Gaming w/ 15'' AL PB (Ut 2004)

[dogus1]

I've got a 15'' AL PB and I was hoping to do some gaming, knowing full well that maximum detail would not be an option. I have just starting looking into this, but am wondering how my PB will handle FPS games coming out now/soon to mac, ie. UT2004 and Call of Duty. According to the "recomended" system specs for these games, the 15'' PB goes beyond the needs, but somehow, I don't buy it, considering comperable specs for a PC would leave a 1.25Ghz chip far, far behind -- and while a 64meg Raedon 9600 is good, it's far from cutting edge.

First of all, I'm used to PC land, where I could upgrade my graphics card and monitor drivers, etc -- is that neccesary in Mac land, or do system updates from Apple handle any revisions to my ATI drivers? It was always essential to make sure I had the latest Detonators for my old PC GeForce card ...how do I make sure my GPU is on the best footing with OS X?

Second, how do I adjust my game resolution to fit this 15'' PB "stretch" screen -- of course, the PBs use a wide-screen format, so the usual upping of the resolution doesn't seem to work, and I still have black margins on the side of my game, and it's not like a PC monitor, where I can adjust the properites of the screen with a few knobs.

And specifically for UT 2004, I'm just looking to maximize my frame rate -- I see people say my PB should be up to par, but I'm not feeling it! Maybe mac gamers are used to lower frame rates, but from my perspective, the performance is unacceptable, and I should think that the "recommended" hardware requirments for games should accurately reflect playing the game at least at medium detail.

I just need a Mac gamer bootcamp. I knew this PB wasn't going to be big for gaming, but I'm hoping I can play at least the present generation's games.

[bnemesis]

>First of all, I'm used to PC land, where I could upgrade my graphics card and >monitor drivers, etc -- is that neccesary in Mac land, or do system updates f>rom Apple handle any revisions to my ATI drivers?

Video driver updates are usually included with OS X updates. The update from 10.3.2 to 10.3.3 had new ATI drivers.

>Second, how do I adjust my game resolution to fit this 15'' PB "stretch" >screen -- of course, the PBs use a wide-screen format, so the usual upping >of the resolution doesn't seem to work, and I still have black margins on the >side of my game, and it's not like a PC monitor, where I can adjust the >properites of the screen with a few knobs.

I believe that I saw somebody talking about this. The settings for resolution are in the unreal.ini file. Find the section for available resolutions and add the native size for the powerbook's lcd (somebody correct me if im wrong!)

>And specifically for UT 2004, I'm just looking to maximize my frame rate -- I >see people say my PB should be up to par, but I'm not feeling it! Maybe mac >gamers are used to lower frame rates, but from my perspective, the >performance is unacceptable, and I should think that the "recommended" >hardware requirments for games should accurately reflect playing the game >at least at medium detail.

Are you playing the full version of UT 2004, or the demo? If you are playing the demo, there is a HUGE audio bug. Its fixed in the final version and framerates are reported to be "doubled" as a result. Also, the demo doesnt include final optimizations, or even the optimizations that were made in UT 2003.

[donglenn]

I'm also a switcher, I ordered my PB 15" 1.25GHZ last week and should have it by friday or early next week.. (can't wait!! :mad: )

I did not order the Mac for gaming purposes (I still have my PC for that) however, It would be really nice to be able to play on the mac aswell.. I always thought it would be powerful enough for slow strategy kind-of games, but a FPS games wouldn't hurt.

If anyone's got experiences with gaming on PB's please fill me/us in :)

[ExoticFish]

as being a gamer with a Mac and a PC i can tell you that Mac gamers are used to lower frame rates that PC users. there are some differences though. for me, if i were to play a game at 20 fps, i would rather that be on a Mac than a PC because 20 fps on a Mac has always seemed smoother to me than the same fps on a PC. Not sure why though. but the 15" is the best mobile gaming machine from Apple and to me it is quite able, much better than my 12".

[spencecb]

If you guys are really interested in seeing the performance of your system, go to www.xbench.com and download the X-Bench program. It is a benchmarking tool for Macintosh computers. Make sure all other programs are closed and then run the benchmark...it tests everything on your system, from processor performance to hard disk drive writes....and it will give you the performance of your video card....and for whatever reason, PowerBooks are always lacking when it comes to the video card. I have a brand new 15" 1GHz PowerBook....but a desktop G4 that has a slower processor can almost get twice the frames per second as my PowerBook....so, games on the PowerBook run at lower frame rates, but this computer is much improved from my Titanium PowerBook that I replaced. Just FYI for you guys...hope that helps

[ExoticFish]

what desktop system are you comparing your PB to?? i know my friends dual 1GHz with 1.5 GB RAM and Geforce 4 Ti 4600 get pretty darn good frame rates but is my 12" had a video card comparable it'd do a heck of a lot better as well.

[turbojugend]

I believe that I saw somebody talking about this. The settings for resolution are in the unreal.ini file. Find the section for available resolutions and add the native size for the powerbook's lcd (somebody correct me if im wrong!)
.

You are right. You go from yer typical compromize 800x600 resolution to 1280x854, usually with slightly better fps as a result.

[nargot]

not to sound like a drone, but a mac laptop (any to date) in not a good choice if you want to play your favorite FPS game! It is a downgraded machine as all laptops are, they are not designed for graphic intensive games. If you are after good frame rate just stick to the pc.

[Dont Hurt Me]

G4 isnt a gamers chip, enough said.

[nargot]

G4 isnt a gamers chip, enough said.

i second that.

[danman]

As long as you stick loads of RAM in, this machine plays damn well.
Unreal 2003 now plays really well (yes you do have to drop down on physics, and model and world detail, but it runs at full res at a nonstop decent 30fps+

The key is the RAM.. what is more crippled in a laptop is the hard drive, so any time the machine has to swap in stuff the whole game will grind.

I've got fair fps out of UT2004 aswell, and havent even started fiddlin.

My thought will be that Doom3 will play better than these games aswell, so for me, this machine is going to keep me happy until my next upgrade cycle in a year and a half.

[discoforce]

I got my 15" PB 1.25GHz [1 gig RAM] two weeks ago and it's handled the few demos I've played so far (Indiana Jones & Jedi Academy) just fine. If the full games play better than the demos I'm a happy switcher! :D

Of course my PC is a PII 400MHz w/ a 4MB video card :p

[aethier]

>Call of Duty

you shouldn't have much problems with that, as it is simply yet another game using the Quake 3 engin. Medal of Honor goes fine on my 15inch powerbook with a gig of ram (all settings at the highest). and in that game there is a concole command to make it play with your powerbooks native resolution, you could find it in the spearhead readme.

aethier

[aswitcher]

G4 isnt a gamers chip, enough said.

What about the mythical G5PBs...will they cut it as an ok games machine?

[grabberslasher]

For Unreal (2003, 2004) to change the resolution so that it will fill your 15 inch powerbook screen you must edit the file in

~/Library/Application Support/Unreal 2003/System/UT2003.ini

with TextEdit.

Under the heading [SDLDrv.SDLClient] (about a sixth down the page) change to

FullscreenViewportX=1280
FullscreenViewportY=854

Or whatever resolution you want.

The same process for UT2004.ini or the original UT.ini for the original Unreal Tournament (in the Unreal/System Folder)