[mac freak]

So, to all you guys who have Panther already (I'll get it soon ):

Do games run faster? If so, do 3D games or 2D games seem to get a bigger boost? How about the chronically performing-like-ass Warcraft 3?

Once I get it I'll post my own report.

[::maroma::]

Well, I've tried WC3 in Panther a couple times, and it seems like it's a tad bit more responsive, but nothing to write home about. It could be that it's a completely fresh install of everything (I reformatted my drive and installed everything fresh). It still suffers from the lagging during large battles, etc. And I didn't increase any of the settings.

I haven't tried any other games yet. I'm not a huge gamer, but I play WC3 regularly.

[newmanium]

what system do you run WC3 on ::maroma::? i was curious because i have a similar dilemma with my 17" iMac running WC3 in big battles and wondering if running it on panther makes the difference.

[redJag]

Warcraft III on:
Jaguar - unplayable the majority of the time
Panther - improved to "not awful" the majority of the time

Summary: Still can't play competitively, but good enough for a fun game once and awhile. Still have to use the PC

Machine: QuickSilver G4 (733) with a gig of ram and the Radeon 8500 (64MB)

[SteevAK]

WC3 has always been very playable on my Dual 1ghz/ 1.25 GB/ Radeon 9000. . .

Anyway, there's a known bug with UT2k3 and Panther. It makes it very ugly to play. Ryan Gordon is trying to get a patch out the door.

I know RtCW always plays well still. Haven't checked my other games yet though.

[DBvader]

ive been running panther for a few weeks, and i have noticed that the only game i run, UT 2K3, runs about 10 FPS faster...making it enjoyable on my Dual 867.

[nod]

NWN seems, dare I say, alot better... much smoother.

[mrfrost]

Tiger woods 2003 (v1.0) had some problems after the Panther upgrade but updating it to v1.1 fixed it. It's a lot smoother as well.

[schwa]

The few games I checked out (NWN, Max Payne, Europa Universalis II) all got <I>noticeable</I> speed boosts from Panther on my system (Dual G4/500).

[proton]

I'm seeing fairly good performance increases across most games on my G5 1.8 + Radeon 9600.

- proton

[Osirisis]

Not that many people play it around here, but Everquest has seen some improvement from the new OpenGL. Trust me it needs it

[mh0ffmann]

Although, and unfortunately, there are no speed boosts in SC4 with Panther, I do notice one annoying-as-hell problem...

When laying down a big structure (i.e. bigger than one square, like a church, power plant, airport, etc.) there used to be a colored square indicating the area to be used for the structure, so as to not place it on top of used spaces. Now, the square is gone, and all you see as you move the cursor is a ghost image of the building itself, without any indication of the area it'll be laid upon, which leaves you with the only option of moving the mouse around blindly until the "Area Already Occupied" sign disappears.

Any clues?

Mark

[Macpilot]

Well, I did a total format of my drive, installed a clean Panther, and installed Soldier of Fortune II, played it once, and now the WHOLE folder is missing!

I have run a search for the folder and it is gone. Wierd. I have reinstalled it and the same thing happens. The filed in the App Support folder are there, but the main game folder is gone from my hard drive.

It played the same as in Jaguar. I could not tell the difference if there was one.

[gorham88]

No One Lives Forever 2 has several problems under Panther - it essentially does not work any longer.

1. If you started playing it under Jaguar, when you load Panther, the game will have lost its font directory. Text will appear as boxes, so you have to remove and reload the game. At least this problem is fixable.

2. On the video cut scenes, the scenes get hung up and do not work.

3. Worst of all, when a scene initiates a voice dialogue, once started, the voice just continues on for the remainder of the chapter. Very annoying, and can't seem to find a solution.

All in all, very disappointed in this games functionality with Panther. Not blaming Panther here - but someone really did not do their homework given that MacPlay released the game two weeks before the rollout of Panther.

[rjenkinson]

SOF2 seems to crash a fair bit under panther.

-r.

[dantley]

UT2003 seems a bit faster under panther + update.

[Macpilot]

Well, I just used my $20 .Mac rebate towards the purchase of

Command & Conquer Generals

which is supposed to come out in January. Requirements show a 1 Ghz Mac with 32 megs video ram.

Hopefully it will play OK on my Powerbook. That seems to be a steep Ghz requirement.

[Awimoway]

Medal of Honor Spearhead runs MUCH better in Panther. Maybe it was just the clean installation of any OS and a clean installation of the game, but the poor frame rate thing that made the game slow to an agaonizing crawl is gone.

On the other hand, I've encountered a new bug: the second mission (Bastogne) doesn't seem to be saving my game. Every time I load a saved game, it brings me right back to the start of the mission.

[macgyvr64]

Alice crashes, too

[eyadams]

Alice crashes, too

Where and when? I've been playing it for a while now and not had any crashes or problems - it just runs. It even correctly handles my dual-monitor setup, which is something of a rarity among OS X games.

[i am yujin]

Originally posted by mac freak:
So, to all you guys who have Panther already (I'll get it soon ):

Do games run faster? If so, do 3D games or 2D games seem to get a bigger boost? How about the chronically performing-like-ass Warcraft 3?

Once I get it I'll post my own report.

Very small boost.

Still unplayable if you want to play Multiplayer. Hardcore ladder players, don't even bother. Micro is impossible on a Mac. Custom games, TDs are playable but nothing too much like Enfos.

But then again, the last level campaign is impossible with the average Mac OS X just because there are more than 20 guys on the screen.

[AlexisG]

Originally posted by mh0ffmann:
Although, and unfortunately, there are no speed boosts in SC4 with Panther, I do notice one annoying-as-hell problem...

When laying down a big structure (i.e. bigger than one square, like a church, power plant, airport, etc.) there used to be a colored square indicating the area to be used for the structure, so as to not place it on top of used spaces. Now, the square is gone, and all you see as you move the cursor is a ghost image of the building itself, without any indication of the area it'll be laid upon, which leaves you with the only option of moving the mouse around blindly until the "Area Already Occupied" sign disappears.

Any clues?

Mark

Same here.

1- I have lost the coverage circles
2- Many smaller buildings are ghosted out. They are not vissible at all until I place the query tool over them.
3- Placing objects such as beaches is impossible as the squares that show you the area for the object are nol onger visible.

Here are some examples:
http://homepage.mac.com/agallisa/nohouses.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/agallisa/nooutline.jpg

I emailed Aspyr on Friday, hope someone at i5works can fix this problem. SimCity actually seems slower on Panther, but just about every other game I play is as fast or faster.

Dual G5 ATI 9800 1.5 GB RAM.

[::maroma::]

Originally posted by newmanium:
what system do you run WC3 on ::maroma::? i was curious because i have a similar dilemma with my 17" iMac running WC3 in big battles and wondering if running it on panther makes the difference.

Sorry for the delay in replying. Here are my system specs:

G4/500 Sawtooth (upgraded to 1.3GHz via GigaDesigns card)
1GB RAM
80GB WD Hard Drive (8MB Cache, 7200 RPM)
ATA/100/133 card
GeForce3 (flashed PC)


I think that running WC3 in OS9 is still the best option for performance on a Mac. But Panther has brought OS X performance a bit closer to 9 performance. I'm hoping that Blizzard is working on an enhancement update for Panther. It's a long shot, but I'm still hoping.

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by macgyvr64:
Alice crashes, too

I'd be interested in hearing more on this, like your setup details and perhaps a crash log. I'm not aware of any crashing issues with Alice under Panther, so unless I can get some specifics, I can't do anything to address the problem.

[rhaps]

I can't get Panther and Quake III arena works together, it crash with "submit report" problem... I read the log, & didn't understand a thing.
Help please.

Thx

Rhaps

[roders]

I am Lovin panther (sorry for quoting Mr Macky D) for games.
It's made SOF2 and Jedi Knight 2 playable with VERY high texture level @ 1152x864 nice and smooth, where as I could only play @ 1024x768 smoothly in Jag, and that was without VERY high texture detail (not enough Vram, u need 128MB to do it smoothly) as this made both game VERY choppy.
Sacrifice is TOTALY playable @ 1280x1024, Giants has become nice and smooth at 1152x864 (in Jaguar it was a but stuttery @ 1024x768) Myth3 is nice MOHAA plays @ 1152x864 really smooth where it played only OK @ 1024x768, BTW I play all these games with EVERYTHING on full graphics wise (but with texture compression if available.
The UT03 Demo plays really nice too, as does 4X4Evo2 and again I play at 1152x864 instead of 1024x768, smoother than before.
Now I do have a G5 1.8 (stock) and I'm not saying it's a panacea for everything, but it really is a nice update for gamers, and so far all my games work too.
Plus I really feel at home with the OS now, it feels nicely sorted.
It's a steal for the �14 I pad for it as a G5 owner, but would I have paid �110 for it, now that's the question...

[spectre]

UT X seems to run smoother on small levels, but choppier on big levels like lava giant. Hopefully a new version will be out soon.