Recently, i had the pleasure of being teased into playing starcraft 2 by a good friend; he came home with an Alienware rig and i was convinced enough to give the game a go on my older and less powerful pc. The game launched without any fancy effects, playable (i’m waiting to see how much large battles will drive the machine in the ground) but definitely less gorgeous than what i saw on the Alienware: no flowing creep, now glowing crystals, etc.
Now I’ve heard at some times that some FPS players would use barebones display settings to some degree in order to play better
- Dialing down the visual clutter may help you discern what is going on, instead of blowing your eyes with particle effects
- It makes the game feel more fluid
- It allows for some interesting hacks (i remember some people configuring the skin of other players to a glowing skeleton in order to see them better in some environments)
So do some players play SC2 with minimal graphics settings? Is it something that is trendy in some communities (pro players) ? Is the game clearer at barebone settings (no gibbing, physics and particles)?
Answer
Some people play on low graphics because they think that it can make cloaked/burrowed units easier to see. I am not sure if this is true, but some people certainly believe it. Check out this answer:
Do the video settings affect the visibility of cloaked units?
If you are watching someone’s personal stream (and not MLG/DH/GSL), they may be playing on low graphics to help with their FPS for their stream.
Above all I think that it is just personal preference.
Quote from ROOTheognis (source):
its all preference but I feel like using low graphic settings with
High Model settings is the best for me. The high model setting shows
death animations so If you lose units they don’t just disappear and
wont leave u clueless on where they went
Here are some pros that play on low, from 2011 (source):
Idra
Textures – Low
Graphics – Low
Ret
Textures – Ultra
Graphics – Low
QXC
Textures – Low
Graphics – Low
TLO
Textures – High
Graphics – Custom ( Everything Low but Effects on Ultra )
Nestea
Textures – Low
Graphics – Low
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : samy , Answer Author : Community