Sprites RUIN the game visually

**SGT Grimm 978** · April 12, 2009, 12:40 PM

I can't stand this game, trying to watch men shoot at each other and basically zoomed in all the way and half of them are 2d. It doesn't make any sense, the sprites look horrible and don't even pop up during the right distances.

Is there a way to COMPLETELY remove sprites that has been tested and working? I tried one mod that replaced the distance to 4 or something like that and it did nothing.

+rep to whoever can help....

**ohnoesaz** · April 12, 2009, 12:45 PM

Its part of the graphics settings, but I don't know which one... But yes, on lower settings the units on 2D until a much closer distance when they become 3D.

I know on ultra settings I see 2D when zoomed out, and its ugly, but anytime I go to see a specific part of the battle map I always see 3D on what I want to see 3D.. its never been a problem. So yeah, check your unit details setting or something.

**SGT Grimm 978** · April 12, 2009, 12:46 PM

Unit detail > Ultra
Effects detail > Ultra
Unit size > Large

**Gandreg** · April 12, 2009, 12:59 PM

I agree with the OP. It seems in ETW the distance at which the game switches to sprites is smaller than previous games. It is annoying when zoomed in looking at your units. At the very least there should be an adjustable slider or setting in the graphics options to increase the distance before sprites are used.

**SGT Grimm 978** · April 12, 2009, 01:24 PM

Does anyone know how to remove them?

**YD23** · April 12, 2009, 01:30 PM

I'm not sure if this is it, but give this fix a go.

**Jingles** · April 12, 2009, 01:32 PM

Damn... you have to have a serious rig to complain about the sprites. Without them only people like you would be able to run the game at all... I suppose you never played any of the original total war games then?

**Plank of Wood** · April 12, 2009, 01:34 PM

I never had problems with sprites, but yeah, turn unit details up way higher.

**YD23** · April 12, 2009, 01:50 PM

Also, if you have a look at this thread it tells you this:

Unit Detail

This setting has a major effect on ETW's looks. First it affects the distance that units change from high poly models to 2d sprites, which etw does to try to keep performance at an acceptable level. When you are far away from troops they are rendered as spites so the gpu isn't strained as much trying to render high quality models for far away units you might not be looking at. Low settings brings this threshold of changing too sprites closer to the camera viewpoint making it much more noticeable. Another MAJOR effect of this setting is animations. At low unit detail the same animations are recycled to reduce gpu and processor overhead caused by rendering different ones. This makes units look very synchronised. When they run, they all move at exactly the same rate and way giving a very odd look. In a melee there are far less animations used, giving it a very dry generic look. Low unit detail looks horrible and you really shouldn't lower this setting off high if you can help it. Any fps benefits pale to the sheer ugliness it gives the game. The lack of animation is extremely noticeable and the unit spriting looks awful.

**Jingles** · April 12, 2009, 01:55 PM

I will admit the sprites do look a bit...wrong to say the least. Even if it boosts my fps. Medieval 2 easily had the worst long distance sprites, in that they always seemed to glow really brightly for no apparent reason. Rome's long distant sprites weren't too bad, in that they were quite unnoticable.

Of course the original medieval had the best sprites - while taking into account there were no 3D soldiers in that game, the sprites were VERY pretty. At least, as pretty as a sprite can get, anyway.

**Inhuman One** · April 12, 2009, 02:00 PM

I am personly more worried about the differences in the 3D models at different distances.

There are Maratha lancers (cant remember the exact name) which wear a light yellow round hat with a feather up close and when slightly zoomed out they suddenly have green and grey tulbans. colors of sleeves and jackets seem to change as well, but this also goes for some other units.

The hats of rangers change too, and there are more cases of this and it should be fixed.

**SGT Grimm 978** · April 12, 2009, 04:38 PM

Forcing the LOD mod is the one i mentioned... it failed to help. My rig is pretty decent, I run on ultra/high for the most part.

**CtrlAltDe1337** · April 12, 2009, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by SGT Grimm 978

I can't stand this game, trying to watch men shoot at each other and basically zoomed in all the way and half of them are 2d. It doesn't make any sense, the sprites look horrible and don't even pop up during the right distances.

Is there a way to COMPLETELY remove sprites that has been tested and working? I tried one mod that replaced the distance to 4 or something like that and it did nothing.

+rep to whoever can help....

Raise your graphic settings to ultra and sprites won't show up till the units are farther away from the camera. If you still have a problem, I hope you have an uber PC that can run a full battle with full textures...

**Steinig** · April 12, 2009, 05:56 PM

Thing is if you are running on Windows XP, you cant set it to ultra, and in this case the sprites ARE ruin the game, it looks like shogun then.

**stabiz** · April 12, 2009, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by Steinig

Thing is if you are running on Windows XP, you cant set it to ultra, and in this case the sprites ARE ruin the game, it looks like shogun then.

Wrong, you can use ultra in XP. I do. Ultra has nothing to do with DX10.

**Kennylz** · April 12, 2009, 06:06 PM

You may think your rig is a beast and doesn't need sprites, but the moment you have to fully render the entire battlefield at once you will be looking for a way to revert.

This wasn't put in for artistic purposes, this is to keep the game playable. Some of the Native American units don't have sprites, so they are rendered all the time, and it has a noticeable impact on your fps's even when it's just a few units, and only one army doesn't have sprites.

**Steinig** · April 12, 2009, 06:27 PM

Wrong, you can use ultra in XP. I do. Ultra has nothing to do with DX10.

So why im missing all the ultra options on my xp, and they are there on vista?

**YD23** · April 12, 2009, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by Steinig

So why im missing all the ultra options on my xp, and they are there on vista?

Have you tried editing the preference file?

Can be found here: (that's on windows 7 xp and vista similar)

C:\Users\YourNameHere\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts\preferences.empire_script

Then look for the line:

gfx_video_memory 0

Instead of 0 change the value to something like 1073741824, then it should let you go Ultra High.

The game usually stops you from going higher when it thinks that your graphics card is not good enough.

If you fool the game into thinking that you have more Video memory it lets you choose a higher level of detail.

**Steinig** · April 12, 2009, 06:35 PM

I tried, but it doesnot show any changes, and if i quit the game the settings are back to match the gui.

And yes i turned write preference on exit to false.

And its a dual boot, vista runs with the same hardwar.

Also did the 2gb memory fix from the technical section, no success on xp.
Not that its the big problem, i just boot vista. But im curios why this happens to my xp, cause i thought till know this is a dx problem.