( Note: Screenshots are at bottom )
Hey!
I know some of you out there are real graphic buffs and like to see the game in a more realistic light. My friends and I did some research on the engine we found from an article Horizons/Istaria is supposedly using which in turn myself being from Older time in the game, decided to share some details with you all as players!
I also have some screenshots, though I wish I could find a better one with the Celestial Lighting turned on, I just did it yesterday so I have yet to really get a good snapshot of it in work.
This, I also mind you was all work for myself, since I do love realistic flairs as well, but more importantly trying to find how to get this one little detail back:
http://membres.multimania.fr/firebra...lan/cercle.png
The screenshot mind you is not mine! However it is perhaps on of the only screenshots I know that show the detail real shadows on the ground. This was done by /setpref displayshadowdetail 2, however such preference only now half works.
But, back on subject!
First off you will need a few mods. 4 of them to be exact. (You really don't need them, but I find they are really nice)
A sky mod - Cobal
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...light=Horizons
A lava mod - RuneDragon
http://www.starfiresystems.ca/runeca...Texture_V1.rar
A obsidian rock mod - RuneDragon
http://www.starfiresystems.ca/runeca...Ebon_Dralk.rar
and a water mod - RuneDragon
http://www.starfiresystems.ca/runeca...de_texture.rar
Now these four mods give the game a tad bit more realism and they do belong to their respective owners, as I can't mod a game to save my life.
Next up!
The part that everyone hates...
You need to run the game in fullscreen mode....
Horizons was designed for Fullscreen, it tends to handle details better this way and it makes the game far more crisper. Alt+tab does kinda work, but it can-- kinda.. crash. It is the reason most people don't use Fullscreen but do not realize what they are missing out on.
While in fullscreen you gotta do two things:
1) /setpref CelestialLighting True
2) Restart the game.
Mind you, I run the game with everything at full, but one of my friends did this last night as well and she also recognize the difference, and I don't think she has the mods I listed above.
The game does come across much more crisp.
The other feature I used (but I am not sure what its default setting) is this:
/setpref useLowestLevelShader false
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So though I did find the means to make the game more realistic, I still haven't found my rabbit. Outside there is a .sha file called realshadow, but I have no clue if that is indeed the file that controls that and where the connection is between the displayshadowdetail and to that file.
Perhaps someone with better knowledge of such things can figure how to play connect for and make a mod for us to get real shadows back one day.
For now.. I am done!
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Your Typical Windowed Horizons:
Some Mods with Horizons
Full Screen - Celestial Lighting