This may sound silly (or not?), but I wanted to know what you all think of shaders... I mean, from what I had heard and saw, I thought they'd be great. I was so excited to get on a computer good enough to try them out. So, I went to a friend's, got on his computer ($5000 alienware comp btw) and put them on. When you play TB on his comp normal, its about 70 fps minimum, shaders dropped it to 30, and to tell the truth I thought they were god awful. Made the game look cheesy and unwantful ( <-- werd?). So, I decided to ask what you guys think of them. PS if this is already made, idk, because I don't have a whole 15 minutes just to look and see if I should post this or not.

I do know what you mean.

Shaders do detract from the graphical style of the game somewhat, and are tremendously graphics-intensive for what they are. I assume that the latter is true because OpenGL (which Toribash relies on) is probably quite inefficient on Windows, as compared to DirectX. Of course, on OSX and Linux, there isn't a real alternative.

Also, if you don't like the FPS drop, turn Ambient Occlusion off. I'm still not sure how a gaming PC can lose that much FPS due to shaders.

WELL thats why custom builds are better than alienware

I get 60fps with full shaders on including cellshading, and same with shaders off

is he running wnidows vista? that seems to decrease performance by alot, i only got 60fps with shaders on on vista if I had nothing else running

btw my pc cost 1.2k

Utterly off-topic. Warning. ~3vi1

Shaders are alright, it makes the shadows and blood a lot better, but it smoothens out the otherwise rough force indicators on a joint (the ones that allow you to tell the difference between contract and extend quickly), making the game a bit harder to play. Although, they are great for videos and watching replays and the like.

About the framerate however, mine works in a wierd way. When I first load up the game with shaders on, I will get 30 or so fps, but sometimes after it has been open for a bit, I suddenly get a constant 60 fps, and it runs smooth as silk. Very strange.

Meh, voted third option

I also voted "yes, but my P.C. runs slow". I am running on a compaq something with an ATl Express 200. When I first started playing I didn't even think my P.C. could run them, I was ready to go drop $200 on a new video card. But thankfully it does (Download drivers). I am not sure what the FPS is when I have them on, but the only way it is tolerable is if I not only turn off Ambient Occlusion, but also Reflections. I know what you mean about the game seeming cheesy with them on also. A few games into my first day with shaders I couldn't stop thinking about some old 198? after school movie, where the kid was playing some cheesy non-existent video game :P. Also like pheonix said, The smoothed over joints are a bit tricky to get used to.

Over all, I think they look smexy in videos, and if I could run them efficiently I may but I enjoy the game just as much without them in every day play.


P.S. unwantful = not a word. I cant guess by the context what you may be trying to say, so I cant offer an alternate.

I voted yes, because it looks so much nicer. What I think was weird though is that my year-old 700 dollar computer (500 + 200 dollar video card) can run shaders fine. That must be some old computer that your friend got or he got ripped off. A friend of mine custom built a 1500 dollar computer a month ago, it runs crysis on very high no problem, and TB is just a joke in comparison. That 5000 dollar thing has to be an exaggeration. As for the joint forces.. It was a bit distracting when 3.0 first came out, but its just something you have to get used to; you have to adapt to change.

I dont like them AT ALL. They just make the game look like its not suppost to. It makes the community "unequal" because one part can run them and another part cannot.

Personally the only thing i don't like about shaders is cell shading, when i turn them on it feels like my computer is having a heart attack, however luckily i prefer the look of tb without them on. Also i agree with T0ast that it makes the community "unequal".

shaders FTfuckingW

Shaders dont slow down my computer and I like how they look. Its just so pretty.