starcraft II on PPC systems

[IscariotJ]

Intel systems with integrated graphics is also very much up in the air, we have a lot of work left to do on the game and we will just have to see how that goes.

I really hope it doesn't end up with MacBooks being excluded. Four friends of mine have each just bought an MB, and are hoping to play this, even if it means turning off lots of the eye-candy.

This is the sort of game where people will get together to play against each other; being able to play it on a laptop is ideal. Sure you guys know that, though

 

[FireArse]

Question...

Our group tends to be involved with porting, debugging, performance tuning, Mac enhancements etc. Higher level game design concepts aren't really what we do.

Just a quickie, with PPC games, I understand using AltiVec was pretty much essential. With the speed of these Intels - do you rely on the Intel equivelent to get as much out of the CPU's as possible?

Also - are these games written in C++?

Cheers,

F

 

[MichalM.Mac]

Heavily upgraded G4

What do you thing ? Will it run on heavily upgraded G4 ? I have 1.8 Ghz G4, Ati 9800 (Pixel Shader 2.0 supported) and Gig of RAM. Is there any chance, that it will run.. or support for G4 (and maybe G5) will be totaly cut off?

MichalM.Mac

 

[thejadedmonkey]

What do you thing ? Will it run on heavily upgraded G4 ? I have 1.8 Ghz G4, Ati 9800 (Pixel Shader 2.0 supported) and Gig of RAM. Is there any chance, that it will run.. or support for G4 (and maybe G5) will be totaly cut off?

MichalM.Mac

Short answer: probably no way at all it'll work on that.

Long answer: I'd guess that if there is PPC support (which is sounds like there may not be due to added support costs for a small % of dwindling users), it would be multi-core or multi-processor G5 only. If you could make it run on a G4, I doubt it would be supported, and that's assuming they don't use any instruction sets that are G5 only (which they probably would to squeeze the most out of the processors).

 

[~Shard~]

I agree, I think the game will be coded for Intel, not PPC. Too bad, but probably the way it is, and quite understandable IMO.

 

[elfin buddy]

I'm a tad disappointed that I won't be able to play it on my little PowerBook G4, but it's not like I ever actually thought I would have been able to. There's no way something as awesome as SCII could ever be tamed by a G4

I see this as an excuse to buy a Mac Pro in a few years, as long as my PowerBook doesn't die in the meantime.

 

[MichalM.Mac]

Well

I still have Hope because of knowing fact that Blizzard is Mac friendly company

 

[~Shard~]

I still have Hope because of knowing fact that Blizzard is Mac friendly company

Being "Mac-friendly" and supporting architectures which are effectively 2 generations old now are two separate things though. Intel for sure (obviously), G5 doubtful, G4 unfortunately not feasible IMO.

 

[xPismo]

I just watched the videos and I'm down. A plus being I'll be getting a new power- er, mac book pro around the 12 - 18 month timeframe anyway. Yayyy! SC2 looks like f u n.

 

[miller218]

I'm guessing the cutoff will be...

Single G5 (or better), pixel shader 2 capable video card and 1 GB RAM required

Dual core/processor recommended

Why?

G4 bus speed was dog slow. Maybe the last Gen PB G4 would have the Graphics card oompf and VRAM to handle it.

That said, I don't know where this leaves the G5 iMac. Is the X600 PS 2.0 compatible? Or any of the intel minis

 

[joecool85]

Single G5 (or better), pixel shader 2 capable video card and 1 GB RAM required

Dual core/processor recommended

Why?

G4 bus speed was dog slow. Maybe the last Gen PB G4 would have the Graphics card oompf and VRAM to handle it.

That said, I don't know where this leaves the G5 iMac. Is the X600 PS 2.0 compatible? Or any of the intel minis

I hope so, then my system would play it. Dual 2ghz G5 Power Mac, 1gb RAM (it'll be 2+gb by the time the game comes out), ATI 9650 XT.

 

[metgear723]

drop G4 support, definately will happen. I know those who have them still have been upgrading with the times. My dad still has one from the first generation G4 still going running Photoshop CS2, Civ 3 w/No CPU upgrades. But it won't handle SC2 or WC 3. Now for me I have the last PPC revision for iMacs, so i'm pissed because a month later they switched to intel. So my vote is to make it scalable to PPC G5 specs with dual/multiprocessor recommended like the above poster said. I also expect a Q3-4 2008 release for this game, maybe Q2.

 

[miller218]

I see how it's likely a dual G5 with a decent video card will work, but I wonder if Blizz will bother with supporting that few Macs.

In my opinion, your iMac (and my sisters too) are the iffy ones. They sold quite a few of them (more than the Power Macs, which are probably in businesses).

drop G4 support, definately will happen. I know those who have them still have been upgrading with the times. My dad still has one from the first generation G4 still going running Photoshop CS2, Civ 3 w/No CPU upgrades. But it won't handle SC2 or WC 3. Now for me I have the last PPC revision for iMacs, so i'm pissed because a month later they switched to intel. So my vote is to make it scalable to PPC G5 specs with dual/multiprocessor recommended like the above poster said. I also expect a Q3-4 2008 release for this game, maybe Q2.

 

[joecool85]

In my opinion, your iMac (and my sisters too) are the iffy ones. They sold quite a few of them (more than the Power Macs, which are probably in businesses).

I dunno...I have a powermac and I'm just a college student. Granted I went broke attaining it, but I still own it.

 

[~Shard~]

Hopefully the new MBPs which will be released in the very near future will run it, as I'll be picking one of those up!

 

[otis123]

wow, i didnt check this thread until today, so my ibook G4 with a 1.5GB of RAM that i bought in april 2006 wont be able to play it? why did i buy a PPC? looks like i have to go back to windows cause a MBP is to expensive for me...

 

[~Shard~]

wow, i didnt check this thread until today, so my ibook G4 with a 1.5GB of RAM that i bought in april 2006 wont be able to play it? why did i buy a PPC? looks like i have to go back to windows cause a MBP is to expensive for me...

MacBooks are very inexpensive, I don't think you'd need a MacBook Pro necessarily. That being said, the game might not even be released for another year, in which case a 2-year old machine such as your iBook will indeed be too old to play the game - that's the wonderful world of technology for ya...

 

[Eric5h5]

MacBooks are very inexpensive, I don't think you'd need a MacBook Pro necessarily.

Except for the part where they said they don't know if they can support the craptastic GMA950? (Which gets worse performance than the iBook for some games.) Even if they end up doing so, the experience will be, as they say, suboptimal.

that's the wonderful world of technology for ya...

Yep....

--Eric

 

[~Shard~]

Except for the part where they said they don't know if they can support the craptastic GMA950? (Which gets worse performance than the iBook for some games.) Even if they end up doing so, the experience will be, as they say, suboptimal.

Yep....

Yeah, fair enough. Again, this game may not even be available for another year,. in which case who knows what the hardware requirements will be? I think it's safe to say that PPC architecture will not be supported though, like it or not...

 

[VASTman]

Update?

Anybody heard any news on this?

I have a Dual G5 with 6800 Ultra that I'm really hoping will be supported