Hi!

Maybe I am shallow but the graphics of BG1+2 are too outdated for me, ID and ID2 did get some graphical improvements over them didn't they?

So I am just wondering if the graphics of ID2 were improved over the ones in ID1.

I wish BG and BG2 (and Icewind Dale) could be remade with the graphcis engine of Pool of Radiance 2 or Temple of Elemental Evil (the last one), the 2d isometric view is nice but the characters have so few details.

They all share the same eninge (Infinity) but Icewind Dale 2 looks best because it had a massivley optimized and improved version of the engine. Just look at some screenshots and you'll see the difference.

I remember that there was a fan mod project trying to port Icewind Dale 1 into the engine of the second part.

Thanks, I guess I'll see if I can live with the graphics :) I just downloaded the game and lots of mods :)

This is the mod that smerles was talking about. Unfortunatly though, it is still in beta stage and I'm not sure if it's still being worked on.

Play in windowed mode so that it looks smaller and sharper with no stretching. Just like the attached image at the end of this post will look in your browser, except it will be the game itself. From the included resolutions I prefer 1024x768 over 1280x960 which stretches many elements to enlarge them. Try it. Make sure you enable the 3D mode as well, it makes the fog of war nicer.

The widescreen mod should work okay, there's no GUI mod like there is for Torment but the game already places the GUI elements correctly, only some cosmetic details of it are distorted. On the other hand, there are many small areas in the game, like houses and rooms, and those look off when using too high resolution as they always go to the top left side, so the smaller the area the worse it looks. It's not much of a problem since you're usually in large areas but tha and the larger the resolution the worse it looks, it's another reason I stick to the game's offered resolution modes.. I have examples of how it looks in high resolution here.

Anyway whatever you choose, the backgrounds in Icewind Dale are still beautiful, they aren't grainy like in Torment for example, and each you come across is better than the last. If you either use the widescreen mod or play in windowed mode the characters may become too small for you to tell they're a bit ugly so try it and see. Check the attached image I mentioned earlier right below.

PS: to me, IWD II looks worse than the first due to the dropped 3D acceleration support (wtf why?!) which means we go back to the grainy fog of war. The backgrounds seem grainier as well, while it has performance issues on Win7. Bleh.

About the graphics, there is a mod called widescreen mod findable on gibberlings forum which allow you to choose your own resolution (you set x and y exemple : 1920*1080) :)

I will never forgive them for dropping 3D acceleration from Icewind dale 2. That was probably stupidest thing Black Isle ever did.

I can only hope to the gods that GoG.com gets a version with 3D Acceleration because Icewind Dale 2 does not run very well "Normally" with out it. In some cases to play Icewind Dale 2 at full frame rate and without any slow downs you have to turn off direct X and Direct Draw. If they left in the freakin' 3D accell it would have been a perfect game.

But, I think Icewind Dale 2 does share similarities to the HoW infinity engine variant.