Whenever you launch Star Wars Galaxies (using a shortcut on your desktop or by selecting Star Wars Galaxies from your Start menu), the game will initiate the Launchpad. The Launchpad will ask you for your Username and Password, and will then check for (and automatically download) any patches.
You can use the Launchpad to:
GRAPHICS
Game Resolution
This option allows the user to specify different screen resolutions for running the game in full-screen mode, and specify different window sizes for running the game in windowed mode. Also allowed is the selection of different refresh rates per resolution. In windowed mode, however, the refresh rate will be determined by your Windows settings.
Vertex/Pixel Shader Version
If your graphics hardware supports them, vertex and pixel shaders are used to improve graphic quality. This option allows the user to scale down graphics quality to gain performance. Vertex and pixel shaders can also be disabled, giving the user the lowest possible graphics quality settings.
Windowed Mode
Select this option to run the game in a window.
Borderless Window
Select this option to remove the border when running the game in a window.
Disable Bump Mapping
At the expense of render performance, the engine will use vertex and pixel shaders to improve the surfaces of most objects. You must have vertex and pixel shaders enabled to see bump mapping. If bump mapping is disabled, vertex and pixel shaders will still be used (assuming they've been enabled with Vertex/Pixel Shader Version, above); however, most of the surface detail will be lost.
Disable Hardware Mouse Cursor
If your graphics hardware supports it, the hardware mouse cursor will be set to default. Using the hardware mouse cursor will improve the speed the mouse renders. If the hardware mouse cursor is disabled, the mouse will update along with the game's frame rate.
Use Low Detail Textures
Select this option for lower-quality textures.
Use Low Detail Normal Maps
Select this option for lower-quality bump maps (surface detail).
Disable Multi-Pass Rendering
Many of the game's graphics effects take multiple passes drawing the object multiple times. Turn this option off to improve render performance at the expense of visual quality.
Disable Vsync (allow tearing)
Disabling vsync will cause the game not to wait for your monitor's refresh in order to draw the next frame. With this disabled, you may see tearing lines across the screen; but the game should not be capped at your monitor's refresh rate.
Disable Fast Mouse Cursor
By default, there is an optimal path for rendering the mouse cursor. On some hardware, this introduces problems. If the mouse cursor does not appear correctly, select this option.
Use Safe Renderer (slower)
We recently introduced two additional code paths for rendering the game: optimal vertex and pixel shaders, optimal vertex and pixel shaders disabled; and the original code path the game originally tested and shipped with. If you notice any problems with the optimal render paths, select this option at the expense of optimal performance.
SOUND
Disable Audio
Use this option to completely disable the game's audio.
Miles Provider
Use this option to select different sound modes if your audio hardware supports them.
GAME
Skip Intro Sequence
Use this option to disable the game's intro movie.
Disable Character System Level Of Detail Manager
By default, the character system will attempt to render only the first n skeletal system objects with the highest level of detail, the next n + n at the next level of detail, and so on until the remaining objects are all at the lowest levels of detail. Disabling this option will allow all skeletal system objects to render at their highest possible level of detail based on various metrics (which can be controlled via the in-game options menu).
ADVANCED
Disable World Preloading
The game will attempt to cache between 500 and 1000 planet-specific files in the first loading screen you see for a new planet. This allows us to not have to hit the disk when walking around the game and an asset is needed. Selecting this option will allow you to get in the game faster, but at the cost of decreased I/O performance.
Use Low Detail Characters
Select this option to skip the first detail level in any character system object. This will allow you to run faster at the cost of decreased visual quality.
Use Low Detail Meshes
Select this option to skip the first detail level in any static mesh object. This will allow you to run faster at the cost of decreased visual quality.
Disable Texture Baking
The game will create a single texture for most of the textures in the game made up from composite textures. In a future release, we will attempt to provide a fallback texture in the even the graphics hardware does not support this feature; however, for now, you will see the default texture (which looks like a green forest).
Disable File Caching
The game will attempt to cache between 10000 and 40000 non-planet specific files in the first loading screen you see. This allows us to not have to hit the disk when walking around the game and an asset is needed. Selecting this option will allow you to get in the game faster, but at the cost of decreased I/O performance.
Disable Asynchronous Loader
By default, the game will use a background thread to load assets as the player walks around in an attempt to eliminate stuttering when an asset is needed and must be fetched off of disk. Disabling this will severely impact performance, but may be helpful in an environment where true multi-tasking is not supported.
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