Blizzard Launches Free Open Beta Weekend for Diablo III

imolared · Apr 23, 2012

iSayuSay said:
I'm not exactly a n00b on Diablo .. but I never play it on a Mac before. Some questions then,

2.) And are we eligible to install Diablo III on both Bootcamp and OSX, or do we need 2 licenses for that?

You can install on as much computer as you want as the license is tied to your Battle.net account which is what you need to sign on to before you play the game.

I have already downloaded the installer for both Windows and MAC clients on my Macbook Pro and Windows 7 home desktop, I signed up for WOW annual subscription last year and the client is has been available for download for awhile now on my Battle.net account page.

foodog · Apr 23, 2012

OrangeSVTguy said:
This is awesome. Downloading it now. I haven't played Diablo since the original. I still play the PSX version on my Mac via emulation every now and then.

I don't really game but this I may get into.

Griswold's is still there but its a little run down

----------

xizar said:
I've dabbled a very little with all the classes, and they're a lot more fun than I thought I would be, with the exception of the wizard who feels a lot less fun than I thought she'd be.

I found the wizard to be fun after you level up a bit.... HEAVY use of the shirft key and RUNNING away seem to be the key to surviving. Being a wizard with a group of fighters in front of you would make so good game play for all. For getting in and kicking butt fast the Monk rocks more that I thought it would.

Shivetya · Apr 23, 2012

After having played the game a few times solo and with friends I am not really feeling the need to rush out and buy this game. I guess having not played D2 for so long that what I remembered is not what I feel when playing this game.

That and the fear I will need a connection to FUNCTIONING servers just to play the game solo at home.

illitrate23 · Apr 23, 2012

robertosh said:
great game, i'll buy it, impressive. The only "but" that i have it's that has some much "cartoonish" graphics in some spaces (f.e, in the cathedral) and it is less darker than its predecessors

From what i read on the wiki page I think, the first two acts in the game have a lighter colours and graphics, and the last two are darker and grimmer, to reflect as the story progresses and the outlook gets worse.

Shivetya said:
That and the fear I will need a connection to FUNCTIONING servers just to play the game solo at home.

Well, that was the point of this weekend's tests, afterall, was to give them an indication of the type of stress their servers are going to be under once the game is released, and to make the necessary changes to accommodate.

jterp7 · Apr 23, 2012

illitrate23 said:
From what i read on the wiki page I think, the first two acts in the game have a lighter colours and graphics, and the last two are darker and grimmer, to reflect as the story progresses and the outlook gets worse.

Well, that was the point of this weekend's tests, afterall, was to give them an indication of the type of stress their servers are going to be under once the game is released, and to make the necessary changes to accommodate.

I remember when D2 was released the servers were similarly hammered for quite a bit until the initial hype died down. What's worse is playing single player and dying from silly lag issues. Considering how it plays on my gaming pc this will probably freeze on my 13 air connected to a TB. I'll say it probably really is only playable on the imac and top end 15 pros if you want 1440p and high resolution.

edenwaith · Apr 23, 2012

Lightfootadv said:
(Joined just to say this) If you notice the system requirements are higher for a Mac than a PC. Like many newer Mac games, the Mac version might be using some variation of wire or cider. The Mac version might just be an emulated PC version. Torchlight is a good example. So the Mac version might require a more powerful computer to play the game as well as a weaker PC.

Blizzard has a good track record in designing a proper Mac version of their games. However, I did find it interesting that the D3 loader appears to have been written using the cross platform toolkit Qt, so it certainly is possible that Blizzard has been using Qt to try and make D3 a little more portable, when possible.

illitrate23 · Apr 23, 2012

jterp7 said:
I'll say it probably really is only playable on the imac and top end 15 pros if you want 1440p and high resolution.

well i only noticed one time when everything slowed down badly on my mba11 (late 2010) during the whole weekend. And that was with just the anti-aliasing switched off and the Low FX enabled. The rest of the time it was perfectly playable, I was really surprised as i was expecting it to be terrible. I think Blizzard have done a good job getting the game to perform well on older and slower machines.

aeryk71 · Apr 23, 2012

illitrate23 said:
well i only noticed one time when everything slowed down badly on my mba11 (late 2010) during the whole weekend. And that was with just the anti-aliasing switched off and the Low FX enabled. The rest of the time it was perfectly playable, I was really surprised as i was expecting it to be terrible. I think Blizzard have done a good job getting the game to perform well on older and slower machines.

I'm running on an almost 6 year old Mac Pro with a geforce 8800...

Runs great at 1920x1080 with an average of 23-35 FPS... Newer would be better of course, but they did tune it to run on older machines.

sjmadsen · Apr 23, 2012

I'm running a 2008 Mac Pro with the original ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT. Performance with the default settings was fine, but the resolution isn't ideal for the 23" display, and text was a little fuzzy. The default settings also had all of the effects off or at their lowest settings.

Burning question: how much better will the visuals be if I buy the ATI Radeon HD 5770 upgrade kit?

malman89 · Apr 23, 2012

Shivetya said:
That and the fear I will need a connection to FUNCTIONING servers just to play the game solo at home.

It's a stress test. Everyone in the world was trying to log on at the same time (except Korea and a few random Asian countries). The only other time the servers should be that bombarded is launch day. Now there's a whole month to optimize or beef up the servers. It'll be fine come launch.

aeryk71 said:
I'm running on an almost 6 year old Mac Pro with a geforce 8800...

Runs great at 1920x1080 with an average of 23-35 FPS... Newer would be better of course, but they did tune it to run on older machines.

Sounds borderline playable. If you get into an intense fight, I'd fear a lag death. Blizzard has always been supportive of lesser machines, but can't please everyone in this day and age of gaming.

jterp7 · Apr 23, 2012

malman89 said:
It's a stress test. Everyone in the world was trying to log on at the same time (except Korea and a few random Asian countries). The only other time the servers should be that bombarded is launch day. Now there's a whole month to optimize or beef up the servers. It'll be fine come launch.

Sounds borderline playable. If you get into an intense fight, I'd fear a lag death. Blizzard has always been supportive of lesser machines, but can't please everyone in this day and age of gaming.

considering I average 90 at low action and hit probably 40s with intense action that is definitely insufficient.

Echoes2331 · Apr 23, 2012

iMac 2007

Firstly, I have to say that I enjoyed beta very much...I'll buy it for sure.

But one thing bugs me...It plays very poorly...my settings:
-Everything to Low/Off, AA Off, Low FX On
-1024 x 640

wtf?

On these settings it plays fine, I think around 50fps...if I increase the resolution a little, it jumps down to around 20fps

My machine:
iMac 20-inch, Mid 2007; 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 4 GB RAM; ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB

I know I reach only minimum system requirements....but...does it have to be that bad!

....or is it something wrong here....

theanimaster · Apr 23, 2012

mactmaster said:
Damn, I should have finished the beta before it went open. Hopefully they'll improve the load handling on the servers so I can continue playing next week.

You missed quite a bit. First they got rid of those stupid "altars" that you needed in order to switch your skills around. Now you can switch your skills around anywhere, with a minimal 'cool down'.

Then they beefed up the Skeleton King. He was pathetic in the first stages of the beta -- easily 'spammed' by any of the four classes. Now he teleports around and gives you a proper ar$e-whooping so you have to keep on your toes.

I've yet to see them nerf the witch doctor. Those zombie dogs still do too much of the work for you IMHO.

As of today (which is Monday morning in the States) the servers seem pretty good! I'm getting all green (latency) -- based here in Thailand. Used to only give me yellow at best.

manPrime · Apr 23, 2012

I thought the beta was really good, it was a bit easy but i know that it was only the first part of act 1 on normal so thats not a complaint.

I thought the monk was going to be bad but tried him out and thought he was pretty bad ass! probably going to start with a monk upon release now. What class's did you guys like?

theanimaster · Apr 23, 2012

sjmadsen said:
I'm running a 2008 Mac Pro with the original ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT. Performance with the default settings was fine, but the resolution isn't ideal for the 23" display, and text was a little fuzzy. The default settings also had all of the effects off or at their lowest settings.

Burning question: how much better will the visuals be if I buy the ATI Radeon HD 5770 upgrade kit?

I found the biggest problem to be my internet connection. You can have all the nice gfx and all but if your connection lags or Blizzard's servers are overloaded, your game experience will seriously be messed up.

And from the looks of it, it still looks better on the PC. My bro says its because DirectX is much better compared to the aging OpenGL engine. I wonder how true that is.

The graphics aren't bad though -- much better than Torchlight overall (gfx and gameplay) IMO : P Which is sad... coz I really wanted to like Torchlight over this (coz I hate how Blizzard forces you to have a top-notch internet connection -- just to play a LOCAL game!!) but TL seems just like Diablo2 with an anime skin (keeping in mind it's made by the original Diablo team).

----------

manPrime said:
I thought the beta was really good, it was a bit easy but i know that it was only the first part of act 1 on normal so thats not a complaint.

I thought the monk was going to be bad but tried him out and thought he was pretty bad ass! probably going to start with a monk upon release now. What class's did you guys like?

I'm loving the Barbarian -- AGAIN. The other guys can cheese their way through a fight, but the Barbarian gets REALLY personal with the undead. He's fun coz you're really just rushing the monsters all the time, but at the same time you have to make sure you can get out of what you get yourself into!!

manPrime · Apr 23, 2012

theanimaster said:
I'm loving the Barbarian -- AGAIN. The other guys can cheese their way through a fight, but the Barbarian gets REALLY personal with the undead. He's fun coz you're really just rushing the monsters all the time, but at the same time you have to make sure you can get out of what you get yourself into!!

Yeah i was torn between the brute force of the barb and the speed of the monk, but I think that both classes would be extremely fun to play. I wasn't a big fan of the ranged classes, gave them all a try but didn't level any past 3.

chrono1081 · Apr 23, 2012

theanimaster said:
And from the looks of it, it still looks better on the PC. My bro says its because DirectX is much better compared to the aging OpenGL engine. I wonder how true that is.

I just wanted to clear this statement up for you (not in a mean way, just general information).

OpenGL and Direct X are not equal. OpenGL is a graphics API, where as DirectX is a bunch of different API's rolled into one. (API = Application Programming Interface, its how you program stuff to talk to hardware).

OpenGL can be compared more directly to Direct3D which is the graphics component of DirectX. Also OpenGL has a newer release than DirectX (unless you count DirectX 11.1 but thats only in Windows 8 beta as far as I know).

Now, as far as graphics capabilities, both are about equal, sometimes one comes out with something the other doesn't have and vice versa. For most applications you'll never see a difference.

OpenGL is used by almost all applications out there. High end 3D packages like Maya and Houdini use OpenGL. OpenGL is prominent on Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

DirectX is Microsoft specific and is used mostly for games. I am familiar with programming for both OpenGL and DirectX and I personally like OpenGL better (from both a programming standpoint and a performance standpoint) but DirectX has its merits too. Sometimes graphics card companies have specific DirectX drivers that help improve performance but its usually negligible.

As for Diablo 3 they looked and played identical for me on both OS's. You may have a different color profile on your monitor on one OS vs the other which is why you'd be seeing a difference.

Sedulous · Apr 23, 2012

I liked the smash-bashy goodness of the barbarian. The 9600M GT on my MBP performed better than I expected. The only thing I had trouble was that the detail sometimes seemed to make it a bit unclear what is background and what was not... almost too much going on. The other thing I didn't try was the blacksmith crafting. I do hope Blizzard includes interesting easter egg levels like the Cow King in D2. I was really into D2 up until the expansion pack (I didn't really care for all the runes and added complexity).

----------

chrono1081 said:
I just wanted to clear this statement up for you (not in a mean way, just general information).

OpenGL and Direct X are not equal. OpenGL is a graphics API, where as DirectX is a bunch of different API's rolled into one. (API = Application Programming Interface, its how you program stuff to talk to hardware).

OpenGL can be compared more directly to Direct3D which is the graphics component of DirectX. Also OpenGL has a newer release than DirectX (unless you count DirectX 11.1 but thats only in Windows 8 beta as far as I know).

Now, as far as graphics capabilities, both are about equal, sometimes one comes out with something the other doesn't have and vice versa. For most applications you'll never see a difference.

OpenGL is used by almost all applications out there. High end 3D packages like Maya and Houdini use OpenGL. OpenGL is prominent on Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

DirectX is Microsoft specific and is used mostly for games. I am familiar with programming for both OpenGL and DirectX and I personally like OpenGL better (from both a programming standpoint and a performance standpoint) but DirectX has its merits too. Sometimes graphics card companies have specific DirectX drivers that help improve performance but its usually negligible.

As for Diablo 3 they looked and played identical for me on both OS's. You may have a different color profile on your monitor on one OS vs the other which is why you'd be seeing a difference.

That, and perhaps the Mac wasn't played at native resolution.

chrono1081 · Apr 23, 2012

Sedulous said:
I liked the smash-bashy goodness of the barbarian. The 9600M GT on my MBP performed better than I expected. The only thing I had trouble was that the detail sometimes seemed to make it a bit unclear what is background and what was not... almost too much going on. The other thing I didn't try was the blacksmith crafting. I do hope Blizzard includes interesting easter egg levels like the Cow King in D2. I was really into D2 up until the expansion pack (I didn't really care for all the runes and added complexity).

----------

That, and perhaps the Mac wasn't played at native resolution.

I was unsure of the blacksmith but after dumping all my money into him he did prove quite useful. I got him to level three and he was making much better armor (for the most part) than I could find on my own.

Also salvaging seems easy enough, although it appears you can only salvage magic items.

There is an aspect of the game I am unclear on, (if anyone can answer I'd greatly appreciate it):

Say I'm a witch doctor and I have my knife and doll, if I equip a sword and a shield does my attack and defense go up even though I'm not physically attacking with the sword but instead attacking with magic?

jterp7 · Apr 23, 2012

chrono1081 said:
I was unsure of the blacksmith but after dumping all my money into him he did prove quite useful. I got him to level three and he was making much better armor (for the most part) than I could find on my own.

Also salvaging seems easy enough, although it appears you can only salvage magic items.

There is an aspect of the game I am unclear on, (if anyone can answer I'd greatly appreciate it):

Say I'm a witch doctor and I have my knife and doll, if I equip a sword and a shield does my attack and defense go up even though I'm not physically attacking with the sword but instead attacking with magic?

if its anything like D2

strength only increases attack for baba
dexterity only increases attack for demon hunter

for your question i would believe the answer is no.

Sedulous · Apr 23, 2012

I am curious if the helper/minion disappears like they did in D2. I always liked the concept but they hobbled whatever interest I had in cultivating a minion because they would disappear after traveling.

praetorian909 · Apr 23, 2012

Sorry if this has been posted, but has anyone tried this on a Mac mini?

I downloaded but I didn't get a chance to try it out. I have the higher-model 2011 Mac mini with discrete graphics. Just curious to see how playable it is.

Hopefully I'll be ready for the next open weekend beta.

illitrate23 · Apr 23, 2012

manPrime said:
What class's did you guys like?

I played as demon hunter mostly. i'm a sucker for dual wielding, and dual wielded crossbows is a no brainer. awesome!
And i tried the monk too - i like the idea of the martial arts attacks. really enjoyed it.
But very much looking forward to trying to other classes in a couple of weeks time

gotluck · Apr 23, 2012

chrono1081 said:
Say I'm a witch doctor and I have my knife and doll, if I equip a sword and a shield does my attack and defense go up even though I'm not physically attacking with the sword but instead attacking with magic?

From what I understand, yes. Spells are dependent on weapon damage and this is a change from D2. A 2 handed sword could be used by a wizard quite well if it had intel.

The blue post at the end explains it very well. A shield is certainly useful for a caster as well.
http://www.diablowiki.net/Spells#Spell_Damage

Tried all the classes and enjoyed them all really. The shift key is your friend (it forces your character to stand still and attack), especially with ranged characters. I'm going barbarian at launch.

chrono1081 · Apr 23, 2012

gotluck said:
From what I understand, yes. Spells are dependent on weapon damage and this is a change from D2. A 2 handed sword could be used by a wizard quite well if it had intel.

The blue post at the end explains it very well. A shield is certainly useful for a caster as well.
http://www.diablowiki.net/Spells#Spell_Damage

Tried all the classes and enjoyed them all really. The shift key is your friend (it forces your character to stand still and attack), especially with ranged characters. I'm going barbarian at launch.

Very informative. Thanks so much!

Blizzard Launches Free Open Beta Weekend for Diablo III

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68000

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 65816

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 6502a

macrumors newbie

macrumors newbie

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502

macrumors newbie

macrumors G3

macrumors 68030

macrumors G3

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68030

macrumors 6502

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 603

macrumors G3

Our Staff