WoW woes
I browse the WoW tech support forums and I see people complaining about how Mac WoW performance isn't "on par" with the Windows version and how they threaten to go buy a PC if it isn't "fixed" in a month. Ugh... One thing I can't stand is the proliferation of bad information, like all the BS about Mac Half-Life's cancellation. The fact is, very few ports perform on par with the Windows versions for various reasons, some being inefficient code, inability for an OS X app to hog the CPU like in OS 9 or Windows, while others are due to driver performance issues, or even lack of features in Apple's OpenGL implementation. So for Mac WoW to magically perform as good as the Windows version and its Direct3D renderer in a month seems like quite a stretch since there's more than one party that needs to do some work. Yes, performance enhancements can still be made on Blizzards side and they're aware of that. They're working on it. But I can't imagine a patch in a month that would "fix" all the issues. And as is, performance isn't even that bad. You can play WoW at 15 fps and it doesn't have a huge impact on the ability to do anything. I've played the game on a Dual 2.5 G5, a Dual 1.2 G4 (both with the same 9800 Pro), and a PowerBook G4 800 w/ Radeon 7500. I had just as much fun on all of them. But for some, if the framerates drop to 20 fps for just a couple of seconds, the game is no longer fun? We're not taking Quake 3 twitch fests here...
Anyway, the only woes I'm getting from WoW has to do with sleep...
"One... more... quest... Oooooh, I'm almost to the next level. I have two more quests that *should* be easy to do in half an hour..."
Posted on December 30, 2004 at 9:50 am
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New Halo 1.5.1 update
Since IMG won't be updating for a bit I figured I'd post this here in case others don't visit AYM.
According to MacUpdate, there's a 1.5.1 patch which fixes an issue with drop shadows as well as the rendering problem with R200 chipsets (Radeon 8500-9200) and No Shaders.
Posted on December 30, 2004 at 9:35 am
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Readme files
Does anyone bother to read them anymore? Please! Read them! For the sake of software engineers and customer support staff everywhere!
Posted on August 31, 2004 at 1:31 am
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CoD, too?
Ooops. Everyone's posting blogs about CoD as well.
Hmm... Every Quake 3 game should be required to be rewritten to use CoD's much improved hardware T&L renderer, dagnabit! Could you imagine if Spearhead used the VAR/VBO heavy engine mods found in CoD? It might actually be playable considering it'd be pushing fewer polygons than CoD ;)
Posted on June 8, 2004 at 9:58 pm
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Halo, again?
Did I miss a memo again? Does everyone require a Halo blog entry? Well, then here's my take:
I like Halo. Something about the shotgun is just so satisfying. It's almost as fun as running someone over with a Puma And the graphics engine is interesting. It's a pretty damn advanced engine even by today's standards. The use of pixel shaders may be a bit over the top, but Shiny Master Chief is pretty cool. I've always been curious how the game would look if only models and a few surfaces used pixel shaders rather than just about every damn thing in the game. Seriously, the ground textures do not need pixel shading. UT2K*'s graphics are pretty damn nifty and that engine still uses relatively old style texturing.
Regardless, I still have a lot of fun playing the game. It was worth the money I paid for it.
Posted on June 8, 2004 at 9:55 pm
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