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Thread: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

  1. #1

    Icon6 Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Hello gents, I trust you've all been well recently! I finally got around to making a video tutorial (link) on how to get the most out of your graphics settings in Medieval II which works for both EB2 and other M2TW mods. Over the past few months, a handful of people have asked me how to set up a post processor to get screenshots like these, which is why I ended up making this tutorial. I hope the guide helps people enjoy EB2 even more, from a visual standpoint.

    Some screens from the video:













    And from the vanilla game:






    M2TW may have been released many years ago, but with a few tweaks like these you can really make the game look almost brand new! Happy gaming.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Thanks for the tutorial HaHawk. Beautiful screens (particularly the second). EB2 is quite demanding, graphically, already. Do you have an idea, on average, of impact on FPS these tweaks have?

  3. #3

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by charlieh View Post
    Thanks for the tutorial HaHawk. Beautiful screens (particularly the second). EB2 is quite demanding, graphically, already. Do you have an idea, on average, of impact on FPS these tweaks have?
    From my experience, the post processor has very little effect on FPS. The biggest hit is caused by rendering all units in 3D (setting unit quality to "highest") and playing on the "huge" unit size. As Medieval 2 is an older title, it does not make use of quadcore CPUs (even newer games have issues with this, actually). So the bottleneck isn't so much the GPU as it is the CPU.

    My advice is to follow the video to get maximum visual quality, and then scale it back depending on your hardware, beginning with unit quality (set to "high" instead of "highest"). If the post processor is still causing a hit, then I would disable the more resource-intensive effects like DOF (depth of field) first. The other color correction settings, again in my own experience, have a negligible impact on FPS.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    I just turn every graphic to medium. If I put anything higher than medium I get CTD's before 75% of the battles I try to fight. That's with a GTX 1070, 16GB RAM and all that good stuff (good modern gaming PC).

    On medium I get no CTD's, maybe one random one every 20 hours of play.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by I_Damian View Post
    I just turn every graphic to medium. If I put anything higher than medium I get CTD's before 75% of the battles I try to fight. That's with a GTX 1070, 16GB RAM and all that good stuff (good modern gaming PC).

    On medium I get no CTD's, maybe one random one every 20 hours of play.
    Thanks for the guide! It really made the game more visually appealing.
    Last edited by Cohors_Evocata; July 25, 2017 at 02:18 AM. Reason: Continuity.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    I'm the type that watches naughty movies for the plot.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by Rad View Post
    I'm the type that watches naughty movies for the plot.
    Say what?
    Last edited by Cohors_Evocata; July 25, 2017 at 02:18 AM. Reason: Continuity.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Nice! Thank you!

    Quote Originally Posted by HaHawk View Post
    From my experience, the post processor has very little effect on FPS. The biggest hit is caused by rendering all units in 3D (setting unit quality to "highest") and playing on the "huge" unit size. As Medieval 2 is an older title, it does not make use of quadcore CPUs (even newer games have issues with this, actually). So the bottleneck isn't so much the GPU as it is the CPU.

    My advice is to follow the video to get maximum visual quality, and then scale it back depending on your hardware, beginning with unit quality (set to "high" instead of "highest"). If the post processor is still causing a hit, then I would disable the more resource-intensive effects like DOF (depth of field) first. The other color correction settings, again in my own experience, have a negligible impact on FPS.
    Actually, it's "higher" and not "high" that is the setting directly below "highest". For whatever reason, setting "highest" in the in-game settings causes "higher" to be set in the config file.

    Anyway, If "highest" causes too big a performance hit but you want the sprites to be drawn at a longer distance than the settings allow, then my script to increase the distance might be a good compromise.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by TheCataphract View Post
    Thanks for the guide! It really made the game more visually appealing.
    Well, what else can I say? If I put the graphics on high the game crashes to desktop with an error message 3 out of every 4 battles I try to fight. On medium it doesn't. Better to play the game looking mediocre than not be able to play (or be forced to auto-resolve every battle).

  10. #10

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    This is very great I love this a lot I watched your vid in youtube too I liked it so much especially when I noticed the wardruna music in it and another thing I'm actualy working on a mod and I want to put this guide along with the mod as a an enhancer for it so you can consider yourself as a great help for us credits will be given ofc too so I'm demanding permission to do this

  11. #11

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Thanks HaHawk. Would you be willing to post you PC specs? What kind of overclock, if any, do you aim for on the processor? Presently, I'm on a i7-4790k OC'd to 4.5GHZ, GTX 1080, and 16GB RAM. Do you think this would suffice, particuarly the processor over-clock?

  12. #12

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by I_Damian View Post
    Well, what else can I say? If I put the graphics on high the game crashes to desktop with an error message 3 out of every 4 battles I try to fight. On medium it doesn't. Better to play the game looking mediocre than not be able to play (or be forced to auto-resolve every battle).
    Argh my apologies dude I was hoping you'd see my post before it was edited, I didn't mean to sound condescending sorry. I was talking about a "fix" to your ctd's but seeing how discussion is forbidden about it I can't really elaborate on it. All I'll give you is this link and it'll hopefully point you in the right direction. (note: not trying to get my post edited again, just clarifying with him. Sorry for the trouble

  13. #13

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Really good stuff.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Just a heads up, I couldn't get that version of ReShade to work without issues (1.1 or whatever was recommended). I'd set it up but the colors would go all weird after ~20-30 seconds after changing any setting, even disabling most everything. Not sure what the particular issue was.

    I have no trouble with the latest version downloaded from https://reshade.me/.

    I'll post the settings that I set up last night when I get a chance in case it helps anyone else.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by HaHawk View Post
    Say what?
    Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you Greek, say 'what' one more Marsdamn time!

  16. #16

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by cowrecked View Post
    Just a heads up, I couldn't get that version of ReShade to work without issues (1.1 or whatever was recommended). I'd set it up but the colors would go all weird after ~20-30 seconds after changing any setting, even disabling most everything. Not sure what the particular issue was.

    I have no trouble with the latest version downloaded from https://reshade.me/.

    I'll post the settings that I set up last night when I get a chance in case it helps anyone else.

    This would definitely help me. Would also be nice if OP gave us some settings with latest version also.

    Anyways thanks for the info op, it definitely looks better. im using latest version, and its nothing like 1.1 so very different, and it does not look anywhere near as nice as your version.

  17. #17

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by moisesjns View Post
    This would definitely help me. Would also be nice if OP gave us some settings with latest version also.

    Anyways thanks for the info op, it definitely looks better. im using latest version, and its nothing like 1.1 so very different, and it does not look anywhere near as nice as your version.
    I just turn on four shaders - Curves, FXAA, SMAA, and Vibrance. Maybe I could do more with other shaders, but these seem like a good balance of making the game look great without being cartoon-y or anything.


  18. #18

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Thankk you Cowrecked. That made the game loo great without making it all dark. http://imgur.com/a/cYsEz is a pic of in game weird strat map. This is the lake to the east of Armavir.

    And here is how battle looks with cowrecked settings. http://imgur.com/yIZbj0Q
    Last edited by moisesjns; July 29, 2017 at 10:17 AM.

  19. #19

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Thanks HaHawk!

  20. #20

    Default Re: Guide to Getting Great Graphics in Medieval 2 (how to make EB2 look as good as possible)

    Quote Originally Posted by I_Damian View Post
    I just turn every graphic to medium. If I put anything higher than medium I get CTD's before 75% of the battles I try to fight. That's with a GTX 1070, 16GB RAM and all that good stuff (good modern gaming PC).

    On medium I get no CTD's, maybe one random one every 20 hours of play.
    M2TW strikes again. Most of that ram is not being used, and most your CPU power is not being used (idk about GPU power). Hardcoded limits. I wish someone would hack some computer and just steal the M2 source code, honestly. So much could be done.

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