Enhanced graphics for MED2TW

**leo.civil.uefs** · January 07, 2019, 08:07 AM

Anyone tried this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPxzBpueSRM

watch in HD.

**Araval** · January 07, 2019, 12:49 PM

You got me interested to try it some day!

**Frotzy** · January 07, 2019, 09:37 PM

I've tried it for both Stainless Steel and TATW. Looks good, but can mess up the campaign map if you fiddle with bloom or brightness and what not. Also, due to the big sizes of Orc armies in the late game, it just got too choppy with like 5k orcs, 3k of your men, and all those graphic settings. Great for screenshots though. It's enjoyable to play around with, but also really hard, I found, to find the perfect settings. I ended up toying around with the settings instead of actually playing, that plus the lag made me decide i'd be better off without the program. Atleast in vanilla where the armies are just a tad bit smaller, or stainless steel, it works fine, but not so much for TATW.
And also not being able to see your money, turn number, and a super bright campaign map was super annoying. Matter of fact, some guy did a Gondor DAC let's play with it a few months ago. If you remind me I could find a link, it's 4:37 am here right now and I gotta sleep, but tomorrow I could probaly find it.
Although of course, that's just my experience.

**leo.civil.uefs** · January 07, 2019, 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by frotxy

I've tried it for both Stainless Steel and TATW. Looks good, but can mess up the campaign map if you fiddle with bloom or brightness and what not. Also, due to the big sizes of Orc armies in the late game, it just got too choppy with like 5k orcs, 3k of your men, and all those graphic settings. Great for screenshots though. It's enjoyable to play around with, but also really hard, I found, to find the perfect settings. I ended up toying around with the settings instead of actually playing, that plus the lag made me decide i'd be better off without the program. Atleast in vanilla where the armies are just a tad bit smaller, or stainless steel, it works fine, but not so much for TATW.
And also not being able to see your money, turn number, and a super bright campaign map was super annoying. Matter of fact, some guy did a Gondor DAC let's play with it a few months ago. If you remind me I could find a link, it's 4:37 am here right now and I gotat sleep, but tomorrow I could probaly find it.
Although of course, that's just my experience.

Thanks for the info!

I would like to see the vídeo you told about.

**Goth** · January 08, 2019, 05:04 AM

Originally Posted by frotxy

I've tried it for both Stainless Steel and TATW. Looks good, but can mess up the campaign map if you fiddle with bloom or brightness and what not. Also, due to the big sizes of Orc armies in the late game, it just got too choppy with like 5k orcs, 3k of your men, and all those graphic settings. Great for screenshots though. It's enjoyable to play around with, but also really hard, I found, to find the perfect settings. I ended up toying around with the settings instead of actually playing, that plus the lag made me decide i'd be better off without the program. Atleast in vanilla where the armies are just a tad bit smaller, or stainless steel, it works fine, but not so much for TATW.
And also not being able to see your money, turn number, and a super bright campaign map was super annoying. Matter of fact, some guy did a Gondor DAC let's play with it a few months ago. If you remind me I could find a link, it's 4:37 am here right now and I gotat sleep, but tomorrow I could probaly find it.
Although of course, that's just my experience.

I agree with this. It mirrors my experience. I found that the battlefield looked amazing but the campaign map was a mess. The contrast in the menus was a mess spoiling many of the unit cards and info screens. In the end I just uninstalled the reshader and continued with graphic settings I developed for for EB2 a long time ago, these settings are not as good as the reshader for the battlefield but because the settings are for battlefield only they dont disturb campaign mode.

Goth

**leo.civil.uefs** · January 08, 2019, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by Goth

and continued with graphic settings I developed for for EB2 a long time ago, these settings are not as good as the reshader for the battlefield but because the settings are for battlefield only they dont disturb campaign mode.

How did you do this? Whats this about?

**Frotzy** · January 08, 2019, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by leo.civil.uefs

Thanks for the info!

I would like to see the vídeo you told about.

Here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKW0...hannel=ItzFlow
This guy uses quite dark settings, some may like it, I find it a bit hard to see at times, but this is one of the rare times the campaign map isn't a total mess.
On the topic of graphics, the PCP submod for TATW has some ENB and settings that make the game look better. It's worth checking out.

On another note, I would also like to know about the EB2 graphic settings. Sound interesting.

**leo.civil.uefs** · January 08, 2019, 08:09 AM

Thanks for the info, guys.
I'll check it all.

**Goth** · January 11, 2019, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by leo.civil.uefs

How did you do this? Whats this about?

If memory serves(it was quite a while ago I did this for EB2 and I dont even know if they used them) I messed about with the bloom values for weather events in weather_db. you can create more depth in the lighting by messing with these values. The problem is that any alterations you do are most likely unique for that mod as it contains weather patterns that might be mod specific and you could screw your game up by transferring the weather_db from one mod to another. Like i said it is not as effective but can still yield some nice results.
I did the lighting files for EB1 many years ago to create more depth but the files for Med2 are far more complex than RTW.
Goth

**Jmonstra** · January 14, 2019, 02:27 AM

I use ReShade regularly. If you're sparing with the effects you can have something pretty cool looking for (in my case at least) the cost of about 7 frames.

**AnthoniusII** · January 14, 2019, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by leo.civil.uefs

Anyone tried this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPxzBpueSRM

watch in HD.

Depends on the quality of textures and models.
TGC does not need that tool because in 1920x1080 the results are like these:
Roma Sarectum II trees, real sky and real water mods and here you go:

CLICK to see images in full size.

**Frotzy** · January 18, 2019, 03:48 AM

Those images are looking sharp!
I've fiddled around with ReShade some more, and I never noticed this but the HaHawk provided links for presets to use. I think the basic improvement 1 (or whatever the name was, can't check right now), looks pretty good. Maybe this time i'll actually end up playing the game and not just messing around with it :p. There's also a few others, "cold harsh", for instance, which you could change to when you get a snowy battlemap.

The results are pretty good, although the issues of the unit cards still exist. Maybe everyone here already knew about the presets, but in case you didn't, I recommend checking them out. It's just one click, depending on the time of day and weather, and you're good to go.

**AnthoniusII** · January 18, 2019, 08:13 AM

Originally Posted by frotxy

Those images are looking sharp!
I've fiddled around with ReShade some more, and I never noticed this but the HaHawk provided links for presets to use. I think the basic improvement 1 (or whatever the name was, can't check right now), looks pretty good. Maybe this time i'll actually end up playing the game and not just messing around with it :p. There's also a few others, "cold harsh", for instance, which you could change to when you get a snowy battlemap.

The results are pretty good, although the issues of the unit cards still exist. Maybe everyone here already knew about the presets, but in case you didn't, I recommend checking them out. It's just one click, depending on the time of day and weather, and you're good to go.

The images in my previus post HAVE NO enhanced graphics only two mods (real sky and real water) plus Roma Sarectum II vegetation (part of it).
The result of details on models (warriors, horses) are result of high quality textures. The rest are vanilla M2TW graphics.

**leo.civil.uefs** · January 18, 2019, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by AnthoniusII

Depends on the quality of textures and models.
TGC does not need that tool because in 1920x1080 the results are like these:
Roma Sarectum II trees, real sky and real water mods and here you go:

CLICK to see images in full size.

What is TGC? Real water? You mean BETTER WATER, thats the name of the mod.

**AnthoniusII** · January 18, 2019, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by leo.civil.uefs

What is TGC? Real water? You mean BETTER WATER, thats the name of the mod.

The Great Conflicts (TGC) 872-1071 .
If you want to see almost all previews (because in TWC some pictures lost) visit here:

**Frotzy** · January 18, 2019, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by AnthoniusII

The images in my previus post HAVE NO enhanced graphics only two mods (real sky and real water) plus Roma Sarectum II vegetation (part of it).
The result of details on models (warriors, horses) are result of high quality textures. The rest are vanilla M2TW graphics.

Yes, I am well aware that those images have no enhanced graphics. That's why I said they were looking sharp. It is impressive what the engine can manage even without post processing and ReShade. The rest of my post was just tips for Leo and/or anyone else reading.

**AnthoniusII** · January 19, 2019, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by frotxy

Yes, I am well aware that those images have no enhanced graphics. That's why I said they were looking sharp. It is impressive what the engine can manage even without post processing and ReShade. The rest of my post was just tips for Leo and/or anyone else reading.

A texture 1024x1024 is more than enough to have highly detailed models that wont need any graphics enchanced.
This guy is one of the 5 bodies combinations that such a texture size can give details.

The most common mistake when it comes to apearence variety of a unit is that everything is "drawn" on the body.
In this case the sword and mace belts are 3d objects.
The texture is enough for:
5 bodies
5 heads
2 belts
5 hemets
3 head hoods (chain)
5 legs
Now calculate the combilations if we add:
4 maces
1 axe
4 swords
2 lances
6 shields
And to verify your observation. YES the M2TW engine is capable to suport high quality (up to a limit) textures and high number vetrices models
That model (unit actually) has 9500 vertices 14900 triangles and 60 groups.
TGC uses models twice that size also. The limitation THOUGH in M2TW has to do that uses one core in your PC and IF high poly and high textured models will be used the player must often select small or medium size units.
I am not sure how powerfull a PC must be to suport high quality models PLUS graphics enchanged though. My PC is 10 years old.

**alreadyded** · February 16, 2019, 04:53 AM

Originally Posted by leo.civil.uefs

Anyone tried this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPxzBpueSRM

watch in HD.

It looks like they didn't do anything except abuse the hell out of 'diffuse' setting. Even watching in HD it doesn't look HD so it might just be the video recording. All graphics/art rely on tricking your eyes, so it is only a matter of what you prefer. Try a few and edit the one you like best to your preference.