I'm enjoying the VG trial, and I'm intrigued enough with the game to probably subscribe, but the mele animations of my warrior seem to be broken or lagged or... something. 

Lets say I want to pull a mob back with my bow.  Click the bow, the animation starts and the sound of the bow being cocked begins, but before the arrow even flies the damage text flashes above the mobs head (on my screen the arrow is still cocked back), i get the message in the chat window that I've tapped the mob and hes mine, and only after hes damaged and running at me does the animation of the bow complete (arrow flies). 

So now we're toe-to-toe, but things don't seem to get any better.  Sounds don't match up with the strike animations and the mobs death is also out of synch.  

Possible lag issue on my end?  I'm running about 150ms round trip according to the in-game latency bar thing.  I didn't think that was too high.  Is this just how the game is?  I don't have a lot of experience with other MMO's so sorry if this is some sort of stupid question.  I just find the delayed and un-synched animations very distracting.  There is no visceral UMPH feel to the combat when its so out of time like this.  I really want to like this game as the exploration and scope of the world is exactly what I'm shopping for.  

There used to be a Option to Increase the Animation frame rates... Im Not Subscribed or Id tell you how to do it.. will have to wait or figure it out.

But it can look alot better with it jacked up. Not the best out there by any means, but alot better than the default.

If you go into the settings and look at the graphics, what have you got them set to?

Perhaps you are running the game at a higher graphics setting than your machine can handle?

Tweaking the graphics setting can help iron out issues though, especially if you have bloom or AA switched on (tends to slow everything down)

To be fair, I have noticed a certain amount of 'lag' in archery attacks. Mostly when in groups though. The bad guy takes the damage, then the animation happens. I always put it down to the ordering of the attacks and effects when multiple combatants are involved. Once you get on with playing the game, you don't really notice.

Assuming it's set at balanced or below, and that you have a modern graphics card (the game needs it - it's a known issue), then maybe it's just a case of trying other MMO's to see what they play like? You can't compare 'problems' until you have seen other games.

World of Warcraft runs ultra smoothly, it's slick and smooth and no mistaking. BUT... Boy are the graphics simple, cheesy and cartoony and the game world is cutesyfied to the point of 'ick'. I can't stand it, and will happily live with any graphics glitches that Vanguard has, and yes, it has a fair few still (before somebody jumps on the post ;) ).

It's worth mentioning that I have seen similar things in EQ2 (a bit), DDO (a LOT) and LotRO (a bit).

I guess it could just be graphical lag.  AA was on a low setting, i turned it off, and I bumped down just about everything else, and I think things improved a little.  Its difficult to tell.  I'm using a gforce 9400 with 512mb of memory, its a cheap make, and i might be stressing it out on this game with the 1680x1050 resolution.

I ordered this from newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

and we'll see if things get better.

And thanks for the replies, my trial account won't allow me to post over on the official forums so thats why I came here.

Originally posted by Dactyl

I'm enjoying the VG trial, and I'm intrigued enough with the game to probably subscribe, but the mele animations of my warrior seem to be broken or lagged or... something. 

Lets say I want to pull a mob back with my bow.  Click the bow, the animation starts and the sound of the bow being cocked begins, but before the arrow even flies the damage text flashes above the mobs head (on my screen the arrow is still cocked back), i get the message in the chat window that I've tapped the mob and hes mine, and only after hes damaged and running at me does the animation of the bow complete (arrow flies). 

So now we're toe-to-toe, but things don't seem to get any better.  Sounds don't match up with the strike animations and the mobs death is also out of synch.  

Possible lag issue on my end?  I'm running about 150ms round trip according to the in-game latency bar thing.  I didn't think that was too high.  Is this just how the game is?  I don't have a lot of experience with other MMO's so sorry if this is some sort of stupid question.  I just find the delayed and un-synched animations very distracting.  There is no visceral UMPH feel to the combat when its so out of time like this.  I really want to like this game as the exploration and scope of the world is exactly what I'm shopping for.  

I know exactly what you mean.  The good news is that it will get a lot better.  Either 1) You will get used to it and not notice it any longer, or 2) You will end up playing a different class that doesn't have that issue at all. 

This is all my personal experience.  The game world, and the graphics that show you that world, are worth the little things that you'll notice here and there. 

I play MMOs with my dad. He's retired and physically disabled.  I tend to go wherever he's wanting to be at the time.  If it wasn't for that, I would still be playing VG. 

I wish you the best of luck.  It should get a whole lot better for you.  In my opinion it's absolutely worth it.

Acidon

Its been a long time since I have played vanguard,but always enjoyed it. The nvidia 260 card you have choose to buy is a nice card,have the same one.I highly recommend upgrading your power suppy as well I am running a ozc 500 watt one. The card sucks some juice and if your computer is a budget build it probly has a cheap power supply. A good stable power supply is always good investment. Have fun in vanguard : )

Originally posted by Dactyl

I guess it could just be graphical lag.  AA was on a low setting, i turned it off, and I bumped down just about everything else, and I think things improved a little.  Its difficult to tell.  I'm using a gforce 9400 with 512mb of memory, its a cheap make, and i might be stressing it out on this game with the 1680x1050 resolution.

I ordered this from newegg

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

 

and we'll see if things get better.

And thanks for the replies, my trial account won't allow me to post over on the official forums so thats why I came here.

Well ,going by your pc specs,that set up will not be good if you are playing vanguard on anything but balanced settings.The problem these days is players think they can turn it all up,well you can't unless you have a kick ass pc

These are usually the players who come to forums and blame it on the game when really it's their pc being turned up to high.

Turn your graphics down and play within the spec of your pc.

Originally posted by Dactyl

And thanks for the replies, my trial account won't allow me to post over on the official forums so thats why I came here.

You can actually post in the Trial area of the forums on the SOE site.

Although it must be said, the SOE forums are locked down tighter than a tight thing at a tight convention wearing tight tights.

I've been a member for two years and I still can't post images or add a sig banner.

So I bumped my system up a bit, heres an overview

winxp pro, 7200rpm HD

2gb system memory (sticks are a couple years old... its not the faster ddr3 stuff)

intel core2 duo 2.8GH

sb audigy2 noise card

gforce gtx260, 896mb vram

650w antec for powah

1680 x 1050 lcd

Some of the delays on the combat animations seem to have cleared.  Overall its looking good.  On the games performance presets I first tried the "most performance" one and everything looked like total ass.  I took it up one level and things improved drastically.  Its REALLY a beautiful & immersive environment, even on that 2nd to lowest setting.  I do get a hefty amount of hitching & stuttering when lots of players and/or npc's start to crowd up the screen, and I'm looking for ways to minimize it.  I don't know if thats more of a video bottleneck or a processing one.  Any suggestions on which settings to adjust first?  Or any performance tweaks that could help? 

Turn off your AA's and start there working up.  Also, turn off the volumetric clouds.

Originally posted by Dactyl

So I bumped my system up a bit, heres an overview

winxp pro, 7200rpm HD

2gb system memory (sticks are a couple years old... its not the faster ddr3 stuff)

intel core2 duo 2.8GH

sb audigy2 noise card

gforce gtx260, 896mb vram

650w antec for powah

1680 x 1050 lcd

Some of the delays on the combat animations seem to have cleared.  Overall its looking good.  On the games performance presets I first tried the "most performance" one and everything looked like total ass.  I took it up one level and things improved drastically.  Its REALLY a beautiful & immersive environment, even on that 2nd to lowest setting.  I do get a hefty amount of hitching & stuttering when lots of players and/or npc's start to crowd up the screen, and I'm looking for ways to minimize it.  I don't know if thats more of a video bottleneck or a processing one.  Any suggestions on which settings to adjust first?  Or any performance tweaks that could help? 

My system could handle the graphics on max, until I got my new monitor. Now I'm feeling the burn a little. Will probably turn things down some. I went from a 19" widescreen 1400x900, to a 22" widescreen 1920x1080. I would say it isn't your video card.

I run:
AMD x2 6000+
4gb DDR2 800
GTX250 512mb
Vista 64bit
Onboard Sound
Sata 7200rpm HDD

I think my cpu is 3.1ghz, but can't remember. I don't go by that with AMD. Just the number, and 6000+ was the biggest I could buy for my board.

I would suggest some component upgrades next, unless your systems is at max like mine now is.

Edit: Forgot to mention I'm not using AA.

You definitely need a seriously capable machine to play this game with everything switched on (or to max) and expect to get a high FPS in heavily populated areas.

I does allow you to fine tune it though.

Some of the attack graphics are better than others, but it comes down to what you like I guess.

I've seen people post on other forums that they can't play a game because of X issue. To them, X issue is a big deal, to others, not so much.

meh.

Originally posted by Vyrolakos

Some of the attack graphics are better than others, but it comes down to what you like I guess.

Agree. I just started using sword and shield for a Paladin I'm trying. It is a very fast animation for the sword swing, unlike the two-handed hammer I was use to with my Shaman. I really like the look of the two-handed swing. For me it looks real, like it has weight to it. Personal preference, of course.

Originally posted by Dactyl

I guess it could just be graphical lag.  AA was on a low setting, i turned it off, and I bumped down just about everything else, and I think things improved a little.  Its difficult to tell.  I'm using a gforce 9400 with 512mb of memory, its a cheap make, and i might be stressing it out on this game with the 1680x1050 resolution.

I ordered this from newegg

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

 

and we'll see if things get better.

And thanks for the replies, my trial account won't allow me to post over on the official forums so thats why I came here.

It's a small graphics card. It probably can't run VG nicely so you should low all the settings. Once you see it runs well try raising a little some of them until you see it nice. You shouldnt try to raise, Antialias, Ansitropic filtering and bloom, this kind of stuff usually stress graphics a lot. Try running at 1024 x 768 or similar.