Editing Graphics and performance settings guide
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This is a guide to the settings in EQ in order to improve performance of the game software. Understand what the choices mean, reduce the lagging and increase your framerate! | This is a guide to the settings in EQ in order to improve performance of the game software. Understand what the choices mean, reduce the lagging and increase your framerate! | ||
* [https://almarsguides.com/eq/gettingstarted/boxing/PopularEQIssues/ReduceYourLag/ Almar's Guides: Tips and Tricks for Reducing your CPU Usage in EQ] | |||
* [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e_wqB_XzB0wq9oE_qJZD3tG6doGdJjDbJxQXLqI9k_g/edit?usp=sharing For Advanced Windows Users Only: Soulbanshee’s Computer Optimization Recommendations] | |||
{| width=100% | {| width=100% | ||
|__TOC__ | |__TOC__ | ||
|[[File:Control panel.png|right|550px]] | |[[File:Control panel.png|right|550px]] | ||
|} | |} | ||
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An important step is to check and change your LaunchPad settings. | An important step is to check and change your LaunchPad settings. | ||
{| | {| | ||
|[[File:Launchpad gear.png| | |[[File:Launchpad gear.png|450px|left]] | ||
|See the gear | |See the gear with the red circle around it? That is the button to open the "Advanced tools". | ||
|} | |||
{| | |||
|[[File:Launchpad gameconfiguration.png|450px|left]] | |||
|Click the "Game Configuration" to open the settings window. | |||
|} | |} | ||
{| | {| | ||
|[[File:Launchpad | |[[File:Launchpad videocard.png|450px|left]] | ||
| | |Even though I only have one video card, this always shows two. If one of them is your video card, or if you don't know, click Next. If you know it has the wrong video card or none is listed, you need to get some help from Daybreak technical support. | ||
|} | |} | ||
[[File:Launchpad | {| | ||
If the | |[[File:Launchpad modelselection.png|450px|left]] | ||
|This is the part where you choose if you want to use the old player models or the new (Luclin) ones. The ones checked will use the new models. Unchecking the boxes will use the older models for that sex / race and will give you better performance. However, for the sex / race that matches your character(s) you need to use the new models if you wish to use a [[Mounts|mount]]. Note: If you use the old models, you may still wear / view [[Hero's Forge]] armor, but the look is changed. | |||
If you want to speed up your game the most when around many players, unchecking as many of these as you can is the best way to improve your framerate. | |||
|} | |||
If you want to speed up your game | |||
[[File:Launchpad enginesettings.png|450px|left]] | [[File:Launchpad enginesettings.png|450px|left]] | ||
'''Sound:''' Having a 16 piece orchestra constantly playing in the background can be a bit of a drain if you don't have a dedicated sound card, so if your computer is a bit older and you know full well you lack a sound card (almost every computer built in the last five years, except for very high end models, does not have a dedicated sound card), you may wish to turn this off. This also does affect Audio Triggers, they will be unavailable if sound is off. | '''Sound:''' Having a 16 piece orchestra constantly playing in the background can be a bit of a drain if you don't have a dedicated sound card, so if your computer is a bit older and you know full well you lack a sound card (almost every computer built in the last five years, except for very high end models, does not have a dedicated sound card), you may wish to turn this off. This also does affect Audio Triggers, they will be unavailable if sound is off. | ||
'''Social Animations:''' /Wave, did you see me wave? I know right, how totally cool! The graphics engine in EQ is archaic, and the social animations are not helping. These little movements can cause drastic lag spikes on low end PCs. | '''Social Animations:''' /Wave, did you see me wave? I know right, how totally cool! The graphics engine in EQ is archaic, and the social animations are not helping. These little movements can cause drastic lag spikes on low end PCs. | ||
'''Mip Mapping: | '''Mip Mapping:''' Mip mapping is an interesting technique, essentially the game will take a texture, and then make another texture at 1/2 the resolution (1/4 the image size), then again, and again, and again until you're down to a 1x1 pixel image. Each of these additional textures are loaded into memory. When the game needs a texture, at certain distances away from you, rather than drawing the higher res texture, the game will instead draw the appropriate lower resolution texture, resulting in less work for your video card. However, this takes a good chunk more memory from your card. If you've got an old setup, you'll want to turn it off, lest you overload your graphics card...conversely, if your card is a beast that eats 10 EQ instances for breakfast, turn it on and you'll get a decent performance boost. Unless your system is very old or uses on-board graphics rather than a video card, I would recommend having this on. EQ doesn't stress most video cards, most of the graphics work is done by the CPU. | ||
'''Dynamic Lighting:''' This is the effect produced by your Epic/Helm and any other item that gives off light when equipped. It's not the worst thing in the world to have on, but if you're at the point where you need to cut out every bit of useless filler that you can, it's not going to hurt your gameplay at all to turn this off | '''Dynamic Lighting:''' This is the effect produced by your Epic/Helm and any other item that gives off light when equipped. It's not the worst thing in the world to have on, but if you're at the point where you need to cut out every bit of useless filler that you can, it's not going to hurt your gameplay at all to turn this off. | ||
'''Texture Caching:''' | '''Texture Caching:''' Sit down kids, and I'll tell you the story of the graphics option that hasn't been relevant since 2004. Texture Caching, while a valuable tool...only effects zones up to the GoD expansions, meaning, you're pretty much never going to get any use out of it. so just keep it off and reduce the zone time for the only instance you ever find yourself back in Ak'Anon. - Off! | ||
'''Texture Compression:''' | '''Texture Compression:''' Wow, finally something that you actually want turned on /gasp. This setting will turn EQ into a bit of a drunken blur, trading in those nice sharp lines for a far more preferable state akin to that of the Play-Doh castle you build every weekend. Perhaps I'm painting the picture too grim, it really doesn't deteriorate the graphics that much, but it does still save you a fair amount of memory, so go ahead and bite the bullet on this one. - On! | ||
== Options window settings == | == Options window settings == | ||
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=== Hide Chat === | === Hide Chat === | ||
Under Options, the Chat tab allows you to hide various text. For example, you can choose to see all Melee Crits, just your own, or hide them all. Investigate the options and hide the ones you don't want to see. Hiding them means less text and less lag. | Under Options, the Chat tab allows you to hide various text. For example, you can choose to see all Melee Crits, just your own, or hide them all. Investigate the options and hide the ones you don't want to see. Hiding them means less text and less lag. | ||
== Crashing == | == Crashing == |