SparocheeDoom

So there is NO way to scale the UI and fonts for now? This sucks for 4K screens big time!

There are 3 very important issues: 1. Game resolution settings do not work and do not apply. Regardless of whether I use FullScreen Mode, Window Mode or Borderless WIndow Mode, resolution settings do not apply. They always use Desktop resolution, regardless of settings used in the game. 2. This game is not DSR-friendly. DSR is a method downscaling from a higher resolution that is above native display resolution to a lower one. For example, I can downscale from 4K resolution to 1080p resolution. 108p is the native resolution for my display. DSR 4K function is equivalent of using Super-Sampling Anti-Aliasing, which drastically improves image quality. One of the possible problems of using DSR is that it can make the UI much smaller due to displaying a much broader area, such as one a true 4K monitor can display. Usually, developers honor these feature by allowing to increase the size of the UI & by providing the freedom to zoom in closer than the game normally allows. There needs to be a way to zoom in further when 4K resolution is selected. There is a way select different size fonts, but that's about it... I know there is a way to zoom, using SetZoomRange 0 1.5, but there need to be in-game settings for that! 3. There are still no AA options available! AFAIK, one must type "MSAA X" command, where X is the MSAA strength value, to properly set MSAA to desired value. That is very annoying and AFAIK that command needs to be used each time a new area is loaded. I have a high-end PC, but I also use 4K DSR, which makes MSAA almost worthless since DSR 4K / 4x SSAA is a much better AA type than MSAA. There have to be in-game settings that allow to set and lock MSAA strength. I do not know if nVidia Inspector or nVidia Control Panel can actually force 0 MSAA, but selecting "Override..." and "Off"... ***Side-Note***: It would also be of great help to those with lower system specs to be able to select SMAA without using 3rd party tools, such as SweetFX / ReShade. SMAA does not function well with MSAA, but by itself SMAA provides much better quality AA than FXAA at barely any cost to performance. FOUR (4) patches came out already and none of them fixed bugs and shortcomings I described above!!! I have MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB card with the latest drivers, running on i7 3770K @ 4.8Ghz, 16GB RAM, SSD, and Windows 8.1. My PC is in excellent condition, optimized, without anything running the background, except for Steam, but Steam Overlay is turned off. I have no problems running other games and changing resolution within those-games, which does lead me to believe that those are exclusively Pillars of Eternity GAME BUGS and SHORTCOMINGS, but I've been wrong on occasion... OK, let forget about SMAA - maybe there is a technical problem with integrating it, but how hard can it be to fix resolution enforcement, create MSAA, and Zoom settings?

Ah, 60 hours is OK, but I was hoping for me. NO RPG so far can get even close to BG2 size. I spent 3 months playing BG2 1-2 hours per day, using a walkthrough to complete each and every quest. It was such an epic journey! I was hoping this game would top it, especially for $50!

The topic states it all. I am only level 5 and I opened half the world map. There are only 2 major cities..? I don't expect this game to be as long and as epic as Baldur's Gate 2, but it does take up 13GB of space and does not have fancy graphics or many videos that usually take up space. That means its 13GB of pure content + audio, but the map doesn't reconcile with that....

Now I have a full 6-person party, but only ONE true tank - Eder! Where can I find another one? I want to do the 13 level dungeon under my castle, but I am not sure if I can do it with 1 tank @ level, especially since there is no way to get out, until you reach the very end! I hope camping supplies are plentiful there!

Raedric becomes a vampire that you can take with you?? Where? I just got that sucker by standing behind his throne with a tank on each side, 2 mages behind them, and them Durance. It was so easy that way. All at level 5!

What do I do with wolf hides? Are they just for sale or will I be able to craft items with it? I saw others asking the same questions. Has anyone beaten the game know whether hides are useful for upgrades or crafting?

Is Watcher something only Wizards become??? I am early in the game, but I am level 4 and already finished most Veil quests, aside from Raedric. I do not recall seeing my own old soul, yet. Is that something that happens in the future or have I missed it? I was able to look into many people's souls in Veil, but so far it hasn't added to any quests or plots, aside from that bear quest, where you can see how the eaten man was set up. I do not see how being perceived as a Watch/tortured soul is a bad thing really. Have you not played Planescape Torment? Sadness can be a powerful theme. Hell, Dragon Age: Origins was all bloody and depressing, but it was a hell of a game!

Is Eder's armor that great? I found a better armor, I think - Fine Brigandine. Or maybe its the new Fine Large Shield that I found that made the difference. Not sure... It seems to work better for him too. He takes less damage than before. I just cleaned up Raedric's castle and found that armor there. I have't killed Raedric and his little army in the throne room though. Now i have 12650 gold! That's a lot for level 4 group, right? I finallly found Durance or whatever his name is. He is of so much help. I also found out that help you can hire from Tavern is almost worthless compared to those who join you willingly. What's the max number of characters you can have in your party? I need to learn utilize all the features the game offers. I have't even made any potions from all the grasses I collected. I can't figure out how to transfer spells from someone's book to mine! When I click on their spells, it clears up mine and theirs! I do have the latest patch, so I am sure I am doing something wrong...

Off-topic (regarding calibration and i1 Pro): On-topic: - Does setting the game to the highest quality enable 8x MSAA? - For nVidia users, the absolute best AA effect you can get is by doing the following: 1. Creating a profile specifically for PoE.exe in nVidia Inspector and setting FXAA Predefined Usage to Allowed and setting Toggle FXAA On/Off to On. nVidia FXAA is of better and higher quality than SweetFX FXAA. 2. Using ReShade 0.18 + SweetFX 2.0 release to enable 2 things: LumaSharpen (default settings) to offset FXAA blur and Dithering (choose method 2) That will result in the best possible image quality. You will get the best aliasing without any blur!

Does it? Usually in AD&D games, putting heavy armor on a mage makes no sense as it doesn't do the mage much good, but it also reduces some important stats for a mage. I don't recall the specifics, but I can't quite figure out if its the same way in Pillars of Eternity?

So far my approach consists of killing enemies one by one instead of attacking them all. The problem is that Wizards DIE so fast. I keep my tank fighter up-front and enemies target him first, but there are times when you enter a new zone, like a castle room or whatever, and there is no space or time to place my tank up front. Your group can appear in new area with Wizard being closer to enemies, which will attack the closest person to them (Wizard!). Another problem is that AoE spells damage your own group members! That's just not fair IMHO. I do not recall this in BG2 games and other AD&D games... My Wizards end up burning down my tank in no time with their spells! The only way to do damage JUST to the enemy is to make Wizard a tank, without any party members around, which doesn't work because Wizards die so fast! I got powerful spells, like that big fireball that runs through everyone and then bounce off walls. It obliterates everything in its path, including my own party.

That is not enough. If you want to calibrate your monitor PROPERLY, you will need to get either i1Display Pro or ColorMunki Display hardware colorimeters (NOT inaccurate Spyder crap) and use dispcalGUI 2.9.0.7 with ArgyllCMS 1.7.0 Dev. Beta, which is 100% freeware with best calibration accuracy!. i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display use the same hardware, but i1Display Pro supports more software applications, which is irrelevant since ArgyllCMS is free and supports both ColorMunki Display and i1Display Pro. ColorMunki Display goes for about $175 and i1Display Pro goes for about $250. Its not something you need to upgrade and you can use those devices on monitors, TV's, projectors, etc. A one-time purchase to calibrate all your displays. Games will only utilize the grayscale part of calibration/ICC profile via software LUT, but it is still worth it. P.S. Don't bother downloaded ICC profiles for your monitor/TV model because each individual unit needs it own separate calibration and you can end up with worse image accuracy if you download an ICC profile someone created using their own unit of the same model.

Again I see people trying to use SMAA + MSAA. Its only going to add more artifacts, especially to text. The best thing for this game is ReShade 0.18 + SweetFX 2.0 if you want to use additional graphics features. Notice the bottom UI text when MSAA and SMAA are enabled together (without anything else set to "1" in SweetFX_settings.txt file). You actually get additional aliasing and edges don't look right at all. I am also confused why this game does not utilitze DSR properly. If I use FullScreen Mode and select 4K DSR/SSAA resolution on my 1080p monitor, all games use DSR properly, but not PoE. To make PoE use 4K DSR on my 1080p, I have to actually have to set my desktop to 4K and then run the game. That should NOT be needed, unless the game is running Borderless Window mode, which it isn't. Its set to FullScreen mode. Its a definite game bug. I have not looked through the options, but is there a way to increase the size of the in-game UI? 4K DSR makes everything smaller, but most games allow you to compensate for that by increasing the size of UI/UI features...

I am early in the game, but I talked to everyone in the Veil town with all the hanged folks and several of them provided quest opportunities, but the locations they told me about never showed up on the map... I was reading some guide that you actually have to take the right exit (N, S, W, E) to get those areas to open up. Is that really so?

Thanks for advice. Its a bit balanced quest though. I took out everyone in the castle, outside, inside, in the dungeon. I didn't realize I could wear robes to prevent deaths of all the priests, but I left the priest leader alive and saved his friend from the dungeon. I just have 3 level 4 players right now, me (wizard) and the other wizard + fighter from the Veil town. Taking care of the guards around the castle was somewhat challenging, but Raedric is just impossible to defeat with my party. Wizards die so fast! I plan on Normal because I am an experienced AD&D Player (not a Veteran though).

Thank you for such a prompt reply! Eder won't talk to me after I selected some dialogue option. I just found another elf Wizard, but I surely need a warrior. What do I do to make Eder be my companion?

I just got to Guilded Vale as a God-Like Death Wizard. I managed to clear out earlier areas without problems, except for the cave bear, which killed me in 1 or 2 attacks. I played and beat BG1, BG2, IWD + Exp, IWD2 + Exp, PlaneScape: Torment, Fallout 1 and 2, Arcanum, Divinity: Original Sin, and a ton of other old-school classic RPG's on Normal. This game seems to be harder than those classics, but it only became harder when my companions died. I really hope someone decides to come along soon because I am unable to kill a simple spider in even Guilded Vale's underground (below the giant three). Anyone got tips? I decided to pick up spells, where half are about attacking and another half are about defending, but none help at the moment. I have: Arcane Assault, Dazzling Lights, Chill Fog, Death's Usher, Fleet Feet, Ghost Blades, Wizard's Double, Gaun's Pledge. When I made my character, I put 3/4th of available points in Might, Intelligence, and 1/4th in Dexterity as those were the ones with starts. It seemed like a decent build, but I am not sure anymore. Do I have a weak build or all the wrong spells? I recall in BG2, it was very important to select the right spells from the beginning, like Protection from Evil, Haste, Chant, Bless, and some others. Is it similar in the game? Could someone advice on whether I should make a new build or just keep talking to people in Guided Vale to find myself a followers (warrior!) ???

I am male, human-sized Godlike-Death with default head that has 2 weird backwards "horns". Yet, there is no such avatar portrait for my build! Only one Godlike-Death male portrait exists and its the one for the pointy head, not the head that my character has. There is Godlike male with the same head, but for Fire-Godlike! Its really annoying! Please provide more avatars for more build types! Having mismatch head and avatar portrait is an immersion killer for me!

FYI, you should not use SMAA when MSAA is enabled. If you do, some aliasing will be smoothed out, but other objects will get more aliasing. SMAA and MSAA do not mix. If you want to use SMAA, disable MSAA first. Games that allow the use of MSAA, do not have settings to use MSAA with SMAA. MSAA works well with FXAA, but not SMAA. I have tested SMAA + MSAA in many games, using ReShade + SweetFX 2.0 to force SMAA. MSAA + SMAA do not mix. You have to look and compare the difference between MSAA alone and MSAA + SMAA very carefully. You will see how such a combination results in aliasing-type artifacts. Here's a SweetFX Guide that explores this issue - https://delightlylinux.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/sweetfx-smaa/ . Look under "Combine Anti-Aliasing Modes" . Read through it and then look at Step 7 "Game MSAA 8x + SMAA Ultra" . Here, we combine SMAA with the highest in-game MSAA setting, 8x, and we get the same blocky, blurry result as with MSAA 4x + SMAA. Again, we see that MSAA + SMAA ruins the image rather than helping it. MSAA 8x also brings back the increased slowdown.