General Graphics

from GalCiv2 Forums
Ok. First I have to get this said- Galactic Civilations 2 is my favourite stratergy game ever. No more getting rushed by the AI just because it can mutlti-task better than me.

I remember when I first started playing. How suprised I was by the graphics. Not that they were bad, far from it. I was suprised how good they were.

GalCiv2 isnt like Age of Mythology, or Doom 3. They take a wornout genre of gaming, slap some new ideas and pretty graphics on it, and call it revolutanary. Without the graphics being so dam sexy, sales would have been non existant.

But Galciv2, it's all about the gameplay. And yet it's backed up by such good graphics. All well and good- unless your computer is a little old.

In my case, I only really like to play the bigger maps, thats where this game shines. But eventually, the lag gets too bad to enjoy the game.

What if, in this expansion or a patch or something, you included an optional setting where you REALLY lower the graphics. Like, change the ships from moddels to sprites. The planets. Changed the starry background to a flat picture.

That way the people with crappy computers (like me) can enjoy what makes this game great, at the expence of the great graphics.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, there are options you can turn down, to reduce what has to be rendered.

Turn downing anti-aliasing and some of the other video options. Turn down the number of background nebula's and stars, that sort of thing.

What hardware are you running on, by the way?

I do feel for you, as this game is very hardware intensive.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've noticed that, on large maps where slowdown is likely, I just zoom out until everything is replaced by icons. You can change the zoom level where that switch occurs -- it really decreases slowdown a lot.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

What if, in this expansion or a patch or something, you included an optional setting where you REALLY lower the graphics. Like, change the ships from moddels to sprites. The planets. Changed the starry background to a flat picture.


Disclaimer: I'm not a Stardock developer, but do develop part-time as an indie/hobbyist.

It is an interesting idea, but I cannot see how it would be feasible. Engines are designed to do one thing (in this case, display 3D models) or the other. Graphics engines tend to come in one of two varieties; 3D or 2D. Attempting to rebuild an engine that is able to do both (I guess by converting 3D model data to billboard sprites... on the fly(!)) would be a very time and resource intensive task.

While it may be possible (though I have never heard of anyone doing such a thing), given the average desktop's shelf-life, I don't think it would be feasible plan for a company in today's development market.

I know that answer sucks, and feel your pain. I, myself, developed for years on a lower-end machine. But eventually your hard-drive implodes or the bios implodes or something else happens which becomes more expensive to fix/replace than to purchase a new machine.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

What if, in this expansion or a patch or something, you included an optional setting where you REALLY lower the graphics. Like, change the ships from moddels to sprites. The planets. Changed the starry background to a flat picture.


Actually the game already has the ability to between models and icons.  If you want to use icons instead of 3d models of ships, just open up the Options menu.  Find the "tactical view zoom level" option and turn it all the way down.
This will make the ships and planets and other things appear as icons.