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KeyLimePi · Apr 14, 2006, 06:20 PM

Anyone playing this yet? Let me know what you think. Not much of a gamer but I loved Halo and I've got an Apple gift card left over from Christmas.

Zeeb · Apr 14, 2006, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by KeyLimePi

Anyone playing this yet? Let me know what you think. Not much of a gamer but I loved Halo and I've got an Apple gift card left over from Christmas.

I got it shipped to me from amazon a few days ago. It's a great game so far--good graphics. I've only just started the first level where you are trying to retireve a medic.

Camali · Apr 15, 2006, 12:41 AM

its not a bad game, though I'm not sure its worth the $50 I spent on it. Anyway, I tried making a backup since the game requires the DVD in the drive, even a copy of it won't work! I hate these type of copy-protection.

ruttopia · Apr 17, 2006, 07:10 AM

anyone running the new binary on a macbook pro? just curious what performance is like since there is NO DEMO.

Thinine · Apr 17, 2006, 06:38 PM

Finished it today and it was pretty great. Though it makes me wish I had upgraded the 6600 when I got my quad. I could play 1600x1200@medium fairly well through the game (20fps). But there were areas that really slowed down, especially the final boss area.

Eug Wanker · Apr 17, 2006, 07:08 PM

I tried the demo on my Xbox 360. I wasn't overly impressed.

turbopants · Apr 17, 2006, 10:53 PM

Played it a friend's the other day, it looked really good and ran quite well on his dual G5 2.0.

KeyLimePi · Apr 20, 2006, 09:56 AM

Originally Posted by Thinine

...makes me wish I had upgraded the 6600 when I got my quad...

I got it and tried it on my quad, also with the stock 600 card, and was thinking the same thing. I was kinda surprised because Doom3 seems to play better. Seems like a great game, though.

Horsepoo!!! · Apr 20, 2006, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by KeyLimePi

I got it and tried it on my quad, also with the stock 600 card, and was thinking the same thing. I was kinda surprised because Doom3 seems to play better. Seems like a great game, though.

The SMP patch is coming...before long, Quake 4 should be running almost 2 times better than Doom 3 on that quad.

Velocity211 · Apr 20, 2006, 03:13 PM

I just beat it this morning. Pretty good game but it doesn't run well on my PowerBook. But you should see it run on a quad with a quadro 4500 and 30" screen.

2009059 · Apr 20, 2006, 05:08 PM

I can run it on High, full resolution. And for those who think 512mb VRAM is too much, that's what is recommended for ultra quality. Even on high, the graphics are INSANE. The game is really good but not the best I've played because of the lack of 'instant action' gameplay with bots (or maybe I just haven't found that mode)

baw · Apr 22, 2006, 11:41 PM

Just received it in the mail from macgamestore.com.

I do not like how the cdkey sticker is attached to the plastic wrap the jewel case was wrapped in. Also you can see the cd holder is broken in the middle. Poor packaging for a $50 game.

jamil5454 · Apr 23, 2006, 12:02 AM

Blame macgamestore.com. When you buy a game in a real store, you get the full packaging.

Camali · Apr 23, 2006, 01:18 AM

you think your cd key was placed in the wrong spot, I bought the game at the Apple Store and the CD Key was on the BACK of the BOX in plain view of anyone who picked it up!

baw · Apr 23, 2006, 01:39 AM

Originally Posted by jamil5454

Blame macgamestore.com. When you buy a game in a real store, you get the full packaging.

It isn't macgamestore.com fault. The game came with complete packaging. It is the publishers poor quality controls that is the problem

Spliff · Apr 23, 2006, 03:57 AM

It's no Halo. Single player is linear and unoriginal.

Taipan · Apr 23, 2006, 02:05 PM

Hi!

I read about the SMP patch coming up, and I'm wondering: Will it be for Intel chips only? And since the answer is probably going to be yes: Why? We have had dual cpus for ages and I have never seen an SMP patch. Why now, and why Intel only?

joe · Apr 23, 2006, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by Taipan

Hi!
I read about the SMP patch coming up, and I'm wondering: Will it be for Intel chips only? And since the answer is probably going to be yes: Why? We have had dual cpus for ages and I have never seen an SMP patch. Why now, and why Intel only?

Quake3 had an SMP patch - or at least it supported SMP at a certain revision. The command was r_smp 1 <cr> if you had a dual processor Mac.

Do any PPC Mac owners have Quake4 benchmarks to post? Preferrably with both SMP enabled and disabled?

t_hah · Apr 23, 2006, 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by Camali

you think your cd key was placed in the wrong spot, I bought the game at the Apple Store and the CD Key was on the BACK of the BOX in plain view of anyone who picked it up!

Yep, I bought my copy at the Apple Store as well and I don't understand why do they display the CD key on the back of the box. Anyone could walk in and write down those numbers. Crazy!

Horsepoo!!! · Apr 23, 2006, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by Spliff

It's no Halo. Single player is linear and unoriginal.

Actually...that sounds exactly like Halo.

baw · 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by Taipan

Hi!

I read about the SMP patch coming up, and I'm wondering: Will it be for Intel chips only? And since the answer is probably going to be yes: Why? We have had dual cpus for ages and I have never seen an SMP patch. Why now, and why Intel only?

No one said it will be Intel only. Early tests show speed improvements in the double digits with SMP enabled.

http://www.insidemacgames.com/featur...log.php?ID=102
Give Me Some SMP!
I recently got an email from an IMG reader asking about SMP or Symmetric Multiprocessing and gaming on the Intel Macs. SMP makes multiple CPUs available to complete individual processes simultaneously. Since quad core Power Macs and Intel Macs have multiple Core CPUs, SMP is possible. But does it benefit gaming? Others have tried it (you need to program your game to use SMP) in the past but have seen minimal gains with SMP...until now.

Aspyr's Glenda Adams recently told me about something that will make owners of the new Intel Macs really happy they bought those new machines. According to Glenda, early work on the Quake 4 SMP patch is showing huge speedups. How big of a speed up she won't reveal just yet but think upper double digits gains! That's right...these Intel Macs (and Quad Core Power Macs) already run Quake 4 great, but when the Quake 4 SMP patch comes out, expect to be blown away.

Quake 4 SMP will not be in the initial release of Quake 4 but will be released as a free patch when it's ready. Glenda says to expect other Aspyr games, some past and upcoming, to have SMP support.

baw · Apr 23, 2006, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by joe

Quake3 had an SMP patch - or at least it supported SMP at a certain revision. The command was r_smp 1 <cr> if you had a dual processor Mac.

Do any PPC Mac owners have Quake4 benchmarks to post? Preferrably with both SMP enabled and disabled?

Quake 4 SMP will not be available until the next Quake 4 patch is released.

baw · 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by Spliff

It's no Halo. Single player is linear and unoriginal.

Sounds like every FPS out there!

Velocity211 · Apr 23, 2006, 10:34 PM

Quake 4 is basically a clone of Doom 3, except the story is different. Other than that everything is the same, the atmosphere, gameplay etc. are the same.

joe · Apr 23, 2006, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by baw

Quake 4 SMP will not be available until the next Quake 4 patch is released.

Definitely worth waiting for. I hope a Q4 demo will be forthcoming with SMP and UB support as well.

macintologist · Apr 23, 2006, 11:25 PM

I, *ahem*, "borrowed" the game and played it for an hour.

Definitely not worth 50 bucks. Glad I didn't buy it.

t_hah · Apr 23, 2006, 11:28 PM

I cannot stand games that require you to have the DVD in the drive to play. I installed Q4 on my computer so that I wouldn't have to drag the DVD around with myself... it is really annoying when they do this to games.

Is there any way to remove this?

macintologist · Apr 23, 2006, 11:33 PM

Originally Posted by t_hah

I cannot stand games that require you to have the DVD in the drive to play. I installed Q4 on my computer so that I wouldn't have to drag the DVD around with myself... it is really annoying when they do this to games.

Is there any way to remove this?

Yep. But don't you dare PM me asking me how to remove this limitation because I won't respond back.

baw · Apr 23, 2006, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by Velocity211

Quake 4 is basically a clone of Doom 3, except the story is different. Other than that everything is the same, the atmosphere, gameplay etc. are the same.

I've played both and I have to say Quake 4 seems more enjoyable than Doom 3 was. Same game engine does not equal same game.

Lateralus · Apr 23, 2006, 11:40 PM

I've had the game for about a week and I'm amazed at how well it runs on my machine in comparison to the first shipping version of Doom III I had tried out.

That said, is there any way to beat that bot or is becoming half Strog unavoidable?

baw · 12:45 AM

Unavoidable.

What graphic settings are you running Lateralus?

I'm on an Intel iMac 2GHz 256MB VRAM running at 1152x864 windowed and medium quality.

baw · Apr 24, 2006, 01:39 AM

I tweaked my own autoexec.cfg and use these commands which gives me a FPS boost.

set cm_backFaceCull "1"
set r_usePortals "1"
set r_useOptimizedShadows "1"

baw · Apr 24, 2006, 02:41 AM

I did alittle more tweaking within my autoexec.cfg. I can run 1152x864 windowed with high quality with decent FPS. Here is my config:

set r_customHeight "1050"
set r_customWidth "1680"
set r_fullscreen "0"
set r_mode "6"
set com_allowconsole "1"
set com_showFPS "1"
set s_musicVolume "0.20"
set cm_backFaceCull "1"
set r_multiSamples "0"
set r_usePortals "1"
set r_useOptimizedShadows "1"
set r_orderIndexes "1"
set r_useStateCaching "1"
set r_useIndexBuffers "0"
set r_useVertexBuffers "1"
set r_useTurboShadow "1"
set r_useShadowVertexProgram "1"
set r_useShadowProjectedCull "1"
set r_useTripleTextureARB "1"
set g_projectileLights "1"
set image_preload "1"
set image_filter "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST"
set image_anisotropy "1"
set image_useCache "1"
set image_cacheMegs "384"
set image_cacheMinK "2048"

Hope this helps.

Tomchu · Apr 24, 2006, 03:12 AM

Are we going to be as "blown away" with the SMP patch as we were supposed to be with the Mac release of Doom 3, in all its 640x480 ~45 FPS glory?

Lateralus · Apr 24, 2006, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by baw

Unavoidable.

What graphic settings are you running Lateralus?

I'm on an Intel iMac 2GHz 256MB VRAM running at 1152x864 windowed and medium quality.

1280x1024, High Quality.

Smoothe. As. Buttah.

kyebach · Apr 25, 2006, 01:54 AM

I just got Quake 4 and so far am really enjoying it. I do have a few grafix and performance issues that I think are mac specific. I'm running on a Dual G5 2.3 with the GeForce 7800GT vid card so it has plenty of power. Anyways my main problems are with an unsteady frame rate and video tearing and they seem to be directly related.

I researched some on the pc gaming boards about the video tearing because this really irritates me. Part of the fix is to enable vsync which I do have enabled and it helped some with the tearing but it's still pretty noticeable. Especially when there is a strong strobe light effect in the room and that happens constantly in this game. The other part of that fix is to enable triple buffering in the nvidia grafix drivers. This is also to help steady out the jumpy frame rates.

The problem with frame rates are i'll get a steady 60 fps until i move ever so slightly and it immediately jumps to 30 fps. All the pc boards were saying this problem with the frame rates cutting in half abruptly is from having vsync enabled without triple-buffering. I guess the only way to turn on triple-buffering in your nvidia card is through the PC only nvidia utility?

Does anybody know anything about alleviating these issues? Thanks in advance.

macintologist · Apr 25, 2006, 12:36 PM

Wait until we have those dual quad intel ProMac running X1900 with 512MB of VRAM

fideli · Apr 27, 2006, 03:27 PM

I had it...it was nice...but not like doom3

jabbajon · Aug 11, 2006, 04:26 PM

did you find a solution for the tearing. I have a quad with 7800gtx 512mb and the tearing is really bad

Originally Posted by kyebach

I just got Quake 4 and so far am really enjoying it. I do have a few grafix and performance issues that I think are mac specific. I'm running on a Dual G5 2.3 with the GeForce 7800GT vid card so it has plenty of power. Anyways my main problems are with an unsteady frame rate and video tearing and they seem to be directly related.

I researched some on the pc gaming boards about the video tearing because this really irritates me. Part of the fix is to enable vsync which I do have enabled and it helped some with the tearing but it's still pretty noticeable. Especially when there is a strong strobe light effect in the room and that happens constantly in this game. The other part of that fix is to enable triple buffering in the nvidia grafix drivers. This is also to help steady out the jumpy frame rates.

The problem with frame rates are i'll get a steady 60 fps until i move ever so slightly and it immediately jumps to 30 fps. All the pc boards were saying this problem with the frame rates cutting in half abruptly is from having vsync enabled without triple-buffering. I guess the only way to turn on triple-buffering in your nvidia card is through the PC only nvidia utility?

Does anybody know anything about alleviating these issues? Thanks in advance.