Guild Wars 2

I have a mid-range gaming computer. Purchased in 2008 and continuously upgraded over time as parts become ancient. I think there are lots of other players with mid-range or lower level computers who could benefit from this suggestion.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of switching between graphics settings. For the Tequatl encounter, for example, I’ll set everything to low. For PVP, everything gets set fairly low except character detail, character textures, etc (helps me recognize previous enemies visually). For dungeons with my friends, my settings are fairly high or ultra.

I find that the three existing graphics preset options are fairly useful. However, I often find myself wanting to customize individually based on what I’m doing. Maybe for certain dungeons I want higher post processing, but lower shadows or cloth animation.

My suggestion is to enable users to save (and name) presets with different graphics configurations, adding these presets to the existing drop down menu in graphics settings. An added bonus would be an option to have buttons corresponding to these presets, perhaps above the mini-map, for picky players such as myself to constantly swap between graphics settings on the fly.

Another thing they can do that allows players to enjoy more of the game with less gfx or cpu power needed is to completely take off weather effects as well as be able to significantly reduce view distance. Yes we get it Anet you are very proud of your game but you don’t have to force us to view stupid long distances. I bet 90% of all players don’t leave the camera looking at the sky as they are running from point A to point B.

Personally, I don’t have an issue with the settings themselves. I find that I’m able to properly control my computer’s performance with the options provided. My suggestion is to enable creation of custom presets for these options, and possibly an (optional) interface element which provides buttons for fast swapping between the presets.

Azza, for view distance, there’s an option in graphics settings called “LOD Distance” which is short for Level of Detail Distance. Set this to low, and far away objects will have much less detail, you won’t even notice their impact on your system. To lower weather effects, dial down the “Shaders” and “Post Processing” options.

I would also like this improvement on the current presets. I have an old system and have different settings for when WvWvWing, exploring or going in dungeons. At the moment, this means that I have to manually alter the settings whenever I change my activity, which can get a bit annoying after a while.