04-28-2009, 01:12 PM
If you have a reasonably high-end computer, you might feel that WoW is a little barren compared to newer games. Well, here's a way to fix that! It's nothing new, but I feel that it deserves to be posted again. So here is a guide for you to put a little more life into the game we spend so much time on.
First off, what does it do?
Well, by activating a set of hidden game values, you can actually increase the amount of shadows, ambient lighting and vegetation! It's true! Suddenly the game will have up to 80% more vegetation, something which was disabled when the game came out due to the (at the time) excessive stress it put on the users computer to generate the additional effects. Something most computers today will have no problem with.
How do I do this you ask? Just do as described below:
Start the game, enter with any character and press ESC. Go into "Macros", and copy paste the following commands into the window (All of it).
/console groundEffectDensity 256
/console groundEffectDist 200
/console detailDoodadAlpha 100
/console horizonfarclip 2112
/console farclip 999
/console characterAmbient
Give your new macro a name like "improve!" and save it. Drag it to the game window and press it. Wow! How about that? For maximum effect, stand somewhere like a forest or somewhere with lots of "flat" grass, and notice the difference immediately!
A word of caution: If you for some reason dislike the added greenery and light effects, you will have to reset the game values to the originals. Most of which being close to 0 or 100. You can easily find the values online along with the above guide, but I have never met anyone who did not like it for any other reason than their old computer starting to lag because of it (So if your computer is old, consider not doing this).
And there you go! Now you have a character which stands out more in the light. Every piece of metal will have that sweet shine to it that the new Northrend metal has, you can see into the game horizon with no fog of war. There'll be lots and lots of vegetation, making the game look as lush and living as originally intended, and even the textures will get a little bump upwards. Making Azeroth that much closer to Northrend standards.
I hope you enjoy this, because it has certainly helped make the game more beautiful for me. And once you have done it on one character, it should automatically do it for them all. But keep the macro around regardless, as you might need to activate it again after server updates and patches.
Thanks for reading!
First off, what does it do?
Well, by activating a set of hidden game values, you can actually increase the amount of shadows, ambient lighting and vegetation! It's true! Suddenly the game will have up to 80% more vegetation, something which was disabled when the game came out due to the (at the time) excessive stress it put on the users computer to generate the additional effects. Something most computers today will have no problem with.
How do I do this you ask? Just do as described below:
Start the game, enter with any character and press ESC. Go into "Macros", and copy paste the following commands into the window (All of it).
/console groundEffectDensity 256
/console groundEffectDist 200
/console detailDoodadAlpha 100
/console horizonfarclip 2112
/console farclip 999
/console characterAmbient
Give your new macro a name like "improve!" and save it. Drag it to the game window and press it. Wow! How about that? For maximum effect, stand somewhere like a forest or somewhere with lots of "flat" grass, and notice the difference immediately!
A word of caution: If you for some reason dislike the added greenery and light effects, you will have to reset the game values to the originals. Most of which being close to 0 or 100. You can easily find the values online along with the above guide, but I have never met anyone who did not like it for any other reason than their old computer starting to lag because of it (So if your computer is old, consider not doing this).
And there you go! Now you have a character which stands out more in the light. Every piece of metal will have that sweet shine to it that the new Northrend metal has, you can see into the game horizon with no fog of war. There'll be lots and lots of vegetation, making the game look as lush and living as originally intended, and even the textures will get a little bump upwards. Making Azeroth that much closer to Northrend standards.
I hope you enjoy this, because it has certainly helped make the game more beautiful for me. And once you have done it on one character, it should automatically do it for them all. But keep the macro around regardless, as you might need to activate it again after server updates and patches.
Thanks for reading!