All Posts by Rayx0r

Originally posted by solareus

Originally posted by Rayx0r

thanks. ya I found some.  seems like water reflections and shadows are what really pop.  However, I think the flipside to this is a hit on FPS. 

I think I'll just reload XP

Think you will be surprised at Vista SP1 performance . I've been using Vista for the past years and have no regrets. Even if you use Vista you can set the game to dx 9 in the client. All games give you that option to use Dx10 or not. So it is not even an issue to have xp, Vista  in my opinion is pretty good, specially if you are above average computer user.

dx10 screens.

Thanks Solareus

those are some nice screenshots.  I take it those settings are at maximum?  What are your system specs and what sort of frame rates are you getting with those settings?

my system is an E8400, 3gigs DDR2 800, SATA II Raid/0, 8800 GTS (G92) 512meg

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Rayx0r

Im debating wether or not to rebuild my system with Vista.  I own an 8800 GTS which only supports DX10.  Curious how much better LotRO looks with DX10 vs. DX9

anyone have any screenshots?  maybe side by side?

 

Your 8800 doesn't ONLY support DX10, it is (sorta) capable of running DX10. It will run DX9 just fine.

ya I know it does, I guess it came across wrong.  I was implying that it didnt support DX 10.1

thanks. ya I found some.  seems like water reflections and shadows are what really pop.  However, I think the flipside to this is a hit on FPS. 

I think I'll just reload XP

Im debating wether or not to rebuild my system with Vista.  I own an 8800 GTS which only supports DX10.  Curious how much better LotRO looks with DX10 vs. DX9

anyone have any screenshots?  maybe side by side?

Originally posted by admriker4

I recently went back to Vanguard. I must admit the game is much cleaner now. But it still has one fatal flaw to me, Combat Animations.

Lets face it, the majority of our gameplay will be in combat. Combat animations for some reason used to be overlooked. However Star Wars Galaxies showed us that our avatars could spin or twirl their swords, pistols could be used to whip an enemy across the face, and a jedi could do some amazing maneuvers.

Age of Conan goes even further (as it should being a next-gen MMO). Decapatation maneuvers, slashing across the body, hammer-like slams, cool deaths from a caster's fire spell, etc give us even more exciting combat animations.

Going back to Vanguard, it was painfully clear I couldnt settle for the boring-bland combat animations. The melee classes all have the same generic slash. It was very uninspiring. The casters had a generic small energy ball tossed at the enemy that again was very uninspiring.

The core game mechanics are there. The quests are decent. The graphics arent half-bad (i had everything maxed, not as good as LOTR or Conan but nice). But I cant get into the combat with those awful animations.

Summary:

I played SWG years ago.  SWG set a new standard for combat animations for its time. 

I recently played Age of Conan.  Age of Conan took this a step further.

I tried Vanguard, it doesnt exceed Age of Conan and is more like SWG and the majority of MMO's. 

Therefore = Failure!

no shadows?

no particles?

missing water reflections?

no lighting?  improper night lighting?

this all adds up to something, and its almost too obvious to post.  Either you have a poor memory and havnt logged in the past year.. or you're playing on very low video settings.   

I disagree with everything you've said as far as graphic quality goes with the exception of animations and NPC life.  The rest of it must have to do with your video settings, because the shadows/lighting/reflections are all proper.  The game also has fogging and halos in fog.  Its especially noticeable at night time when viewing distant lighting.  There are also birds that fly and critters that run around on the ground.  The water reflections correct.  Not sure why you're seeing it with such poor quality?

My only issue with it is it doesnt support anti-aliasing.  I can force it through my video board, but its kinda flakey.  It works sometimes, and sometimes not.  It also doesnt work with HDR and Id rather have HDR.

oh good.  I didnt interpret that correctly.

tnx!

*edit* are there screenies available for the new mods yet?

Originally posted by Josters

Hey guys and gals,

We are aware that there are animations within our game that is not up to par. It will be addressed, but is a separate pass than "PC phase 2". The animation pass is a pretty big task and we did not want to delay the release of the new PC models.

 

from the ART LEAD.

 

But...expect them next year though.

 

next year?  for the new models and animations?  thats a fair set back from this summer

Originally posted by R4WkU5

Aha thanks, thought I'd tried that but clearly not lol. Cheers for setting me right though

 

Does this mean if I like it I'll have to buy a boxed version or just upgrade my subscription?

youll need a box version. you can pick em up for like $10 on ebay and amazon i believe. sometimes cheaper

Originally posted by bmcinvaille

Well someone was nice enough to give me an account to use and try this out. Well I was quite impressed it did feel a little like EQ2 to me. But looked better I only got through the little starting area. But it was fun on what I played. I did get one hiccup while in combat.

I do not know if this is normal. But mostly was running 60-75 FPS the entire time. I think it was on high settings though whatever it set me to for default anyway. Not sure how good my computer should be running this game I have an AMD 6400+,4GB Ram. and an 8800 GTS. So I figure I can get decent fps. but figured it would be higher then what it was. When I got around alot of NPC's in the area I droped to like 48-50.

All in all it was fun not sure right now if it is something I will subscribe to but I am gonna give it a try till the 30th or whatever and see what happens.

you're getting awesome frame rates.  Dont expect to push more than that in a non-instanced game.

Originally posted by Da1e

right, i love VG, even though i've only played a few days,

but I can't play til I get a new mobo,

and I wanted a game to play with my friends, and one has a semi bad pc...

so i'm going to check up after GU6 or something, keep my ears open etc!

but what i was really gonna ask,

(as we need something to play for now)

how do the graphics compare to EQ2?

does EQ2 have structured dungeons / instances?

What is PvP like?

 

I'm going to ask on the EQ2 page, but I know the VG bunch are friendly, and those that have played them both may have a good idea.

graphics in EQ2 have a more plastic appearance

EQ2 has instances and zones both in dungeons and open world

PvP in EQ2 is dependant on the other person actually fighting back and not running/zoning.  Zones in EQ2 really destroy their attempt at PvP

Keep in mind, the FFA server in Vanguard isnt much better.  It suffers from its own issues, and the server is very much dead.

EQ2 has instances.  It has zones and loading screens.  Your physical player house is shared with everyone, entering it creates an instance. 

Vanguard is an open world. You build your house with cooperation of crafters on specific plots not shared by other players.  You can build a ship if you wish. There are no loading screens or instances (that I know of). The crafting is more involved and complex. Theres a third realm of play called diplomacy that no other MMO has.

like someone else posted, Vanguard is what EQ players hoped EQ2 would be.

There is one gripe I have with the game.  The Map.  It is aweful.  However, "Infomap" is a map MOD which is amazing.  If you plan on playing VG pick up "Infomap 2.8"

theres buddy keys.

and ya it plays a LOT like EQ2.    I think casters can learn spells from certain mobs also?  (is this correct? I dont play a caster)

I beta tested, did the head start and played for not quite the first month.  Quit due to performance issues and incompleteness.

I just resubbed a couple nights ago and I really think the game is amazing.  It runs incredibly well now, Im still not sure how they pulled that off but its like night and day.

I cant say enough about the content in the game.  From crafting and diplomacy to the massive amount of quests, this is really a PvE'rs dream.  I really like the idea of building plots and not walking into the same building instance for your house or guild house.  Also, ship building is very unique.

Overall, the game looks beautiful.  Furthermore, its being reworked right now to look even more beautiful.  Theres suppose to be a major game update which will be updating all character models and animations this summer (soon).

I may have a buddy key or two in a week so stay tuned

Originally posted by brostyn

I bought the CE off Amazon for a grand total of $9.09(new not used - obviously). That was after shipping. I might give the game a go after my failed attempt to enjoy DAoC again.

ya I roll back to old MMO's all the time.  I tried DAoC a couple times but for the life of me, I cant get past the interface and controls.  Still a great game.

Ive had this habbit lately of purchasing MMO collectors editions.  I like to play any MMO I can get my hands on and being a collector, I like to own the CE's.  Usually thes are limited, but older games you can sometimes find CE's at a steal.

I know not many of you like Vanguard or were told by people who dont like Vanguard that you shouldnt like it.  At any rate, this CE pays for itself.  It cost the same as a month subscription, which it comes with. 

This would be perfect for someone who beta tested and may have enjoyed it with the exception of how it performed.  It performs very well now, and theyre updating the character models this summer along with updating other things.

Anyway, Amazon has the Collectors Edition for $14.97

Im going to be installing windows on my girlfriends Mac.   She wants to use VMware or Parallel so she can stay in her Mac environment.

Ive read a benchmark which reads to me that Parallel has the best performance.  However, Ive read from users on the mac site that Parallel is more unstable than VMware and bootcamp.  Actually, theyve made it sound very unstable.  However, I dont know what theyre doing on their macs

Anyone here have experience with gaming using VMware or Parallel on a mac?  Im curious to hear what sort of experience you had with them before we spend $80 on the wares.

(note: please dont try to explain to me the difference between a PC and mac and why she should purchase a PC.  This is for a secondary computer, we have 2 pc's and 2 macs in the house)

Thanks in advance

Originally posted by Kaminoshi

Order probably,

Knight of the blazing sun or archmage

 

lets hope order has fewer players

well, without going into detail how does 3-to-1 sound in favor of destruction?

pretty much every guy who cross dresses in MMO's will choose the Dark Elf female toons over any of the order toons.  hell thats a third of the MMO population right there :P

both or whatever my gf makes me play

which will probably be order. theres more female toon selections on order.  shes definitely not into the dark elf thing (neither am I).