Age of Wonders 4

Age of Wonders 4

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DeepXen Apr 23, 2023 @ 2:43pm
System requirements seem high...
My laptop is a couple of years old and doesn't meet the recommended specs. Is further optimisation planned for this game?

FYI i have an omen 15 AMD Ryzen 7 4800H. 16gb Ram. RTX™ 2060.
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Showing 1-15 of 18 comments
David McMurdo Apr 23, 2023 @ 3:18pm 
My PC doesn't meet the recommended specs either, but I'm confident of being able to play it with lowered settings, and your GPU is superior to my own Radeon RX 570.
sheep from hell Apr 23, 2023 @ 3:47pm 
in a turn based game you dont need 60 fps, 30 is totally fine. But you are right, for the visual quality the requirements are way to high. To be honest, AoW3 looked way better without this comical artstyle
Blanch Warren Apr 23, 2023 @ 3:59pm 
Someone will probably make a minimalist graphics mod at some point, as is the case for Eu4.
Blanch Warren Apr 23, 2023 @ 4:00pm 
Originally posted by sheep from hell:
in a turn based game you dont need 60 fps, 30 is totally fine. But you are right, for the visual quality the requirements are way to high. To be honest, AoW3 looked way better without this comical artstyle

Looks like an upgrade of the Planetfall engine. I mostly find the down-grading of the mountains unusual.
Last edited by Blanch Warren; Apr 23, 2023 @ 4:02pm
Astasia Apr 23, 2023 @ 4:19pm 
Much of it is probably going to be lighting effects in combat. Look at the images on the store page, they are probably running stuff like SSAO with a lot of bloom and numerous light sources casting shadows. It's stuff I assume you can easily disable for a big boost in framerate.

Otherwise (or I guess regardless), ya there are questions, the recommended specs are higher than Cyberpunk 2077. We'll have to see.
CursedPanther Apr 23, 2023 @ 6:40pm 
The minimum requirement is still pretty modest for a 2023 game. I'm sure most folks will run the game just fine with a few tweaks of the settings. That's what they're there for after all.
Noin Trongaz Apr 24, 2023 @ 5:59am 
Originally posted by sheep from hell:
in a turn based game you dont need 60 fps, 30 is totally fine. But you are right, for the visual quality the requirements are way to high. To be honest, AoW3 looked way better without this comical artstyle
AoW3 had a comical artstyle too. In fact, I don't remember a single AoW games which DIDN'T have comical artstyle, and I played them all starting with AoW1.
David McMurdo Apr 24, 2023 @ 7:43am 
Originally posted by Astasia:
Much of it is probably going to be lighting effects in combat. Look at the images on the store page, they are probably running stuff like SSAO with a lot of bloom and numerous light sources casting shadows. It's stuff I assume you can easily disable for a big boost in framerate.

Otherwise (or I guess regardless), ya there are questions, the recommended specs are higher than Cyberpunk 2077. We'll have to see.

I don't understand SSAO. If you look it up it seems to be intended to give you better graphics without putting so much strain on your resources, which would seem to imply that for better performance you'd want to enable it. But in preparation for Age 4 I reinstalled Planetfall to see what performance I could get from my aging system. Turns out it works perfectly fine, if I disable all SSAO. With SSAO on, it's literally unplayable. I'm not a tech guy, so this stuff is interesting to me.
blackhand_lost Apr 24, 2023 @ 7:48am 
Originally posted by CursedPanther:
The minimum requirement is still pretty modest for a 2023 game. I'm sure most folks will run the game just fine with a few tweaks of the settings. That's what they're there for after all.
One might think that system requirements should depend on game's visuals, not year of release. A bold statement, I know.


Originally posted by A Peasant Mobster:
AoW3 had a comical artstyle too. In fact, I don't remember a single AoW games which DIDN'T have comical artstyle, and I played them all starting with AoW1.
In 1 and 2 you had character portaits that weren't comical at all. I'd say 4 is noticeably more serious than 3 unless you deliberately go for smth funny in character creation
darkholyPL Apr 24, 2023 @ 8:48am 
Originally posted by David McMurdo:
I don't understand SSAO. If you look it up it seems to be intended to give you better graphics without putting so much strain on your resources
As opposed to standard Ambient Occlusion, and not opposed to not having any.
Originally posted by David McMurdo:
which would seem to imply that for better performance you'd want to enable it.
No. For better performance you turn it off, just like any other post proccessing effect. There isn't one that isn't at least somewhat taxing on your system.
avenger711 Apr 24, 2023 @ 9:22am 
RTX 2060? I'm sure if not maximum setting but close will be possible. Recommended RTX 3060 is not so far from 2060.

in a turn based game you dont need 60 fps, 30 is totally fine.

Try to play Planetfall with halved refresh rate and you'll see that you're wrong. Scrolling in TBS is very demanding to frame rate.

recommended specs are higher than Cyberpunk 2077

RTX 3060 is recomended for Cybepunk? I have this and I played Cybepunk in 1080p with medium-high settings having usually 70-80 fps (no DLSS). High or ultra settings even without RT are out of options.

RTX 3060 is the most widespred GPU today and all new game MUST run on it perfectly in 1080p if not with ultra but with high settings

Turns out it works perfectly fine, if I disable all SSAO.

SSAO requires a lot of resources. In Aow 3 you can double fps if you disable it. But really improves the visual. It will not ruin the image if you disable it but something changes. You'll notice the lighting simplified. And in modern game it' not models' complexity or textures (they're good enough) which defines how the game look but lighting.
darkholyPL Apr 24, 2023 @ 9:30am 
Originally posted by avenger711:
RTX 2060? I'm sure if not maximum setting but close will be possible. Recommended RTX 3060 is not so far from 2060.
What are you talking about? I see GTX 1070Ti as recommended, where are you getting a 3060 from?
avenger711 Apr 24, 2023 @ 9:57am 
From the game's page in shop. But 1070Ti should be close enough.
darkholyPL Apr 24, 2023 @ 10:23am 
Originally posted by avenger711:
From the game's page in shop. But 1070Ti should be close enough.
It litteraly says this under graphics card:
' Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 1070 Ti (8GB) or AMD® Radeon™ RX 5700 XT (8GB)'
Astasia Apr 24, 2023 @ 5:45pm 
Originally posted by David McMurdo:
I don't understand SSAO. If you look it up it seems to be intended to give you better graphics without putting so much strain on your resources, which would seem to imply that for better performance you'd want to enable it. But in preparation for Age 4 I reinstalled Planetfall to see what performance I could get from my aging system. Turns out it works perfectly fine, if I disable all SSAO. With SSAO on, it's literally unplayable. I'm not a tech guy, so this stuff is interesting to me.

SSAO is Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, it's a lighting mechanic that better understands what should be in shadow and what shouldn't, specifically related to ambient light. It basically scans everything on the screen in real time and determines based on neighbors if it should be shaded, it's a very complex GPU process that uses a lot of resources for what is usually a minimal difference in lighting that is often not any more "realistic."

SSAO is less performance impacting than say full ray tracing which would give much better and more accurate lighting. It tends to be something just thrown into a game for "budget lighting" but if you have any issues with FPS it's definitely the first thing to try turning off.
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Date Posted: Apr 23, 2023 @ 2:43pm
Posts: 18