128 replies to this topic

[alkar]

It might be a bit premature but it's the only way for me to enjoy the game a little more than watching a slideshow.
I think removing it from your server was a mistake ; you should have let people choose if they want to try this build or not, even if it's using dirty hacks.
Don't think I'm the only one who bought the game and is unhappy just because I like to bother you : I don't make fun criticizing your work, but I like to report my testings about your games and I love helping developers improve their games. That way, Blizzard and Aspyr listened to me in the past and admitted there were issues that could be fixed. I like to know that somehow I helped other people enjoy a better build of the game with improved performances thanks to my report.
I don't understand why you are always denying reports I'm doing, but to me it seems as long as most people of that forum buy your game, and are happy with 20fps, you won't do anything.
See for example that other user with the 9600GT, he is unhappy and i'm sure he would have loved to at least -even if there are side effects- try this build.

[edddeduck]

alkar, on 05 September 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

I think removing it from your server was a mistake ; you should have let people choose if they want to try this build or not, even if it's using dirty hacks.

I am sorry but I politely disagree, allowing people to run beta versions of software that were not specifically designed to be played by customers is never a good idea. People treat them as final and bad things happen. What happens when in one week when the save game corrupts or the user notes some effects are rendering very badly on later levels, unstable beta's are not meant for general public consumption if they were then they would not be betas Beta's are for limited testing so although we from time to time give users beta copies we deliberately do this we don't just let people play with random versions of the game.

alkar, on 05 September 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

Don't think I'm the only one who bought the game and is unhappy just because I like to bother you : I don't make fun criticizing your work, but I like to report my testings about your games and I love helping developers improve their games. That way, Blizzard and Aspyr listened to me in the past and admitted there were issues that could be fixed. I like to know that somehow I helped other people enjoy a better build of the game with improved performances thanks to my report.

I have been active in the Mac gaming forums for about a decade now, we have improved many games with the help of feedback from users in fact many forum members have applied to test Feral games before they are shipped (you guys know who you are). I know every game released (by any company including Feral) some people will always have a less than perfect experience this is usually down to installation bugs or OS problems but also in some cases where the game has a bug that needs fixing. Usually if we have done our job right this is a very small number of users and with feedback via the support channels we reduce this number closer and closer to zero with patches. Right now even after the pile of pre-orders we have only a few reports that we are investigating, our distributors say they have had no major complaints to them and that is usually a good sign the game plays well on most peoples machines. All we have to do is investigate the odd user here and there who has an issue and try and get them resolved and that includes you if you email us

alkar, on 05 September 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

I don't understand why you are always denying reports I'm doing, but to me it seems as long as most people of that forum buy your game, and are happy with 20fps, you won't do anything.

Far from denying your reports I have repeatedly asked for you to contact our support team to look into your problems, the only thing I have raised (which many others have as well) is you always seem to assume if something is not perfect on your Mac then ALL machines must be effected and the problem must always effect everyone which it often does not. For example the green screen issue you complained about in this thread proved to be an issue caused by the game being installed badly (which I pointed out and solved for you). However you assumed this effected all users and was something Feral did and got very upset. If a problem is proven to effect a certain Mac model and a fix is possible we will do it but we need to get information and do tests before we make a patch so when it is released it is an improvement for all users.

I admit sometimes I take some time to answer your posts as sometimes your posts even if well meaning contain phases that are a little baiting so I make sure we answer your legitimate problems and try and not get tangled up in the accusations. If you read these lines (all from this thread) you have to admit even if you are looking for answers they are a little aggressive at times.

"it seems as long as most people of that forum buy your game, and are happy with 20fps, you won't do anything."
"i know that edddeduck will say i'm a prick"
"Feral, please first of all make a patch for 8800 GT users on 10.7.1 (all nvidia users ? i don't know) since I can't even see the screen."
"don't forget to actually increase the performance"
"whatever so you guys can push a proper patch"

I will always try and help users with issues but it I would suggest you moderate your posts just a little as you will get a lot more help if you are a little less accusatory at least try and give us a chance to reply. For example "I am getting poor framerate on my 8800GT (my game settings are xxx) does anyone else have similar effects on their machine?" That is a lot more friendly and useful than "don't forget to actually increase the performance"

alkar, on 05 September 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

See for example that other user with the 9600GT, he is unhappy and i'm sure he would have loved to at least -even if there are side effects- try this build.

In fact we have already replied in the store thread with some suggestions and also emailed Tuncer about it to see if we could get a message to him to we can investigate further. We try and support customers using a combination of logic and testing, as we have two 9600M Mac's in the office (one machine is IDENTICAL to his) neither running at anywhere near 6fps we need to find out more and using an older beta build with experimental features is not the best way. I hope you get the logic why we cannot release a build which is not approved by Codemasters, is unfinished and has many side effects (I double checked). Our support team sometimes hands out special beta builds of games to customers with problems to test out theories and patches before they are released but that is once we have given them a once over and they are specifically designed for that purpose.

If you contact support [AT] feralinteractive with your support report we can have a look into your machine setup etc and see if we can find out what is happening. You can also PM me but I would prefer if you contact support so we can keep track of the problem and start collating information. Please let the support team know you have spoken to me on IMG and I will make sure I follow the progress. Any problems PM me (I freed up space on my PM). However I think this is a good time to take the support questions you have offline as it will likely be a bit more productive and hopefully get a resolution once we work out and reproduce the exact problems.

Once we have a resolution I am happy to post (or you can) the resolution in this very thread but the actual investigation is easier to do in a none public forum.

Cheers,

Edwin

[UmarOMC1]

One thing I've noticed is under the Support tab in the launch window I've the radio button Automatically Check for Updates checked but next to Last Check is always Never. Should it state this unless it finds something?

[Janichsan]

UmarOMC1, on 05 September 2011 - 11:02 PM, said:

One thing I've noticed is under the Support tab in the launch window I've the radio button Automatically Check for Updates checked but next to Last Check is always Never. Should it state this unless it finds something?

From my experience with other self-updating Feral games I'd say that only changes when a patch has actually been downloaded. It's a bit counterintuitive.

[edddeduck]

Janichsan, on 06 September 2011 - 12:48 AM, said:

From my experience with other self-updating Feral games I'd say that only changes when a patch has actually been downloaded. It's a bit counterintuitive.

It's an old bug that sometimes crops up on some machines and is somewhere in the sparkle library (the update framework we use) I think it was fixed in the cocoa version of the framework a while ago but we use an older version based off the Carbon port of Sparkle. Just to make clear no patch is in development right now but if people have problems we will investigate and start work on a patch if it is needed.

Edwin

[iRolley]

Hurray ! Feral's support offered me a download link so I don't have to wait for the DVD to ship. Once again I am amazed by the quality of support offered by Feral  

[Vallen]

Do you know when this will be available on the Mac app store?  I have itunes money burning a hole in my pocket...

Thanks.

[Vallen]

OMG....it's up...consider this bought 4 times by tomorrow evening!!!  Let the races begin!

[UmarOMC1]

Vallen, on 08 September 2011 - 12:41 AM, said:

OMG....it's up...consider this bought 4 times by tomorrow evening!!!  Let the races begin!

It's on the Mac App Store he means... I just saw it.

[bismilah]

I have a problem registering in Game Ranger to play online. GR says "impossible to contact registration server". I tried a numerous times.
A bit disappointed since the actual game registration with Feral was flawless. (there are 4 attempts, I used 2 to register on 2 macs at home)
Should I complain directly to gameranger ?

[Vallen]

I too am very disappointed with network play requiring game ranger.  This game needs and deserves direct IP.  I don't care about the mac to mac network limitation because all of my buddies are on macs also.   The game has a ton of menus as it is (typical idiotic console type of thing) and adding another layer with game ranger is just not ideal.  Of course that would be tolerable if it worked...but it doesn't.  Tried for 45 min with a buddy to get the game to work online with via game ranger...no dice...some attempts it would hang on the connect screen others it would take me to the game setup/lobby but on my friends computer he would get a couldn't connect to server failure screen on their side.

Does the game need any port mapping?  What are we doing wrong?  Will report on performance on my 3 macs a bit later...

[linkc]

Does this game support racing wheels?

[JaguarGod]

linkc, on 11 September 2011 - 05:34 PM, said:

Does this game support racing wheels?

Yes. I have tested the Momo, Driving Force GT and G27. All the Logitech wheels have FFB (if you have Lion, you need to reinstall the Logitech FFB kext to have FFB). It also works with the Thrustmaster F430, but with no FFB.

If you have Lion and want to install the FFB kext, please see my post in this thread here. (scroll down a bit)

[linkc]

It is good to know, thank you.  

[iRolley]

Well, I've been playing it for a while now, it is an excellent game, performing great on my i3 iMac (2010) at native resolution.

[Wumpus]

It is tons of fun. I wish there were more people playing it on GameRanger though.

[The Animaster]

I finally broke down and decided to get Dirt2 (mac) from the Mac AppStore. Well damn. I'm pretty happy ~!!!!!

Now WHY on earth ... well because I had to de-install D3 (which I'll admit -- was a dirty download) on bootcamp because I had to resize my bootcamp partition. No can do -- I lost the app needed to extract the dirty download etc. Screw this, I thought. I made up my mind to buy the full game anyways -- but friggin' Bangkok got flooded and we had to move -- well away from civilised software retail shops!!! So confound it -- I couldn't get an original version of D3 when I needed it. Instead I got Need for Speed SHIFT 2 -- AND IT SUCKS!!! On my macbook pro running at 1680x1050 resolution on a 1GB Radeon 6750 and 8GB RAM (OK, so I'm running a 32-bit version of Windoze Home Edition... don't ask) the graphics have to be turned down to compensate!! Dirt3 was not like that!! I missed D3 even more!! So much that.. that..

Well... that's ultimately what pushed me to get D2 for mac. No more need to run Parallels Desktop 7 (which ran D3 absolutely SMOOOOOOOTH!! And yes -- fully paid-for version of PD7!!).

What's ~REALLY~ cool (but feels just downright dirty)?? UNLOCKING ALL CARS!! SWWWwwweeEEEEET. One of the things about the bootleg copy of D3 I had was that I never really wanted to play it ~that much~ because I knew my progress wasn't being 'saved', I couldn't create my own online profile etc etc -- I KNEW that I was playing a dirty copy and that took a lot of the honour out of my game progress. I wanted to play on the real 'I-shelled-out-my-own-money-for-this' things with all the advantages and privileges. I can do that now with Dirt 2 for mac, with the added bonus of unlocking all the cars. Pretty sweet for 39.99. I think I've earned it.

Now NFS SHIFT2? It's a different thang... and well... despite it being so, I have to say that DIRT makes use of graphics is a HELL OF A FAR SUPERIOR WAY than NFS does. I mean I don't get it -- why can't the EA do for NFS what Codemasters do for DIRT? CLEARLY I know which game I'll be going with in the future!! If your programmers are a lazy bunch that can't spit the pixels properly -- I say support the ones that do. I feel doubly bad for actually shelling out for NFS when I REALLY REALLY REALLY just wanted to get D3 (even if it was the PC version.. still better than NFS though)! Well, that's it for me and EA titles -- though I'm thinking of replacing my bootleg copy of the Sims 3 with the Mac App Store version (fully purchased, of course)!


EDIT: There ~is~ no mac app store version of The SIMS 3. Oh well. Sorry EA.

[Eric5h5]

The Animaster, on 16 November 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

EDIT: There ~is~ no mac app store version of The SIMS 3. Oh well. Sorry EA.

Get it from macgamestore.com.

--Eric

[Janichsan]

The Animaster, on 16 November 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

... a dirty download ... the bootleg copy of D3 ... my bootleg copy of the Sims 3 ...

You make Baby Jesus cry.  

[Wumpus]

Not sure sure that post with all the bootleg admissions is really the uh, best thing you want to do?