[Gul Banana]

Or "Tech Trial," as they call it. You can get it from macgamefiles.com or VersionTracker, though the version I downloaded from MGF (the planetmirror mirror) was corrupted. Having eventually obtained the bugger, through a BitTorrent set up by Bioware forum residents, I can say that-

"There is not enough disk space to complete the operation".

...I can say that there is not enough disk space to complete the operation? Oh dear. I'll be back in a few minutes. Go download it, anyway! I'm still on the torrent, the URL of which is http://www.bytemonsoon.com/download....mg.bz2.torrent

[Gul Banana]

Okay, I've installed and run it. The official system requirements:
"The NWN Tech Demo requires a Macintosh computer with a 450MHz or faster processor, OSX v10.2.6 or higher, 256MB RAM, and a 32MB video card (Radeon/GeForce 2MX or better)."

I have a Sawtooth G4 with a 1 GHz upgrade, Radeon 8500 (64 MB) and 448 MB of RAM. and the game runs very well indeed. It was perfectly smooth at mid-level settings; 1025*768, 85 Hz, with full antialiasing, full texture and model detail, and 75% dynamic lights and shadows. Even if I turn everything up to the maximum, it's not really jerky, with only the occasional dropped or lagged frame. It remains to be seen whether this holds up in combat.

[schwa]

It runs suprisingly smoothly on my Dual G4/500 MP, 896MB RAM, Radeon 8500, OS X.2.6.

Unfortunately, when I got to the second area of the chapter (where you pick up your first party member), it turned into crash city.

[Gul Banana]

That's interesting.. I've finished the demo now, and didn't see any instabilities or crashes. A dual processor incompatibility maybe?

[[APi]TheMan]

Holy crap I just want to see some screenshots. Macsoft's site seems to not know that Neverwinter Nights is nearing a release... I wanna see this stuff in action.

I wonder if my Pismo 900 could play... mmm...

edit: Ah. Neverwinternights.com.

[Maneki Neko]

I had one crash when going through the door to meet Aribeth the first time, but otherwise it worked fine.

I ran it at 1440X900 on my 17" imac (1 GHz, 512 MB of RAM), with middleish quality, and it seemed a little slow, but still playable. However, the demo environments are all pretty small, and there's not a whole lot going on.

Does anyone know what the price will be upon release? It's in the $25-30 range on the PC (I sold my PC copy soon after it came out, having beaten the single player campaign, and not seeing any good new modules), and am looking at picking up either the PC version or the Mac version, if it's cheap enough.

[keston]

Played demo from start to finish on my DP 1.25Gh w/ 1.75GB RAM, and did not experience any problems or crashes. I like this game alot

[Grey Cell]

Originally posted by schwa:
Unfortunately, when I got to the second area of the chapter (where you pick up your first party member), it turned into crash city.

Same here, I'm afraid. CrashFest Royale.

(system info: Dual 500Mhz G4; 512Mb RAM; ATI Radeon 9000 Pro; OSX.2.6
game settings: 1024x768 @ 85Hz, left all the rest at standard - tried maximum and minimum quality settings too, but it doesn't seem to make any difference)

[a2daj]

I have a dual proc machine and had my first crash yesterday after playing through the demo about 10 times. It crashed when I quit the game. It looked like a sound issue based on the crash log.
I have a dual proc machine and have had no issues while actually playing the game.

[wolfen]

My Ti Superdrive gets VERY VERY hot when running this game. It's the only time I've felt it that hot...the fans felt like they were straining to keep up.


wolfen

[mac freak]

Why would your superdrive get hot? There's no CD involved in this demo...
You might want to try running it again without another CD already in the drive .

[11011001]

I am sort of embarassed, but here it goes

I was playing the game, and I was curious if you could take of the characters default attire. Well, you can.. (the models look like rag dolls.. ick), but, when I did this, I dropped the clothes over by a cabinet or something, anyways, I couldn't pick them back up, the thing was in the way!! so I was stuck running aroud half naked for some time until I found something to wear..

[Gul Banana]

You know you enjoyed it

[wolfen]

Originally posted by mac freak:
Why would your superdrive get hot? There's no CD involved in this demo...
You might want to try running it again without another CD already in the drive .

Err...I didn't mean the DRIVE was hot, but the computer. The fans sounded very strained and I was concerned about playing any more until it cooled down.

Secondarily, I think there is a sound issue and that this might be causing some of the CPU strain. Maybe it's the graphics, I dunno.

Any ideas?


wolfen

[Grey Cell]

Originally posted by wolfen:
Secondarily, I think there is a sound issue and that this might be causing some of the CPU strain. Maybe it's the graphics, I dunno.

I've checked my computer, and the only possible issue I've found is that the ATI drivers I installed along with my Radeon 9000 are a bit outdated (as the documentation says: "This driver is designed for use with Mac OS X version 10.1.3 to 10.2.2. This driver is NOT supported under earlier versions of Mac OS X. It is NOT intended for use with Mac OS X versions newer than 10.2.2"

I have 10.2.6, and there are no newer drivers that I'm aware of. I've never had any problems playing other stuff (the Return to Castle Wolfenstein & Unreal Tournament 2003 demos run like a dream).

The continuous crashes do seem to coincide with certain sounds quite often, and the graphics are more jerky than they should be (though changing settings doesn't seem to make any difference) but that's about all I can say. I can't really be bothered to go after the cause of this problem, since it's obviously limited to this particular piece of software - and although the game looks pretty interesting, I didn't care much about it before, and I'm definitely not going to care any more now.

[GnOm]

had a crash after putting my character together but then I played straight through the whole thing without a problem.
Even though I usually don't like this kind of game I enjoyed it pretty much and am thinking about buying it.


cheers.

[SciFrog]

Only one crash towards the end. Great game but will take time to get used to 3D compared to BG2. I will miss the "party" feeling too and the interaction between characters of BG2.
Game run well on Cube 500mhz with a GF3 with all the specs high (too bad my ethernet and firewire got fried last night during a storm despite the surge protector ).

My take: next game based on that engine will bring back bigger party and will be the best RPG ever .

[MickS]

Tried it over the weekend.

Runs okay on a Powerbook G4 667 with only a 16 MB graphic card. Have to turn down the textures and run at low detail but it's usable on the laptop.

Surprisingly it runs well on a G4 400Mhz with a Radeon 8500 with full detail on.

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by Grey Cell:
I've checked my computer, and the only possible issue I've found is that the ATI drivers I installed along with my Radeon 9000 are a bit outdated (as the documentation says: "This driver is designed for use with Mac OS X version 10.1.3 to 10.2.2. This driver is NOT supported under earlier versions of Mac OS X. It is NOT intended for use with Mac OS X versions newer than 10.2.2"

I have 10.2.6, and there are no newer drivers that I'm aware of. I've never had any problems playing other stuff (the Return to Castle Wolfenstein & Unreal Tournament 2003 demos run like a dream).

The continuous crashes do seem to coincide with certain sounds quite often, and the graphics are more jerky than they should be (though changing settings doesn't seem to make any difference) but that's about all I can say. I can't really be bothered to go after the cause of this problem, since it's obviously limited to this particular piece of software - and although the game looks pretty interesting, I didn't care much about it before, and I'm definitely not going to care any more now.

The order for installing OSX + drivers is this:
Install 10.2
Install drivers.
Run updates.

I'd recommend reinstalling the 10.2.6 combo update, it'll put the newer video card drivers on.

[a2daj]

With a PowerBook, there shouldn't be any need to install the ATI retail drivers if you're using 10.2.3 or higher. The only reason you might want to install them is to get the ATI display apps which are basically useless in 10.2 since Adaptive Deinterlacing doesn't work anymore. But if you absolutely must have it installed, just follow Scotttheking's installation advice.

Wolfen, the reason why you're computer is getting hot is because you're pushing both the CPU and the graphics chipset fairly heavily. Even apps pushing just the CPU constantly and not the 3D graphics port of the video card can get the PBs hot. For instance, when I play Escape Velocity Nova for awhile or I'm doing several tasks simultaneously, my fans will kick in within 15 minutes. And by several tasks, I mean downloading things via Thoth, decoding/encoding something, playing movie files, running iTunes, etc.

[Grey Cell]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
The order for installing OSX + drivers is this: Install 10.2 - Install drivers. - Run updates.
I'd recommend reinstalling the 10.2.6 combo update, it'll put the newer video card drivers on.

I removed all the ATI stuff and downloaded+reinstalled the 10.2.6 combo update.

I'm afraid it didn't make any difference though...

edit: Oh, I tried playing it a couple more times - it definitely looks like a sound-related problem. The crashes usually coincide with what I would describe as the "dramatic emphasis" sound. I'm still not planning to buy this game - but damn, I sure am getting curious now

[DAlex]

Runs very well on my iMac 800 - just one question, is anti-aliasing supposed to be working?

DAlex

[Grey Cell]

Originally posted by Grey Cell:
it definitely looks like a sound-related problem. The crashes usually coincide with what I would describe as the "dramatic emphasis" sound.

Trashing all the files in the "music" folder seems to have done the job - no more crashes. I've finally managed to play the whole demo level without a single crash, which is quite... pleasant, indeed

[wolfen]

Originally posted by a2daj:
Wolfen, the reason why you're computer is getting hot is because you're pushing both the CPU and the graphics chipset fairly heavily. Even apps pushing just the CPU constantly and not the 3D graphics port of the video card can get the PBs hot. For instance, when I play Escape Velocity Nova for awhile or I'm doing several tasks simultaneously, my fans will kick in within 15 minutes. And by several tasks, I mean downloading things via Thoth, decoding/encoding something, playing movie files, running iTunes, etc.

I appreciate your input. My PB gets hot and fans start turning whenever I do much. If I play iTunes and surf the net, the fans are on (particularly if the unit is plugged in,etc.) Be happy your machine holds out for 15 minutes!

Anyway, I've done the simultaneous iTunes/Photoshop/GoLive thing and gotten my computer plenty hot and fanny. The reason I thought my original comment was worth mentioning is because running Neverwinter Nights is a whole different league. I'm a PC dude by trade, so believe me when I say the thing STRAINS to keep cool. The fans are begging for help. I play it on my P3/733 intel box with a Geforce 2 MX and it's no prob -- but the Ti 1ghz with the Radeon is HOT HOT HOT and the fans are super loud. They even get screechy. I have to turn it off because it really does sound like something is going to fail. YMMV

wolfen

[DAlex]

Originally posted by wolfen:
...plenty hot and fanny.

ROFLMAO! Sorry, but that description is just to funny

Seriuosly tho' if your pbook is getting as noisy as you say I suggest you take it back to an apple centre and get them to hear it, could be that you have duff fans. I've never heard pbooks get screechy. I've run NWN on 12 and 17 pbook and seen it on a 15 - no 'screechyness'. (invented word but it sums it up).

DAlex