Who can play with shadows?

[NrthnStar5]

<p>I'm curious to know who can play with shadows at decent framerates. I think I have a pretty decent system :</p><p> Intel Core 2 2.40Ghz (OC'd to 2.83), Nvidia 8800GT 512mb video card, Soundblaster x-fi, 4 gb DDR2 ram, 2 7200rpm 16mb cache HD's in Raid 0. </p><p> I put my EQ2 settings on Very High quality and turn shadows off. In towns with several NPC's my framerates are usually 25-35 FPS, out adventuring in more open zones FPS is 30-60 FPS depending on the scene. If i turn shadows on (Only Character Shadows) i lose a good 10-15 FPS, way to much to play the game well. I don't want to lose quality elsewhere but I would like to know what people are doing to keep the high quality settings an keep shadows on.</p><p>Thanks!</p>

[Ninivee]

I'm running Very High Quality incl. shadows and some other settings tweaked up on my Intel QuadCore @3,3ghz, 8800GTS 640, 2 gig Ram, SB Audigy 1 and a common Maxtor 300gig SATA. Having about the same FPS you mentioned, i noticed that for a strange reason shadows do not impact my fps at all. I know they should as they cause quite a load to the cpu, but i've been testing it up and down in about every zone etc. The moment i turn on shadows, i lose about 5 fps for a few seconds, but then again they'll go up to their former value at once. Notice that i don't run AA because turning on AA at whatever setting sooner or later totaly locks up my whole pc after a random time played. May happen after 5mins, may happen after an hour. The only things that have a major impact to my fps are: -Torch. Taking out the torch does not only look better IMO, but give me a gain of about 20fps. I only use it gathering things at nighttime. It's definately worth a try! -Nekromancer's Spellbinder. The spellbinder has a certain nuke that causes red rocks(skulls?) flying all over. This spell is bugged for me and whenever it's getting casted, my fps drop to ~5 for a second. Tabbing out and back into the game helped to minimize this problem every now and then. Another thing that i have noticed is that alot of shadows seem to be buggy. If i stand still for a few minutes in i.e. Butcherblock Mountains, the day/night cycle moving the lights often causes false shadows from certain objects which are then looking like spikes allover the screen.

[Openedge]

<cite>Ninivee wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm running Very High Quality incl. shadows and some other settings tweaked up on my Intel QuadCore @3,3ghz, 8800GTS 640, 2 gig Ram, SB Audigy 1 and a common Maxtor 300gig SATA. Having about the same FPS you mentioned, i noticed that for a strange reason shadows do not impact my fps at all. I know they should as they cause quite a load to the cpu, but i've been testing it up and down in about every zone etc. The moment i turn on shadows, i lose about 5 fps for a few seconds, but then again they'll go up to their former value at once. Notice that i don't run AA because turning on AA at whatever setting sooner or later totaly locks up my whole pc after a random time played. May happen after 5mins, may happen after an hour. The only things that have a major impact to my fps are: -Torch. Taking out the torch does not only look better IMO, but give me a gain of about 20fps. I only use it gathering things at nighttime. It's definately worth a try! -Nekromancer's Spellbinder. The spellbinder has a certain nuke that causes red rocks(skulls?) flying all over. This spell is bugged for me and whenever it's getting casted, my fps drop to ~5 for a second. Tabbing out and back into the game helped to minimize this problem every now and then. Another thing that i have noticed is that alot of shadows seem to be buggy. If i stand still for a few minutes in i.e. Butcherblock Mountains, the day/night cycle moving the lights often causes false shadows from certain objects which are then looking like spikes allover the screen.</blockquote>Keeping bumped as my one of many issues.Where is this "torch" setting you speak of? If it is under shadows, and I turn it off, then no shadows appear inside buildings...Of note I see is your CPU, at 3.3Ghz. I had an issue with my e6600 which would bog down at stock speeds, (2.4) but, when I turned up FSB and started running at 3.0, then shadows did not bog down as much..My main issue is if shadows are on, yes, I lose about 10-20FPS depending on area...but, the other issue is...if they are even working in the first place...What a mess

[Ninivee]

Sorry if i caused a bit of confusion. With the torch thing i didn't meant a setting in the options, but simply taking the torch out of my inventory and putting it into my bag. This may be no news but a usual thing to do for higher level chars since they need the slot sooner or later -but being in my early 30s, i don't have that much items yet so in my case the torch would still be on it's default slot eating fps.