is this an Illegal system modification

[feas]

My problem:   

I have been in a few groups lately and when everyone is casting spells my system freezes and I am unable to move or do anything else until the graphic effects have come to an end. I have tried all combinations of graphic and sound settings and nothing works to solve this problem.

My Solution:

I have gone into my arts folder on my system and simply renamed folders where those graphic images reside. I have not changed any lines nor have I added any lines of code or modified any graphic files in any way. I have merely stopped them from being found on my system.

I do not believe this gives me any unfair advantage or circumvents the steps required to advance in the game. I am simply self depriving my visual experience and do not see fire balls or flying fist and other graphics when playing in a group.
 It is a simple change that can be done on the fly so I can make changes without restarting the system.
EDIT a restart is needed for changes to take affect.

There are some bugs with this way but I am able to play in a social environment this way.

Thanks for taking the time to evaluate.

[Phantomboy86]

Lots of people remove the graphics folders for magic entirely because it runs so poorly, you're in the clear. Ain't like they'd be able to tell anyways lol.

[cdmoreland]

remove the Spells folder that is found under effects.I just drop it on my desktop so I can put it back

[Bonifarzia]

As someone who has been experimenting with various mods (art and code), I have to say that I fully agree with you here, feas.
The guidelines you have in mind are relatively strict and aim to sanction cheaters or client mods that alter the overall style of the game experience:

Modifications to the client content (graphics, sounds, ...) are not allowed by PS License. In particular we will not tolerate players using mods to connect to an official server if those allow cheating, or modify the visual aspects of the game or its design.

In practice, I have seen the developers are relatively tolerant with client side modifications, unless they are incompatible with the "spirit" of the project:

We encourage you to experiment with mods and changes to either our source code and to our art assets. PlaneShift is an open source project, based on community contributions, and made to ensure people can learn from what we made, and we can learn from them.

So, to answer your question about spell effects that freeze a client, I'd say it is exactly the opposite: If you were not allowed to disable them, that would be an unfair advantage for players with better hardware

[Venalan]

Removing aspects of the art to allow you to play the game is fine. I've had to do the exactly the same thing at times.

[Eonwind]

I confirm: your change is not illegal!

P.S. There is an option do disable effects (settings -> graphic -> shaders (lowest), particle (medium)), did you try? usually works.

[Bonifarzia]

I still wonder, would it be tricky to add a separate option to the launcher? Shaders on lowest kills all lighting.

[feas]

Thank you for the replies! I have tried the lower graphic settings.
I have had problems even with my consoles when in groups and turn them off, I still play with them on while solo though.  I wrote a simple script to do for me.

[Eonwind]

I still wonder, would it be tricky to add a separate option to the launcher? Shaders on lowest kills all lighting.

as far as I remember it's not exactly straightforward