My first impressions of SI

[old.Noita]

AMD 1.8
512 RAM
nVidia Gforce 4 128


Fingers crossed

 

[SFXman]

Originally posted by old.Yussef
You can enable SI on your account and use the old client if you like, lets you use the new classes with the old client. Better than not buying it I suppose.

You can!? You sure?? Are you?

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Gallak]

First thing you should do is turn shadows off if you're having framerate problems, they along with reflections will be the most frame hungry monsters you'll come across. Leave everything else on and come back with the new FPS for us please? Also make sure you have FSAA turned off, that'll change it massively too, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if thats your main problem.

Also I heard that SI characters must be created using the SI client, and can only be played in orginal ares with the classic client for those that are interested.

Those with even half decent graphics cards can turn off all the options and make the game run at the same quality as classic, but with level of detail calculations and the client not redrawing things hidden behind other things you should see a marked improvement in framerate in the big battles where there's lots of hidden polygons (like most of the body behind someone's cloak)

 

[Flimgoblin]

Originally posted by old.job
Hmm I'm a bit suspicious cos early reviews from beta-testers raved on about improved framerates in RVR, one girl mentioned 100+ peeps, full effects on and perfectly smooth, and in those rvr videos I have downloaded the framerates look good, at the moment my gforce2 runs at slideshow speeds in rvr.

Probably something to do with him having it in higher resolution than normal and all the effects on

Tune it down to 'new engine with no flashy bits' and the occlusion culling and level of detail pruning alone will make it far faster.

 

[Flimgoblin]

Originally posted by Gallak

Also I heard that SI characters must be created using the SI client, and can only be played in orginal ares with the classic client for those that are interested.

Not quite sure what you're meaning there...

they spent a few months making sure the new client worked with the old areas...

You need an SI activated account and need to have SI installed on the machine to login to the SI areas - whether you can run classic graphics client mode in there I dunno (possibly not - they mentioned something about the new client allowing different landscape styles - cliffs etc.)

 

[DocWolfe]

yes I heard that you can only make the new races using the SI client, and you can only go to the new islands using the SI client. So with the only client you cant make the new races or go the the new island areas.

 

[old.job]

The latest patch notes mention improved framerates again, by improving the code for the new water effects, at the moment it still draws all the water ,wether you can see it or not.

If SI doesn't improve RVR then I'm off, I haven't levld any char past 35 cos I can't RVR, I still have to log in 3X until I get a smooth running game, sometimes it stutters for 5 mins!!

 

[old.Cyric]

Originally posted by Meatballs
geforce 1

Pardon?

 

[old.Cyric]

Oh and, where did I read that the ambient music/sound effects system is the thing that is crippling slower processors the most currently? Maybe it was from one of you gurus....

I can't really say that if I have to turn that off I'll be mortally disappointed...

 

[Tagetes]

Well I've been messing with SI for the last hour and a half, and although I couldn't tell you what FPS I'm getting, it feels around the same. I'm used to playing in 1024 x 768, but had to crank the resolution up to 1280 x 1024 to stop people looking blurry. I would have tried 1600 x 1200 but the monitor was having none of it.
As for the reflective water, I've actually turned mine off. Not because it was giving me any problems - it's actually incredibly annoying (to me anyway) to run past / look at it So it's gone.
I haven't been able to try RvR either, my poor Champ would get torn to shitty ribbons at his level. And trying to find a busy place at this time of day isn't happening, but so far it's smooth and lovely.
In case you were wondering 1800 XP / GF4 / 768 RAM

Side note : Inconnu = Urgleee blue beardless Dwarves

 

[exc_hib_boo]

Originally posted by old.ImLestat
I read somewhere very recent, think it was in an interview with Sanya somewhere, that all those new effects like shining water and such was possible to turn off. It is quite possible that if you turn off those things you will end up with performance around the same as the old engine. Would be great if you could try it out and report back exc_hib_boo.

I did turn of water effects and turned off shadows, now running at a respectable 30-31 fps exping in the new areas, 35-40 fps in the old areas (with the new client). This makes it have the same general framerate as the old client but it should be far better in crowded situations like rvr.

 

[noob_pride]

eeek 10 fps suxxor

 

[ImLestat]

Originally posted by exc_hib_boo


I did turn of water effects and turned off shadows, now running at a respectable 30-31 fps exping in the new areas, 35-40 fps in the old areas (with the new client). This makes it have the same general framerate as the old client but it should be far better in crowded situations like rvr.

Sounds great. Thanks for the info.

 

[Tesla Monkor]

Guys, I can't believe people are complaining about this. You want the game to progress, get prettier, faster, more enjoyable, but not use the newer hardware available?

Game engines evolve and demand more from the hardware as they do. Either hop on the bandwagon or stay behind.

Do you have any idea what engines like Doom3 need? Those cards don't even exist yet! Stuff like that is written well before the hardware it's supposed to run on is (widely) available.

NetImmerse is no different. (The DAOC 'engine'.)

Start saving up.. you have three months or so left.

 

[Sigurd]

sorry, you can't believe people are complaining that their expensive GeForce 3 cards can't actually run the new expansion pack properly? Some of us don't have the money/feel like blowing £200 each time a new graphics card comes out - SI graphics aren't that good, not sure how they managed to screw up the system requirements so you need a GeForce 4 to play it properly..

 

[old.job]

Couldn't agree more Chim, the graphics in the game just don't warrant such powerful hardware, SI's graphics are no better than a ps2 game.

 

[Garris-]

It sounds like it runs ok on a GF3. The human eye cant reconise fps over 30, and as the new reports state nothing lower than that on a GF3 (which cost what.. £60 from the right retailers).

I'm not worried. If theres a problem, they've got 3 months to sort it. The version we buy will likely be patched .. *fingers crossed for GOA*.