Why was this removed? (Vanilla Rain)

[Jakisuaki]

I'm sure there's a reason for it, I just don't know it. I wish we still had this

[Deleted]

if i recall right, it was removed to get improved, but they scraped it or it got forgotten. Same thing with the "Nights" in vanilla actually beeing dark.

[uopayroll]

Fire mages protested the nerf to damage during storms and had better lobbyists than the elemental shamans that wanted to keep it in for the AoE damage boost boost

[Promethieus]

It caused "visual distress" in some players.

[Rafoel]

Don't we have this in Stormheim?

[Lillyth]

It was removed because of whining. Like most awesome and spooky things in the game.

[Deleted]

IIRC rain in STV was really intense. Also there was sandstorms in Tanaris and floating snow in ...snowy zones. For some reason these new weather effects feel like nothing IMO.

[Mystrome]

Don't we have this in Stormheim?

Yup, also in Highmountain near the murlocs in the north.

And I find it annoying more than anything else. I don't know what it looks like on (very) high end machines, but with my gtx 660 it's mostly just white streaks (similar to the video in the OP). When moving in a straight line it's ok-ish, but if I turn a lot (like following a bendy road) the streaks can start to get close/overlap making it hard to tell what's ahead/where I'm going.

If it were up to me I'd remove it entirely. But as long as it's not everywhere I can deal with the occasional annoyance.

[Jakisuaki]

It caused "visual distress" in some players.

As in; It was too much for their computers to handle? Or did it seriously distress them that it was raining? I find it calming

[Queen of Hamsters]

People that can't move away from Potato class computers are the reason I'd be willing to bet. It wasn't just like that in Classic though, since I remember rain of that nature from WOTLK and Cata as well..

[Mystrome]

As in; It was too much for their computers to handle? Or did it seriously distress them that it was raining? I find it calming

Probably a combination of the way you move with the quality of the graphics (like I described above). I'm a bit annoyed by the rain like that. I can see how some people love it, but also how some would hate it.

[partshark]

Once again, people reply without knowing the answer.

The reason it was removed was because it was far too advanced at the time of its implementation. The weather effects were fine on "light" effects, small showers, light dust storms, etc. When the effect hit "high" it was a beast on many systems at the time. Heavy lag was the biggest complaint. ZG was actually the main culprit. The weather inside the raid caused massive performance issues when on "high". Some raids had to stop when it stormed because no one could see anything, many were lagging, and general issues of the kind.

The weather system was removed for an overhaul and was added back in only with "low" settings and a much reduced frequency. There may have been various other reasons but this was the main concern.

[Deleted]

I still encounter rain pretty frequently. Especially in Stormheim (And on top of that, it rains pretty heavily there).

[Jakisuaki]

Probably a combination of the way you move with the quality of the graphics (like I described above). I'm a bit annoyed by the rain like that. I can see how some people love it, but also how some would hate it.

Myeah, the effects might not be the best, but I do love heavy rain in games. If the rain graphics got updated I'd definetely want this back, more so than I already do. I'm the guy that heavily favors immersion over convenience in a game, though : P

- - - Updated - - -

I still encounter rain pretty frequently. Especially in Stormheim (And on top of that, it rains pretty heavily there).

Yes, Stormheim is lovely. It's still not as heavy as in the video though. I'd like to consider it as a precursor to perhaps updating the weather system entirely.

[Mystrome]

Myeah, the effects might not be the best, but I do love heavy rain in games. If the rain graphics got updated I'd definetely want this back, more so than I already do. I'm the guy that heavily favors immersion over convenience in a game, though : P

Real rain is transparant. The in-game rain I see is not. I bet that that's the main issue.

But transparant rain in-game... heh... probably a massive GPU-stressor.

[Jakisuaki]

Real rain is transparant. The in-game rain I see is not. I bet that that's the main issue.

But transparant rain in-game... heh... probably a massive GPU-stressor.

Definetely would be. Could be nice to have it as a graphics setting.

[Deleted]

99% of people's computers cant handle it /s

[markos82]

Real rain is transparant. The in-game rain I see is not. I bet that that's the main issue.

But transparant rain in-game... heh... probably a massive GPU-stressor.

Actually during a massive thunderstorm with huge amount of rain fall you wouldnt be able to see more than 50m in front of you

[Mystrome]

Actually during a massive thunderstorm with huge amount of rain fall you wouldnt be able to see more than 50m in front of you

Agreed.

But that's not because it suddenly stops being transparant. It just disperses all the light.

[markos82]

Agreed.

But that's not because it suddenly stops being transparant. It just disperses all the light.

True ......