Do starcraft 2 professional players play with minimal visual settings

Recently, i had the pleasure of being teased into playing starcraft 2 by a good friend; he came home with an Alienware rig and i was convinced enough to give the game a go on my older and less powerful pc. The game launched without any fancy effects, playable (i'm waiting to see how much large battles will drive the machine in the ground) but definitely less gorgeous than what i saw on the Alienware: no flowing creep, now glowing crystals, etc.

Now I've heard at some times that some FPS players would use barebones display settings to some degree in order to play better

• Dialing down the visual clutter may help you discern what is going on, instead of blowing your eyes with particle effects
• It makes the game feel more fluid
• It allows for some interesting hacks (i remember some people configuring the skin of other players to a glowing skeleton in order to see them better in some environments)

So do some players play SC2 with minimal graphics settings? Is it something that is trendy in some communities (pro players) ? Is the game clearer at barebone settings (no gibbing, physics and particles)?

Solution 1:

Some people play on low graphics because they think that it can make cloaked/burrowed units easier to see. I am not sure if this is true, but some people certainly believe it. Check out this answer:

Do the video settings affect the visibility of cloaked units?

If you are watching someone's personal stream (and not MLG/DH/GSL), they may be playing on low graphics to help with their FPS for their stream.

Above all I think that it is just personal preference.

Quote from ROOTheognis (source):

its all preference but I feel like using low graphic settings with High Model settings is the best for me. The high model setting shows death animations so If you lose units they don't just disappear and wont leave u clueless on where they went

Here are some pros that play on low, from 2011 (source):

Idra

Textures - Low

Graphics - Low

Ret

Textures - Ultra

Graphics - Low

QXC

Textures - Low

Graphics - Low

TLO

Textures - High

Graphics - Custom ( Everything Low but Effects on Ultra )

Nestea

Textures - Low

Graphics - Low

Solution 2:

Some StarCraft players do play on minimal settings. The reason however is not removing visual clutter, as even on max settings there is very little. The reason is to drive up the framerate, because they fear the game might start to lag in battles where many units are involved. Considering these battles are one of the most important parts of the game, they want to be absolutely sure there will be no lag, so there are players with über-PCs who play on minimal.

Edit:

As there seems to be doubt in the comments about the possibility of lag on an über-PC, here are some calculations which maybe make it more plausible:

A progamer will have over 200 actions per minute (APM), often they will exceed 300 APM. That is 4-5 Actions per second. Assuming a standart framerate of 60 fps, that means one action every 12-15 frames. Furthermore, the APM will often skyrocket during battles, as they are very micro-intensive.

Perhaps now you can imagine that even the slightest lag will interfere with precise and fast unit control, which is vital during battles. If you play for money, you will want to erase the slightest possibility of losing a decisive battle due to lag.

Solution 3:

Many pro players play with low graphical settings for a few reasons.

Like some of you other guys wrote, its due to performance issues in the later state of the game. Many units, buildings and actions (APM), will increase the possibility of lag spikes during a battle.

Another reason is that your internet connection might suffer from higher graphical settings. So when they stream via Twitch, the possibility of lag increases unless they lower their graphic settings. You would believe that most have a powerful connection, but if your in a house on the same line with 5 other guys streaming, it is better to lower the graphics to avoid lag issues.

With that said, some people might just like, the low res. game style.

I stream on Twitch myself, and always lower my graphical settings while streaming. It demands a lot to stream, and lag issues increase if I dont.

Sorry for the un-sourced statements. But its from firsthand experience and from a few friends that stream as well.

EDIT: A lot of player including myself, use the arcade map called "Unit preloader" now, which loads all animations in the game making rendering more smooth.