Battlefield 2142

Author: Ryan Garside
Published: 3rd November 2006

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Graphics In Detail

Battlefield 2142 offers you a whole host of options to customise the look of the game, helping you to eek out the most performance from your gaming rig. My general rule is to keep the game settings as close to medium or above as possible. The difference between low settings and medium settings is quite pronounced whereas the step up to high is rather more subtle. If you're suffering from low frame rate then take a look at our advice below.

Ultimately, a lot of importance in multiplayer games like Battlefield 2142 is the smoothest of performance. Unlike a single player game, when competing against other humans you need the fastest response as possible. It's not as important in Battlefield 2142 to hit 100fps as it is in a game like Quake or Counter-Strike.

I feel Battlefield is more about knowledge of how the maps work, where to position yourself and how to use the weapons and vehicles correctly when compared to other games that require lightning reactions and twitch gaming. However, there is certainly a need to keep the game jerkiness free - nothing is more annoying than that moment when your about to headshot your enemy to only have your computer freeze up or stutter.

Textures

Click to enlarge. High textures to the left, low textures to the right.

I wasn't amazingly impressed by the textures in Battlefield 2142. I had a constant impression of a washed out affect which, arguably, is the point of this apocalyptic sci-fi war-game. Either way there was quite a difference between textures on the lowest setting and the highest. On the lowest the ground and surfaces look far more blurred whereas in comparison the highest setting is sharper, far more realistic and provides a more immersive experience.

Between medium and high the difference isn't huge and as such I'd quite happily sacrifice high textures if my video card couldn't cope. If you're using a video card with 128MB of memory then you'll get the most out of the game with the textures set to medium, if you're using anything around the GeForce 7800 or Radeon X1800 mark though you'll probably be able to push this up to high.

Lighting

Click to enlarge. All lighting options turned to high on the left, all lighting turned to low to the right

Bizarrely, Battlefield 2142 has been designed to hinder any user who turns lighting options on. We played the game with Dynamic Light, Dynamic Shadows and Lighting and found that the game looked realistic and cool. Had this been a single player experience then that would have been fine but Battlefield 2142 is about being top of the server, isn't it?

When switching these off the maps did look far less like real places but the game jumped up by nearly 14 fps (on average). Not only that but all of a sudden all of the dark areas on the map had disappeared. My enemy couldn't disappear from my view by sneaking into the shadows and as such I could carry on shooting where before I couldn't. In the screenshot on the left you'll notice the doorway is dark on the left (with graphics on) and light on the right. It's effectively a built in cheat within the game and it amazes me that EA has punished those who have paid for machines capable of producing the best looking graphical effects.

Draw Distance

Click to enlarge. Maximum draw distance on the left, minimum on the right.

The draw distance option allows you to scale between 50% and 100%. Quite simply at 50% your graphics card will have to process half as much as when at 100%, however your visibility will be reduced by half too. As such it is imperative that you push this as close to 100% as possible. You'd be putting yourself at a huge disadvantage if you allow the enemy to see you before you can see him (or her... no sexism on bit-tech! - Ed.).

My opinion, though views are divided in the office, is that the viewing distance is one of, if not the most important factor when weighing up your graphical options. I would push this up to maximum and sacrifice other areas if my PC was struggling to cope and so my advice would be to turn off options for geometry, terrain and effects before you start lowering this bad-boy.