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JK2 demo
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SteevAK
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Nov 3, 2002, 07:15 PM
 
It's out.

Available at both macgamefiles and macupdate. I recommend macupdate at the moment. It's magnitudes faster than mgf.
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diskobolos
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Nov 3, 2002, 10:02 PM
 
A very cool demo. Too short though, once you switch to your light saber and learn how to use some force powers it's over like that... even in master jedi mode.

Took me a couple trys to beat the dark side guy, kinda a funny trick is to lower the lift, trapping him underneath it, then you can jump off and finish him.
     
Crazy ebot
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Nov 3, 2002, 11:50 PM
 
Originally posted by diskobolos:
A very cool demo. Too short though, once you switch to your light saber and learn how to use some force powers it's over like that... even in master jedi mode.

Took me a couple trys to beat the dark side guy, kinda a funny trick is to lower the lift, trapping him underneath it, then you can jump off and finish him.
The full version is by far the _best_ Star Wars game I've played. Fantastic sequel to Dark Forces (for mac users anyway ;-)

I'm told the demo is a level not included in the game. _Cannot-resist-urge to-download_ *heh heh*

Tobes
     
mac freak
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Nov 4, 2002, 12:10 AM
 
This is a bit taboo, but...
...is there any way one could use the executable from the demo to play the full game, like with Quake 3 (the engine on which JK2 is based), using either the data from the beta or from the PC version?

...this is for purely exploratory purposes, of course...
Be happy.
     
proux
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Nov 4, 2002, 12:21 AM
 
Very nice demo indeed
Runs like a champ on a 500 cube with Geforce2 MX
     
SteevAK  (op)
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Nov 4, 2002, 12:34 AM
 
Yes, it is rather fun. I already have the game on order from IMG, so I'm hoping I'll have the full thing by the end of the week.

It doesn't run as well as I was hoping w/ the machine I have (1ghz MDD, Radeon 9000), but it runs well enough to keep me happy.

I've already played about a quarter of it on PCs, it is definitely a fun game. Of course, I don't think anything could compare to the original Dark Forces though.
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k2director
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Nov 4, 2002, 12:51 AM
 
Using the lightsaber to burn your initials into a wall is a nice touch, too... ;-)

I had no interest in this game until I dl'd the demo, and now I'm really impressed. I might just buy it, though Ghost Reconn is also calling out to me...

Haven't figured out how to beat the Dark Jedis yet (you fight 2 of them together when playing the tougher settings....). When dueling them, I'm pretty clumsy with the lightsaber--ie, just keep swinging, without thinking about what I want to do with it, and then translating that into actions. I hope ithe game lets you develop some real skills and refinement in duels like this, but we'll see...
     
k2director
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Nov 4, 2002, 05:10 AM
 
I just played the demo for another hour or so, and have come to the conclusion that the Jedi lightsaber duel at the end could be a standalone game--I just keep playing and playing...

When you play on the two top difficulty levels, you fight 2 Jedi at once (unless you can finish the first one off very quickly before the 2nd one makes his entrance). It's chaotic, but lots of fun. Some tips for success after many attempts at winning consistently;

1) When in doubt, jump! Jump forward, jump back, jump up, jump to the side, but just jump. The safest place to be is usually in the air....

2) Use the Jedi power "Push" while you're fighting. The dark Jedis are most vulnerable when you've knocked them down with Push, and then you can swat em with your blade (you only have a second or so to do it). I found the best results to be a Push, which knocks them down and away, and then throw your lightsaber at them while they're down...if you aim low, you can kill a Jedi on the spot. (note: you can also knock the Jedi down by jumping on their head, but that's tougher to plan).

3) I also had good results when I got the Jedis' backs to the wall and forced them to fight in a corner. It tends to increase your chances of delivering a killer blow when they can't move around too much...

4) Sometimes the Jedi will stop and taunt you, and that's often enough to use your Heal power on yourself...

5) There's a medpack in the corner of the hanger you're fighting in, on the second level (you have to use the hanger elevator). If you're running low on health, you can usually run and grab the health pack, with the Jedi hot on your heels.
     
SteevAK  (op)
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Nov 4, 2002, 05:19 AM
 
k2director: Are you really the director of the Radius Movie? I've been following that for well over a year, and I'm anxious to see it.

On topic, yes, the two end jedi are a good game in and of themselves. I have yet to beat them on the hardest setting though. I feel really awkward using the force powers and lightsaber. Much different from typical FPSs.

I've used pull w/ some success against the jedi. It knocks them over just like push. Of course, push makes fighting stormtrooper really easy (especially if you can shove them right over an edge).
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Brad Oliver
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Nov 4, 2002, 06:21 AM
 
Originally posted by mac freak:
This is a bit taboo, but...
...is there any way one could use the executable from the demo to play the full game, like with Quake 3 (the engine on which JK2 is based), using either the data from the beta or from the PC version?
Absolutely not. And how did you get data from the beta, anyway?

Brad
     
Boochie
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Nov 4, 2002, 09:48 AM
 
Ran quite well at 1024x768 on my machine with medium detail settings. I have a G4/867 with a GeForce 4Ti. I suspect the limiting factor on your machine is your graphics card.

Originally posted by SteevAK:
Yes, it is rather fun. I already have the game on order from IMG, so I'm hoping I'll have the full thing by the end of the week.

It doesn't run as well as I was hoping w/ the machine I have (1ghz MDD, Radeon 9000), but it runs well enough to keep me happy.

I've already played about a quarter of it on PCs, it is definitely a fun game. Of course, I don't think anything could compare to the original Dark Forces though.
     
appledude83
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Nov 4, 2002, 03:45 PM
 
It's a great game, I've beaten the entire single player at my friend's house on his PC. Yeah I know that's not very Mac of me but I wanted to try it out. It's a great multiplayer title too.

iBook 800/640MB/30GB
     
SteevAK  (op)
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Nov 4, 2002, 04:53 PM
 
Just got the full game. IMG ships quick!

I'll report later.
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hadocon
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Nov 4, 2002, 05:33 PM
 
Does anyone know if this agme supports dual CPUs? I have a dual 800 and I have everything turned up to max and I get great performance - just like in RTCW. I have a GF2MX only
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Guy Incognito
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Nov 4, 2002, 07:24 PM
 
Originally posted by hadocon:
Does anyone know if this agme supports dual CPUs? I have a dual 800 and I have everything turned up to max and I get great performance - just like in RTCW. I have a GF2MX only
The game supports dual-processor in multiplayer I believe...

The JK2 demo however fails to impress me with the performance on your exact setup...as soon as I've got 32-bit colors turned on...framerates break through the floor and into my basement. I then have to clean up the mess and patch the hole in the floor.

There's obviously something wrong somewhere 'cuz I've never seen this performance since Q3A on the Beige G3's 2MB Rage2.

I'll keep experimenting.
     
Brad Oliver
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Nov 4, 2002, 07:42 PM
 
Originally posted by Guy Incognito:
The JK2 demo however fails to impress me with the performance on your exact setup...as soon as I've got 32-bit colors turned on...framerates break through the floor and into my basement. I then have to clean up the mess and patch the hole in the floor.
JK2 is a big VRAM hog, and enabling 32-bit color increases the amount of VRAM it uses. You might have to decrease the texture detail a notch to compensate.

Brad
     
Guy Incognito
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Nov 4, 2002, 08:02 PM
 
Originally posted by Brad Oliver:


JK2 is a big VRAM hog, and enabling 32-bit color increases the amount of VRAM it uses. You might have to decrease the texture detail a notch to compensate.

Brad
So this is real? The GeForce2MX goes to crap with 32-bit and high textures?

This is the first game that I played that really kicks my GeForce2MX's ass. I know that it's an old card now but damn...I was hoping I'd be able to hold on to it a bit longer.
     
proux
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Nov 4, 2002, 11:58 PM
 
Worked good here with a 500mhz and a GF2 MX, all on high (not very high). Looked good enough.
     
Brad Oliver
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Nov 5, 2002, 12:43 AM
 
Originally posted by Guy Incognito:
So this is real? The GeForce2MX goes to crap with 32-bit and high textures?

This is the first game that I played that really kicks my GeForce2MX's ass. I know that it's an old card now but damn...I was hoping I'd be able to hold on to it a bit longer.
Define crap in terms of an actual framerate and I can let you know. The other thing you can do aside from dropping the texture quality is reduce the game resolution - that'll ease the VRAM stress somewhat.

Brad
     
k2director
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Nov 5, 2002, 03:06 AM
 
I've been really impressed with the performance on both my Ti 800 and eMac. True, I'm running in 640x480, but that doesn't bug me as long as I don't look at the higher res options...that way, I don't I know what I might be missing. ;-)

Otherwise, this seems like a game I could actually recommend to friends who I've cajoled into buying lower end Macs ala the eMac, which is a pleasant surprise...

SteevAK: Yes, I directed Radius, and it's finally done, but it's not 'showing' until I finish the Making Of DVD (a big project itself). We're close to launching our new web site, though--you can preview it at: www.radiusmovie.com/beta. I think there's a new trailer there as well... Thanks for the interest!
     
Crazy ebot
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Nov 5, 2002, 05:08 AM
 
Originally posted by Boochie:
Ran quite well at 1024x768 on my machine with medium detail settings. I have a G4/867 with a GeForce 4Ti. I suspect the limiting factor on your machine is your graphics card.

Jeeze, on my box (G4 466, 1gig Ram & Flashed 64meg ASUS GF3) JK2 rocks - both the demo and full version.

I haven't checked framerates (anyone care to tell me if I can check via the console?), but I can easily get 1280 x 1024 with textures and depths at 'high' and 32bit respectivelly, and all the trillinear, antiostropic(sp?) bells and whistles. Performance is fantastic, not 'glassy smooth', but _very_ playable. Waaaay better than I was expecting.

The only level it chugged was early on, where you're defending the prisoners from the AT-ST and Stormtroopers - I had to drop everything down to survive i.e. dodge laser fire

Brad, I had some issues with anti-aliasing ... in the first scene some textures seemed to do this weird 'mirrors looking into infinity' thing, but I'm working on the theory it's 'cause I'm running a flashed PC card rather than a fault of the game.

Did I mention it rocks? I'll tell you all a little story too:

When I bought my GF3 card secondhand, I told the guy I was buying it from I was going to flash it. He took the card, put it in his windows box and booted up his copy of JK2 (this was before JK2 for the mac was even announced).

He asked me, "What's the point of flashing this card if you can't play this game?"

Thanks for your hard work Brad - I didn't have an answer back then, and now, I don't have to have one.

Cheers,

Tobes.

P.S. The first thing I did when I got home from buying that PC GF3 was email Lucasarts and ask them if they were going to port JK2. I never got a response, but nevertheless I take full responsibility for their decision to bring it to the Mac .
     
Guy Incognito
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Nov 5, 2002, 08:39 AM
 
Originally posted by Brad Oliver:


Define crap in terms of an actual framerate and I can let you know. The other thing you can do aside from dropping the texture quality is reduce the game resolution - that'll ease the VRAM stress somewhat.

Brad
Yeah...reducing texture quality to High makes the game smoother...putting it back to Very High drops the framerate to about 3 fps.
     
Boochie
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Nov 5, 2002, 11:00 AM
 
Bring up the console using Shift-~ (tilde). Then type

cg_drawFPS 1

to turn on FPS display, and

cg_drawFPS 0

to turn it off again.

On the settings I mentioned earlier I get anywhere from 20 to 100 FPS. It slows down quite a bit when there are many bad guys running about (AI logic slowing down the CPU, presumably). Still quite smooth at 20 FPS, though.

Originally posted by Crazy ebot:

I haven't checked framerates (anyone care to tell me if I can check via the console?), but I can easily get 1280 x 1024 with textures and depths at 'high' and 32bit respectivelly, and all the trillinear, antiostropic(sp?) bells and whistles. Performance is fantastic, not 'glassy smooth', but _very_ playable. Waaaay better than I was expecting.
     
Arkham_c
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Nov 5, 2002, 11:48 AM
 
I was expecting terrible performance given what I have read online. My machine is outdated (a G4/450 AGP with a Radeon 7500 32MB). It turns out that the game is VERY playable with some of the stuff turned off. I didn't do a framerate test, but it was over 20fps at 640x480 32-bit with medium textures and no dynamic lighting. Not ideal maybe, but as good as I get in Wolf3D.

It has made my Christmas list.
Mac Pro 2x 2.66 GHz Dual core, Apple TV 160GB, two Windows XP PCs
     
Brad Oliver
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Nov 5, 2002, 12:52 PM
 
Originally posted by Guy Incognito:
Yeah...reducing texture quality to High makes the game smoother...putting it back to Very High drops the framerate to about 3 fps.
I'm guessing you didn't read the readme...

Brad
     
Guy Incognito
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Nov 5, 2002, 01:10 PM
 
Originally posted by Brad Oliver:


I'm guessing you didn't read the readme...

Brad
Over the years, I've noticed that Read Me's contain mostly useless junk...but I guess sometimes it contains useful info.

BTW, good job on the port...feels really solid so far.
     
sleepyrenderer
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Nov 5, 2002, 03:19 PM
 
Wait until you guys get to the Swamp Level . It puts the pain even on GF3's.
     
Crazy ebot
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Nov 6, 2002, 12:57 AM
 
Originally posted by sleepyrenderer:
Wait until you guys get to the Swamp Level . It puts the pain even on GF3's.
Yeah, I'll back that, still playable all the same.

I really got caught at the Jedi Academy (first room) though - slow framerates really hinder your ability to repel missles effectively.

That said, I finally clicked on using 'jedi mind trick' in situations where you can't push or pull 'cause the enemy is too far away. I appreciated being able to 'convince' the heavy weapons trooper to blow up his mates from a safe distance *heh heh*

Cheers,

Tobes.
     
SteevAK  (op)
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Nov 6, 2002, 05:33 AM
 
Okay, well I'm moving well into the game though. Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking earlier when I said I expected better performance. I turn on framerates when it was 800x600 and running at 16 bit, and it would bump over 100 fps occasionally. Most of the time it would be in the upper 60's and 70's. So, I decided to turn on vidsync and turn up the eye candy. It pretty much stays at 75 fps while running everything on high at 1024x768. Very nice I do not have FSAA turned on yet.

The one issue I notice for framerates is that as soon as I get outside the framerates pretty much bottom out; they get down to the 20's. Luckily, it's still playable.

Bottomline, the game is great. I'd highly recommend it. Great job, Brad. Money well spent on my part.

P.S. Oh, sound is messed up w/ the opening LucasArts logo. It stutters and has lots of static. That's the only bug I've found so far.

P.S.S. Windowed mode w/o changing the video settings? Is it possible? Blizzard does it. . .
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Brad Oliver
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Nov 6, 2002, 12:27 PM
 
Originally posted by SteevAK:
P.S. Oh, sound is messed up w/ the opening LucasArts logo. It stutters and has lots of static. That's the only bug I've found so far.
It does this on the PC too.

P.S.S. Windowed mode w/o changing the video settings? Is it possible? Blizzard does it. . .
Command-H. When you do this, JK2 (and most of the Q3-based games) behave conservatively and reset OpenGL and re-upload the textures, so it's not quite instantaneous.

Brad
     
mr. natural
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Nov 8, 2002, 10:02 PM
 
I got the game for my kid, but he's stuck in the mine level and I can't figure out what has to happen next. We're supposed to "cripple the mine facility" and we've managed to blow the shield on the pump device that comes up underneath the mine carts (?), but beyond that my son and I are stumped.

Any tips or sites to check out for help would be appreciated. Thanks.
     
urrl5201
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Nov 9, 2002, 09:24 AM
 
The sound went out on one session; had to restart the game. 800x600 seems to work well on my 667 DVI Ti book. Messing with resolutions caused a huge slowdown on the full game one time, but so far the full game seems to have its bugs, but nothing serious. I can't figure out how to get the night goggles to work; left arrow doesn't do it on my Ti. Perhaps I can re-assign the key? I am still floundering around on the first stage of the game, but it looks good, reminding me of the star trek elite force PC game. No MAX PAYNE though, I really miss that Bullet Time...and 1280x854 resolution.
( Last edited by urrl5201; Nov 9, 2002 at 09:34 AM. )
     
mr. natural
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Nov 9, 2002, 07:53 PM
 
EDIT: Nevermind my above post -- i figured it out, and off my kid goes tickled pink with joy... me, i'm off to have a whiskey.
( Last edited by mr. natural; Nov 9, 2002 at 10:50 PM. )
     
Deal
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Nov 12, 2002, 11:53 PM
 
A little disappointed in the Jedi Master level. I thought there would be more enemies who were more aggressive or better shots. It seems to just drop the health points and shield points in half and nothing else.

Yea it makes the game harder, but doesn't really change the game play. I would think a Jedi master is tougher than a Jedi Knite.
     
   
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