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Updated
on August 16, 2001 by Thomas
McGuire
Display
Options #2
Shadow
Detail. Setting
this to Off disables shadows for your character & other
models. Low enables simple circular shadows. High will enable
volumetric shadows. Enabling shadows will reduce performance,
particularly setting it to High. I’d recommend setting this to Off.
Texture
Quality. Options
available are Low, Medium & High. The Higher
this setting the sharper textures in the game will appear, although performance
can be lowered (Especially on low memory graphics cards). The Lower the
setting the more blurred textures will appear in the game. Selecting a lower
setting can improve performance on graphics cards with low video memory.
Sun
Flare Effect. Set
this to On
to enable light flares in the game, this allows effects such as light
flares & halos to occur. Setting it to Off
will improve performance & it can also improve visibility, e.g. you no
longer get blinded by looking towards the sun.
Object
Bumpmapping.
Set this to On to enable the use of bump mapping on Models &
Buildings. Bump mapping is a method to improve texture detail by using light
calculations to add perceived depth to an object. Set this to Off to disable
this effect, which should improve performance, although will give
models/buildings a less realistic appearance (Flatter). This option will be set
to Unavailable should your Graphics Card not support Bump Mapping.
Landscape
Bumpmapping.
Set this to On to enable the use of bump mapping on the Ground
& Sea. Bump mapping is a method to improve texture detail by using light
calculations to add perceived depth to an object - this should result in
noticeably improved depth to the image than Object Bumpmapping will. Set this to
Off to disable this effect, which should improve performance,
although will give the ground/sea a less realistic appearance (Flatter). This
option will be set to Unavailable should your Graphics Card not support
Bump Mapping.
The
screenshots beneath illustrate the effects off enabling & disabling
both forms of Bump mapping in Giants.
Disabled
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Enabled
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As you can
see bump mapping gives a greater perceived sense of depth to the environment.
Environment
Mapping.
Setting this to On will enable the display of reflections in
Giants which will improve visual realism. Setting this to Off will
improve performance for most systems, although will reduce image quality
slightly – not as much as disabling Bump mapping would however. This
option will be set to Unavailable should your Graphics Card not support
Environment Mapping.
View
Distance. Use this slider to set the threshold at
which terrain, models, etc. are rendered. Beyond this point such items are
fogged out. Moving the slider to the Right has the effect of render the
world further away for improved visual quality, & vice versa. This distance
will directly affect performance. Slide it to the Left for improved
performance, although visibility will be reduced. Personally I’d recommend
setting this 3 notches from the far Right.
Next
click on the Change Resolutions button.
Available
Display Drivers.
In this section you can select the Graphics Card you wish to use in Giants,
useful if you have multiple Graphics Cards installed as you might have guessed.
Available Resolutions.
Selecting a lower resolution can improve performance & maintain a
stabler, higher frame rate. Although higher resolutions will look better
(sharper & less jagged), they generally run slower. This all depends on how
slow/fast your system (Particularly Graphics card) is of course. Select 16
bit for best performance, but reduced visual quality (More apparent banding in
textures). Select 32 bit for best visual quality (Less apparent banding),
although performance will be reduced – especially on older graphics cards.
Using a 32 bit colour depth can also reduce graphical errors as it uses a
high precision level for depth calculations.
Make
sure to take a look at the TNT/Geforce,
Voodoo3, Voodoo4/5
or Kyro 2 Tweak
guide for information on how to optimize the performance/visual quality of
those cards. These may help you improve image quality/performance even further
than in-game tweaks can.
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