Lallendos

MWAHAHAHA

Oh, and it bears repeating: Triple buffering will incur a great amount of memory bandwidth/usage cost. Vertical sync WILL cause frame rate loss. Interestingly, VSYNCH solves an issue with cards redrawing faster than the monitors"refresh", even if it is momentarily. Triple buffering is to correct the other issue of if a card is rendering fewer frames than refresh, it can clean image. The cost is very high when enabling both. I am quite glad that a few people have $300 to $500 video cards, but the trend towards $400 PCs tells me that you are causing people to make underinformed decisions.

If this is a settings guide, how about actually explaining the setting, and a little more detail about the good and bad it can do.

"So for all you alt-tabbers out there, I'm sorry, run in windowed mode. By the by, the one time that I did get 2X to work in game, it still looks like crap. Allowing the game to manage fsaa does NOT produce the proper lack of jaggies when compared to allowing the driver to handle it."

I alt- tab every game session, on my 9800. My daughter does also, on her GF6200.

I still run 1280X1024 with no FSAA, high water quality, and 4X AF, high quality AF, and crisp textures.

Bill, have you considered that your viewing is subjective? The game is not DOING the antialiasing, it is setting a bit, and the card driver is doing it. Or you can set it in the card driver. One difference is that on some ATIs you can enable high quality AA if you force it in driver. This may be the quality difference you see. Otherwise, no, not possible. There is zero difference between card driver forced and game allowed FSAA, -unless- the driver forced has options not available in the app controlled mode.

I will admit that, after testing, my 9800 doesn't suffer bad with 2 X forced, but also benefits very little in image....

You can't change the refresh on an LCD. Change it all day in software, but it will still be effectively 60Hz, with after image being the only concern. Afterimage is likely not an issue on any LCD monitor of gaming intent.
Bear in mind that having a nice big LCD monitor doesn't make you an expert on how they work any more than having my being into PCs/networking (especially gaming hardware and optimizatoion) since the Commodore VIC 20, makes me a Quantum3D X-24 card expert. My brother has a 21, 2 19s, 1nd several 17 inch dells, as well as every LCD on every current high end laptop Dell has. We thoroughly researched latency, refresh, contrast ratio, native resolution ( and how deviating is good or bad, in a given system), and every other factor. You can't change refresh rate, because there technically isn't one.

Do you understand what you give up at 1920xXXXX resolution, in using FSAA? Your video card internally pre- renders at higher than actual resolution, and with quincux/smoothvision, or similar randomizing, or nonlinear techniques, it even uses randomized point samples. This is an oversimplification, but basically, you eat a god bit of extra memory bandidth and processing ability of the vid card. 1280 x 1024 with 4X AA, is only a mimic of your 1920 x XXXX, yet I imagine for most people reading your guide, running 1920 x XXXX native resolution on an LCD would be more than sufficient without antialiasing. This very high resolution aslo would be done without the video issues that seem to crop up while using AA.

And as for crisp textures.... again try it. SOME cards may have issues, but my lowly 9800Pro didn't lose 2FPS, but the eye candy is incredible.

Character detail shouldn't be changing view distance of enemies. World detail should be.

Do you realize how many people play this game with a Ti4x00/9500/9700/9800/Geforce5x00 card? You are complaining about jaggies at a resolution that would break all of those cards with antialiasing, in almost every case. Persons trying to duplicate your settings on these cards may be a little unhappy.

I've been a computer gamer for over 20 years, and a PC gamer since '92. I can promise you that amongst MMO players, My 19" Hitachi Super Scan Elite 751, and 9800 Pro All-in Wonder represents median performance and output quality.

Can't change LCD refresh.

Character quality at 200% may be hurting performance a good bit. I use 95 % world/100% character.

At that high resolution, no FSAA is needed. Seriously. And high quality water is awesome.

Remember, you are using 6.4s

I strongly recommend disabling Vert refresh.
Also turn off triple buffering

Aniso beyond 4 X has no highly visible improvement, but causes performance drop.

I use 4X / crisp textures, it's wow nice looking. Try it. Really.

Perfect summary, Storm.

PA drops are inaccurate. I've been on the ground, with PA centered under Hamidon, and watched the mess. We typically have the taunter pull Hamidon blasts, and centered PA to draw surroundung aggro. With the PA actively attacking, we don't have aggro issue hardly ever within the Illusion team. Once the PA are in and centered, with controllers very near to Hamidon, the taunter can draw Hamidon blasts if desired. I have found the taunter unneeded this early in, but if you have a griefer with taunt, they can easily pull Hamidon aggro onto the illusions. This seldom leads to a wipe of the illusions, but can prvoe irritating.

Also, air dropped PA was used to grief Illusions a couple of times in the past. Once the fire is redirected from the centered PAs, the agitated mitos are reminded that there are soft lil squishy guys right nearby. Once the air-PA despawn, the Illusions start taking damage/getting held to death etc. Air drops are imprecise, and less aggro efficient. They are a quick and dirty solution made by people I suspect just wanted safety for themselves. Virtue's Illusions are insanely devoted to efficiency and aggro control. We are first in after phase shifters get some bubble entry aggro for us. We are least likely to ever go AFK during a raid. We wear our debt as a badge to flaunt before the gods of efficiency.

Unfortunately, after the addition of the "Rock Star" taunter and entourage of 7 empaths, we seldom get our red badge of courage.

Jack Frost, along with dark pets are unneeded, and in each of their own ways, bad for the raid in general. Pet AI is server side. Most all of the "lag" during raids is server side calculations. To-hits, pet AI, etc, all happening in what the server side "sees" as about 2 minutes. Virtue's attack phase is actually pretty time warp free. That is to say that, until right at the end of attack, when people drop ALL pets out for the bud SO drops, it is near real- time. After that, it's all a matter of how many raiders, and how many pets.

The "short- handed" raid tactic is to gather some empaths, create a healing umbrella for illusions. They stage up next to the big rock on the S side of Hamidon. You have anyone with phase shift use it, and enter, getting appropriate aggro.

The Illusions will now enter and cast PA, staggered by a few seconds. Any illusionist named LALLENDOS will now be rezzed. Once a considerable count of PA are in, and the illusion team (parked as close to Hamidon as can, while avoiding AoE blast) is not taking any significant defeat count, the mito team can enter.

There are some tricks to the above:
PA casts must be just to the other side of Hamidon from the illusion cluster. This allows them to get very close to Hamidon, not get AoE'd, stay more out of range of most mitos, and facilitates minimal movement to steer clear of mito team.
One key thing that is optional, is that if you fear that the raid may be griefed by a taunter in or near the illusions, have the taunter come in early. I personally dislike using 3 to 5 empaths to support a single bag of hit points, that assuming no griefers, is totally unnneded, and detracts from support on the mito team. In larger raids, it is ok.
Also, it is proven to be a good idea to have a lone wolf type hang out a tad away from other illusions, just in case the illusions take a hit, PA can still exist.

I don't even begin to see the value of chaotic PA scattered AROUND hamidon, from drops. This has actually griefed our normal raid before, when there was no taunter until the hold phase. The errant PA drew all kinds of aggro, which then refocused. Virtue has a very clean and efficient system now. The "new" guys don't fully understand all of the dynamics, but play their role quite well.

While this guide is very useful to new people, I see a few flaws. In normal scenarios, dark pets are unneeded. They pam heals. Yes, they hold, but again, not needed. I see singularity as the only "needed " pet. Pure holds.

I don't know what server you are on, but I and some others convinced everyone on Virtue long ago to NOT air drop PA. It is horribly inaccurate, and draws aggro to the caster if things are marginal in illusionist count. This is not an "every raid" tactic.

I will not argue that stalkers are all kiddie minded, unless it's to inflame you. I have to argue though, that those few intelligent, calculating Stalkers will be the absolute most unstoppable force in RV with these patron powers.

I mean it: Balancing a high frontloaded damage, stealther is hell. On everyone.

Oh, forgot to add:
I don't PVP, never have. I am open to it, but i've learned that only stalkers and only EM/EA or EM/Reg is worth the effort. I don't like losing, and being a lone stalker has the least potential for it. Until I can beat them, i'd only join them.

So I don't PVP ;-)

Hey, it's my opin, and I said should see.....
Oh, and please don't tell me that stalkers require thoughtful, intellectual, and calculating players..... I looked in the stalker boards, and saw everything I hated about WoW, and Lineage2. Sorry, I just don't care to buy into a need for an Ub3r B0y AT in this game. An extreme DPS stealthing class seems to get included in every MMO with PVP. And it ALWAYS spawns issues, real and imagined. And, of course the puberty minded will always migrate to anything that allows them to one (or 1.0001) shot you and/or perpetual gank people.

Don't nerf stalkers! Leave them alone! Just remove them from the game, is all....

I like Vort's words. They completely sum up how everyone else should see stalkers, and their mindset. Not that he is the only example. Far from it. And he's not a bad guy, I assume, because the Jerks have a good reputation overall. It was just very easy to see his post on the stalker forum. Kinda flashing at me in neon, and all.

See my above post. Cryptic has to do something to keep potential WoW players. God knows that the 14 yr old mentality is totally ADHD.

Once you admit that Stalkers are broken, i'll quit saying it. They are broken. Wlecome to the world of Issue 2 regen scrappers. You are either in flawless victory, or did something stupid. I just hope for your sake that you don't get -quite- a /regen level beatdown.

You added an empath earlier to a 1v1 conflict. Let's toss a brute in that conflict then, or especially a dominator. Of course, I don't PVP, so i'm sure there are plenty of even uglier team scenarios. My point is, you kepp backpedaling, and changing context when losing. Why not just say what I read on the stalker boards:

"GAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA
#5158627 - 03/31/06 02:55 PM


Every single patron power pool has a snipe AND a single-target hold.


Oooh, is this gonna be fun.

--------------------
Virtue
Vortex Reborn, L40 EM/EA stalker. 201 badges!

JERK 4 LIFE."

Thx Vort, you made my point about stalkers AND PVP of late.

_Castle_ Has stated that Stalkers are FAR out killing in PVP, versus any other AT. Is it really required for anyone to even argue some of the points after that?

Incorrect. Coming up 4 here. Can that Stormie defeat your stalker solo? no. If they nerf hurricane, or if you use a ranged hold, can you defeat said stormie? Absolutely.

There is no need to nerf hurricane. It AT BEST gives the storm person survival. Nothing more. Enter the team dynamic, and a domintaor drops the hurricane, and done.

I realize you PVP addict that think stalkers aren't overpowered, think that Stalker's should be able to solo any other AT. Well, you are wrong. While you may not be able to use the same old worn out chain of attacks to defeat a storm def/controller, it's still a very easy kill. You just MIGHT have to team.

And, remember, kiddies:
In order to defeat a stalker not asleep at the keyboard, that same stormie MUST get a team.

I will chime in as a highly sought after kin/dark.
I have recharges in every power
I stack my siphons
I have hasten.

The problem as I see it is that it takes 3 to 5 power activations to work into a fight. The very first one to get max damage will be Fulcrum Shift. I cannot emphasize enough how many times I have faceplanted trying to fulrcum and blackstar 4 or 5 even level Possessed Scientists. I tried a large variey of tactics.

Your idea works in a perfect world, with a perfect - ish build, versus the post 40 non-existent group of even level non- status effecting minions.

I've lived your theory. Good luck with that. Oh, BTW, by the time you achieve damage cap, you are dead, and then enemies are gone. Oh, and dont forget to actulally GET those stacked siphon speeds you spoke of in there. Between heal, transfer, Fulcrum and siphons, my solo combats are HORRIBLY long. Tortuously. Now toss me a pet stone tanker, though......

Just so you know:

I currently play at 1024X 768, cat 6.3s, P4 2.4, 1.5 gigs RAM, ATI 9800 Pro AIW, 128MB.

1. Had ALL of these issues, on a fresh load of XP. Came to find that as long as AGP writes was on, I could not run dual- channel memory without issues both in- game and out. This issue may be platform-specific to me. AGP wites is on, and I dont use dual channel mode.

2. AGP Fast Writes gave me fits w/the 6.2s. The 6.3s apparently prefer for the CPU to directly access the card. AGP FW on, no issues w/the weird contact grqaphics etc.

I honestly believe Antialiasing may be useless. Try these settings changes:

LCD: find and use monitor's native resolution in-game.
FSAA: app controlled (off in CoH) BTW = have my suspicions on Quincux.
Aniso: 4X (8X and 16X have never been seen as -better-, but are MUCH more costly)
Shadows: OFF - ATI has had issues in other games with shadows on.
Texture crispness: Crisp (YES, crisp, it's AWESOME looking)
Water effcts: High (Looks cool)
DOF and Bloom: I leave off but suffer little perf hit either way.
Was in leadership of Hami raid, and had graphics turned down, yes, but no crashes, never lost target, and dipped below 8 FPS seldom, including attack phase.

I DO use high quality texture settings in card options. This is because lower settings actually hurt me more. It uses texture compression, which chew Card cycles. 128MB is plenty for my in-game res and texture choices, so I am staying High Quality.

FSAA is unnecessary at 1280X 1024 for me. I still have it off at 1024X768, as I am fine w/tiny jaggies.
BillZ- Do you know that Triple buffering does nothing unless Vsynch is on? And Both Vsynch and Triple cause a good sized hit to card memory use as well as frame rendering speed when combined..... Some of your settings are ill- advised for those with low end, or older cards.

BTW VPU recover is also reportedly linked to performance and stability issues when enabled.

I get sound looping seldom, unless running for hours now. Researching that.

That is all....

Edit: Note that AGP writes and AGP Fast Writes are NOT the same thing.
Triple buffering is disabled to save card memory and card memory bandwidth. Vsynch is off, as I dont get a solid 60FPS+, so synching would only hurt performance.

Sorry- don't play forum games- The facts stand.
They made a change against outcry and sensibility.
They later intend to "alter it". Not remove, just alter. This means they are STILL NERFING a weak secondary effect FURTHER. This bait and switch has happened numerous times, and again, in spite of your apparent predisposition to posting abundantly, you haven't read enough to notice.
They threw a half-hearted fix to one- shots. A fix that changes it to 1 shot +brawl for pretty much all previously one shotted folks......

They are deceptive or inept. That is my take after observing for near 2 years now. I choose deceptive, based upon their knowing facts, and using spin tactics to quell protests over changes.

EF changes.
Regen changes.
END drain changes.

A few others I dont recall right away....

You either know, it but are stubborn, or arguing from ignorance.

Post deleted by Alexa

Allow me to bring you back to reality. I don't want them to consult me. I'm an IT professional. We don't release jack diddly squat from developers without developer AND End User Testing. This piece, as were many others, got released live without consideration of known side effects. If the side effects WERE considered, then they were thought without merit for restarting the development cycle, or tuning and re-testing. That, or it actually WAS a diversion tactic to get us accepting a new nerf with smiles.

What I WANT is proper testing, and no spin doctoring. Those of you following along the nerf trail like lemmings must not work at jobs with any level of responsibility. We are paying customers. Hundreds of thousands of us. We pay for testing. We pay for careful analysis. I don't give a rat's [censored] about lying to the player base. I note ACTIONS not words, unless they contrast in such a way as to alter character of the speaker.

The ACTION taken directly relates to weakening the effects of an already hampered collection of powers. Other options WERE available. The side effects were patently obvious, and quite loudly complained about, and intelligently debated. Sounds real familiar to me.

"Every time a new issue is released, a thousand /regens faceplant. More."

Perhaps you haven't noticed just how often this type of thing happens. What you witnessed is forum-goer frusration at how even obvious side effects, side effects that are noticed and commented on, mind you, aren't even considered until after the fact.

Oh, and it's been said before, in different words, yet is worth repeating:
We live and breathe the tiniest details in your creation for hours on end.
We rejoice in every new experience added.
When you cut off our legs, we will not celebrate when you later sell us a wheelchair.
We are your dedicated players.