Torque Demo slow on my Mac - noob
by Marc Buckingham · in Torque Game Engine · 04/29/2004 (11:42 pm) · 11 replies
Hello,
I have a 12inch power book 867mhz 256 ram, Ge force 4 with 32 meg of Vram
The demo dropped frames, was quite sluggish to update in parts. There didn't seem to be that much going on in the demo, I mean its not a full game or have 8 players going head to head in it.
I have read on the forum that people have had Torque running on much slower machine so my questions are -
1 . Is it slow becasue you have all the mission builder stuff in there - which wouldn't be when you compile a game
or
2. Is my mac too slow for Torque? I don't see how, becasue i have read on the forums of people running slower macs than me.
Thanks in advance for any info.
( sorry all these posts but I am close to buying it )
I have a 12inch power book 867mhz 256 ram, Ge force 4 with 32 meg of Vram
The demo dropped frames, was quite sluggish to update in parts. There didn't seem to be that much going on in the demo, I mean its not a full game or have 8 players going head to head in it.
I have read on the forum that people have had Torque running on much slower machine so my questions are -
1 . Is it slow becasue you have all the mission builder stuff in there - which wouldn't be when you compile a game
or
2. Is my mac too slow for Torque? I don't see how, becasue i have read on the forums of people running slower macs than me.
Thanks in advance for any info.
( sorry all these posts but I am close to buying it )
#2
I'm plodding along on my PowerBook... almost exact same config as yours. One of the beta testers is running a 1 Ghz machine, and it's perfect. One of the other testers is running on a G4-400. Guess what? They are playing just fine at reduced detail levels, just like I'm running my Powerbook (though I think he dropped his a bit further). Why in the world a G4/400 was able to run the game in the first place is a mystery - if someone had asked if it would run on thier machine, I would have said no.
Torque seems really odd about performance on the Powerbook 867 so far. And hosting a game -vs- joining a game? It seems like the gfx is the problem - I haven't seen any decernable impact on running a server with 3 or 4 connections -vs- just playing connected to another one. I can't say much about other Mac user experiences though (one o' these days I'll have a nice Dual G5 setting here to test it out on... ;-)
Removing the mission editor stuff won't gain you anything, I don't believe.
04/30/2004 (12:03 am)
I'm running a beta test for Trajectory Zone right now (Torque based game) and something interesting happened... I'm plodding along on my PowerBook... almost exact same config as yours. One of the beta testers is running a 1 Ghz machine, and it's perfect. One of the other testers is running on a G4-400. Guess what? They are playing just fine at reduced detail levels, just like I'm running my Powerbook (though I think he dropped his a bit further). Why in the world a G4/400 was able to run the game in the first place is a mystery - if someone had asked if it would run on thier machine, I would have said no.
Torque seems really odd about performance on the Powerbook 867 so far. And hosting a game -vs- joining a game? It seems like the gfx is the problem - I haven't seen any decernable impact on running a server with 3 or 4 connections -vs- just playing connected to another one. I can't say much about other Mac user experiences though (one o' these days I'll have a nice Dual G5 setting here to test it out on... ;-)
Removing the mission editor stuff won't gain you anything, I don't believe.
#3
Do you have the latest videocard drivers? (Insert other standard questions here.) What graphics settings are you using for the demo? What kind of framerates are you getting?
You can check the fps by opening the console (hit the ~ key), and typing in:
metrics(fps);
Hit the enter key, then close the console by hitting ~ again.
Let us know so we can get a better idea of what sort of performance you are talking about.
04/30/2004 (3:00 am)
Marc,Do you have the latest videocard drivers? (Insert other standard questions here.) What graphics settings are you using for the demo? What kind of framerates are you getting?
You can check the fps by opening the console (hit the ~ key), and typing in:
metrics(fps);
Hit the enter key, then close the console by hitting ~ again.
Let us know so we can get a better idea of what sort of performance you are talking about.
#4
04/30/2004 (7:09 am)
Alex and I have the same computer and it runs fine. Work with Josh to see if you can identify the problem.
#5
04/30/2004 (8:36 am)
Davis : it's the difference between a laptop and a full desktop, ie bus speeds, memory speeds, throttling mobile CPUs, and whatnots, with the very important factor of mobility vidcards, same as in the PC world :)
#6
Ok, one thing I have never done is upgrade video drivers on on my mac - I presumed it was built into the update. Since the suggestion of upgrading the drivers, I have looked on the Nvidia site, Mac site and looked in the software update but to no avail - I just camt find any driver updates for my GeForce4MX. I must be really missing something bloody obvious here becasue upgrading drivers for my pc at work is bloody easy.
- metrics(fps); -
Ran that and I was getting 10 - 12 fps at 640 x 480 on the buggy demo, and thats not getting the buggy moving. It must be a driver issue. I wasn't running any other apps.
If someone one could help me find that driver i would be very greatful.
cheers Bucky
04/30/2004 (12:32 pm)
- Drivers - Ok, one thing I have never done is upgrade video drivers on on my mac - I presumed it was built into the update. Since the suggestion of upgrading the drivers, I have looked on the Nvidia site, Mac site and looked in the software update but to no avail - I just camt find any driver updates for my GeForce4MX. I must be really missing something bloody obvious here becasue upgrading drivers for my pc at work is bloody easy.
- metrics(fps); -
Ran that and I was getting 10 - 12 fps at 640 x 480 on the buggy demo, and thats not getting the buggy moving. It must be a driver issue. I wasn't running any other apps.
If someone one could help me find that driver i would be very greatful.
cheers Bucky
#7
You might want to have a look at this list (chances are the updates were part of an OS upgrade, etc)
www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/
04/30/2004 (1:30 pm)
Hmmm, isn't Apple in charge of all nvidia things on the Mac ? ie drivers, firmware are all Apple supplied if memory servers me.You might want to have a look at this list (chances are the updates were part of an OS upgrade, etc)
www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/
#8
Yeah, it sounds like something is wrong; you are not getting standard Torque performance for the system you describe. If you measure fps with other games, what sort of rates do you get?
04/30/2004 (1:43 pm)
Marc, I think the newest nVidia drivers were released with OSX update 10.3.3. If you got that, I think that's the best you can do.Yeah, it sounds like something is wrong; you are not getting standard Torque performance for the system you describe. If you measure fps with other games, what sort of rates do you get?
#9
Can't say I agree with Apple's upgrade politics :)
04/30/2004 (2:13 pm)
Josh : he's running 10.2.8, like me, so 10.3.3 is not an option... Can't say I agree with Apple's upgrade politics :)
#10
I will be be upgrading to 10.3.3 in mid May and that could solve all my issues, but i still have consider the games i would make with Torque might be for people running 10.2.8 or earlier on similar setups. Maybe its just particular to the 867 powerbooks - maybe not many people are running torque on it with 10.2.8 so there a few issues reported, but i still think its casue for concern.
The frame rate I get in LORE demo is between 7 and 14 FPS at 640 x 480.
I agree about apples upgrade politics Nicolas - hmm Maybe its time for a new thread asking spefically about slowness of Torque on my spec Mac?
Any other ideas guys? I have hunted long and hard for drivers on the apple site but anything i try, like firmware upgrade, i find I already have them.
Stumped...
Bucky
04/30/2004 (3:00 pm)
Hey Josh,I will be be upgrading to 10.3.3 in mid May and that could solve all my issues, but i still have consider the games i would make with Torque might be for people running 10.2.8 or earlier on similar setups. Maybe its just particular to the 867 powerbooks - maybe not many people are running torque on it with 10.2.8 so there a few issues reported, but i still think its casue for concern.
The frame rate I get in LORE demo is between 7 and 14 FPS at 640 x 480.
I agree about apples upgrade politics Nicolas - hmm Maybe its time for a new thread asking spefically about slowness of Torque on my spec Mac?
Any other ideas guys? I have hunted long and hard for drivers on the apple site but anything i try, like firmware upgrade, i find I already have them.
Stumped...
Bucky
#11
I don't know why there'd be such a big change in performance between 10.2 and 10.3... unless Apple just doesn't update drivers for 10.2 any more. But even if the drivers are old, something still seems strange with numbers that low.
Nicolas, what's your prognosis?
04/30/2004 (10:08 pm)
Hmm... I'm not sure if Jeff and Alex's powerbooks are running 10.2 or 10.3 :) Probably 10.3. Sorry I didn't catch the difference there.I don't know why there'd be such a big change in performance between 10.2 and 10.3... unless Apple just doesn't update drivers for 10.2 any more. But even if the drivers are old, something still seems strange with numbers that low.
Nicolas, what's your prognosis?
Marc Buckingham