Will GW2's engine run well?

[Systam]

the gw2 engine is amazing compared to swtor. very well optimized and i believe will be able to host the vast majority of pcs. More games are like that as i can point to tera being playable on a low mid computer on high graphics easily.

of course no new game will ever beat out wow but guild wars is doing a very good job on it

Edit: i would say worse come to worse you can always just downgrade graphics for like WvWvW pvp or the big dynamic events if you're on the lower end of running on medium/high

[Shalamahara]

I built my current setup bout 4 months ago.Havent had any problems with any games since.I doubt ill have problems with GW2.But heres my setup if anyone thinks otherwise and wants to shed some light for me

i5 2500k CPU
8gig Ripsaw RAM
800Watt Gold grade power supply
2gig 560 graphic card
128gig solid state drive

[dbgokux4]

I built my current setup bout 4 months ago.Havent had any problems with any games since.I doubt ill have problems with GW2.But heres my setup if anyone thinks otherwise and wants to shed some light for me

i5 2500k CPU
8gig Ripsaw RAM
800Watt Gold grade power supply
2gig 560 graphic card
128gig solid state drive

Considering the minimum requirements:

What are the minimum system requirements for Guild Wars 2?
Our goal with Guild Wars 2 is to have it run on a wide range of Windows gaming PCs.

Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better • Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon 64 X2, or better • 2 GB RAM • NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI X1800, Intel HD 3000, or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better) • 25 GB available HDD space • Broadband Internet connection • Keyboard and mouse

Note: Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

...And the overclocking potential of a i5 (I have one too but haven't OC'd), I think you'll be fine. I don't think you or I will maintain 60 FPS in all situations or large cities, but I don't see us dropping under 20 and if you can tell between 30 and 60 all the time you have good eyes.

[Edge-]

My concern is how it will handle Dynamic Events with tons of people.

They're boasting that it will handle hundreds of people, and I've seen some videos (can't find them now) of the game running with at least 1-200 people on the screen actively engaged in combat. Granted it was choppy (probably partially due to the recording software) and likely on a very high end system (graphics were maxed). We'll see how it runs with tons of activity in the upcoming beta weekend though.

[Kickbuttmario]

Don't worry about the costs. Besides, you could always upgrade the pc bit by bit. Or save it up, spend money wisely and so forth.

And remember, beta is beta. Most people who play beta will always get bad fps. Just wait till they give some good recommendation specs for the game.

[Alatian]

With the overflow servers and experience from GW1 optimization (seriously, GW1 still looks amazing 7 years later, and until recently ran on Windows 95. Let me repeat that. Windows 95. For a game released in 2005), I think GW2 will be fine. Reports from the beta say that the game isn't optimized yet, but they say that optimization will occur before release. Then again, that's what Bioware said as well. As much as I enjoyed Swtor, its engine was very bad. So, I suppose it's a case of "wait and see".

[Lucky_]

Guys, nothing has changed. The prior betas are all still under NDA, so don't talk about them. If your post goes "missing", it's because it has been removed intentionally. Don't repost it.

Are they? Most of the press beta NDAs and stress test NDAs were lifted shortly after they ended. That's why we have so many videos.

[Razeo]

This is basically the engine Anet will be and has been using.

[grandpab]

Are they? Most of the press beta NDAs and stress test NDAs were lifted shortly after they ended. That's why we have so many videos.

Press has an entirely different NDA with a different set of rules, and the NDA for anyone else remains for the events that have happened so far, even after the game is released.

[Edge-]

Are they? Most of the press beta NDAs and stress test NDAs were lifted shortly after they ended. That's why we have so many videos.

Press NDA was lifted for select press who were allowed to talk about their experiences and post videos (no SS's). The NDA for everyone else is still in place.

[Squirrelbanes]

Probably just nitpicking that you said "all" Edge. Pay them no mind.

[Valicen]

I'm just happy there won't be the rubberbanding issue like in guild wars.

[Deleted]

If GW1 is any indication (and it is, because it's an enhanced version for GW2), then it will run perfectly.

[Hockeyhacker]

They're boasting that it will handle hundreds of people, and I've seen some videos (can't find them now) of the game running with at least 1-200 people on the screen actively engaged in combat. Granted it was choppy (probably partially due to the recording software) and likely on a very high end system (graphics were maxed). We'll see how it runs with tons of activity in the upcoming beta weekend though.

I was just about to point out the fact that most people won't be running "fraps" while playing and fraps can cause some major issues even on high end machines some times with games that would otherwise run fine in a medium grade computer, so it looks like it should be perfectly fine comparing how large some of the combat was with minor issues where even having that many people standing around not casting spells can cause issues in other games.

Comparing people "frapsing" with that many people all casting spells and what not having minimal issues my only concern would be if it works great with ATI and not Nvidia or vis versa, I remember back in vanilla WoW where any of my friends using Nvid could play in the Searing Gorge perfectly fine but any of my friends using ATI would not be able to walk more then a few feet into the zone before having major issues and then it would take them several reconnects just to be able to leave the SG to be able to play else ware.

[terrahero]

Nobody should upgrade their computer specifically for GW2 until the game actually launches, or until they at least know when it will launch. Computer hardware advances fast.

Well seeing as there is a new gen processors comming to the market soon, i wouldnt upgrade before that. Infact, thats pretty much what im still holding out for. Even if GW2 releases before that.
So unless your PC really, flat out, cannot handle GW2. I'd recommend some patience. In a few months you can likely either pick up a better CPU or one thats available now but cheaper.

[Deleted]

If I recall correctly, the Gamescom computers used to demonstrate GW2 was mid-range computers, and ran the game just fine.

It's also worth mentioning that the game isn't optimized yet. That'll boost performance across all machines.

[Razeo]

They're boasting that it will handle hundreds of people, and I've seen some videos (can't find them now) of the game running with at least 1-200 people on the screen actively engaged in combat. Granted it was choppy (probably partially due to the recording software) and likely on a very high end system (graphics were maxed). We'll see how it runs with tons of activity in the upcoming beta weekend though.

This video is a good example of what your trying to describe. It's not PvP but from what I heard about this video there was 100+ people gathered all in one area, also..... 6:50 into the video alot of people in that crowd start using their aoe skills in the same area where they are all gathered and yet the fps doesn't seem to suffer as bad as you'd think. Also keep in mind, this video was released back in 2010, in an un-optimized engine and on a low-mid performance comp.

[omlech]

They're boasting that it will handle hundreds of people, and I've seen some videos (can't find them now) of the game running with at least 1-200 people on the screen actively engaged in combat. Granted it was choppy (probably partially due to the recording software) and likely on a very high end system (graphics were maxed). We'll see how it runs with tons of activity in the upcoming beta weekend though.

That video was from the very first showing of the game at the 3 year mark in development, we're closing in on 2 years past that point and it was running on presumably a now very old 240 GTX with over 100 people on screen all casting spells at about 8-10 FPS and high settings. That's impressive given the age of the game and what was on screen at the same time. You factor in newer hardware and 2 more years of development and it shouldn't be unrealistic to hold 30 FPS with over 100 people on screen all casting spells. Oh and don't forget they're putting in a LOD(level of detail) system where you'll only see the skills in full detail that apply to you at any given time which would increase performance. Spell effects are usually a huge part of performance issues due to fill rate bandwidth on video cards and the LOD system should go a long way in helping with that.

[terrahero]

Its always the thing i fear most in large scale pvp fights as its one of the biggest pittfalls, that you can easily fall into as a developer. And i assume ANet is aware of this aswell.
I think ANet knows the importance of performance if you want succesfull large scale pvp. Because poor performance is the reason why large scale pvp failed in WoW aswell as SWTOR.
WoWs first open world pvp on a large scale was a massive lagfest. Utterly unplayable and the attacker had an unbeatable advantage in such a situation as it was impossible to destroy the siege engines who were constantly lagging out of range of attacks.
Untill they basicly just said "fuck it" in Cata and limited how many people could enter at any given time. In some random system of wether you get in or not. I dont know if they changed this in the past months i stopped playing, tough. But it seems unlikely.

Ilum in SWTOR is completely unplayable. As soon as 2 groups of just 20 people clash you are basicly looking at a slideshow. Even in warzones there is already relative poor performance. And thats 8v8. So these are two good examples of a poor optimized engine for large-scale pvp.

GW2 is is putting some weigth into WvW as this will be one of the major gameplay elements of the game. Having that keel over and fail over something like unplayably poor performance. Somehow i dont think ANet will fall in that trap. They have the advantage over WoW as WoW was never designed with such large scale pvp in mind, it was implemented much later.
And SWTOR bought an engine instead of designing their own, and honestly completely failed at optimizing it. ANet uses their own engine, one theyve used for years and years and know inside and out. And they seem to put a heavy focus on performance, using some newer technology aswell.

[nocturnus]

GW2 currently runs as smooth as my hand on a voluptuous brunette's derriere.

I'm impressed. Oh and that video with the 100+ players on screen, is old but amazing

If you compare its performance to, let's say wow, where I still lagged with a HD7970 whenever I came close to orgrimmar's dummies, it's flat-out better. I'll try to test the game on a low/mid-range machine next weekend-beta. I think it will run just fine though.