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Portal 2 on my Mac

A

Ash9414

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I know there are a lot of threads already on this, but none specific to the Mac that I currently own. Will Portal 2 run on the MBP 13" shown in my signature, and what settings would I be able to run it at?
Thanks.
 
Yes, but probably not with everything on high. The most frame-eating graphics settings are AA, Shaders and the resolution. Your MBPs native res is not that high, so I suggest leaving that on max and playing around with the other two settings for a decent framerate (probably AA off and Shaders low).
 
Most games running on the Source engine run great on the 2010 MacBooks as long as you turn off the Anti Aliasing.
 
Well I downloaded the first Portal demo, and it seems I'm able to run it on max settings with a little lag when looking into portals which I could do without. Would you notice any difference if you turned the AA off? I didn't really experiment, just wanted to see if it could run on max. And then I deleted it off my HDD because it was taking up too much space. 😛
 
Ash9414 said:
Well I downloaded the first Portal demo, and it seems I'm able to run it on max settings with a little lag when looking into portals which I could do without. Would you notice any difference if you turned the AA off? I didn't really experiment, just wanted to see if it could run on max. And then I deleted it off my HDD because it was taking up too much space. 😛
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Yeah, AA lowers your frame rate quite a bit, and it used to completely kill your FPS under OS X, they might have fixed it though. If you turned AA and shadows down you'd notice a pretty good improvement in FPS.
 
Sambo110 said:
Yeah, AA lowers your frame rate quite a bit, and it used to completely kill your FPS under OS X, they might have fixed it though. If you turned AA and shadows down you'd notice a pretty good improvement in FPS.
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Ok, thanks. What does filtering do? And now I'm considering getting it for my PS3 instead, but since I only use a 19" screen with a HDMI cable, I will only get 720p which is actually less than the native resolution of my Mac so it would look worse?
 
Ash9414 said:
Ok, thanks. What does filtering do? And now I'm considering getting it for my PS3 instead, but since I only use a 19" screen with a HDMI cable, I will only get 720p which is actually less than the native resolution of my Mac so it would look worse?
Click to expand...

Filtering is kind of hard to describe. If it's what I'm thinking of, it makes the ground/walls look clearer at a distance. For instance, if you stand still facing forwards, with no filtering, the ground a few metres away will look like a blurry mess. With filtering on, it will be clear and you'll be able to see detail in it.

I'm not sure how powerful the 320m is compared to the PS3, but console hardware is old, and if you have a decent computer you will be able to achieve better graphics, as consoles usually run at a low resolution, low-ish frame rate and low-medium graphics. But graphics don't matter, so get it on whatever you enjoy the most (and remember you get a free PC/Mac copy with the PS3 version).
 
Sambo110 said:
Filtering is kind of hard to describe. If it's what I'm thinking of, it makes the ground/walls look clearer at a distance. For instance, if you stand still facing forwards, with no filtering, the ground a few metres away will look like a blurry mess. With filtering on, it will be clear and you'll be able to see detail in it.

I'm not sure how powerful the 320m is compared to the PS3, but console hardware is old, and if you have a decent computer you will be able to achieve better graphics, as consoles usually run at a low resolution, low-ish frame rate and low-medium graphics. But graphics don't matter, so get it on whatever you enjoy the most (and remember you get a free PC/Mac copy with the PS3 version).
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw that the other day, but can't access PSN atm so won't be able to get the free code for the Mac version. Hmm, I'm looking at the £33 Portal bundle now since I have no idea what the storyline is behind the first game. :/
 
Ash9414 said:
I know there are a lot of threads already on this, but none specific to the Mac that I currently own. Will Portal 2 run on the MBP 13" shown in my signature, and what settings would I be able to run it at?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have the same MBP, it runs very smoothly with most settings on "medium". Not as "pretty" as everything on high, but all of the fun is there.
 
Ash9414 said:
Yeah I saw that the other day, but can't access PSN atm so won't be able to get the free code for the Mac version. Hmm, I'm looking at the £33 Portal bundle now since I have no idea what the storyline is behind the first game. :/
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Definitely play the first game!
 
New to Mac Gaming...

I've never done any gaming on my Mac, but Portal 2 looks awesome. So a dumb question: What do you use as a controller? The keyboard? Or do I have to buy something else? Also, with Portal 2 in coop mode what does the other person use? 😕

Thanks!
 
cmfilms said:
I've never done any gaming on my Mac, but Portal 2 looks awesome. So a dumb question: What do you use as a controller? The keyboard? Or do I have to buy something else? Also, with Portal 2 in coop mode what does the other person use? 😕

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You use the keyboard and mouse to play, much more accurate and easy to control than a controller. For split screen you have to do a bit of modding to the game, with command lines to get it working, so it's not worth bothering about. You have to play online for co-op.
 
Portal 2 runs fine on mine

I have the 13" MBP right before yours so it has a ******** gpu and Portal 2 runs fine. Strangely enough, it actually runs better than Portal 1.
 
Sambo110 said:
Filtering is kind of hard to describe. If it's what I'm thinking of, it makes the ground/walls look clearer at a distance. For instance, if you stand still facing forwards, with no filtering, the ground a few metres away will look like a blurry mess. With filtering on, it will be clear and you'll be able to see detail in it.

I'm not sure how powerful the 320m is compared to the PS3, but console hardware is old, and if you have a decent computer you will be able to achieve better graphics, as consoles usually run at a low resolution, low-ish frame rate and low-medium graphics. But graphics don't matter, so get it on whatever you enjoy the most (and remember you get a free PC/Mac copy with the PS3 version).
Click to expand...


You are correct about filtering. Portal 2 plays great on my mid 2010 17in Macbook Pro.
 
packav said:
use the magic mouse! aiming in a FPS isn't very fun on a touchpad
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I've played both Portal games and Half-Life 2, and HL2 eps 1 & 2, all using my MacBook Pro's built in trackpad and it works great for me, particularly for Portal. You probably can't get as good of a fast spin as you might want for multiplayer FPS, but for games like Portal, a trackpad should be just peachy.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys, I went ahead and bought the Portal 1 and 2 bundle about a week ago. 😀 I think I'm nearly at the end of Portal 2 which will be a sad day but it has been an awesome game.
 
If you attempt to get all the achievements in the Portal 2 single-player campaign and play through again to hear the developer commentaries, you should get a good 10-15 hours out of it. You can then look forward to an extra chunk in the coop tests. Good news is the SDK beta has just opened and the first user-created levels are appearing.
 
DanielCoffey said:
If you attempt to get all the achievements in the Portal 2 single-player campaign and play through again to hear the developer commentaries, you should get a good 10-15 hours out of it. You can then look forward to an extra chunk in the coop tests. Good news is the SDK beta has just opened and the first user-created levels are appearing.
Click to expand...

I've played 25 hours of Portal 2 since I got it 2 1/2 weeks ago. I haven't even played co-op yet, but between working for the achievements and listening to all of the dev commentary plus playing a few custom maps this week.
 
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