AoE 3 on a Rev. A MacBook (rant)

[wctaiwan]

This is just a rant, so if you don't have too much time on your hands you probably wouldn't want to take the time to read...

I have a Rev. A MacBook, which has Intel GMA950 built-in graphics. It's awesome, BUT... Age of Empires 3 looks plain ugly on it. >_<

I got the MacBook during June last year, prior to that I had access to a PC with ATi Radeon 9200SE graphics. While I still used the PC, I downloaded the trial version of AoE 3 and played it. I thought, wow, beautiful. It was a fun game too. So after I got my Mac, I waited for the release of a Mac version of the game, which I got after it came out.

Now, I have been playing it happily for a few months, and while it doesn't look gorgeous, I accepted that as a natural problem with playing the game on a laptop with integrated graphics. The game runs quite snappily too, especially with my new 2GB RAM and all. I was almost content, until I saw this image...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AOE3-comparison-1.jpg

The image demonstrates the difference between the different graphics quality settings of AoE, the left side also happens to be the best it can look on a Mac with GMA950. It's just kind of frustrating to see how nice the game can actually look, and to see how poor it looks on my screen.

Oh well. Everyone including me knew integrated graphics aren't designed for gaming, so I guess I'll just have to accept the ugliness. </rant>

wctaiwan

[irishgrizzly]

I don't see such a huge difference – take away the bloom type effects and the water effects and they wouldn't be that different. Anyway it's an RTS, do you need effects up to 11?!

[jackshiels]

To be honest I have an iMac 1.83 with a radeon X1600 and 1.5 gigs of ram and I still can't run it on full settings. You need a powerhouse to play it as shown in the comparison!

[Beric]

I play AoE3 on my Macbook, and other family members play it on an iMac. While there is a huge difference, you really don't notice it after a while. I actually like AoK (AoE2) more, because it focuses on the gameplay, instead of "graphics...graphics...graphics, oh! did you want gameplay?" like in AoE3.

So anyway, AoK graphics are a huge step down from AoE3, but when you're playing an RTS, you care about the gameplay, and that's where AoK really shines. Simple enough for newbies and huge depth, mods, and scenarios for experts. And custom AI's too.

I don't hate AoE3 at all, but I'd prefer to spend time playing AoE2, a game that works on top settings on any system for only $30 for all XP's.

[riestra821]

i'm trying to play Age of empires III on my macbook, but i don't have a mouse. is it possible to play without a mouse? i figured out how to move units, but i can't figure out how to get the villagers to harvest stuff.

[marclapierre13]

My Legions!
My AoE 3 works great, ever though people wine and moan about it on the new 2.2GHZ MBPs. I had 1 problem once, where the colours went wonky, but thats it, after over 30 hours of playing, maybe 2 minutes problem?

[Dukal]

i'm trying to play Age of empires III on my macbook, but i don't have a mouse. is it possible to play without a mouse? i figured out how to move units, but i can't figure out how to get the villagers to harvest stuff.

this is clearly months too late, but...
if you go to the preferences under mouses (i think), you will be able to make the touchpad have a right click by boxing the "two fingers on trackpad and click for secondary click." This way, you can move units with the "right click" and set workers to certain harvesting tasks

[Beric]

this is clearly months too late, but...
if you go to the preferences under mouses (i think), you will be able to make the touchpad have a right click by boxing the "two fingers on trackpad and click for secondary click." This way, you can move units with the "right click" and set workers to certain harvesting tasks

However, it's ineffective, slow, and mistake-prone. Definitely not recommended.

[Dukal]

However, it's ineffective, slow, and mistake-prone. Definitely not recommended.

very true...which is why I use a two-button mouse :p

[Sweep'n Streets]

i'm trying to play Age of empires III on my macbook, but i don't have a mouse. is it possible to play without a mouse? i figured out how to move units, but i can't figure out how to get the villagers to harvest stuff.

Hold down the control key while you click. That emulates a right-click.