Graphics: What Am I Missing?

If you can post your system specs and gfx card, plus exactly what is bothering you about the graphics (textures, lights, etc) then you might be able to get some help.

AMD Athlon64 3700+ Overclocked to 4000+
Nvidia 7800GT overclocked
2 gigs of Corsair RAM
WinXP Pro SP2

In other words if the game can dish it out, I can likely take it. It's mainly the lighting that bothers me, I think. Everything looks like it's fully lit all the time.

There's an ambient lighting slider in the game's video settings. Try lowering it.

Tried that, set it zero, even, didn't seem to make the game look that much better.

I guess I'll ask here: what's the status on 'planet lights' and 'ship lights'? I've never, ever seen the planet lights that are supposed to be associated with population, and the 'lights' you add to ships in the designer aren't any more than coloured spheres. Are they supposed to cast light? My ambient light is on 5, so I'd expect to see some light if it was there.

How about posting a screenshot so we can see what you see? That would help tremendously in identifying if there's a problem. Just press printscreen in-game, then hop out and paste it into any graphics program, and upload the image to http://www.imageshack.us

By fully lit, you mean that when one of your ships is by a star, the side furthest from the star is not dark (shaded)? Trying to figure out if it is just a matter of your personal preferences/expectations or if it is an actual problem. I haven't heard anyone having shading problems, might make sure all your drivers are up to date. I think there is a sticky thread relating to your processor, but sounds like a gfx card problem to me, if it is even a problem. Try comparing what you see in-game to the posted screenshots.

Pnakotus: Planet lights show up on random planets for me, haven't heard a word about an incoming change to that feature. I'm pretty sure the lights you add to your ship are not supposed to dynamically light your ship, etc.

... Or if it's a serious question, one could always compare his game to the screenshots on the site. *That's* how the game is supposed to look.

Hey Heaven I got a question I got a Athlon 64 too, did you have anytrouble getting Stardock to run?

Maybe that's just how it looks then. Some of the ship shots look slightly better than mine but the rest look about the same.

and no, Casey, I didn't have any processor-related problems.

I have a slightly different problem.. it seems like non of the textures appear.. so all I ever see is just alternating colours on the ship.. I can figure out how to turn up the graphics(nothing is disabled).

Which gfx card do you have? There were 2 people with an MX 440 earlier that ended up having to get newer cards.

AMD 2.17 GHz
512 megs of ram
NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX440 with AGP8X

AMD 2.17 GHz
512 megs of ram
NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX440 with AGP8X

So yeah, I guess that's my problem
I guess I'll try getting new drivers, see if that does anything

Wow, you forgot to mention your graphics issue in your other complaint thread. Here let me fix that for you.

Why did you make this post???? Really, just look at the screenshots, right at this site, and compare. If your game looks worse, then you can start asking whats wrong, if it looks the same, then you are just too picky
In my opinion this looks better than Civ4, but then again i am a spacefreak.

The ships are indeed, much better quality visually than the units in Civ 4. But, this game makes heavy use of 2D sprites in the background still (unless I'm mistaken), so, the star fields and things like that can't really be compared to the ground textures of Civ 4, at least in my opinion. I could be thinking of the first Gal Civ though, but I thought this game still used 2D sprites in certain areas. Just about everything else is very nicely detailed 3D though, which is a BIG improvement over what we used to have to stare at for hours on end.

And also, just to stick with the thread's topic, I have had no problems with lighting either. I was actually surprised at how complex the lighting could get, especially when compared to the first Gal Civ. I have the resolution at 1280x1024, and AA (anit-aliasing) at 6x, the highest available in this game (at least for me it is). It almost hurts my eyes though, so many pixels. Also the fact that there is a lot of reading in this game, especially the first time around with it, can put a major strain on your eyes at the resolution I'm at. (Might have to turn that down a bit, don't want my eyes to start bleeding. )

Sorry Heavensblade23, that the lighting isn't to your satisfaction. Hopefully something in the settings may jump out at you that could resolve your issue. Or, if all else fails, maybe you'll just get used to it.

Edit: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't even notice you asked a question, I thought you were just asking about the lighting. My bad. If you want your graphics to look top-notch, then just turn up AA (anti-aliasing) to max, and turn up your resolution to whatever is still confortable for your eyes. I'm almost certain that your computer can EASILY handle this game cranked to the maximum settings--mine can, and mine isn't nearly as good as yours, at least in terms of processor and graphics card.

Just in case anyone is curious about my computer's specs, here they are:

Pentium 4, 3.2 GHZ

1 GB RAM

Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit

ATI Radeon X800XL 256mb PCI-Express

Good, but not as good as Heavenblade's rig.

It looks acceptable, just not good compared to other games. I suppose 4X games have never been known for having exceptional graphics.

Your complaints are a bit vague. Does the game look like the screenshots of the game or not?

If it doesn't look like the screenshots, then there's some issue. If it does look like the screenshots, why are you posting this along with your other post explaining how you don't like the game?

HeavenBlade: What resolution are you running the game at? I've found out that a lower (read: 1024 x 768) resolutions, the ships don't look nearly as good as some of those screenshots. More blocky, less lighting.

However, ramp up the res and it's almost magical

HeavenBlade: What resolution are you running the game at? I've found out that a lower (read: 1024 x 768) resolutions, the ships don't look nearly as good as some of those screenshots. More blocky, less lighting. However, ramp up the res and it's almost magical

This is true, things do not and can not look as good in any game if the resolution is set to a lower setting. I still warn you though, unless you don't mind very, very small fonts with lots of words to read, then I wouldn't turn up the resolution too high or else your eyes will be regretting it.

PS: That's funny Gui-Jay, "read 1024x768". That resolution IS considered low now, isn't it? Or at least standard. I remember when I used to play all of my games at 800x600, and sadly, even a few at 640x480 (ouch ). Not anymore, although I still don't stray too much past 1024x768 because the performance you get at that resolution is usually perfect (on my PC), and it looks pretty enough for my eyes anyway.