computer help

[picanic]

ok was playing fine today and whent ld and when i wnet to get back on got the error, "the _VERQUEST.EXE file is linked to missing export SHELL32.DLL:SHGelfoderPathA i have deleted and reinstalled Shell32.DLL and the _verquest.exe ran a repair on everqeust. and ideas?

[neight]

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=tech&message.id=101342

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=tech&message.id=101414

[picanic]

ok found out it was the video card.  reinstalled old video card (voodoo3) and upgraded to windows xp works now.  no here a question for you i have no trouble in all zones god and lower and most don/oow zones and haven't tryed dod yet.  but in zones such as wos/nc/bloodfields and hs(unelss i go full clip plane down for hs only) i ld before i can get to far in the zone.  the sysem is a amd-k6 487 processor, have 432 megs ram and connect with dsl. have all no necisar programs shut off don't use new models and have min clip when need.  what other chances can i do to sysem/eq to make the game run better in the zones i have trouble in?  i am replacign system with taxes. ie we have 2 system one is a brand new hp that has no trouble at all in any zone.  when i am playing alone i am on good system but when playign with wife she gets good system and i get old one.


thanks for any help

[Iskandar]

what other chances can i do to sysem/eq to make the game run better in the zones i have trouble in?

Before you log in, you can set some of the general game options... you note you have models turned off, you can also set textures to be lower resolution (they'll look kinda fuzzy/blurry) and turn off the lighting effects. Some folks say turning sound off helps too, but I'm a bit of a sensory junkie -- could never operate without sound :-) 

In game, open the Options window, go to Display and click the "Advanced" button in the bottom right of the window. You can turn off all of those graphic settings (especially shadows, if they're on) -- textures and skins in the newer zones will be rather bland, but it will save some resources. You can also turn off Level of Detail (top left of the Display panel) and/or just knock the LoD Bias down very low (slider is in the bottom left corner). Setting the FPS slider to 30-50 may also help.... can't really tell a difference on it myself, but some folks say it does. Turning off spell effects under the Spell and Player tabs will also help considerably -- or knock their opacity down very low (10-25%) if you like seeing them on.  Turning names down to just first names also helps a bit, but really only in crowded areas. There's a few /slash commands to enable/disable features too... /showgrass, /showspelleffects, and /dynamiclights are the only ones I can remember offhand. And you can also help your system a bit by making sure that /log is off and by turning off the Journal (Alt-J -- the Journal saves all mob/NPC dialogue). Set the sky for Simple also (or turn it off if you can stand always running around in "night" lighting) and keep the clipping plane at 25-50% (can vary depending on zone).

I use these settings on my second PC, an old 450 mhz Pentium 1 with some generic 64mb video card and 512 mb of ram... it's not the best for EQ nowadays, and it totally bogs down in DoD, but these settings keep it going in everything else reasonably well (well enough for a secondary tag-along account at least) :-D