SOF? Wait, what?
 

So, its been a good while since I've been here. When I left, last time I checked, we were sticking with EQ Titanium and developing code to support it and the expansions contained therein.

Now, I come back, and we are now working on SoF, and none of the inbetween expansions?

Bit lost, can someone explain what has happened while I was gone? Searching for threads hasn't helped much.

ProjectEQ is still developing the actual content for the Planes of Power expansion as well as some of the ones beyond it (things like LoY are completed). That's on the content side. There is still more work to be done.

On the emulator side, most all of the functionality of the Titanium client has been completely coded, so progress has started on a new client, Secrets of Faydwer. This is likely to be one of the last all-inclusive boxed sets that Sony will offer for sale, so it's a prime candidate for us, especially with copies of Titanium becoming harder and harder to find. Additionally, the Titanium client only includes content up to a certain period, so a new client must be used if we're to have all of the zones available that Live now includes.

Currently, only a few servers are actively developing content that requires the SoF client, and most everything that I know of that has been developed has been backward compatible, meaning that you can enjoy the same content with either the Titanium and SoF clients installed.

Was that helpful to you?

Yes, that was very helpful.

As for the emulator, I thought problems such as instanced zones with LoY were never fixed, unless that has changed?

Instanced zones work. I think most things work up through Titanium and I think a lot of SoF is actually working. Some of that stuff will still need some tweaks still, but for the most part is there and operational. There is an active thread that lines out what still needs to be done for SoF. Most of that stuff is fairly minor though. Mostly we just need content. We will be working on that stuff for a LONG time though.

Wait, I thought there was still A LOT to do with Titanium.

- adventure instancing and points
- monster play
- potion belt
- bandolier
- later zones with different binary formats, thus hindering server side maps

Has most of this in fact been solved?

see above.

Does this have better performace issues under Vista, as well as better video compatability? I'm looking for stability, and not so much being able to use any new content (though honestly that is a bonus). Just never sure what anyone is running on these days. And yes, I love Vista :) But seriously, this worth switching to?

It seems to perform about the same for the most part. The only big difference I have noticed between the 2 is that SoF seems to send you back to the login screen quicker if you get disconnected for any reason instead of leaving you on a "disconnected" screen for 3 minutes or so like Titanium does.

I have also heard that SoF has better multi-core support so people wouldn't run into the dual core issues as much as they do with Titanium. But, on Vista, that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Though, I have heard that it helps with the multi-core issues some on Vista as well.

I think it has a few more new effect settings that you can enable in the advanced display options screen. It still looks mostly the same, but maybe a bit better on some things.

One odd thing I have noticed with the video on my system is that when you load into a zone, it seems to paint some of the textures onto NPCs after you finish loading in. So, for a second after zoning or logging in, you might see some white or grey parts on some NPCs, but then it changes to normal in a second. As far as I can tell, it is doing that to help performance, but I don't know for sure. My best guess is that it is trying to only load textures when it knows you are looking at them.

SoF is only enabled on a couple of servers (that I know of) right now. So, you wouldn't be able to use it on all servers. And even on some others that might have it enabled, they may not be current, which is important, since alot of fixes were put in lately. SoF is very functional and almost complete, but the best functionality is still from Titanium. At least until we get AAs fully functional (many already work), and maybe a couple of other minor fixes in.

As I have said many times before though, I would recommend getting SoF right now. This is because www.newegg.com has it for 4.99 with free shipping and that is a very hard deal to pass up. Much better to get it now at that price than to wait until they run out and have to pay more or have trouble finding it at all. Just something to keep in mind, but $5 is really a pretty small amount considering how much use you could get out of it.

Just ooc on the server side maps - do those need to be re-done/updated for SoF?

Hmm, I hadn't realized LDoN was done. I'll have to check that out. ;)

(or was that officially released after titanium, so that's the safety net?)