2001 12 13

December 13, 2001 12:00 am

* Texture Cache *

In an effort to improve loading and zoning times, we've added the ability to cache textures to your hard drive. One of the things that your computer is doing when you load up the game or change zones is building textures and putting them into RAM on your computer. Each time you log in or zone the game has to create the textures you need and put them into RAM for use during gameplay.

This, obviously, takes a little time.

We have added an option that allows you to save that information to your hard drive rather than creating it each time you log in or zone.

This does have a few drawbacks. It will require a lot of hard drive space to store these textures. In the most extreme case it could use up as much as 1.5 GB of hard drive space, though this would be the extreme. It could, however, easily use 500 MB of space on your hard drive. And because writing all this data to your hard drive takes a little time, the first time you use this feature it will take a bit longer to log in.

The game will never allow you to fall below 500 MB of space on your hard drive when creating the texture cache. This is to prevent any problems with a shortage of space on your hard drive. But it also means that you will need to have plenty of hard drive space free to use this option; 500 MB plus the amount needed for the texture cache.

Also, if you change any of your setting for graphics {like changing the texture quality) it will have to rewrite these files, meaning that your first log in after making such a change will take longer than usual as it writes these files to your hard drive.

The benefits is that once you have allocated the hard drive space and logged in to create the needed files, the game can then read that information directly into RAM from your hard drive rather than creating them each time you log in or zone.

What this feature does not allow you to do is to increase the settings above those that are recommended. If the game suggests that you only use ten models, turning on the Texture Cache will not make it a good idea to turn on more models. This feature will not change that. Those recommendations are based on the amount of RAM you have available and your video card. The hard drive cache does not effectively add RAM to your machine, it just allows the game to save time creating the textures that your existing RAM and video card use.

There are two ways to activate this feature. You can check the 'Texture Cache' box in the Options screen, or you can turn it on from within the eqclient.ini file. To activate it, add the following line to the eqclient.ini file:

TextureCache=TRUE

This could improve load times dramatically depending on your settings. The more models and graphics features you have turned on, the greater the potential decrease in loading times you will see using the Texture Cache.

Remember: This will require a lot of hard drive space, so be certain that you have a lot of free hard drive space if you turn this option on. The more stuff you enable (models, texture quality, etc.) the more space you will need.

We expect this to be of greatest benefit to folks with 256 megs of RAM and a lot of hard drive space. The more RAM your system has, the less benefit you should expect to see by using the texture cache.

  • Patch Changes *

  • Fixed a pathing problem in the waters of Acrylia Caverns

  • More fixes for face and hair issues: Most notably a bug with Erudite male hair color arrows changing the hair style instead of the color.
  • Fixed a problem that was causing the % to crash some people when using in tells.
  • Addressed several potential crash bugs.
------------------------------
December 13, 2001  12:00 am
------------------------------



** Texture Cache **



In an effort to improve loading and zoning times, we've added the 
ability to cache textures to your hard drive. One of the things that 
your computer is doing when you load up the game or change zones is 
building textures and putting them into RAM on your computer. Each time 
you log in or zone the game has to create the textures you need and put 
them into RAM for use during gameplay.



This, obviously, takes a little time.



We have added an option that allows you to save that information to 
your hard drive rather than creating it each time you log in or zone.



This does have a few drawbacks. It will require a lot of hard drive 
space to store these textures. In the most extreme case it could use up 
as much as 1.5 GB of hard drive space, though this would be the 
extreme. It could, however, easily use 500 MB of space on your hard 
drive. And because writing all this data to your hard drive takes a 
little time, the first time you use this feature it will take a bit 
longer to log in.



The game will never allow you to fall below 500 MB of space on your 
hard drive when creating the texture cache. This is to prevent any 
problems with a shortage of space on your hard drive. But it also means 
that you will need to have plenty of hard drive space free to use this 
option; 500 MB plus the amount needed for the texture cache.



Also, if you change any of your setting for graphics {like changing the 
texture quality) it will have to rewrite these files, meaning that your 
first log in after making such a change will take longer than usual as 
it writes these files to your hard drive.



The benefits is that once you have allocated the hard drive space and 
logged in to create the needed files, the game can then read that 
information directly into RAM from your hard drive rather than creating 
them each time you log in or zone.



What this feature does not allow you to do is to increase the settings 
above those that are recommended. If the game suggests that you only 
use ten models, turning on the Texture Cache will not make it a good 
idea to turn on more models. This feature will not change that. Those 
recommendations are based on the amount of RAM you have available and 
your video card. The hard drive cache does not effectively add RAM to 
your machine, it just allows the game to save time creating the 
textures that your existing RAM and video card use.



There are two ways to activate this feature. You can check the 'Texture 
Cache' box in the Options screen, or you can turn it on from within the 
eqclient.ini file. To activate it, add the following line to the 
eqclient.ini file:



TextureCache=TRUE



This could improve load times dramatically depending on your settings. 
The more models and graphics features you have turned on, the greater 
the potential decrease in loading times you will see using the Texture 
Cache.



Remember: This will require a lot of hard drive space, so be certain 
that you have a lot of free hard drive space if you turn this option 
on. The more stuff you enable (models, texture quality, etc.) the more 
space you will need.



We expect this to be of greatest benefit to folks with 256 megs of RAM 
and a lot of hard drive space. The more RAM your system has, the less 
benefit you should expect to see by using the texture cache.



* Patch Changes *



- Fixed a pathing problem in the waters of Acrylia Caverns
- More fixes for face and hair issues: Most notably a bug with Erudite 
male hair color arrows changing the hair style instead of the color.
- Fixed a problem that was causing the % to crash some people when 
using in tells.
- Addressed several potential crash bugs.
Patches in 2001