Turbine Games Q&A/Graphics/Q-16

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_questions.html?id=768

4 Graphics detail settings

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Asked:	2000.11.01
Name:	Pyreal Rat
Question Title:	4 Graphics detail settings
Category:	Graphics
Question:	Can you explain the 4 graphics detail settings in the options screen and explain what each of them do, and which ones effect performance the most?

Answered:	2000.11.01
Name:	Sean.
Answer:	First of all, leaving all options to FULL will mean you have the highest possible resolution in memory for every texture you see. This can be quite memory-intensive, but achieves the best visual result. If you have the memory, I highly recommend it. It doesn't really slow down framerate performance much to have higher resolutions, until it begins to use so much memory your system begins paging. It may slightly increase loading time when a new object is loaded. Reducing down one level from FULL to 1/2 cuts the memory requirement to 1/4. So going down to 1/8 means you are using 1/64th the amount of graphic memory compared to when they're set at full. Of course you suffer visually. Here is what the four options mean: 1) Landscape - These are the images that you see on the ground. Only on the ground. These can be quite large in memory, and if you are in an area between several different environments, several can be loaded in memory at once. In Software Render, the image is not huge, and is only in memory once, or some small number of times, with different palettes associated with it. Reducing this in hardware can save you some memory, whereas in software, not so much. 2) RGBA - These are alpha-blended RGBA images used in some places in the hardware renderer. If you use software, setting this down or up won't change much since the software renderer doesn't use these. Particles in hardware use this kind of texture. Since these are 32 bit, rather than 8, reducing this can help. But since most of our hardware particles are not very high-res, savings may be minimal. 3) CLIPMAP - These are images that clip part of the image away, rendering what's behind them. Many trees use clip-mapping. Throughout the world, however, these images are not used too frequently, and the higher-res these remain, the better the clipping looks. I recommend leaving this one a little higher than some of the others. 4) INDEXED - This covers the remains, or the vast majority of all images used in AC. Your avatar, creatures, trees, all landscape objects, weapons, shields, dungeons, just about EVERYTHING uses this type of graphic. They are 8-bit images, indexed to a palette. Reducing this down a level will probably gain you the most memory savings, but again, the visuals may suffer a little. With hardware, blending helps reduce the visual effect of reducing from FULL to 1/2 or even to 1/4. Sean.