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MacGallant · Apr 6, 2002, 06:33 PM

I updated from 9.1 to 9.2.2 and the rave and open gl still stink! I just play the single player mode in software mode with the music turned off for adequate performance. The fps hovers around 25-23 and drops slightly depending on the amount of enemies. I have a iMac 600mhz G3 with 256mb ram and a 16mb vram Rage 128 Ultra and a friend of mines has a PIII 800 mhz with 256mb and a Nvidia tnt card and his framerates never drops in single player mode, which gets me to think . . . is the pc version more optimized than the mac version?

juanvaldes · Apr 6, 2002, 07:36 PM

I have no idea what's up with your game. It ran fine for me on a 333Mhz G3 iMac with 96 megs of ram. This was under 9.1 though.

Kevlar · Apr 7, 2002, 12:17 AM

I think I heard something about the drivers in 9.2 not being that great with D2.

MacGallant · Apr 7, 2002, 12:50 AM

Diablo 2 plays really well on my friend's P3 Tnt2 system. For some reason there are a lot of drops in fps on my mac when using rave and open gl when the action gets intense. I'm forced to play in software mode and I turn off the music for better performance but there are still drops in fps when a lot of foes appear on screen. There doesn't seem to be drops in fps on the P3.

Hey, juanvaldes does your system ever experience drop in fps in single player mode?

I played the Diablo 2 demo on the G3 350 mhz iMac with 128 mb and the same problem exists?

Is the mac code not optimized enough? Is Apple going to release new drivers for the ati rage/rage 128 chipset in OS 9?

juanvaldes · Apr 7, 2002, 06:25 AM

Originally posted by MacGallant:
Hey, juanvaldes does your system ever experience drop in fps in single player mode?

I think it's 9.2 that's the problem. Since only 9.1 was out at that point and I was using much less powerful hardware. But I don't use that comp anymore, got my very own G4 a few months later when they were released. So I can't tell you how many fps I get. sorry.

on my system in single player I never drop below the cap of 25.

seanyepez · Apr 7, 2002, 08:09 AM

I notice significantly more lag under single player mode. Multiplayer probably decreases the amount of load on the processor (granted that you're not the server). The single player mode merely hosts a server to which your client connects to locally.

The Dude · Apr 7, 2002, 10:11 AM

Originally posted by seanyepez:
I notice significantly more lag under single player mode. Multiplayer probably decreases the amount of load on the processor (granted that you're not the server). The single player mode merely hosts a server to which your client connects to locally.

In single player mode, it's capped at 25FPS. Multiplayer is uncapped.

[ 04-07-2002: Message edited by: The Dude ]

mr. burns · Apr 7, 2002, 03:54 PM

i hope they're bringing dungeon siege to mac cause it's basically diablo in 3d.

Apr 8, 2002, 08:36 PM

I am a Diablo player for some time now. Mostly online, but sometimes I play single. I have PC's and Macs. If you are serious about Diablo2, get a PC with an old VooDoo card. I currently run Windows XP, 512Mb RAM, Athon 1.4Ghz, ATA100 RAID array, VooDoo 5500 and a cable modem. It NEVER lags due to my system. I built it from scratch for $850 w/o monitor.

I also have an overclocked (1Ghz) 867 G4 with the GForce2. It is quite laggy in D2 under OS 9.1, 9.2 and OSX. With the VooDoo is plays acceptably, but the screen resolution changes are pretty slow.

It all comes down to textures, Diablo2 is very heavy in the texture loading, so the RAID comes into play, but mostly it is the VooDoo card. The GForce is a first person shooter card, fewer textures, lots of "pixles" to move. The VooDoo can move more "texels". The VooDoo drivers for the G4 are not optomised, the ones for the PC are pretty good.

So when I want to play I fire up the PC, lord knows I cannot get any work done on it with XP in the way. When I want to work I fire up the Mac and enjoy an OS that really helps me.

USWest Von_Viagra

joe · Apr 9, 2002, 05:46 PM

FWIW, DiabloII / LoD runs just fine for me in OSX. A big THANK YOU to Blizzard for the OSX update! I had quit playing D2 months ago because of the OS9 requirement and am just now getting back into the game - it KICKS ASS!!! I forgot how cool this game is

However, I'm running in software mode instead of OpenGL. I'm guessing this is due to my OEM GeForce3 and the NVidia OSX drivers. NVidia Mac cards have a reputation for poor D2 performance even in OS9. And in fairness, my GF3 actually does much better in OSX and OpenGL than in OS9. I was playing for a while there in 800*600 millions!!! But when there's a lot of baddies running around (Nightmare level) things slowed down quite a bit. Since dropping back to software mode D2/LoD is smooth and very playable even when the screen is full of monsters! So if you've got an NVidia card, definitely try D2/LoD in software mode for OSX............joe

toshio · Apr 10, 2002, 06:02 AM

try the ati 2002 new driver patch
i use that in my pbg4/400
it's better than 9.2.2's driver
fps can be 45-75 usually
and the bad place can be 12-20
good!!!
800x600 high q test
u must try it@_@

fulmer · Apr 10, 2002, 02:44 PM

Originally posted by toshio:
try the ati 2002 new driver patch
i use that in my pbg4/400
it's better than 9.2.2's driver
fps can be 45-75 usually
and the bad place can be 12-20
good!!!
800x600 high q test
u must try it@_@

talking about the drivers released recently? They say it is for retail cards only, but are you saying that performance for d2 has improved in os x since upgrading your ati drivers? thanks.

a2daj · Apr 10, 2002, 08:12 PM

The March 2002 ATI Retail Update will work on OEM cards, but ATI won't officially support it. The basic drivers are exactly the same between the OEM and retail cards. There are some OEM and retail specific files, but all in all they can coexist on the same system. The ATI Display app (OS X) will only recognize retail cards but the drivers work fine. In OS 9, the ATI Display control panel will also only recognize retail cards, but I believe it can still be used to enable and disable graphic acceleration for both OEM and retail cards.

In both OS 9 and OS X there are two files which do almost the exact same thing but one is for OEM and one is for retail cards. The retail file is called ATI ROM Xtender(only installed with the retail upgrades). The OEM file is called ATIDriverUpdate(only installed with Mac system upgrades).
What these files are are basically 'soft-firmware' updates. Instead of having to flash our Radeon cards all the time, ATI uses a software method.. The 'firmware' is loaded into RAM during startup (ROM in RAM).
The only time ATI cards have needed an actually firmware flash update is when the PCI Radeon would cause kernel panics when installing OS X 10.0.x. I guess that bug was severe enough to warrant an actual firmware flash. Unfortunately, that flash also introduced the OS X IE flickering cursor bug, which was fixed back in the January Radeon update(if you knew how to manually install the ATI ROM Xtender file (installing it in the /System/Library/Extensions/AppleNDRV/ folder). The March update automatically installs the ATI ROM Xtender in the appropriate place for OS X.

[ 04-10-2002: Message edited by: a2daj ]

MacGallant · Apr 10, 2002, 09:03 PM

Does that ATI Retail UPDATE 2002 work with the 16mb ATI Rage 128 Ultra chipset in my iMac? Today Apple posted a ATI APPLE OEM UPDATE 1.1 on versiontracker and it's for Rage 128 cards or rage pro chips. Alot of people can't get this oem update to work, including me. Should I install the retail update and should I disable or erase the retail specfic extension?

conundrum · Apr 10, 2002, 09:19 PM

Originally posted by MacGallant:
Does that ATI Retail UPDATE 2002 work with the 16mb ATI Rage 128 Ultra chipset in my iMac?
>snipped<

I'm not sure how similiar the card is, but the Retail update works with the OEM 16MB Rage 128 Pro.

On the thread topic, 800x600 hardware mode now works without unrecoverable lockups in OSX. (It crashed to the finder once, but thats preferable than
the machine freezing.)

The Duke of Alinor · Apr 11, 2002, 11:33 AM

I see my PC suggestion is out, I did not like the change either.
Has anyone gotten a smooth mouse with D2 in OSX? I have tried the stock Apple mouse, Intellimouse Explorer with two sets of drivers, and a Logitech with no drivers. All have a jumpy spot in the center of the screen. D2 is unplayable in Hell cows due to aiming problems.

For a lag test, go to act 5, run from Cain up the stairs across the path where the TP's show up, and down to the armor (or your stash). My 733 GForce in software really laggs, the 1 gig is not too bad, and the (cough)PC does not lag at all.

I will give you FPS if you want them.

iKevin · Apr 11, 2002, 11:44 AM

O yeah....I have that mouse issue too....really annoying. I quit playing till it's fixed.

Apr 13, 2002, 09:29 PM

I don't know about anyone else, but I just installed the March2002 ati drivers with my dp500/retail radeon combo and my Diablo 2 experience in OSX went to **** . As soon as I installed the drivers my fps would not exceed about 12 in 800X600 mode when previously I was experiencing double that!

Has anyone else had this problem? From where I'm sitting it looks like ATI's reputation for not being able to write a driver to save their friggin' lives still stands.

fulmer · Apr 14, 2002, 07:28 PM

Originally posted by <centuri>:
I don't know about anyone else, but I just installed the March2002 ati drivers with my dp500/retail radeon combo and my Diablo 2 experience in OSX went to **** . As soon as I installed the drivers my fps would not exceed about 12 in 800X600 mode when previously I was experiencing double that!

Has anyone else had this problem? From where I'm sitting it looks like ATI's reputation for not being able to write a driver to save their friggin' lives still stands.

maybe it's a dp issue. I dunno though.