AH III

[wiskyfog]

I'm hoping that we are able to keep AH II, because the new game is like flying through a liquid medium, like syrup or jello. the mouse curser moves erratically in the hanger. I will not purchase a new graphics card just for a game, i'll leave the game first

[The Fugitive]

I doubt you will have AH2 once the new version of the game is released. When AH2 was released AH1 went bye-bye.

A new version is advancing the game. If the game is not advanced it falls by the wayside. And soon no one plays it (look at the numbers now as compared to a few years ago)

Upgrading your computer is inevitable. If you don't even the simple things you do like checking email or browser the internet will become slow with your "mouse moving erratically".

[bustr]

Will you show us your dxdiag in the off chance you can be helped?

[Gman]

Agreed - as much as it must suck having that kind of performance, you can't expect HTC to keep their product back in the dark ages of performance forever - in fact they've done so and catered to low performing PCs for a LONG time, somewhat at the expense of attracting new players too IMO. 

You should be able to find a used PC that'll play the new game fine for a few hundred bucks.  I have 5 year old PCs I'm using for home theater boxes, and one only has an old i7 860 with a 5770, and if I turn stuff down/off, not even a lot of stuff, the Beta is more than playable, I can get 60fps all the time with reflections and shadows off. 

While some complaints are going to be inevitable, I think HTC has gone far further than I would have in terms of keeping older PCs in the mix still with their new version, while still having it push newer stuff with everything cranked up to max. 

I filmed a great fight between 2 P38s down low with low clouds right in the fight - at 1440p it looked incredible, flying through the clouds and with the sun reflecting off things.  Can't wait.

[Zimme83]

I dont have any fancy graphic card either, certainly below what AH say is minimum but even so i can run the beta w/o that much of a problem. Turning down tree detail to a minimum, disable clutter and the fancy stuff like lens flare and I have almost the same frame rate as in AH 2. Graphics is still way better than in AH2.

[qbert55ca]

I'm still not good FPS, although after 2 hours of tweaking I can fly at 35fps in clear air, However this is actually a little below normal but still, I would think shows the state of things.

[BuckShot]

Been there whiskey.

I got ah3 to look semi acceptable and tolerable by turning every graphic feature off and cranking the gamma.

I run ah2 with everything cranked and I think it looks fantastic.

[Dogtown]

to hope for new players while throwing current players under the bus in the name of eye candy does not sound like good business to me....but i guess we will see huh ? would it be unreasonable to still have the option to play ah2 ? I'm guessing they can't run both ?  ww1 could go imo to make room .

[The Fugitive]

to hope for new players while throwing current players under the bus in the name of eye candy does not sound like good business to me....but i guess we will see huh ? would it be unreasonable to still have the option to play ah2 ? I'm guessing they can't run both ?  ww1 could go imo to make room .

There isn't an issue with room, the servers can run arenas with a 1000 players in them at a time, and we are not any where near that. The point is for the game to survive it MUST advance. What keeps games like World of Warcraft going? More characters, better graphics, EYE CANDY! Its the same grind to play, but they keep bringing in the new pretty stuff and so players keep playing.

The same goes for most anything. You cant run the same car for 10 years with out upgrading it. New tires, batteries, filters and so on. It is a fact of life.

[JunkyII]

to hope for new players while throwing current players under the bus in the name of eye candy does not sound like good business to me....but i guess we will see huh ? would it be unreasonable to still have the option to play ah2 ? I'm guessing they can't run both ?  ww1 could go imo to make room .

So you want HTC's small staff to worry about 2 games? They have enough work with one. AH2 has to go for AH3 to even have a chance to succeed...I'm still interested in what the MA is going to look like, bunch of testers keep talking crazy rumor stuff but I keep my nose in the BBS to know Hitech aint said nothing about it which is exciting...except the CT comment...which has me even more excited...personally I don't like AI, hope there is too much in the MA.

[Zimme83]

People have to realize that playing games requires a computer that are reasonable capable and that their soon-a-decade old system will eventually not be able to handle modern games. it is no option to no develop the game just because some people refuses to get a new computer. When it comes to graphics AH2 is 10 years behind other games and that will not attract any new players. W/O AH3 the game will die.

[Chilli]

HTC, will be the last on the list to be considered insensitive to the "decade old" crowd.  If you have been a part of the testing process from early on, you would know there has been remarkable progress towards bringing these great graphics updates to as many systems as possible. 

From this, I can almost guarantee that all but a few systems with suitable video memory will have "smooth" gameplay in beta and hopefully soon AHIII.  Unfortunately, some machines are just beyond their limits (even when it comes to AH2).  The major difference, is that in AH2 there were possibly more options to upgrade cpu .   Although, video cards can be less or more expensive to upgrade, they sometimes require entirely new builds, or at the very least a very good knowledge of capabilities and compatibility of components.

WHAT DO I DO?

Do not log on, see that default settings are giving you less than optimal framerates and stop there.  Especially not in beta, where the object is to push everything to its limits to see document and hopefully tweak the "breaking points".  Take a deep breath, go to graphic detail settings and move environment map slider to NONE.  Disable post lighting, ground clutter, reflections, shadows, details, etc.  If still not pleased, go to video settings and adjust the max texture, screen resolution, field of view.   

Do your part, think if you are doing anything out of the ordinary and report your findings here for bug testing.  Are you running more than one screen, more than one video card, using third party gaming system tweakers?  Please make a dxdiag.txt and attach it to your post, maybe others have a similar issue or even better a solution.

Yes, this sounds like 'work', at least you have an opportunity for input.  Unlike another very popular online game that very recently patched a highly anticipated release that quietly required DirectX 11 that some operating systems and even video cards are incapable of running.

Short story, patience my friends, patience..... 

[bustr]

I know this is beta and just like with the alpha, we are at Hitech's mercy to test his code.

Still, have we reached the magic point for a Skuzzy sticky telling new beta members things to try with their video card before dropping the stink bomb post in this forum? I want to assume most players know how to tinker around with the graphics settings in a game from their general game playing experiences.

I'm never sure if some are even attempting to lower the texture mode from whatever the first time install detects to set them at based on answers they give as Skuzzy questions them. 512 texture mode is old school looking but playable. In some cases it appears they may not know there is a place to change the texture modes which can improve FPS to a degree. Versus they turned off everything from the graphics setup page in the clipboard but, didn't add to that by lowering the texture mode back at the opening splash screen. It is a confusing process if you haven't done it a few hundred times.

And then there is the impression that some may have discovered all of that, and don't like being limited to it to play in the beta. Still I used my wife's 16 year old PC with XP and a GT9800 in it to test the alpha for a year.

[Mano]

You won't have to spend allot of money on a new graphics card. Even with allot of eye candy turned off it looks great.
I have a high end card on my home 'puter and a so so 4 year old card on my rig at work and the game runs fine at the office.
A modest card will run AH3.  The better graphics is well worth it.