Graphics, Looks vs Performance, who are you?

When a person has a decent rig, they tend to devolve into two different users.

Some users will set all their graphic settings to maximum and try to enable as many cool and flashy effects and shadow to make their game look as gorgeous as possible as far as they frames will allow it.
The most important thing for this player is that his play experience should be a positive stimulation to the human senses, and an artistic experience.

Then there is the other player who, even though the player can run at max settings with good FPS, will often intentionally remove shadows, alter brightness, play on lower graphic settings to increase the object silhouettes; all in order to make it easier to see the enemy.
This person does not care how good or bad the game looks as long as it gives him the highest edge possible in competitive arenas.

Who are you?

Do you set your settings with the purpose of making the game look good and visually appealing, or are you willing to to play on lower settings than you could otherwise play on in order to gain the competitive edge vs other players ingame?

In this game I tend to run pretty minimal settings just to get an edge, so I guess performance. Although since the PU01 I've been running on Ultra and getting 45-60FPS basically just because I can. I'll probably drop it back to my typical settings soon though.

In the light of the recent patch I have upped my standard configuration from very low to low.

I prefer visibility so i have shadows on high...

Both?

When i turn some settings down (like shadows, wth lol) i get lower FPS for a strange reason

High most things to have 50+ FPS now. I don't care about MLG K : D padding. I want to be immersed in the game.

I have it set to ultra but then again I never dip below 70 fps (even before patch)..

So I guess you can put me in the "not poor" bracket cause I get both graphics and performance.

Players with decent rigs?
This thread isn't for me

What is this "performance" you speak of?

<-- wooden PC guy

I am somewhere in the middle I usually run on medium to high, so the game looks decent to me, but I still get 60-80 FPS (After the patch it's more towards 80)

Decent rigs? mine cost me 3k to custom build.. I wouldnt call it... "decent"

What you described fit perfectly with the AOC RPPVP server. If you set your graphics to high you could experience the real beauty of that game (and it is amazing) complete with great touches like waste high rolling grass that you could hide in. But for those there who simply wanted pvp, they would turn all of their settings to low which means you are looking at brown dirt more less. The tactical advantage of hiding in tall grass never applied.

I like the added detail myself. Like I said in another thread, I had been running medium settings since I started. I could go higher but the game would start getting a little choppy in crowded fights. With the changes in place though, I have stepped up a number of items and visually it's a whole new game. Was playing in a night battle and it felt like I was mad tripping at a rave party.

I try to balance the two. I want a decent looking game and I can sacrifice some performance for it. I'm not that sensitive to FPS drops as long as they are consistent. So I can play on 30 FPS in a large bio lab and before the patch I had no choice. Now, I get a much more consistent 60 FPS and I am currently tweaking my settings to try to get as much eye candy out of the game as I can and still keep the frame rate reasonable. It seems the patch gave me shadows on low and a little bit extra performance. I know a lot of people turn of shadows to more easily see enemies. I always wanted them on because it makes the game look so much better. Seeing the shadow of an ESF race across the ground is a really nice touch which makes the game feel more alive.

I'm the one who plays videogames. Therefore, performance > graphics.

I believe that what you mean to say is that you prefer aesthetics. Because shadows do not provide visibility, they rather prevent it

I want both when it comes to Planetside 2, and have had both since beta.

Amazing engine.

In Quake III Arena days how finely tuned your config was (to your needs), was something to be proud of.
Honestly it's nice to have a game like this run and play brilliantly in Ultra without having to touch anything outside of the in-game options or needing a crazy expensive machine.

I hate super flashy effects like bloom, depth of field, glare etc. I personally think these kind of effects do not belong in shooters, i know there are people who like this stuff and that is ok as long as i can disable this stuff. What i do like is high quality textures and clean lighting. I also like good frame rates. I always prefer frames over better graphics.

At the moment i run on low graphics quality just because it's the only way to get rid of these flashy effects, changing these settings does nothing to my fps. Why again can't i disable these from the options separately? I would love to be able to see my tracers :<

Just an example what kind of graphics i like, clean lighting, good textures and no super flashy effects

How can you catch an LA in the shadows? Wouldnt that be harder?

And before you say it, i have shadows on High

Its called looking at the floor and seeing a LA Silhouette.

Do I need to draw a diagram?

Or you can see the giant red object sticking out of the floor in broad daylight.

Thats like saying you see better at night IRL