Graphics Quality

[AlexUK]

Hello all, I'm a long time lurker but regular reader of the forum (36 by the way). Apologies in advance if I have put this thread in the wrong place...

I am running Combat Mission on a MacBook Pro mid 2009, and my graphics are fairly basic. I'm thinking of an upgrade to one of the new iMacs, but I'm not sure what the game will look like. I have seen quite a few videos but I'm not too sure what machine they were taken from. I saw this Youtube video last night and I was blown away by the graphics:

http://youtu.be/xhSRZ7FIp6A

I hope the above link works?

So, I think what I am after is if anybody else has a new iMac could they share a link to a Youtube video showing graphics quality? Any other input would be welcome (I've seen some discussion that running Bootcamp gets a better graphics quality than the native Mac, for example).

I have a great time reading the threads in this forum, but you guys can be pretty hard sometimes, so please go easy on me if I've screwed up!

[umlaut]

Hi Alex

For what it´s worth:

I have tried the CMBN demo on my office iMac - and I think it looks very good. But not noticably better than on my home PC. Mind you, I haven´t done as much fiddling with the in-game graphics settings on the iMac as on the PC, so there might be room for improvement there.

This video for BFC was made on my home PC (but edited on my iMac): http://youtu.be/tnk-eWLr28Y

Cheers

Edit:

I just realised that a video made on my PC of course isn´t much help to you (even though I can tell you that the difference isn´t great). I´ll try to make a short test video on my iMac tomorrow.

[Battlefront.com]

Welcome!

I also have a 2009 MacBook Pro (4GB RAM) and my gameplay looks similar to the video. Not quite as crisp and liquid (why should it be? ), but pretty close.

The best thing to do is make sure you have TimeMachine disabled (if you use it). Any other program that likes to thrash the disk should be disabled. Playing from a fresh boot can help combat various memory related slowdowns. The more hard RAM available to CM, the better.

Now, if you said you were playing CMBN v1.11 I'd say go for the Upgrade 2.0. That does a lot of nice things for us older 'puter users.

Steve

[MikeyD]

The CMFI demo is v2.0 engine with all the fancy shaders if you want to check on graphics quality for CMBN v2.0. I haven't looked, I don't believe there's an upgraded CMBN demo up yet... I just now double-checked, CMFI demo is for both mac and PC. CMBN demo goes up to v1.10.

[Macisle]

I guess it would depend on specs, but over the holidays, I showed a friend the CMBN demo on his macbook (I think that's the name--I'm a PC guy--it looked like a laptop).

His laptop is about 4 months old and IIRC, was something along the lines of a current generation I7, 16 gigs, and a GTX 660/80? M.

Surprisingly, some of the graphic options would not work. IIRC, vert sync, anti-alias, and and high-priority caused crashes. However, having said that, with everything else maxed, it looked GREAT and ran quite smoothly (meaning a nice FR). With the high-resolution of his monitor, it looked as good as mine (specs in sig) even with anti-alias, etc. off, but it had a better frame rate (Argh!).

[poesel]

Just for the record: I usually play on a 2+ years old Macbook Air with 4 Gigs of RAM. It's usually weeks if not months between reboots, TimeMachine is always on and I only get graphic glitches when I have LOTs of other program running simultaneously.

I even ran CMBN and CMSF accidentally together and didn't notice.

No problems to report from the memory front but YMMV.

[Peter Panzer]

AlexUK:

...running Bootcamp gets a better graphics quality than the native Mac...

I transitioned from a PC to a 2012 iMac earlier this month and I can tell you unequivocally the observation above is spot on. I was planning on a Win7/OSX Bootcamp setup anyways so I simply installed my existing copy of CMBN on the Windows side. Presently, you will not see the advantages of antialiasing or ansiotropic filtering if you elect to go with a dedicated OSX install. In fact, attempting to apply the former in Mountain Lion caused the Mac Demos (CMBN and CMFI) to lock up most unpleasantly on my machine.

That said, CMBN/CW/2.0 on the 2012 iMac via a Win7 install looks absolutely amazing and performs as exquisitely as it appears. I have also applied numerous mods and the advanced shaders from the CMFI hotfix resulting in what is, without a doubt, the best Combat Mission experience I have had since discovering CMBO over ten years ago!

While Apple has made strides with the latest iMac, in my opinion, it's still preferable to have a OSX side for work/productivity and a Windows side for gaming. Ultimately, you will have to decide for yourself what balance of visual quality and performance gets you to your happy place. If possible, see if you can try the demo on a PC and experience the difference for yourself.

[umlaut]

Well, I just made a test on my iMac - and sort of came to the opposite conclusion:

The game looks a little better when running on Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.8) than on windows XP via Parallels. But this may be due to the fact that I can not turn antialiasing on in Windows.

The big difference - on my iMac - is that the game runs horribly in Windows. Stuttering is the best word I can come up with at the moment. But I cant tell if this may be due to some settings on my machine.

My advice to you would be: An iMac is a great computer, I can only recommend it. But I don´t think you should make the desicion to buy one solely on it´s capacity to run CM. If you do buy one - and get Bootcamp or Parallels - I recommend you download the demos for both Mac and PC and decide which one looks best.

Cheers

[Placebo]

AlexUK:

I transitioned from a PC to a 2012 iMac earlier this month and I can tell you unequivocally the observation above is spot on. I was planning on a Win7/OSX Bootcamp setup anyways so I simply installed my existing copy of CMBN on the Windows side. Presently, you will not see the advantages of antialiasing or ansiotropic filtering if you elect to go with a dedicated OSX install. In fact, attempting to apply the former in Mountain Lion caused the Mac Demos (CMBN and CMFI) to lock up most unpleasantly on my machine.

That said, CMBN/CW/2.0 on the 2012 iMac via a Win7 install looks absolutely amazing and performs as exquisitely as it appears. I have also applied numerous mods and the advanced shaders from the CMFI hotfix resulting in what is, without a doubt, the best Combat Mission experience I have had since discovering CMBO over ten years ago!

While Apple has made strides with the latest iMac, in my opinion, it's still preferable to have a OSX side for work/productivity and a Windows side for gaming. Ultimately, you will have to decide for yourself what balance of visual quality and performance gets you to your happy place. If possible, see if you can try the demo on a PC and experience the difference for yourself.

Also Apple are using standard PC industry hardware so no reason not to buy an equivalent spec PC with Windows and bypass the Apple brand altogether

[Battlefront.com]

Also Apple are using standard PC industry hardware so no reason not to buy an equivalent spec PC with Windows and bypass the Apple brand altogether

No reason? Well, if you could run the MacOS on any PC then I think you'd have a point The beauty of a Mac has always been, and likely always will be, the OS. Not that Windows hasn't come a long way since it's long history of "plug and pray" engineering. I think most Mac users could actually use Windows 8 without thinking they would prefer death than another hour of computer use, but I do think most would still view Windows as a downgrade.

But as a gaming platform... OSes aren't that important these days and that's where Windows kicks the Mac butt. Less so these days than days of past, but it's still a pretty hard to argue fact that the PC is simply better setup for it. If a PC user gets frustrated with a crappy video card, he has options. Mac users are stuck even if they are using a desktop.

Steve

[Placebo]

If a PC user gets frustrated with a crappy video card, he has options.

True I bought my last PC in 1997 and it as evolved over time into the beast it is today

[AlexUK]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply. Steve/MikeyD, I'm downloading CMFI demo as I write (I have not yet upgraded to v2). Thanks Steve, I've turned everything off and set all the graphics settings to highest, and there is a definite improvement with no real slowdown (I turned shadows off). Umlaut - thanks for the feedback, I have always been a bit scared running Bootcamp in case viruses get in via Windows, I guess I would need to get an antivirus programme too. Peter P, what version of the iMac did you get out of interest?

But... compared to the CMFI video in my first post, there is still a definite difference in quality. If I could point to one thing the trees, and in particular, the wavy branches blowing in the wind. I am getting serious leaf envy here!

I'm guessing this is down to one of three reasons:

1) The graphics quality is not just dependent on what the user selects as quality, it is also dependent on the video card itself (there is some logic behind the scenes that detects certain capabilities/memory of the graphics card and sets the quality accordingly) so if I want wavy branches I am going to have to upgrade.

2) the graphics quality is dependent on the version - I'll need to upgrade to v2 (will soon find out when I fire up the demo)

3) There is a mod for wavy leaves, in which case, can anyone put me out of my misery?!