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[Kai Dracon]

FYI, as far as rig and performance go, I am on a:

Phenom II x4 @3ghz
4gb ram
GTX560 SC

And on the current stress tests I'm getting 40-70fps in just about all areas with graphics set to max. It bounces around a lot still, and is inconsistent. Sometimes the same area would be on the low end, sometimes towards the high end. It virtually never dipped below 40fps.

If there's even a little optimization left to go, I would image it will be possible to hit 60fps on mid-range systems without having to turn off every single thing that makes the game look good.

 

[JonCha]

Hot damn, would really like to see that UI scaling in action. My getting-older-eyes and a 1440p screen have not gotten along well with the minimalist UI lately


FYI at 1440p AA is completely unnecessary. I run at this res and had everything maxed and turned that off and saw no visual hit, yet gained another ~5-10 FPS.

By the way, if you're looking to upgrade to 1440p (it's fantastic) and want a cheaper route and are willing to take a chance on an import that has no warranty or support or OSD (in most cases), there's some great Korean imports you can get that use the same S-IPS panel that they put in Apple Cinema displays for less than half the cost:

Here's the one I have: http://www.overclock.net/t/1232496/crossover-27q-led-led-p-27m-led-2720mdp-gold-led-monitor-club
Here's another option: http://www.overclock.net/t/1225919/yamakasi-catleap-monitor-club

Really want to buy this, but worried I'll get hit hard for import duties in the UK.

 

[Nyx]

If there's even a little optimization left to go, I would image it will be possible to hit 60fps on mid-range systems without having to turn off every single thing that makes the game look good.

These kind of posts give me hope, thanks for that.

 

[Xyber]

My specs:
i5 2500k @4,6GHz
8GB RAM
Unlocked 6950 2GB (basically a 6970 now)

For the most part I was getting 45+ with everything maxed out in the starting areas, lowering shadows to medium and bump down reflection a step gives me another 15-20fps. Removing reflections completely can give me a 30-40fps boost in some areas (Lion's Arch for example).

The strange thing is that I only get maybe 1-2fps difference between 1920x1080 and 2560x1440. So I am able to run it at 1440p with the supersampling on in the game at the same fps as when I'm playing at 1080p. Really weird but I'm not complaining.

 

[Kai Dracon]

These kind of posts give me hope, thanks for that.

I get the impression that by release builds, folks may simply have to tweak the 'typical' offenders to get good FPS, like turning shadows or world reflections down a bit.

Edit: I will say that I've seen people with nearly identical system specs get odd variances in performance. I wonder if a lot of it still due to server optimizations in progress, and game logic updates from the server causing some clients to lag.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Any word on engine optimization pre release? I have been a little out of the loop but I heard that the beta was pretty demanding yet the marketing always talked about keeping the barrier to entry as low as possible.

Would love to hear that it now runs smooth and buttery on mid level hardware.

I went from 25 FPS during the last BWE, to 55 FPS in the latest stress test (that's, what, a couple of weeks between them?). I don't think much more needs to be said, but I have a GeForce 9800 GTX+, and played with everything on max except shadows (on mid).

You seem to consistently get bored with MMO style games, I doubt this will be much different for you after a while.

I dunno, I'm extremely bored with all other MMOs (haven't bought one or an expansion since WotLK) and I almost can't sleep waiting for this one.

 

[aramanKain]

Really want to buy this, but worried I'll get hit hard for import duties in the UK.

Read the threads I linked to, I think others have been in your situation and didn't have to pay because the packages are marked as "gift". I'm not entirely sure on that, but the 2 massive threads in those forums should have the info you're looking for.

 

[Klyka]

I have to put my shadows down to "Low" get constant 60fps, while my friend with the exact same GPU and CPU can put it up to "High" or even "Ultra".

It's VERY weird.

 

[JonCha]

Read the threads I linked to, I think others have been in your situation and didn't have to pay because the packages are marked as "gift". I'm not entirely sure on that, but the 2 massive threads in those forums should have the info you're looking for.

Thanks - I'll have a read. Does the 1440p make a massive difference? I'm using the SyncMaster P2370HD, and the icons on my desktop seem ... small.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

I have to put my shadows down to "Low" get constant 60fps, while my friend with the exact same GPU and CPU can put it up to "High" or even "Ultra".

It's VERY weird.

How much ram, eventual overclocking, free disk space, RAM brand, programs running in background, clean pc hardware, etc etc.

 

[Hawkian]

Hey, this is a bit of advertising, but since I'm excited we are in this game, in terms of technology, check this out.

I think those of you who haven't managed to play the game, are really gonna enjoy it

Awesome! The technology is very impressive, and you guys have done great work for sure. However...

Isn't that the engine that's currently bugged and makes half the world disappear when you move your camera around

Oh, yeah, already covered

I'm sure it will get sorted out though. It's a brilliant concept.

Interesting because the only thing I remember is them using a modified engine from GW1.

It's middleware; totally unrelated to the game engine (or any particular game engine). For those who don't know, Umbra is a technology which facilitates frustrum and occlusion culling. Essentially, what this does is tell the engine only to render the things the user can see on screen at any time, so as to increase performance.

Frustrum culling is the exclusion of anything not in the camera field of view the player is viewing. Occlusion culling (a bit more revolutionary) is the exclusion of anything in the camera field of view that is being blocked (occluded) by geometry in front of it. Thus if you're looking at a building which has a tree behind it that you can't see, the tree is actually not being rendered at all (until you go around the building and can look at it). When this works right it provides a huge boost in performance and absolutely no visual sacrifice.

When it doesn't work it makes the entire world disappear for no reason in Metrica Province.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

I want more.
No. I need more.
GIVE ME MORE.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

 

[aramanKain]

Thanks - I'll have a read. Does the 1440p make a massive difference? I'm using the SyncMaster P2370HD, and the icons on my desktop seem ... small.

No problem, actually I suggest searching those threads since they are almost 1000 pages long, that's a lot of reading!

My perspective is a little skewed on this one as I came from a 19in 1680x1050 Dell, so the jump to 1440p for me was utterly and completely noticeable. Yes, the scale takes a little getting used to but even if you can't, it's easy enough to scale those up in win7 if you need to. The difference for me is gaming. Gaming in 1440p is wonderful and feels like what all games should be natively. The res is high enough that turning off AA doesn't produce much in the way of jaggies at all, and the screen real estate for a MMO is huge, so having things like your map at max size doesn't interfere with the center of the screen where all the action is at all. Since GW2 is minimalist to begin with, this probably won't be an issue for many anyway, but I'm the type of gamer that wants all info accessible to me at a glance instead of having to pop in and out of context menus, 1440p makes this happen and I'm never going back. If anything, I want to get a second one to complete the picture and I've had a great experience with my Crossover Korean import so far, so would likely get the same model. It has one stuck pixel, but at 1440p the pixels are so damn small, you hardly ever notice it, pretty much only when the screen is on and completely black.

 

[thetrin]

My specs:
Phenom II X840 3.4ghz
8 GB RAM
6950 2GB

I get about 25-35 solid with Everything on high at 1080p, and FXAA on. Performance is definitely better now than it was during the last BWE, but it could still use serious optimization before launch.

 

[Levyne]

I get about 25-30 everything maxed on a 555m, i7-2670 (2.2 ghz) and 8 gigs of ram

 

[mik83kuu]

I only played for an hour, but here's what I got:

Core i5 3570K @ 3.4GHz (stock)
Geforce GTX570 (slightly factory OC'd)
16GB DDR3
2x SSD Raid 0

I got 30-40FPS on everything maxed out. Though I was playing on Windows 8 if it means anything...

 

[Klyka]

Awesome! The technology is very impressive, and you guys have done great work for sure. However...

Oh, yeah, already covered

I'm sure it will get sorted out though. It's a brilliant concept.


It's middleware; totally unrelated to the game engine (or any particular game engine). For those who don't know, Umbra is a technology which facilitates frustrum and occlusion culling. Essentially, what this does is tell the engine only to render the things the user can see on screen at any time, so as to increase performance.

Frustrum culling is the exclusion of anything not in the camera field of view the player is viewing. Occlusion culling (a bit more revolutionary) is the exclusion of anything in the camera field of view that is being blocked (occluded) by geometry in front of it. Thus if you're looking at a building which has a tree behind it that you can't see, the tree is actually not being rendered at all (until you go around the building and can look at it). When this works right it provides a huge boost in performance and absolutely no visual sacrifice.

When it doesn't work it makes the entire world disappear for no reason in Metrica Province.

I just realized....could this be the reason for players disappearing/not being rendered?
Is it actually not intentional,but just another bug?

 

[Hawkian]

Welp, since we're doing this:

i7 at 3ghz
SLI GTX 260s (they are workhorses!)
6GB RAM

50-60fps anywhere that's not heavily populated, 30-40fps places that are. Most impressively though: very little performance hit when playing in a window (I am obsessed with playing games in windows).

I just realized....could this be the reason for players disappearing/not being rendered?
Is it actually not intentional,but just another bug?

Be a little more specific about what you noticed and I can tell you for sure whether or not the tech is responsible?

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Well, if we're sharing.

i5@3.10
8GB
460gtx
64bit OS

Anything between 80-40fps. Sometimes bad dips to 60 in the Asura starting zone when things start disappearing.

 

[GhostRidah]

The one thing I am amazed with is how Anet really optimized the game and are continuing to do so. First beta I could barely run the game and I had low expectations on whether I would be able to play it come release. Now I run the game at almost max and it runs so smooth. Thanks Anet!

 

[Klyka]

Welp, since we're doing this:

i7 at 3ghz
SLI GTX 260s (they are workhorses!)
6GB RAM

50-60fps anywhere that's not heavily populated, 30-40fps places that are. Most impressively though: very little performance hit when playing in a window (I am obsessed with playing games in windows).


Be a little more specific about what you noticed and I can tell you for sure whether or not the tech is responsible?

You know, how the game suddenly can only show a maximum amount of player models in your area and just refuses to render everyone else. That wasn't there in BWE 1 and 2.

 

[Hawkian]

You know, how the game suddenly can only show a maximum amount of player models in your area and just refuses to render everyone else. That wasn't there in BWE 1 and 2.

Hmmm, that's probably not due to Umbra. The effect of occlusion culling wonking out is very distinctive.

 

[Arksy]

You know, how the game suddenly can only show a maximum amount of player models in your area and just refuses to render everyone else. That wasn't there in BWE 1 and 2.

I think there's an option about it.

 

[Klyka]

I think there's an option about it.

I certainly haven't seen it.

 

[2San]

I only played for an hour, but here's what I got:

Core i5 3570K @ 3.4GHz (stock)
Geforce GTX570 (slightly factory OC'd)
16GB DDR3
2x SSD Raid 0

I got 30-40FPS on everything maxed out. Though I was playing on Windows 8 if it means anything...

Why aren't you OCing that 3570K?

 

[nataku]

I find it funny not a single person picked Kormir. I understand why, but the fact that no one even randomly picked her is hilarious.

 

[darkwing]

who the heck is Kormir

 

[Levyne]

who the heck is Kormir

She's a character from Nightfall who dies and becomes a god or something.

 

[Audioboxer]

My excitement for Guild Wars 2 is doing my head in.

 

[Jira]

SHall we make a guess on how many pre-purchased copies they've sold?

Im guessing 150-200k. Might be off the charts as hell tho, as I am basing this on nothing.

There's info floating around that they've sold anywhere from 1.0-1.3 million just from GW2.com alone.

 

[Deadly]

Were the dead sister/missed opportunities path any interesting? I went dead parents and turned out

Spoiler

they were some kind of spies for the last king or something

.

This choice seems to be the deciding factor for the storyline.

 

[Levyne]

I don't remember the dead sister thing being that interesting. I hardly remember it, though.

 

[Jack_AG]

I only played for an hour, but here's what I got:

Core i5 3570K @ 3.4GHz (stock)
Geforce GTX570 (slightly factory OC'd)
16GB DDR3
2x SSD Raid 0

I got 30-40FPS on everything maxed out. Though I was playing on Windows 8 if it means anything...

Hmmm...

i5 2500k @ 4.2 (stock voltage)
gtx570 @ 850/2000 @ 1.025
16gb DDR3
1tb WD Black drive (just for games), 80gb WD Blue for Win7, 1tb WD Green for other apps. (no raid).

55 to upwards of 100+ without vsync everything on max. Bump your i5 a bit more and if you have a factory OC'd 570 (superclocked) you should be sitting 797/1500 - you can run 850/2000 with a slight bump in voltage. Just download MSI Afterburner and give it a go. Run OC Scanner for a bit and check for artifacts. You shouldn't have any issues.

Win8 might be an issue if it's the consumer/developer preview. I had a few issues with a few of my programs not running up to snuff on Win8 DP.

 

[Jira]

Tons of new icons and some icon changes in the latest files:

http://imgur.com/a/CfSPG

http://imgur.com/a/rXvJ2

http://imgur.com/a/R7uHq

 

[mik83kuu]

Why aren't you OCing that 3570K?

Don't worry, I will be It's just that I had some problems with my mobo being incredibly unstable and I just sorted that out this past weekend with a new BIOS update.

Hmmm...

i5 2500k @ 4.2 (stock voltage)
gtx570 @ 850/2000 @ 1.025
16gb DDR3
1tb WD Black drive (just for games), 80gb WD Blue for Win7, 1tb WD Green for other apps. (no raid).

55 to upwards of 100+ without vsync everything on max. Bump your i5 a bit more and if you have a factory OC'd 570 (superclocked) you should be sitting 797/1500 - you can run 850/2000 with a slight bump in voltage. Just download MSI Afterburner and give it a go. Run OC Scanner for a bit and check for artifacts. You shouldn't have any issues.

Win8 might be an issue if it's the consumer/developer preview. I had a few issues with a few of my programs not running up to snuff on Win8 DP.

It's the RTM version of Win8. I will be installing Win7 later this week and I will be OC'ing my GPU too.

 

[desverger]

I find it funny not a single person picked Kormir. I understand why, but the fact that no one even randomly picked her is hilarious.

I find those percentage amounts funnier

Looks like somebody didn't take pie charts 101.

 

[Levyne]

I find those percentage amounts funnier

Looks like somebody didn't take pie charts 101.

It's a number then a comma then a percentage

 

[unrenowned]

Are there good gameplay videos from any of the beta weekends?
Preferably long live sessions from char creation to level cap.

After the disappointment that was D3 I'm looking for a good game to take that allotted time.

 

[Deitus]

Are there good gameplay videos from any of the beta weekends?
Preferably long live sessions from char creation to level cap.

After the disappointment that was D3 I'm looking for a good game to take that allotted time.

I don't think anyone hit the level cap in any of the betas. Even if they did, there wouldn't be any point because there was no content past level 30.

 

[chiablo]

Are there good gameplay videos from any of the beta weekends?
Preferably long live sessions from char creation to level cap.

After the disappointment that was D3 I'm looking for a good game to take that allotted time.

The best I know of are the series of videos by Yogscast: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2EE83973FE2CC4F2&feature=plcp

They have a 3-part video on the Charr character creation and starting zone.

 

[Effect]

You seem to consistently get bored with MMO style games, I doubt this will be much different for you after a while.

It's mainly the grind that I have less and less tolerance for more then anything. If a story and lore are interesting enough then that honestly can help me over that aspect too. Or how it's presented can be a factor as well. Sadly I don't really know how it is until I've played the game.

Thanks for the responses as well.

 

[Jira]

The best I know of are the series of videos by Yogscast: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2EE83973FE2CC4F2&feature=plcp

They have a 3-part video on the Charr character creation and starting zone.

No jesus christ don't link Yogscast they're HORRIBLE at gaming and generally spread misinformation because they don't do any research before they play games nor do they quickly grasp concepts.

Unrenowned just read this first:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1058358-Guild-Wars-2-Mass-info-for-the-uninitiated-READ-ME!

Then come back for videos.

 

[Klyka]

No jesus christ don't link Yogscast they're HORRIBLE at gaming and generally spread misinformation.

Unrenowned just read this first:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1058358-Guild-Wars-2-Mass-info-for-the-uninitiated-READ-ME!

Then come back for videos.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW why'd you saaaaaaaaaaaaay that????

(you just read it in that guy's voice)

 

[Jira]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW why'd you saaaaaaaaaaaaay that????

(you just read it in that guy's voice)

*stabs ears with icepick*

 

[chiablo]

No jesus christ don't link Yogscast they're HORRIBLE at gaming and generally spread misinformation because they don't do any research before they play games nor do they quickly grasp concepts.

Unrenowned just read this first:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1058358-Guild-Wars-2-Mass-info-for-the-uninitiated-READ-ME!

Then come back for videos.

Although they are generally bad at games, they at least are having fun with the game and are legitimately excited about what they are doing. Nothing is more boring than watching a dull person play a video game, Yogscast knows how to keep things entertaining by having fun rather than just spouting information.

 

[Jira]

Although they are generally bad at games, they at least are having fun with the game and are legitimately excited about what they are doing. Nothing is more boring than watching a dull person play a video game, Yogscast knows how to keep things entertaining by having fun rather than just spouting information.

I don't disagree that they can be entertaining.

Hall of Monuments is in the game as of the latest file update

See the small snowy area to the north?

http://i.imgur.com/ENnKO.jpg

 

[Deleted member 10571]

The best I know of are the series of videos by Yogscast: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2EE83973FE2CC4F2&feature=plcp

They have a 3-part video on the Charr character creation and starting zone.

No. Nonononoo. Go watch Woodenpotatoes or Dontain on Youtube!

 

[Effect]

Although they are generally bad at games, they at least are having fun with the game and are legitimately excited about what they are doing. Nothing is more boring than watching a dull person play a video game, Yogscast knows how to keep things entertaining by having fun rather than just spouting information.

If that's what you're looking for sure. However if you really want to know more about a game they're horrible to watch/listen to.

 

[Complistic]

total biscuit's series of videos are very enjoyable. Someone might want to post a link for me, don't feel like digging them up.

 

[chiablo]

No. Nonononoo. Go watch Woodenpotatoes or Dontain on Youtube!

Ugh... more like Boringpotatoes.