Everquest:FAQ

Everquest Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I keep changing the game resolution in EverQuest's "options editor" (optionseditor.exe) and it doesnt take hold, how do I change the resolution?

You need to actually enter the game, hit ALT+O to bring up the in-game options, select the "Display" tab, and click the "Video Modes" button. Change and accept the resolution there. If you are a subscriber, this list will contain many added resolutions that you may find preferable.

Q: What kind of system is recommended for running multiple EQ sessions on the same computer?

We have once again revised our figures, updated for Omens of War. With low textures and no models at 800x600 16-bit color, EQ uses about 29MB of video RAM and 300MB system RAM per session. With high textures and all models, EQ uses about 45MB of video RAM and 500MB system RAM per session. Note that these figures will vary depending on which zone you are in and how many players are near.

This may seem a little overboard considering your video card may only have 32 or 64MB of RAM, but video RAM also includes AGP memory. AGP memory is part of your system RAM that is assigned by BIOS to be used by the video card for extra video RAM when necessary. The setting in BIOS should you need to increase it, is called AGP Aperture Size (our step by step guide with photos from 3 different computers may help you adjust this setting) -- be aware that raising this value can harm your system stability. Newer systems may typically have this set to 64-128MB by default. The setting may also be hidden in newer BIOS -- it took me about 30 minutes of wondering why the setting was nowhere to be found and looking through my motherboard manual to determine where to find it. In my case, I needed to hit CTRL+F1 in BIOS to show all of the "advanced" settings, and AGP Aperture Size was then available for me to set. The AGP memory is not used until the RAM on the video card is running low.

Use the table in the section below, titled "How can I minimize the amount of RAM each EQ session uses to aid multiboxing?", to aid in your hardware requirements research. Determine the graphics quality you require for each desired session, and add the totals from the table. If you want to run 4 full quality sessions at 1600x1280x32 resolution, you will need 4*(283+314)MB of system RAM and 4*(29+16+15)MB of video RAM (2388MB system and 240MB video), keeping in mind that extra system RAM will be used to cover the video RAM if necessary. Also, the figures listed are just to enter the game, the actual requirements for playing the game past that point increase as you move around, zone, etc, and certain zones require more resources than others. You should also allow for system overhead and other programs running.

Q: How can I minimize the amount of RAM each EQ session uses to aid multiboxing?

Some EverQuest graphics options significantly increase the amount of RAM required to play the game. Most of them can be turned on or off through the options editor (click the Options button at the first menu in EverQuest, not the patcher), and some require manually editing eqclient.ini (Velious textures are LoadArmor17 through LoadArmor23 in eqclient.ini and are not found elsewhere). Here is a table of the approximate memory usage of each, according to our testing at 800x600 resolution with 16-bit color. Some options may increase the effects of others (texture quality for example). It is interesting to note that EQ options generally increase the System RAM requirements, while increase in resolution or color depth only increase the Video/Texture RAM requirements. These figures are immediately upon entering the game in Plane of Knowledge. Both System and Video RAM usage increase as you move around, zone, etc. All figures are based off of the "Base EverQuest 800x600 16-bit" value and are added to it.

Option	System RAM	Video/Texture RAM
Base EverQuest 800x600 16-bit	283MB	29MB
Sound	+ 22MB	+ 0MB
Dynamic Lighting	+ 4MB	+ 0MB
Mip Mapping	+ 4MB	+ 5MB
Medium Quality Textures	+ 30MB	+ 0MB
High Quality Textures	+ 32MB	+ 0MB
All Velious Textures	+ 51MB	+ 0MB
14 Luclin Models	+ 90MB	+ 0MB
29 Luclin Models	+ 142MB	+ 0MB
Complex Sky	+ 10MB	+ 1MB
Shadows	+ 13MB	+ 1MB
Full Options	+ 314MB	+ 16MB
1024x768x16	+ 0MB	+ 2MB
1280x1024x16	+ 0MB	+ 6MB
1600x1280x16	+ 0MB	+ 11MB
1920x1536x16	+ 0MB	+ 16MB
2240x1792x16	+ 0MB	+ 26MB
2560x2048x16	+ 0MB	+ 30MB
3200x2560x16	+ 0MB	+ 51MB
800x600x32	+ 0MB	+ 1MB
1024x768x32	+ 0MB	+ 3MB
1280x1024x32	+ 0MB	+ 7MB
1600x1280x32	+ 0MB	+ 15MB
1920x1536x32	+ 0MB	+ 22MB
2240x1792x32	+ 0MB	+ 33MB
2560x2048x32	+ 0MB	+ 40MB
3200x2560x32	+ 0MB	+ 67MB

With full options and a conservative 800x600x32 resolution, we were easily past 600MB system RAM used by a single session upon entering the game, with about 43MB of video RAM used.