Question for the Computer Graphics Savvy
Apr. 15th, 2006 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kent_allard_jrI mentioned, in my last post, that the text was "almost unreadable" in D&D Online. Well I just loaded the game on my laptop... and the text is fine. What could account for the difference? Specs are below the cut.
My desktop computer (with the unreadable D&D text):
Anyone know what might account for the difference? Thank you very much, computer savvy types.
My desktop computer (with the unreadable D&D text):
- HP Pavillion with AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3300+, 1.81 GHz
- 1.37 GB of RAM
- Graphics Adapter: SiS Compatable VGA, 128 RAM
- Screen Resolution: 1280 by 1024
- VAIO with Intel Premium M Processor, 1.81 GHz
- 512 MB or RAM
- Graphics Adapter: GeForce Go 6200, 128 RAM
- Screen Resolution: 1280 by 800
Anyone know what might account for the difference? Thank you very much, computer savvy types.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 04:44 pm (UTC)Also, are you sure the desktop is running the game at 1280x1024? If you have an LCD monitor and the game is running at a lower resolution, the scaling might be messing the text up, even if it is acceptable for the other graphics.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 05:03 pm (UTC)I suspect, though, that the problem may be with the resolution. I don't believe DDO has a 1280x1024 resolution option, and that may be messing up text scaling. I'm just guessing, though.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 05:13 pm (UTC)One other piece of information: The opening video runs smoothly on the laptop, but very choppily on my desktop. Don't know if that's relevant.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 10:16 pm (UTC)I agree that one likely reason is that on your desktop the game is running at a resolution which is not native to your monitor, which will make it look like garbage. That's assuming your desktop does have an LCD screen. If it's a CRT, it's something else, as they look clean at any resolution.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 11:05 pm (UTC)Damn, I was afraid of that. (It's hard evaluating graphics cards unless you know what you're doing. You can't just compare a pair of numbers.) I'd switch to the notebook except the desktop has much better memory, and few lag problems.
I suspect the graphics card is the real issue, too. I changed screen resolution to 1280 x 800 -- which looked lousy -- but DDO's text was still unreadable. My desktop does, in fact, have an LCD screen. I suppose I could run DDO on my laptop but use the desktop monitor instead of the laptop screen, if that would prove anything.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-16 02:22 am (UTC)1. Play on the laptop. Optional additions to this choice are:
1a. Connect the laptop with a wired LAN instead of wireless (if you can and aren't already). This may help the latency issue.
1b. Connect the big monitor. If the laptop can do 1280x800, it can probably do 1280x1024. You always want to use native resolution on an LCD. Use the desktop's presumably bigger speakers while you're at it.
2. Upgrade the desktop's graphics. This could cost anywhere from $50 to $350 depending on just how nice you wanted the new card to be. $50 would get you something comparable to what's in your laptop (a GeForce 6200 based card), so that might be enough. I can show you cards compatible with your machine online tomorrow at D&D if you think you may want to go this route.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-16 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 11:11 pm (UTC)::B::
P.S. Are you in Boston this weekend?
no subject
Date: 2006-04-16 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-16 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 01:23 pm (UTC)http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200604.ars/2
::B::
no subject
Date: 2006-04-18 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-18 10:23 pm (UTC)::Brian::
KvaxRRkPO
Date: 2007-06-21 02:13 pm (UTC)