Fallout 3 on the Macbook Pro

[Red-red]

Installed it on XP, Set to high settings, native res with 8xAF and 4xAA. I bumped up the settings in game a little as well.

Runs fine and looks great. With tweaking you could get more out of it as I remember Oblivion being the same.

It's not a gaming machine, it doesn't pretend to be but you will be able to run most games for the next few years on medium/high settings. ( specially as PC gaming is going down a route were the game HAS to run well on a wide range of systems or it just won't sell, ala crysis.

 

[glyphery]

I am not sure what all this discussion about the Superdrive being an issue here is all about. I installed Fallout 3 off the collectors edition and I don't even need the CD to play the game, everything runs off the drive... So as far as I can tell, if they are forcing a CD check in some versions of the game, its probably just to check if the CD is there, not run the game off the Superdrive. That is, unless you installed using some custom option that doesn't install everything.

Hi, Moclippa. The issue isn't with the game wanting to do a check to make sure I have the game disc in the SuperDrive. The issue is that the SuperDrive won't even load the game disc to begin with. Since it just spits it right back out without ever letting My Computer see it, there is no way I can install the game in the first place. Hopefully this clarifies things. ;-)

Also, what are your loading times like? Usually I don't even get past quarter of a circle during any load, and have never had to complete a full circle yet. Saves are instant, and in game loads have a delay ranging between 1-3 seconds.Trying to figure out if thats an SSD benefit, or if people are feeling the same results all over.

That's pretty much my experience as well, although I can only speak for the gaming experience on a Windows desktop (as I can't get the sodding game to install on my MacBook Pro). I'm very impressed with the near-instantaneous zone loads in Fallout 3... in fact, my only complaint in this regard is that zone changes are so fast that I usually don't have time to read the entire 'random tip' that flashes up in the lower left corner of the screen. ;-)

Update: Glyphery, in case you are wondering, I have Vista x32, SP1... I had a few issues installing F3 (it wouldn't install) at the beginning, but once I had upgraded the OS to the new Service Pack, and included fully updated .Net frameworks, everything fell into place, it installed and worked.

On the Windows box, I'm running WinXP SP3, and Fallout 3 had zero install issues and runs like a rocket with all settings maxxed. I obviously don't expect quite the same level of performance when (if?) I get to play it on the MBP, but from what people are saying, I hope to be able to run it smoothly on Medium/High settings.

 

[TXBDan]

hrmm i'm playing F3 on my early '08 2.4ghz MBP w/ 4gigs of RAM. Its really not running so hot. I'm playing at a below native res and 'High' settings. It seems like the performance is getting worse and worse over time as i play. It just gets quite laggy and stuttery.

Anyone know how i can display FPS on screen? Are you guys using vsync?

I'm running Hardware Monitor and my GPU temp gets up to around 85-86C. Should be ok.

I'm running the 180.43 drivers which 3Dmarked really well for me. Windows XP SP3.

 

[MH01]

Seriously? 30fps isn't 'fine and dandy'?

You can't really enjoy the game unless it is at 60+fps? On an RPG?

Seriously?

To be honest...not it is not. Its all depends on what you are used to.

I have a PC gaming rig, a 8500 (3.16) with 4870x2 and that pulls 17500 on 3dmark 2006, on my MBP 2.8 using the 9600GT i get around 5000.

If you are used to playing with 60+ FPS, playing at 30 feels really ackward.

To the OP, if you are after a gaming laptop you can get a cheaper more powerful PC laptop. If you need run OS X and want to game, yeah the current MBPs are adequate, but within 6 months they will start to struggle with the new games coming out. The release of the ATI 4870 cards has really shaken the market, due to thier low cost and performance, they make the 9600 look like crap, due to competition the replacement for the current 4870 are really going to scream making the 9600 look really dated. And TBH, game developers are getting lazy, they tend to make games for the high end of hte video card market, look at crysis....people rave but its a ***** game, releasing a game that does not run smoothly on current hardware (when it was relaeased) is just BS....its called ***** development and poor coding. Only warning i give you, yup the MBP will run games fine for now, but within 6 months things might not be looking good for u.

 

[David L]

need help installing fallout 3

just got new macbook pro 2.53ghz (late 2008) bootcamped vista home premium 32bit updated it, try to install fallout 3 and got error message "side by side configeration error" when trying to read disc, will open disc and show contents but not install
have looked at net for help and nothing helpful any suggestions thanks

 

[akm3]

To be honest...not it is not. Its all depends on what you are used to.

I have a PC gaming rig, a 8500 (3.16) with 4870x2 and that pulls 17500 on 3dmark 2006, on my MBP 2.8 using the 9600GT i get around 5000.

If you are used to playing with 60+ FPS, playing at 30 feels really ackward.

To the OP, if you are after a gaming laptop you can get a cheaper more powerful PC laptop. If you need run OS X and want to game, yeah the current MBPs are adequate, but within 6 months they will start to struggle with the new games coming out. The release of the ATI 4870 cards has really shaken the market, due to thier low cost and performance, they make the 9600 look like crap, due to competition the replacement for the current 4870 are really going to scream making the 9600 look really dated. And TBH, game developers are getting lazy, they tend to make games for the high end of hte video card market, look at crysis....people rave but its a ***** game, releasing a game that does not run smoothly on current hardware (when it was relaeased) is just BS....its called ***** development and poor coding. Only warning i give you, yup the MBP will run games fine for now, but within 6 months things might not be looking good for u.

10 years ago, I believed as you did. I spent a lot of money to stay on the bleeding edge.

I've since learned my enjoyment of the game isn't any less if my frame rate and draw distance aren't quite as good (Good games are good games), and I save an assload of money.

 

[panzer06]

Same here. So now I'm even more depressed, as this means it's evidently not all MBP SuperDrives that have this problem... just mine. :-(

I tried making an ISO disc image of the retail disc and mounting that with Daemon Tools Lite, but of course SecuROM said 'bite me'. Doesn't look like I'm going to get to play Fallout 3 on my Santa Rosa MBP...

I use an external DVD drive for games that won't install using the internal drive. Annoying but it works and I can upgrade the external drive firmware as needed to support new technologies.

Cheers

 

[blue weasal]

Will F3 work with 128MB VRAM?

I've got an older MacBook Pro (2.16 GHz, 3GB RAM, Radeon X1600 with 128MB). I see that Fallout 3 requires 256MB VRAM. Has anyone tried it on a system (like mine) with only 128MB? Love the first two Fallouts. Would love to try the 3rd.

 

[TheStrain]

I also have a macbook pro ( the older one) 128 mb video ram 4 gb ram 2.2 ghz and am wondering if I can play this game on low/ medium without much lagg. And can my mac run 64 bit vista or do I have to do 32 bit? and whats the difference thanks =)