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Post by Calliope on Sept 12, 2015 9:48:12 GMT -5
I have been messing around on the NWW vault downloading a bunch of overrides and even snagged a shader which is pretty spiffy. If you look closely at the picture you can see that the back ground is fuzzy while closer up is crisp. The shader I installed added a DOF (depth of field) function. Pretty neat stuff. This next image is just outside of GG past the bath house cave.
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Post by Calliope on Sept 13, 2015 6:23:32 GMT -5
GG during the day time ^_^. Heh, and there I am on the little bridge in the distance! I zoomed out a bit. Just another picture in GG with my new overrides and stuff.
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Post by ShadowCatJen on Sept 14, 2015 15:48:13 GMT -5
I have to ask, what sort of a beast of a computer are you using?
From the looks of things you have everything turned up to max and you're using overrides. I had to get rid of all my overrides just to get it semi-stable and not crash every two minutes.
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Post by Calliope on Sept 14, 2015 16:26:36 GMT -5
My computer is fairly good but I'm no expert, and yes, I do have everything set to max + a ton of overrides and junk.
Some parts of it are new and some are old as it's a mix of stuff my friend and I put together. I've upgraded and replaced parts as they have broken over the years but I still have the original mother board, processor and hard drive from when we first made it in 2009 so those parts are nothing special. My hard drive is a pathetic 150g. . . But I do have a spiffy new external I bought last year that's 1T but I'm sure your more interested to know about the more important stuff heh.
My specs - - AMD Phenom II x2 555 processor 3.2 Ghz. It's alright but it's only duel core so it's nothing amazing by today's standards. - 10 GB of ram XD so there is that. . 10 is pretty good but Ram is pretty cheap now a days. - AMD 2 GB R7870 Graphics card. Admittedly it is a rather beastly Video card.
My computer is pretty good but It's totally nothing amazing like one of those 1-2 thousand $ machines some people go for XD.. . I don't have that kinda money.
FYI best way to get a good computer is to build it yourself and shop parts from Newegg.com New Egg is amazing. Another tip that can help ya out is Best Buy will price match New Egg so sometimes you don't even have to wait for your stuff to ship if Best Buy has the same item your looking for.
-Calliope.
P.s. I still lag a little in super huge areas with other people around like in GG. . Especially on days when there are 30+ people on the server. Although I generally have little to no lag out of town or in dungeons.
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Post by DOT on Sept 14, 2015 20:09:31 GMT -5
these look amazingly beautiful, its like an entirely new game... don't suppose you'd share those overrides?
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Post by goldenhearts on Sept 14, 2015 20:12:41 GMT -5
I'll just post the link here as people seem to like it. Facelift
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Post by Calliope on Sept 14, 2015 21:00:45 GMT -5
Took some more pictures while stockin up on healin kits in Shally. Here's my favorite of the dozen I took XD.
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Post by Calliope on Sept 14, 2015 21:27:50 GMT -5
I love to mod my games XD, Just to make you guys really jealous you should see what my Skyrim game looks like with graphic settings tweaked beyond max, with over 200 mods, a graphic boosting ENB program, and a billion different re-skinned textures XD. . My mod folder for Skyrim is over 100 GB heh heh. The crazy thing is. . . there are people that have taken Skyrim way beyond this. . My computer just isn't good enough for me to push Skyrim any further. -Calliope
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Fenix
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Sleepless Golem, aka Kenny
If you read this, send me a love note.
Posts: 2,183
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Post by Fenix on Sept 14, 2015 22:29:03 GMT -5
I love to mod my games XD, Just to make you guys really jealous you should see what my Skyrim game looks like with graphic settings tweaked beyond max, with over 200 mods, a graphic boosting ENB program, and a billion different re-skinned textures XD. . My mod folder for Skyrim is over 100 GB heh heh. The crazy thing is. . . there are people that have taken Skyrim way beyond this. . My computer just isn't good enough for me to push Skyrim any further. -Calliope I sense a challenge! Dimitri and I playing Grand Theft Auto 5! Archeage Archeage Again Moreeeee Archeage Guess What? Dark Souls 2! Oh, and my favorite screenshot I took in Archeage.
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Post by EDM Entori on Sept 16, 2015 7:57:07 GMT -5
I love to mod my games XD, Just to make you guys really jealous you should see what my Skyrim game looks like with graphic settings tweaked beyond max, with over 200 mods, a graphic boosting ENB program, and a billion different re-skinned textures XD. . My mod folder for Skyrim is over 100 GB heh heh. The crazy thing is. . . there are people that have taken Skyrim way beyond this. . My computer just isn't good enough for me to push Skyrim any further. -Calliope I sense a challenge! Dimitri and I playing Grand Theft Auto 5! Archeage Archeage Again Moreeeee Archeage Guess What? Dark Souls 2! Oh, and my favorite screenshot I took in Archeage. I need archage by the looks of it.
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Fenix
~
Sleepless Golem, aka Kenny
If you read this, send me a love note.
Posts: 2,183
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Post by Fenix on Sept 16, 2015 11:13:50 GMT -5
I sense a challenge! Dimitri and I playing Grand Theft Auto 5! Archeage Archeage Again Moreeeee Archeage Guess What? Dark Souls 2! Oh, and my favorite screenshot I took in Archeage. I need archage by the looks of it. It was a good game back in alpha. Its ruined now. Trion tried their best, but the parent company XL Games drove the game into the ground.
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Post by Pedantry INC on Sept 16, 2015 11:24:23 GMT -5
Quoting images should be recognized as a forum crime Quoting quoted images again? Hmph! I recommend a dose of my judgmental suggestion for the future: Oh, and my favorite screenshot I took in Archeage. < awseomse swanky image bro! > <3 *runs away to be a pedantic pain somewhere else*
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Fenix
~
Sleepless Golem, aka Kenny
If you read this, send me a love note.
Posts: 2,183
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Post by Fenix on Sept 16, 2015 11:56:03 GMT -5
Quoting images should be recognized as a forum crime Quoting quoted images again? Hmph! I recommend a dose of my judgmental suggestion for the future: Oh, and my favorite screenshot I took in Archeage. < awseomse swanky image bro! > <3 *runs away to be a pedantic pain somewhere else* *sits quietly and adds his second gtx980 to his pc*
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Post by EDM Entori on Sept 16, 2015 12:33:10 GMT -5
*pats his Radeon R9 290X*
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Post by hellscream123 on Sept 17, 2015 19:40:34 GMT -5
* remembers the dysfunction of his tin box* Still a link to what you use would be nice
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Post by Calliope on Sept 17, 2015 21:03:47 GMT -5
I'll just post the link here as people seem to like it. FaceliftHey there ^_^, This is the main override I use. But by all means, search the vault. There is all kinds of neat stuff. Have fun! -Calliope P.s. Back up your files before you do any overrides or tweaks. Be safe! ^_^
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Post by Calliope on Sept 18, 2015 8:12:37 GMT -5
Hey np,
I don't use the transparent GUI as I have the Bulders Gate GUI. I think it look pretty snazzy. Also, I already have the overrides for my scrolls and spell icons. I actually have Overrides for class icons, skill icons, and pretty much everything XD heh.
Too much fun, Calliope.
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Post by Hellwalker on Sept 18, 2015 8:41:35 GMT -5
I don't use the transparent GUI as I have the Bulders Gate GUI. Would you mind posting a screenshot showing this off? I've never personally liked any of the UI overrides for NWN on the Vault, but I am curious.
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Post by Calliope on Sept 18, 2015 9:53:46 GMT -5
Sure ^_^, Here's a few pictures of my start up menu and in game GUI stuff. Ya so, I guess the Balders Gate GUI doesn't really change the GUI all that much but I like it. It's simple. I did have to remove the override files that overrode my compass though as I really really did not like the Balders Gate compass.. For some reason it was completely unlegible. Removing the compass component is easy it's only two files. After you dump the override files into your override folder just do a search function in that folder for "compass" and delete the two files that pop up. Done. ^_^ In this second image you can also see the many icon overrides I have for scrolls, spells, and skills. I also have feat icons redone but I didn't feel like having a 3rd screen shot. I think you get the idea. And yes.. I am a bit OCD with some things.. Notice all my coins XD lol. . . I always always keep one of every coin in game minimum and I keep them all in my first tab in a nice little line. When I get more coins I just split them leaving one and sell off the rest. I do this because I hate having to find the coins that you randomly pick up when looting.. The coins get sorted all through out your inventory pages and it's Meh.. Heh, additionally I can zoom out very very far and rotate the camera into -any- angle I want. Gota love having a camera mod. Silly silly, -Calliope
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Post by EDM Entori on Sept 20, 2015 10:29:23 GMT -5
What's the effect on your machine/performance. I know I ditched all my overrides when kal said it effected the server and client side lag. Wondering if you've had any negative effects.
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Post by Calliope on Sept 20, 2015 11:24:52 GMT -5
Difficult to say,
I mean . . I'm 100% sure that the overrides + my shader are gona lower performance but It would be hard for me to quantify.
Yes, I have noticed that in GG for example there is a bit of stutter when I walk about. It's nothing horrible but I would say it feels and looks like the FPS must be dipping low? I think It's that kinda stutter.
Though I don't think that it's completely the overrides or the shaders fault. You see, I also set the grass distance draw much higher from the default 900 to 1800 by tweaking my ini files. NWNs is a fickle game and doubling the grass draw distance was probably pretty performance heavy of a move to make and especially in areas like GG but I just got sick of seeing the grass unrealistically end when I look to the distance. Now the grass just goes on for pretty much as far as I can see. Looks great.
Additional I tweaked my GPU settings for how it runs NWNs. I put every setting to max. I tested it out and it seems to make a pretty huge difference on image quality. For example, the shaft of my staff on lower settings looked like a pixelated rough edged mess.. All choppy and gross. I than set the settings to max on my GPU and suddenly now the staff is perfectly smooth as are the edges and quality of every thing in the game from my characters hair to the sides of the buildings. This also probably has lowered my performance lol.
Lets also not forget that GG is a huge area with a ton of crap and often a ton of players in it. My stuttering is usually only bad when I'm in areas like GG.
Do my overrides and shader lower my performance? Yes, but not enough for me to care. The game is still very playable and I feel the vastly improved image quality was worth the performance loss. I think this is gona be on a case by case basis though as other players computers might have more or even less significant drops in performance and also some people may prefer performance over quality.
Any effect on my machine? My GPU fans are running faster but according to my GPU monitor they still are only at half of their max capacity. My GPU temperatures have also increased a bit but are still within safe levels. I've seen it get much hotter while playing other games.
I would also like to point out that I have the in-game settings on max as well and even before I added the overrides/shader, tweaked my gpu, or tweaked my ini files I had experienced problems with performance in the past while in large areas like GG.
One thing that I am almost positive has helped me (again, very hard to quantify) is to set my processor affinity to 1 in the NWNplayer.ini file. This can done by adding or changing the line to "Client CPU Affinity=1" under the game options near the top of the file. Doing this is highly controversial as there are many varying opinions on the matter were some people claim this helps little to none or that it should actually be set to a different number based on how many cores your processor has. Some people say to set it to 2 or -2.. or I have even heard -1.. *Shrugs* But the way I have had it explained to me is that NWNs is too old a game to run on multiple cores and that it causes issues when your computer attempts to do so. Apparently setting it to "1" as I did is suppose to make it so your computer only uses one of your cores and therefore runs the game how it was intended to be played, on one core, and smooths out some performance issues.
Please please please if you do want to try to tweak any game files or add overrides, back up your files XD.. Making changes or adding crap to you game can cause serious issues. I'm positive you know this Entori I just am adding this as caution to others who will probably read this and want to try it.
Most people probably all ready know this too but if you have shiny water enabled on your in-game video settings probably should turn that crap off.. It can often weirdly and horribly decrease performance.. It's seriously insane.
Hope that helps, -Calliope.
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Post by marredwolf on Sept 20, 2015 12:58:06 GMT -5
my case:
added the facelift as a patch. CEP is there, no other hacks or overrides. added that Client CPU Affinity=1 line
result: the game still runs. not sure about improvement speed, but the graphics are amazing. huge difference, there is no noticed slow down or lag problems of any kind so far. i run with max graphics settings, minus the shiny water.
my computer: Old Mac Dual 2 Ghz PowerPC G5 8 GB Ram OS 10.5.8
edit: thanks for the links and the tips. working really well
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Post by Calliope on Sept 24, 2015 22:23:40 GMT -5
Few random pics, Another picture of GG because. . It's just so gosh darn photogenic XD. Btw I think that's Davice, myself as Calliope in the center, and Sparrow? Hi guys. *Waves* Here's Calliope hangin out at the necropolis. . . And by hanging out I mean that she got stuck on a placeable tree and couldn't move until a nice unknown DM saved her. Took some pictures while I waited. Thanks again random DM. <3 I just really liked the lighting in this shot. *Shrugs* *Glances to the emerald golem with raised brow* "Minion, what have you DONE?! These were human beings with lives and families and-- I'm totally kidding. SCREW those guys!" - Claptrap from Borderlands 2 This picture totally made me think of Claptrap.. Heh fun stuff. ^_^ By the way. . . I think it's working but I have a new override that is suppose to increase gore and also make the dead bodies remain on the ground longer for maximum carnage. I'm not sure if there is more gore or not but I can say that after I loot a body it will stay on the ground for several mins longer than normal in most cases as it doesn't seem to work on every monster. Great for admiring your handy work after a big fight. Hue hue, -Calliope
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Post by Calliope on Sept 29, 2015 8:08:43 GMT -5
One new pic, This is a picture of basically my new favorite place on the server. The last flagon Inn. Been havin a lot of fun exploring the Hullack of late. Hope I don't die out there. . . heh, it's scary deep in the woods XD. . . *Crosses fingers*, -Calliope
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Post by Razgriz on Oct 23, 2015 8:07:09 GMT -5
Im an avid modder as well, though I only use the transparent GUI at the moment. That shader looks amazing even so. If I have time, I will test it later with FRC and NWN.
As for the shiny water effect, it looks almost as good as water in modern games, my laptop has no issues with it. I just hope the shaders do not decrease my FPS.
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