video-settings
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Call for Submissions: The recipe for eye candy
This week's guest post assignment is inspired by an email from reader Dawnseven: I've really been enjoying Derek's articles on choosing a video card and what to consider when building a new system. They prompted me to take a good, hard look at my system, and I discovered that my video card was capable of much more than I thought. Consequently, I purchased a new 24" high-def monitor and now I understand the meaning of the term "eye candy." I had no idea my older monitor was so dim and dingy. Consequently, this caused me to actually look at the video settings for the game which I honestly probably haven't looked at since Wrath came out. With my new monitor, I thought I could "tweak" a few things; however, to my horror, I discovered that I don't even know what more than half of the video settings mean. Multisampling? Wassat? Specular lighting? Is that good? Vertical synch and ground clutter density? Do I need those? Obviously, people have different computers with difference components and different monitors, and there is no right answer for what your video settings could or should be set at ... but perhaps someone can explain what the video settings mean? (And I don't mean the cryptic little explanation Blizz gives, but what they mean to tech ignorant players.) Also, is there some kind of prioritizing? Which video settings are important to the eye candy factor, and which can be safely scaled back if the hit to the frame rate is too high? When I fire up Cata on release day, I want to be mesmerized and see all of Deathwing's handiwork in its full glory! Details on this article assignment, after the cut.
WoW Rookie: Thanks for the memories
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. For links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's, visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide. There's nothing quite like your first time through Azeroth. Capture those memories by snapping screenshots (pictures of what's on your screen) in game as you explore, level, discover, plummet, laugh, triumph, fail ... All the moments that make life within the World of Warcraft so utterly bewitching. Screenshot basics Take a screenshot by hitting the Print Screen button on your PC or Command+Shift+3 on your Mac. You can set a more convenient key binding in game in your Game Menu; hit Key Bindings and scroll down to Miscellaneous Functions. Screenshots get stored in the World of Warcraft folder on your computer. Look for the folder called Screenshots. Screenshots used to be saved as big, unwieldy TGAs, but now you'll find them in convenient .jpg format.
