Guild Wars 2

One thing I think we can all agree on is how beautiful the game is, I think it is anyway. But, the draw distance in the game is pretty terrible in open areas. Its a bit jarring to always see a great world fade into a mystical blue fog sometimes. This effect became very aware to me after watching someone play Terra online. I dont think the graphics are half as good as Gw2’s, but the draw distance takes you all the way to the curvature of the planet in open areas, and I have to say that was pretty kitten impressive.

Is Gw2’s engine able to improve on its draw distance in the future do you think? It would make this beautiful world so much more engrossing without the “blue fog”.

Frankly I think a more pressing technical issue is render distance on players, though I agree that the overall draw distance could definitely benefit from improvement.

Have you tried disabling the distance blur option? It makes things seem more detailed in the distance.
Also, if you havent already, using sweet fx improves the general look of the game, free AA, sharper textures, worth giving a look.
I tried this and I, among many other users, are highly satisfied with the improved looks.
Give it a google.

Avalix, I have already done all of those things. To anyone who happens across this topic, I highly recommend the exact improvements Avalix mentioned.

That aside, none of this addresses draw distance.

I’m very curious in whether or not its even POSSIBLE to improve the draw distance on this games engine.

I can’t get SweetFX to work. Keeps giving me an error. How did you guys/gals get it working? I used the Gw2 preset that the creator offered even. Woulsd having FXAA on in game cause the exe to not start up right at all?

Not sure what your guys problem is or how to fix it but my draw distance is awesome. I can see the mountains and everything and only time my vision of something distant is stopped is if there is a hill in the way lol. Culling issues on the other hand in WvW is a pain in the kitten. Seeing those Thieves after they hit me 4 times in the back or downed me before i can even target them is a pain.

Arale, disable the in game anti aliasing, and click on scroll lock to activate/deactivate Sweet Fx.
The in game anti aliasing (fxaa) doesnt let sweet fx run until its disabled.

Maybe its Windows 8, but it doesn’t work. Disabled the games AA, ran as admin, compatability mode, the works. Doesn’t want to work. :x

It’s not letting me get in game even, it gives me an error on the launcher.

It’s funny to be able to see the landscape super far away but no characters, then see spells being cast very far away, but still no characters, then see characters kinda far away.
I think it’s reasonable, but it’s just funny to see that action is going on before any people.

Avalix.6579:

Have you tried disabling the distance blur option? It makes things seem more detailed in the distance.
Also, if you havent already, using sweet fx improves the general look of the game, free AA, sharper textures, worth giving a look.
I tried this and I, among many other users, are highly satisfied with the improved looks.
Give it a google.

I want to give sweet fx a shot, but anet doesn’t approve of third party programs. I used something similar for bf3 but i dont want to risk getting perma banned after I put many hours in. Has anyone been banned using this?

Anet’s policy has been that as long as it doesn’t give an unfair advantage its ok to use.
Not that they explicitly approve or condone any mods.
This mod does nothing but pretty up the graphics a bit and as far as im aware no one has been banned for using SweetFX.
Ive been using it for over 2 months without any problems whatsoever.

Yes the DD could be improved but will they? I don’t think so and honestly thats not the problem really, if you are out in wvw, then the problem is the culling and render issues because the DD is fine for me since you could treb the bay from a garrison cliff which has a huge draw distance from back there.

Before Anet adds any more improved graphic options, I’d prefer if they focused on making the current graphic options run better on peoples’ systems. GW2 doesn’t have the best graphics so there’s no reason it should run as poorly as it does, and my computer is mid to high-ranged.