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[Preview] EverQuest II: The Future of EverQuest II
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
One might think, given that Sony Online Entertainment is actively building EverQuest Next in the form of Landmark, that the two elder EQ games would be going on cruise control as SOE shifts assets to focus on the new shinies. This statement could not be any further than the truth.
Read more of Jean Prior's EverQuest 2: The Future of EverQuest 2.
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Comments
new race - fun fluff
EQ2 fan sites
Only dabbled in this game in the past. Downloaded and started playing again a few days ago. It still has some beautiful designs but....man i wish they could somehow migrate to a primarily GPU intensive , or at least, not so CPU raping code/engine/whatever. There is really no reason why a 10 yr old game should not run at max settings..the highest settings....with a GTX 780ti ...8GB RAM and an i7 2600 (no K). Eventually I'll have to upgrade my motherboard to raise the cpu power but I should not have to for EQ2.
Then again, I guess there is a "reason" for it to run like crap in places b/c ..well...it does.
I mean ..spikes down to 8 FPS...come on.
You can upgrade your whole rig and get the bleeding edge hardware, but it won't matter...The reason EQ2 runs like this (and I think you probably know this b/c you said it in ur post) is b/c the engine was designed for the for single-core CPU processors that never came along (basically two generations of single-core CPU's after what was being used at the time of initial development, b/c they wanted the specs to hold up through a few gens of hardware), rather then the multi-core CPU direction that design actually went in. In other words, SoE banked on the wrong tech, and EQ2 has been paying the price ever since. So no matter what the devs do, short of re-writting or replacing, the current engine it won't make much of a difference.
They actually hired a Graphics Developer (Ryan) who did some fantastic work on EQ2 and moved a lot of stuff (like Shadows) to the GPU.
He even did a Whole shader revamp, but sadly was never able to finish the job, before he was pulled from EQ2 to work on other games under Development at the time (DCUO they had major issues With and he needed to fix before launch I believe).
Sadly they never gave him the chance to go back and finish the job with the shaders, as man! The work he already did, EQ2 looked amazing! Much better. /sigh and cry!
Multi-core CPU support was also added several years ago.
Yes, they have done what they can to off-load some of the burden onto the GPU, but even with what they have done it hasn't been enough to get it really running like it should, even on the bleeding edge you'll find some lag in raids, or large gatherings of players. For an almost ten year old game, that's insane.
And yes, they added multi-core support, but it didn't really change much b/c of the way the engine was originally built. Support doesn't necessarily mean that the game is optimized for multi-core CPU's.
You just have to tweak down the particle settings. That really reduces lag by a lot.
And if you play on Antionia Bayle (like I do).... a lot of the lag you experience might not be GFX related but server side related due to high load!
Not to say i didn't notice the changes. Big differences. Still just a bit let down b/c even after 10 years...the game would look very sweet . If only at times It didn't feel like I was watching through every other window of a speeding strobe-lit rail car.
I have a character now on three different servers. All under 13th level at this point. Barely anyone about. I think i've seen maybe 15 players total...that I've noticed. Which is understandable...didn't really see too many newbs in starting areas on my server in wow a few months ago either. Anyhow, even at mid range with a few higher settings i get lag spikes down to 8 FPS or so on every one I've played.
Oh well....I do like my Monk and Swashbuckler. And they sure don't shy away from giving out free tidbits here and there. Even to da free bums like me.
if you think about upgrading hardware;
I run a I7, 500gb+ SSD + extra 3TB HDD system, 32gb RAM, 64 bit obviously, SLI Geforce GTX 780 Ti's on glass fibre speed.
And it still has problems with the game.
Shame, I loved it back in the day.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Yeah you need to run a quad core cpu overclocked to hell then it will run smooth. Because each core is faster then a 8core or 6 core would be.
The latest generation CPU's have reached the same clock speeds as their old single core equivalents.
There are some really good GFX tweak guides on various EQ2 fansites.
I have played this game on and off since launch and managed to find a sweet spot in my settings so my lag is absolutely minimal. Hardly every go below 30 fps.
There are sertain GFX settings that can bring your PC on your knees, like shadows, water effects and particles effects. Tuning Down flora density helps a lot too. Just like setting LOD to low setting.
It sounds like a really good expansion pack! I will definitely be playing even with the arrival of WoD roughly around the same time. I hope that EQ2 lasts even longer and continues to receive support from SOE.
Yeah, the engine is problematic and is really my only beef with the game overall. Only other irritation is that I disconnect sometimes when I zone, especially to the guild house.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
See..my point exactly. My setup is fine for every game I come across so far..on high to highest settings. Your setup is at least 1.5x as powerful with the same issues. The game is old..no reason for this except lack of forethought for future (though not that far ahead) tech. It's not like there were no GPUs back then...SO why lean so heavily on the CPU?
Oh well.
Milk.
Spilt.
The last of my tears.
By default EQ2 uses CPU for shadows. In the options panel, click advanced at the top, scroll to shadows, and switch to GPU. Gives massive FPS gains. True the game isn't the best optimized but they've made improvements and I can run fairly high end settings with 40-50 fps on my laptop with a 680m.