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Graphics and performance settings guide
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== Options window settings == === Display tab === [[File:Options window (display tab, DX11).png|right]] When logged into EverQuest, you have the option of adjusting some graphics settings via the Display tab under Options Window (Ctrl-O). Some of these settings may require you to zone before they take effect. The default settings are the optimal settings for your graphics cards. You may adjust settings to improve graphics quality or to improve performance. These settings allow you to customize how your graphics display on your screen. '''Show PC Names''' - When this is toggled on, you will be able to see the names of Player Characters over their heads. You can also toggle this buy using the /Shownames command [you can abbreviate it as /show] in your chat box. Especially during raids, toggling this off or just displaying only first names can be a big help. This command allows you further options for displaying names. When using the command, you will select what you wish the settings to be. * /shownames off β turns off PC names. * /shownames 1 β displays only first names. * /shownames 2 β displays first and last names. * /shownames 3 β displays first, last, and guild names. * /shownames 4 β displays everything. * /shownames 5 β displays prefix title and first name. * /shownames 6 β displays prefix title, first name, and last name. * /shownames all - displays everything. '''Show NPC Names''' - When this is toggled on, you will be able to see the names of Non-Player Characters over their heads. '''Show 3D Target Ring''' - Displays a colored ring around your target's feet. '''Level of Detail''' - When on, the detail levels for distant NPCs and PCs are reduced. This may improve performance on slower computers. '''Show My Helm''' - Toggles whether your helm is visible to you and others or not. '''Switch to Fullscreen''' - Sets the current window mode to be full screen. You can also toggle between windowed and full screen using Alt + Enter. [[File:Display tab Video Modes window.png|right]] '''Video Modes''' - This button will bring up the Video Modes window. It is important to note that these options are determined by your hardware and the drivers that run them. If you are seeing fewer options than you were expecting (such as higher resolutions), the first step to correcting this is to see if you can find newer drivers for your video card. * Video Resolution: This determines the size of your game screen. A low resolution will make the UI look larger and you can fit less on the screen. Go with the resolution that you prefer, but be aware that the higher the resolution, the more pixels your computer has to draw, which means your computer is working harder and more likely to cause lagging. * Refresh Rate: This is the speed at which your monitor will refresh the screen. Before making adjustments to this setting, check your monitor's manual for its recommended levels. Generally, if you have a flat panel (LCD) monitor, this makes no difference. * Bit Depth: A higher number here will increase the range of colors and increase the visual display. Most people are unable to see any difference. A lower depth may help performance. The Refresh Rate and Bit Depth may or may not have any options in there for you to change. '''Allow window resizing''' - This allows you to change the size of the various windows on the screen. I can't think of any reason why you would not want this checked. '''Overlap Windows Taskbar''' - This allows you to have the Windows Taskbar overlap your EQ window. '''Show Buff Timer''' - This will show how much time is left on your buffs in the buff window. I can't think of any reason why you would not want this checked. '''Show Buff Counters''' - Some decremental buffs have "counters", which number of cures needed before it goes away. Various cures will remove different numbers of coumters. I can't think of any reason why you would not want this checked. '''Show Buff Limit Uses''' - Some beneficial buffs will only work for a certain number of times before going away. I can't think of any reason why you would not want this checked. '''Show Song Timer''' - Same as Buff Timer for stuff in the Song window. '''Show Song Counters''' - Same as Buff Counters for stuff in the Song window. '''Show Song Limit''' - Same as Buff Limit Uses for stuff in the Song window. '''Fade Delay (seconds)''' - Every window in the game has an ''Alpha > Normal Level'' and ''Alpha > Faded Level''. These levels determine how much you can "see through" the window, with 100% being totally solid and 0% being invisible (except for the window title and window contents). Normal Level is the level when your cursor is on the window and Faded Level is when it is not. The Fade Delay is the amount of time before a window goes from Normal Level to Faded Level. '''Fade Duration (seconds)''' - Not sure but I think this is how quickly the window fades once the Fade Delay is up. '''Window Transparency''' - This is how transparent you want the window to be before it fades. '''Fade-to Transparency''' - This is how transparent you want the window to be after it does fade. '''Load Screen''' (None, Loading Art) - This allows you pick whether you want to have an image displayed while loading a zone. '''Sky Type''' (Off, Simple, Complex) - Toggles the level of sky details. In some cases you may want to alter this to improve performance. '''New Armor''' (None, Me, My Group, My Raid, All PCs, Me + NPCs, Group + NPCs, Raid + NPCs, All) - Toggles on and off displaying [[Hero's Forge]] armor. '''Enhance Vision''' - "Enhances your vision and allows you to see better in dim light" - Adjusts screen brightness during gameplay. This has no effect upon performance, just set it to whatever is most pleasing to you. '''Far Clip Plane''' - The Clipping plane determines how far you can see. Reducing the clip plane can improve performance at the cost of not being able to see things until you are close to them. '''Particles''' - This section allows you to adjust the number of particles displayed during spell effects. In some cases a lower setting may improve performance. You can make adjustments for Spells, the Environment (Env), and Player particles. You should set these for Me + NPC, and just pick a low density if you are using a slow computer. A lot of AE spells have particle effects that flood the area they affect, and sometimes seeing these particles is the difference between life and death. I wouldn't use anything other than Me + NPC unless you like to see a LOT of flashy particle effects. These settings can be important because some quests, missions, and raids require you to be able to see some particles. In order to see the particles you need to for quests, missions, and raids, see [[#Necessary_effects|Necessary Effects]] below. * Near Clip (Near, Medium, Far, Farthest): Determines whether or not to include particles based on how far from you they are. * Density (Off, Low, Medium, High): Determines the thickness of the particles. * On For: ** Spell tab (My spells, Group spells, Raid spells, All PCs, Me + NPC, Group + NPC, Raid + NPC, All spells): Determines what spell effects are displayed on your screen. Limiting what is displayed may improve performance. ** Player tab (Me, Group, Raid, All PCs, Me + NPC, Group + NPC, Raid + NPC, Everyone): Determines what particle effects on players (weapon, nimbus, etc.) are displayed on your screen. Limiting what is displayed may improve performance. * Opacity: Determines the transparency of the particles. 100% means totally solid. '''Advanced button''' - Opens the Advanced Options windows (see below) '''LOD Bias''' - Level of Detail Bias is a setting that affects the sharpness of textures. The options are Very Low, Low, Normal, High, and Very High. The higher the amount, the more details will be displayed. '''UI Scale''' - This changes the size of the User Interface when using the New UI engine. '''Use New UI Engine''' - Checking this box will use the new UI engine. Unchecking it will use the older UI engine. Until the new UI engine is completed for all UI windows, you may wish to use the old engine. ==== Advanced Options ==== [[File:Display tab Advanced Options DX11.png|right]] '''Card Features''' - This section displays information about your video card and what features it supports. '''Use new water in old zones''' - This toggles whether or not you see updated water graphics in older zones. Changing this option does not take effect until you zone. '''Dynamic Sky Reflection Size''' - This determines the quality of the reflections in the sky graphics. Changing this option does not take effect until you zone. Higher numbers use more computer power. '''Sky Reflection Update Interval''' - This determines how often the reflections will update. More often uses more computer power. '''Terrain Texture Quality''' - This determines how much detail will display on the ground textures. Changing this option does not take effect until you zone. '''Memory Mode''' (Least, Balanced, Most) - This setting determines how much memory (RAM) EQ will use. If you have a lot of memory and a 64 bit Operating System, you can try Most. If you have limited memory, try Least. Note that Least Memory Mode often means that after you zone it will take several seconds for the game to properly draw characters. In 2016, a change was made regarding this: {{Cquote|<br />If your client crashed due to running out of memory it'll set itself to Least memory usage so that you won't crash due to out of memory (or at least not as often).||| [https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/live-update-bugs-07-13-16.234065/#post-3452441 JChan, EQ Programmer, July 13, 2016]}} '''Allow 2.0 Pixel Shaders''' - Enable it if your "Card Features" show Pixel Shader 2.0 or higher. You will see a slight performance hit in less detailed scenes, but more detailed scenes will see an increase in frame rate and quality. '''Use Advanced Lighting''' - Toggles whether a dynamic lighting algorithm is used or a less advanced one. It determines whether or not EverQuest is using per pixel or per vertex lighting. Per Pixel Lighting does its own unique lighting calculation for each location on the screen. Per Vertex Lighting simply calculates lighting on each vertex and blends between them. Advanced Lighting may over brighten some areas with multiple light sources, and has a high impact on performance in crowded areas, even without many light sources. In other words, turning off Advanced Lighting can help if everything is too bright, as may happen in some areas or zones. Turning it off can greatly improve performance in crowded zones or areas. '''Shadows''' - Toggles whether or not shadows are displayed. These have a high impact on performance, so it is suggested to keep them disabled on lesser machines. '''Radial Flora''' - Toggles whether ground plants and other flora graphics are displayed. Disable this if you wish to improve performance. '''Disable Tattoo''' - This toggles whether you see Tattoo art on characters. Changes made to this will not take effect until you zone. '''Enable Post Effects and Enable Bloom Lighting''' - These effects work best with graphics cards that have Pixel Shader 2.0 (or higher) support. Older or lower-end cards may experience trouble with frame rates. Unchecking Post Effects may also help. Post effects provide some nice flavor to some stuff in House of Thule and up. It appears the post effects so far range from simple screen tinting, to color filters (color grading, desaturation, etc), to bloom. Some early Shader 2.0 cards might see a performance hit from these, seriously doubt any Shader 3.0 or better cards will even notice. If you are experiencing severe lag, try unchecking Bloom Lighting. Bloom overexposes bright areas of the screen to make it appear to glow, and requires Post Effects turned on to function. '''Shadow Clip Plane''' - This determines the distance at which object shadows will be drawn. For closer range, slide the meter to the left and for farther range slide it to the right. Recommended that people with lower end computers move this all the way to the left, as shadows are unneeded fluff. '''Actor Clip Plane''': These determine the distance at which objects will be drawn. For closer range, slide the meter to the left and for farther range slide it to the right. '''Max. Frames Per Second''' - This is the maximum frames per second the game will attempt to render. '''Max Background FPS''' - This is the maximum frames per second the game will attempt to render if the game is in the background. If you minimize or tab out of the game, this is the speed it will use. People who are multi-boxing or otherwise want to do other things on their computer may wish to change this. If you are running more than one EQ per computer, you want to adjust this for autofollow. The character that is following should change this to Unlimited (all the way to the right). This will improve your autofollow considerably. ==== Necessary effects ==== Some effects are necessary or at least extremely helpful for some content. Certain mobs, missions, and raids have effects that require you to move out of them or just be aware of their existence. There is no known guide to this from Daybreak, but these recommendations should help. Below are three different settings you can use. You can pick which one you want. The last of the three is recommended by Fanra. * The following has been recommended by [https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/devs-what-effects-do-we-have-to-have-on.227033/#post-3333992 Koryu on the Daybreak forum]: <blockquote>Enable Post Effects setting determines whether the game can tint your screen a color. This is what turns your screen blue for standing in the wrong place during the Praetor Vitio event, red when you get the enraged buff during the Plane of War anniversary mission, or gray when doing the dracoliche part of the J5 merc quest in Dream Feerrott. It can do a little more than simple tinting, such as the color dimming in Miragul's Nightmare that was gradually restored to normal colors as you completed more quests in the zone.</blockquote> <blockquote>Opacity being the opposite of transparency. 0% opacity is 100% transparency, therefore you cannot see the spell effects at all, which is not useful. 100% opacity is 0% transparency, therefore you cannot see the character or creature models any more when a spell goes off and they are buried under particle effects. I recommend selecting Me + NPC to limit whose spell effects you can see, and choose somewhere between 10-20% opacity, whatever is comfortable for you so that you do not feel like the spells are blocking your vision of the action.</blockquote> <blockquote>You do want to see NPC spells, because as an example, the fiery targeting rings in the Plane of War counts as spell effects cast by NPCs, and you don't want to stand in the fire. As for the opacity, the only time I run into problems with spell particle effects lagging me out is when I proc the AE from Gilded Hammer of Ro's Light, there is just something intensive about that blooming white spark animation (which used to be attached to really old aggro procs like Pique and was noticeable even then).</blockquote> * [https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/devs-what-effects-do-we-have-to-have-on.227033/#post-3341936 Beimeith on the Daybreak forum] recommended the following: <blockquote>The following settings will allow you to see all relevant auras and things you need to see without being too overwhelming...except in certain situation where things were poorly designed (Arx Mentis raid 3): {| class="fanratable" style="text-align:center" width=100% |+ Particles |- ! Spell || Env || Player |- | Near Clip: '''Near''' <br /> Density: '''Low''' <br /> On For: '''Me + NPC''' <br /> Opacity: '''25%'''<br /> | Near Clip: '''Near''' <br /> Density: '''Low'''<br /> Opacity: '''25%'''<br /> | Near Clip: '''Near'''<br /> Density: '''Low'''<br /> On For: '''Me + NPC'''<br /> Opacity: '''25%'''<br /> |} </blockquote> * Fanra has found that the following settings work fine for him and recommends them: [[File:Suggested particles setting.png|center]] Some weapon graphics will show particle effects in first person when you move, as the weapon swings by your face. This can be annoying To eliminate this problem, set the Player Near Clip to Farthest.
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