Want to play but how do i male graphics better?

**TheNewKing** · February 21, 2012, 06:47 AM

Hi this mod looks really good but the graphics in medieval 2 are not very good any more, and im a graphics freak but also love this period and mod looks great is there a way to make the graphics look a lot better?

like recommended settings if you have a very good graphics card? thanks

**Dwarven Berserker** · February 21, 2012, 07:12 AM

Well, um, how 'bout setting your graphics higher?

If your pc can handle it, go to options, then "custom settings" and max everything out. The whole "recommended settings" thingy is just pointless.

**kraxmause** · February 21, 2012, 07:19 AM

Medieval 2 is five years old so it will never look "very good" (SS already has better graphics than vanilla).
There are some minor details that can still be added (e.g. archers actually pulling back the bowstring with an arrow on it, exists in TATW but not in SS), but apart from that all you can do is apply the highest settings.
Graphics isn't all, you know?

**Losthief** · February 21, 2012, 07:24 AM

set it in the ss config file (the file is in your mods/ss6.3 folder) manually to highest for everything and grass at 9000. Thats the best you can do.

**Ferdiad** · February 21, 2012, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by TheNewKing

Hi this mod looks really good but the graphics in medieval 2 are not very good any more, and im a graphics freak but also love this period and mod looks great is there a way to make the graphics look a lot better?

like recommended settings if you have a very good graphics card? thanks

If you play the older TWs for the graphics you will be disapointed.

**Sanderlicious** · February 21, 2012, 03:12 PM

If your PC is good then you can do as suggested, but keep in mind that this game is old and wont take advantage of newer engines. I'm not well versed in this exactly, but essentially M2TW will only run using one processor, no matter how many your new computer has. So if you are like me, you can run TWS2 just fine with decent graphics, but you can't necessarily max out the graphics for M2TW or even RTW in some cases.

**Ruprecht** · February 21, 2012, 11:06 PM

Originally Posted by Sanderlicious

If your PC is good then you can do as suggested, but keep in mind that this game is old and wont take advantage of newer engines. I'm not well versed in this exactly, but essentially M2TW will only run using one processor, no matter how many your new computer has. So if you are like me, you can run TWS2 just fine with decent graphics, but you can't necessarily max out the graphics for M2TW or even RTW in some cases.

I think you would be right to assume that most of the TW games rely heavily on CPU power. I recently upgraded from a 8800GT to a GTX560 and the FPS gain was hardly noticeable.

A good way to test this is, load up a custom battle with over 9,000 men (yes it's over 9000!) on the field and issue a command for them to move, then zoom into the ground so your graphics are only rendering some low-res ground texture. In my tests, this hardly effects FPS because my CPU is constantly bottoming-out from all the unit instructions. All this because Medieval's engine was not designed to utilize multiple cores .

**Losthief** · February 22, 2012, 12:57 AM

Originally Posted by Ruprecht

I think you would be right to assume that most of the TW games rely heavily on CPU power. I recently upgraded from a 8800GT to a GTX560 and the FPS gain was hardly noticeable.

A good way to test this is, load up a custom battle with over 9,000 men (yes it's over 9000!) on the field and issue a command for them to move, then zoom into the ground so your graphics are only rendering some low-res ground texture. In my tests, this hardly effects FPS because my CPU is constantly bottoming-out from all the unit instructions. All this because Medieval's engine was not designed to utilize multiple cores .

assign it high priority and to a seperate core by itself and try to boost/oc just that core if your worried about warranty/wear and tear.

**Ichon** · February 22, 2012, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by Losthief

assign it high priority and to a seperate core by itself and try to boost/oc just that core if your worried about warranty/wear and tear.

This does help a bit but its unlikely to be worth it for a brand new laptop if you are really worried about a warranty though honestly most warranties are relatively crap anyway.

You are not going to get a 6 year old game to look like a new game. Honestly I am not the greatest fan of STW2 graphics anyway but each to their own.

**Ferdiad** · February 21, 2012, 03:20 PM

OC your CPU and GFX card and you wont have any problems.

**Sanderlicious** · February 21, 2012, 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by Ferdiad

OC your CPU and GFX card and you wont have any problems.

I would but I'm currently using a decent laptop and don't want to void my warranty on it. Not being able to tinker with this is frustrating

**TheNewKing** · February 22, 2012, 04:07 AM

would it better on amd vision using override application settings?

**Ferdiad** · February 22, 2012, 05:12 AM

No, it causes no visable improvement in GFX for a big FPS drop.

**Point Blank** · February 22, 2012, 08:52 AM

I prefer M2TW graphics to Shogun. shogun looks like a bad painting. Just take a look at some of the Rusichi models, or TATW, the M2TW engine scales very well with increased computer power.

**Sanderlicious** · February 22, 2012, 09:48 AM

Shogun 2 does often seem over saturated. I still enjoy it though and think there are some pretty cool effects and obviously better models (just not all as nicely detailed or 'gritty' as some of those that you mentioned).

I'm hoping the next title can bring the best of both worlds to the table. But till then I'll be enjoying the visual splendor of both shogun and SS.

**Ichon** · February 22, 2012, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by Point Blank

I prefer M2TW graphics to Shogun. shogun looks like a bad painting. Just take a look at some of the Rusichi models, or TATW, the M2TW engine scales very well with increased computer power.

The engine scales but the graphics do have a max.