PlanetSide: the New benchmark for Quality?

[TimberWolf2K]

To understand WTF I�m talking about you really need to have played 2 games
Unreal tournament 2003 And Battlefield 1942, I�ll explain why in a minute. For now take a look at the Minimum specs for each game:

Unreal Tournament 2003:
CPU: 733MHz processor
Memory: 128 MB RAM
Graphics Card: 16 MB

Battlefield 1942:
CPU: 500MHz processor
Memory: 128 MB RAM
Graphics Card: 32mb

Pretty similar aren�t they? But how do they run on a fairly middle of the road PC?

We�ll use my Comp to test it out

CPU: 2 GHz Celeron
Memory: 785 MB
Graphics Card: Geforce 4MX 64mb

Iv battlefield for a while now and its never ran very well, on some maps its almost unplayable, so I turned down all the details to minimum, it helped a little but I still didn�t have a game that was enjoyable to play, Even though Iv exceeded the minimum Specs for the game. But at least I was able to play, what was I playing again? Why is this blurry tan soldier shooting at me? What�s this large Tan colored box rumbling past me? It felt like I was wearing bear goggles (not the good kind) everything looked like something the Kat just coughed up and it still didn�t play at full speed (or anywhere close to it)

I played the Unreal 2k3 Demo before the full game came out and was utterly AMAZED at how well the game ran. The graphics are quite latterly jaw dropping even when the texture quality is set at medium. I set them all to �Highest� last night and almost wet myself. No drop in performance and the most beautifully rendered characters and environments I�ve ever seen. If I ever met the guys who coded this game I would offer to bare their Children.

So what�s the difference? Why does one game play smooth silk over a babies butt and one game play like I just got glass in my eye?
Well the nearest I can figure its all down to the effort put into optimizing the game. You can make a game in 2 ways:

1) you can take a look at the Average spec of the computers on the market and say. �Ok guys this game needs to be playable on a 3Ghz, 1gig Ram, 128mb graphics card Machine�

2) You can bust your balls and make your game play at 100frames per seconds on Cyrix 233, 32Mb of sim RAM, 12MB Voodoo 2. and say �Nice work guys we reached a huge market by tweaking our game to the limits�


So what about PlanetSide, every now and again we are hearing news of optimization and lower minimum specs. The specs are dropping all the time, they currently sit at:

Minimum Specs:

CPU: 1.0 Ghz or greater
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Graphics Card: 32MB RAM

The recommended Specs aren�t much higher:

CPU: 1.6 Ghz or greater
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics Card: 64MB+ RAM
I apologize for not being able to supply the recommended specs for the other 2 games, but a friend of mine just barely met the minimum specs for Battlefield and the game was 100% unplayable even with ALL the detail options set to Zero. We are talking 1 frame per second.

In my book Minimum spec means �You can play this game BUT you need to run with all the detail options set to Low, but you will still be able to play pretty well�
Recommended means �You can play this game at Medium � high detail setting and have a fully enjoyable game experience�
Anyone disagree with me? Sure sure some game manufacturers could Bullshit you into buying their game just to get your money but PlanetSide requires they people are happy.
Happy gamers = gamers who will pay to play

Besides, Dave would never bullshit us � read on.

Now going by what Dave said:
�Our memory optimizations continue, but we can currently (and easily) run the game on 32MB video cards and only 256MB of system RAM.�

Lets take his word for it.

They say they are Playing PlanetSide on their Minimum spec machine, I applaud that. I applaud the Dev team for pulling this off,

When PlanetSide is release I�m sure it will become a new benchmark for game performance.
�WTF?? Why am I getting such poor frame rates?! Theres only 20 bad guys on the screen, PlanetSide does 100 before I start dropping frames, this game blows!�

PlanetSide is gonna make waves.

[Sputty]

I hope so. I hope my 1 GHz chugs along at low. so it's playable.

[NARF]

true.

[Fire_Monkey]

I agree wholeheartedly

[Silencer22]

Yep

[TimberWolf2K]

Are you guys mocking me? your mocking me arnt you

[Fire_Monkey]

no, I was dead serious, why would we mock you timber?

[korezero]

Its hard to believe Im almost out of date again,

Current System:
1200 MHZ
384 DDR Ram
Geforce 3 TI-200

[TimberWolf2K]

Originally posted by Fire_Monkey
no, I was dead serious, why would we mock you timber?

Lol sorry, its like when your having a conversation with someone and they don�t really care what your talking about.

"yup"
*smile*
"Sure"
*nod*
"uh huh"
"I concur"
*nod*
"Yup"

The one word replies kinda made me think of that.
Hehe sorry for thinking poorly of you guys, and thank you for taking the time to read my post (sorry it was so long)

Its always good to know other people share your point of view

Originally posted by korezero
Its hard to believe Im almost out of date again,

Current System:
1200 MHZ
384 DDR Ram
Geforce 3 TI-200

Ack poor Korezero, the second you buy a new computer its considered out of date now a days
I read an article in PC gamer a while back about how to prevent your computer becoming obsolete.

You will need:
5 business class newspapers (the big kind that guys in suits read on trains)
2 Rolls of Duct Tap
Scissors
Glass of milk
Ear plugs and
Window putty

Step 1) Cover all windows in your house with newspaper, fix into place with the duct tape
Step 2) Cut your television, Modem and phone cables
Step 3) Put in ear plugs
Step 4) Stuff window putty into door frame and allow to dry
Step 5) drink Milk

Why did you do all that? because as long as you have contact with the outside world your computer will slowly become obsolete, every day that passes new technology is created and fine tuned, be it software or hardware.
Even Today�s Super computers will one day look like dinosaurs.
There is no such thing as a future Proof PC, and there never will be.

[Virtuoso]

You need a new 3d card. That one blows. I run Unreal2k3 and Battlefield1942 fine. What OS are you running?

WindowsXP
P4 1.5GHz 400MHz FSB
640MB PC800 (800MHz) RDRAM
GeForce 2 Ultra 64MB

-Virt

[MooKoo]

battle field is fun when it doesn't lag which is like well never i hope PS doesn't have a lag problem like battle field does

[Hellsfire123]

I run UT2k3 and battlefield fine on my comp. 1.65 ghz, 1280 ddr ram, win2k pro, and a geforce3 ti500. Hell i even run servers every now and then and dont notice to much difference. Only two games ive played have attempted to murder my computer. The DoomIII leak and some of the higher detail levels on Unreal 2.

If you take alook at the devs, and their devotion to the game, i wouldnt doubt that you can run at close to max settings at recommended specs. The artists are working so hard to make low poly models that still make you sit back and go "hey wow, that looks pretty". And if dave says easily run the game with 256, ill believe him.

[FraBaktos]

Battlefield runs flawless on my machine. I have P4 2.4 Ghz processor, 256 MB DDR ram, Radeon 8500 LE

[HawkEye]

is a pentium3 1.6ghz faster tha a pentium4 1.2ghz???

[korezero]

How does your video work in BattleField 1942... Mine isn't that good, and I have a Geforce 3 TI200

edit: This is to anyone