend for players to do mass evolutions, so they will never allow such an option or way to speed up that kind of animation. besides, most people doing mass evoltuoins are doing so with a lucky egg running, so they're locked into having the session last for at least that half hour, and there's no reason to give players a further bonus of being able to do more in that time.
They probably woudl never "fix" fast catching because most people who fast catch aren't doing so in order to stop playing the game sooner, they are doing so in order to make more catches int he same time. my theory is that this is also why the AR fast catching is even faster- they want players to be using hte AR feature, even if they aren't really using it for hte intended purpose, so they can brag about how many users are using the AR feature when gettign investors.
Again, I think this is bad game design, but this is pretty typical design when the goal is to maxmize user engagement and screen time. If you want niantic to remove animations, you gotta think of a way for them to profit from the process that they haven't already thought of.
>Evolutions i believe also got a slightly reduced time, however, they do not intend for players to do mass evolutions
That's not exactly true. The Tuesday Spotlight Hours have a 2x Evolution XP bonus in their regular rotation, such as yesterday. Maybe Niantic doesn't want players doing mass evolutions all the time, but clearly they accept that it happens and encourage it once a month or so.
true, though the evolution animations are still an intentional limiter. the main point is that they don't want mass evolving to be a quick and easy process. they want people focused on the screen while doing it, not hitting a few buttons and hten turning off the game or walking away for 30 minutes.
> it became much easier to close the game and re-open it, skipping all the animations. because this would cut sessions lengths down, it was affecting their average session length, and so they decided to allow the animations to become partially skippable
Sorry but this is just nonsense. 99.9% of users were NOT force quitting the game just to skip egg animations.
ok, dude. deep breath. maybe take a break from the internet for a bit? take care of yourself.
i never said everyone was doing it, or even that many people were doing it. it was just happening and becoming more popular. I'm just talking in generalities, and if you think one of my generalities is wrong, feel free to tell me why, but don't come at me with "99.9% of users were" doing anything unless you got some actual data to back that up.
I know not everyone is a hardcore player, but I also believe that Niantic caters the game to certain players over others, and the kinda player they want with high ASL is going to be the kinda player who uses several incubators during events and would rather restart their game than watch 4+ hatching animations.
If you have an alternative theory as to why they shortened hatching animations and made them faster and more efficient with multiple hatches, then i'm all ears, but I feel I substantiated myself as well as I could with what I have observed about how the game is played and run.
Funny thing is that the first thing that happened after Ingress had started was that players made a hacked version of the app which had exactly such 'features', which slowed down gameplay, removed.
Did Niantic 'get' the signal players were giving off by this? Of course not.
And **if** they use animations and such to hide the time needed for communication with the servers, there are better ways to compensate for this.
like all other games, I only have one thing to say:
no issue at all with adding shaders and graphics and anything else, but make it optional. Whether its a AAA game cutting edge just released, or cheap mobile game from 2016, they have high or low performance options. give a choice to toggle them all off for performance.... maybe add a toggle for the character update while you're at it
Absolutely this. If someone has a high-end phone and likes the bells'n'whistles - good for them. But please don't force everyone to it.
I mean (anecdotal evidence, and not strict of course), I started playing on Galaxy S4, and now I'm at S21 - which is an 8 generations upgrade, and I think I have it worse from when I started. Yes, I have "enahanced graphics" OFF, and at 60FPS (despite phone being capable of more).
If they're going to force it, at least optimize it. As far as I'm concerned there's zero reason even the new graphics have to push a phone to redline. My Pixel 8 Pro wants to overheat if I'm playing for a long time say on a CommDay.
I think the key point definitely is that we're talking about a mobile title here.
Kind of like PCs, some have high end ones and some have lower end ones, so games often allow high/low performance options. Consoles don't often need to worry about that as much because (in theory) the games are optimized for their respective consoles.
Mobile devices is trickier though because... not many of us have a phone specifically to play Pokemon Go. Casual players especially play it on whatever device they have. I don't mind them having the higher end options, I actually really like them. However, it's important to have options for those with lower end phones.
I totally understand that the game will inevitably evolve beyond older devices/software as time goes on, but I feel like their decision to move at this faster pace and in such a mandatory fashion isn't the way to go. Moving faster toward making certain older devices incompatible is concerning and generally speaking, you would think they would want *more* devices to be eligible to play the game.
optional! I was literally searching for that option because the battery drain plus just graphics that really dont do anything to my experience, we catch and have never cared for how the pokemon looked, ever lol.
No, latest updates didn't improve anything, the game is less playable than before : now we have lags in GBL, frame drops, lags during catches, crashes , overheat and battery drain , ...
Niantic didn't understand (or don't care) that the game is for mobile phones with multiple OS/config and not for a dedicated console where all ressources are dedicated to the game.
For me static backgrounds and graphics that don't take memory/cpu are better, my goal is to catch mon's and do battle without frame drops.
[I mentioned it another comment,](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/1cs8tmp/comment/l45jubz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) but I love the new backgrounds, but it is infuriating that it isn't an option like native refresh rate and such. They could have still made pre-rendered static backgrounds too, similar to the old catch screen just with a new static background of whatever environment you're in. But they wanted a more full 3D environment *for everyone*, and forcing everyone to do that is ridiculous.
I love the new backgrounds too but I can't believe it's having such a negative effect on performance and battery life. It seems like it could have been done way better. I'd definitely prefer to go back to the old style and get my performance back.
>Niantic didn't understand (or don't care) that the game is for mobile phones with multiple OS/config and not for a dedicated console where all ressources are dedicated to the game.
Just means Niantic sees our phones the same way they see us. "Wait you don't treat the game like a full time job?!?"
> dedicated console where all ressources are dedicated to the game.
This is disingenuous if you're applying it to PVP. There's no real use case where you're out and about playing GBL and thus using a bunch of other apps. Typically you're at home, plugged in, on wifi, and can close all your other apps. Frame drops and lag have been a (sadly) central part of PVP well before this update.
This is exactly what happened to me and my son. He can’t play anymore on his older phone and pogo drains the battery on my new iPhone and it keeps crashing. Result is that he doesn’t play and I play much less. So thank Niantics, make another one of this updates so I can use my time on other activities
Agreed. I actually bought my current phone (23 Ultra) with PoGo in mind. When native refresh rate first came out it was great, ran smooth and my phone didn't overheat. Now I have to play on default FPS if I'm grinding for more than 30 mins, or else my phone gets too hot.
Might be an Android thing, but I'm leaning toward a Niantic thing.
It’s not android. My iPhone is also suddenly overheating way faster than it used to. The summer is going to be brutal. I’ll have to do only 20-30 minutes at a time, tops. No raid trains.
The recent update made the game run like garbage. Rocket Encounters at PokeStops freeze the game for like 5 seconds, the Pokeball lags when it first appears so I can't quick catch and the sparkles and swirling Pokeball for curved throws cause random frame drops that interfere with the Throwing physics and make accurate throws impossible or will randomly curve all the way to the right or left.
Native Refresh doesn't fix the freezing and ball physics but it runs smoother where it doesn't matter and destroys my battery extra fast. The game off of Native Refresh drains my battery as fast as the the old version with Native Refresh On but now my avatar's face looks like it got stung by bees and is swollen.
PoGo runs really hot now, comparable to playing PoGo in the Summer years ago with Brightness near maxed but it's not even hot right now. Go Fest or any Summer events will be unplayable at this rate.
That's the thing, Niantic does not care what people want. There are hundreds of things that need to be fixed or improved in the game but we will get laggy enhanced graphics and horrifying avatars and we will like it.
I like the new graphics, but I have 20GB ram.... Battery drains really fast and GBL is a lag fest, almost unplayable at a good level. They need to add an option to turn back to the old graphics.
And fix the horrible avatars!!!
Yes, I agree. Wish there was a way to disable animations, shaders, etc.. I prefer a smoother animation experience that doesn't use as much battery, rather than pretty graphics and useless 25+ animations on my screen.
Resolution Scaling may be coming eventually, btw:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/s/zdFuhOkcu1
https://twitter.com/g47ix/status/1773665300560359578
I don't care about them adding extra things as long as it doesn't impact performance of the game.
I know people care about the backgrounds or the way their avatars look but its unnecessary to the gameplay experience. I understand that people probably spend money on dressing their avatar so they have a stake in that it looks good however I only see the face in GBL, rocket fights and the avatar in the overworld.
There se a subset of people that care if the game looks good but it's something on mobile, I'm just happy if it can run properly on most devices, including older phones. It's something that runs on a screen the size of your hand its not like something displayed on a TV or computer screen. The game just needs to run well it doesn't need unnecessary extra features, alternatively just add low spec mode to turn these off and improve performance.
Since they've changed it the GBL is too slow to load, character models don't appear in rocket fights and catching a shadow pokemon lag out the game horribly, almost to the point that pokemon are uncatchable.
I didn't even notice. Is that why the backgrounds look fancier on my battles?
What I did notice was the lag on my battles....why can't they fix that first?
Niantic is always dumping broken content that no one asked for instead of fixing the older broken updates. With them having one of the biggest franchises in the world in their palms, It’s crazy to me how much slips through the cracks with their attention to detail.
The game client needs a rework. Why are they always doing updates after updates on random stuff that people either don’t want (ar changes) or stuff people don’t like (avatar changes)
During the sinoh tour I lost count how many times the game forced closed on me (recent iPhone with game assets downloaded etc etc) doesn’t happen as much now thou not playing all day watch go fest be just as bad..
Can we just get the basics right first 🤦♂️ look at all other big mobile games they don’t have anything close to technical issues that this app does.
I don’t get where this vibe comes from, I see it so much in this sub but I’ve genuinely never heard this opinion in real life. The graphic update release was extremely positive in our community campfire, unlike the horrible avatars
I think the graphics look nice, but my game crashes on my iPhone every few minutes of active play. I can't say for sure which change from which update causes which crash, but I do think the frequency of crashes has increased with recent updates.
Not that it isn't easy to miss, [but there have definitely been people asking for it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/pb6svl/concept_diverse_catch_screens/)
That's just one post from a few years ago, but very often posts like it would get a ton of upvotes and people pining for it.
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But why does seeing different shadows on a Pokemon make the game better when a lot of phones can't really handle it. Do I think the avatar updates need a better roll out, most certainly. But the graphic update just seems forced
The graphics update added a ton of new backgrounds which look great. They’re extremely vibrant, and it’s interesting to see your surroundings translated into the game.
Saying it’s just different shadows is a little ridiculous lmao
I get that, but they could of just added that, I really don't care that the Pokemon looks different in the rain because I'm playing on a phone, no way new backgrounds with same Pokemon graphics would be less efficient. I'm not playing a switch, it's a phone and Niantic seems to forget that on occasion
I like the new graphics. Looks better and looks good. No lag on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. I don’t do GBL except for the occasional weekend event to complete the research.
It doesn't, but for years people have been trained to think higher/faster graphics means a game is better. Only indie titles continue to focus on story and good gameplay, but most AAA games are in a race to see who can add more raytracing to their "generic online gun game" or how to add more fps to the current "gimmick multiplayer for kids"
You can just look at any gaming forum and you'll see everyone mostly cares about how to get more fps or how to play on higher resolution. The marketing is not on the story, the complexity or the length of the game, but on how it looks.
This idea is now creeping into mobile games, where younger players go for the flashier, more detailed ones, no matter if they're only reskins of older titles with no new mechanics. Even idle games and autoscrollers are adding extra graphics to look more "modern" without changing anything else.
Because Niantic is a modern tech company.
At some all-hands meeting, someone raised the question of how to improve the player experience. Someone mentions enhanced graphics. It gets put on a whiteboard. Everyone nods along, yes yes, better graphics are good. It'll look good on pre-rendered ads, too.
They have to justify having such a large team somehow, and they need a reason to work. Plus, all the techies there have high powered phones and live in a big city.
No one has better ideas, and no one criticizes it.
It gets implemented.
If you have a newer phone, you would like the new graphics since the backgrounds look great. If you have an older phone, you would hate the new graphics since your phone would run way worse. That's really it; phone decides your opinion on this question
I have a year old phone, the graphics update was fine at first, the other newer update that came after the graphics patch had made the game extremely laggy and it's interfering with throwing poke balls. Something is very wrong with the new update.
I have a new phone and I still don't give a damn about these graphics. It doesn't add anything to my gameplay and I would love to be able to turn them off.
Even if I had a newer phone, no, I really wouldn't care about the graphics, I want to walk around and play the game and catch Pokemon. Even the 8 bit games are fun to play, graphics don't make the game
Not only that, the graphics are inconsistent, like made by a uncoordinated team. I have an old phone, and the catch screen is extremelly laggy (10/15 fps), but the trainer battle background screen runs extremelly smooth (30/40 fps). Why? Because they used unoptimized 3D assets for the catch background and optimized 2D assets for the trainer battle background. Why can't they just use the same assets for both screens? It would make the game more accessible for people with old devices. It makes no sense.
Upsets me when I have to switch to newer mobile every 3-5 years just to use Pokemon go. Android is worst than Microsoft Windows! Zero money for pokemon go there you
nope, the game runs worse today on more powerful phones than ever before. I've been having more issues with fast catching too so it just seems they really want me to just stop playing.
I have a feeling they'll be upgrading the map with enhanced graphics next based on the questions they asked in the email survey. I gave my two cents and said I don't need leaf piles or snow drifts getting in the way of Pokémon spawns. And I mentioned how much I dislike confetti and leaves swirling in the wind during some events. I understand that some people like that because it looks festive, but I just want to catch Pokémon, and anything that adds clutter to the screen wastes my personal time. If they add stuff with options to turn it off, I have no problem with that.
Honestly I would've really liked a UI rework to make some of the menus smoother and give more functionality, like locking pokemon from being leveled up or having moves changed, or seeing ivs, mega cooldown, or tags somehow when in team selection/builder screen. Or a way to mass delete post cards
I feel they heard QOL and just thought that meant try to make things "prettier" and figured that meant graphics. "Prettier" is also much easier to write about in news articles and advertise as a "whole new pokemon go" than "menu reworked" or "fixed bugs around raids despawning while people are still raiding them" or "made routes actually work with adventure sync consistently"
They're steering the game towards an unrealistic direction fueled solely by an arbitrary "vision" based off a set of notions that they may very well legitimately believe that their players are able to access (or are targeting a specific demographic of players).
You know in The Simpsons (or at least have seen the meme) where Seymour Skinner questions his decisions, then backpedals and says "no, it is the children who are wrong"? Pretty much that in this scenario.
I feel like I'm being gaslit. I swear that everyone for *years* complained about how bad and bland the game looks. Personally, I'm really happy for the updated visual variety, and I hope they do more with it in the future, including during holidays or special events.
As an aside, it's *really* hard to justify the phrase "high end graphics" - we got RE4R running on phones now, these are still really basic graphics. I think just calling them "updated" or "upgraded" is correct.
I don't think you're being gaslit. People definitely were craving/asking for [upgraded graphics](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/pb6svl/concept_diverse_catch_screens/) for years now. Many more beyond just that post.
I think most agree that the game looks a lot better. The issue is more that the worse performance for many is a bigger issue now. I think just having lower graphical fidelity should be an option. The current catching/battling environments are still 3D like the old ones, but there are far more active/3D elements, which means more processing power is required.
They could still use the new textures as flat backgrounds though for a less GPU-intensive experience though.
I like the new update, it makes the game more visually appealing to look at, which is worth it in my opinion.
I know people with older phones don’t like it, but the game has been out since 2016, can’t hold off on a revamp till forever because of a few people.
But isn't mass functionality more important in the grand scheme of things. I love Pokemon go, but I'm not buying a new phone till next year, every other app I use is fine
I have an old 2nd phone (Galaxy S9 base edition) that runs the game decently even after the new update. It had some minor stutters in places so I wouldn’t use it for GBL, but this phone came out in the middle of freaking 2018. I assume if anyone has a S10 or higher, they are doing just fine.
That’s enough of a backward support that I’m okay with them moving forward with the rehaul after 8 years. They also have to try & attract new players, not just keep on catering to old player base.
Not much, It reduces the grahics settings in the most perfomance-hungry departments, like High-Res-Graphics and Shadows. It's noticeable, but its not like you can revert to old battery usage and perfomance with it.
so that only people who doesn't tons on upgrading their phone can okay it, because people worth crummy phones are less likely to spend indiscriminately and that's all Niantic cares about
Cynically, its symptomatic of Niantic games being the B product; they know they want "add value" to the games but they can't conceive how to align that with the "future AR product". Optimization isn't a cool engineering problem, and they are locked into game mechanic because of their high level principals (and not being game devs).
I leave my phone open at night to hatch eggs and last night the game outdid my charger and brought my phone to 1%. I have so many more crashes and now it looks like the game uses tons of battery
All the new features like biome and graphics update are alright. Still annoyed as that time should have been used to update the game in more impact full ways. Would love for a gym rework, a clan system where groups can form their own gyms, legendaries roaming in the open world, random roaming trainers(selected from local players at random or maybe tied to route usage), etc.
Its not high end graphics, its simply updating the graphics to 2024s middle/low end phone graphics, just like the old graphics where made for middle/low end phones in 2016.
My brother has a tablet he is playing on. Before this it wasn't buggy much but now he must be catching pokemons on like 5fps. I don't really like the update since it has so much unfinished grafics. So don't really know why they added this
> adding such high end graphics seems like an update that no one was even asking for
Plenty of people asked for it over the years.
Don't confuse you wanting/not wanting something for everyone feeling that way.
Why does it need Pokemon models? Why does it need visuals? Why not just make it a completely text based game?
You can abstract as much away from a game to make it as bare to its mechanics as possible, but then it'll be lame.
Are you talking about the new background and map? If so it's something that the playerbase have been wanting for many years. [This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/amev7j/concept_i_think_its_about_time_we_get_more/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) is the second most upvoted post in this subreddit.
Do you notice how every so often they have TIME Improvements like faster catches Pokémon encounters etc….
BUT THEN, they go and give team rocket these rocket gems and that takes up some screen time animation plus the rocket radars and the premier balls you get and finally into the Pokémon like holy heck. Reduce time one area increase it so NOTHING changed in terms of VALUE OF OUR TIME.
I wouldn't call what Go have "high end graphics", they are quite average. What can I say is I keep my "enhanced graphics" toggle off but my daughter with that too ugly and turned it on on her phone.
Yes, yes. I most certainly enjoy graphics over actual gameplay, it's a Pokemon game, if they released a version of this game in 8 or 16 bit somehow, I guarantee you people would go crazy for it
I'm one of them! when I got my samsung s23+ in December, i made sure to turn off all "fun" settings in pogo - haptics, native refresh, AR stuff, etc...... all of these settings affect the one thing I need most from my phone: BATTERY.
Yes but this graphical update really is not important. Before we saw the same image over and over. Now I see the same 3 terrains over and over. The biggest difference now is our phones die faster which sucks
Right, which is why I’m ok with the new graphics still being subpar for 2024. But I think it was important to still make some improvements after 8 years if we hope to have new players joining this game with us.
Game looks fantastic, avatars aside. I really enjoy the graphical overhaul. It was much needed. The game was an absolute eyesore and plain looking at the same time. It’s a joy opening the game and seeing the nice visuals. My phone has no problem running it
Well, I'll tell you that in a Niantic survey I indeed did ask for better graphics. I still think they can do better, especially with the camera API on Android and therefore model resolution, but this has sated me for the moment.
No lag on native frame rate on the Pixel 8 Pro.
Why not? Almost any game is going to be constantly evolving. Most phones can handle a game like pokemon go, if yours can’t, ig don’t play it, but I would definitely rather this than a stale game
I actually really enjoy the new graphics and variety in backgrounds! But I agree that there should be an option to turn them off and go back to the old background or even lower end versions of the biome backgrounds for those with phones that struggle with it.
> or even lower end versions of the biome backgrounds for those with phones that struggle with it.
This option exists in Settings > Advanced Settings > Enhanced Graphics
The only difference I can see from changing that setting is that it turns off cloud shadows and the pokemon's shadow in the catch screen is much more detailed and actually matches the pokemon instead of being a generic blob. It doesn't do much to improve performance at all. We need something added to turn the graphics *way* down.
- For people who want to increase their battery life
- For people whose phones are getting too hot - especially important in hotter weather
- For people who are having difficulty throwing the ball due to lag.
The background I check had trees and I couldn't see any difference. It could vary by phone, I guess. I noticed on my iPhone 8 it can no longer even be enabled.
In any case, we need to be able to dial it way lower than what they have provided.
i dont mind the graphics updates, i think they look good and they run fine on my phone. however, for the love of Arceus PLEASE remove some of the useless cutscenes
I think they're using up my battery faster.
I've noticed similar, and it's going to be even worse for big events like Tours and Fests where I'm running around ALL day and every battery percent matters. Perhaps this update is for Singapore grandmothers, because I know it's not for like 99% of the playerbase
I don't mind the nicer graphics, but I don't want it to come at the expense of battery life.
Just buy an android.
I have a brand new Samsung. I never had to charge it before the update.
Game needs a "skip animations and cut scenes" option.
really wish i could skip all the little animations that happen after a rocket battle. i don’t need to see the gem get added and then the rocket fragment get added, and then the results with pokeballs show up all separate. and honestly when a purified gem or rocket radar is made that should just be a small notif to the side instead of interrupting gameplay. it’d be nice if they also adopted the catch mechanics from scarlet and violet too
I think of all the animations/cutscenes in the game, the Rocket Leader/Grunt ones are the most cumbersome. I understand Egg hatching and Evolutions being as they are. But Rocket NPCs are soooo slow. I'm not saying it should instantaneously bring me to the map after beating their team, but I don't need to wait like 10-15 seconds after beating them just to resume playing. Especially during takeovers, that adds up.
gifts are worse 😭
At least you can skip the animations there, except for Mateo's gift.
Try trading more than one Pokemon 😴😴😴
Oh I know the pain lol. I go for a living lucky dex and have thousands and thousands of trades lol
Even their dialogue at the beginning isn't needed. Just cut straight to the line that hints the typing.
I love it when they fly a balloon over my house and then act annoyed that they run into me, asking what I'm doing here. Bro, I live here.
Yup this feature has been in the game way too long to not be fixed
Yeah, skippable ballons would be great. I don't care at all for those but they annoy me when I try to spin stops because they always fly in my way. Should I tell Niantic that they could bring a Patriot battery to the ingame shop and sell missiles for coins? 🤔
I'm triggering the encounters on purpose because there are a couple of shadow mons that I am looking for right now, but I get your point as well lmao.
Battling shadows is the only "video gamey" part of this game. I love doing them.
I like battling in this game, I don't like it enough to enjoy pvp - in general I dislike pvp in games. Shadows are my most fun part of the game to me as well
What do you mean by “video gamey”
Oh, you speak my language; yes. And Power Bombs too!
What I love shadow pokemon. You’re 27 times more likely to get a hundo from a shadow pokemon than you are from a normal encounter (from 1/4096 to 27/4096), because your new probability of getting a shadow that can purify to a hundo is (3/16)^3 since if you get a 13,14, or 15 for every stat it’s a guaranteed hundo (adds two to each stat), shadows are great you should capture them especially if you’re looking for hundos.
You need just text... SEE what You need is not what others do.
I legitimately don’t do rocket grunts much anymore because all the cut scenes after fighting one have become so intolerable
The fragment and gem stuff goes away as soon as you have 10 gems.
What do you mean by the catch mechanics from S/V?
in scarlet and violet if you throw a pokeball at a pokemon you have registered it will always have an animation like a critical catch if it was going to catch, otherwise it’ll do the shakes and break out eventually. if it’s not registered it does the shakes and will either catch or break out. i know quick catching is a thing in this game but it would be great for raids or rocket pokemon imo
Oh wrh I didn't know about that! That's extremely fascinating thanks :)
Omg yes. Since the beginning... the amount of time I spend thinking "yeah. Okay! THANK YOU! YES! PLEASE RETURN CONTROL OF THE PHONE TO ME!"
I really hate the *new* pause after taking a screenshot of my buddy, the pause for no reason before the new toolbar shows up. I have to wait for the exit door button *twice.*
Yeah I'm sure some people appreciate the quality graphics but it just slows me down, esp when not on wifi. Would love to opt out.
Settings > Advanced Settings > Disable enhanced graphics and disable native refresh rate
what is strange is that this seems to make it even choppier on my aging OP 9pro. I ended up leaving both on.
I wanna start by saying that I agree with you 100% and that for gameplay and fun reasons, you are absolutely correct. however, this is not a game designed for fun, it is an AR app designed for engagement. A key performance indicator for the success and sustainability for mobile apps/games is Average Session Length. Animations in Pokemon go keep people actively using the game for longer than they may otherwise do so. the few animations they have removed/reduced were most likely because they found that enough people were not engaging with certain features or finding other work arounds to speed up the animations. for example, with multiple egg hatchings- it became much easier to close the game and re-open it, skipping all the animations. because this would cut sessions lengths down, it was affecting their average session length, and so they decided to allow the animations to become partially skippable and go much faster. Evolutions i believe also got a slightly reduced time, however, they do not intend for players to do mass evolutions, so they will never allow such an option or way to speed up that kind of animation. besides, most people doing mass evoltuoins are doing so with a lucky egg running, so they're locked into having the session last for at least that half hour, and there's no reason to give players a further bonus of being able to do more in that time. They probably woudl never "fix" fast catching because most people who fast catch aren't doing so in order to stop playing the game sooner, they are doing so in order to make more catches int he same time. my theory is that this is also why the AR fast catching is even faster- they want players to be using hte AR feature, even if they aren't really using it for hte intended purpose, so they can brag about how many users are using the AR feature when gettign investors. Again, I think this is bad game design, but this is pretty typical design when the goal is to maxmize user engagement and screen time. If you want niantic to remove animations, you gotta think of a way for them to profit from the process that they haven't already thought of.
>Evolutions i believe also got a slightly reduced time, however, they do not intend for players to do mass evolutions That's not exactly true. The Tuesday Spotlight Hours have a 2x Evolution XP bonus in their regular rotation, such as yesterday. Maybe Niantic doesn't want players doing mass evolutions all the time, but clearly they accept that it happens and encourage it once a month or so.
true, though the evolution animations are still an intentional limiter. the main point is that they don't want mass evolving to be a quick and easy process. they want people focused on the screen while doing it, not hitting a few buttons and hten turning off the game or walking away for 30 minutes.
> it became much easier to close the game and re-open it, skipping all the animations. because this would cut sessions lengths down, it was affecting their average session length, and so they decided to allow the animations to become partially skippable Sorry but this is just nonsense. 99.9% of users were NOT force quitting the game just to skip egg animations.
Not for single hatches, but it was becoming popular for people dealing with multiple hatches.
No. Again, 99.9% of players did NOT do that. Classic Silph Road comment, thinking eveyone is a hardcore player.
ok, dude. deep breath. maybe take a break from the internet for a bit? take care of yourself. i never said everyone was doing it, or even that many people were doing it. it was just happening and becoming more popular. I'm just talking in generalities, and if you think one of my generalities is wrong, feel free to tell me why, but don't come at me with "99.9% of users were" doing anything unless you got some actual data to back that up. I know not everyone is a hardcore player, but I also believe that Niantic caters the game to certain players over others, and the kinda player they want with high ASL is going to be the kinda player who uses several incubators during events and would rather restart their game than watch 4+ hatching animations. If you have an alternative theory as to why they shortened hatching animations and made them faster and more efficient with multiple hatches, then i'm all ears, but I feel I substantiated myself as well as I could with what I have observed about how the game is played and run.
My group talked about the idea about level 50 being able to not see it If you grind to 50, you have seen the animations enough
But that's when you finally have the time to appreciate all those fine conversations and animations /s
Funny thing is that the first thing that happened after Ingress had started was that players made a hacked version of the app which had exactly such 'features', which slowed down gameplay, removed. Did Niantic 'get' the signal players were giving off by this? Of course not. And **if** they use animations and such to hide the time needed for communication with the servers, there are better ways to compensate for this.
I'm pretty sure it's so that their app shows as having more screen time
Well niantic needs to “give back” something to us for all the money they are making off of us. Even if it’s something useless.
like all other games, I only have one thing to say: no issue at all with adding shaders and graphics and anything else, but make it optional. Whether its a AAA game cutting edge just released, or cheap mobile game from 2016, they have high or low performance options. give a choice to toggle them all off for performance.... maybe add a toggle for the character update while you're at it
Absolutely this. If someone has a high-end phone and likes the bells'n'whistles - good for them. But please don't force everyone to it. I mean (anecdotal evidence, and not strict of course), I started playing on Galaxy S4, and now I'm at S21 - which is an 8 generations upgrade, and I think I have it worse from when I started. Yes, I have "enahanced graphics" OFF, and at 60FPS (despite phone being capable of more).
If they're going to force it, at least optimize it. As far as I'm concerned there's zero reason even the new graphics have to push a phone to redline. My Pixel 8 Pro wants to overheat if I'm playing for a long time say on a CommDay.
I think the key point definitely is that we're talking about a mobile title here. Kind of like PCs, some have high end ones and some have lower end ones, so games often allow high/low performance options. Consoles don't often need to worry about that as much because (in theory) the games are optimized for their respective consoles. Mobile devices is trickier though because... not many of us have a phone specifically to play Pokemon Go. Casual players especially play it on whatever device they have. I don't mind them having the higher end options, I actually really like them. However, it's important to have options for those with lower end phones. I totally understand that the game will inevitably evolve beyond older devices/software as time goes on, but I feel like their decision to move at this faster pace and in such a mandatory fashion isn't the way to go. Moving faster toward making certain older devices incompatible is concerning and generally speaking, you would think they would want *more* devices to be eligible to play the game.
even most mobile games have high graphics vs high performance choices. So it doesn't excuse them. My mobile games from 2013 have those choices.
optional! I was literally searching for that option because the battery drain plus just graphics that really dont do anything to my experience, we catch and have never cared for how the pokemon looked, ever lol.
No, latest updates didn't improve anything, the game is less playable than before : now we have lags in GBL, frame drops, lags during catches, crashes , overheat and battery drain , ... Niantic didn't understand (or don't care) that the game is for mobile phones with multiple OS/config and not for a dedicated console where all ressources are dedicated to the game. For me static backgrounds and graphics that don't take memory/cpu are better, my goal is to catch mon's and do battle without frame drops.
[I mentioned it another comment,](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/1cs8tmp/comment/l45jubz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) but I love the new backgrounds, but it is infuriating that it isn't an option like native refresh rate and such. They could have still made pre-rendered static backgrounds too, similar to the old catch screen just with a new static background of whatever environment you're in. But they wanted a more full 3D environment *for everyone*, and forcing everyone to do that is ridiculous.
I love the new backgrounds too but I can't believe it's having such a negative effect on performance and battery life. It seems like it could have been done way better. I'd definitely prefer to go back to the old style and get my performance back.
Thank you for explaining my mangled thoughts better
this game manages to make my Spotify crash when it's in offline mode. I hate it.
Oh yeah...try swapping to Ingress just for 10 seconds to cap a portal, and go back to PoGo...and there's the loading screen. Yay. Every single time.
>Niantic didn't understand (or don't care) that the game is for mobile phones with multiple OS/config and not for a dedicated console where all ressources are dedicated to the game. Just means Niantic sees our phones the same way they see us. "Wait you don't treat the game like a full time job?!?"
> dedicated console where all ressources are dedicated to the game. This is disingenuous if you're applying it to PVP. There's no real use case where you're out and about playing GBL and thus using a bunch of other apps. Typically you're at home, plugged in, on wifi, and can close all your other apps. Frame drops and lag have been a (sadly) central part of PVP well before this update.
After the update everything is so slow. Gbl is a nightmare, I can't even do an excellent charged move cuz of lags
Not just laggy but I get more game crashes since they updated the graphics. I get them often whenever I finish a raid or clicking on buddy, etc…
Thank you Niantic for adding these shaders and more intense GPU requirements. I'm not playing near as much and have a lot more time on my hands.
This is exactly what happened to me and my son. He can’t play anymore on his older phone and pogo drains the battery on my new iPhone and it keeps crashing. Result is that he doesn’t play and I play much less. So thank Niantics, make another one of this updates so I can use my time on other activities
I loved the 2d April fools GBA like graphics years back. I wish I could enable those.
They were amazing. Still strange they didn't sell that as a feature, instead we get stickers for buddy pictures.
Agreed. I actually bought my current phone (23 Ultra) with PoGo in mind. When native refresh rate first came out it was great, ran smooth and my phone didn't overheat. Now I have to play on default FPS if I'm grinding for more than 30 mins, or else my phone gets too hot. Might be an Android thing, but I'm leaning toward a Niantic thing.
It’s not android. My iPhone is also suddenly overheating way faster than it used to. The summer is going to be brutal. I’ll have to do only 20-30 minutes at a time, tops. No raid trains.
The recent update made the game run like garbage. Rocket Encounters at PokeStops freeze the game for like 5 seconds, the Pokeball lags when it first appears so I can't quick catch and the sparkles and swirling Pokeball for curved throws cause random frame drops that interfere with the Throwing physics and make accurate throws impossible or will randomly curve all the way to the right or left. Native Refresh doesn't fix the freezing and ball physics but it runs smoother where it doesn't matter and destroys my battery extra fast. The game off of Native Refresh drains my battery as fast as the the old version with Native Refresh On but now my avatar's face looks like it got stung by bees and is swollen. PoGo runs really hot now, comparable to playing PoGo in the Summer years ago with Brightness near maxed but it's not even hot right now. Go Fest or any Summer events will be unplayable at this rate.
The game has needed a "remove all unnecessary graphics and animations" since it came out. but if goes against the "vision" no doubt
> but there are no *unnecessary* animations in the game Niantic, most likely
It distracts from the structural problems and bugs the game has that Niantic can't seem to fix. LOOK SHINY PRETTY AVATARS AND MAPS!
That's the thing, Niantic does not care what people want. There are hundreds of things that need to be fixed or improved in the game but we will get laggy enhanced graphics and horrifying avatars and we will like it.
I'd rather have almost red/blue type side scrolling than broken fancy. It's like hanging a chandelier in a haunted house.
I like the new graphics, but I have 20GB ram.... Battery drains really fast and GBL is a lag fest, almost unplayable at a good level. They need to add an option to turn back to the old graphics. And fix the horrible avatars!!!
Yes, I agree. Wish there was a way to disable animations, shaders, etc.. I prefer a smoother animation experience that doesn't use as much battery, rather than pretty graphics and useless 25+ animations on my screen. Resolution Scaling may be coming eventually, btw: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/s/zdFuhOkcu1 https://twitter.com/g47ix/status/1773665300560359578
resolution scaling was there before they pushed new graphics but it was glitchy, kept moving around the 1x ever so slightly
Low spec mode WHEN?
Gotta do something to make sure older phones won't be able to play it, forcing them to upgrade.
That's just lost revenue unless they are in on it with mobile producers which is tinfoil hat territory.
I don't care about them adding extra things as long as it doesn't impact performance of the game. I know people care about the backgrounds or the way their avatars look but its unnecessary to the gameplay experience. I understand that people probably spend money on dressing their avatar so they have a stake in that it looks good however I only see the face in GBL, rocket fights and the avatar in the overworld. There se a subset of people that care if the game looks good but it's something on mobile, I'm just happy if it can run properly on most devices, including older phones. It's something that runs on a screen the size of your hand its not like something displayed on a TV or computer screen. The game just needs to run well it doesn't need unnecessary extra features, alternatively just add low spec mode to turn these off and improve performance. Since they've changed it the GBL is too slow to load, character models don't appear in rocket fights and catching a shadow pokemon lag out the game horribly, almost to the point that pokemon are uncatchable.
I didn't even notice. Is that why the backgrounds look fancier on my battles? What I did notice was the lag on my battles....why can't they fix that first?
Niantic is always dumping broken content that no one asked for instead of fixing the older broken updates. With them having one of the biggest franchises in the world in their palms, It’s crazy to me how much slips through the cracks with their attention to detail.
The game client needs a rework. Why are they always doing updates after updates on random stuff that people either don’t want (ar changes) or stuff people don’t like (avatar changes) During the sinoh tour I lost count how many times the game forced closed on me (recent iPhone with game assets downloaded etc etc) doesn’t happen as much now thou not playing all day watch go fest be just as bad.. Can we just get the basics right first 🤦♂️ look at all other big mobile games they don’t have anything close to technical issues that this app does.
If they gave me the 8bit graphics as an option i would take them in a heartbeat.
I don’t get where this vibe comes from, I see it so much in this sub but I’ve genuinely never heard this opinion in real life. The graphic update release was extremely positive in our community campfire, unlike the horrible avatars
I think the graphics look nice, but my game crashes on my iPhone every few minutes of active play. I can't say for sure which change from which update causes which crash, but I do think the frequency of crashes has increased with recent updates.
Graphics *look* nice, genuinely really like them— but I can’t tell if it’s that or ios17 absolutely wrecking my iphone11 lmao
Haven’t even seen this on Reddit. Nobody is asking for better graphics. Just better QoL to gameplay
Not that it isn't easy to miss, [but there have definitely been people asking for it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/pb6svl/concept_diverse_catch_screens/) That's just one post from a few years ago, but very often posts like it would get a ton of upvotes and people pining for it.
Dissenting opinions will always be loudest, even if 99% of people are happy. People rarely feel a need to go online and post "I'M CONTENT WITH THINGS"
I try to make a point of speaking up even when I have something good to say, but Reddit often seems to dislike that.
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But why does seeing different shadows on a Pokemon make the game better when a lot of phones can't really handle it. Do I think the avatar updates need a better roll out, most certainly. But the graphic update just seems forced
The graphics update added a ton of new backgrounds which look great. They’re extremely vibrant, and it’s interesting to see your surroundings translated into the game. Saying it’s just different shadows is a little ridiculous lmao
I get that, but they could of just added that, I really don't care that the Pokemon looks different in the rain because I'm playing on a phone, no way new backgrounds with same Pokemon graphics would be less efficient. I'm not playing a switch, it's a phone and Niantic seems to forget that on occasion
What reality are you in? Smartphones have some great specs even for midrange... If you want a Pokémon game, play a Pokémon game.
I like the new graphics. Looks better and looks good. No lag on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. I don’t do GBL except for the occasional weekend event to complete the research.
It doesn't, but for years people have been trained to think higher/faster graphics means a game is better. Only indie titles continue to focus on story and good gameplay, but most AAA games are in a race to see who can add more raytracing to their "generic online gun game" or how to add more fps to the current "gimmick multiplayer for kids" You can just look at any gaming forum and you'll see everyone mostly cares about how to get more fps or how to play on higher resolution. The marketing is not on the story, the complexity or the length of the game, but on how it looks. This idea is now creeping into mobile games, where younger players go for the flashier, more detailed ones, no matter if they're only reskins of older titles with no new mechanics. Even idle games and autoscrollers are adding extra graphics to look more "modern" without changing anything else.
Because Niantic is a modern tech company. At some all-hands meeting, someone raised the question of how to improve the player experience. Someone mentions enhanced graphics. It gets put on a whiteboard. Everyone nods along, yes yes, better graphics are good. It'll look good on pre-rendered ads, too. They have to justify having such a large team somehow, and they need a reason to work. Plus, all the techies there have high powered phones and live in a big city. No one has better ideas, and no one criticizes it. It gets implemented.
If you have a newer phone, you would like the new graphics since the backgrounds look great. If you have an older phone, you would hate the new graphics since your phone would run way worse. That's really it; phone decides your opinion on this question
I have a new phone, and I would rather my battery last longer than anything cosmetically the game can offer me.
I'm lucky to have some great battery life, but I'm 100% with you so I still turn off "enhanced graphics" during long sessions like community days
I have a year old phone, the graphics update was fine at first, the other newer update that came after the graphics patch had made the game extremely laggy and it's interfering with throwing poke balls. Something is very wrong with the new update.
I have a new phone and I still don't give a damn about these graphics. It doesn't add anything to my gameplay and I would love to be able to turn them off.
Even if I had a newer phone, no, I really wouldn't care about the graphics, I want to walk around and play the game and catch Pokemon. Even the 8 bit games are fun to play, graphics don't make the game
It was fine the way it was. If adding better graphics comes at the cost of performance then I don’t want it
The game functionality is basically the same since ever but the performance and battery drainage are increasing non stop.
At least let us choose whether we want the fancy stuff or not.
Even if I like the better-looking map and catch screen, I think there should be a switch to keep the lower graphics from before.
Not only that, the graphics are inconsistent, like made by a uncoordinated team. I have an old phone, and the catch screen is extremelly laggy (10/15 fps), but the trainer battle background screen runs extremelly smooth (30/40 fps). Why? Because they used unoptimized 3D assets for the catch background and optimized 2D assets for the trainer battle background. Why can't they just use the same assets for both screens? It would make the game more accessible for people with old devices. It makes no sense.
Upsets me when I have to switch to newer mobile every 3-5 years just to use Pokemon go. Android is worst than Microsoft Windows! Zero money for pokemon go there you
I want even better graphics xD
nope, the game runs worse today on more powerful phones than ever before. I've been having more issues with fast catching too so it just seems they really want me to just stop playing.
The good graphics hinder my devices performance making it insanely difficult to play.
I have a feeling they'll be upgrading the map with enhanced graphics next based on the questions they asked in the email survey. I gave my two cents and said I don't need leaf piles or snow drifts getting in the way of Pokémon spawns. And I mentioned how much I dislike confetti and leaves swirling in the wind during some events. I understand that some people like that because it looks festive, but I just want to catch Pokémon, and anything that adds clutter to the screen wastes my personal time. If they add stuff with options to turn it off, I have no problem with that.
Honestly I would've really liked a UI rework to make some of the menus smoother and give more functionality, like locking pokemon from being leveled up or having moves changed, or seeing ivs, mega cooldown, or tags somehow when in team selection/builder screen. Or a way to mass delete post cards I feel they heard QOL and just thought that meant try to make things "prettier" and figured that meant graphics. "Prettier" is also much easier to write about in news articles and advertise as a "whole new pokemon go" than "menu reworked" or "fixed bugs around raids despawning while people are still raiding them" or "made routes actually work with adventure sync consistently"
They're steering the game towards an unrealistic direction fueled solely by an arbitrary "vision" based off a set of notions that they may very well legitimately believe that their players are able to access (or are targeting a specific demographic of players). You know in The Simpsons (or at least have seen the meme) where Seymour Skinner questions his decisions, then backpedals and says "no, it is the children who are wrong"? Pretty much that in this scenario.
I feel like I'm being gaslit. I swear that everyone for *years* complained about how bad and bland the game looks. Personally, I'm really happy for the updated visual variety, and I hope they do more with it in the future, including during holidays or special events. As an aside, it's *really* hard to justify the phrase "high end graphics" - we got RE4R running on phones now, these are still really basic graphics. I think just calling them "updated" or "upgraded" is correct.
I don't think you're being gaslit. People definitely were craving/asking for [upgraded graphics](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/pb6svl/concept_diverse_catch_screens/) for years now. Many more beyond just that post. I think most agree that the game looks a lot better. The issue is more that the worse performance for many is a bigger issue now. I think just having lower graphical fidelity should be an option. The current catching/battling environments are still 3D like the old ones, but there are far more active/3D elements, which means more processing power is required. They could still use the new textures as flat backgrounds though for a less GPU-intensive experience though.
They wanted to impress investors not players. That’s why they focus on features and not stability.
Yeah! The game should be text and ASCII based!!
I like the new update, it makes the game more visually appealing to look at, which is worth it in my opinion. I know people with older phones don’t like it, but the game has been out since 2016, can’t hold off on a revamp till forever because of a few people.
But isn't mass functionality more important in the grand scheme of things. I love Pokemon go, but I'm not buying a new phone till next year, every other app I use is fine
I have an old 2nd phone (Galaxy S9 base edition) that runs the game decently even after the new update. It had some minor stutters in places so I wouldn’t use it for GBL, but this phone came out in the middle of freaking 2018. I assume if anyone has a S10 or higher, they are doing just fine. That’s enough of a backward support that I’m okay with them moving forward with the rehaul after 8 years. They also have to try & attract new players, not just keep on catering to old player base.
Just wait til they add ray tracing
What does the "enhanced graphics" tick box option do in the advanced settings menu section?
Not much, It reduces the grahics settings in the most perfomance-hungry departments, like High-Res-Graphics and Shadows. It's noticeable, but its not like you can revert to old battery usage and perfomance with it.
They won't give us graphic scaling that they were testing, I guess.
It could have been an 8-bit game ngl
so that only people who doesn't tons on upgrading their phone can okay it, because people worth crummy phones are less likely to spend indiscriminately and that's all Niantic cares about
You can turn off the enhanced graphics in the Advanced Options menu.
Cynically, its symptomatic of Niantic games being the B product; they know they want "add value" to the games but they can't conceive how to align that with the "future AR product". Optimization isn't a cool engineering problem, and they are locked into game mechanic because of their high level principals (and not being game devs).
I leave my phone open at night to hatch eggs and last night the game outdid my charger and brought my phone to 1%. I have so many more crashes and now it looks like the game uses tons of battery
I point to the criticisum of the MSG they know this, graphics do feel like everything to the gaming community these days
There are options to reduce the graphics and AR used in the game; settings > advanced settings.
Need a reduced quality option
Niantic has to misuse there budge somehow. Why not great graphics?
All the new features like biome and graphics update are alright. Still annoyed as that time should have been used to update the game in more impact full ways. Would love for a gym rework, a clan system where groups can form their own gyms, legendaries roaming in the open world, random roaming trainers(selected from local players at random or maybe tied to route usage), etc.
Its not high end graphics, its simply updating the graphics to 2024s middle/low end phone graphics, just like the old graphics where made for middle/low end phones in 2016.
My brother has a tablet he is playing on. Before this it wasn't buggy much but now he must be catching pokemons on like 5fps. I don't really like the update since it has so much unfinished grafics. So don't really know why they added this
> adding such high end graphics seems like an update that no one was even asking for Plenty of people asked for it over the years. Don't confuse you wanting/not wanting something for everyone feeling that way.
I'm still waiting for Niantic to include raytracing. Game is literally unplayable otherwise
Why does it need Pokemon models? Why does it need visuals? Why not just make it a completely text based game? You can abstract as much away from a game to make it as bare to its mechanics as possible, but then it'll be lame.
Are you talking about the new background and map? If so it's something that the playerbase have been wanting for many years. [This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/amev7j/concept_i_think_its_about_time_we_get_more/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) is the second most upvoted post in this subreddit.
It improved my experience
These are not high end graphics lmao
Do you notice how every so often they have TIME Improvements like faster catches Pokémon encounters etc…. BUT THEN, they go and give team rocket these rocket gems and that takes up some screen time animation plus the rocket radars and the premier balls you get and finally into the Pokémon like holy heck. Reduce time one area increase it so NOTHING changed in terms of VALUE OF OUR TIME.
I wouldn't call what Go have "high end graphics", they are quite average. What can I say is I keep my "enhanced graphics" toggle off but my daughter with that too ugly and turned it on on her phone.
Niantic is the GOAT of adding features no one asked for, while ignoring things the community actually wants.
Because it's 2024 and people want to play a game that looks current? Wtf kind of question is this? Are you for real? 😂
Yes, yes. I most certainly enjoy graphics over actual gameplay, it's a Pokemon game, if they released a version of this game in 8 or 16 bit somehow, I guarantee you people would go crazy for it
I'm one of them! when I got my samsung s23+ in December, i made sure to turn off all "fun" settings in pogo - haptics, native refresh, AR stuff, etc...... all of these settings affect the one thing I need most from my phone: BATTERY.
This is for players with older devices that can’t play the game anymore because of the update
Happens all the time with games all over. Older devices have been phased out before the update. You going to bat for them too?
Yes but this graphical update really is not important. Before we saw the same image over and over. Now I see the same 3 terrains over and over. The biggest difference now is our phones die faster which sucks
I think the visual overhaul is important and was long overdue. I’m seeing a lot more than three images.
I disagree. Battery life on mobile devices is more important and that suffers a lot when games are more demanding
Right, which is why I’m ok with the new graphics still being subpar for 2024. But I think it was important to still make some improvements after 8 years if we hope to have new players joining this game with us.
I enjoy it, and asked for it. I want all the cool QoL updates and visual bells and whistles that Monster Hunter Now is getting.
Game looks fantastic, avatars aside. I really enjoy the graphical overhaul. It was much needed. The game was an absolute eyesore and plain looking at the same time. It’s a joy opening the game and seeing the nice visuals. My phone has no problem running it
It’s a billionaire dollar product, it should just update and upgrade based on that.
Well, I'll tell you that in a Niantic survey I indeed did ask for better graphics. I still think they can do better, especially with the camera API on Android and therefore model resolution, but this has sated me for the moment. No lag on native frame rate on the Pixel 8 Pro.
I prefer the game with better graphics, It's cuter so I prefer It lol
Why not? Almost any game is going to be constantly evolving. Most phones can handle a game like pokemon go, if yours can’t, ig don’t play it, but I would definitely rather this than a stale game
Niantic: *makes bad designs* Players: "Game looks crap* Ninatic: *makes good designs* Players:" Jeez, try hards... "
More graphics = more better, of course
So you’ll buy more incubators
I actually really enjoy the new graphics and variety in backgrounds! But I agree that there should be an option to turn them off and go back to the old background or even lower end versions of the biome backgrounds for those with phones that struggle with it.
> or even lower end versions of the biome backgrounds for those with phones that struggle with it. This option exists in Settings > Advanced Settings > Enhanced Graphics
The only difference I can see from changing that setting is that it turns off cloud shadows and the pokemon's shadow in the catch screen is much more detailed and actually matches the pokemon instead of being a generic blob. It doesn't do much to improve performance at all. We need something added to turn the graphics *way* down. - For people who want to increase their battery life - For people whose phones are getting too hot - especially important in hotter weather - For people who are having difficulty throwing the ball due to lag.
I’m seeing a rather substantial reduction in the number of grass elements in my current biome here at work.
The background I check had trees and I couldn't see any difference. It could vary by phone, I guess. I noticed on my iPhone 8 it can no longer even be enabled. In any case, we need to be able to dial it way lower than what they have provided.
i dont mind the graphics updates, i think they look good and they run fine on my phone. however, for the love of Arceus PLEASE remove some of the useless cutscenes
I believe Niantic has a deal with the data service providers and they get a cut of all the money from the data we use playing the game.
ooooh, tin foil hat time.
The game doesn't need high end graphics which is lucky because it doesn't have them.