Lost Planet: Extreme Condition PC

Shadow Quality

Shadow quality was the critical variable in the demo version of the game and it's importance can't be understated in the full version either. XP gamers won't have a problem and will be able to choose only between none, low or medium shadow settings, whereas Vista gamers will have a difficult choice to make as the power of DirectX 10 unlocks a new high shadow setting for them.

But Vista users (a cadre I've recently joined) must beware, as high quality shadows come with severe performance consequences.

High quality shadows will obviously look the best, but our experience with the demo version was echoed in the retail version too in that switching to high quality shadows under DirectX 10 had a massive performance hit on the game, making the whole experience more clunky and jerky as the frames per second were pulled down by their ears with the extra rendering processes.

For most discerning gamers, who we imagine are yet to switch to Vista, going sans shadows isn't an option they really want to consider. After all, shadows add a lot of realism and depth to games and there are a slew of games built solely around the idea of light and dark conflicts in a literal sense.

Never was the importance of shadows more emphasised than in Lost Planet which, because it is set almost entirely in areas covered in cool white snow, would lack any real definition or detail if it weren't for the shadows which provide contrast to the stark whiteness.

Given the importance then of shadows, and the fact that everybody knows what the blank snow looks like, we'll skip over the 'none' setting and go on to the low and medium shadow settings.


Checking out the shadows on low and medium quality shows that the low quality shadow offers a slightly more jagged edge and omits some of the finer detail of the medium shadows setting. Neither of the shadows are softened around the edges at all, which is what the DirectX 10 version brings to the table.

Whether or not you can cope with the lower shadow quality setting is up to you, but personally we found that the medium shadow quality setting was better under DirectX 9 and that the slight improvement was more noticeable in-game. Medium shadow settings also didn't give a noticeable performance hit, which is an excellent reason to push the slider up a notch.


Comparing the next two stages gives a much starker contrast however and the the extra softness around the high quality shadows really does make a difference to the overall aesthetic of the game. On the downside though, it still comes with a massive performance hit which makes the game feel very sluggish and jerky - enough to put one or two staffers off the DirectX 10 version altogether.

Our advice regarding the shadow quality setting would be to keep it to medium no matter what. If your PC can't handle any less than this then you may as well give up hope of ever getting any decent performance from the game and if you're foolish enough to push up to high despite our warning, then you deserve the resulting GPU overload.

Effects Quality

The effects quality is very similar to the effects volume setting, but instead of increasing the number of effects it increases the quality of the effects. The two settings are very much linked and it's going to be a personal choice between having either less effects of a high quality or more effects of a lower quality. That is, of course, unless your pimped out rig can handle everything to full.

We've got two choices here; high or low so we chucked a grenade out in front of ourselves and watched the resulting dust settle for our screenshots.


The screenshots here show a slight difference in the quality of the effects, namely that the higher setting allows a bit more rubble to be kicked up in the grenade's wake and gives a slightly higher quality dust cloud which looks absolutely beautiful in parts of the game where you'll be throwing grenades left right and centre to help clear buildings of those evil snow pirates.

Again, effects quality didn't have a massive effect on the overall performance of the game, so pushing the setting up to full is advised unless you've got a reason to turn it down. The extra quality of the smoke and snow effects is really worth it, as proved by the difference in the way that the smoke meets the ground in both pictures.