Best Graphics in any mmo to date!

[SarahR]

Part of the problem with your setup is that your RAM is running in single channel mode. I don't know if your motherboard only allows for single channel, is being forced into single channel via RAM placement or is set to single channel via the bios. You may have decent RAM but single channel mode will definitely affect your performance.

You know that's the first helpful thing I've seen in weeks about my setup. It completely slipped my mind. I've been meaning to RMA my motherboard - Slots A1 and A2 are broken, so 8 gigs of my ram is sitting on a table, the other 8GB are running in single channel mode. Perhaps that will help when the replacement comes in.

[Ajhal]

But its very very blurred... Why is that ?

[Codebreaker]

But its very very blurred... Why is that ?

You have to click on the HD tab to get high def

[Airien]

Given that most MMO's look horrible, I have to agree.

Seeing as how The Old Republic is the only relevant MMO game to be released post RIFT, it's like comparing a new model T.V. with ones from several years ago.

Hey folks, my LED, HD, Smart T.V. looks better than a plasma. Who would have thunk it?

[Noaani]

Rift has the potential for awesome graphics, and scales up with new systems better than 4 year old MMO's, obviously.

Sadly, Rift suffers from a lack of polygons. The best textures in the world, the most advanced use of shaders or lighting can not make an octagon look like a good circle. There are games out there with 10 year old engines that use a higher polygon count than Rift.

[Jwright771984]

You know that's the first helpful thing I've seen in weeks about my setup. It completely slipped my mind. I've been meaning to RMA my motherboard - Slots A1 and A2 are broken, so 8 gigs of my ram is sitting on a table, the other 8GB are running in single channel mode. Perhaps that will help when the replacement comes in.

I would imagine that would help quite a bit. After I bought my motherboard I kicked myself for not doing more research, I could have gotten a Tri-channel board for what I paid for my dual channel board. Oh well, RIFT runs decent enough for me.

[Gardy]

I think graphic quality is a subjective issue for the user and the game designer in the main.

Clearly for the multiple MMO player there is a sort of benchmark where quality moves from just about acceptable to absolutely fantastic.

From the game designers viewpoint they will want to enable the game to run on as many users computers as possible to sell more subscriptions, so there is a trade off between high quality and mass marketing.

Of the older games I have played, Everquest 2 is the surprise here, as in some places the graphic quality overall is good, but where the game is finally showing its age is perhaps at the coast line with water and the ocean. But in its heyday EQ2 was a system demanding game

WoW graphics were always designed for the mass market, in many places they are terrible. My only surprise is that in some places such as Stormwind and The Grizzly Hills regions the overall quality manages to be surprisingly acceptable

Rift is not too bad overall BUT where the game fails is on draw distance, sure I can adjust that in the settings but my problem (I accept it is personal) is that at very high settings the game for me is very very laggy

Finally age, you folks must learn to compare like with like, there is no point comparing a 5 year old game with one that has been recently released, I know Moore Law concepts are no longer quite as relevant today as they were a few years ago as we are starting to get closer to hitting ultimate barriers on silicon performance but even so a computer/server/broadband set up 4 years ago is just not going to compare with what we have today........for example my average broadband is perhaps 3 times faster

[Alyvian]

Look at Vanguard with everything maxed, that was a beautiful game 5 years ago.

ftfy

[Codebreaker]

I agree draw distance is the only thing that lets rift down, it would be good to see a slide bare that lets the user make the choices and how far they want the distance drawn. Personally I would just like to see the draw distance expanded just a few 100 feet, so I don't see it happening. As the illusion is gone when trees start appearing in front of you with rocks and grass and mobs, I look at it this way, if I can't play on full graphic settings, then it's time to upgrade my pc parts

I think graphic quality is a subjective issue for the user and the game designer in the main.

Clearly for the multiple MMO player there is a sort of benchmark where quality moves from just about acceptable to absolutely fantastic.

From the game designers viewpoint they will want to enable the game to run on as many users computers as possible to sell more subscriptions, so there is a trade off between high quality and mass marketing.

Of the older games I have played, Everquest 2 is the surprise here, as in some places the graphic quality overall is good, but where the game is finally showing its age is perhaps at the coast line with water and the ocean. But in its heyday EQ2 was a system demanding game

WoW graphics were always designed for the mass market, in many places they are terrible. My only surprise is that in some places such as Stormwind and The Grizzly Hills regions the overall quality manages to be surprisingly acceptable

Rift is not too bad overall BUT where the game fails is on draw distance, sure I can adjust that in the settings but my problem (I accept it is personal) is that at very high settings the game for me is very very laggy

Finally age, you folks must learn to compare like with like, there is no point comparing a 5 year old game with one that has been recently released, I know Moore Law concepts are no longer quite as relevant today as they were a few years ago as we are starting to get closer to hitting ultimate barriers on silicon performance but even so a computer/server/broadband set up 4 years ago is just not going to compare with what we have today........for example my average broadband is perhaps 3 times faster

[Laeris]

Rift has the potential for awesome graphics, and scales up with new systems better than 4 year old MMO's, obviously.

Sadly, Rift suffers from a lack of polygons. The best textures in the world, the most advanced use of shaders or lighting can not make an octagon look like a good circle. There are games out there with 10 year old engines that use a higher polygon count than Rift.

Which ones exactly? I don't know of any MMO that isn't heavily instanced that has a higher poly count than Rift does. AoC, SWTOR... both are heavily instanced and can't fit the same players in a zone as Rift can on a screen at an invasion boss.

[Laeris]

I agree draw distance is the only thing that lets rift down, it would be good to see a slide bare that lets the user make the choices and how far they want the distance drawn. Personally I would just like to see the draw distance expanded just a few 100 feet, so I don't see it happening. As the illusion is gone when trees start appearing in front of you with rocks and grass and mobs, I look at it this way, if I can't play on full graphic settings, then it's time to upgrade my pc parts

There's a draw distance slider. If I'm in Sanctum, I can see Port Scion and the trees between the two just fine.

[Haplesscolin]

Lots of you might think im mad but i think wow has the best graphics. I play rift all the time and have a decent spec pc, but wow has "real" anti aliasing, excellent blended stencil shadows, unique stylized artwork (subjective) and runs at 60fps even when the settings are maxed out (ultra setting). People can go saying "oh well its a 6 year old game and its had time to improve", but that's no excuse for an mmo coming out in 2011 and wanting to compete with the big boys. One of the biggest turn off's to a new player how the game performs on their machine, and rift's fps at launch and even now is unacceptable.

I love rift, an iv gotten used to playing at 30fps (iv capped the fps to 30 through the driver) but it still feels sluggish and ruins the look of the game. *rant over*

ps. FFS trion, please please please add 4X or 8X multisampling to the client! Ill marry you (in-game of course ))

[MajorMelchett]

There's a draw distance slider. If I'm in Sanctum, I can see Port Scion and the trees between the two just fine.

I don't think he's on aboiut full terrain draw distance (that's fine), i recon he's on about object detail/character draw distance.

In regards to the latter, i to would like at least another 100 feet added to the slider as the game looks great IMO but it really annoys me when i can see players firing at a boss BUT i can't see the boss, or when your in sanctum and the statue just pops up right in front of you etc.

[Laeris]

Lots of you might think im mad but i think wow has the best graphics. I play rift all the time and have a decent spec pc, but wow has "real" anti aliasing, excellent blended stencil shadows, unique stylized artwork (subjective) and runs at 60fps even when the settings are maxed out (ultra setting). People can go saying "oh well its a 6 year old game and its had time to improve", but that's no excuse for an mmo coming out in 2011 and wanting to compete with the big boys. One of the biggest turn off's to a new player how the game performs on their machine, and rift's fps at launch and even now is unacceptable.

I love rift, an iv gotten used to playing at 30fps (iv capped the fps to 30 through the driver) but it still feels sluggish and ruins the look of the game. *rant over*

ps. FFS trion, please please please add 4X or 8X multisampling to the client! Ill marry you (in-game of course ))

Aside from the AA bit... most people here are confusing art production with graphical complexity. Rift and WoW have two different art styles... but graphically you can't compare them. There's more polygons on an elf face in Rift than in 5 full avatars in wow combined. Graphically, Rift's HDR lighting capability and advanced shader is many years ahead of even WoW's "enhanced" verion.


Now, the stylized look of WoW and the armor/clothing styles, colors, etc... that's all subjective and an artistic difference between the two. Rift can have *real* AA... it quite simple to do. You turn of AA in-game and use your driver software to apply the level of AA you want. Looks fine and works great.

You'll note that most newer games though are getting away from in-game selectable AA sliders and are opting for systems like what we have in Rift. The reason why is because many new engines make good use of modern GPUs and they just aren't taxed very much by AA and shadows. That why in many games you now have shadows on/off instead of low-med-hi-ultra. The performance difference on most cards above a 450 series Nvidia card is immeasureable between off and ultra. In Rift, on my system, the FPS difference in Silverwood between none and max shadows is 1 FPS. The difference between AA is a little different... but I am running a 4-year old server chip in this PC and it isn't as fast as more modern i7s. No AA to supersampling is about a 15fps difference for me (50fps at zero, 35 at supersample. So, I just run on edge smoothing at a happy 45fps in Sanctum)

There's nothing wrong with a person liking how another game looks. All games have different art teams (usually!). The technology behind the scenes though is much different.

[Chumly]

Although the game play sucks in Final Fantasy XIV the graphics are stunning and far surpass anything RIft has to offer. Rift definatley beats it out in game play though.

http://gameiterator.com/final-fantas...ine-fields-11/

http://my.mmosite.com/680b81904f0535...da302ddd8.html

This is a picture of the update that is supposed to fix the game. We will see I guess.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/tag/final-fantasy-xiv/