Better Video Settings

[Norsu]

I've been wondering why in todays games (especially in FPS ones) you usually have very limited options to adjust graphic quality to get more performance or just better visuals. There are usually one to four different quality levels (low to ultra like in Doom 3) but the problem is that you can't make your own custom settings unless editing some config file. I can play Doom 3 using my own "ultra" settings with no performance hit but I can only do this with custom config file .

 

I would like to see more video options in Dark Mod rather than the simple stock settings. A new menu window where you could change pretty much every significant setting that can be found from config.cfg would be very nice addition. There are some 3rd party tools where you make your own settings but for Doom 3 noobs a ready system included with the mod would be much more user friendly . A small explanation box that pops up when user places mouse cursor over a certain setting would be nice too and reduce unnecessary questions.

 

EDIT: Oh and if it's not too much work, new video settings shouldn't require restart of the game that's just plain pointless (Quake 4 does this right).

[Komag]

Well, the idea lately is to make it easier for people to just start playing, instead of confusing them with a myriad of detailed settings, opting to control most of that "under the hood".

 

I'm a tinkerer like most hardcore gamers, so I always do at least some "advanced" configuring like you're talking about, but most poeple don't. And you certainly can't on consoles. I think it's just the way the industry is leaning right now.

[Gildoran]

I certainly would like to make sure that at least anisotropic filter levels are on the menu rather than implicitly chosen by texture quality levels.

[Norsu]

Well, the idea lately is to make it easier for people to just start playing, instead of confusing them with a myriad of detailed settings, opting to control most of that "under the hood".

 

True, that's why we have these low, medium, high and ultra settings. But it's pretty unfair for a player with computer that could run the game on custom quality that is almost par with ultra but he doesn't have a clue how to edit config or simply doesn't want to mess around with it.

 

TDS and Oblivion were good (bad) examples how minimal the options were (consoles ). With simple ini editing it was possible to get rid of many performance and quality issues.

[Gildoran]

I guess they figure that the sorts of players who would know how to customize the quality settings to perfectly match their computers are the sorts of players who wouldn't be daunted by config files.

[sparhawk]

I doubt that a player would know what settings to choose, but doesn't even know how to edit a config file.

[ZylonBane]

When was it ever common for games to have in-depth video configuration options? Seems to me that it's always been somewhat rare.

 

I just finally finished Painkiller, which isn't that old, and it lets you get pretty specific with the video settings.

[Dram]

I think optimally a game should let you set a quick settings thingy and go into details if you like.

[Mr Mike]

Yeah, an "advanced" tab where you can customise the default settings... I can't see the problem. And, before anyone has a go, I mean in the sense of menu logics... not how easy it is to program, or if it takes too much time from more pressing matters.

[Ombrenuit]

Even if players don't know what settings to choose, they eventually find a forum post that discusses it and they end up changing it for themselves. For me, I've been one who appreciate eye candy, but I've never changed a config file to squeeze out all the performance I could. I've never had thoughts to overclock my video card or any of that sort. I suppose I just haven't reached that stage yet. For me, whatever works is fine. If it's pretty, I'm happy.

Edited August 2, 2006 by Ombrenuit

[obscurus]

Most Unreal Engine based games I've played had an advanced settings tab that let you edit some pretty in depth settings. Though if it didn't let you do that, it was pretty easy to edit the appropriate .ini files in a text editor, as they were well layed out and fairly understandable (if you were vaguely familiar with how the engine worked at least). But you would have to know what you were doing either way, and I doubt most gamers would understand the underlying technology well enough to make educated optimisations for their system, hence why games tend come with standard presets for a small range of system configurations, or otherwise will automatically detect and apply the optimum settings for your system.

 

A good, well designed game, should be able to scan your hardware and adjust the game settings for things like "optimum performance" or "optimum quality" or "best compromise between quality and performance" automatically without the user having to enter a detailed settings dialog or fuck around with .ini or .cfg files. And most modern games I've played do a reasonable job of this (Far Cry did a very good job of detecting the best settings for my system - I played around with the advanced settings, and ended up with the same settings that it automatically picked for me after a few hours of experimentation..)

[sparhawk]

How often do you change your settings? Once per Installation? Maybe you are adventerous and change it tow or three times? And for this we should put effort to create a specific screen?

[OrbWeaver]

It's not like a screen is all that much easier than a console anyway. Is it really more user-friendly to select "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR" from a dropdown menu, rather than typing it in to the console?

[sparhawk]

nobody denies that a screen is more convenient. but if you do that, teh next complaint is that it doesn't check mutual exclusions. So the coding the screen would be quite some effort because you need to take into account all the interactions. If you change this value, you need to reset this other one, and limit this one to that value, etc..

And all this just for being used once or twice per installation. If somebody wants it, no problem. It's a free mod and you are welcome to add it. It's not as if we absolutely don't like it.

[ZylonBane]

Is it really more user-friendly to select "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR" from a dropdown menu, rather than typing it in to the console?

Saint Dogbert would like to have a word with you.