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Any Differences in Mac & PC versions of World of Warcraft?

Blazer24K

Blazer24K

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
39
0
Birmingham, AL
Any Differences in Mac & PC versions of World of Warcraft?
So i recently just purchased my first iMac (W00T!) and was wondering about the differences I would see while playing WoW compared to what i experienced on my old PC.

My biggest questions are:

1. Will Ventrillo function properly? (is there a Mac version?)
2. How are plug-ins affected?
3. Are there any major gameplay or interface differences I should be aware of?

I'm expecting a significant jump in graphics quality as the specs for my new Mac and old PC are below:

MAC:
24" iMac
2.93GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO
4GB 1066MHZ DDR3 SDRAM-2X2GB
ATI RADEON HD 4850 512MB

PC:
Dell XPS 400
XP - SP3
3.00GHz Pentium D
2GB (mystery ram, i can't get exact specs, if anyone knows how, please share & i can edit this post)
GeForce 7300LE


Overall, I'm just looking for any major/minor differences that might affect the way i play the game, so any input would help! Thanks in advance.
 
D

DerekS

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2007
341
14
Just install it and see for yourself! The PC discs have the Mac version on them also.
 
cluthz

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
Blazer24K said:
Any Differences in Mac & PC versions of World of Warcraft?
So i recently just purchased my first iMac (W00T!) and was wondering about the differences I would see while playing WoW compared to what i experienced on my old PC.

My biggest questions are:

1. Will Ventrillo function properly? (is there a Mac version?)
Click to expand...
Yes, but only 3.0.x or newer.
Blazer24K said:
2. How are plug-ins affected?
Click to expand...
You can use the excactly same plugins

Blazer24K said:
3. Are there any major gameplay or interface differences I should be aware of?
Click to expand...
Not really

Blazer24K said:
I'm expecting a significant jump in graphics quality as the specs for my new Mac and old PC are below:

MAC:
24" iMac
2.93GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO
4GB 1066MHZ DDR3 SDRAM-2X2GB
ATI RADEON HD 4850 512MB

PC:
Dell XPS 400
XP - SP3
3.00GHz Pentium D
2GB (mystery ram, i can't get exact specs, if anyone knows how, please share & i can edit this post)
GeForce 7300LE
Click to expand...
I guess you will :)

Btw, anti aliasing and full screen glow the same time on mac is kinda bugged and slows it down alot. Else you should be able to max all

Blazer24K said:
Overall, I'm just looking for any major/minor differences that might affect the way i play the game, so any input would help! Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Mac has ingame builtin fraps which is awesome and remote itunes management too for playing your favourite music while playing!
 
Blazer24K

Blazer24K

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
39
0
Birmingham, AL
awesome cluthz! thanks for your reply!

any further suggestions and input are welcome as well! I can't wait to see Azeroth in it's true light! lol
 
Plutonius

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2003
9,033
8,404
New Hampshire, USA
1) Macs only work with a ventrilo server running the speex codec. The administrator of the vent server can easily select the speex codec but it's a matter of if they will.

2) no

3) no
 
Huntn

Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,483
26,600
The Misty Mountains
I think from an end user functionality standpoint, there is no real difference. Add Ons are interchangeable. I've not looked lately at the Windows WoW folder structure, but I assume except for the WoW application itself, they are basically identical.
 
thejadedmonkey

thejadedmonkey

macrumors G3
May 28, 2005
9,182
3,334
Pennsylvania
Most add-on's are interchangeable. Basically, with a mac, you pay about twice as much to get the same frame-rate as you would on a Windows machine, and get a few add-ons that don't work.
 
S

Shivetya

macrumors 68000
Jan 16, 2008
1,669
306
Blazer24K said:
Any Differences in Mac & PC versions of World of Warcraft?

My biggest questions are:

1. Will Ventrillo function properly? (is there a Mac version?)
2. How are plug-ins affected?
3. Are there any major gameplay or interface differences I should be aware of?

Overall, I'm just looking for any major/minor differences that might affect the way i play the game, so any input would help! Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

1. Covered by others, works fine.
2. Not at all
3. Yeah, go into keyboard bindings and disable across all characters the movie recording section of keys (usually [ ] and such). Why? Because you could end up recording a whole nights session only to have it choke when it gets too much movie and needs to compress it off (DAMHIK)

3b. Turn off Shadows - slider all the way to the left - still buggy in Blizz code and will gimp performance immensely.

3c. iMac sound is impressive - no need to external speakers - but get headset for vent regardless - I used a BT head set.
 
JackAxe

JackAxe

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2004
1,535
0
In a cup of orange juice.
You know what bothers me about the PC version of WC3, it does NOT support true widescreen. :\ I modified my registry, but all that does is stretch the game to my screen's size, but it's still just a 4:3 aspect. Why the Mac side has this and the PC does not, is beyond me.

Shivetya, you've had to turn off shadows on your Mac? :eek: I've been playing this game since it was released on my Macs and PCs and have never needed to turn off the shadows for normal game. The only time I've lessened my settings on the Mac side, was for really heavy tower-defense mods, and this was on my old 1Ghz PowerBook. But I haven't had to do that on this MacBook Pro -- which is lower speced than the iMac listed in this thread, let alone my dead G5.
 
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