[alkar]

Well Brad Oliver wanted me to state up what I didnt like about CoD 4 port, well let me tell you.

First of all, on the 8800 GT (dunno about others), try to enable FSAA 4X and enjoy a powerpoint slideshow, while on Windows the game isn't really affect by FSAA, specially in 1280x1024. So basically if you are considering playing the game with FSAA + 8800 GT, then expect to play the game at ~ 20fps.
Please don't tell me that's Apple's fault : while I know they aren't making things easier, I know that WoW mac isn't really affect by FSAA these days on OSX (pretty much like the D3D windows client)... Hell, even Feral ports aren't really slow down by FSAA or even your own port from ETQW (i guess the fact it's a opengl native helps).

2) Well even with no FSAA, the performances aren't on par with Windows... While the game is running fast everything maxed, it isn't running at a constant 60fps framerate, while it pretty much does on Windows. Gotta admit it isn't that bad, but it's still isn't on par.

Aside performances problems, i'm happy with this port, the game is the same as the Windows version, so the game experience is exactly the same.

If i could get the same FPS i get atm but with FSAA 4X, i'd be a happy man.

I know Brad isn't in charge with the "Aspyr CoD team" but he asked me why i was complaining, so here it is. And no, i'm not a Cider fan AT ALL, but your games still use a D3D to OpenGL wrapper like Cider... I know performances are still better because the game was compiled with OSX libraries in mach-o but that's all.

Oh and you were stating about Guitar Hero, while I tried GH3 (not Aerosmith) and the port is horrible in terms of performances : the game seems to be capped at 30 fps while on Windows or even the PS2, it runs at 60fps...Not even talking about NWN2, again in terms of performances.

One funny thing though is the only port that is on par with Windows or even better is EQTW, I guess the fact that it's an OpenGL native helps a lot, so my guess is your D3D to OpenGL wrapper isn't that good and pretty much explains everything.

[Brad Oliver]

alkar, on December 23rd 2008, 06:19 AM, said:

First of all, on the 8800 GT (dunno about others), try to enable FSAA 4X and enjoy a powerpoint slideshow, while on Windows the game isn't really affect by FSAA, specially in 1280x1024. So basically if you are considering playing the game with FSAA + 8800 GT, then expect to play the game at ~ 20fps.
Please don't tell me that's Apple's fault : while I know they aren't making things easier, I know that WoW mac isn't really affect by FSAA these days on OSX (pretty much like the D3D windows client)... Hell, even Feral ports aren't really slow down by FSAA or even your own port from ETQW (i guess the fact it's a opengl native helps).

Hah! That's exactly what I'm going to do! We're currently working around a multisampling bug in the Nvidia G80 driver (it causes GPU exceptions, effectively locking up your Mac) by falling back to a slow path which we are not doing on any other cards. It only affects the 8800-class cards. We've had a bug filed for ages now and have recently been in communication with Nvidia to see what we can do to get this fixed.

Quote

2) Well even with no FSAA, the performances aren't on par with Windows... While the game is running fast everything maxed, it isn't running at a constant 60fps framerate, while it pretty much does on Windows. Gotta admit it isn't that bad, but it's still isn't on par.

We're continuing to work on performance for CoD4 in general, so I'd expect improvements here as time goes on. If you run into any items that are clearly underperforming (like the FSAA above) don't hesitate to mention them.

Quote

Oh and you were stating about Guitar Hero, while I tried GH3 (not Aerosmith) and the port is horrible in terms of performances : the game seems to be capped at 30 fps while on Windows or even the PS2, it runs at 60fps...

It's vsync-capped to avoid tearing which means it falls back to 30fps if it can't maintain 60. I have seen it run at 60fps on the 8800 cards in the Mac Pro and MacBooks, so I suppose it depends on your hardware. If you want to discuss this more, a separate thread in the (simulation?) sub-forum would be best.

Quote

One funny thing though is the only port that is on par with Windows or even better is EQTW, I guess the fact that it's an OpenGL native helps a lot, so my guess is your D3D to OpenGL wrapper isn't that good and pretty much explains everything.

That is funny because ETQW was a battle to get up to speed (we hit a performance issue with VBOs that required a workaround) but we'll take it though!

[alkar]

Smoke Edges kill FPS too in COD4, so you'd better disable it.

Noticed that big levels, i.e. when looking far far away will make the game slow down a lot... small levels are fine, but i guess it's just graphics intensive scene that make the game slow.. Anyway on Windows, the game doesn't slow down that much, i guess the problem isn't coming from an effect.

But about Smoke Edge, it's a fact... Everything else doesn't really affect FPS much it seems, at least i'm ok with everything else !

Improve overall performances of the game during gpu intensive scenes and beg NVIDIA to fix FSAA, then i'm a happy man

[battlefrontaddict]

I'll have to agree with this one. I reviewed COD4 and though I gave it a great rating, I can't help but be disappointed with the performance. I use an 8600 on my Macbook Pro. Would I be affected by this FSAA performance issue?

[alkar]

I guess so, G84 ~ G92. And looking at reports on other forums, seems FSAA kills FPS on 8600M GT too.

battlefrontaddict, on December 23rd 2008, 11:16 AM, said:

I'll have to agree with this one. I reviewed COD4 and though I gave it a great rating, I can't help but be disappointed with the performance. I use an 8600 on my Macbook Pro. Would I be affected by this FSAA performance issue?

[ltcommander.data]

alkar, on December 23rd 2008, 12:39 PM, said:

I guess so, G84 ~ G92. And looking at reports on other forums, seems FSAA kills FPS on 8600M GT too.

Any change with 10.5.6? There seems to be new drivers that noticeably improved performance on the 9600M GT (G96) with CoD4.

http://www.barefeats.com/harper21.html

Barefeats reports 8800GT and HD3870 performance hasn't changed though, but they don't say whether they tested with FSAA or not.

Personally, I was surprised how well CoD4 played on a X1600 MBP. It was at 1280x800 with texture and normal map resolution on High, but with soften smoke edges, depth of field, and glow Off. Although I'm not an fps hound and was only trying the campaign. I don't have experience with CoD4 on Boot Camp on a X1600 so I can't really compare whether the decent performance is because of good porting or if the CoD4 engine inherently is light enough to perform well on the X1600.

[battlefrontaddict]

OK, I'll check that update out.

OK, I'll check that update out.

I tried to run COD4 on an iMac with Tiger. I got it running, albeit with the strange upside down screen bug (which can be fixed by pausing the game and resuming). The performance with that X1600 was good, but nothing near to my macbook.

[Brad Oliver]

alkar, on December 23rd 2008, 10:39 AM, said:

I guess so, G84 ~ G92. And looking at reports on other forums, seems FSAA kills FPS on 8600M GT too.

Yeah, the G80-class cards all use the same driver (both for the MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro), so the 8600 (G84) and 8800 (G92) are affected in the same way.

[Sneaky Snake]

The 8800 also as problems with FSAA in AoE III, it's the drivers fault, not aspyr's. Originally the game ran better on my friends X1600 iMac, although several OS X updates have finally made the 8800 one of the best cards for mac, like it should have been originally. In bootcamp in owns, even with the Apple drivers


-Snake

[Vallen]

I know we are talking about COD 4 in this thread..but considering that the issue at hand are Nvidia drivers...what about COD 2 and the Nvidia Drivers?

I know that this is a long standing issue for COD 2 on the mac, but I am hoping that by some miracle we can get this resolved. Particularly considering that Apple's forth coming push towards Nvidia chips through out the mac line up is inevitable. The problem is the well documented fps stuttering and mouse issues in COD 2 on Nvidia chip sets found in some Mac Pros (8800) and all Apple Macbook pros from the 2007 Santa Rosa (8600) to the Penryn 2008 (8600) to the current unibody model (9600), for which I now own. I sadly have to report that under 10.5.6, the Nvidia 9600, still has the same issues as 10.5.x. An odd work around is that when COD 2 is directed to launch as a Rosetta app the mouse and stuttering issues vanish. Unfortunately performance is too poor in this mode to make this a viable work around solution. I don't know why Aspyr has done nothing to correct this problem, which is going to only manifest itself as more macs move to Nvidia GPUs. COD 2 is a fairly popular game and still remains as such, so I don't know why Aspyr has taken the "let the game die on the vine" approach to getting this to run right on Nvidia GPU's. The only Nvidia chip that runs this game without these issues is my iMac 24 with the Nvidia 7600 GPU. Surely someone at aspyr can figure this out...between the Rosetta fix to it working with 7600 drivers...anyone, perhaps the great Brad Oliver can help, maybe.
As for supporting Aspyr, despite my anger over COD 2 not working correctly on my hardware, I have purchase 3 copies of Quake Wars (Gifts) and 1 copy of COD 4 for myself. So I'm doing my part...

[alkar]

You know that Apple drivers on Windows are simply NVIDIA drivers tested by Apple and not made by Apple right? nothing more.. Basically you can use NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIA.com, will work perfectly.

Sneaky Snake, on December 23rd 2008, 02:37 PM, said:

The 8800 also as problems with FSAA in AoE III, it's the drivers fault, not aspyr's. Originally the game ran better on my friends X1600 iMac, although several OS X updates have finally made the 8800 one of the best cards for mac, like it should have been originally. In bootcamp in owns, even with the Apple drivers
-Snake

[Sneaky Snake]

alkar, on December 23rd 2008, 04:03 PM, said:

You know that Apple drivers on Windows are simply NVIDIA drivers tested by Apple and not made by Apple right? nothing more.. Basically you can use NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIA.com, will work perfectly.

Yes, I've have new updated driver sets from Nvidia in bootcamp. I merely said it to point out the difference between the two drivers (Mac vs PC). The fact that the X1600 used to be beating the 8800 should be downright embarrassing for Nvidia. The 8800 still cannot run AoE 3 at max details on my Mac Pro

[Brad Oliver]

alkar, on December 23rd 2008, 02:03 PM, said:

You know that Apple drivers on Windows are simply NVIDIA drivers tested by Apple and not made by Apple right?

That's also not far from reality on the Mac side. ATI and Nvidia both do a large part of the driver work on the Mac. (I know most people probably already realize this, as ATI ships Mac retail cards too.)

[MonsterPatrol]

I've got a problem involving Call of Duty 4. Every now and again, the game freezes up, and it refuses to be fixed. I cannot command tab or command q my way out. The ambient sound is still there, and Itunes and volume controls still work on the keyboard, but that's it. This has happened in both Single and Multiplayer, and I don't have a clue as to what causes it or how to fix it.

[bobbob]

MonsterPatrol, on January 10th 2009, 06:43 PM, said:

I've got a problem involving Call of Duty 4. Every now and again, the game freezes up, and it refuses to be fixed. I cannot command tab or command q my way out. The ambient sound is still there, and Itunes and volume controls still work on the keyboard, but that's it. This has happened in both Single and Multiplayer, and I don't have a clue as to what causes it or how to fix it.

Hardware?

[jackdawsson]

MonsterPatrol, on January 11th 2009, 12:43 AM, said:

I've got a problem involving Call of Duty 4. Every now and again, the game freezes up, and it refuses to be fixed.

Make sure you've downloaded the latest Apple firmware updates. I had this problem when playing "AoE III" on my HD 2600 iMac a few months back (at least 3 total freezes requiring a restart), but none since the updates.

[MonsterPatrol]

It's not hardware or firmware that's causing the problem. Are there any other troubleshooting tips I should know about?

[teflon]

its a bajillion to one chance, but you could try trashing your preferences?
they should be found in user>Library>Application Support
drag them to the desktop (to preserve the saves which you can drag back later, or if nothing is fixed, just drag the whole folder back).

aside from that and reinstalling it from the DVD I dunno, sorry...

[MonsterPatrol]

I don't really think I want to trash my preferences. In any case, the folder you sent me to is empty except for a small document with some numbers called CoD4MP. I also don't really want to reinstall the game. I've sent an email to Aspyr, but they're taking a while to respond.

[dr.zeissler]

there is nothing wrong with the cod4-port. for me cod4 runs much better and looks much better than cod2.
some effekts are not supported by my hd2600pro, but it seems that aspyr had got out the maximum within my imac.

full-hd & full-action with about 27 fps ! that's fantastic!

today feral is in my opinion the numer one mac-provider (bioshock!) but asypr had done a really good job on the cod4 port.



Doc