EQPlayNice

Overview

For ages, Sony Online Entertainment has belittled its users with the Play Nice Policy, which states that you must be nice to the other kids on the playground. Now, we will enforce our own Play Nice Policy. Our policy states that EverQuest must be nice to the other kids on the playground -- in this case, everything else on your computer. Since Sony has neglected to implement this policy, we are left to do it for them until they do. So here it is, EQPlayNice. Enjoy your computer as it was meant to be enjoyed, not waiting an hour for your web browser to load up while you're playing EQ.

In mid-2004, Sony implemented a simplified version of EQPlayNice, thanks to our efforts and calls by the community to implement our system directly into their game. While their version does improve system performance for the average user that simply wants to play the game and possibly perform other tasks, it does not implement the full features of EQPlayNice. Thus, EQPlayNice is no longer literally required for playing EverQuest, but it vastly improves the gaming experience when playing multiple sessions of EverQuest.

CPU and Framerate Limiting

EQPlayNice allows two different methods of basic limiting -- CPU and Framerate. CPU limiting aims to keep CPU usage at a constant rate by giving up the same amount of CPU time per frame. Framerate limiting aims to give up the minimum amount of CPU time per frame to meet a framerate goal. EQPlayNice allows selection between the two methods for foreground as well as background, and also allows a goal setting for each.

Rendering Limiting (Subscriber Only)

EQPlayNice provides what we call Rendering Limiting, which slows the rate at which the game world itself is redrawn, while allowing the user interface to redraw at full speed. Because rendering of the game world takes a relatively large portion of time each frame, skipping this effectively makes the game run at a much faster framerate. Generally this is used for background game sessions, which may not be visible in the first place, or do not need to be full motion video. When playing several characters on the same machine, this proves to be invaluable.

EverQuest Patch Days

EQPlayNice is patch-specific, and information on our server about each patch must be updated whenever EverQuest is patched. Generally, our server is updated before the EverQuest servers come back up after a patch. On rare occasions when the patch is unexpected and/or very short, or when EverQuest changes drastically enough, we may not have our server updated immediately. When EQPlayNice has yet to be updated for a patch, you will see a message like this:

This version of EverQuest is not currently supported by EQPlayNice. You may need to report this version information "v2 eqgame.exe Feb 7 2005 21:31:40" to Lavish Software (please do not report this message without giving the version info!).

As the message indicates, this is an EQPlayNice version mismatch and should be reported in our EQPlayNice forum -- AND you should not report the message without including the version! (Please take note, as generally this gets reported in the WinEQ forums and without the version...)

Features

EQPlayNice Lite Feature Set

• Reduces the amount of processing time dedicated to EverQuest without ruining the foreground window's framerate
• Allows customized settings via EQPlayNice.ini (see EQPlayNice.txt)
• Works with or without EQW 2.4+ or WinEQ
• Works on all instances of EverQuest running on your machine
• Keeps recent patch profiles handy to support European server users
• Does not work on Test Server

EQPlayNice Pro Additional Feature Set

• Allows tweaking of the actual world rendering rate so that the interface still works and responds at full speed, but the display of the actual world updates less (Note: If render limiting is on, the display will "flicker", so this is generally only good for background windows). Rendering the world takes approximately 50% of the CPU time used every frame
• Displays an FPS indicator under the network status indicator

Installation

System Requirements

• EQPlayNice requires Windows 98 or later. Windows XP Service Pack 2 is recommended.

Download

Wait! If you're using WinEQ 2, you do not need to download EQPlayNice separately. If not, carry on!

Click here to Download EQPlayNice v1.16 [2004.10.22 13:48]

You must be registered on the Lavish Software forums to use this software (you will need to enter your username and password in a Lavish Software login box)!