MERCENARY.....

SHADOW STAR · Post by **SHADOW STAR** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:02 pm

Oh my GOD!!! --Those graphics look AWESOME!!!:P A quick question for Vice or anyone else knowledgeable enough. I currently run Legends just fine with all my system hardware. The one thing I'm pretty sure I DON'T have with my graphics card is pixel shader. I prefer to leave things the way they are because I'm not too worried about high-end visuals anyway. Will I be able to run Mercenary without that, or will I likely have to upgrade? Thanks, and looking forward to it's arrival.

warsign · Post by **warsign** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:20 pm

There are several graphic settings "low mid high" and shader settings "off-limited-high" and planet detail settings"low-mid-high-ultra", star detail settings and background nebula settings.

Min req of Mercs: (Taken from instructions of Mercenary)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Requirements: Minimum/Recommended
Operating System Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor 2.0 GHz AMD/Intel / 2.4 GHz or faster multi-core AMD/Intel
Video Card 128 MB DirectX compatible * / 512 MB or more DirectX compatible **
RAM 1.5 GB / 2 GB or more
Hard Drive Space 750 MB / 1 GB or more
Internet/Network for multiplayer 128K DSL 512K DSL or LAN ***

* Dedicated video memory exclusively, shared memory is not supported.
** Recommended for High and Ultra detail settings, shader model 2.0 minimum.
*** Recommended for hosting multiplayer sessions with more than a few players.

[Edited on 9-16-2010 by warsign]

Post by **Vice** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:56 pm

It's tough to say for sure with some 3D video cards. While some may offer a sufficient hardware feature set to 'run' the game, they may not offer sufficient performance and/or memory capacity to effectively run the game with playable performance. My suggestion would be to try out the demo with the various graphics options.

SHADOW STAR · Post by **SHADOW STAR** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:17 pm

Thanks Vice, Warsign..... I will certainly download that demo. If I get things situated to my liking on the demo, is it pretty certain that the full game will run the same? --or will that still vary depending on things like remaining memory?:o --REALLY looking forward to this hitting the net!

Post by **Vice** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:21 pm

Yup, full game should run exactly like the demo. I'll be interested to know how it runs also. What is the make and model of your 3D card?

Valander · Post by **Valander** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 5:15 pm

Man, those screenshots really got me drooling.

Can't wait to see this on my new system (2x GTX-480s, i7-980x, 12GB RAM).

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:51 pm

Vice has worked very hard, changing the way memory is manipulated in the game, to accommodate those of us with less than optimum systems.

Valander · Post by **Valander** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:02 pm

Originally posted by Marvin
Vice has worked very hard, changing the way memory is manipulated in the game, to accommodate those of us with less than optimum systems.

Oh, I'm sure he has. Which is why I'm frothing at the mouth to see what it can do on a nutso system.

I kinda wanted to get into some ship designs and HUD mods back in EL, but just didn't get around to it. Any word on whether that will be a little easier (sounds like it will be) in Mercenary?

[Edited on 9-16-2010 by Valander]

Post by **Vice** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:38 pm

Custom ships might be a bit more difficult in Mercenary since the new graphics engine uses shaders, normal maps, etc. But if you're familiar with multi-texturing with those systems, it'll be pretty simple. Cockpit designing and custom HUD's are about the same though.

For those of you who have pretty good systems, one suggestion I have to is to turn up anisotropic filtering in your display's control panel to at least 8X as it really helps bring up the texture detail and apply around 4X anti-aliasing.

Valander · Post by **Valander** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:42 pm

Thanks, Vice. On the cockpit/HUD side, I thought I read somewhere that each ship frame will be linked to its own cockpit now, rather than how you had the same cockpit for all ships. Is that actually the case? I can definitely see wanting different cockpits/HUDs for mining vessels versus dogfighters.

Von Paulus · Post by **Von Paulus** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:26 pm

Originally posted by Vice
For those of you who have pretty good systems, one suggestion I have to is to turn up anisotropic filtering in your display's control panel to at least 8X as it really helps bring up the texture detail and apply around 4X anti-aliasing.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by **Vice** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:40 pm

Thanks, Vice. On the cockpit/HUD side, I thought I read somewhere that each ship frame will be linked to its own cockpit now, rather than how you had the same cockpit for all ships. Is that actually the case?

It is a mod option to have dedicated cockpits for each frame type. So you can use one cockpit as a global standard cockpit, or use the \\shipXX folder structure for individual frames.

SHADOW STAR · Post by **SHADOW STAR** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:46 am

Hey Eclipse, thanks for the shader info. If you're right I should do O.K. --I have NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 440 WITH AGP 8X. Sounds like I'm ready to fly. And thanks Vice for making the game so user friendly for older systems and easy configuration. Really looking forward to this.....

Post by **Vice** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:55 am

It'll be interesting to see how/if it runs on a GF4 MX (which is technically a GeForce 2). If you can't get the main menu to load due to some shader related problem, send me an e-mail and I'll send back an adjusted config file that will disable the shaders and attempt to render without them.

SuperDave · Post by **SuperDave** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:46 am

AA isnt that necessary when you get to higher resolutions. It really Eats the GPU's (i think its...gpu..hmm) power and time. Id use the 4 AA or better on lower resolutions myself. Anything 1900 x 1280 or higher wont need it. its nice to see those smooth curves n edges that dont have the "jaggies" as i call them but id rather have the frame speed (or FPS..anything above 30 is good for me. ) To each their own though, Id gladly sacrifice a bit of the eye candy to get a nice solid framerate that wont cook my GPU lol.

anisotropic filtering though is necessary for most games anymore. i may not understand the hows' n why's but i can see a BIG difference in the GFX quality when you crank that option up...but again its tough on the machine so it lowers your FPS.

im still amazed at these engines of current games. I come from a amateur Lightwave 3D background and...with all the polygons, textures layers, procedural n weight maps that we have to use to make things look good, these games and their shaders sure do make all that work look easy. Its not though, Gah i still am not happy with my models and ive been experimenting with LW for over 10 years now, guess thats why i dont have a job in the field hahah

soulsacrifice · Post by **soulsacrifice** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:52 am

Fortunately, my computers bottleneck was always the CPU - so my system is definately going to play this better. Not that it ever had a problem with Evochron Legends...it can run arma 2 and just about everything else out there.

Just can't wait to see how EM looks on max detail and get some nice screenshots.

warsign · Post by **warsign** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:21 am

Originally posted by Valander
T I can definitely see wanting different cockpits/HUDs for mining vessels versus dogfighters.

Hold on...

OneoftheLost · Post by **OneoftheLost** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:20 am

Hmm. Performance wise? I must say, Mercenary seems a bit more choppy. Like, I never had issues with Legends maxed out, but Mercenary definately has some choppy spots, it seems to intensify when going planetside.

All settings on max, and-

Windows 7 64bit Nvidia GeForce GTS 360M (1gig video ram) 4gig Ram Intel Core i5 2.26 ghz

Not sure what the issue is. Game looks beautiful however, and is really impressive looking.

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:25 am

Choppy? could you clarify?

Post by **Vice** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:31 am

OneoftheLost, if you'll send me a msinfo report on your system, I might be able to help with some ideas. With a system like that, it should be pretty easy to improve performance. Since it's likely a mobile system, could it be scaling back on clock speeds while on battery?

warsign · Post by **warsign** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:09 am

We are in Mp now with 7 players, works flawless for me!
Awesome...