Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Visuals or Performance?

    • 9115 posts
    August 2, 2018 4:10 AM PDT

    Do you crank the graphics up to max in the games you play for the best visual experience or are you more of a performance type of player with low to medium settings? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    • 1281 posts
    August 2, 2018 4:24 AM PDT

    I will tweak my settings to keep my FPS to be between 45 and 60 at the maximum fidelity for that range, but I'm not too picky. As long as I have settings that are making an actual impact to performance and visuals, so I can dial it in, I am happy.


    This post was edited by bigdogchris at August 2, 2018 4:25 AM PDT
    • 259 posts
    August 2, 2018 6:00 AM PDT

    I mostly stick with the optimized settings for a balance of both, but occasionally I like to push it up for the best visual appearance.

    I just love to see the game world through the eyes of the artists who created it.

    That's the only way possible.

    • 633 posts
    August 2, 2018 6:08 AM PDT

    I like to use the best visuals I can, as long as I'm getting 30+ fps.

    • 121 posts
    August 2, 2018 6:28 AM PDT
    Depends on the genre. FPS games, performance is king, I'll crank those graphics down. MMOs, I'll turn them up until I feel like it's having a negative impact on my gaming (deaths).
    All games, music is low to off and effects low to medium so I can clearly hear voice chat. Grass/terrain is turned low to off. I'm colorblind so I have issues seeing small mobs or loot on ground if I have to rely on color to see them. Spell effects set low for others and medium for me. I dont like losing track of mobs in a blinding mess on my screen.
    • 1281 posts
    August 2, 2018 6:39 AM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Do you crank the graphics up to max in the games you play for the best visual experience or are you more of a performance type of player with low to medium settings? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    I crank the visuals to the max that I can without losing performance, then wwill roll back just a shade to prioritize performance over visuals.  That being said, I try to buy the best hardware I can afford at the time to try to get both as close to max as I can.

    • 30 posts
    August 2, 2018 6:45 AM PDT

    I push for the best visuals that I can get as long as performance is maintained. It's pointless to have hi particle density effects, shadows, smooth edges, etc. if the frame rate blows because it kills my immersion in the game and that's always what I want (as much immersion as I can get). I anticipate that Pantheon will definitely pull me into the game with visuals and sounds. If I start to take a hit in performance, I will drop down settings but only begrudgingly so.

    I will update my system when needed to improve performance. I currently have a 1080Ti card mainly for powering VR games I play but will upgrade when the next gen. of nVidia cards are released this year and would get two if it helps me squeeze the absolute most out of Pantheon. 

    • 429 posts
    August 2, 2018 6:46 AM PDT

    Performance out weighs visual . Id rather crappy graphics and good performance .

    • 1281 posts
    August 2, 2018 6:50 AM PDT

    Along this vein, what would be interesting is to see Pantheon ship with a "test" program, sort of like a cut-down version of the 3DMark diagnostic to help you with balancing it.  The reason I say that, what might be fast in a dungeon might not necessarily be fast in an open area or in a raid.  If there was a program that ran through different graphic scenarios that you might encounter in-game and then make suggestions, and give the option to save the settings to the Pantheon config files, that would be cool.

     

    I doubt that it will be there, bit it would be kind of cool to have something like that.

    • 3852 posts
    August 2, 2018 7:03 AM PDT

    High visuals if performance is still good - otherwise whatever level of visuals I need to cut back to for reasonable performance. Many games have a "detect optimal settings" feature - that can be useful too.

    • 228 posts
    August 2, 2018 7:14 AM PDT

    If I set things so I can enjoy alle the eye candy when I'm meditating on a solitary hill top, everything could grind to a halt later when a huge train passes by in huge dungeon while my group is fighting multiple enemies casting visually spectacular spells. And if I set them to guarantee a useful FPS in the latter case, I'll probably miss a lot of said candy.

    Ideally, I would enter a minimum FPS and let the game dynamically crank the settings up when possible and down as needed, maybe guided by video preferences set by me. To what extent such a system is feasible, I don't know.

    • 1479 posts
    August 2, 2018 7:30 AM PDT

    The best possible withouth hindering gameplay. My computer is quite old but can still run current games descently.

    • 168 posts
    August 2, 2018 7:32 AM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Do you crank the graphics up to max in the games you play for the best visual experience or are you more of a performance type of player with low to medium settings? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    I am all about the mechanics. Performance comes first over visuals. What really happens is that if I cannot have both, I upgrade my machine so I can have both. I very much proudly consider myself a PC snob and will always raise a huge middle finger to anything specced to accomodate console range performance.

    • 483 posts
    August 2, 2018 8:01 AM PDT

    Performance always, first max it up see how well it runs, then tone it back down to get those sweet 60 fps, really important for me to have smooth gameplay, makes the game more enjoyable.

    One thing that I feel the need to point out is the fact that minimun settings shouldn't make the game ugly or take objects aways from the screen, it should just be resolutions, textures and effects that change, the game world should stay more or less the same making the game run on low end machines well, but still keeping the art direction and game world as the artist envisioned it. When low setting take away objetcs and make the world feel empty that's bad, because so much of the environmental aesthetic is lost, when the high setting are just a better version of the low setting that's when you get a game that looks good on all machines.

    • 54 posts
    August 2, 2018 11:06 AM PDT

    Performance first.  If you gave me a game with great gameplay that truly brought back the feel of EQ1, heck I would play that game even if it had EQ1 graphics.  I appreciate great graphics, but for me the most important thing is the gaming experience and part of that experience is having good performance, so I will definitely sacrifice graphics for better performance.

    • 187 posts
    August 2, 2018 11:20 AM PDT
    Max settings with 4k monitor. Love visuals !!! Its part of the immersion for me. If my PC can't handle it... tweak a few settings or upgrade time.
    • 1714 posts
    August 2, 2018 11:47 AM PDT

    Don't we have threads on this already?

    • 123 posts
    August 2, 2018 12:50 PM PDT

    Max visuals possible while keeping good enough performances to ensure a correct gameplay.

    • 154 posts
    August 2, 2018 1:22 PM PDT

    Gameplay is super important to me. Great visuals next.

    So it depends if I am solo, grouped or if I am raiding. It is great to see many beautiful animations solo or with a small group, but it usually gets too much for the eyes and the PC and the risk is to miss a valuable piece of information (roaming add for example). When I was raiding in the past, I used to low my settings. 

     

    • 646 posts
    August 2, 2018 1:30 PM PDT

    Visuals to the max.

    If I'm above 30 fps, I'm good, but I tolerate dips in congested areas like cities or in the middle of a raid encounter with 19 other people firing off spell effects.

    It's just gotta be PRETTY.

    • 1785 posts
    August 2, 2018 1:31 PM PDT

    I tend to push graphics up as far as I can while still maintaining "acceptable" performace.  For me, acceptable doesn't mean I need a constant 60 FPS, but in general I will tune things down if I start to get noticeable stuttering.

    • 74 posts
    August 2, 2018 1:44 PM PDT

    Performance over visuals for sure, but you need a decent baseline of visuals if you want to bring in non-hardcore people. I do the same thing as many here and just crank the graphics to maintian at least 45fps anywhere within the game. I run a 1080ti atm also so I tend to upgrade when it is needed to enjoy the ultrawide 3440 resolution.

    • 1399 posts
    August 2, 2018 1:52 PM PDT

    Simple process 

    I go for distance first. Shoot that clip plain all the way out. This I only compromise if absolutely necessary.

    Then tune the main settings as high as I can get before I see any noticeable drop in performance.

    Simple choosing between visual and performance, performance will always win out.

    • 122 posts
    August 2, 2018 2:49 PM PDT

    Why yes... I crank the graphics

    • 363 posts
    August 2, 2018 4:06 PM PDT

    I crank my graphics to whatever my machine can handle while getting good fps.