Newcomer / Intro Playing for first time got some view and graphics questions.

[Neutrino Sunset]

I backed the kickstarter but only just installed the game and I've got some questions about a few things.

How do I disable the sound when I tab to the desktop? I'm used to being able to tab to the desktop in any other game and for that to just work. In this game it really doesn't work at all. When I tab to the desktop the game keeps playing the soundtrack in the background and the rest of my system runs like crap. For instance I can't actually use a web browser while ED is running as the browser is so unresponsive, I literally cannot type anything in the browser to search for it.

Is there some trick to improving the graphics? When my ship is in the hangar and I go to the Outfitting screen, I see my ship (a Sidewinder) in the hangar but there are no shadows at all. The hangar is top lit but there is no shadow under the ship. If I select turret hardpoints in the Outfitting menu the view zooms onto my turret hardpoint with gun port covers opened, again these have no shadows at all. I have Shadow Quality set to high in the options, but in the hangar view I see no shadows of any kind. Not only are there no shadows but the lighting is very flat, it looks almost like ambient lighting only. My graphics card isn't very good (GTX 760) but the graphics in Eve look fantastic with superb shadows, highlights and reflections while the graphics in ED frankly look like something from pre-2005.

How do I spin my ship in the hangar to inpect it? The camera controls don't seem to do anything either in the hangar or when on the station surface. How do I view another ship? For example, when I'm in space how can I lock the view to another ship to view it? When buying a new ship from the shipyard how do I even view it first, all I can see is a red silhouette and I can't even rotate that in more than one direction.

How do I look out the window when flying? I've found the 'Camera Suite' controls, so I can press LCTRL+LSHIFT+SPACE and then I can select various views that look pretty but don't seem remotely useful for flying. But how do I quickly look behind or left and right while docking or dogfighting?

 

[Chris Simon]

Hi and welcome.
1) Try setting the game to run in fullscreen instead of a borderless window. That should force it to minimalize properly and shut itself up.

2) What's your system specs? I'm afraid you are running the game on something close to minimal configuration and the fact that you can't even use a browser properly with the game running in the background means you probably won't have many option to improve the graphics, unfortunately.
EVE isn't really a fair comparison, because although it is pretty, the graphics aren't nearly as complex and resource-demanding.

3) You can't look around your ship in Outfitting. The camera just focuses the part of the ship you're working on.
You can however exit the Outfitting back to the cockpit view and then switch to external camera to look around.

4) I think the default switch between ship and head movement is the Mouse3 button (pressing the mouse wheel)

 

[Neutrino Sunset]

I have a Core i7 3770k 3.5 Ghz with 12GB RAM and a GTX 760 4GB, so not latest gen by any means but not weedy either. My monitor is only 1080p and I can run the game with most settings set to High without any issue.

The game was already set to run fullscreen so that isn't stopping the sound when in the background.

The mouse look tip is very helpful though, I can't find that button assignment anywhere in the settings which is why I couldn't work it out.

 

[Old Duck]

Shadows are rubbish in this game.

 

[Chris Simon]

I have a Core i7 3770k 3.5 Ghz with 12GB RAM and a GTX 760 4GB, so not latest gen by any means but not weedy either. My monitor is only 1080p and I can run the game with most settings set to High without any issue.

The game was already set to run fullscreen so that isn't stopping the sound when in the background.

The mouse look tip is very helpful though, I can't find that button assignment anywhere in the settings which is why I couldn't work it out.

When I'm back from work (and unless somebody else replies) I'll fire up the game and navigate you to the right binding.

As for the specs, CPU and RAM is completely fine, but the GPU will REALLY struggle. If you have the option, I'd look about for some old GTX 1060, for example, which will run the game on ultra without any problems at 1080p
An SSD could also help a lot.

 

[Conde]

The mouse look tip is very helpful though, I can't find that button assignment anywhere in the settings which is why I couldn't work it out.

Hi and welcome. Have you tried just using the Windows button to snap to the desktop? The GTX 760 was a great mid range card 6 years ago and can still hold up well in 1920 X 1080 HD in most games including ED with most settings maxed although any of the later '60 cards will see good improvements. I'm assuming you have the latest drivers installed? If you were buying a new card and sticking with HD resolution then the GTX 1660Ti is pretty impressive and can easily handle higher non 4K resolutions if you were to upgrade your monitor.

Asus have a utilty called GPU tweak/Game Boost (and others have something similar) which can optmise visual effects, system services and processes and RAM to free up rescources for the game which may help.

Mouse headlook is enabled under Options/Headlook Mode. Whilst you are there take time (as with all the other controls) to set it up and experiment to your liking. I have Reset Headlook bound to F6 for example.
Then go to Options/Mode Switches, scroll down and bind Headlook, (mine is F5 as well as Mouse3) and expand it to set button mode to toggle. Also while you are there you can bind the 4 main cockpit panels that you will be using a lot. Mine are bound to Target (F1), Comms (F2) Role (F3) and Systems (F4).

Optionally, go to Mouse Controls and set "Show Mouse Widget" to on if it isn't already. This gives you a handy "Dot" that shows exactly where the ship's nose is pointing as well as the centre of the HUD.

Using The Camera Suite controls (I made it a single button push) you can "Walk" or "EVA" around your ship to view it either landed or normal flight in most situations with a few exceptions as you've noticed such as outfitting. You also have a degree or roaming away from your ship (or SRV) but the camera is losely tethered in external views. There are some great You Tube videos out there showing what can be done. Again it's worth taking time to experiment with the bindings (mine mostly use the keypad buttons).

As for no viewing of targeted ships, it's been discussed in the forums since the game was launched. That and the lack of cockpit zoom to target were 2 of the first things I noticed during my maiden flight in the starter Sidewinder nearly 5 years ago. And 20 years ago I was playing among others Freespace 2 where you simply pressed keypad / to see your your targeted ships, but in ED as far as I know it was a design choice not to include these basic features as was just seeing the outline with minimal textures in the shipyard. I won't go into the pros and cons here but TBH with so much to do and learn they aren't something I miss when playing ED.

Finally, try Obsidian Ant's vids for some of the most respected and informative news and opinions about ED and more. Fly safe Commander! o7

 

[the100thmonkey]

It's a sub-menu of "mode switches".

Spoiler

As for your performance issues, try updating your drivers - your GPU should be able to handle the game on med/1080p/60 with no problems. You might want to reduce shadow quality and/or planet generation quality as they can hit the GPU pretty hard.