It's just a pain in the ass in certain ways. I for one miss both this and MPQ editing. I can understand why they cracked down on the latter, even to the detriment of many user's experiences, but not the former.

It's fine for example, disabling the third-party mods i.e Stronger Colours if you replace them with something that has much the same functionality. Was really helpful for people like myself who are colourblind, and Blizzard are on the record acknowledging this.

Tbh I just hate the moves games are making to limit user-side customisation that doesn't impact on the game experience, and arbitrarily disabling certain things for no reason. There may BE a reason, but if there is, I'd love to actually hear what they are instead of logging in to find yet another little tweak is gone.

I run as much as I can at low, maybe the WC3 nostalgia, but there are things I'd prefer bumped up, as in the Op but yet I am not sure how I'd even go about it at this point.

Mooneyes

Sweden72 Posts

April 01 2013 19:11 GMT

#18

Someone on battle net claimed that messing with the file could Corrupt the entire game.
For the record i dont believe it, thought i should mention it though.

WombaT

Northern Ireland27446 Posts

April 01 2013 19:14 GMT

#19

Surely the kind of people who are tech-savvy enough to tweak variables.txt files are surely the kind of people who, for the most part know what they are doing?

Judging from my experience the 'makes tech support easier' might make sense, the guys who've responded to my tickets knew less than me, who has been using a Windows-based PC for less than 6 months lol.

The most frustrating part about such things are that we are never actually told for the most part why decisions were made, and thus it is left to forum conjecture and the likes. If there's a good reason behind it I would quite enjoy hearing it.

DeCoup

Australia1933 Posts

April 01 2013 19:16 GMT

#20

From your Low vs Medium shaders... Does the shaders setting also effect the brightness of the HUD? I can't work out why the HUD is so much brighter in the second picture.

Al Bundy

7257 Posts

April 01 2013 19:23 GMT

#21

Your post makes sense OP and I agree with you, these settings should be in the option menu.

Evire

Norway198 Posts

April 01 2013 20:05 GMT

#22

On April 02 2013 04:16 DeCoup wrote:
From your Low vs Medium shaders... Does the shaders setting also effect the brightness of the HUD? I can't work out why the HUD is so much brighter in the second picture.

No brightness was changed by me. So I guess medium shaders makes the HUD a bit brighter.

Dghelneshi

Germany82 Posts

April 02 2013 15:58 GMT

#23

Medium Shaders also make banelings much more visible. It doesn't look too bad in a still image but in motion it's much harder to make out the banelings on low settings since they are the same color as zerglings, while with medium settings they have a distinct green color, even though the shadows add a bit of extra distraction.

+ Show Spoiler +

MisterFred

United States2033 Posts

April 02 2013 16:04 GMT

#24

Techish note:

For those playing on integrated graphics (intel HD 2000, 3000, 4000 and the like), shaders are a no-no. They will significantly reduce frame rate. For anyone with a decent video card, you should have plenty of room to play around with whatever shader setting (and associated settings) you prefer without worrying about frame rates.

Regarding model quality: Model quality actually has very very little effect on any sort of hardware performance. Anyone should feel comfortable trying out whatever model quality settings they prefer without worrying about effects on frame rates.

One last note, not directly applicable: if late game minimum FPS is giving you trouble, turning down physics effects (most of the graphics settings that say they affect the CPU) can help improve performance on any computer. CPU power rules your minimum frame rates when lots of units are on the screen regardless of your setup, so decreasing graphics effects that rely on physics calculations can help you if you have problems in that area.

IPS.Blue

Germany309 Posts

April 06 2013 19:19 GMT

#25

On April 03 2013 00:58 Dghelneshi wrote:
Medium Shaders also make banelings much more visible.

I never realised the difference was so big.
I would love more detailed options.

SNSDBWooger

France16 Posts

April 07 2013 00:30 GMT

#26

Gogo Blizzard; this guy is saying truth.

tofubeans

United States794 Posts

April 07 2013 01:57 GMT

#27

where can i find variable.txt?

IPS.Blue

Germany309 Posts

April 07 2013 10:52 GMT

#28

C:\Users\tofubeans\Documents\StarCraft II\variables.txt

[F_]aths

Germany3947 Posts

April 07 2013 11:00 GMT

#29

On April 01 2013 10:53 lysergic wrote:
You can use High Models with Low Shaders by changing a couple things in variables.txt

GraphicsOptionModelQuality=2
lowqualitymodels=0
useLowqualitymodels=0

It is really stupid that they restricted certain graphics settings for no reason in HotS.

Not knowing the reasons does not mean that there are no (or no good) reasons.

deekox

Poland19 Posts

April 07 2013 12:28 GMT

#30

Is there any way to have nice forcefields without glowing mineral patches?

KirA_TheGreaT

France204 Posts

April 07 2013 13:12 GMT

#31

this thread just remind me how much i miss stronger color mod

Carpenter

126 Posts

April 09 2013 16:51 GMT

#32

On April 07 2013 21:28 deekox wrote:
Is there any way to have nice forcefields without glowing mineral patches?

im also looking for answer for this, getting med-shader forcefields without actually going medium shaders, because that effects too many things, shadows etc.

NET

United States703 Posts

April 23 2013 22:09 GMT

#33

I am having similar problems. If anyone found the answer please do tell. Or you can add another person to the list that wants blizzard to have these options in the menu. I am very nit-picky with these details and its a bit bothersome not being able to change them to the specifications that I had in WoL.

Duncaaaaaan

United Kingdom101 Posts

April 24 2013 00:07 GMT

#34

If you want to play this game seriously, get a computer that can run on medium... not difficult.

If you seriously like low more medium+ for aesthetics then there's something wrong in your head.

MrBarryObama

Korea (South)141 Posts

April 24 2013 16:53 GMT

#35

OP is absolutely right. I made a thread about this a while back when HotS beta was new. Not being able to differentiate warp ins and death animations is a huge deal. Plus, I never, EVER want to worry about my FPS during a game.

I have an adequate video card that can run medium shaders at 100+ FPS in most cases. However, in those huge max battles with spells abound, frames can dip below 50, and at that point it is noticeable and affects gameplay. Let's not even talk about team games.

Hilariously, if you change shaders to low whithout restarting the game, you will still have High quality models with low shaders. The game doesn't break. The limitation is completely unnecessary.

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