Quake 4 High vs. Ultra quality

A

amdgamer

Supreme [H]ardness
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Hey guys, I was wondering what kind of difference there would be in high quality vs. ultra quality. Are there even any? I know on Doom 3, the difference was nearly impossible to detect unless you were obsessed over it. Some of those outdoor levels are just absolutely gorgeous............
 
let me take some screen shots

EDIT
Well, map load times skyrocket, and hitching occur since my video card only has 256MB of ram

Gonna do the High Quality now, brb
That, and it takes forever for most applications to become usable again, since the memory usage is massive.

Got the high detail screenshots gonna go threw and choose a few to convert and post

EDIT

Ok, Going to do Ultra Quality screenshot followed by High Quality screenshot, they aren't exactly the same each time, but should be similar
All these old links are dead, if any one ever looks at this post I would be surprised.
Click the links to see each one in full 102x768 detail

Personally, I can't notice the difference if there is one :) which is nice since it means the compression isn't losing much detail yet saving a good amount of memory.
 
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Nice work, I couldn't really tell the difference.
I could tell that you have none or little AA going on. ;)

Is there a big difference between Medium and High?
Im guessing there is..
 
i think the ultra is a bit clearer than the high quality.. beside that, i cant really tell the difference.
 
Oh, yea when you change modes it turns off AA and such, so yea that wasn't on durring the screenshots. didn't even think about that.
 
Im so excited,
I have the game right infront of me but
im reinstalling my gaming rig...it'll take another hour before I can even install the game! :rolleyes:
Ahh well, I got most of all day tomorrow for playing. :D

So Xipher, did you notice a dramatic frame rate drop going from Ultra to High?
I've got a 6800GT, so I doubt it'd be able to handle Ultra.
I've read at some places the frame rate drops under 30 when set only at High..
 
Actually, I have an AMD 64 3500+, 1GB of RAM, and a 6800GT AGP
Basically, I didn't notice a frame rate drop much, but I did notice it took longer for screenshots to be taken, and I had hitching about ever second or so. This was probably due to it hitting memory to reload textures, because it was extra noticeable when I turned around looking at different parts of the terrain. I didn't notice it much on the MP map though, but that is probably due to the fact they are simpler maps, and that particular one is probably one of the simplest ones. Normally I run High settings, 1024x768 (this is one game were high resolution isn't needed to make it look better) and with 2x AA on. if I set AA any higher my framerates don't stay up at 60 all the time, and with alot of people on the screen, it will start lagging at 4x, but even with AA off, the game looks awsome.
 
Going back and forth between your last 2 photos you can see the detail on your weapon differs. There are pieces all around, but the one that stands out the most is the notch on the weapon very bottom right of the screen.

Other than that I can't tell the difference.
 
You'd probably notice the biggest difference inside buildings and on the characters.

It changes the amount of compression for bump and specular textures. Less to no compression means more defined edges/rises/depressions and a more detailed amount of interaction with light sources. It's likely every surface in quake 4 has at least 3 images.

Check out Doom3world.org and scroll down to superpipes if your interested in seeing more.

Edit:

A quick example from the data processing terminal

At High settings.
shot000173fa.png


and Ultra
shot000152fm.png
 
Jasonx82 said:
Is this game as demanding as BF2? or worse?
Click to expand...


I think that it is at least as demanding, and possibly more so. The indoor areas run great, but things really start to slow down on the outdoor levels. The outdoor levels are amazing though.
 
Sorry to hijack, but would 2GB of RAM be a major benefit over 1GB. (I mean 2x1GB, not 4x512MB)
 
On the first set of results I can see a difference on the left hand-side on the floor, the ultra quality screenshot looks more defined, however this isn't important if a large performance loss happens because of it.
 
tornadotsunamilife said:
On the first set of results I can see a difference on the left hand-side on the floor, the ultra quality screenshot looks more defined, however this isn't important if a large performance loss happens because of it.
Click to expand...


Hmm, you are right. Now i'm wishing I would have waited and picked up a 512mb video card instead of my 7800gtx. The good thing about Quake 4, is that it's a very fast action packed game, so you really don't notice those details when playing. The textures look impressive even on high quality.........
 
yea i mean u can sit there and point out VERY little differences all day but when it comes to playing it, u aint gonna notice anything
 
Oline61 said:
Sorry to hijack, but would 2GB of RAM be a major benefit over 1GB. (I mean 2x1GB, not 4x512MB)
Click to expand...

Yes. In fact, Doom 3 was the first game that I noticed the jump from 1 to 2 made a big difference in. Being the same engine, it should help Quake IV as well.
 
I'm curious as to what settings people are running at. I keep seeing posts where people say it slows down a lot outdoors and other similar performance problems. Some even have faster video cards than I do. On the system in my signature, I hardly see the game drop below sync. That's at 1280x1024 all options maxed, except AA which is off, and AF which is at 4x. I realize some people like AA, but aliasing isn't all that noticeable in this game. (especially because of the quick pace)

I'm of the opinion that if you can set game detail settings to max, and then adjust AA/AF to the highest without framerate drops, then you're set. I just keep seeing people say that it runs slow, and for me that just isn't the case, and I don't even have a GTX. (I've yet to actually run a timedemo, but it's looking good on a 7800GT.)
 
Wow, I can't even see a difference between the ultra and high quality pictures above.

I know that was the case with D3 as well.
 
quote* I'm curious as to what settings people are running at. I keep seeing posts where people say it slows down a lot outdoors and other similar performance problems. Some even have faster video cards than I do. On the system in my signature, I hardly see the game drop below sync. That's at 1280x1024 all options maxed, except AA which is off, and AF which is at 4x. I realize some people like AA, but aliasing isn't all that noticeable in this game. (especially because of the quick pace)
I'm of the opinion that if you can set game detail settings to max, and then adjust AA/AF to the highest without framerate drops, then you're set. I just keep seeing people say that it runs slow, and for me that just isn't the case, and I don't even have a GTX. (I've yet to actually run a timedemo, but it's looking good on a 7800GT.) qoute*

i don't think saying that the game doesn't run slow is valid on your part cuz you have an almost top of the line system with the second fastest card available right now, which is only mariginally slower at stock, and you have yours overclocked. I would completely expect any game right now to run just damn fine on your system, its pretty close to top of the line. people with 6800nu and 6800gt should be the one's commenting on performance because their cards are only a year old as far as product release goes, unless a game just runs friggin horribly (ahem, fear, cough*) then all can comment i suppose.
 
mickey987 said:
Im so excited,
I have the game right infront of me but
im reinstalling my gaming rig...it'll take another hour before I can even install the game! :rolleyes:
Ahh well, I got most of all day tomorrow for playing. :D

So Xipher, did you notice a dramatic frame rate drop going from Ultra to High?
I've got a 6800GT, so I doubt it'd be able to handle Ultra.
I've read at some places the frame rate drops under 30 when set only at High..
Click to expand...
lucky, i need to wait a week or two, maybe more for memory, mobo, and cpu/adapter to arrive before i can play the game, had it and fear pre-ordered so i got it the day it came out :rolleyes: :(
 
Well, that's mainly my point. My system is fast, but it's not THE fastest. A lot of people here clock their CPUs far beyond what I have mine at. I've seen people commenting that games that I see good performance in run slow on their systems, (when some of them have 7800 GTXes or higher clocked CPUs, SLI setups, etc.) I'm just curious as to why that is. If it's because they expect to be able to run 8x AA and 16x AF at 2048x1536 with all detail maxed, then I guess I know what the problem is. Otherwise, if the expectations are a little more realistic (like my 1280x1024, 0xAA, 4xAF, max game setting,) then I shouldn't be seeing xxxx game runs really slow. I'm not saying anyone's comments are invalid, just trying to get an idea of why.
 
I'd like to see what people with GeforceFX 5700 ultra 128mb are getting in Quake 4! On mine i've been playing at 800x600 with medium settings and it seems to play fine, the game recommends me to play at 640x480 with low settings. But i'm still basically in the begining and not in those open enviroments later in the game. I just got a copy yesterday.

I was hoping to see if there might be more I can do settings wise, haven't tried 1024x768 yet.


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J3RK said:
That's at 1280x1024 all options maxed, except AA which is off, and AF which is at 4x.
Click to expand...
High Quality automatically sets 8x AF, just like Doom 3, unless you specifically edit the .cfg file to make it 4x.
 
jetjaguar said:
yes the extra ram would definitely help out
Click to expand...

qft - 2gb really helps with ultra mode... so those huge textures can be cached in that extra gig of system memory... my system "stuttered" with 1gb in ultra mode a bit, but with 2gb it runs smooth. :) I think ultra mode bumps the AF up to 16x also!
 
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