It’s what inside that counts…
I don’t know if you’re noticed, because you might not have done if you don’t have functioning eyes, but Team Fortress 2 can get a little bit hectic at times. Rockets and grenades flying everywhere, bullets flying this way and that, and you standing in the thick of it all whilst randomly firing at everything and wondering what the hell is going on. Of course, this is no bad thing! It’s what TF2 is all about, after all. Yet one of the “Bad things” that can emerge from this awesome emerges from the very piece of technology that is desperately trying to deliver all the fun to you – And often fail at doing so…
Yes, I’m talking about the humble computer! They come in all shapes and sizes, and sadly not all of them have the power to shoot lasers and run a game such as TF2 at a blistering rate with no hint of slowdown. Indeed, the only thing that can often be done to render the game playable is to knock down the graphical settings a little (Or a lot!) and end with something that looks like this…
Now, to be fair, this doesn’t look bad. Not the best thing ever, but I doubt you stabbed your eyes out after looking at it. However, you may have expressed some variation of an opinion that surprised me when I was showing off this screenshot to people. This opinion consisted of such odd comments such as “Damn how you can play the game with it looking like that!” and “Wow your computer must suck lolol”, as well as many others. In other words, the way my game looked proved to be a big deal to some people. And I found myself asking this…
Why?
Carnage – It’s fun in any form!
Don’t get me wrong, if I could run Team Fortress 2 at its highest settings I’d be there like a shot. Yet even if I ran the game at a disturbingly low level of settings, I’m sure I could still have fun with it. After all, it’s moments like the one at the start of that video that are what truly makes the game fun… Moments where you succeed in a bizarre situation. Where you kill tons of people at once with an Uber. Where you are screwing around and not playing seriously in any shape or form. None of the above need super-powerful settings in order to encounter them, so it seems a little odd that everyone is striving to achieve such settings when they build these “Super 1337 gaming rigs” that can apparently send a man to mars. The fact that their enjoyment of the game seems reliant of such settings just completely boggles the mind.
Perhaps it’s just the hivemind of the gaming community as a whole that’s led to such a situation… After all, not many top games released nowadays don’t boast about “Stunning graphics” somewhere in their advertising. The fact that sources such as this also tended to hype up TF2’s unique graphical style on release also probably played a part in people wanted to make it look as good as possible. To be honest, I don’t know exactly why good graphics are such a big deal nowadays anyway, apart from making things look good. After all, games like pong baiscally had no graphics at all, but if something like that has stayed fun for years. And yes, I’ve no doubt TF2 is exactly the same.
Arguments against low settings are graphically inferior.
Now, there’s probably a select bunch of people out there who simply can’t get the mentality of merely having fun, and would fire off certain reasons why everyone should be playing on the highest settings possible. One notable example of this I’ve seen over time is that you can apparently buy or build a PC that can run TF2 well for not very much at all… A couple of hundreds dollars or so seems to be the average when it comes to this, although throw a bit more in for super power if you so wish. Well, this is all very well and good, but the fact remains most of us just don’t have that sort of money. Heck, even if most people did, I’m willing to bet that the majority would be more willingt to spend it on other things than trying to squeeze out a bit more performance from the PC they may not even play games on much. Heck, perhaps they’d spend it on an Xbox 360 and then play the inferior version of the game for the rest of their lives, who knows. Yet the fact remains – Not everyone can easily spend their way to greatness.
It’s also worth nothing that out very own competitive TF2 guide noted that actually having lower settings can help, because it will prevent your computer flying out of the window in a rage-fest if your FPS suddenly drops as a result of all the madness happening on the screen. So any illusions that having a brilliant looking game helps you play better are duly shattered, because it’s actually far more logical to say that the opposite is true. And yes, I really do hope people don’t think they get more skillful as the game starts looking better and better, but places such as the Steam forums suggest such idiocy is certainly possible.
There’s also an aquaintance of mine who simply said that if you couldn’t play a game on the highest setting you’d have to be an idiot to buy it in the first place. But don’t worry about him. He’s dead now. I killed him.
And to my partners in graphical crime…
I know you’re out there! Tweaking those configs and lowering those settings just to get a better experience, and not caring what it looks like as long as the end result is fun! Come to think of it, most people who read a site like this would probably take such an outlook as this, but for that, I still love you. Why? Because you know it’s all about the carnage and laughs, no matter how pixellated it may look.
Stumble it!
Foxberry responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 8:25 pm #
Thank you. Very good article and I cannot agree more.
melkor responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 8:42 pm #
Totally Agree.
i use this settings:
http://www.gotfrag.com/tf2/forums/thread/322476/
They are very fast and help me to play on my 3+ year old Hardware
Frames stay above 30 fps most of the time. Try it!
I even played with theses settings on a Geforce Go 7300…
satanpenguin responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 9:26 pm #
Not to mention that some competition players prefer low detail settings so as not to be distracted with all the glitzy particle effects (some of which are, however, very useful in TF2 and not just eye candy). The same can be said of very high detail textures. For instance, I have seen videos of pro Q3A or CS players where all walls were of plain colors, with no texture at all.
On the other hand, TF2’s hardware requirements are not excessive. They have increased slightly with some updates, but they still are low compared to other games the same age. I can play TF2 and L4D seamlessly with enough eye-candy (for me at least) at 1024×768 on a computer built five years ago, while other games run but I wouldn’t try to play them online without lowering detail first.
Dzamir responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 9:27 pm #
I play in 1900×1200 with antialiasing and all settings maxed. MWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA!
Arthur responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 9:35 pm #
I agree, i do how ever find it hard to go backwards, I struggle to play HL1 because if its low Res. But if graphics never got better it wouldn’t bother me.
DPErny responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 10:30 pm #
Amen to this, sonic. I run TF2 with m0re’s high fps config. It’s almost as bad as that video. BUT IT WORKS. I play TF2 with like 100 fps.
Orionche responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 10:47 pm #
I also find it strange that people actually want to play this game with everything maxed out (same goes for every other game out there). Take a hint from the competitive players: pretty graphics mean shit if your computer keeps FPS lagging. Most professional teams have pretty nifty gear, yet they still play with everything on low because they refuse to let anything to chance.
A few months ago I upgraded my rig with a new CPU and some DDR3 memory. Before that i had everything on low and still had 25 fps in spawn. I did a shitload of predicting when i was in combat because the computer couldn’t keep up. After the upgrade (everything still on low), I got around 200 fps during the shitstorm that is granary/badlands middle. Not bragging, just saying…
With better performance, my playstyle changed and I could for once do proper god damn airshots with a solly and demo due to no fps lag.
High settings are for frag video making and pretty much nothing else.
Gil responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 10:48 pm #
I play TF2 and I don’t even *have* a graphics card (laptop), yet I still have fun!
RC-1290'Dreadnought' responded on 14 Oct 2009 at 11:55 pm #
Of course graphics are lots less important than gameplay. Also, nothing against good graphics, because they can really make your experience better, depending on the type of game. I’ve played Crysis on a pentium 4 on a 800 * 600 resolution and it was still so much fun that I actually bought the game when I got a new computer, capable of showing it on high(est) detail settings. It was like playing two different games, because the second time around I spend more time making nice explosions and soaking up the jungle atmosphere, but both playthroughs where really good.
Skwart responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 2:55 am #
“Of course graphics are lots less important than gameplay.”
I don’t wanna start a console war but that’s the whole reason i got a Wii.
Also I play the game on the lowest settings you can (from the options) and I usually get around 30-40 when im not playing on a 32-man server which is good enough for me.
I’m waiting for my gfx card to come which should give me a lot more fps
Limisios responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 2:58 am #
This article was made for people like me. I use a Mac with Parallels desktop so if I wanted higher graphics I’d need to take a different method then you Windows computer users.
But so what? I enjoy TF2 and that’s what matters! I don’t need that fancy shiny metalic Ubercharge Skin, I’ll stick to good old Dark Blue/Red!
Mr Razzle responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 2:59 am #
I used to run the game on the lowest settings (that the game goes to without external configs) and it was a lot better than getting good looks but failing at the game.
The only reason I run with everything on high now, is because I still get almost 200 FPS even with high settings since I built my new computer.
Red Saber JaT responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 4:41 am #
Pretty graphics are always nice, but I will lower my graphics to the lowest if required for me to play the game smoothly.
FPS over prettiness anyday.
Not that I really need to lower the settings… I just recently got a new Graph card. 1Gig of memory ftw.
Reptar responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 5:16 am #
Wow, your graphic are better than mine…
Luckily I’ve never posted a Screen Shot.
satanpenguin responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 5:33 am #
Limisios: is it playable with Parallels? I always thought that Wine or Cedega were the way to go with
Mac or Linux.
I have, in fact, played TF2 with Wine on Linux on a laptop… not as smoothly as with my desktop pc, but that can be also due to the gfx card not being anything special (Nvidia Quadro NVS140M, roughly like an 8400M GS) and it was playable anyway. It’s been a while since then, and I hear they are improving DirectX support so maybe it’s worht trying again.
Qeex responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 5:42 am #
Optimising is all well and good, but surely if you could squeeze out just a little more visual brilliance, why not?
I personally feel a small drop in fps is a worthy trade-off- honestly, home much happens in that 0.17 of a second? I rarely notice it.
Though I may speak with bias, because I saved up for ages for my sexy new graphics card. 30fps and 16xQ CSAA antialiasing
Dark Master responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 6:09 am #
Its hard to go back in graphics, but I find that many people set a standard that they have trouble going back from that. I’ve always found 8bit graphics hard to handle, but anything above that (unless it is ugly for a different reason) and it doesn’t really matter.
ExAstris responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 6:43 am #
I play TF2 on a Mac.
Yes, you heard right. A MAC.
I am running Windows 7 via bootcamp, and I get a stable 35-40 FPS with all the settings jacked up except antialiasing (which for some reason makes my card go stupid). I have no problem with that.
Ko.S responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 7:03 am #
Graphics won’t affect skill. Neither will hats.
Bobby responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 7:16 am #
I didn’t even read this…
Because I already agree :p
ExAstris responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 7:27 am #
Graphics will affect skill, Ko.S, if your framerate is terrible and thus you cannot react. If I jack up my settings, I will play far poorer because I literally do not know what’s happening around me. The smoother a game is, the easier it is to play it well, because events will approach a point where you react to them as immediately as you would in real life.
Mr. Shiny Object responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 7:54 am #
I agree. One reason I was drawn to TF2 was its lack of realism,, so graphics aren’t very high on my priorities. I know the first time I saw an uber medic in someone else’s screenshot I was like “Whats up with that uber?”
scatterguner responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 8:41 am #
I play with REALLY low settings (though not as low as d ones in the vid) and I thought it couldn’t get any worse, lol
-:D-
Monchberter responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 8:45 am #
Personally i play TF2 for fun, and i like the eye candy, hence running ultra high settings. Doesn’t particularly affect my FPS.
The only time i use ultra low settings is when i’m attempting to get TF2 running on my netbook.
Spydra responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 8:59 am #
I DO like my shiny tf2…
Sinister Minister responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 10:02 am #
“Heck, perhaps they’d spend it on an Xbox 360 and then play the inferior version of the game for the rest of their lives, who knows.”
Yay, more cheap shots at people who don’t prefer to play on PC. AWESOME.
ArmsAreLoud responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 10:18 am #
Completely agree. Perhaps it’s because I’m a Nintendo gamer for the most part, but it’s always been gameplay over graphics; sure, it’s nice to have a game like, say, Muramasa and Red Steel 2 with beautiful visuals, but if the gameplay falls flat then all the graphical power in the world isn’t going to make the game any better.
On the other hand, a game that fails in the graphics department but is gold when it comes to gameplay will still be hailed as a great game and receive plenty of play. Good thing TF2 is the best FPS I’ve ever played and likely ever will, because my settings SUCK.
supremesonic responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 10:23 am #
@sinister minister: Actually, I was probably the most prolific Xbox 360 TF2 player on this site for a decent amount of time. Due to that I know the game is fun on the 360 for sure, but it’s also lacking a lot of what the PC version has, plain and simple.
On hindsight that comment never really needed to be there, though. But hey, I’m trying to be funny here! >=(
(Also someone comment on the Gmod pic already – It’s rubbish, but it was the first one I ever made, so it’s like a baby to me…)
KhakiHat responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 10:38 am #
This artticle reminded me of this gem from Tom Tallian:
http://tomtallian.com/pages/tf2.html
Its a wicked sweet low poly rendering of the team. When I first saw it, I thought to my self “hell yeah, Id play that even if I had one of those super expensive alien-wares rigs”.
Gee-Man responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 1:36 pm #
I agree. While it’s nice to have the highest settings, it’s not a requirement to enjoy the game. I personally play with high settings, but at a pretty low resolution, so I’m still happy with what I get. Anything’s better than the laptop I used to play on, which had crap graphics AND crap FPS.
Monchberter responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 11:45 pm #
All this makes me wonder why someone hasn’t just made TF1.5 in the GoldSource engine and have done with it.
n00bie51 responded on 16 Oct 2009 at 7:00 am #
When it comes to multiplayer shooters like TF2, performance obviously takes precedence since it actually affects gameplay and a low amount of FPS puts you at a significant disadvantage against those with better machines. That isn’t to down play graphics, as solid visuals play a significant role when it comes to immersion, but gameplay is most important.
And if you have the machine that can max out TF2 with a smooth framerate, by all means go for it.
Richard responded on 16 Oct 2009 at 7:24 am #
I agree with this. Afew days ago it was one of my schoolfriend’s birthday and he said “i got a new computer its got top of the line graphics and can play crysis at max its better than yours haha” and I don’t actually care cause I can play tf2 at nice settings with a nice framerate and that’s all I want, as I like the gameplay.
n00bie51 responded on 16 Oct 2009 at 8:17 am #
Plus, there’s nothing like owning somebody who has a significantly better machine to run the game than you.
Connor Lonske responded on 16 Oct 2009 at 8:18 am #
I guess i fall into the demographic (No pun intended) of people who can afford super gaming rigs. I can’t even buy all the part separate. It is, in fact, *whispers* pre… built. *cries*
But that is not all, it’s processor is only *sob* a Pentium 4. *fetal position* *hides face in shame*
WHY!!!!!
GoldCrusader responded on 16 Oct 2009 at 8:41 am #
you know, even though I made that thread asking for help on how I borked something to download m0re’s highfps config, I still haven’t gotten off my arse to fix it. I have the tools/technology, but I’m just really lazy.
FlyingHat responded on 16 Oct 2009 at 1:09 pm #
I thought this was going to be about Jarate, but NOOOoooooooo.
gelugon2105 responded on 19 Oct 2009 at 6:15 pm #
Yeah, you don’t need a great rig to enjoy TF2. But a great rig can improve the enjoyment if it can run TF2 at high graphics without a hitch.
FYI, I can see stubbles on the Heavy’s face and his wrinkles and dimples.
RJ responded on 20 Oct 2009 at 8:50 am #
Interesting article, although I can play tf2 at high settings with 8xAA around 60fps on my desktop. Does anyone know how to get it working on a gma950? preferably looking as horrible as possible…:D
RJ responded on 20 Oct 2009 at 8:50 am #
whoops, meant gma900…
nubslovecake responded on 21 Oct 2009 at 2:18 pm #
Right on! I used to play on a low setting config and you really do get the same enjoyment. Better graphics are good and all to look at, but most of the time you just focus on the gameplay.
Basilisk1991 responded on 27 Oct 2009 at 5:02 am #
I totally agree, the lag on high settings in a chaotic game of well is horrifying