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4 years and still so gorgeous.
Shastra
Member Posts: 1,061
I am new to COH (second day). I subscribed to this game with not much hopes about the graphic engine. Everyone told me that graphic engine is outdated but gameplay is what makes COH different. Anyways? so i enter paragon city and crank everything in graphic settings to max. I must say not bad. I still have to visit many areas as i just started but i would like to know if the environments get even better later in game or its more or less repetitions in outdoor levels.
Also how can i activate the physique engine in graphic options? i am using 8800GT 512 card.
Comments
Welcome!
There was a large graphical upgrade about a year after the game went live (it had been in beta for a long time and thus had been a bit lacking even young in life). Still that is 3 years ago and IMHO it looks great.
In terms of what you see, more recently-developed zones definitely look better. The original content had some nice areas (take a walk around Perez Park when you're about 10-ish), and they do find ways to make one City Zone (Steel Canyon with it's skyscrapers) differ from another (Skyway City with small factories under towering overpasses) differ from another (Founders Falls, the rich neighborhood with ornate architecture and Venice-like canals).
Nevertheless, there was also much repetition among earlier zones. Boomtown looks cool on first entrance, but the whole zone looks the same, and parts of Eden, Crey's Folly, Rikti Crash Site, and Siren's Call all have the exact same "rubble" look.
Newer stuff though tends to be really nice. Striga was the first new zone that really had people going "wow." When you hit 20, if you get a chance you should start running missions there. (Many teams don't favor there anymore, but they'll go if you join one and ask to run your missions.) Striga differs highly from section to section, and the storyline matches the different sections.
Croatoa was the next big new zone. It's a 25-35 area, and it has a very different feel and look. It also has new enemies you won't see anywhere else.
Sooner than either of those, you can visit Faultline between 15 and 25. It received a makeover about a year or so ago, and the premise of the zone is that "heroes are winning, and now the city is starting to rebuild." It's a nice idea and looks great, and the story ties in wonderfully. (Plus it features some recurring characters you'll meet again at higher levels.)
You might also want to play the villain side a bit. It was all developed more recently, and therefore has a lot of variety built in even though it strictly has fewer zones.
As for the Physx engine, you have to wait for Nvidia to turn it on: http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_faq.html
City of Heroes used the SDK to get PhysX support built in, but Nvidia just isn't ready yet.Currently playing:
DC Universe
Planetside 2
Magic Online
Simunomics, the Massive Multiplayer Economic Simulation Game. Play for free.
Thx for the detailed reply. To enable Physx engine Nvidia will release new set of drivers? because i have 8800GT and its listed under CUDA enabled GPU.
That's my understanding, yes. That nvidia link says "new system software is delivered to gamers later this year." And I've heard from those who have tried the experimental drivers that they've been very buggy so far.
Currently playing:
DC Universe
Planetside 2
Magic Online
Simunomics, the Massive Multiplayer Economic Simulation Game. Play for free.
That should be pretty cool although given my current Nvidia drivers still act a bit wonky with i12.....we may wait a while for sure.
Yeah CoX has some of the nicest geological graphics in any MMO games, they updated the graphics in issue 7 I think, the depth of field blur is a nice touch and improved landscape detail.