I don’t know if it is intended, but just by accident I noticed that without Enhanced Graphics turned on, you can zoom out and see half a screen more, which I believe is a huge advantage in a strategy game, and unfair for players playing with the option turned on. I would propose to lock the zoom levels for all people to the same state, otherwise, competitively speaking, it would make much more sense and force people to play without better visuals if they don’t want to handicap themselves.
2 Likes
Could you post screenshots to show this?
Both versions should be zooming out the same amount (and it would make more sense if anything for enhanced graphics to allow you to zoom out more since it means you have a better rig), it really is weird they have different levels of zoom.
I think you use Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) monitor at the moment. The EGP is purely meant for usage on 4K monitors. The sprites are 2x as large to use on 4K monitors. So when you EGP on Full HD (1080p) you get much less zoom. Solution is to just disable the EGP option unless you play on a 4K.
3 Likes
The different graphics options do have different zoom levels. The images used for the enhanced graphics are twice the resolution of the “unenhanced” graphics, and the game looks “more zoomed in” when displaying the enhanced sprites.
The graphics levels also depend on screen resolution. So the enhanced graphics may be usable for someone with a 1440p or greater resolution, but you won’t be able to zoom out too far only on 1080p.
4 Likes
Yeah, I use 1080p, but the game still looks better with enhanced, I guess I’ll just have to disable it. ‘‘Great’’.
As @KanyeTWest mentioned, this is due to the fact that the enhanced graphics are in fact the same images with more resolution, so taking more space on the screen.
Here is an image posted by one of the developer explaining this:
Compared to most recent games, AoE2 DE (like AoE1 DE) is in fact not 3D but 2D, which causes this issue. More information about the graphics can be found here (for AoE1 DE, but it is similar for AoE2 DE).
On a personal note, I play with enhanced graphics at 1080p (fully zoomed out). I see a bit less than someone without the enhanced graphics, but this is not a real issue when playing with hotkeys, control groups… But having a game more zoomed in also adds a huge advantage for speed, accuracy (farms placement, units micro…).
This is of course just my personal preference 
1 Like
I recently played a couple games without enhanced graphics, and I have to say it is incredibly useful having such a big view of the map, mangonel shots I would’ve eaten I now see coming a mile away, so while it is a shame about the graphics, the gameplay advantage element is too huge to pass up.
I never downloaded the UHD graphics pack b/c i don’t have a 4k tv. I have a 42’ tv and use 1920x1080 resolution and zooming out all the way is the best way to play b/c I can see more of the map. If i downsize my resoultion to 1440x900 or 1280x720, then I can barely see any of the map zoomed out 
. feel bad for people without 1080 or 2160 resolution.
1 Like
As far as I know all the pro players play with standard zoom level (just by checking the streams), so where is the advantage here? they check the minimap maybe more often than the rest of us?
Playing too zoomed out makes harder to click and make selection boxes properly, just saying.
1 Like
At lower level zoom out may bring benefit as most people do not micro much. But at high level zoom out too much make micro much harder, especially xbow vs k9 combat since you want to kill the low hp one and need to click correctly.
Just need enough zoom to see a mangonel or maybe castle coming in when your unit is in the center of the screen and you’re good.
You could buy a cheap 4K monitor of course, but keep in mind that the 4K sprites require 3x as much internal memory and a decent GPU. For that reason the performance test without EGP performs better too although the current difference is small.
If you like to play the game a bit bigger, you could just lower your resolution some. If you have Full HD on a 15" sized laptop screen with high DPI you could try 1440x810 pixels without EGP enabled.