Graphics settings and making gaming easier

[Guest2]

I've wondered this for years but never thought about questioning it.

If you set lowest detail, does it give you an advantage in terms of spotting players? Say if I turn effects, shrubbery etc all off so there's no lighting flashes, bushes in the way, motion blur etc?

 

[Tolmekian]

Many 'hardcore' players do this although I bet the advantage is minimal at best.

I'd rather have a gorgeous looking game than something that looks like it was made in the 80s on an etch a sketch

 

[Amraam]

You're game will be smoother so you should be able to spot people easier in that sense. The more FPS you have, the quicker and easier you should be able to aim. I'm not fussed about being the best online FPS player - I know I'm on;ly average. I prefer the game to look the best it can for immersion

 

[Deific]

Yes, but unless you're playing a scrim match then +1 for eyecandy > advantage


(unless you QQ over your k:d ratio being 2.1 when it could have been 2.3 if you'd had lowest settings )

 

[Swifty55]

I always play on the lowest settings. But it does depend on the game being played.

 

[HangTime]

Tweaking gfx options can definitely help for sure, although that doesn't always translate as "lowest settings". Often using lowest settings as a base will help though, just adding a few extras that can help from a gameplay perspective, for example muzzleflashes may help you spot where enemies are.

The only game I play competitively (Quakeworld) I have nearly all the eye candy turned off and indeed textures deliberately limited to very low size, it actually looks worse than the standard GLQuake look from 1996

 

[meths]

I play on high and get pwned.

 

[Witcher1979]

I play on high and get pwned.

+1 Least we get pwned in style

 

[arc@css]

I tend to just turn off AA for mp. I might have to lower a few other settings to see if that makes much difference.

 

[Rroff]

A lot of games (usually) cheat protect (or don't give you the ability to change without hacks) settings that would give you an unfair advantage like removing foliage, etc. tho obviously in some games there is less stuff on screen in lower settings.

For online multiplayer FPS I put the settings to whatever will give me the smoothest performance and the cleanest view - which is often low settings, I'm not over competitive but I like to play at my best - tho tbh I do it more because I know there are other players who will be using those settings and I don't want to lose the advantage I kinda wish sometimes games enforced high settings.

 

[iakhtar]

First time I saw people doing it was on Quake3 ages ago, used to wonder as they all had very decent rigs. According to them it made a huge difference. Thinking about it though, framespersec was at more of a premium back then.

 

[thedoc46]

Surely having AF on would help sharpen things up so you could see an opponent that was far away in the distance and snipe him off.

 

[Spook187]

You might aswell jack in gaming if you think or do anything like that,just so you can get easy points,i call it cheating and hate players like that,get a grip

 

[Lithon]

Depends on the game and personal preference really, technically you wont see anything more, but if you find yourself less distracted it can help in that way. In some games like Starcraft 2, some people like to have most settings on low but leave certain settings (textures I think) higher to see stealth units most effeciently. Just have to mess around with it.

Personally I don't find myself wanting to win every 1/1000 games by playing every game at sub-par graphics when I built a decent gaming computer.