Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone! I wanted to start a thread for the general appreciation of the under-admired beauty of Guild Wars 2. Whether it be landscapes, details in armor, or animations, post what really grabs your attention in-game, as well as things that you think not that many people have stopped to see.

I’ll go ahead and start it off by showing the night sky in Northern Lornar’s Pass! I thought the sky was just so beautiful and couldn’t stop looking at it for a good 5 minutes. I love seeing all the stars twinkle as you rotate the camera through the nice purplish hue My Elementalist was having a nice stretch in the picture haha x)

[p.s. sorry for the quality of the picture, I have to run the game on the lowest settings]

I can’t wait to see what I may have missed when roaming around Tyria!

Cheers

I have to play on lowest settings on my laptop, but I switch to max settings to take pictures. Framerate doesn’t matter when I’m standing still lol. All my pictures are of my character though and not really of the scenery. I really should take more pics of that.

Btw, you can get rid of the UI with ctrl+shift+h.

Apparently, you have pretty bad PC specs, it looks rather terrible (no AA, low details, low rez etc.). I understand that not everyone can spend enough money to play the game in full details, but you still can set max detail for just a screenshot, just a tip :-)

For your next screenshot you’ll want to turn up the quality but that’s not what this thread is about.

Here are a few pretties of my own

khani.4786:

For your next screenshot you’ll want to turn up the quality but that’s not what this thread is about.

Here are a few pretties of my own

the 2nd pic is awesome.

need to fiddle with my graphics settings, they’re still on the system’s default

Armors after release are ruin it. CoF was already too much fire for clothing. Now a ridiculous amount of players are either angels, satans, bonzos on fire or other weird alien FX.

I can no longer appreciate the art and beauty of GW2 without a flashy World of Warcraft wannabe armor ruins my picture.

three snaps from Divinity’s Reach

@ khani.4786 when did they add the chest for the cat room?

A few of my own.

A couple of my favorite screenshots. While they highlight my characters, I think the backgrounds and overall atmosphere of these also show the beauty of the game. Several people have seen these as backdrops on my computer monitor and were just amazed at the graphical quality of the game…

gw2’s scenarios are absolutely beautiful. It saddens me that there isn’t much else you can do than watching, but that’s another story. This is my current wallpaper…

This game is one of the best looking MMO’s out there. I’ll post some of my screens.

Oh, I do love threads like these. Say what you want, but this game is gorgeous, and the pictures and vistas that people can show are just downright beautiful.
Here’s my small addition to this thread…

My best screens… gotta love Tyria.

Oh boy! I love this game exactly for this, first and foremost. I just recently hit 999 screenshots in my folder (and the game wouldn’t let me take anymore, so I copied the folder and started fresh). I used to have bad specs, then upgraded my machine a year ago and now I’m enjoying max settings with supersample.
This is why I feel so bad when I don’t feel like I want to play the game – feels like nothing to do in the game. Man, have 12 character slots and a slew of characters and no desire to play because of their Fresh Start announcement. Sad really.

Here are a couple that I took over the last two years, I do have a LOT of screenshots to choose from I love the beauty of Tyria.

Gimli.9461:

Oh boy! I love this game exactly for this, first and foremost. I just recently hit 999 screenshots in my folder (and the game wouldn’t let me take anymore, so I copied the folder and started fresh).

Don’t COPY your folder. That takes too long. Just RENAME it (Screens 2, Screens 3, etc.) and create a new, empty folder called Screens. I’m on Screens 26 myself – you do the math.

Gw2 has beautiful places.

Some of mine:

Here are some more.
1)diving platform in Brisban,
2)Dry Top near Omadd’s machine
3) Hylek village somewhere
4) Camp Karka Southsun Cove
5) Queen’s pavilion Divinity Reach
6) Wayfarer’s foothills

Indeed the game is very beautiful, just be careful how you place your camera though…

Ryan Mozo.9581:

Hi everyone! I wanted to start a thread for the general appreciation of the under-admired beauty of Guild Wars 2. Whether it be landscapes, details in armor, or animations, post what really grabs your attention in-game, as well as things that you think not that many people have stopped to see.

What I can see on your screenshot:
It is nighttime, yet it is super bright.
We’re looking at the skybox, which shows ugly 2D clouds and an uninteresting night sky.
Guildwars 2 can be pretty. But the night and especially the skybox is not.

I guess I forgot to mention if you could say where/when you took the pictures that would be lovely haha x) That would probably be too much work for the people who already posted pictures but from now on, if you can, say where you were!

And the point of this thread isn’t to complain about stuff so if that’s all you’re going to do then please don’t bother.

Never got to understand why you go “through” the models when you zoom in, but your screens are beautiful!

@khani.4786 What is that last place? looking creepy!

I wanted to take some photos of Tyria too and was gonna upload them on my instagram but I struggled getting Wifi.
Anybody else no signal?

I’ve quite a few landscapes I’m happy with but this is my favourite:

Beauty of GW 2 all regions are insanely good looking.
Ugliness of GW 2, all things that are bought with gold or karma outside the store.
The lack of an expansion or it being delayed at the expanse of the living story because it makes money so no rush.

Ryan Mozo.9581:

And the point of this thread isn’t to complain about stuff so if that’s all you’re going to do then please don’t bother.

^^

Here are a few shots that I think turned out pretty well.

1) Temple of the Forgotten God
2) Mournful Depths
3) Skyhammer
4) Beetletun
5) Driftglass Springs

This is probably the one decent picture I have, and I love it

Rummaging through a load of pics I took a while back and annoyingly, this one is the only one where I remembered to turn off the UI.

Taken just before LS2 featuring my ele alt I was levelling up at the time. I thought those Zephyrite ships were a breathtaking sight at the time.

Wyrden.4713:

khani.4786:

For your next screenshot you’ll want to turn up the quality but that’s not what this thread is about.

Here are a few pretties of my own

the 2nd pic is awesome.

The second picture is underneath Rata Sum.

Mastermavrick.2439:

@ khani.4786 when did they add the chest for the cat room?
A few of my own.

LOL… that was me. >.> (furniture tonic) Had to hide for the screenshot!

sleight.9638:

@khani.4786 What is that last place? looking creepy!

That is outside of Caudecus’s Manor. I went exploring. (I can show you how to get out there….Ceiling Cat is out there too!)

Oh boy, it’s “guess the screenshot” time!

irishgorilla.1560:

…

1) Labyrinthine Cliffs
2) Blazeridge Steppes
3) Rata Sum

Gimli.9461:

…

1) Caledon Forest
2) Kessex Hills
3) Gendarran Fields
4) Lornar’s Pass
5) Queensdale
6) Queensdale

Trinibaje.7683:

…

1) Frostgorge Sound
2) Plains of Ashford
3) Wayfarer Foothills
4) Wayfarer Foothills
5) WvW Borderlands during Wintersday

Hamfast.8719:

…

1) Lion’s Arch pre destruction
2) Queensdale
3) Divinity’s Reach
4) The Grove
5) Lornar’s Pass

Louveepine.7630:

…

1) The Grove
2) Crucible of Eternity story mode (?)
3) Caledon Forest
4) Thaumanova Reactor fractal
5) Crucible of Eternity
6) Bloodtide Coast
7) Rata Sum (?)
8) Rata Sum
9) Queensdale
10) Metrica Province
11) The Grove
12) Timberline Falls
13) Metrica Province
14) Divinity’s Reach
15) Bloodtide Coast
16) Plains of Ashford

mage.3570:

…

1) Blazeridge Steppes
2) Mount Maelstrom
3) Gendarran Fields
4) Plains of Ashford

And something from me for you to guess:

Some of my favorite shots. This game is pretty.

Yeah, the artists really put a lot of effort into making the environment’s and characters pretty. Now if only we ca get first person to take even pretty screenshots (i.e. without my charr photo bombing the whole time :P).

Arcadio.6875:

….
Btw, you can get rid of the UI with ctrl+shift+h.

Wow, after nearly 2 years I did not know you could do that. Serves me right for skimming over the controls section once I had the basics set up. Thanks!

CureForLiving.5360:

Yeah, the artists really put a lot of effort into making the environment’s and characters pretty. Now if only we ca get first person to take even pretty screenshots (i.e. without my charr photo bombing the whole time :P).

I wish there was a free cam mode similar to Oblivion and Skyrim’s ‘tfc 1’ command where you could position the camera anywhere you liked for some great photo opportunities.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

It is nighttime, yet it is super bright.
We’re looking at the skybox, which shows ugly 2D clouds and an uninteresting night sky.
Guildwars 2 can be pretty. But the night and especially the skybox is not.

how do you like the glowing sand storm at night?

there are some insane skyboxes at night though like the one in rata sum.
one should be more likely to see those kinds of stars when in remote areas of tyria instead of one of the brightest places of tyria though.

cough

@op
I spent a lot of my time last few weeks running around with the UI turned off, started to find safe spots and turn up the graphic settings and super sample to take some screenshots few days ago, it’s a lot of fun actually, more than anticipated.

and since you are playing with 2-3fps you really have to take your time

does anybody know how to remove that stupid aegis on a guardian? otherwise I might just roll a warrior asura…

notice, I don’t include the feet because textures that close (the mac wine wrapper only supports medium quality) don’t hold up

you can also fake first person by swimming and pointing up while keeping a nice distance it seems. see Louveepine.7630 images above

often it helps to stand behind a ledge or something so you force the camera to zoom in more when looking up…ah this one is hard to explain.
tl;dr camera is very clunky

these are from the last few days and reference some of the stuff mentioned above, guess I found a new gameplay for myself – posing – very much helping in fights.
not all screenshots have AA and supersampling enabled

I do sometimes like the abstract and impressionistic style of GW2.

Greetings.^^

Oh I know! Let’s go back in time to the very first screenshot I ever took! Check out that round mini-map!

I don’t think it’s under admired at all, even people like me who have had valid concerns for a long time about the game have made mention about the wonderful job they’ve done with the way the game looks and feels. This game is simply beautiful which is why some of us have been asking for non-violent activities to login to appreciate the scenery more which is something one can’t always do when in constant motion. If we had farming, housing, fishing in this game it would be filled with players who enjoy these passive activities and who’d be standing round all over Tyria taking in the sights.

tigirius.9014:

If we had farming, housing, fishing in this game it would be filled with players who enjoy these passive activities and who’d be standing round all over Tyria taking in the sights.

can’t agree more with this… just hope the fishing rod is not on fire or any other kind of childish FX

khani.4786:

Oh I know! Let’s go back in time to the very first screenshot I ever took! Check out that round mini-map!

I MISS the compass sooooooo much! (round mini-map). I much prefer the rotating “up is always what’s in front of you”, but the “N” on the current rotating mini-map is way too hard to see. It needs ALL FOUR DIRECTIONS, and they need to be ALWAYS ON TOP of the other jillions of map-edge icons.

Here’s a few more:

Found a pretty spot this evening when it was twilight in the game and also in real life.

some pov fakes with box of chocolate

Michael Walker.8150:

some pov fakes with box of chocolate

Were you using /sleep during these screenshots or was this from vistas?

Here is one I took from the top of the jumping puzzle in Frostgorge Sound:

insaneshadow.1654:

Michael Walker.8150:

some pov fakes with box of chocolate

Were you using /sleep during these screenshots or was this from vistas?

He’s using a Gem Store item (Valentines Day only?) called a Box of Chocolates. It’s sort of a Brawling Toy. Skill #4 shrinks you. I bought it specifically for my Norn to use in areas with low ceilings.

insaneshadow.1654:

Michael Walker.8150:

some pov fakes with box of chocolate

Were you using /sleep during these screenshots or was this from vistas?

No, I was using the box of chocolate, a gem store item for costume brawl and/or making your character bigger or smaller, it can get quite ridiculous with the biggest Norn and the smallest Asura.
The biggest advantage however is that it removes “ghost mode”. If you stand against a wall and rotate the camera you usually get this translucent effect on your character but if you shrink yourself you won’t.
/sleep has the same effect I found, so just stand close up against a wall, /sleep and rotate the camera.

I think it was 200gems?

On the tree: Small asura body and shrinking chocolate

@lazuli
oh right, the jumping puzzles, my list is getting longer…