Some people say that World of Warcraft's visuals are outdated. The game's graphics haven't been updated since launch, they say. In terms of some older art assets, I would agree, but the overall picture is a different story. The system requirements when WoW launched were a meager 800MHz CPU with 256MB RAM and a 32MB graphics card. Today, the bare minimum requirements are a dual core CPU with 2GB of RAM and a 256MB graphics card.
Mists of Pandaria requires an expensive computer to run smoothly at the highest possible graphic settings, and yet it will still run on hardware from 8 years ago. Do you know of many other games with a spread like that?
Popping up on Reddit today was this excellent video on advanced WoW graphic settings. It's a topic that's often talked about, and one that people seem to know a little something, but not a lot -- and not as much as this guy. These settings are not just the options you get from controlling the in-game UI, these are the things you need to type out console-style.
Be sure to watch the video in high definition -- it's well worth it. Also watch it all the way through. At the end you're shown how to change the color of blood that mobs splatter when hit. Green blood is now my setting of choice, if only because now every mob spills green blood, just like Spock.
As he notes in the video, and as I can attest to, these settings really do slow down your frame rate, so don't play with them during raids. People commonly say that WoW's graphics are eight years old, but that's not true -- the system uses a ton of graphics power when you have the settings turned up. When you do it like this and push them beyond the ultra settings, you'll quickly kill your gameplay experience for a really nice image. So it's fun to play with, but be think about what you're doing before punching in console commands.
Oct 21st 2013 at 6:00PM 
