Forever Visuals

Unlock and fine-tune the new graphics of WoW Forever – beyond what the in-game menu allows.

WoW Forever brings global illumination, volumetric fog, god rays and a new water shader. ForeverVisuals gives you direct control over these features and over hidden console settings (CVars), with sliders, presets and a built-in FPS meter. You can see right away what each change costs.

• New "Classic Details" section: Loot Sparkles – quest items and loot on the ground sparkle like in the original game. Turns the graphics Outline Mode off automatically; turning it off restores Outline Mode to High (sparkles disappear after a game restart)
• New "Interaction" section: Show Nearest Object – name and icon above the nearest herb, ore vein, chest or quest object within ~15 yards (Blizzard soft targeting)
• Settings are re-applied a few seconds after login, in case account settings from the server overwrite them
• Settings controlled by another addon are greyed out (e.g. Forever Loot Sparkles)
• All new texts translated into all 9 languages

Features

Compact settings window

• Two-column window, opened with /fv, the minimap icon or the AddOn compartment
• Movable, remembers its position, closes with ESC
• Every setting has a tooltip with an explanation, the CVar name and the Blizzard default

New WoW Forever graphics

• Indirect Lighting (global illumination, 4 levels; also switches the render format like the game menu does)
• Volumetric Fog on/off and fog quality
• God Rays (sun shafts)
• New PBR Water shader
• Bloom intensity

Hidden console settings as sliders

• Grass: density up to 256 (game menu max: 48), view distance up to 500 (game menu max: 320), fade distance
• Weather effects density
• Object detail: minimum visible object size, object fade distance
• Camera: max zoom distance up to factor 4.0
• Sharpening: always-on sharpening (without FSR) and sharpness strength
• Image: brightness and contrast

Presets

• Performance, Balanced and Maximum (grass, weather, object detail, zoom, sharpening and the new graphics features)
• Classic Look: turns off the new lighting, fog, god rays, PBR water and bloom
• Modern Look: all new lighting, fog and water effects at maximum
• Blizzard Default: resets everything to the game's defaults
• Before AddOn: restores the values you had before installing ForeverVisuals

FPS & performance tools

• FPS overlay: current, average and minimum FPS (last 5 seconds), frame time and latency. Movable, with a close button.
• Before/after comparison: after every change the addon measures FPS and reports the difference, e.g. Grass Density 128 → 256: 92 → 71 FPS (−23%)
• Benchmark: 10-second measurement per preset, saved so you can compare presets. Can be stopped at any time.

Keeps your settings

• Blizzard's graphics menu overwrites some of these values (e.g. grass and weather). With Protect values enabled, ForeverVisuals re-applies your settings after login and after changes in the game menu.
• Changes made in combat are queued and applied afterwards.
• Values the client clamps (e.g. a zoom limit) are reported in chat.

Minimap icon

• Left-click: open the window. Right-click: quick menu with presets, FPS overlay and benchmark.
• Drag it anywhere around the minimap.
• Can be hidden. The addon stays reachable through the AddOn compartment button.

For tinkerers

• /fv scan [word] – list all graphics CVars of your client with values and defaults
• /fv snap + /fv diff [note] – find out which CVars a game menu option changes
• /fv get <cvar> – show a CVar's current and default value

Slash commands

Notes

• Built for WoW Forever (interface 16001).
• Some ranges for the new graphics CVars are not documented by Blizzard and may change during the beta.
• Uses only standard client settings (CVars). No files are modified.

by greynor