System specs for Macs could be lowered

[Kravell]

Originally posted by Me. 262:

I am running the demo on an original iMac G3 233mhz with upgraded video card and maxed out memory upgrade.

Hi, I also have an original iMac with an upgraded video card ( voodoo2 8 mb) but i didn't manage to run the demo.

Are you using particulars extensions to get it working?

[Hoopenfaust2]

I'm running an iMac G4 800mhz with 32MB nvidia and I get a little bit of dithering. Mostly on the AFV's sides and roadwheels. Could be the fact that I can only have 1024 x 768 as my highest resolution.

My iMac SE DV with 8MB of VRAM is running the game perfectly. Its a little slower on the number crunching and the graphics are dithered like CMBO, but you can look around the battlefield without skips or jumps.

I think Berli has the same iMac as myself and I 'm wondering if heez getting any dithering at all on his graphics. I'm comparing these to the screenshots we've all seen.

My ibook runs it exactly like the iMac SE DV.

[ September 03, 2002, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: Hoopenfaust 101 ]

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

iMac, 333MHz G3, 288MB RAM, Rage Pro 8MB, 9.2.1

Just updating...after my initial success in running the tutorial scenario, I tried Citadel. It ran very jerky in scrolling and movie playback but lowering the terrain detail (shift+N, I think) helped A LOT, and I was able to play the scenario without any problem (ableit without terribly impressing graphics).

-Andrew

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by Mirage2k:

iMac, 333MHz G3, 288MB RAM, Rage Pro 8MB, 9.2.1

Just updating...after my initial success in running the tutorial scenario, I tried Citadel. It ran very jerky in scrolling and movie playback but lowering the terrain detail (shift+N, I think) helped A LOT, and I was able to play the scenario without any problem (ableit without terribly impressing graphics).

-Andrew

333mhz iMac with an 8mb Rage Pro?

The 333mhz iMac (Rev D. "5 flavors") has a 6mb Rage Pro card.

Are you sure you don't have a 350mhz "slot loader" iMac? They had the 8mb card.

Sorry for the Mac-grog attack.

Gyrene

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

Originally posted by Gyrene:

333mhz iMac with an 8mb Rage Pro?

The 333mhz iMac (Rev D. "5 flavors") has a 6mb Rage Pro card.

Whoops, sorry. I definitely meant 6MB. It was a rush post. That'll teach me to not forget to preview...

-Andrew

[busboy]

I think you're gonna have studder problems with CM if you have anything less than a 16 meg card.

After graphics cards, I'd guess processor speed is the most important for visual performance, unlike WW2OLor a similar realtime game, CM doesn't require massive amounts of RAM.

My current system is a G4 466 Mhz, 32 meg NVIDIA, and 512 RAM. It plays CM and the demo here fine and dandy.

My OLD mac, a G3 350 Mhz, 194 RAM, no graphics card could run origional CM very well, though the graphics looked like chipped vomit on toast. If you got a "maxed out" map, that is, random map with hills, buildings, lots of trees, tons of units, ect, THEN it would run in a slideshow. But even then it seemed like the slideshow was only in map movement, not unit movement.

[karch]

Originally posted by busboy:

..........My OLD mac, a G3 350 Mhz, 194 RAM, no graphics card could run origional CM very well, though the graphics looked like chipped vomit on toast. If you got a "maxed out" map, that is, random map with hills, buildings, lots of trees, tons of units, ect, THEN it would run in a slideshow. But even then it seemed like the slideshow was only in map movement, not unit movement.

Your iMac may not have had a PCI or AGP graphics card, but it did have 6-8MB or VRAM and an ATI chip. Saying it has no graphics card is misleading. If that's a slot loading model, then I don't know what you're talking about with the graphics quality. It looked fine to me, it just couldn't handle high res graphics. Not enough VRAM to load into. I also disagree with you that even though it gets really slow with lots of objects, smoke etc, but everything is moving with each frame redraw.

[Berlichtingen]

Originally posted by busboy:

I think you're gonna have studder problems with CM if you have anything less than a 16 meg card.

Nope. Only studder I get with my 8mb card is with one particular operation... and that one studders with a 32mb card

[Makes The Jelly Judder]

I think you're gonna have studder problems with CM if you have anything less than a 16 meg card.

It's a bit hard to tell at the moment, but I'm starting to think the performance of CMBB on my old iBook is better than CMBO. I have never had any stuter problems in either large or small maps, just very long turn processing times. The downsampling seems pretty drastic in places but minor in others. For example the little Russian stars for the hidden infantry seem to be made of only 8 pixels but the actual 3d models and textures look fine.

[grunt_GI]

Could any of you lucky pre-order gurus help us older iMac owners out with a lowdown on how the full CMBB game works on Macs with less than 16MB of Vram? I know the demo worked okay on my 8MB Vram iMac at 800x600, but how does the full game work, especially the Large and/or Huge scenarios? I can't afford a new machine for a while and before I buy CMBB, I would like a real players assessment of how it works. I have an iMac DV 400Mhz, with the Rage 128 w/8MB Vram. I understand if the graphics are dithered a little, that's not a big thing (I still play CMBO on a PB1400CS with G3 card and only 1MB of Vram and it dithers everything) but if the game doesn't load or crashes, then I guess I'll have to wait to buy it

Any advice an Imac owner could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Andreas]

grunt_gi - at a preview at my place the then Beta ran absolutely fine on an iMac 333 w/8MB graphics. No crashing, nothing. Ran in 800x600 or somefink like that methinks, but absolutely no problem. You will have trouble with high tree densities on medium maps upwards I should think (gets a bit jerky), but not in actually running the game, and running small-medium scenarios.

Which, to be honest, are still the best. I don't know why so many people think that every CMBB battle has to be a Prokhorovka re-enactment...

[Michael Emrys]

I do notice that the grass in Citadel has kind of a downsampled look to it up close from my 32MB card.

Michael

[grunt_GI]

Andreas, thanks very much..I take when you talk about tree densities, the graphics are dithered or something and just don't look as nice...if that's the case I guess I will be okay...I agree small to medium scearios are best..I am kinda impatient with the number crunching needed for large or huge...and it's a lot of map to navigate too...I assume you can manually turn the graphics quality down if needed...did the beta have that?

Thanks

[Berlichtingen]

Originally posted by grunt_GI:

Andreas, thanks very much..I take when you talk about tree densities, the graphics are dithered or something and just don't look as nice...if that's the case I guess I will be okay...I agree small to medium scearios are best..I am kinda impatient with the number crunching needed for large or huge...and it's a lot of map to navigate too...I assume you can manually turn the graphics quality down if needed...did the beta have that?

Thanks

Shift T and Shift N

Both change the density of Trees/Doodads. That really helps out on large maps

[Andreas]

What you can do is manually adjust the density of trees and doodads, also reduce smoke to fast, buildings non-transparent, that kind of stuff. Apart from that, the game downsamples automatically to adjust to your graphics memory. I get 2 downsamples for my 16MB ATI card, at 1054x768 resolution. At 800x600 I get one, I think. I checked that in the beta error codes, so I have no idea if you can check it in the full game somewhere.

[Ales Dvorak]

[ September 21, 2002, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: Ales Dvorak ]