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phillryu · Jun 25, 2006, 09:59 PM

So, I haven't seen many detailed reports around the web on Half-Life 2 performance on the MacBook, so here is my experience with it.

Basically, the game runs acceptably (with some slowdown in the more complex, outdoor areas) with most things set to low. (Resolution atm is set to 800*600, which, trust me, looks better than you'd think on the MB screen.) Even though details are down, HL2 looks amazing. The completeness of the world, the fluidity of animations, the great voice acting, sound effects, and ambiance just transport you to City 17, whether the graphics are slightly jagged or not.

There is one big issue that has been reported a bit, and that is that with the Intel Integrated GMA 950 graphics chip, HL2 crashes on saves and autosaves. This can get extremely frustrating, considering the frequency of autosave points in the game. Luckily, there's a way to disable this feature, found on this tweaking guide. While the game will still crash on saving (saving does work though of course), I found myself in a pretty good rhythm of saving after in-game loads, as they break up the pace anyways. Plus, with another hint in that tweaking guide (to speedup start times), I can now get back into the game within a minute. The game probably takes about 10-15 seconds to load to the main screen, and about 15 secondsish to load into the game. Considering that most gamers endured 1-2 minute long load times on their PC's when playing this game, the breaks in pace are totally acceptable for me.

This is the first time for me playing Half-Life 2, and it is an unbelievable experience. If any of you have been holding back, perhaps not even imagining that HL2 is playable on the MacBook, think again. The crash after save is a minor issue, but nothing big enough to stop me from recommending this highly.

Also, for those of you who haven't heard about this game, here's a great review from IGN without spoilers.

Juba310 · Jun 25, 2006, 10:22 PM

Interesting. What kind of FPS readings are you getting.... can you give more detailed info on what you have it set to?

Helmling · Jun 26, 2006, 12:29 AM

And how much RAM on your Macbook...and which processor?

rm199 · Jun 26, 2006, 02:13 AM

I don't mean to deflate the thread but should HL2 really be viewed at 'cut down' settings? Especially with respect to Episiode One, this game deserves all settings set to max.

phillryu · Jun 26, 2006, 10:02 AM

This sounds kinda stupid but still trying to figure out how to access the console here, I'll post FPS later today most likely. (I think a keyboard utility I installed to enable right clicking with the keyboard moved the tilde key as well.)

Settings are all to low except textures at medium, 800*600 res. 1.83ghz core duo processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM.

And hey, about the "should HL2 really be viewed at 'cut down' settings", I imagine it to be similar to "shouldn't you watch Star Wars in the theaters", but the first time I saw it was on a regular size TV on VHS, and hell, it was still freaking amazing. I've waited years to play this, and while some others in my situation (MacBook as the first Intel Mac) might have the patience to wait even further... not me. And man was it worth it.

thestig · Jun 26, 2006, 11:01 AM

A $400 PC could play it much better than the crap video card they shoved in the macbook. I don't know hwy you even bothered. ONce you get a system with an ACTUAL videocard, you're going to want to replay it anyway. Playing it on a macbook is just a waste of time.

phillryu · Jun 26, 2006, 11:56 AM

Ummm I bothered because I'd rather pay $40 for the game, not $440 for the game + a gaming PC. Plus more for a monitor. Got it?

jeff25624 · Jun 26, 2006, 12:13 PM

See, now I installed the HL2 demo with the hopes of it being playable on my 1.83 GHz Macbook with 1 GB of ram. To my surprise, it did run, and it wasn't as horrible as I had expected. However, to me, the game did not run well enough to warrant play on the MacBook. I think it depends on whatever your own definition of playable is. For me, I don't really care about how good the graphics look necessarily, but as long as it runs smooth. HL2, to put it bluntly, did not. In the end, I had to borrow the brother's Thinkpad to finally play it at a level I was content with.

Eug Wanker · Jun 26, 2006, 12:24 PM

The crash after save is a minor issue, but nothing big enough to stop me from recommending this highly.

Really? To many people that'd be almost a deal-killer. YMMV, I guess.

phillryu · Jun 26, 2006, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Really? To many people that'd be almost a deal-killer. YMMV, I guess.

Well, let me emphasize that the problem is a lot less worse when it's not crashing at every autosave point. (Of which there are many in the game.) After disabling those, I end up saving once every half hour or so at the most, most times after those in-game loading areas, where you're paused for a good 15 seconds anyway.

kaido · Jun 26, 2006, 02:27 PM

I tested HL2 out on my Mini the other day (2ghz Core Duo/2gb ram/7200rpm 100gb hard drive). It ran well at 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1680x1050. I had most of the settings on "low" for 1680x1050, but it still looked good. There was stutter but no lag. I was suprised! Looks good enough to be playable, so I'm happy. I didn't run into any problems after saving, but when I shutdown the computer after playing I got a BSOD. Oh well, it's still Windows after all...

gametime10 · Jun 27, 2006, 12:05 PM

I just downloaded the demo and it was very playable on my Macbook (2ghz, 1gb ram, 120gb hdd). I ran it at 1024x768 w/ medium settings and it looked very good. For the non gaming purist, who simply wants to enjoy the action, this is definitely an option. Unfortunately, the save bug is annoying. Hopefully, they'll fix that soon.

rm199 · Jun 27, 2006, 01:26 PM

Is this a bug related to the graphics driver? I played HL2 from start to finish and EP1 twice without a crash on an imac.

phillryu · Jun 27, 2006, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by rm199

Is this a bug related to the graphics driver? I played HL2 from start to finish and EP1 twice without a crash on an imac.

Yep, has to do with the integrated Intel graphics chip.

andreas_g4 · Jun 29, 2006, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by gametime10

I just downloaded the demo…

Where'd you find it?

gametime10 · Jun 29, 2006, 04:24 PM

I didn't know this before, but apparently, Half-Life 2 won't run w/out a Steam client program. Do a search for "Steam Installer", download it (>1 MB), and then you can download the demo through the client.

ghporter · Jun 29, 2006, 09:03 PM

1) this is not about the MacBook, it's about software.

2) it's also about a piece of WINDOWS software (I can't find any mention of a real Mac version anywhere).

Those mean that this thread doesn't belong here at all. At best it belongs in the Applications forum, and if not there, the Alternative Operatinng Systems forum. I'm leaving this thread here for people to see it, but if you want to discuss something that's not hardware specific to the MacBook or iBook, then discuss it in the proper forum.