Since the last Landmark column, SOE has been hard at work at adding more quality of life improvements to the game, most notably in terms of graphics rendering as well as some additions to the building system to make it even friendlier to starting players. Here’s what you should expect when you log back into Landmark.
Graphics and Framerate
First off, the October 30 patch should allow for better frame rates thanks to multi-threaded rendering. What this means is that you should see better performance if you rely on your computer’s processor to play the game. Those who rely on the Graphics processor to play the game will not have any marked differences in their gameplay experience.
There are now also level of detail (LoD) improvements, though you’ll need to tweak your claims a bit to get them to take effect. Changing a voxel on the corners of your claim should make the LoD improvements occur.
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The game now also supports NVIDIA SLI technology, which scales graphics performance when you use mulitple GeForce GTX GPUs on an SLI certified motherboard. If Landmark isn’t your main game of choice (or even if it is, but you have plenty of other games), it’d be a smarter choice not to adjust your settings to maximize the power of Landmark.
How come? Well, if you’re running with your usual setup, that means you’ll be able to get better performance out of more games, and any crash reports or issues with Landmark’s SLI support or rendering powers can be indicative of the beta status of those new toys they’ve just added.
Modular Building and Gallery Comments
Also of note in the most recent update are additions to the building system as well as the ability to comment on the gallery.
Modal tools is a system whereby users who pick a tool to use will get a secondary toolbar popup indicating how they’d like to use the tool. For perpetual novices like me, this means the game loses more of its specialist status, as I now have a better idea of what I’m doing when I decide to build something on my claim.
The build system also comes with a new toggle between build mode and non-building mode. In this case, the mouse functions differently in build mode, and you need to hold CTRL to zoom your camera in and out whenever you’re in build mode now.
Lastly, commenting is now a part of the gallery features. What his means is that you can post your impressions or critique of a build on the gallery for others to read, as these comments are public for accountability’s sake.
While I shudder to think what might happen to the commenting function later on with a influx of new people or less agreeable folks, the commenting system is likely in good hands for now with a steady, stable community of builders who appreciate the work of others.
In any case, while stumbling across the Internet looking for a better way to present this information, I chanced upon the channel of BuzWeaver, who happened to sum up some of these points nicely. Go check out the video below for a video rundown of the update, and come back in two week’s time for more Landmark goodness. Cheers!
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