That's the low-rez texture fix for ATI users you've stumbled across. It was already known for quite some time that having those settings in the CCC set to anything but quality can lead to low resolution graphics ingame no matter which graphics settings you select. The fix you found doesn't solve the problem with the high texture setting only applying in the cutscenes and character selection screen and not during regular gameplay. If you look closely you'll notice the screenshots of your armor in the character selection and the cutscene look very crisp, but that's because you took them at the only times where the game displays them in such high quality. If you look at the same pieces of armor while ingame and not in a cutscene, you'll notice they look worse and that's because ingame those armor textures are Medium, not High. That's the problem most of us would like to see fixed, we want those high textures ALL the time, not just during a few select moments. And this isn't something we can tweak with ini files or graphics driver settings, it seems to be an inherent restriction in the game client.

HOLY CRAP! Thanks so much for posting this! I've been forced to run in fullscreen mode until now because I refuse to run with no Vsync and uncapped FPS (my GPU is a GTX470 which runs naturally hot and noisy, so I always prevent unnecessarily high fps if I can). However I also much prefer to run in fullscreen windowed mode when I can, so I was at a bit of an impasse with TOR, since switching to that from fullscreen always disabled Vsync. Ofcourse I never tried going through regular windowed mode first!. xD Thanks to you I can now use both. edit: OMG, this game really hates me. :/ I've had this issue with stretched/blurry text in the chat panel ingame for a long time now, but I figured it was a result of enabling AA and it wasn't a big deal because it was just the ingame chat panel. But when I switched the game to fullscreen windowed mode it was suddenly blurring my other windows OUTSIDE the game as well! (browser, windows explorer, IM windows, etc). So I thought, 'maybe I should try turning off AA to see if that resolves it'. So I exited the game, removed the AA line from the ini file, restarted the game and suddenly my fullscreen-windowed SWTOR had black bars at the top and bottom. What the hell?! The resolution selection was set to my native resolution, which is 1680x1050 and should fit my screen perfectly - so where the hell are these black bars coming from, I wondered. Doing my usual trial and error I switched the game back to fullscreen. All of a sudden the resolution selection was no longer set to 1680x1050 but instead to 1668x982 (which is a custom resolution I use for windowed applications without resizeable borders). This explains a whole lot as stretching that res across my whole screen would indeed cause awkward blurring. Ofcourse it just goes to figure the game would select a totally random resolution, then A. label it as 1680x1050 INCORRECTLY and B. completely IGNORE my Nvidia control panel's setting to prevent stretching of different aspect ratio's (it should have been showing the black bars all along). Le sigh. PS: sorry for going off-topic but I had to get that off my chest. I've been doing nothing but troubleshooting for this game all week because I keep stumbling across one bug after another.

I've never needed an authenticator to keep any of my game accounts secure, and the only reason I'm using one now is because I got it for free with the CE and because I want access to the stuff the security key vendor sells ingame. I'm not too enthusiastic either about my account access depending on a device with limited battery life, so I hope they streamline the process of removing it. In the future I think a swift phonecall should be enough to have it removed, provided you have sufficient proof of account ownership.

Nope, the issue is still there. The High textures still only display in the cutscenes and character selection.

I didn't notice any difference between the big beta weekend and early access / launch, but I had my graphics setting set to High Texture during the beta weekend and I've heard it said that they accidentally swapped medium and high back then. However I do know that the game looked better in the earlier closed beta, when the client was also much larger. I unfortunately don't have any comparison screenshots, but maybe someone who was in closed beta from the start does and could show us if there was even more of a difference between graphics back then and the graphics in the cutscenes and ingame as they are now.

It happens on both, Nvidia and ATI. GTX 470 here and a friend with a GTX 285 has the problem as well. It seems more likely an innate restriction in the client than a random bug.

Nope. If you add it to your account you have to use it to log in, every time, no exceptions. If you didn't it wouldn't be a very effective security measure now would it?

My ingame Low = Low, not High. And in beta it was Medium and High which were reversed, which is no longer the case. The problem with the difference you're seeing between the cutscenes (and character selection as well) and ingame is that even if you have your Texture setting on High, it's only showing Medium textures ingame no matter what you do. Just try changing your setting from High to Medium ingame, you'll see there is no 'black screen to update graphics' transition as the textures it's showing are already on Medium so there is nothing TO change. What is indeed odd is that some textures are surprisingly crisp in comparison, and some of them (like the rocks) are insanely muddy. It almost makes you wonder if they did some random cutting down of the textures over the past few months, since the early beta client was a LOT larger than what we have today (~35gb compared to ~19gb now... 16gb difference just from optimization? I doubt it...).

It is not pay by the hour, so it's not dependant on the time you actually spend logged in and playing, it will keep counting down while offline. So it's effectively 30 days of continuous unlimited access.

As has been sort of pointed out before: graphics scaleability =/= the game being unplayable on cruddy computers You can have high quality graphics that look great and can only be run on high end computers AND still have low end settings that make the game playable on much much lower end machines. Case in point: LOTRO. That game is playable on a really wide range of machines and the difference between lowest and highest graphics is day and night. In comparison SWTOR's graphics scale very little and as I also said before there aren't any 'high end' graphics settings that really take advantage of powerful systems besides the shadows and you can argue that those are WAY too heavy compared to the result they give. The issue with these things is that if no one complains, nothing will ever change. We'll always be stuck with subpar WoW graphics just because 'WoW does it'. I cannot express how much I loathe this type of reasoning. Just because one game did it, doesn't make it right. WoW is like the "console platform" of MMO gaming, it is really aged and yet everyone is still using it as the excuse of 'why we can't have nice things'. The thing is that yes, we CAN have nice things and it doesn't have to affect those whose PC's aren't able to handle it. It doesn't even need to affect their download/install size if it comes down to it. LOTRO/DDO had an optional high texture pack. You didn't have to install that, but it was there for those who wanted it and it made the game look really good, something that didn't go unnoticed in many a review.

You first you need to go to your Account page (click "My Account" at the top of this page) and then add your CE retail key from the game box there. If you haven't received your copy of the CE yet then you need to wait for that to arrive before you will get any of your CE bonus items, as those are linked to the retail code, not the preorder code. After you've redeemed your CE retail key you need to make sure you restart the game if you were still logged in while redeeming the code. After that log into your character(s) and you should get a mail in the ingame mailbox soon with your bonus items. It may take a while before you get the mail, just be patient, the mail server may be very busy. As for the security key, read this first: WARNING: when you add the security key to your account you will need to use the device every time you want to log into the game and the website - if you're not 100% sure you want to use the device all the time, do not add it to your account (it is harder to remove than it is to add). With that said, to add the authenticator, just take the device, turn it around and there should be a sticker with a serial number on the back. Go to your Account page and click on the option to add a security key to your account, then first enter the Serial Number from the back into the appropriate field and just follow the steps. It should ask you to confirm the process by entering a randomly generated code you get by pushing the button on the front of the authenticator. Once completed the authenticator is now linked to your account and will prevent others from logging into your account without it, thus greatly improving your account security.

You need to contact customer service if you want to get the key removed again, and most likely they will not let you do it through email, only through phone. The whole point of the security key is that A. no one can log into your account without it, not even if they've managed to obtain your details, and B. that it isn't easy to remove once added to deter would-be account thieves from removing the security key and THEN logging into your account.

Actually most (major western) MMO's use exactly this system of requiring you to set up a payment "plan" before your game key is activated... and that includes games like WoW (I don't know if it does right now, but it certainly required it when I started playing it), WAR, LOTRO, STO, CO, Aion, Rift (before some of them went F2P) and many others. The only one of those that gave you an 'opt out' option was LOTRO, which had a "pay later" button hidden under the gametime card section. The others required you to set up some form of subscription or enter a GTC code to play, just like TOR does. That said I think it's a stupid and archaic way of doing things and it always saddens me when yet another game forces it without giving an option to simply say, "I fully understand this is a subscription game, now let me play and worry about topping up my gametime later". Sadly as I said of the major P2P MMO releases I've played only LOTRO gave an option like that, the others did not.

No idea really. It's possible they're still dealing with preorders in waves even now, which means you might have to wait until the next invite wave, or it's possible they're done with the waves and are giving new preorder redeemers straight-up access now. Not sure where best you could get this answered quickly - you could maybe try tweeting Stephen Reid:

I'm pretty certain the game is large address aware and I'm surprised it's not using more on your system. Then again it's only using around 1gb RAM and 600mb VRAM when the game first starts up (in addition to 300mb for the errorhandler process). However after extended periods of playing I've seen it go upto 2.3gb RAM, close to 1gb VRAM and 600mb for the errorhander. So the game is veritable "RAM hog". It depends on how much RAM you have available and whether you run a 64-bit OS though. On a 32-bit OS you'll never see the game client exceed 2gb memory (including VRAM) anyway unless you've tweaked your OS. On a 64-bit OS you may still not see it go upto or over 2gb system RAM used if for example you only have 4gb RAM in total, since your OS and other background processes and even the game's own errorhandler are taking a fair chunk out of that system RAM first, leaving much less than 4gb, possibly even less than 2gb for the game. On a 64-bit system with 6 or 8gb of RAM though it seems to be able to use as much as it needs and possibly even gets a little bloated in the long run. In short the game does seem to be a RAM hog, but it seems to have no problem dedicating more memory if it's needed, so I don't think that's what's holding them back from enabling the high textures permanently. Besides those textures have to be loaded into memory already anyway since they show up regularly in the cutscenes. You might need more RAM and certainly need a 64-bit OS to use them, but aren't most people with high end computers running that already anyway?

I received my CE copy on wednesday and I can confirm that entering your key will give you immediate access to your CE goodies if you are in early access already. Same thing goes for the security keyfob giving you immediate access to the security key vendor. So no it won't lock you out of EA in any way and you can get your stuff as early as your box shipping allows. I haven't set up a subscription plan yet btw, merely added the CE key to my account.

Read the 2nd post... The mouse droid turns into an ability in the Abilities -> General tab after you use it the first time.

I'm pretty sure they'll add an "invite a friend" option at some point and then an open free trial much further down the road. It won't be directly at launch though, almost no game does that and it makes sense that they don't since the servers are usually packed and resources (customer service, server slots, etc) are better off spent on already-paying customers. It's usually when things quieten down a bit that they introduce free try-outs in some form or other.

No. Once you attach the security key to your account you will always need to use it to log into the website and launcher - that's the whole point of it. It's there to prevent anyone from logging into your account without the security key, thus providing an extra layer of protection in case your username and password get compromised. If you don't want to use the security key 'all of the time' then your only choice is not using it at all. Note that once you've attached a key to your account it can be removed again, but usually only by personally contacting the customer service by phone and answering a whole set of questions to prove you are the genuine owner of the account.

Man, no one here is EXPECTING Crysis level graphics from this game. I haven't seen anyone say they do. But people are expecting graphics that are at least in line with the times and have a certain amount of scaleability to take advantage of higher end systems. Beyond some very heavy duty lighting/shadow effects, the ingame graphical settings barely take advantage of high end systems at all. Also a lot of us would actually be content with simply having the "High" textures displayed permanently instead of only showing in the character selection screen, during cutscenes and when taking snapshots with the holo cam. The game already HAS those higher quality textures, they're RIGHT THERE on our harddrives, but the game is simply not letting us use them during regular gameplay - it's instead capping everyone, high power graphics card or not, at medium textures. I do find that very off-putting. Just thought I'd add some screenshots to illustrate the problem (watch the frilly patterns on the robe): during regular gameplay (medium texture) during a cutscene (high texture) It's definitely "a" problem, in that it's a rubbish card for gaming. It's an intel integrated chip on the motherboard, its graphical rendering power is close to none, so your game will never be very playable on it no matter what you do. However the problem you're having of textures missing / display incorrectly, like shown in that video is not just due the card. Most likely you don't have the correct drivers installed for it. If your system is a laptop you need to go to the manufacturer's website and download the latest video display drivers for your laptop model - alternatively you could try downloading the latest drivers for the GMA 4500 from Intel's website directly. Also you should do a file check on your game install, as corrupt or missing files could also cause this. To run a file check exit the game, start the launcher, log into it then press the Options button (the little cogwheels icon) and click the Repair button. It'll verify all your files. Beyond that I don't know what else you can do - be prepared for some pretty bad performance ingame though, even if you fix your display issue.

Also some people have reported problems with the default 'low' settings that the game first starts up with - if you're having performance issues even with every setting on lowest, try raising the settings to medium or high first, then hit apply and then change them all back to low or off and hit apply again. Also bear in mind that whiledisabling vsync may improve your performance if your fps is constantly far below the refresh rate, it will also uncap your fps which may put more strain on your graphics card in some situations (especially menu's and the like where fps can get really high if uncapped). If your graphics card is getting too hot from excessive framerate, you may want to turn vsync back on.

I have bad news for you. With that setup it is not surprising you are getting awful performance and there's not much you can do to improve this. The laptop you have is simply not designed for gaming and bad performance is par for the course. Your laptop has a very low-spec processor and the graphics card is an old integrated intel model which is absolutely terrible for gaming. It simply lacks the power to provide good performance, even at low settings and low resolution. 5-10fps is about the maximum I would guess you'll get with that card. I saw another person ingame who was running the game on a laptop with a similar processor and an nvidia 103m (also a really bad card for running games), and he was getting 14fps tops at 800x600 with the lowest settings. Since it's a laptop the CPU and graphics card can't really be upgraded (even if it's possible it's not really adviseable). So the only thing you can do is get a better machine (or wait until you can) or just put up with the performance and run on the lowest resolution possible.

Depending on the graphics card though it may or may not be set to draw power directly from the motherboard (aka through the PCI-E slot). If it's a more powerful graphics card the OP will also have to plug in the appropriate connectors from his power supply to the graphics card directly. @OP: Have a look at the manual of the graphics card, it should tell you what it requires. Once the graphics card is plugged into the motherboard, monitor and the PSU (if required), you can power on the PC and you should get a video signal. After that just put the Windows disc in the drive and restart the PC and follow the install instructions. If the PC doesn't boot automatically from the Windows disc you may have to change the boot device order in the BIOS (you can find out how to do this from reading your motherboard manual).

A start would be posting your system specs - your processor, graphics card, amount of RAM and operating system. If you're not sure run a dxdiag test (how to: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Run-DirectX-Diagnostic-Tool) and save the results to a text file, then open that and copy the first 4-5 sections of info here (downto and including at least the "Display" section). Without knowing your system specs, all I can suggest is to make sure you've checked some of the common fixes to improve fps / playability: 1. if you updated from a BETA version of the game you need to uninstall that and do a clean reinstall with the retail installer (either from the account page, from the early access email or using your game discs). Updating from a BETA client seems to break performance really badly. 2. if you have started the game with default settings, make sure you try and turn all of the settings upto high first, then hit apply, then turn them back down to low - the default "low" settings seem to be broken and don't actually perform as they should 3. if you have a relatively weak graphics card and your monitor uses a medium or higher resolution, then try using a low resolution ingame as it will free up performance by lowering the amount of pixels your graphics card has to render - it can often make the difference between unplayable and playable on low end graphics cards.

I haven't tried the texture anisotropy setting ingame (or the tweaked value in the ini) since it looked horrible with those in the last beta. I've just forced it through the driver (8xAF through the Nvidia Control Panel) as I did in the beta since that gave a much better visual back then and I assumed not much has changed. Some things seem to suggest it might be different now though... So if anyone has directly compared the ingame "high" filtering setting, the ini anisotropy=8 setting and forcing 8xAF through Nvidia drivers, I'd love to hear/see the results of that comparison. As for AA, it's still working fine when enabled through the ini file, at least for me. I haven't had any problems with the game not starting or crashing as a result of it and it seems to do as good a job as it did in the beta.