Shadowlands New Graphics Settings
Two new Graphics Settings have been added: Target FPS and Spell Density. LemonKing also pointed out some interesting new console strings.

Raytracing support could improve lighting in the game, while variable rate shading can improve performance by having the GPU render some less important areas on the screen at a lower quality, while still maintaining a higher quality image for areas that matter.

Target FPS
  • Framerate you ideally want to play at. If your framerate is below this number, dynamic systems will reduce graphics quality to attempt to hit this framerate.

Spell Density
  • Essential: Only show essential spells. Your own spells are always shown.
  • Some: Reduce non-essential spells shown by around 75%.
  • Half: Reduce non-essential spells shown by around 50%.
  • Most: Reduce non-essential spells shown by around 75%.
  • Dynamic: Reduce non-essential spells shown based on framerate. If you are above your desired framerate, everything will be shown.
  • Everything: Always show all spells.

Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading
  • RTTier - Maximum RT tier to use
  • RAIDshadowRt - Raid Raytraced shadows (0-2)
  • shadowRt - Raytraced shadows (0-2)
  • Ray Tracing Support - DXR 1.0 / DXR 1.1
  • vrsWorldGeo - Render scale like effect for terrain, buildings and liquids
  • vrsParticles - Render scale like effect for particles. Only used if lots of particles are on screen
  • Variable Rate Shading not supported on this hardware

Game Pad Settings
  • GamePad disabled.
  • GamePad %i enabled.
  • Loading default GamePad bindings.
  • GamePad %u is connected.
  • GamePad %u is disconnected.
  • GamePad not enabled.
  • GamePadMoveStick, GamePadCameraStick, GamePadCursorStick
  • GamePadId - Id of game pad to use (1-4, 0 to disable)
  • GamePadCursorSpeed - Speed of GamePad cursor movement
  • GamePadCursorAutoEnable - Auto enable GamePad cursor control when opening UIs that may need it
  • GamePadFaceMovement - Sets if character should face direction of GamePad movement
  • GamePadTankTurnSpeed - If non-zero, character turns like a tank from GamePad movement
  • GamePadCameraYawSpeed - Yaw speed of GamePad camera turning left/right
  • GamePadCameraPitchSpeed - Pitch speed of GameUp camera moving up/down
  • GamePadActionPosHeight - 0-1 vertical position of destination targeting position
  • GamePad stick to use for movement [0|None|1|Left|2|Right]
  • GamePad stick to use for camera control [0|None|1|Left|2|Right]
  • GamePad stick to use for mouse cursor control [0|None|1|Left|2|Right]
  • GamePadCursorLeftClick, GamePadCursorRightClick - GamePad button that should emulate mouse Left/Right Click while controlling the mouse cursor
  • GamePadEmulateAlt, GamePadEmulateCtrl, GamePadEmulateShift, GamePadEmulateEsc - GamePad button that should emulate the Alt/Ctrl/Shift/Esc key


Shadowlands Quest UI Changes
After 16 years of World of Warcraft, the ! and ? quest symbols are getting a visual update.

Campaign quests are also getting a nice quality of life update as they will be highlighted by a shield in both the Objectives Window and Quest Log. Blizzard shared that this change should help players distinguish major quests that are required to advance the narrative from optional side quests that tell more localized stories.


Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We have been making improvements to our quest interface, with an eye toward better distinguishing major quests that are required to advance the narrative from optional side quests that tell more localized stories. Our work-in-progress 3D indicator of tracked quest objective locations will be available to use, which aims to reduce the need to bring up the map when navigating the world and help more clearly identify when an objective is above or below you. We’re also rolling out a system that allows players to set a personal waypoint on the map as well as share that pin in chat channels, so that you should no longer need an add-on to convey exactly where Rustfeather just spawned.

Shadowlands Map Pins and Quest Waypoints
On top of the quest interface updates in Shadowlands, Blizzard is also adding Map Pins and Quest Waypoints. This feature allows players to share a map location with others via chat.

Note that this feature will not replace TomTom, since the addon will still be used to set waypoints to the exact coordinates of rares, npcs, treasures and more.



Shadowlands Unread Mail Indicator
The character login screen now displays an indicator when characters have unread mail. This includes mail from another character, Auction House, unlooted items or lost currency.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Shadowlands New Graphics Settings, Quest UI Changes, Map Pins, Unread Mail Indicator started by Lumy View original post
Comments 61 Comments
  1. Azerox's Avatar
    Looking good Blizzard!
  1. Vyoh's Avatar
    I'm glad they're putting time into raytracing support when they could be adding more multithreading support. I'm really happy I get <60 fps drops with my 2080ti + 9900k in mythic raids.

    Nice priorities.
  1. gaaara's Avatar
    That Spell Density thing is gonna be good.

    Target Frame rate is interesting but currently WoW is very cpu limited...maybe through dxr/variable shading they can tinker something up.
  1. h4rr0d's Avatar
    Yay for spell density. At max zoom distance, it's virtually impossible to tell which way a human sized boss is facing in raids (looking at you Xanesh). Being able to tone down the visual clutter will be very welcome.
  1. amzai's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vyoh View Post
    I'm glad they're putting time into raytracing support when they could be adding more multithreading support. I'm really happy I get <60 fps drops with my 2080ti + 9900k in mythic raids.

    Nice priorities.
    Glad I'm not the only one... Often see < 60 FPS drops on Hivemind with my 2080ti & 9700k.
  1. Lightelf's Avatar
    Main quests having a unique marker and being able to put pins on the map is stuff FFXIV has had for years.

    WoW implementing this stuff is a very good thing. Clicking coordinates in chat and having a pin appear on the map is such a small thing, but it makes things so convenient.

    Good job WoW team.
  1. inyu's Avatar
    Nice to see that kind of updates
  1. Super Kami Dende's Avatar
    Seems like they are finally realising that there are some things FFXIV just did better and are changing their ways to the FFXIV way. No complaints here though,
  1. Nutri's Avatar
    Really curious how the gamepad support will end up to be.
    I have a SteamLink plugged into my TV in the living room that's gathering dust, and I couldn't be arsed setting up ConsolePort addon.

    Could be nice for everyday stuff like questing/WQ's/gathering from the comfort of my sofa!
  1. Amerissis's Avatar
    Gamepad support? Does that mean it's suitable for consoles?
  1. Lethius's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vyoh View Post
    I'm glad they're putting time into raytracing support when they could be adding more multithreading support. I'm really happy I get <60 fps drops with my 2080ti + 9900k in mythic raids.

    Nice priorities.
    I don't often have fps issues and I have a lower spec than you.
  1. infinit's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vyoh View Post
    I'm glad they're putting time into raytracing support when they could be adding more multithreading support. I'm really happy I get <60 fps drops with my 2080ti + 9900k in mythic raids.

    Nice priorities.
    Something is wrong with your system, my GPU is inferior to yours and I have no issues at all (3900x + 2070 Super)
  1. Nutri's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vyoh View Post
    I'm glad they're putting time into raytracing support when they could be adding more multithreading support. I'm really happy I get <60 fps drops with my 2080ti + 9900k in mythic raids.

    Nice priorities.
    I'm no programmer, but aren't adding raytracing or setting up multithreading two completely different beasts to handle? As in, different fields of programming?
  1. Blayze's Avatar
    Definitely happy to be getting the ability to hide other peoples' spells; as I get older, I keep losing track of the mouse cursor in all these graphical clusterfucks.
  1. h4rr0d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by infinit View Post
    Something is wrong with your system, my GPU is inferior to yours and I have no issues at all (3900x + 2070 Super)
    I almost want to say this might be an issue with intel processors, especially in nyalotha. I had i2700k - i know, super old CPU, but it was clocked to around 4.8GHz and the game run fairly well, but in nyalotha, in the open area after the initial 3 bosses, my framerate dropped sub 30 every time I went there. I then upgraded to 3800x, and the framerate issue was gone.
  1. infinit's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by h4rr0d View Post
    I almost want to say this might be an issue with intel processors, especially in nyalotha. I had i2700k - i know, super old CPU, but it was clocked to around 4.8GHz and the game run fairly well, but in nyalotha, in the open area after the initial 3 bosses, my framerate dropped sub 30 every time I went there. I then upgraded to 3800x, and the framerate issue was gone.
    unless he's running at low res like 1080p wow shouldn't really be taxing the processor that bad, and if it was a intel processor problem i imagine it would be more widely known since up until Zen 2 intel was the CPU of choice for most people.
  1. ek0zu's Avatar
    Yeah that's great! Even if most animations are quite pleasing for the eye, when you do anything demanding there are so many things that happen on screen that make you dizzy. You can train your mind to learn and neglect all this noise, but still it is better not to have them in the first place at all. Great addition, kuddos!
  1. uncl55's Avatar
    This!

    yesterday in LFR I have to stop sometimes for few second because i lost cursor and even track of my charr in all this colorfull crap. Its like new year's eve on acid.
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Super Kami Dende View Post
    Seems like they are finally realising that there are some things FFXIV just did better and are changing their ways to the FFXIV way. No complaints here though,
    now if only they copied

    1)proffesion systems
    2)housing systems
    3)gear obtaining systems
    4)instance difficulty levels

    we could have perfect mmorpg.
  1. vitor210's Avatar
    Seeing the new map pins and waypoints, will we ever have a way to change yards into meters? Been playing the game so almost a decade and it's the only thing that bugs me, bc as an european I have a hard time grasping distances in yards

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