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.

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....

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Originally posted by ethion

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Originally posted by BuzWeaver

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

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 

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

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!