ME2TW DEMO Graphics Information

**verena xeventus** · October 18, 2006, 10:54 AM

Hi there people. Some people including myself have been wondering about the graphics settings on me2tw and what they do. So, for this reason I have been messing about with all different settings on the demo to see how it affects performance. I am by no means a technical genius so If I get something wrong here please feel free to correct me.

The purpose of this post is to highlight what the different graphics options mean in for those of us who are not experts. :hmmm:

Heres my current computer spec for those who are interested: AMD 64 4000 2.4 GHZ, 2 GIG RAM, ATI X1800XT (512 MB) Graphics card. My graphics card is considered to be a good one but not the best. ME2TW demo appears to perform well on high settings with the exception of Highest unit details.

Resolution: The higher the better, if your computer can cope with a resolution of 1280/1024 or higher you will notice a great difference with your graphics already without any of the other options. Lower resolutions seems to give a blurred appearence while higher resolutions appear to give a more defined look to graphics.

Anti-Aliasing (AA): Basically reduces jagged edges on the battlemap (not sure about campaign map cos i aint seen it yet). So the higher you set your AA options the smoother your graphics will appear. This is especially noticeable on pikes, flag poles and other slimline objects. Unfortunately for some people with lower end systems will experience a drop in FPS if they set AA to the highest settings.

Anisotropic Filtering (AF): I had to look this one up on wilkipedia (and I would advise others to do so to get a better understanding of graphic filtering). From what I understand It improves map details at greater distances from the current camera position the higher it is set. In the AF options you will also find bilinear and trilinear filtering options. I would reccomend this option for lower end systems. I currently have AF set at 6x on the demo, but can honestly say I can't see much difference between 4x 6x 8x or 16x although on 16x it reduces the performance of my computer.

Unit Detail: :hmmm: Unit detail is the detail of units at greater view distances from the camera. For example on lower unit detail you will notice the graphics of units are not very good at a very short distance. The higher the unit detail the better the unit graphics at greater view distances. Even on the "superhigh" option there are still flaws with this option as the graphics seem to be distorted and greatly reduced at about half view distance. Basically the higher the detail the better the units look at a distance.

There is a way to improve the unit detail so that there is no depreciation of graphics at greater distances which is to enable "highest" unit details on the battlemap options. Unfortunately this screws up game speed and computer performance. Even reducing other options doesnt seem to improve the FPS of the game if you have this option set to highest. SHAME! This is a big let down for me.

For those with lower end systems i would reccomend you set this option to medium or high. For those with a mega beast computer - get the best result by setting it to highest.

Building Detail: Low or High??? To be honest I cant see any difference between the two options so I have this set to low. Apparently it increases textures/details on buildings tho.

Vegetation Detail: This option changes the detail of trees. The higher you set vegeration details the better your trees will look at greater distances. If this option is set to low you will notice that grapics on trees become distorted, even close up. If possible try and have this option set to high as it improves the look of the battlemap.

Effects Detail: :hmmm: The higher the better. Reduce this option on lower spec machines. Once again, I cant see much difference between lower and higher detail options. Maybe im overlooking something here.

Grass detail: Self explanitary - the higher the detail the better the graphics on the grass look. If your not bothered about grass detail or have a lower end machine, reduce this option accordingly. Some people notice an improvement in game speed if this option is reduced.

Texture Quality: Shows the detail/quality of units i.e on unit armour and faces. The higher the texture quality the better a unit looks on the battlefield as it is more defined. For example chainmail looks a lot better and plate armour has more defined edges. Once again lower end machines should have this option reduced to improve perfomance.

Shadow Quality: Options are None, Low, medium, high, very high. Higher shadow quality greatly reduces game performance. On low they dont look right. I have disabled shadows altogether. Maybe they will be improved in the final release.

Bloom: It simply makes bright things to look bright. You can see the difference for example by watching the sky in the game. Thanks to spartacus for your input.

Reflections: The shiney effect on unit armour and artillery - It looks effective on the battlemap when this option is turned on.

FINALLY...

Arrow Markers: Referring to the green markers around selected units. If like me you dont like these arrow markers they can be disabled the same way as they were disabled in RTW by editing the "preferences" file. (Programme files; Sega; ME2TW demo SE; Medieval2.preference - GAME) Simply change the disable arrow markers option "0" to "1" and save. The green arrow markers are now gone.

Change Camera to RTS style: For some reason I cant change the camera options in the game. I prefer to use the WASD keys rather than the arrow keys to control the camera in the battle map. If you are having the same problem there is a way to change the camera options. goto: Programme files; Sega; ME2TW demo SE; Medieval2.preference - CONTROLS - and change keyset from "0" to "1" and save.

I hope this post will be of some use to people.

Sorry this post is so long, and I hope that someone else hasnt done a similar post, if so I apologise. I have also added more information further on in this post about specifications.

**Spart** · October 18, 2006, 11:03 AM

Orlando Bloom
So it simply makes bright things to look bright. You can see the difference for example by watching the sky in the game. I really like this effect.

**verena xeventus** · October 18, 2006, 11:05 AM

Thanks Spartacus, you mind if I quote that in my thread?

**Spart** · October 18, 2006, 11:13 AM

Well, go ahead. =) It's all said in the article.
And, setting the unit detail to low or medium is different from "high" setting even when you look at the unit from close. From high to highest setting, the only difference is that they look better from far away.

**Lord Tomyris** · October 18, 2006, 01:46 PM

And here was me assuming the 'bloom' was the pretty little flowers...

**shenmueguru** · October 18, 2006, 04:05 PM

Is there a screen by screen of shadows on/off?

**verena xeventus** · October 18, 2006, 08:21 PM

Sorry i cant do a screen comparrisson for you, im not sure how to post one on here. However the main difference with shadows off is that the trees dont look right. With the shadows on, they flicker when units move. Im still p***** off at the fact you need a beast of a graphics card to set unit detail to max and take full advantage of the new graphics. You never know, maybe the final version will have made changes to the graphics settings/options.

**Matty_P** · October 18, 2006, 10:29 PM

good guide!!!

**Swe_gamer** · October 19, 2006, 02:26 PM

Thanks for taking your time with this! It sometimes bothers me that games almost never explain what these settings actually do in the game.

**philip augustus** · October 19, 2006, 03:27 PM

so thats what all that means. also i noticed that when i turned anti aliasing off my computer ran a little slower then when i had them on high.

**verena xeventus** · October 19, 2006, 04:59 PM

Thanks for the positive comments and feedback guys, its appreciated. :-)

**Korinthos Hoplites** · October 19, 2006, 05:06 PM

I know this is useful for many gamers, but I already know all that... I'm an addicted graphics tester. Constantly testing graphic options and their results on games... Basicly: noob stuff :tooth:

**westy159** · October 19, 2006, 05:08 PM

The settings in-game do not give me the option of having any AA. Why would this be? I have a Geforce 6800. I s'pose I can turn it on manually anyway, by unchecking "application controled" in the Nvidia control panel and seleting 2x/4x/8x etc

**CIaagent11** · October 19, 2006, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by verena xeventus

Some people including myself have been wondering about the graphics settings on me2tw and what they do. So, for this reason I have been messing about with all different settings on the demo to see how it affects performance. I am by no means a technical genius so If I get something wrong here please feel free to correct me.

I think that is a very good idea.

Couldn't we make a list how much those options effect performance?
I would for example like to know how much higher antialiasing slows down and how much glimts/reflections do.

**Censor** · October 19, 2006, 07:02 PM

Performance effects of video settings are not consistent for everyone, because of the variation in hardware. However it can be said that if you have an average computer, around 512MB RAM and 128MB video memory, lowering texture quality would have a very significant effect. Resolution is also THE most important factor for low to high-mid end users. I have a high end computer so I can't really say anything conclusive about settings like vegetation and grass because having them at the highest and completely off makes no difference for me, but if you have a low end computer it is very likely that you would see a big improvement by turning off grass and lowering the vegetation detail, along with decreasing shadow quality.

**Korinthos Hoplites** · October 20, 2006, 06:04 PM

Grass and unit detail were always the biggest problems of my PC in RTW, vegetation and terrain detail were practically insignificant. Shadows also had a strong impact so I always turned them off. Resolution and AA had no effect at all :tooth:

**verena xeventus** · October 20, 2006, 07:14 PM

I also noticed that AA and resolution makes no difference (no noticeable difference anyway) to the performance of the demo - no matter what the other settings are set to. Strange. It annoys me that good graphics cards are so expensive and are outdated so quickly. I think everyone should have the same ability to play on higher settings, as playing a game of this kind on lower settings simply doesnt do it justice.

Oh - and Corinthian Hoplite... maybe this is "noob stuff" to you, but like I said in my post, not everyone is a technical genius.

I would also at this point like to include an "estimated" reccomendation for different spec computers after reading posts on the forum. Please dont be affended if I consider your computer to be lower end - times are hard and technology is expensive!

LOWER END: 512 RAM; 1.50GHZ cpu; 128MB Graphics:
Resolution - 1024/768; AA - None or 2x; TF - Bilinear or Trilinear; Unit detail - Low to medium... attempt high if your brave but it will pribably slow your computers down alot the higher this setting goes; Building Detail - Low; Vegetation Detail - Low; Effects - Lowest, low, medium; Grass - None or Low; Texture Deatail - Low; Shadows - None or lowest.

MID RANGE: From 1GB RAM; 1.8 - 2.2 GHZ Cpu; 256 Graphics:
Resolution - 1024/768; AA - X2 or X4 max; TF - Trilinear, 2x or 4x; Unit detail - High; though I would advise you to push it slightly higher if you can get away with it, because it makes a difference in my opinion; Building detail - Low; Vegetation detail - Medium to high; Effects - Medium; Grass - Low or medium; Texture detail - Medium; Shadows - Low - medium.

HIGHER END: From 2 GB RAM; 2.4 - 2.8 GHZ cpu; 512 Graphics: (This is the spec of my current system and shows what settings I have also for those who have a similar spec.
Resolution - 1280/1024; AA - 6x; TF - 4x - 6x; Unit detail - Super high (but not highest it will kill your FPS); Building detail - low or high your choice really, I cant see the difference yet so its on low; Vegetation - Medium to high; Effects - High - highest; Grass - medium; Texture Detail - High; Shadows - Medium.

MEGA BEAST SYSTEM: 2GB + RAM; 3.2GHZ+ cpu; 512, SLI (x 2 GPU @512MB) or 1GB graphics: (If your lucky and you know it clap your hands) PS I hate you already for simply having a mega beast computer.
Basically you lucky *******s you can shuv all the graphics settings upto high. highest and ultra high - nuff said!

As I said above, this is a personal recommendation... also dont be afraid to mess with your settings, if everything screws up simpy default the settings or make a note of what works best for your system. Hope this is helpful.

**Korinthos Hoplites** · October 21, 2006, 04:10 AM

Originally Posted by verena xeventus

Oh - and Corinthian Hoplite... maybe this is "noob stuff" to you, but like I said in my post, not everyone is a techical genius.

Point is, I'm no technical genius. I'm just a guy who actually tries out the options to know what they do to quality and performance...

**Censor** · October 20, 2006, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by Corinthian Hoplite

Grass and unit detail were always the biggest problems of my PC in RTW, vegetation and terrain detail were practically insignificant. Shadows also had a strong impact so I always turned them off. Resolution and AA had no effect at all :tooth:

Well there you go, exceptions are everywhere.

**drak10687** · October 20, 2006, 08:09 PM

btw, enabaling reflections also makes the water go from RTW like to HL2 like, you can see this in the tutorial, playing without reflection its... ugly.