PTR Liquid Detail

[AwesomeSauceUK]

(I can't post images yet)

So I've noticed I can switch from "low", to "fair".

And it looks like this;

img709.imageshack.us/img709/4014/wowscrnshot092510192038.jpg
img186.imageshack.us/img186/5975/wowscrnshot092510192050.jpg

I'm using a laptop, so I have to run WoW at mostly low settings. The only settings I have on high are the view distance, the environment detail, terrain textures, and character textures. WoW runs fine with these settings at 1280 x 800 with no AA.

My laptop has a pretty poor Graphics card. Everything else is pretty good.

2.40 ghz core 2 duo processor, 4 gigs of ram, although WoW seems to only use 3 gigs of it, might be because I'm using Vista. Graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 with only 128mb dedicated memory. To top it off ATI don't supply the drivers for it, Sony do (as it is a Sony Vaio), and Sony haven't updated them in ages.

The Bios is pretty limited too.

Of course I don't need to have the view distance at max, I just like it that way :P it makes me feel more immersed.

Also, I can't actually increase the Liquid Quality from "Fair" to anything above that, WoW won't let me.

img685.imageshack.us/img685/2269/wowgraphics.jpg

Are Blizzard still working on the water? Because it looks pretty awful on "fair" to me. It might just be because my graphics card isn't very powerful but I'm not sure.

Oh, also, when I switch to "fair", the Lava in Ironforge becomes invisible.

img709.imageshack.us/img709/210/wowscrnshot092510193028.jpg

Naturally I submitted a bug report.

Has anyone else had this problem on the PTR?

[Kilpi]

If it looks so awful, just use the old water. To me it looks just fine on ultra. Changing ripple detail via command wasn't such a good idea though, after doing that game crashed when I got to the surface of the water. Just need a reflection to it, and it's good enough for me.

[Cluck]

The fair setting does indeed look pretty bad. It starts looking better than the low setting when you set it higher than that.

[Contion_BB]

(I can't post images yet)
I'm using a laptop, so I have to run WoW at mostly low settings.

I can ensure you that BECAUSE of a Laptop You DON'T have to run your wow settings on low. I play on my laptop just fine with ultra settings on mostly everything (the laptop is 4 years old)... if anything... Your Laptop just needs to be configured specifically for WoW. DualCore+ need to be limited since WoW was not designed for anything over a single core. Also if you are still running with less than 1gig mem, maybe you should think about purchasing a new mem stick. Also make sure that you set your video card settings properly in your bios somenewer machines have a low default setting for memory in bios. You should be able to adjust it to 512+

do you REALLY NEED view distance at max? If you turn that down to good and turn your water up higher everything would be fine.

[Lagwin]

Well i like the colouring on the fair setting better...when you switch to good or ultra you get all the reflections which is briliant other than it reflects the sky and it ends up looking almost milky white during the night or day because the sky is always iluminated.

[AwesomeSauceUK]

I can ensure you that BECAUSE of a Laptop You DON'T have to run your wow settings on low. I play on my laptop just fine with ultra settings on mostly everything (the laptop is 4 years old)... if anything... Your Laptop just needs to be configured specifically for WoW. DualCore+ need to be limited since WoW was not designed for anything over a single core. Also if you are still running with less than 1gig mem, maybe you should think about purchasing a new mem stick. Also make sure that you set your video card settings properly in your bios somenewer machines have a low default setting for memory in bios. You should be able to adjust it to 512+

do you REALLY NEED view distance at max? If you turn that down to good and turn your water up higher everything would be fine.

Nah my laptop has a pretty poor Graphics card. Everything else is pretty good.

2.40 ghz core 2 duo processor, 4 gigs of ram, although WoW seems to only use 3 gigs of it, might be because I'm using Vista. Graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 with only 128mb dedicated memory. To top it off ATI don't supply the drivers for it, Sony do (as it is a Sony Vaio), and Sony haven't updated them in ages.

The Bios is pretty limited too.

Of course I don't need to have the view distance at max, I just like it that way :P it makes me feel more immersed.

Edit - Also, I can't actually increase the Liquid Quality from "Fair" to anything above that, WoW won't let me.

img685.imageshack.us/img685/2269/wowgraphics.jpg

Edit 2 - Added this to the main post.

[The bearer of truths]

i like it, Its a FPS drain at max though.

[Arkenaw]

It doesn't look much better at ultra TBH. The best thing is the ripple effect.

[Griefel]

WoW needs a proper graphics engine, this one is like a zombie with pretty color ribbons on it, begging for a shotgun mouthwash. :/

[AwesomeSauceUK]

WoW needs a proper graphics engine, this one is like a zombie with pretty color ribbons on it, begging for a shotgun mouthwash. :/

The engine itself is constantly evolving, afaik right now it's completely different to what it was during vanilla. I just think it needs more optimisations, I get crazy framerate drops in certain areas/zones, Wintergarde Keep in Dragonblight for example. Or areas with lots of trees like Sholazar Basin.