Yo Blackjak!

[Xev]

Is your connection still intermittently sucking? No CO for j00?

Just sayin' hi.

[blackjak]

Still spotty. Since the last update all my capes have the wrong colors on the insides as well as the graphics looking a bit less detailed. Of course I 've been playing some STO and the graphics are way more detailed over there. It is also more stable for me. Kinda odd, really...

[Xev]

Figured it must be something like that. I was about to give up, too. Almost always would zone/log in under the earth/always had those nice red flashing bars.. Zone times that took forever. The lag made most teaming impossible, even Alerts. There were DC's and Fatal Errors. Almost every single time there was a server handshake there was a delay - from first loading the launcher until exiting the game. Every day the question "Why am I still trying to play this?" was harder to answer.

Ended up un-installing/re-installing/(re-firewall confirming in the process too although when I had probs I turned off the Firewall completely and nada) to an entirely different drive due to errors in the hog_errors.log file that weren't going away & Fatal Errors that were punting me from the game. Yanked a SB x-fi soundcard that never was 100% happy since getting it's slots changed years ago (~99.9% happy tho). Added/pointed 2 external fans to the video card because it always runs hot in my hot place in summer anyway. And... I just had a power supply blow so that got replaced at ~ the same time *and* there was the patch. All at about the same time.

So, I dunno what did it for me but maybe there's a helpful clue in there for you for when/if you get the urge to give CO another go. I'm pretty sure hot video was causing some of my Fatal Error probs. I think the patch prolly fixed my connection probs, and a drive error/file corruption + the sound card possible wonkiness (intermittently/momentarily interfering with the operation of the HD controller or something like this) could possibly have been giving me the Fatal Errors that weren't caused by video. Or maybe that was something the patch fixed too *shrug*

I can run at 60fps (maybe more but I leave it at 60) with pretty much everything cranked up and my video card doesn't scream now, tho  : ) Alll of that annoying stuff has gone away and stayed away pretty much. I've had a few DC's in the past weeks since then and I had a couple more Fatal Errors too but nothing like before.

Here's my 2 cents worth of video settings, just because I was playing with mine a lot when there were problems.. "Reflections" on high and both "Lighting" settings (dynamic lighting and lighting quality) on high and at least 60 fps are 3 biggies on video settings in-game that make a difference. Antialiasing cranked up is noticeable. You want textures at at least 100 of course. There's also an option in Troubleshooting "use full detail character animations" that might crisp things up. "High detail objects" is something I have turned on. Some people like "Postprocessing" on but I kinda don't.

Anyway... Just checking up! Missed yer posts, was curious what's up. I still wanna try STO. Sucks that your CO is still poo.

edit:
Oh yeah! I also yanked the processor, re-greased between it and the heat-sink, and blew out the heat-sink. This lowered my CPU temps by almost Half.

[blackjak]

Well, since I am playing on a unibody Macbook Pro... Seriously, i expect the performance to be suckish because I am playing in a wineskin wrapper. I use the same wrapper for STO though and it plays ok (some DC during busy times and occasional fuzzy graphics). The usual graphics and gameplay are much better for me over there for some reason. Especially after the last update.

p.s.
The costume creator is still just as detailed as ever. It's just in the game that the graphics are dumbed down even though I have upped the detail levels. I usually keep lighting effects and shadows on low, but turned them up last time to no effect actually...

[Xev]

Well, since I am playing on a unibody Macbook Pro...

Ah, there's nothing like posting a useless wall of text. Oops.

p.s.
The costume creator is still just as detailed as ever. It's just in the game that the graphics are dumbed down even though I have upped the detail levels. I usually keep lighting effects and shadows on low, but turned them up last time to no effect actually...

AHA!

Well here's a chance to be useful. In video options there is an option to "crank up video settings in the creator". If you can see the graphics you are expecting to see in the creator, you should be able to see them in game, too. I know you already checked but you most likely just have something set down/different from what you're used to and what the creator is picking for you. It..is..so..easy..to..do! Was for me anyway.

Try just cranking everything to max and if that still doesn't help - start clicking options like Postprocessing that have an Off and On. When you get it like you like it, start turning things off to see what you *really* don't need, for better performance. That's how I did it and finally now I know what my prefs are so I don't have to do that anymore.

Also, try double-checking the options in Troubleshooting (video options) as well as the main video options, to see if something there was picked for you that you don't agree with.

I did this so many times - had something off in video settings that made everything look dumbed down (like after resetting settings from doing a "Safe Mode" from the launcher) but yet it all looked great in the creator, And it always ended up being something I set different than I normally would in video options. It was always the stuff in my last post in my case.

That's all I got  : /

GL