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EQ2 looks fantastic! This may help.

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Comments

  • eccotoneccoton Member UncommonPosts: 1,340

    GPU shadows are here. In the options under shadows is a new alternative for shadow rendering. You can now choose between the original CPU shadow rendering and GPU rendering. If you stay with the original all the options are the same. If you pick GPU things are a bit different. The GPU shadows are a mixed bag.

    Overall the GPU shadows are very nicely done. What is missing is that they do not react to ambient lighting like CPU do. The GPU shadows are only reacting to the sunlight in Norrath. You are give an option to switch between the two shadow options when you go in doors to get shadows from in door ambient lights like lamps. If you check this option the shadows change automatically when entering and exiting buildings. You are given 3 options for GPU shadows Low, Medium, High. The downside to this is that the distances that GPU shadows are rendered is based on your complex shader setting. You are also given a slider to adjust the darkness of shadows based on your tastes. I have set mine to medium and dark which for me actually look better then the high setting. The shadows look good and there is no impact on my framerate. The shadows are dynamic with GPU so move and react to the enviroment. This for the most part works well but you do get a few strange visual effects.

    The result of all this is that GPU shadows look pretty good and have little impact on game performance, which is great. They do add a nice feel to the world. I do prefer them to CPU shadow rendering over CPU. However, they need work. I hope they fine tune them over time and figure a way to have them react to ambient lights. The use of GPU shadows does not change any of the advice I gave in the original post about graphic settings. GPU shadows are a great addition but they do need work.

  • eccotoneccoton Member UncommonPosts: 1,340

    Here is an example of both shadow renderings . The scene was taken at sunset in Qeynos South. The left picture is CPU rendering. Notice the shadows behind the door lights. You lose ambient light shadows with GPU. The scene on the right is GPU. The shadows are more rich but no ambient shadows. You also have no impact on your game performance. An equivalent look with CPU would have a big impact on game performance. So all in all GPU shadows are a great addition but they could use some polish.

     

     

     

  • SarykSaryk Member UncommonPosts: 476

    If this has been mentioned I am sorry, I must have missed it.

    If you own a ATI/AMD setup, AMD Dual or Quad Core, you need to get Fusion and the Overdrive software. Fusion shuts down non-essintial windows programs, giving you a big boost in frame rates. Overdrive is a over clocking software, it is very good and will increase your processor speed and improve frame rate, but can damage your CPU. Get educated on Over clocking before attempting.

    I own a AMD Quad Core, 4 gig of ram, 4870 AMD/ATI video card. I get 62 FPS in Neriak on Antonia Bayle with extreme graphics. During a raid I put in on High Quality and get around the same.

     

  • SoludeSolude Member UncommonPosts: 691

    GPU shadows makes shadows essentially a free graphics increase.  However flora is still an insane performance hog.  Visit GF with and without flora, it's not even funny the difference.  GPU shadows almost makes EQ2's engine balanced, but without real multi core usage, its still best core dependant.  Ie Single core 4GHz, better than Quad core 3GHz for now anyway.  But then that's why my MMO box is an AMD Phenom II 550 at 3.8GHz... with an 8800GTS 512.  Fingers crossed at some point character geometry goes to the GPU so I can justify an upgrade ;)

  • DaearenDaearen Member CommonPosts: 3

    Hi Eccoton,

    I just wanted to say thanks to you for taking your time to post this and help others to tweak their game. :)

    Been reading it all :D

  • RaizeenRaizeen Member Posts: 622

    latest expansion is so boring its not worth playing even if it had crysis graphics

  • DaearenDaearen Member CommonPosts: 3
    Originally posted by Raizeen


    latest expansion is so boring its not worth playing even if it had crysis graphics



     

    Sorry to say but again this has nothing to do with the Graphics of the game. If the game is boring then it's a content problem... 

  • BuzWeaverBuzWeaver Member UncommonPosts: 978

    I'm considering coming back and playing soon, what updates to the settings are there with the new shadow system?


    The Old Timers Guild
    Laid back, not so serious, no drama.
    All about the fun!

    www.oldtimersguild.com
    An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett

  • ethionethion Member UncommonPosts: 2,888
    Originally posted by BuzWeaver


    I'm considering coming back and playing soon, what updates to the settings are there with the new shadow system?

     

    The new shadow system is in.  I'm not sure what you are asking.  There is an option to do GPU or CPU shadows depending on your system.  So if you got a good cpu and not so go graphics card you can select cpu shadows if you have a good gpu you can do gpu shadows.  On my system switching from cpu to gpu got me like 15fps in qeynos.

    There are also some shadow quality settings and an option for offscreen shadows.

    The big news right now is the shader 3.0 stuff coming in the next update.  This updates all the textures and lighting stuff and makes the game look way better while at the same time reducing the hit on your computer!!  At least so the devs say and they did a video with before and after shots so it definitely looks much better.

    Anyway it should be going up on test pretty soon so people will be able to check it out.

    ---
    Ethion

  • ElwalpoElwalpo Member Posts: 23
    Originally posted by cataphracht


    EQ2 graphic's are poor, Characters are the best thing going for it, but most backgrounds are terrible it's a shame a lot of things can look really nice and it just messes up with low detail tree's and bland grounds.
    It's really aged lol, these characters in Vanguards background would probably be the best for them 2 games it is like they both have something the other don't.
    The way this game looks it should perform the same as WOW on my cpu but it doesn't wow performs superbly, whereas this acts like it's crysis for performance lol still playable though, when I make it even more uglier with taking shadows off.



     

    you have gotta be $h!tting me, you are comparing EQ2s graphics to WoW, and saying its a bunch of crap, sir you LOL never mind.

    played: EQOA,EQ1, EQ2, SWG, DAOC, FFXI, GW, WoW, Eve, Vanguard, COH/COV, Pirates of Burning Sea, Pirates of the Carribean, Freerealms, AOC, Warhammer, UO, Secondlife (LMFAO), The Matrix Online.
    Waiting for: SWTOR, STO

  • MikehaMikeha Member EpicPosts: 9,196
    Originally posted by eccoton

    Originally posted by Theocritus


             I was never really that thrilled with the graphics in EQ2.....I would try a few tweaks but could never get it to the point where I jsut went "ooooooooooo".......I also did not like most of the character moels and did not like the plastic feel my character had.......Too many of the areas felt "blocky" and pixelated to me...... Overall EQ2 was an OK game but wasnt one I felt like resubbing to after 4-5 months.......There was too much soloing and I also didnt like how almost every guild I was in demanded that we talk in ventrilo.... I started out as a typer in MMOs and that is just my preferred method......I didnt want to listen to some guy and his wife arguing or hear someones baby crying in the background while Im playing...... The game was also too solo friendly and I rarely ever found groups outside of guild (and those were only instances)....... It was hard for me to move from EQ1 to EQ2 and I always felt that EQ1 was just a better game.

    Blocky, plastic and pixelated? The point of this thread was to help people with that problem. Now you may not like the graphics in EQ2 but it is hardly blocky or pixelated. I think a lot of people see it that way because they do not have the graphics setup right (Hence this thread) or they do not have a machine EQ2 likes. SOE has taken steps to get the game running better for more people but they still have a lot of work to do. EQ2 being a 4 year old game not sure how much more SOE will do to optimize the game. However if you setup the complex graphic options right the game still after 4 years looks great.

    This thread was to get others to post info on getting EQ2 running and looking better. It was not a review of the game or ventilo, by the way EQ2 has voice chat built into game now so no need to TS or Vent.

     

    Here are a couple game screens I just took. I simply do not see them as blocky, plastic, or pixelated. I guess we see things differently.



     

     

     

    Thanks alot for this thread. I find these screenshots to be amazing. I just started playing this game and am very glad I did.

  • stop it, that almost makes me want to start up my station pass again....

  • BuzWeaverBuzWeaver Member UncommonPosts: 978


    Originally posted by ethion
    Originally posted by BuzWeaver I'm considering coming back and playing soon, what updates to the settings are there with the new shadow system?
     
    The new shadow system is in.  I'm not sure what you are asking.  There is an option to do GPU or CPU shadows depending on your system.  So if you got a good cpu and not so go graphics card you can select cpu shadows if you have a good gpu you can do gpu shadows.  On my system switching from cpu to gpu got me like 15fps in qeynos.
    There are also some shadow quality settings and an option for offscreen shadows.
    The big news right now is the shader 3.0 stuff coming in the next update.  This updates all the textures and lighting stuff and makes the game look way better while at the same time reducing the hit on your computer!!  At least so the devs say and they did a video with before and after shots so it definitely looks much better.
    Anyway it should be going up on test pretty soon so people will be able to check it out.

    Thanks for the explanation Ethion. I'm planning on getting a new Rig the first part of next year, just prior to the release of Halas. The new rig and graphics card(s) should be able to run the game quite well.


    The Old Timers Guild
    Laid back, not so serious, no drama.
    All about the fun!

    www.oldtimersguild.com
    An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett

  • dolphin666dolphin666 Member UncommonPosts: 55

    Originally posted by Davit



    Latest game update added and option for GPU shadows. This really adds a lot of realism and even a huge performance boost, compared to CPU shadows.

     

     

    You're not kidding. I just re-subbed after almost a year. I enabled shadows on my GPU etc and not only has performance improved, but also the graphics.

    I knew about the graphics changes, but had no idea it would look quite impressive.

  • satora54satora54 Member UncommonPosts: 31

    Think a Geforce 7300 gs Could run this alright? Worried i might get massive lag, Honostly im not expecting it to run perfectly but im hoping to atleast run it smoothly.

    image
  • GaurnGaurn Member Posts: 305

    You'd be able to run it on "Balanced" or at most "high" but on high I'm almost certain you'll have lag. Balance and high performance is probably where your happy place will be.

  • MothurMothur Member Posts: 19

    I can confirm the information in the first post is still up-to-date and relevant. Thanks a ton!

  • gurugeorgegurugeorge Member UncommonPosts: 481
    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    Originally posted by Mothur

    I can confirm the information in the first post is still up-to-date and relevant. Thanks a ton!

    The client has changed a lot.  Not all of those options posted in the OP seem to be available in the menu anymore.  The display options have been simplified, a lot.

    I set both texture options to maximum and GPU shadow maps.  I set lighting quality to high and 10 lights.  This setting can really impact performance and is likely very subjective to the system.   The high/10 setting looks good while still giving me decent frame rates.

    Zone quality and framerate can vary a lot.  Some zones don't look as good as others, but also give better framerates.  Be careful when dialing up settings in a zone as you might drop FPS in another zone.  It can take a little time to find the settings for the best look and performance.

    Check the "Advanced" button top right in options, that reveals all the fiddly stuff.  Most of the options in the OP are still there.

    On a modern machine, EQ2 can still look amazing for an 8 year old MMO (although of course some zones are better than others, the "ice" area of New Halas looks very 2004, whereas Kelethin is absolutely enchanting :) ), it was very well future-proofed, graphics-wise, and now that more is done on the GPU it can run very smoothly and still look great. 

  • mindw0rkmindw0rk Member UncommonPosts: 1,356

    EQ2 has some nice monster and object models, but world design is absolutely terrible. I just returned to game and ran through few of the old and new zones. It feels like landmass was randomly generated and designers didnt give a crap about making world beautiful or realistic. It is especially noticible after playing games like Age of Wushu where world design is amazing.

    No amount of tweaking can change it, sadly

  • Dreamo84Dreamo84 Member UncommonPosts: 3,713
    Originally posted by cataphracht

    EQ2 graphic's are poor, Characters are the best thing going for it, but most backgrounds are terrible it's a shame a lot of things can look really nice and it just messes up with low detail tree's and bland grounds.

    It's really aged lol, these characters in Vanguards background would probably be the best for them 2 games it is like they both have something the other don't.

    The way this game looks it should perform the same as WOW on my cpu but it doesn't wow performs superbly, whereas this acts like it's crysis for performance lol still playable though, when I make it even more uglier with taking shadows off.

    They could use EQ2s water in Vanguard though for sure! Still don't understand how Vanguard got such ugly water. Even EverQuest 1 has better looking water now. Heck, WoW has better looking water :-p Morrowind has better looking water!! Gah!

    image
  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798

    saw this comment on massively

    http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/26/second-wind-everquest-ii-part-two/

    ordegar1
    There are a couple of settings that may not be set properly for a modern computer.  I had to change them for mine.  I have an Intel i7 cpu and GTX 660ti video.  Make sure you toggle the setting for Advanced Settings; this opens up all of the settings options so you can optimize properly.  

    The main things to look for are: toggle ON the setting for multi-core support; the engine still uses the cpu quite a bit and you don't want that running on one core.  

    Make sure shadows are set to GPU shadow maps and NOT CPU shadows.

    Set your view distance way down as low as you can without it affecting your surroundings; I have mine set to 200 to 300.  

    The EQ2 engine does not do two things that modern game engines do for performance; one is occlusion (not ambient occlusion, that has to do with lighting and is not the same thing), which allows the engine to not draw what you can't see, so EQ2 draws EVERYTHING within your view distance setting even if you're looking away from it and even if it's behind a building or mountain.  The other thing it doesn't have that modern games have is Tesselation, where the number of polygons of a model adjust according to distance, so the model becomes more detailed the closer you are to it; the only thing that scales in EQ2 is the texture quality with the LOD setting.

    I have almost everything set to maximum except those things I mentioned (textures set to Very High, not maximum) and I get between 50 and 100 fps depending on the zone.  Note that some things will move to CPU processing if not set to max, so experiment.  Hit F11 to toggle on the performance indicator.

     
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    Problem is lighting/graphic resolution and distance are going to cause a lot of lag.
    So it is simply a trade off performance for looks.In reality the game is just badly implemented,players in 2015 should be able to max out everything and still have 100 + frames.
    This could be for several reason besides clunky over sized code,it could be the game engine is simply crap,it doesn't allow invisible zones and ways to save on how it draws objects and when.

    The "LOOKS" is all about lighting effects well and of course you still need quality textures "Wow need not apply here".Lighting/shaders /shadows are a huge resource hog.

    Simply put anyone with some average thought can change the settings to look decent,turn all the lighting down until it looks bad,turn off shadows,turn shaders right down until you feel you need it.Screw around with color settings but even that changes a lot from day>night,i found i had to constantly change everytime the day/night cycle changed.

    Bottom line....SOE was a nice starting point for games and game design,they are no longer a factor and are ,has been and always will be a developer that releases a LOT of glitches/bugs and just bad mapping and code.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • carotidcarotid Member UncommonPosts: 425
    @Wizardry Ummm, this OP is from 2008
  • AmanaAmana Moderator UncommonPosts: 3,912
    The thread is from 2008, so closing it to prevent further bumping/any confusion from seeing it in "recent".

    To give feedback on moderation, contact [email protected]

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