[tomppu]

Just recently got my hands on Fallout (Omnigroups Mac OS X version) and it runs damn slow on my mac, iBook 466MHz. Sure it's slow machine, but Fallout 2 runs like a champ with the very same computer. Ran Cocktail's autopilot (repair permissions, update prebinding, cron scripts, etc), no background applications running, and still it's lagging like there's no tomorrow (maybe there isn't). Demos at the start run just fine but when the menuscreen appears the mouse jumps in big leaps, and that continues when I try to play. Everything in the game world is also moving like in slow motion...
Could this be an issue with 10.3, I haven't installed and tried Fallout 2 after upgading.
Seriously, what can I do?

tómppu

[sniffer]

I've found both Fallout 1 and 2 for OS X to be equal jerky on my iBook 600 G3, which is strange as the req is 233 MHz G3 or something. Going to give it another chance as soon I get my PB 12" rev. C. Probably one of those not fully-there-ports (but we ship it anyway) issue.

[tomppu]

The problem must be with my iBook since the 266MHz iMac I have runs the game just fine. Weird. Well, got to play

tomppu

[sniffer]

Got the new machine I mentioned (PB rev C) and Fallout2 runs very well. Actually the whole games seem to run 1.5-2 times faster than I am used to. The charactera are litterally running over the screen. Wierd. Anyway, teh game and mouse play is smooth like silk as it should, and I'll be enjoying playing these games again.

Perhaps there is a compatibility issue with these titles as they seem to have some problems on our iBooks? Strange..

[Kamsin]

I recently acquired an iBook G3 600 and had the same problems running Fallout on it. After poking around with the config file a bit, I've found a way to fix things. There is actually only one option that needs to be changed:

In $HOME/Library/Application Support/Fallout/fallout.cfg, look for color_cycling in the system section and set it to zero.

Not sure what the feature does, and I cannot see any difference visually. However, the difference in performance is like night and day. The mouse becomes silky smooth and panning around performs as it should. This works for both Fallout and Fallout 2.

Hope it helps someone!

[Thinine]

Color cycling was also responsible for the bad performance I saw in Starcraft.

[sniffer]

That sounds like a very good tip Kamsin. I hope other iBook G3 owners find use in your suggestion to get around this issue. After all the Fallout series shouldn't be the most demanding game around for a low end dual USB iBook.