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For those who have played EQ2, and have an Nvidia card.
Tangogulf
Member UncommonPosts: 58
Hi all;
I have been watching the development of this game for quite some time. In the past, I have bought games on the day of their release, but have learned that sometimes the game changes (improves) so much that it is worth waiting.
Having said that, when EQ2 came out I did the release date impulse buy. I moderately enjoyed the game, however, I always had problems with the graphics. Even my most recent rig,AMD 4000+, 2 gig ram and a Nvidia 7800 GT , I had a stuttering problem with the graphics. There was a documented problem with stuttering with Nvidia cards that seemed to affect my fps.
As I look at the graphics in Vanguard I have a couple of thoughts and questions for those of you are playing it:
1) The graphics and player models, look alot like EQ2, but even sharper. Is it done by the same artists?
2) Being that the graphics seem so EQ2 like, I really hesitate buying the game because of the problems I had with EQ2. Will I be able to run it?
Thanks for any and all help.
Comments
The graphics in Vanguard are quite different to those in EQ2. In some places better in some places worse. Overall I would say that Vanguards graphics have more promise than those of EQ2, but as of now that promise isnt realised. From what I'm hearing from other players (my own rig runs circles around it) the game is heavily dependant on the graphics card and less so on the CPU, so I would have thought your PC should be able to cope.
Vanguard though is extremely buggy at the moment, though those bugs are getting rapidly fixed and it doesnt stop it from being a thoroughly enjoyable game. Personally though it can feel like you are paying to play a beta at the moment.
Crimliar
"I actually cook my meat with nothing but my burning hatred for vegetables"
The game itself is surprisingly frugal (for something so complex), but if you like your eyecandy you should go for the best graphics card you can afford.
Unfortunatly if you like impressive audio, dont try running Vanguard in Vista. In Vista the game will default to software sound. It is possible to get it running using Creative's Alchemy http://preview.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx such that it uses OpenAL, which sounds great, untill you add teamspeak into the mix, at which point it will crash (usually taking the whole PC down in the process).
Ho hum.
The 7600 should do great. I still recommend the INI tweaks to get the best out of the game though. I run High Quality on my 6800GT 256 at around 25-30FPS and it looks awesome.
Vanguards models have no expressions and the animal races have no tails :P Their bums are ugly and so are the animations. The worlds graphics arn't good tbh, the only reason people think they're impressive is because the vast open worlds of nothingness.
Thanks all for the replies. For the person running the 7600, do not be put off by my question on the 7800. I'n referring to a known problem in EQ2.
My concern was that the same people did the graphics,which perhaps could have meant the same issues. Doesnsnt sound like thats the case here.
Vanguard "stutter" a lot more than Eq2 and graphics are , in my opinion, good but no so good as eq2.
Eq2 does not stutter at all (I have 7800gs) . In fact since I have put a X-FI sound card in my pc, Eq2 is a lot much more smooth everywhere and I play in very high quality without problem even when grouping or raiding.
The later detailed player models in EQ2 do look better than the current Vanguard ones IMO - but Vanguards look better than the EQ2 models they had on release hands down. As far as environs and architecture go I'll have to give it to Vanguard - doesn't have that "scaled-up mock environment" feel that EQ2 had - though it's true that does come at the cost of having a better scaled (read: BIGGER) world to run around in. I know these aesthetics are subjective - some folks prefer a more charicatured feel to their world - some want something more realistic.
Great point on the power of artistic vision being able to overcome engine restrictions a la WoW - they kept well within their tradition of Blizzard oriented art - and I agree it's pretty cool looking stuff and the game scales to a variety of systems with amazing adroitness. It will be a while before more people have stock hardware that could handle a hungrier engine like Vanguards. It's a double edged blade - a few guys I know at work would have to plunk down some dinero for an upgrade before it would be worth buying Vanguard. I feel greedy enjoying it without them but I don't think I can help but live with that.
how about Radeon X1300Pro 256mb DDR2? It's cheaper
"I actually cook my meat with nothing but my burning hatred for vegetables"
Great thread...again, thanks for the replies. Regarding Wow; after playing EQ for so many years, I initially had some reservations about it. I am playing it now though..and enjoying it. The graphics are very unique and very scalable.
Hopefully Vanguards will soon be more optimized. Overall it sounds like a great start to Vanguard despite some of its current issues.
A vast open world of nothingness did wonders for Oblivion. I still cant understand the success behind that yawn fest, guess it's just me, though.
Back to the subject at hand, though, I have a GeForce FX5900 Ultra (its a dinosaur, yes, but one of the more powerful lizards of it's day at least) and I could run EQ2 on moderate settings just fine. Didn't make the game any less loathsome (in my opinion) though. Vanguard I have yet to try, but I hear of people with far superior rigs to my own having framerate woes on medium to low settings. That being the case, I would assume VSoH is much more needy than EQ2. Again, though, I cant confirm this first hand.
I miss DAoC