Bioshock PC Demo available now.

[Chone]

For anyone interested, the PC Demo can already be obtained through ausgamers.com, many people have already.

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/download/html/30227
and an alternate link
http://chonnom0.filezaru.com/BioShockPCDemo.zip

I'm downloading but at the speed its going right now I'll probably have the full game before the demo http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Anyways, I skimmed through the 2K Forums (trust me, be glad the macrumors community is as great as it is http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/smile.gif) and people are reporting the game is playable at 800x600 with high texture/high models and everything else on medium or off on a 6600GT, since the X1600 is slightly better than it, I'm thinking Bioshock will be just fine at 1024x768 with the same settings on X1600 Macs, especially after applying the ATI bioshock hotfix.

I'll report back with results on my C1D MBP when I get the demo or the full game, whichever comes first.

[Haoshiro]

Nice, I'm downloading and will test on the new 20" iMac with HD 2600.

[Antares]

I'm assuming that I would have to run this in Bootcamp rather than Parallels, right? I have an original CD iMac and am curious to see what results people get with the X1600 256MB. I'm not installing Bootcamp until Leopard comes out....so, I'll have to wait a bit to try it myself.

[sikkinixx]

the demo is up on Steam too for the HL2 players around here.

Slow for me.... only 90kbps so looking at about 5 hr download :(

[Tommy Tallarico]

Plays well on high settings at 1280x768 on a new 24" iMac, other than there being no floor textures. It makes it unplayable, but it's a driver issue that'll be fixed in time. ATI has put out a hotfix, but it doesn't work under Boot Camp.

[contoursvt]

Just tried it on a C2D 2.4Ghz processor and 7950GT 512MB card and at 1024x768 with everything on high, its fluid and looks really nice. I went to 1600x1200 on high and visually stunning and still playable but I'd say my framerates are in the mid 20's so even though its playable, I would probably step down to 1280x960 - I'm on a CRT so no issues with scaling.

Anyway even at 1024, the game is very nice. Pretty freaking scary too!

[Cheesecake]

Just finished playing on a Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33, X1600 256MB with 2 gigs of RAM. Ran it really well, with a few hiccups here and there. Been messing around with the settings and eventually i'll get it just right. Presentation was stunning, even with some of the settings lowered. Of course, they suggest installing newer drivers for maximum performance but until Apple sends another set of their own drivers in boot camp the ones I have now will have to do.

[Chone]

Just finished playing on a Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33, X1600 256MB with 2 gigs of RAM. Ran it really well, with a few hiccups here and there. Been messing around with the settings and eventually i'll get it just right. Presentation was stunning, even with some of the settings lowered. Of course, they suggest installing newer drivers for maximum performance but until Apple sends another set of their own drivers in boot camp the ones I have now will have to do.

You DO know that you can upgrade drivers regardless don't you?

Anyways, what is your resolution and settings?

[Cheesecake]

You DO know that you can upgrade drivers regardless don't you?

Anyways, what is your resolution and settings?

Yeah, I do. But the Omega drivers were always funky and made a bunch of stuff in Source look shiny that wasn't supposed to be shiny. And I can never get the Catalyst drivers to install, it always says my machine isn't able to install them.

I'll grab some screens and post the specs I used in a few.

[e12a]

i ran it on a same specced Macbook Pro as the user above, but my game is running like poo. Its too choppy to play (mouse lags) and it crashes randomly...maybe its cause of Vista Ultimate :rolleyes:. 1074x768 or whatever resolution, everything on high. Game crashes when i try to apply video changes. (i.e. Vert Sync off, Med. textures, etc.).

Still on the 1.3 Video drivers, dont know how to force the install of different ones. (downloaded 1.4 image already but burned it yet).

[Cheesecake]

i ran it on a same specced Macbook Pro as the user above, but my game is running like poo. Its too choppy to play (mouse lags) and it crashes randomly...maybe its cause of Vista Ultimate :rolleyes:. 1074x768 or whatever resolution, everything on high. Game crashes when i try to apply video changes. (i.e. Vert Sync off, Med. textures, etc.).

Still on the 1.3 Video drivers, dont know how to force the install of different ones. (downloaded 1.4 image already but burned it yet).

I'm running Windows XP with the 1.4 drivers. They seem to make quite the difference.

[Dagless]

Colour me unimpressed. Just played a big chunk of the demo, took overnight to download. It's all cinematic and that, but I just didn't find it fun. It felt like Prey 2 right down to plastic-wrap textures.
Mouse lagged but the FPS didn't, it played very smoothly in Low graphics mode. 360 controller lagged too.

I was after another good PC FPS too :o

[JackAxe]

I downloaded it knowing I wasn't even at the entry level and it loaded.... Then I was clipping frame hell with some fire. I saw lots of displacement maps for what was probably supposed to be my water trail. :o

Oh, the part with the hand holding the cigarette behind the seat looked nice, but after that it was graphic chaos.

I'm going to my friends this weekend to play it on his spare PC. That should hold me until I upgrade my current PC.

<]=)

[JackAxe]

Colour me unimpressed. Just played a big chunk of the demo, took overnight to download. It's all cinematic and that, but I just didn't find it fun. It felt like Prey 2 right down to plastic-wrap textures.
Mouse lagged but the FPS didn't, it played very smoothly in Low graphics mode. 360 controller lagged too.

I was after another good PC FPS too :o

I hate plastic wrap textures. It's been my biggest gripe about 3D renders etc...

I'm going to give this game a chance. They wronged me with SS2, but I feel that this one will have the magic back, since they're centering the story around one person.

The first Shock had very little cinematic scenes. You wake up 6 months after being in a coma and everyone is gone. :)

<]=)

[jmilliron]

Got the demo from Steam this morning and played for about an hour.

Medium settings, 1440x900, FPS drop down to ~25 during fights (fraps). I'll have to play around with the settings and figure out what works best. MacBook Pro, 2.2ghz, 2gb ram and Nvidia 8600M GT.

[gloss]

Colour me unimpressed. Just played a big chunk of the demo, took overnight to download. It's all cinematic and that, but I just didn't find it fun. It felt like Prey 2 right down to plastic-wrap textures.
Mouse lagged but the FPS didn't, it played very smoothly in Low graphics mode. 360 controller lagged too.

I was after another good PC FPS too :o

I dunno, Jimmi. I played it on the 360, but I really didn't see much plastic texturing - if anything, I was impressed at how natural some of the shader effects looked. I guess the goo and gore is a bit rubbery.

I hear things open up majorly after the demo section - you have to keep in mind that in the main game that bit of the stage serves as a tutorial, and so the player is kept on a tighter leash than elsewhere.

[Haoshiro]

I dunno, Jimmi. I played it on the 360, but I really didn't see much plastic texturing - if anything, I was impressed at how natural some of the shader effects looked. I guess the goo and gore is a bit rubbery.

I hear things open up majorly after the demo section - you have to keep in mind that in the main game that bit of the stage serves as a tutorial, and so the player is kept on a tighter leash than elsewhere.

I haven't played yet (still downloading), but I've watched lots of the HD video content.

I really don't see much plastic wrapping at all. Most of it looks really good/natural - especially on the characters.

Of course, some his complaints might just be that when you put a water shader over something, it might look lik plastic at first glance. Could very well be that it's just a lot of stuff being wet.

[Dagless]

Must be my computer, them big drill/hand things had strange blobs of green on their helmet. They're supposed to be lights... right?

[takao]

while totally awesome anybody read about the the widescreen bioshock cropping ... guess there goes any chance of being perfect

[gloss]

Must be my computer, them big drill/hand things had strange blobs of green on their helmet. They're supposed to be lights... right?

Should look like:

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/707/707568/bioshock-20060510075837275-000.jpg

[dubbz]

while totally awesome anybody read about the the widescreen bioshock cropping ... guess there goes any chance of being perfect

Ye. I'm no fan of cropping like that, so it was a bit disappointing. Doesn't seem to be possible to adjust the FOV either, so hopefully it will be changed in a patch.

Someone made a nice animation (http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=118799&postcount=193) that kinda explain what's going on.

[Cheesecake]

System: Macbook Pro, Core 2 Duo 2.33, X1600 256MB, 2 GB Ram, running Windows XP service pack 2 with Bootcamp 1.4 drivers.

Demo ran via steam. Demo settings were at max, 1440x900. Frame Rate was playable in most areas.

Images linked to preserve resolution.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7591/bioshock1iw2.jpg
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7982/bioshock2zo1.jpg
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/76/bioshock3ef8.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4444/bioshock4wl1.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5169/bioshock5aj8.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/2290/bioshock6bw1.jpg

[Dagless]

Should look like:

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/707/707568/bioshock-20060510075837275-000.jpg

hah, well that's close. but on mine they were just round circles on it's head. no glow or anything fancy like that.

Movement felt cumbersome too, mouse aiming was cack and the 360 controller had some kind of mad acceleration going on.

[PinkZeppelin]

Anyone else having trouble installing drivers for 8600m gt? I tried and it says unable to find devices. For those with 8600m what did you guys do?

[Vidd]

Could anyone provide some good comparison between the iMacs for running this game?
I'm so excited about this game that I actually have pre-ordered the limited edition set before getting the Mac to run it!

[franky4fingers]

System: Macbook Pro, Core 2 Duo 2.33, X1600 256MB, 2 GB Ram, running Windows XP service pack 2 with Bootcamp 1.4 drivers.

Demo ran via steam. Demo settings were at max, 1440x900. Frame Rate was playable in most areas.

Images linked to preserve resolution.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7591/bioshock1iw2.jpg
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7982/bioshock2zo1.jpg
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/76/bioshock3ef8.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4444/bioshock4wl1.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5169/bioshock5aj8.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/2290/bioshock6bw1.jpg


thanks for the pics cheesecake :)
Can anyone report on how well it is running on a MBP 2,2 with Bootcamp 1.4 drivers?
What job does the MBP do while interpolating from 1440x... to 1280x700

[nebulight]

Plays well on high settings at 1280x768 on a new 24" iMac, other than there being no floor textures. It makes it unplayable, but it's a driver issue that'll be fixed in time. ATI has put out a hotfix, but it doesn't work under Boot Camp.

This is really pissing me off. I just installed Vista so I could get the DX10 stuff in this game, and I can't see crap, half of the textures are all black. Anyone have a work around for this, I've tried installing them manually, but no go.

[PinkZeppelin]

Bought the game and installed on vista ultimate. I'm having an issue with the game stop working after the intro video. Just a blank screen with no sound. Running on a MBP 2.2 8600mgt 128mb.

[nebulight]

EDIT Now it crashes when I go down into the city and watch that intro video.

[dubbz]

Anyone else having trouble installing drivers for 8600m gt? I tried and it says unable to find devices. For those with 8600m what did you guys do?

The standard ForceWare package doesn't include support for mobile graphics (eg, the 8600m).


Edit: Some nice souls have repackaged them with mobile support (http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/). Might be worth a try.

[PinkZeppelin]

Thanks dubbz for the link. Downloading drivers and ill see what happens. It seems that the nvidia cards are not working but the ati are fine. I have the same problem nebulight. I start a new game and it plays that intro film and crashes soon after.

[Haoshiro]

Alright, I ran the BioShock PC Demo on the new iMac (20") with HD 2600. I only have 1GB RAM atm.

Running Windows XP Home with Boot Camp 1.4 drivers (Catalyst drivers from ATI do not work properly on the new iMacs)

All in all it felt very playable at the default settings of:

Resolution: 1024x768

Graphics Quality - High
Actor Detail - High
Texture Detail - High

Windowed Mode - OFF
Vertical Sync - ON
Shadow Maps - ON
High Detail Post Processing - ON
High Detail Shaders - ON
Real Time Reflection - ON
Distortion - ON
Force Global Lighting - OFF
DirectX 10 Detail Surfaces - OFF (Disabled)

Min: 15
Max: 52
Average: 26

I then took the settings down to Medium which seemed much more stable but still looked great.

On this I was able to get:

Min: 17
Max: 59
Average: 30

[Vidd]

Was it resizing the image to fill the screen?
I've heard of games just filling the pixels its supposed to but I'm not sure how that works.

[TheStranger55]

Ok I have a macbook pro santa rosa with the Nvidia geforce 8600m gt, I bought the game and it would crash after the intro finished showing only a black screen.

I called tech support and after doing all their suggestions (They don't care if you are running it on a mac as long as you are using windows and have the requirements) and they told me it was probably a driver problem and I should download the forceware beta drivers.

I'm not sure the forceware beta drivers are for mobile gpus but I'll give it a go now.

They did tell me that they didn't test the game on a mac yet, but they don't think that was the problem and was willing to give me more tech support since I meet the requirements.

[nebulight]

Thanks dubbz for the link. Downloading drivers and ill see what happens. It seems that the nvidia cards are not working but the ati are fine. I have the same problem nebulight. I start a new game and it plays that intro film and crashes soon after.

Well, I can actually get into the game and move around, but I get to a point in the game were I go down an elivator and I view a video that is projected inside, but if I dont' look at it, it won't crash. But the minute I turn around and look, it crashes. I've tried 7.7 drivers, 7.8, and the hotfix drivers. The hotfix comes close everything looks great, but it will crash during that video in the elivator. All the other drivers, I have black textures. GRRR, I've been at it for about 4 hours now. This is all with Vista, I might put XP back on and screw the DX10 addons.

[dubbz]

Was it resizing the image to fill the screen?

If you mean the widescreen thing; It cuts away the top and bottom part of the screen then zooms it so it fills the screen. You basically loose some good chunks of the picture.



As for Vista and NVIDIA. Their Vista driver history hasn't exactly been something to be proud of, especially for their 8xxx series, so anyone running that combo might want to consider "down"grading to XP - if possible.

[TheStranger55]

Bought the game and installed on vista ultimate. I'm having an issue with the game stop working after the intro video. Just a blank screen with no sound. Running on a MBP 2.2 8600mgt 128mb.

I have the same computer and the same problem as you and I downloaded the drivers that dubbz recommended. Now the game works.

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/

[nebulight]

Possible Vista DX10 iMac 2600 Pro Fix

If you go to the start menu and go to Games on the top right part of the start menu, then right click on Bioshock Icon and click Play - DirectX9, that fixed my issue in Vista with the Bootcamp 1.4 ATI driver so far. It doesn't lock up at the video anymore, but I haven't tried much else, because I thought I'd post to let you guys know.

[PinkZeppelin]

Well after updating the drivers from laptop2go, the game works great. Haven't played around with the video settings yet but its seems playable at 1280x720 at medium settings. What setting are you guys on and is there a way to view your fps?

[dubbz]

Well after updating the drivers from laptop2go, the game works great. Haven't played around with the video settings yet but its seems playable at 1280x720 at medium settings. What setting are you guys on and is there a way to view your fps?

No in-game framerate display, as far as I know...

But FRAPS (http://fraps.com/) can display your framerate (it should be fairly accurate, but no guarantees). Plus you get some limited recording abilities in the free version ;)

[Chone]

Well after updating the drivers from laptop2go, the game works great. Haven't played around with the video settings yet but its seems playable at 1280x720 at medium settings. What setting are you guys on and is there a way to view your fps?

Use FRAPS.

I downloaded the demo overnight but it crapped out at around 1GB for some reason, with my connection, I think I'll just wait for the full game.

For ATI Mobility users wishing to install 7.8 and the hotfix, this might help http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/. Catalyst install just fine on my first gen MBP but possibly some users are having problems.

[tbmx]

I'll post when I get home with more specific performance but it looked great this morning with the demo on my Mac Pro 2.66ghz 3gb ram, x1900 @ 1680x1050 at high detail under XP. I picked up the full game and will be installing tonight.

[sikkinixx]

all i know is on my mbp 2.2 ghz it was running max everything, 1440x900 at a fairly okay framerate, dipped a bit, but kept freezing after the elevator stops :(

that and my laptop fans are running so hard it sounds like it is going to explode.

[JackAxe]

Does Bootcamp emulate EAX audio?

You people and your game performance comparisons. :p I'll play this game at the lowest rez and settings if needed, which I can do for a $35 upgrade.

<]=)

[apfhex]

I can't get the demo to run. At all. "Windows cannot access the specified file." Plus AVG tells me there's a trojan (Generic6.UMS) in the EXE (disabling AVG does no good either though). I downloaded it from two different (non-suspicious) sources and same results.

[Tommy Tallarico]

Possible Vista DX10 iMac 2600 Pro Fix

If you go to the start menu and go to Games on the top right part of the start menu, then right click on Bioshock Icon and click Play - DirectX9, that fixed my issue in Vista with the Bootcamp 1.4 ATI driver so far. It doesn't lock up at the video anymore, but I haven't tried much else, because I thought I'd post to let you guys know.Thank you! I can't believe I never thought to try that.

All the textures load fine and it runs at 30+ fps at 1280x768 on highest settings. You can bump it up to 1920x1200 for native resolution on the 24", but it drops to about 15 fps. I imagine it's playable at medium settings.I can't get the demo to run. At all. "Windows cannot access the specified file." Plus AVG tells me there's a trojan (Generic6.UMS) in the EXE (disabling AVG does no good either though). I downloaded it from two different (non-suspicious) sources and same results.I got the trojan warning from AVG too. It's a false positive.

[contoursvt]

Installing the full game now. All 8 gigs of it or what ever...

[sikkinixx]

i am downloading it from steam now (19%!) but after I installed bootcamp 1.4 it seemed to work a lot better.

I was running the demo at 1280x720, high detail/textures/models, everything on but window mode and the last lighting option. It was running quite nicely, a few little dips but thats okay. I can't wait to get into it...only another 4 or 5 hours of downloading left :p

[octavian90]

I have the exact same specs as the MBP above (2.33ghz, 256mb x1600, 2g ram), and I can only run the demo/game at 800x600 on high to achieve decent framerates. 1024 starts lagging, and 1400 is very stuttery. I overclocked the x1600 to 480/480.

Any suggestions please? Anyone else experiencing it on MBP's?

[Chone]

I have the exact same specs as the MBP above (2.33ghz, 256mb x1600, 2g ram), and I can only run the demo/game at 800x600 on high to achieve decent framerates. 1024 starts lagging, and 1400 is very stuttery. I overclocked the x1600 to 480/480.

Any suggestions please? Anyone else experiencing it on MBP's?

I'll test with my MBP (same specs as yours except its a Core Duo processor) but also keep the framerate tolerance between people (and game) varies by quite a bit.

For example, I could have sweared Call of Duty 2 was running at around 30fps or so because it was smooth and playable to me but then I turned on FRAPS and turns out I've been playing at 15FPS :p but COD2 is the only game that I can play at that rate, most other games I can play at 25-30 FPS just fine as long as there are not massive fluctuations (such as 30 to 7, even if its a split second, its bothersome).

Just a heads up, its better to compare performance numbers to numbers, what may feel "smooth and playable" to someone might feel "slow and unplayable" to you.

[apfhex]

I got the trojan warning from AVG too. It's a false positive.
Mmm yeah. I still couldn't get setup.exe to run though. I ended up downloading it a third time — from Steam, which installed it for me and I was finally able to play it. Ran "well" at 1920x1200 with max settings, ran even better at a lower resolution though. Never dropped to an unplayable framerate. Looked VERY good.

[tbmx]

As promised...

2x2.66ghz
3 gigs
Radeon X1900T
1680x1050
Settings on High
Boot Camp 1.4
ATI drivers from 8/13/07
Full game
XP

I did three different tests in some heavy gun fights..

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
7401, 161171, 20, 61, 45.920

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4946, 103247, 33, 61, 47.905

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
3900, 91119, 25, 61, 42.801

[octavian90]

Hey, I agree completely. To me, acceptably smooth would be a constant 25 fps (hovering around there is fine). If the low is 15-20, then it becomes annoying and affects gameplay.

800X600: 25 avg
640X480: 35-40avg
1024X768: ~15avg (playable, but not pleasant and stuttery)

Let me know how your tests go!

By the way, I think the culprit is the junky x1600 that apple left in the MBP revision...if only I'd waited a month fo the geforce cards =(.

[PinkZeppelin]

My SR MBP runs hotter than I would like it. The fans sound really low and I would like to turn them up; I'm using vista ultimate. If I ran warcraft 3 on OSX versus Vista, OSX ran cooler and had its fan around 6k but vista had its much lower. As for FPS on bioshock,
1440x900 12-15 FPS
1280x720 low 20's FPS
1024x768 25-32 fps
Those are on medium settings. Since like it smoother, I'm playing on 1024x768 but it still looks good.

[devious11]

The standard ForceWare package doesn't include support for mobile graphics (eg, the 8600m).


Edit: Some nice souls have repackaged them with mobile support (http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/). Might be worth a try.

I have a macbook pro with 8600m aswell and vista 32. i go to the site and download the drivers but when i run the setup.exe it either says that i'm not running windows or it cannot locate any drivers that are compatible with my hardware. ive tried like 6 different drivers and they are all giving me those messages. which one should i be downloadng specifically?

[devious11]

I have a macbook pro with 8600m aswell and vista 32. i go to the site and download the drivers but when i run the setup.exe it either says that i'm not running windows or it cannot locate any drivers that are compatible with my hardware. ive tried like 6 different drivers and they are all giving me those messages. which one should i be downloadng specifically?

sorry nevermind.. didnt see the modded inf i had to dl.. thought it would already be in there for me

[contoursvt]

Been playing the full version and so far with a Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz on Vista with a 7950GT 512MB I get the following framerates using FRAPS

1024x768 - min 33fps, max 80fps (depends of course...)
1600x1200 - min 18fps, max 44fps

The above is with everything turned to high detail but Vsync is off. I didnt notice too much tearing or graphical issues.

I noticed the min framerates were mostly during the cinematic scenes and max framerates when I was in darker areas of the maps.

I was expecting higher framerates from a 7950GT.... but maybe I'm just expecting too much.

[blaster_boy]

Yesterday evening I played part of the demo on my iMac 24inch, 2.16 CORE2DUO with 2 gig of Ram. Using Bootcamp 1.4.

No framerates, but on the default settings it ran reasonable smoothly. I did upgrade my nvidia drivers to the latest forceware though, as recommended by the game.

[Chone]

I tried the demo today on my MBP (2.16GHz CD, 2GB, 256MB X1600) with a fresh Win Vista 32-bit install. I installed the 7.8 "bioshock hotfix" cats and downloaded ATT (ATI Tray Tools) and overclocked the card to safe 430/430 clockspeeds.

The game is playable at 800x600 with textures and actors on high, high detail post processing is off. I'm not sure why other people get so great rates but that is what I got, doesn't matter much though, I won't be playing Bioshock on my MBP.

I didn't think the graphics were all that great (on the max settings), there are some cool effects here and there (and water looks really great) but the models are weird, lighting is confusing, uneven and unnatural and there is a disparity in the graphics quality among the game, also no AA. Also textures lack detail, thankfully the game doesn't lose any of its atmosphere because of it and the locations are masterfully done. Point is, I've definitely seen better looking games from a technical point of view but Bioshock ranks pretty high up there as far as artistic appeal goes.

As for demo impressions, I honestly expected more out of it, the level presented in the demo was just too linear and the two plasmids and weapons available were not that interesting to use, the only thing cool to do was electrocuting foes in water but that got old like the first time you did it :rolleyes: Also the game was too easy, sure it was fun coaxing enemies into getting into water but its kind of pointless when they do very little damage to you and the wrench disposes of them pretty quickly. I'll def' be playing on Hard.

The real purpose and appeal of the demo is nothing more than providing potential buyers a tool to measure performance and to introduce them to the story of Bioshock and the world of Rapture, the demo lacks as far as gameplay goes, I'm already sold but I can definitely see why some people were fairly unimpressed.

My recommendation is playing the full game before giving your verdict, I'm going to buy it soon and hopefully it will be what I am expecting it to be (great story, great atmosphere and setting and awesome "sandbox-like" combat). I'll definitely be getting because I'm damn interested to see what happens with Rapture and I'm interested in the sandbox-combat system and gameplay, even if the demo fails to show it miserably.

Okay I'll post more thoughts and impressions (probably in a new thread) once I get the full game and finish it (or at least play it quite a bit).

It is 5AM here so its off to sleep for me now :D

[sikkinixx]

Well i loaded up fraps and the full version of Bioshock on my mbp

2.2ghz
2gb ram
128mb 8600m gt
1280x720
everything on high

In busy spots it dips down to about 15-20, still very playable to me but a little slow, just wandering around in any corridors is ~30 fps.

But I turned on "forced global lighting: I don't know what it is but my framerate went up to ~25 fps and 30+ when wandering around...

It doesn't run perfectly smooth, I would love a locked 30fps but I still think it looks better overall than the 360 demo did on my DLP, and being able to play it wherever I want is sweet and mouse+keyboard < stupid weapon select wheel.

[Freyqq]

mbp 2.2 stock

10-15 fps

1440x900, max settings, dx10 enabled

i tried dx9 to see the comparison and oddly enough..dx10 dropped by fps by only 2-3..

[PCMacUser]

The demo runs very well on my PC (listed in my sig), at 1920*1200 with all DX10 features on and all settings at maximum. *smug grin*

I've received the full version of the game, so I'll install it and update this with some actual FPS details for anyone who cares!

[Chone]

The demo runs very well on my PC (listed in my sig), at 1920*1200 with all DX10 features on and all settings at maximum. *smug grin*

I've received the full version of the game, so I'll install it and update this with some actual FPS details for anyone who cares!

We all knew the 8800 had to run this game on max (especially considering the mildly unimpressive graphics) but its still nice to know that if you spend 400 dollars on a card, it WILL run games at max settings.

[ratchetnclank]

Well after updating the drivers from laptop2go, the game works great. Haven't played around with the video settings yet but its seems playable at 1280x720 at medium settings. What setting are you guys on and is there a way to view your fps?

i downloaded the vista 32bit drivers but still got the hardware is not supported message am i doing something wrong?

[gloss]

We all knew the 8800 had to run this game on max (especially considering the mildly unimpressive graphics)

What game are YOU playing?

[PinkZeppelin]

i downloaded the vista 32bit drivers but still got the hardware is not supported message am i doing something wrong?

What I did was download the driver and the modded INF file. The modded INF file is there so you can install them. Theres a guild next to where you download the drivers if you had trouble, I did.
Also, I changed my power settings from better battery to better performance and got around +5-7 FPS, this is on vista. Been playing on 1280x720 high settings and very happy.

[FuzzMunky]

I installed the full game today.

I think I have found the perfect 2.4ghz SR MBP settings.

Using 163.44 drivers with modded INF from laptopvideo2go.

I goto Start Menu, Games. Right Click on Bioshock and run it under DX9.

I run at 1024 x 640 (widescreen)
Vsync is on (not much difference in framerate and now i have no tearing)
All options set to high
All features on except Force Global Lighting (which is a detractor anyway as I understand it)

I use 16x Anisotropic Filtering
and 4x Anti-aliasing.

My framerate is great. Hovers around 30-35 fps.

For some bizarre reason i get more fps with AF and AA on than I do if they are off.

Also, the full version seems to run faster than the demo... so far.

Oh yes, I also select Best Performance in power profile.

I will now try and up the resolution and see whats up with DX10 that causes it to slow even if you disable the DX10 features.

Im frankly amazed that this game is playing on highest settings so smoothly. Very impressed with the hardware.

[frick]

I installed the full game today.

I think I have found the perfect 2.4ghz SR MBP settings.

Using 163.44 drivers with modded INF from laptopvideo2go.

I goto Start Menu, Games. Right Click on Bioshock and run it under DX9.

I run at 1024 x 640 (widescreen)
Vsync is on (not much difference in framerate and now i have no tearing)
All options set to high
All features on except Force Global Lighting (which is a detractor anyway as I understand it)

I use 16x Anisotropic Filtering
and 4x Anti-aliasing.

My framerate is great. Hovers around 30-35 fps.

For some bizarre reason i get more fps with AF and AA on than I do if they are off.


That's because you can't enable AA in bioshock under DX9. You have to run it under DX10.

[bobber205]

How do you guys think it'll run on:

C2D 1.8
256 DDR3 7600gt
2 gigs of RAM

:D

I hoping it'll be somewhat playable. :cool:

[FuzzMunky]

That's because you can't enable AA in bioshock under DX9. You have to run it under DX10.

That sort of explains things but not really.

Just to make clear, the AF works in DX9 (obviously you can tell straight way) but the forced AA doesn't (under Vista DX9). However, I still get a 2 fps bonus when I engage both options. I don't know if this is a glitch, but its bizarre that I can improve the graphics using the AF so much and if I engage AA, I get some fps thrown in. Wierd no?

I have since found out I can run quite happily on 1280x768 with a playable frame rate.

I would recommend to everyone to get the widescreen FOV fix available if you google. I use 0.84/0.82 settings for a 16:10 aspect ratio (like the macbook pro screen). It improves the experience greatly until they fix the issue at 2K.

[ratchetnclank]

What I did was download the driver and the modded INF file. The modded INF file is there so you can install them. Theres a guild next to where you download the drivers if you had trouble, I did.
Also, I changed my power settings from better battery to better performance and got around +5-7 FPS, this is on vista. Been playing on 1280x720 high settings and very happy.

thanks very much it is running very nicely now,you helped me alot.