I am playing EQ on a PC that is about 2 years old, and is reasonably powerful especially by EQ's standards. We all know that EQ is not optimized for modern hardware in many respects. What settings should I be running at? Most of the time, EQ runs very well of course, but I do get occasional graphics lag especially when I am in the guild hall. It might be related, but often times when I zone, I see only the gray outline of all textures for a few seconds as well. What settings should I be running? For particles I'm at: near clip - near density - low on for - me + npc env near clip - near density - low player near clip - near density - low on for - me + npc In the advanced tab, I have allow hw vertex shaders, allow 2.0 pixel shaders, and enable windowed gamma checked. The rest is not. Shadow clip plane is all the way to the left, actor clip plane in the middle. Max FPS all the way to the right. Use new water in old zones is checked, dynamic sky reflection size is tiny, sky reflection update interval is 10 per second, terrain texture quality is normal, and memory mode is most memory usage. I'm playing in windowed mode since I have two monitors. My main monitor is 2560x1440 and the secondary monitor is 1920x1080. If you're curious, these are the specs on my main PC. intelk6600k running @ 3.9 or something ghz 32gigs of I forget the speed of the ram but it's good 1080gtx (yawn) m.2 2280 SSD (EQ is installed on this) Some other stuff that is even more boring than that this.
Heh my settings are different. I actually installed Windows on my ssd instead of EQ on the ssd. This allows windows to run faster, load up apps and game files faster and EQ to use whatever it needs back on the hard drive. Have you turned off journal and/or log? Under advanced are you set to least memory mode? This least memory mode often means that after you zone it will take several seconds for the game to properly draw characters. So they may appear greyed out. This was set to be automatically on "least" in a patch a few years ago so might try another setting if your computer can handle it and get rid of the grey. Warning if it is set to use more memory it may cause crashes. This is still a good guide line especially where it shows what Fanra uses lower on the page. Density high etc. http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Graphics_and_performance_settings_guide And finally make sure you log or camp to desk top after each change as many of them don't apply until you do that.
Yes, I have windows installed on an ssd as well. I mean, who wouldn't? Technically speaking I have 2 of the SSD's in my computer. My windows install has it's own however. My original post mentioned the memory mode setting being set to "most"
Turning journal off is definitely a must. Turning off the main log is definitely not required. Excluding it from your anti virus software though, is a definite must.
I don't actively use an antivirus program, have not used one fulltime since oh, 2008? Let's not go there however, and no, I've never had an issue with any malware. I'm good on that front. As it relates to the journal, what is that? I do use the logfile, and always have...because I use GINA. I have it set to automatically back up the log file when it gets above 40mb, it is never above that size.
Turn off shadows. It doesn't matter if you have a monster card, you will take a hit to FPS once it's enabled.
The journal was off by default. I've always had shadows turned off, because they've always looked dumb.
Just to help set expectations, I don't believe there is a combination of settings that will completely remove lag in all situations. I think server-side lag is transformed into client-side graphical lag in EQ, so your client-side settings can only attempt to minimize it.
You definetly want to lower this as it does keep your CPU very busy. EQ does not support 3D graphic cards much, so nearly all graphics do get calculated by the CPU. Try a setting of 40 fps and also turn off the passive FPS calculation or whatever it is called (cannot check the right name atm). Less frames will make especially rotations to appear more jerking but it does keep the CPU cool which does reduce hardware lag.
