In addition to launching the new RPG to retailers nationwide, on Monday BioWare also unleashed a little gift for gamers who purchased the PC version of Dragon Age II. Called the Dragon Age II High Resolution Texture Pack, the patch essentially adds the option to enable higher detailed replacements for most textures.
Naturally there's a catch: most of the benefits from the hi-resolution textures will only be seen when running the game in DirectX 11 mode. That said, users will need at least 1024 MB of video memory and may also need to meet the game's recommended system requirements (see below). BioWare also suggests using a DirectX 11 graphics card and the latest drivers in order to enable the "Very High" setting.
To download the 1.08 GB file, head over to the Tom's Guide downloads section here.
To manually download the new content on the PC, perform the following:
- Download the installer from the link and run it.
- Run Dragon Age II.
- Open the Options menu.
- Select Video options.
- Check the "Hi-resolution textures" checkbox.
Haven't purchased Dragon Age 2 yet? Here are the recommended and minimum system requirements:
Recommended (PC)
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent
- CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8 GHz or equivalent
- RAM: 2 GB (4 GB Vista and Windows 7)
- Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
- Video: NVIDIA 8800 GTS 512 MB or greater
- DirectX 11 Video: ATI 5850 or greater
- DirectX 11 Video: NVIDIA 460 or greater
Minimum (PC)
- OS: Windows XP with SP3, Windows Vista with SP2, or Windows 7
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
- CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
- RAM: 1 GB (1.5 GB Vista and Windows 7)
- Video: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB
- Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256 MB cards
- Disc Drive: DVD ROM drive required
- Hard Drive: 7 GB
- Sound: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows Experience Index: 4.5
Minimum (MAC)
- OS: OS X 10.6.6 Snow Leopard or greater
- CPU: 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or better
- RAM: 2 GB or greater
- Video: ATI HD 2600, NVIDIA 9400, or better graphics card with at least 256 MB of dedicated VRAM
- Disc Drive: DVD ROM drive required
- Hard Drive: 9 GB of hard drive space required
Video Cards Not Supported
- Intel GMA series, Nvidia 7x00 series, AMD 1x00 series, AMD 2400
