Request for more graphics options.

[Mr.Freud]

First of all - I like how the game looks. But at the same time I feel like there could be more graphical features. Things that I have on my mind:
Chromatic Aberration (toggle on/off) (GPU load)
Godrays (toggle on/off) (GPU load + low CPU usage)
Motion Blur (toggle on/off + choose how strong the effect is - would really enhance look and overall feeling when dogfighting) (GPU load)
better ambient lighting + shadows draw distance slider (GPU load + low-medium CPU usage depending on a level of setting)
something like High Resolution Texture pack... (VRAM usage)
TAA, abilty to use both MSAA+FXAA or SSAA+FXAA (GPU load)
etc
Maybe even new RTX features (espaecially DLSS)
Usually I use ReShade or Nvidia Ansel but currently both are not working with Vulkan based games.
Anyone else feels like it?

[Shehriazad]

Motion Blurr is the first thing I disable in every game because I just hate it....the other things I don't really mind.

It's just personal preference I guess, but as long as any "advanced" graphics effects can be disabled within menues, Im fine with it.


As for RTX features...NO please don't. We need to stay away from proprietary stuff ESPECIALLY the bad ones. DLSS is visually inferior to almost every other form of AA so there is nothing to be won here and raytracing is so performance intensive AND labour intensive to add retrospectively that it is NOT worth the effort if you have not designed your game for it to begin with (or at least have enough time to still add it).
Although I dont see any harm in ANSEL so that would be okay I guess.

Things that Im not sure are actually in here that I always love are: Global Illumination/Shadows and PBR. PBR if done right gives all materials just the right amount of realism to still allow artistic freedom but also makes everything you look at feel believable...the materials in this game seem a bit "flat".

[Mr.Freud]

Motion Blurr is the first thing I disable in every game because I just hate it....the other things I don't really mind.

It's just personal preference I guess, but as long as any "advanced" graphics effects can be disabled within menues, Im fine with it.


As for RTX features...NO please don't. We need to stay away from proprietary stuff ESPECIALLY the bad ones. DLSS is visually inferior to almost every other form of AA so there is nothing to be won here and raytracing is so performance intensive AND labour intensive to add retrospectively that it is NOT worth the effort if you have not designed your game for it to begin with (or at least have enough time to still add it).
Although I dont see any harm in ANSEL so that would be okay I guess.

Things that Im not sure are actually in here that I always love are: Global Illumination/Shadows and PBR. PBR if done right gives all materials just the right amount of realism to still allow artistic freedom but also makes everything you look at feel believable...the materials in this game seem a bit "flat".

Well, RTX can be disabled or enabled too. I just finished Metro Exodus and I have to admit that RTX shadows and lighting feel so much better really. But DLSS was kind of too blurry but still better than TAA IMO and they already released a patch which sharpenned it.
Oh BTW I would add TAA to the list too

[Shehriazad]

Well RTX is still not going to be worth the effort Im sorry. (my opinion)

First of all X4 is already not an AAA title with millions of fans
RTX cards have also not sold too well for now
And Egosoft would probably have to spend MONTHS of their valuable time to get it into the game in a PROPER state. All the games out so far that HAVE ray tracing are MASSIVE dev studios that can spend 100+ manhours a day for such things.
Metro Exodus? Like 150 people in that studio.
Battlefield 5? 2 Teams of more than 400 people total.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider? 450+ People.



I support your wish for more advanced graphics options...but the game has A: Enough performance issues, B: Not enough manpower on devteam, C: Not enough RTX users and D: Probably not many people that own X4 that have an RTX card.

I mean sure it could be some nice PR...but by the time we have it up and working in X4 no one will care anymore...so that bonus is gone.

I'd prefer it if Nvidias proprietary solutions that mess with other hardware stay as far away from Egosoft as possible.

It's just my OPINION on the matter. Plus I think there isn't even enough to look at right now to make Raytracing worth it!!!

Like...you fly through empty space...a LOT. PBR and Global Illumination go a long way for such things.

More AA options is okay I guess, those are often not that hard to implement. Blur is also not that hard to do if people want it. But we haven't even got the basics yet...like proper explosions.

[adeine]

I would like the option to take ingame screenshots.

Haven't found a non-invasive way to successfully take any, and enabling Nvidia's overlay makes performance absolutely tank. PrintScreen gives me either solid black or one of the first frames rendered by the game (Egosoft logo).

[lazy_banana]

I think TAA would be great. The game has a lot of thin edges that are difficult to smooth out with non-temporal methods.
I don't know about DLSS but I assume that it's easy to implement (assuming that it works on Vulkan) so why not.
About RTX... I disagree. It would be too much effort for very little improvement. What would you get out of ray tracing with this game? Extra reflections on station floors and glass surfaces, maybe some fancier dynamic lighting from laser weapons if you squint really hard and better lighting in station interiors (which are extremely basic and very little game time is spent in them). Games with RTX are much more cinematic than X4 and there is barely an improvement in them, to the point that you need side-by-side comparisons to be able to tell if there is an improvement. If you really need side-by-side comparisons to tell the difference then it probably doesn't improve your experience by much.

[Socratatus]

Motion blur and depth of field I switch off in every game. I am of the belief it actually harms the eyes, just no one has sued for damaged eyes on it yet.

The eyes naturally have depth of field and motion blur already, artificially shoving it into games you play for many hours can only be hurting them as well as confusing the brain.

[Mr.Freud]

Motion blur and depth of field I switch off in every game. I am of the belief it actually harms the eyes, just no one has sued for damaged eyes on it yet.

The eyes naturally have depth of field and motion blur already, artificially shoving it into games you play for many hours can only be hurting them as well as confusing the brain.

One of the reasons they give it as an option - on/off - I guess

[caltrop]

I would like the option to take ingame screenshots.

Haven't found a non-invasive way to successfully take any, and enabling Nvidia's overlay makes performance absolutely tank. PrintScreen gives me either solid black or one of the first frames rendered by the game (Egosoft logo).

Steam works well for me

[adeine]

Steam works well for me

I don't use Steam.

[Socratatus]

Steam works well for me

I don't use Steam.

Me neither.
You could try the GE force experience utility, that will do the job.

[radcapricorn]

Of necessity, I feel the game needs:

- better static antialiasing. It's not 2019 when most screen-space effects outright kill it.
- temporal AA.

The rest I personally could live without... well, maybe more distant shadows would be nice.

[adeine]

Me neither.
You could try the GE force experience utility, that will do the job.

As I said, enabling the overlay which allows this function destroys game performance for me. If I had to guess it seems like some sort of incompatibility with G-Sync.

And before people point it out: GOG does have an overlay/screenshot function similar to Steam's, but either Egosoft have not enabled this functionality or it isn't working with the game (it works fine with other titles). Pressing the key combination does nothing (brings up the windows cursor, as if alt tabbing the game, but nothing else happens), and trying the screenshot key produces no results.