RA3 looks rubbish in low res...

So I have Red Alert 3, so far I am actually quite enjoying the campaign, apart from the fact that Medium should be retitled, Easy as pie...

But one big problem I have is that in order to run the game on my notebook in it's native res (1920x1200) with any decent speed I have to turn the shadows and shaders off.

I like to run the game in the native res because in all lower resolutions the textures seems to be of a low standard and blurry.

But I would like to have the shaders/shadows on, if only so I can see what the game should look like...

I have tried putting full anisotropic filtering on and putting the in-game AA options to max but the textures still seem blurred at lower resolutions.

Did EA make the game use low res textures when not in native resolution on purpose or is there something that I can do to improve the look of the game at lower resolutions?

The same issue exists with C&C 3 Tiberium wars as well. No matter what AF or AA settings I use both games look as though someone has blurred all the textures...

If someone has any ideas on what to do to solve this issue I'd appreciate it.

My notebook is an Asus M70VM, with a P8400 (2.2ghz C2D) cpu, 4gb RAM and an nVidia Geforce 9600M GS 512MB.

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice.

 

Ugh, I had the same issue with C&C3. I just stopped playing it because of how blurry it was, because my old notebook couldn't handle the higher resolutions.

I'm not sure what advice to give you, because you 9600 most definitely isn't made to handle 1920x1200 gaming, and shadows are always a big hit to performance. I guess the only other option is to turn the graphic settings down as far as you can stand.

 

Well I'm surprised I can run a current game on my rig...

Currently I'm running the game in 1280x720 with all options on their max settings aside from the shadows/shaders which I have set to high and the water, the water seems to be the biggest hit on framerates, I have to set that at medium.

And apart from the blurryness of the textures it looks great and runs quite quickly.

But even without the shaders/shadows on 1920x1200 looks far superior because the textures are far crisper.

I guess EA don't want low end system owners to play their games.

 

How well does it run/look @ max resolution, but all medium settings?

These days I sacrifice settings before native resolution.

 

In native res (i.e. max), the textures are crisper but the framerate is worse if I have all settings in medium.

It runs quite quick in 1280x800 (I upped it slightly since my last post) with water on medium, shaders/shadows on high and all other settings on max, with 2x AA (in-game setting) and no v-sync.

Not particularly happy with the shiny water but it's something I can live with. If the textures were less blurry I'd be well happy. It only really seems to be the units and player buildings that are affected though, it's quite odd.

 

Would you mind running FRAPS while you play at 1920x1200? With all settings on medium, shadows on low, no AA/AF. I'm curious to know exactly what kind of framerates you're averaging at this res. Then we can try to help you find a happy medium.

 

I'll see about downloading FRAPS and have a go.

 

Ok so I dl'd FRAPS and installed it, and it's telling me that in 1280x800 I'm getting between 22 and 26 fps with the settings in my post above.

At 1920x1200 with all settings on medium I'm getting 18 to 21 fps. And the difference is noticeable, the conscripts move slower in the 1920x1200 settings for a start...

I've attached a couple of pics, one with all the settings pretty much at high or max in 1280x800 and one in 1920x1200 with all medium settings. I actually prefer the look of the 1280x800 one but the textures are a whole lot crisper in the 1920x1200 one but that doesn't seem to be evident in the pics...

If I knew how to save the FRAPS results I would. I'll see if I can work out how to...

 

IMO, the game is a joke. This is the only CnC series that I play when I am bored, not because I'm addicted. Using my laptop (spec below) on low, looks terrible compared to CnC3 (which I could run at medium setting without my buildings flickering, changing colors here and there. i.e. : A red doted/colored Allied Aircraft carrier attacking the soviets? When i clicked on it, it turned blue, again!)

Your AI "Comrade" usually do a better job than you and why is the stupid dolphins so hard to kill? Won't 1 Tesla shock be enuf to finish them off?????

Sorry bout the rants, just think that this game doesn't deserve the title of Red Alert. If they call it Generals 2, at least I won't be so mad about it.

 

I have 9600M GT DDR3 and the game play is smooth on Medium.

However.. I don't understand why my videos are blurred. The colors appear like 16-bit-ish and everything is washed out, especially the background.

 

Hmm, yeah I'm not too happy with the performance and look of the textures, unless it's in native res, and then I can't have the shadows/shaders on...

The same thing happens with C&C 3, and on my old notebook (acer 9302, nvidia geforce go 6100, 2.2ghz single core AMD turion 64, 4gb RAM) if I didn't have the game running in native res (1440x900) the textures looked sub-standard. Same issue with my current rig, if the game isn't in native res the textures look bad.

That shouldn't happen if you ask me, yes they wouldn't be as crisp around the edges but even with AF off they shouldn't be blurry.