Dragon Age 2 high-res texture pack released

With Dragon Age 2 out in stores today, BioWare has released a high-resolution texture pack to pretty up the PC edition of its RPG.

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PC gamers blessed with a snazzy computer will be pleased to hear that Dragon Age 2 developer has celebrated the RPG's North American launch today by releasing a high-resolution texture pack. You grab the 1GB download from BioWare or here at Shacknews.

"This will add the option to enable higher detail replacements for most textures in game," BioWare said. "A big difference will be noticed on level art especially." It's recommended that you not use the pack unless you have a graphics card with 1024MB of RAM, and "most of the benefits" are said to only be visible in DirectX 11 mode.

As for why the textures aren't included the game, senior producer Fernando Melo has explained that "This is all content we were able to complete after the game disc was locked and sent for certification."

Dragon Age 2 was released for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in North America today, and is due out in Europe later this week.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 8, 2011 6:00 AM

    Comment on Dragon Age 2 high-res texture pack released, by Alice O'Connor.

    • reply
      March 8, 2011 6:04 AM

      Well, this will certainly help me feel comfortable at the checkout desk with a PC version in my hand as opposed to the Xbox version.

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        March 8, 2011 6:23 AM

        I don't understand why people are pissed off about this...

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          March 8, 2011 9:13 AM

          Did I come across as pissed off? I think it's just one more positive thing for the PC version over the console version.

          I was somewhat torn, as playing the game with a gamepad from my couch with the big screen and surround sound was starting to sway me towards the console version.

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      March 8, 2011 6:05 AM

      Why wasn't this included in the retail release?

      • reply
        March 8, 2011 6:13 AM

        It says right in the article: As for why the textures aren't included the game, senior producer Fernando Melo has explained that "This is all content we were able to complete after the game disc was locked and sent for certification."

        • reply
          March 8, 2011 6:19 AM

          I think he ment why was this not done before going to disk.

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            March 8, 2011 6:22 AM

            There was a thread on this last night but they decided just to go ahead and ship the whole product as is now rather than make everyone wait. Not sure I see the big deal.

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              March 8, 2011 6:24 AM

              Yeah, I have no problem downloading a day-zero patch.

          • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
            reply
            March 8, 2011 6:37 AM

            Because if it wasn't finished yet that would mean delaying the PC release by a few weeks to get it on the disc. For something like this it wouldn't even be a huge deal if it didn't make launch so I think they made the right choice.

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              March 8, 2011 10:11 AM

              yeah, many people can't use this pack (or don't care.)

      • reply
        March 8, 2011 10:10 AM

        I never thought I'd see someone complain about free DLC release day that they specifically said was added after development.

    • reply
      March 8, 2011 6:43 AM

      I tried installing it and it told me that it couldn't find DA2. I bought it via Stream.

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        March 8, 2011 6:44 AM

        Same with BlackEmporium.

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        March 8, 2011 10:11 AM

        did you run da2 first? I had to start up the game first and quit out and then that high res pack installed

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      March 8, 2011 7:40 AM

      I don't follow DA2 closely, but that sounds like a nice move from Bioware to me. From what I saw the visuals in this game were very decent and not panned by the critics, so it looks like a nice free bonus..
      I know it was very unlikely, but id had released a Doom3 HD texture pack back then I'd have been all over it. :o

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      March 8, 2011 9:16 AM

      If you have the Steam version, you have to run it once to "install" it before the high res texture pack will work.

      Also, it will only work with the nvidia beta drivers.....if you use the latest non-beta drivers, you will get about 10 fps and artifacts all over the place.

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        March 8, 2011 9:21 AM

        How about ATI? I hear they have pretty bad drivers too.

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          March 8, 2011 10:01 AM

          I haven't heard of any ATI issues.

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          March 8, 2011 10:02 AM

          From what I've read the most recent Catalyst drivers are fine with it.

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          March 8, 2011 1:21 PM

          ATI drivers have been total shit since the 5800 series.

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          March 9, 2011 5:09 AM

          Plays perfectly on my XFX 5850. Very good performance with all options (except AA) maxed out + high-res pack + DX11, at native resolution (which for my monitor is 1680x1050). 11.2 drivers produced random crashes after several hours of play, the 11.4 "preview" drivers seem to be more stable.

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          March 9, 2011 5:24 AM

          runs in the 30's with my 5770 with everything on except one thing, otherwise full DX11 + high res textures. Not a single crash.

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            March 9, 2011 6:01 AM

            My 5850 ran like shit (less than 25fps, always) on max settings UNTIL I changed resolution from 1080p to 720p. After that it was always 30-60 and still looked great with 4xAA on. Apparently it's VRAM intensive at max settings + high res pack.

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        March 9, 2011 3:08 AM

        which driver number are those betas? Thanks

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        March 9, 2011 4:47 AM

        so nvidia really is the way it's meant to be played? :[

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