How to make WoW look better. Gfx enhancement macro.
It’s been around the web today a little bit. I tried it myself and am very pleased with the end results. There exists a macro that (by simple use of the /console command) can vastly improve the quality of the environment graphics in the game. This looks to be a GREAT tool for people looking to get more out of their hardware or even film makers and machinimators that want the extra little detail in their footage. Here is the macro.
/console farclip 777
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient 0
What does this do exactly?
- The vegetation can be seen from miles away (grass flowers etc) plus there seems to be FAR more of it.
- The “bloom” effect seems to be more vivid.
- The view distance is greatly increased.
- Everything seems to be more sharp and crisp.
- The weather effects appear to be more intense.
You have to restart WoW for some of the commands to take effect. Here are some visual examples taken from Teza.
You can tell from one image to the next that there are A LOT more trees in the background as well the ground cover actually looks like it would in real life in a forest, tons of grasses and other flora all over the place. Unless you’re talking straight dirt or sandy deserts, you’re not going to have plain blank flat land at your feet all the time.
Check beneath the cut for the macro to revert the changes as (depending on your hardware) these commands can negatively affect your frame-rate and such
If these changes make your FPS drop or you game unplayable then you have to get a new video card you cheap skate get with the times! you can use this command in a macro to revert the changes.
/console groundEffectDensity 16
/console groundEffectDist 1
/console horizonfarclip 1305
/console farclip 177
/console characterAmbient 1
/console smallcull 1
/console skycloudlod 1
/console detailDoodadAlpha 1
You can also go to your video options in the game and and pull all the detail sliders to minimum.
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Apr 23rd, 2008 at 8:10 am
WOW!
That makes a HUGE difference. The forest in Eco Dome Midrealm became a lush tropical jungle, and the area of Blade’s Edge by Ogri’la went from wasteland to scrub!
Remarkable.
Thanks for posting this.
Apr 23rd, 2008 at 8:42 am
This really did make a HUGE difference. Thanks A LOT for posting this! Every area looks way better!
May 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I haven’t been using this for too long, but farclip 777 crashes my client around Gahrron’s Withering in Western Plaguelands.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Meant to say, I know its not farclip 777, but one of the other settings in conjunction with it at that spot.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hmmm I wish I knew enough about coding and such to help you out Xerpher but I honestly don’t. I won’t pretend to act like I have the be all end all computer either. I had to take the original macro and fiddle with the values a bit.
If you’re having crash issues did you have them before or after Patch 2.4.1? I’m asking because right now I’m actually suffering a really craptastic bug where if I were to opt to exit the game instead of logging out, sometimes it’ll just freeze completely.
Then I have to alt+tab or ctrl+alt+delete so I can manually close WoW. I doubt this has anything to do with the macro being in effect but it only started happening in the past two weeks.
It may be a driver issue where there’s something in the game at that very spot that causing the break too. Sometimes if I am flying through Skettis for example or even recently off the Aldor Rise in Shattrath, my PC will freeze. Completely. I have to shut down and reboot the sucker for it to work again. Only in WoW mind you does this ever happen. It seems I need to fly through a certain space for things to go backwards ass crazy. If I log in and try to move a little bit ti crashes yet again. I end up either having to dismount and die from the fall followed by a run to my corpse or if close enough to stable ground, find a way to get there and hearth.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
There was a bug with various sound drivers causing that freeze on exit that was supposed to have been fixed if I recall correctly.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:24 am
Generally runs ok - but one problem I have noted is: When I come out of the water there is a noticeable stutter as the world over water is rendered. Anybody know which configuration is irresponsible for this?
Jul 19th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
This definitely makes the barrens look quite a bit less barren =D
Sep 7th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
The numbers were updated with 2.4 something according to Daostrasz on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrJjwY59jts
The new numbers are down in the comments somewhere, not in his info box.
/console farclip 783
/console horizonfarclip 6266
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient
characterambient actually turns on fake lighting, so 1 is full, 0 is some, and no number is off… so you don’t want to use a number.
Apparently the numbers are even higher in Wotlk beta.