EQ2Interface - DarqUI 2K/4K Current Status

Hello EverQuest II players! More and more gamers are upgrading to game systems that support higher-resolution displays, including notable standards like 1920×1080 (generically "2K") and 3840×2160, also known as 4K.

At this time EverQuest II supports just about any resolution your system can throw at it, but as you probably know you can't choose between different resolutions unless you run the game in full screen mode. If you switch to windowed mode, or the new borderless fullscreen mode, your system resolution is used. On a high-resolution rig, this means the UI will render very small and can be hard to use.

DarqUI has addressed this situation by building two larger-size replicas of many UI components. The "Large" size is slightly larger than the default, and is targeted at 2K and near-2K resolutions. An "X-Large" size is approximately double the default size, which greatly improves visual comfort on 4K displays whether you are in windowed mode or not. You can see a few comparisons of the three sizes here. Just for reference, the smallest window in each image is the default UI size.

The DarqUI 2K/4K Project is part of my Patreon membership site called The Darq Side. We are a small community of dedicated EverQuest II players, a good proportion of whom use Large and X-Large component packages. The 2K/4K project has been ongoing for more than a year, and I wanted to give you an update on the progress we've made. I've seen some indications recently that players may not be aware of the extent of that progress. So I'm not here to sell you anything so much as to give you an accurate picture of what we've been doing.

We started out with just a few upscaled pieces, but the library has grown quite a bit since 2020. All of the L and XL components are built by hand either from DarqUI-modified pieces, or directly from Default UI pieces in cases where DarqUI does not add any modifications.

Below is a list of premium UI components that can be installed in Large or X-Large size. The first two columns show windows that are modified with DarqUI customizations. X indicates that they are available in Normal, Large and XL sizes. The third column is the "Extras" package, which includes unmodified UI components that can be downloaded in L or XL size to round out the entire UI. You can mix and match sizes on custom components, but the Extras are downloaded all at one time in either Large or X-Large size.

Upscaled windows are not the only thing we're doing at The Darq Side, not by a long shot. The premium version of DarqUI also has literally dozens of cool new conveniences, automations and quality-of-life improvements, the majority of which come from suggestions by our members. Just a few examples: Automatically run an inventory when you log out; equip or unequip your Tradeskill spec (mount, gear and familiar) automatically when you open or close the Tradeskills window; eight configurable "loadouts" that automatically gear-up and buff-up your character for a variety of playstyles; camping to your "next" character so you can cycle through all of your characters, or a short list of favorites, without using the Camp window; and an all-new mod to the Heroic Opportunity window that lets you click the runes to cast directly from the HO window.

We still have plenty of Large and X-Large pieces to add, and a stack of feature requests yet to be published. I invite you to take a look and see if DarqUI Premium would improve your time in EverQuest II. An annual Legendary membership works out to about 8 cents per day for a significantly improved gaming experience. It covers all of your characters on all of your accounts. Thank you for reading, and we'll see you on the Darq Side!

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