Low-graphics version of E:D?

Corbeau

Corbeau
I'm curious, is there a chance that there will ever be a low-graphics version of E:D released? Ok, not necessarily a wireframe version (although that would be neat :) ) but something that doesn't require buying a full new 300-500£ machine.

Yeah, for some people that *may* take out some enjoyment out of the game, but, then again, how many people here got hooked for any of the previous games becuse of its graphics? ;)
 

Carradin

Carradin
Perhaps surprisingly, E: D isn't actually that hard a computer. My system is over four years old and wasn't top of the line when I built it (though certainly above average), at a price of about £600 back then. And it runs E: D fine at medium settings. And by fine I mean I have yet to notice any frame rate issues whatsoever, even in fairly congested systems. And the game still looks gorgeous, too.

But then, maybe not so surprisingly. After all, to quote David Braben himself, space "is easier to render" ;)

To give you something to measure against, that is with a GeForce GTX 470 with 1280mb of video ram. So I would not be surprised if, at low settings, the listed minimum requirement of 1GB and either a GTX 260 or a 4870HD are, for a change, actually perfectly playable.

[Edit] And for the record, I totally got hooked on FE2 from the second I started up a commander for the first time in Ross 154. That starting view from Sirocco Station on Merlin, with the geodesic domes of the colony and the gas giant Aster hanging just above the horizon sporting a splendid set of rings... yeah, even if I hadn't loved the game for all its other qualities, that view alone would have earned it a week or two of my time :) As it was, it instead got years and years, got bought a second time after I wore out the first set of floppies, and STILL gets played from time to time on an amiga emulator.
 
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CATPAIN KIRK

CATPAIN KIRK
Corbeau said:
Yeah, for some people that *may* take out some enjoyment out of the game, but, then again, how many people here got hooked for any of the previous games becuse of its graphics? ;)
Click to expand...

I initially got hooked on the original Elite for the graphics - first 3d engine in a game - I was sold. And I'm pretty sure the C64 and floppy drive cost more than todays equivalent of 300-500 £ back then (didn't buy it myself, played it on my dads).

How would an additional low graphics version lower my enjoyment, though?
 

VR jefranklin18

VR jefranklin18
I play on a 5 year old Core2Quad with a 9800GT. To get a decent experience, I play with what looks like PlayStation 2 era graphics, but it is perfectly reasonable. I have a GTX760 on order so I will hopefully get an improvement soon.
 

Rocky-451

Rocky-451
You already can adjust the Graphics quality in the beta. In Options, there are about a dozen graphics elements where you can choose between Low/Med/High. My mid-range PC is almost 3-year-old and it runs everything on High with no problem.
 

RCKJD

RCKJD
I can run Elite: Dangerous on my wifes Core 2 Duo, 4 Gbyte Ram, Radeon HD 6950 and Windows 7. The game is actually more forgiving about hardware than some might think.
 

Cmdr Esteban

Cmdr Esteban
Corbeau said:
I'm curious, is there a chance that there will ever be a low-graphics version of E: D released? Ok, not necessarily a wireframe version (although that would be neat :) ...
Click to expand...

In fact an emulator of the original wireframe game is now available for free at the ED store, and with regards to the final release of ED, the following is stated on the ED main website under minimum requirements:

Minimum hardware specifications for the final game may be lower as further code optimisations are completed.

Cheers :)
 

Tiamat

Tiamat
Patrick_68000 said:
Yes, why buy the older generation ?
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Looking at prices the 970 is about £260 and the 750Ti superclocked I have was about £120 which works great on my old i7 870. Both are "Maxwells" so they run very cool but the 970 draws up to 145w and it needs external power connectors and a bigger power supply. My 750 draws a max 60w so no external power connectors are needed and even my weedy 350w power supply is enough.

If you have a smaller power supply and don't want to splash for both a card and PSU the 750Ti is worth a look.

AC:Black flag, Wolfenstein, Watch_Dogs and ED all run 1920x1200 with max settings fine to give you an idea just how powerful the 750Ti is so the 970/980 will be monsters.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IGQ4Z3S
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Tiamat said:
Looking at prices the 970 is about £260 and the 750Ti superclocked I have was about £120 which works great on my old i7 870. Both are "Maxwells" so they run very cool but the 970 draws up to 145w and it needs external power connectors and a bigger power supply. My 750 draws a max 60w so no external power connectors are needed and even my weedy 350w power supply is enough.

If you have a smaller power supply and don't want to splash for both a card and PSU the 750Ti is worth a look.

AC:Black flag, Wolfenstein, Watch_Dogs and ED all run 1920x1200 with max settings fine to give you an idea just how powerful the 750Ti is so the 970/980 will be monsters.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IGQ4Z3S
Click to expand...

Thank you, but I know the technical specifications of the 750TI and 970/980. I just asked in relation to what metatheurgist said (in relation to the GTX760 and 970). In your case it is true that the 750TI is interrressant in relation to your power supply

;)

metatheurgist said:
Should wait for the 970, apparently it's cheaper, cooler and faster.
Click to expand...
 
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Reidquat

R
Elite was the first 3D game ever and F:E2 had the first 3D polygons, the graphics were revolutionary. So yeah, in space games graphics sells.

Maybe a DX9 version could be released for older hardware but even if the graphics are reduced, CPU overheads won't be. I'm afraid that for the most part modern software is written for modern hardware. You couldn't play Frontier elite 2 on a BBC micro :D
 

Comrade Napoleon

Comrade Napoleon
When is a computer outdated ?
I dont know.
But I do know this game is runing smooth as silk on a Asus P8 Z68PRO wit an Evga 780 GPU.
The core computer is 4 years old, the GPU is new.
I have neve tried FPS because i have never seen a dip in motion, it is all smooth on a 144 Hz monitor :smilie:
I think i'd get same result with my old 580 ti card too, Elite does not seem to be that gpu/cpu intensive.

Cheers Cmdr's
 

Amadeus

A
For VR i'ld like a low texture version, i'm sure a lot of those pixels are not getting to the final display.

Also the pilot body appears to be adding a lot of render lag.

You may be able to play elite on high at the moment but next year you may be asking it to render 1440p @120Hz with any drop in fps inducing stomach churning side effects.
 

alexios

alexios
Reidquat said:
Elite was the first 3D game ever and F:E2 had the first 3D polygons, the graphics were revolutionary. So yeah, in space games graphics sells.
Click to expand...

Zarch on the Archimedes came before F:E2 and had 3D flat-shaded polygons, courtesy of the Archie's scarily powerful ARM CPU. (for the time, anyway)

Btw, Zarch is notable because it's also a David Braben game. ;)
 

alexios

alexios
Comrade Napoleon said:
When is a computer outdated ?
I dont know.
But I do know this game is runing smooth as silk on a Asus P8 Z68PRO wit an Evga 780 GPU.
The core computer is 4 years old, the GPU is new.
Click to expand...

It's the GPU that counts the most. I upgraded mainboard, CPU and memory from a 1.6 GHz Q6600 (2006 technology) to a 3.4 GHz i5-4670K with more recent memory, but kept the same GPU (a GT630).

I didn't expect to see considerable improvement, and I didn't. The bottleneck is the GPU, but I'm holding off on its upgrade until ED is released.
 
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