Question - Everquest using modern video cards

[SGM]

I have trust issues with AI answered questions, and do not believe anyone can FORCE Everquest to do anything.

Is the below true in any way to get EQ to use your video card versus CPU cores?

For NVIDIA Graphics Cards
You will use the NVIDIA Control Panel to target the game's executable.

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel: Right-click an empty space on your desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. Navigate to Program Settings: In the left sidebar, click Manage 3D settings, then switch to the Program Settings tab on the right.
3. Select EverQuest: Click the Add button. Look for EverQuest or browse to your EverQuest installation folder (usually C:\Users\Public\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest\) and select eqgame.exe.
4. Set Preferred GPU: In the dropdown menu labeled "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program," choose High-performance NVIDIA processor.
5. Save Changes: Click Apply in the bottom right corner.

 

[SGM]

This was the 2nd option offered...

Alternative: The Universal Windows Method
Windows 10 and 11 can override driver software settings. If the steps above don't work, try this:

1. Open the Windows Start Menu and search for Graphics settings.
2. Under "Custom options for apps," click Browse and locate your eqgame.exe file.
3. Once added to the list, click on EverQuest, then click Options.
4. Select High performance (which will list your dedicated GPU) and click Save

 

[reedreddington]

It depends on your setup. Are you running the display thru the video card or motherboard? If you are not plugging your display into the video card you will want to change that first.

 

[SGM]

Video card

It's a pretty snazzy set-up, but I feel it's being totally underutilized. Last night I looked at switching to a Nvidia 5090, but seems no point with EQ totally ignoring my snazziness.

 

[boxbuddy]

EQ is very much a CPU heavy game. I've got a plugin in development that pushes some things over to the GPU for optimization (there's not much game code to work with that's really usable on the GPU, mostly spell particles and what not), then adds animations to be used on the GPU, but as far as "getting the most out of your video card" the best you can do with EQ is run a local AI model while playing.
I thought about offloading animations to the GPU, as that's what the most expensive thing would be after text & nameplate batching, but the CPU does too much with the animations to make that a worthwhile endeavour.
The GPUs I'm working with are $20 from Amazon and i can maintain over 100 FPS with all particles on + additional animations from the plugin (stick figure models though, cause they look better).

 

[SGM]

There are Ice Goblin Whelps in Everfrost that can legally drink now, you'd think there'd have been some more base program updates by now.

 

[reedreddington]

About the only thing that I can think of to increase things to make them look snazzy are in-game toggles and max everything out. IDK. Usually I have the opposite problem of trying to reduce everything down so that a small toaster oven can play the game. I don't think AI is trying to steer you in a wrong direction. I remember going into my graphics card software and making sure everything was running on the video card.

 

[SGM]

I have trust issues with AI answered questions, and do not believe anyone can FORCE Everquest to do anything.

Is the below true in any way to get EQ to use your video card versus CPU cores?

For NVIDIA Graphics Cards
You will use the NVIDIA Control Panel to target the game's executable.

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel: Right-click an empty space on your desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. Navigate to Program Settings: In the left sidebar, click Manage 3D settings, then switch to the Program Settings tab on the right.
3. Select EverQuest: Click the Add button. Look for EverQuest or browse to your EverQuest installation folder (usually C:\Users\Public\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest\) and select eqgame.exe.
4. Set Preferred GPU: In the dropdown menu labeled "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program," choose High-performance NVIDIA processor.
5. Save Changes: Click Apply in the bottom right corner.

So!

I had to download the Nvidia Control Panel, it's different than the Nvidia App. If you have an Nvidia card, you might try this out.
Adding Everquest as described was under the "Manage 3D seetings"
Step 3, that wasn't an option. I'm guessing because EQ will soon be eligible for discount coffee at McDonald's.

I turned on EVERYTHING and pointed all I could to my video card. I'll try it out tonight and see how it goes. There is a Restore button to reset to defaults if I screw anything up too badly.

 

[vandersl]

Not 100% sure what you are asking. By the solutions the AI is suggesting it seems like you asked it how to ensure that EQ is using your dedicated Nvidia GPU and not an integrated GPU. This would only be a concern if you are running on a laptop with a discrete GPU or a desktop with a GPU built into the CPU chip. If you don't have an integrated GPU then there is no possibility that EQ is using it over the Nvidia card.

If instead you are asking how to ensure that the EQ graphics engine is using hardware acceleration rather than the CPU, I am not sure much that you do in the NVidia app can change things at this point. The EQ graphics engine is pretty dated, but it does have some in-game settings that can be checked to ensure that hardware acceleration is being used. These can be found under the Advanced button on the Display settings page. The Card Features section should show you the NVidia card name, which will let you know it is using the card and not integrated graphics. It will also show, hopefully: Hardware TnL, Vertex Shaders 5.0, and Pixel Shader 5.0. I am not sure what the Pixel Shader 2.0 option does. If you have the horsepower for it, you might want to turn on Advanced Lighting and Shadows. I am similarly not sure if those features are GPU based or CPU based, but my guess is they are using D3D calls and the GPU will be used for it.

 

[SGM]

Option B, my card features list all of those.

I was looking to see what I could upgrade, then started asking how to ensure my current card was being fully utilized. I've turned on everything possible minus disabling the frame limiters, I'll turn those off next to see how it goes. I already turned it off my driver toon so there was no stutter when looking at other screens.