I posted this thread http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10197614 a few months ago and it had lots of good replies.
For those who can't be bothered to read, basically when you are in outposts and towns (including Guild Halls), everyone's armor is blurry and low detailed expect your own. However in explorable areas, everyones armor is shown in high detail. Since this has not been implemented into Guild Wars, I was wondering if someone knew how to force high detailed armors in all areas so people like me with a good computer could view people the way they should look.
Here is an example of my paragon in an outpost and again in an explorable area .My friend took these pictures with the printscreen button, saved them as high quality JPEG's in Adobe Photoshop and sent them to me. No quality has been lost during compression, they are basically bitmap files but smaller in filesize.
Can a mod be made? Is it possible?
Mod that forces high detailed armor everywhere
deadman_uk
IlikeGW
It's probably not possible. Maybe... if you deleted the mip maps of a texture... but I don't even know if that works, and if it does, how would you run a gig of revised textures through texmod it would probably just crash
T. Drake
They did it for performance reasons, however the game is three years old now and new pcs can handle GW on the highest settings easily.
Maybe they could add an option to the graphics menu which can disable the texture compression?
I know it's the wrong place to ask but I'd like to see other characters in better quality and I certainly don't like to mod GW to achieve this.
Maybe they could add an option to the graphics menu which can disable the texture compression?
I know it's the wrong place to ask but I'd like to see other characters in better quality and I certainly don't like to mod GW to achieve this.
Prowlinger
It looks like it is a core engine element...
GW towns all default to low res armor except for the clients' own armor...
Why? At the time when GW was released... the servers and client computers
probably would tank and crash if it was unlocked to allow high rez armor visible all the time...
Now days, computers are very powerful and would not see why we couldn't
toggle this option in VIDEO settings to allow clients that wanted to see
high res who do have powerhouse computers... to do so...
I hate only seeing low res armors... if I could see high res ones I might be
tempted to play more and get that cool armor without all the guessing!
So I do not think a mod would correct this unless it was a simple toggle option in a binary file... and then it probably would take a DLL to do it
which then violates the security of GW...
We can wish for such option but I think GW1 is pretty much done for
cool wants that the community wishes for...
(Or what T.Drake said
)
GW towns all default to low res armor except for the clients' own armor...
Why? At the time when GW was released... the servers and client computers
probably would tank and crash if it was unlocked to allow high rez armor visible all the time...
Now days, computers are very powerful and would not see why we couldn't
toggle this option in VIDEO settings to allow clients that wanted to see
high res who do have powerhouse computers... to do so...
I hate only seeing low res armors... if I could see high res ones I might be
tempted to play more and get that cool armor without all the guessing!
So I do not think a mod would correct this unless it was a simple toggle option in a binary file... and then it probably would take a DLL to do it
which then violates the security of GW...
We can wish for such option but I think GW1 is pretty much done for
cool wants that the community wishes for...
(Or what T.Drake said
)
sykoone
The problem is the output texture generated by the client. It produces a lower quality version of the texture while in town, and the higher quality in zones. I've attempted this using a guildie as a guinea pig. The only way I've found to update it is to manually change everyone's textures individually.
The Meth
Its probably possible if you went through EVERY armor piece texture in the game, copied it with texmod and forced it in place of low res textures, but that would probably be a few hundred megabytes at least. I'm gonna also guess that trying to get texmod to override that many textures is going to cause a severe performance hit above and beyond the mess created by the huge amount of high res textures. And if you did do this putting up the entire collection of armor textures on the internet is probably going to get you into trouble with Anet since you are copying a very significant portion of their artistic work.
On the other hand if there was a different program that didn't need to extract the textures before hand and then redirect the low res textures to use the high res, instead on-the-fly swapping the low res textures in game that could probably work. No-one has made such a program afaik so you are going to have to do this yourself.
imho Anet should make it a feature of the standard game, I imagine the only difference between outside areas and city areas is that the city areas have a specific piece of code that forces low res textures, and adding something to control that wouldn't be too hard.
EDIT: Just tried a test with my armor. Looks like texmod can't do it. As far as I can tell with texmod it looks like that there is only 1 high res texture and that low res are just loaded differently depending on the settings.
On the other hand if there was a different program that didn't need to extract the textures before hand and then redirect the low res textures to use the high res, instead on-the-fly swapping the low res textures in game that could probably work. No-one has made such a program afaik so you are going to have to do this yourself.
imho Anet should make it a feature of the standard game, I imagine the only difference between outside areas and city areas is that the city areas have a specific piece of code that forces low res textures, and adding something to control that wouldn't be too hard.
EDIT: Just tried a test with my armor. Looks like texmod can't do it. As far as I can tell with texmod it looks like that there is only 1 high res texture and that low res are just loaded differently depending on the settings.
IlikeGW
yeah they could just throw in a LOD type thing too that renders the 10-15 armors closest to you in high res but leaves distant ones lower (you can't tell anyway that's the beauty of level of detail systems)... there's a lot of ways but I don't think it's on their to do list and probably isn't going to happen mod wise without some new tool and new way of replacing the textures
The Meth
Quote:
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Originally Posted by IlikeGW
yeah they could just throw in a LOD type thing too that renders the 10-15 armors closest to you in high res but leaves distant ones lower (you can't tell anyway that's the beauty of level of detail systems)... there's a lot of ways but I don't think it's on their to do list and probably isn't going to happen mod wise without some new tool and new way of replacing the textures
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deadman_uk
I actually emailed Anet about this and they replied too... about 3 months ago. They said my suggestion will be passed on to the development team and to post my idea on the GW fan forums like Guildwars Guru. Whether the person was seriously sending my suggestion to the development team or just trying to shut me up... I do not know.
I suggest anyone who likes this idea, to email Anet about this, the more people ask, the more Anet will take notice. If they receive just one email... that's as good as no email at all.
I suggest anyone who likes this idea, to email Anet about this, the more people ask, the more Anet will take notice. If they receive just one email... that's as good as no email at all.
icedwhitemocha
Needs more Kuntz tbh
deadman_uk
Quote:
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Originally Posted by icedwhitemocha
Needs more Kuntz tbh
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TheLordOfBlah
i think he made some uber pro mods or something
icedwhitemocha
Quote:
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Originally Posted by deadman_uk
What do you mean by this?
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Brett Kuntz
I can look into this, should be pretty easy.
Snograt
Wow, you're still with us 
Brett Kuntz
Since the game already contains the code to create the larger, more detailed textures for your own character, all I'm looking to do is hack the game into thinking every character is your character.
I'm going to a movie, but I'll probably have lots of time tonight to get this working. I'll probably package it into ksmod with an options.ini file, and some other graphics hacks to improve or change performance.
I'm going to a movie, but I'll probably have lots of time tonight to get this working. I'll probably package it into ksmod with an options.ini file, and some other graphics hacks to improve or change performance.
Josh
Quote:
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Originally Posted by kunt0r
Since the game already contains the code to create the larger, more detailed textures for your own character, all I'm looking to do is hack the game into thinking every character is your character.
I'm going to a movie, but I'll probably have lots of time tonight to get this working. I'll probably package it into ksmod with an options.ini file, and some other graphics hacks to improve or change performance. |
Cheers.
Brett Kuntz
Well I tried for about 3 hours, but I wasn't able to complete it. What I found out was what I pretty much already knew:
-CreateTexture is called at a smaller resolution, mip mapped
-All levels of Texture are locked and low resolution images are loaded from file and copied onto the surfaces
Which is where I ran into problems. I found the whole copy proc, it's pretty straight forward, but everything I modded ended up in quite possibly the most disturbing rendering I've ever seen from a game. It was too difficult to backtrack from there to find the other code set that loads your own armour/Textures at a higher resolution. It'd probably take less time just bugging Anet into adding the option, couldn't take that long.
-CreateTexture is called at a smaller resolution, mip mapped
-All levels of Texture are locked and low resolution images are loaded from file and copied onto the surfaces
Which is where I ran into problems. I found the whole copy proc, it's pretty straight forward, but everything I modded ended up in quite possibly the most disturbing rendering I've ever seen from a game. It was too difficult to backtrack from there to find the other code set that loads your own armour/Textures at a higher resolution. It'd probably take less time just bugging Anet into adding the option, couldn't take that long.
deadman_uk
Well I know that your own armor texture is displayed at high detail (if you have it set in options) and everyone elses is at medium detail in outposts.
I suggest we all bug Anet http://www.guildwars.com/support/ I have sent 2 emails just now... one to UK support and one to USA support. Thanks for trying Kunt0r! Is it possible to get Sir Jim's help and have another go?
I suggest we all bug Anet http://www.guildwars.com/support/ I have sent 2 emails just now... one to UK support and one to USA support. Thanks for trying Kunt0r! Is it possible to get Sir Jim's help and have another go?
dont feel no pain
Im not very smart them with comes to this but good luck all this would be SWEET!
Brett Kuntz
Alright I recieved the help I needed, when I get back into town on Friday I should be able to better understand what is going on and get this mod going.
DarkNecrid
Awesome kunt!
Any word on what those other things are to improve performance that you mentioned?
Any word on what those other things are to improve performance that you mentioned?
onerabbit
Cool, id love this mod.
hope it goes well
hope it goes well
Rugal
I'm all for this. I'll send them an e-mail too.
Brett Kuntz
Quote:
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Originally Posted by DarkNecrid
Awesome kunt!
Any word on what those other things are to improve performance that you mentioned? |
DarkNecrid
Quote:
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Originally Posted by kunt0r
"PvP" style mods that gamers tend to like, ie, nerfing graphics to look like poo while increasing frame rate substancially.
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Please tell me it will be compatible with the -dx8 / -noshaders DOS functions with the Guild Wars client for even more + fps power?
EDIT: Don't suppose you could somehow reduce draw distance?
Liberations
Quote:
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Originally Posted by kunt0r
Since the game already contains the code to create the larger, more detailed textures for your own character, all I'm looking to do is hack the game into thinking every character is your character.
I'm going to a movie, but I'll probably have lots of time tonight to get this working. I'll probably package it into ksmod with an options.ini file, and some other graphics hacks to improve or change performance. |
DarkNecrid
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Liberations
You'll get perma banned for doing that, you know.
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Kunt0r has made mods to GW before, and Anet has done nothing, because what he does does nothing to impact the game, or ruin the experiance for others. It's in the same line as UI mods.
EDIT:
I think you people need to realize that EULA's can be bent, and in ArenaNet's case they have the importance of the community in mind. They allow UI Mods even though they would "by-the-book" be illegal because they do no harm to the community, only good. They allow GWLP even though it would "by-the-book" be illegal because its a private server, but its not going to harm their sales, only do good for the community. They allow Kunts sound mod, because even though "by-the-books" it would be illegal, it does nothing to harm the community.
Snograt
Can we please stick to Kuntz, or even Kunt0r?
Think the poor guy's had enough problems over the years without people mis-spelling
Think the poor guy's had enough problems over the years without people mis-spelling
Josh
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Snograt
Can we please stick to Kuntz, or even Kunt0r?
Think the poor guy's had enough problems over the years without people mis-spelling |
Brett Kuntz
There will be a slight issue. The reason Anet hasn't added this is your client will probably not have the higher res versions of the armour textures. To get them you'd either have to own the armour yourself, or enter a Mission or w/e with the people. The -image command will forcefully download the higher res versions, so you'll have to do that first before this mod works.
DarkNecrid
Quote:
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Originally Posted by kunt0r
There will be a slight issue. The reason Anet hasn't added this is your client will probably not have the higher res versions of the armour textures. To get them you'd either have to own the armour yourself, or enter a Mission or w/e with the people. The -image command will forcefully download the higher res versions, so you'll have to do that first before this mod works.
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Hey Kunt0r, if you would like I can help you test the graphical improvements, to tell you how much it improves performance. I have a couple of junker PCs so...
Here's my 2 junker PC's current specs and their performance in-game right now:
eMachines Windows 98
256MB of RAM
128MB of shared video memory
unknown video card
Runs GW with -dx8 and -noshaders tab at ~24FPS with nothing but my guy on screen, around 18fps with standard stuff on screen, and 4fps in a crowded town on all low, no AA, 800x600 resolution, full screen.
my other one:
3300+AMD Athlon 64 processor
512MB RAM
128MB of shared vid mem
SiS Mirage2
Runs GW with or without -dx8 and -noshaders at ~30fps with nothing but my guy on screen, around 20fps with standard stuff on screen, and 6 fps in a crowded town on all low, no AA, 1024x768 resolution, full screen. Same FPS values with all high, no AA, same res except longer loading into instance times.
I would be very willing to help you test various settings etc.
I also have extra accounts in case if Anet deems this OMG BAN WORTH but I don't think they will! Just throwing it out there.
(Could you possibly expand on what these performance enhancers would be exactly?)
Brett Kuntz
Probably things like new resolutions (I used to play in 848x480), disabled hardware fogging, disable all filtering, force lower LOD (+4 bias), force terrain engine to use low-res texture stretch, which is normally only used on terrain chunks that are far away. Terrain LOD seems to be calculated every 2 seconds, which I can disable all-together.
DarkNecrid
Jeez, sounds awesome.
Wonder if it could enhance the loading times / FPS of my junker PCs by a lot, maybe even touch 60fps..
Wonder if it could enhance the loading times / FPS of my junker PCs by a lot, maybe even touch 60fps..
deadman_uk
I am only interested in forcing high resolution armor everywhere, I have no interest in reducing the visuals of Guild Wars so it pleases me that you would look into this, that has gotten me excited a little
Gaile Gray
Ok, you guys. You do not need to send a mass of emails or whatever you're up to. I'll be happy to ask about whether this option or change would be possible and desirable, and I'll do that at no cost to you and without the burden of heavy-handed petitioning. 
So far I have some info, but I'm waiting to check with one of the co-founders about the matter so I'll get back to you when I have the full answer.
So far I have some info, but I'm waiting to check with one of the co-founders about the matter so I'll get back to you when I have the full answer.
DarkNecrid
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
Ok, you guys. You do not need to send a mass of emails or whatever you're up to. I'll be happy to ask about whether this option or change would be possible and desirable, and I'll do that at no cost to you and without the burden of heavy-handed petitioning.
So far I have some info, but I'm waiting to check with one of the co-founders about the matter so I'll get back to you when I have the full answer. |
Does that include Kunt0r's mod for changing textures and stuff? I don't see how it would harm the game at all, and it would be nice to run Guild Wars on my other PCs when the main one is taken
They work ok for Prophecies, but with the system requirements being bumped up on Factions/NF/EotN it kind of got left behind and I don't have enough $ to really boost up 2 PCs, let alone 1....but maybe Kunt0r's mod could help me and other people.
T. Drake
Thanks for asking Gaile. This would be an awesome christmas gift
Ok now we need more elves which post in this thread.
/WTB masses of Yuletide Tonic
Ok now we need more elves which post in this thread.
/WTB masses of Yuletide Tonic
deadman_uk
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
Ok, you guys. You do not need to send a mass of emails or whatever you're up to. I'll be happy to ask about whether this option or change would be possible and desirable, and I'll do that at no cost to you and without the burden of heavy-handed petitioning.
So far I have some info, but I'm waiting to check with one of the co-founders about the matter so I'll get back to you when I have the full answer. |
Brett Kuntz
HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYO
I was about to give up when I decided to try one more method, and I think I found it. I ran into a small set-back, when enabled I am unable to tell if these are actually the high def versions, or the low def and I just can't tell. Take a look at the two screens, and my char, does it look like it worked? If not, screw it, this is too hard and Gaile's here. If it did work, I'll whip up the mod into ksmod tomorrow (Saturday), but for now it's ZzZzzzzzZzzzzzzzz
I was about to give up when I decided to try one more method, and I think I found it. I ran into a small set-back, when enabled I am unable to tell if these are actually the high def versions, or the low def and I just can't tell. Take a look at the two screens, and my char, does it look like it worked? If not, screw it, this is too hard and Gaile's here. If it did work, I'll whip up the mod into ksmod tomorrow (Saturday), but for now it's ZzZzzzzzZzzzzzzzz