The New SD/HD Client Feature

Pilots,

As those of you playing Update 1.4 know, there is a new special feature – the SD/HD Client. This article is designed to help you understand what exactly this feature is and how the transition to it will work. Read on to learn all the details.

What is this new feature?

For a long time now, some of our players have been asking if there were a way to reduce the game’s client size. Unfortunately, this is not something that could be implemented easily without compromising on the quality of the game’s assets. However, what our developers came up with is a way to offer the client in two versions of two different sizes, so that you can decide which one you want based on your particular needs.

As such, starting with Update 1.4 there will be two versions of the game client – SD and HD. The SD version is aimed at people who do not wish to play on the highest graphical settings and are looking to save space on their hard drive. They will thus be able to download a reduced version of the client, which contains all the assets that are necessary to play on up to the ‘Medium’ graphical settings.

The HD version, on the other hand, will continue to feature the full range of graphical options, including all maximum-size textures for people, who will want to play on ‘High’ and ‘Very High’ settings.

How is the transition going to work?

When updating to Update 1.4 through the launcher, the game will by default automatically download the SD version, which is designed for play on ‘Personal’, ‘Very Low’, ‘Low’ or ‘Medium’ settings. Your final client folder will subsequently shrink in size by around 50%. If you want to play on ‘High’ or ‘Very High’ settings, you’ll have to download the HD textures, which will add around 1 GB of additional data to the final size of your current client.

Naturally, if at any point you wish to unlock the higher graphics levels, you’ll be able to do so. SD users will have to simply restart their client and select the appropriate option from the top bar in the game’s launcher. This will trigger the download and allow you to switch the Texture Quality in the in-game Settings to High. 

In the future, if you’re installing the game for the first time, you’ll be able to choose which version you want to use during installation. The SD version will be chosen by default upon first installation for first-time players. 

Summary

Starting with Update 1.4, there will be two different-sized versions of the game client available. The two clients will be identical in content and only vary in terms of the range of available graphics settings (mainly availability of high-resolution textures).