Speed issues on a 400Mhz G4

I'm currently running a 400 Mhz G4 with a little under half a gig of ram and a RAGE PRO graphics card. Pretty lame setup yes since the RAGE PRO is barely supported by OSX, but the minimum system requirements listed for Darwinia are a G3, and nothing else. I boot up darwinia, and lo, it runs at about 2 fps. I turn every option I can find to minimum 640x480, 16 bit color, every sound and rendering option turned to low. This boosts me up to an astounding 5-6 fps, which incase you haven't tried, is upleasent to the point of not being playible. The units become very difficult to command, and the shake from the camera moving when you select a radar tower causes the camera to bounce so much it's impossible to use them. If it does that on a 400 Mhz G4, what makes you guys think it can run on a G3? Is my computer just messed up?

This post has been edited by Chrysalis : 31 March 2005 - 11:39 PM

Yeah, the minimum requirements seem a bit low. I have a 17" 1Ghz G4 (GeForce 4 MX for graphics card) and my computer can barely play Darwinia (to the point that I don't even bother, I just wait until after my dad goes to bed so I can play on his nice dual-2Ghz G5 work machine :D)

Wow. if it hardly runs on your setup, they REALLY underestimated the requirements. a 1GHz machine is a long way from any of the G3s. Sure it'll open on a G3, but the minimum requirements should be what you need to actually PLAY the game, not just open it. I ran into a simmilar problem with GooBall.

This post has been edited by Chrysalis : 01 April 2005 - 04:29 AM

For me, it's playable--very jerky on the intro and at radar, but usable--seems to be worse at containment at garden, but I haven't tested that all that much.

I have an iMac 500mhz G3 with the 16mb Rage 128 Pro. Maybe G3s are just more special..

(edit: lowest settings, I get ~5 FPS. Still playable, EXCEPT THE RADAR DISHES).

This post has been edited by macmaxbh : 01 April 2005 - 10:05 PM

Aranor, on Apr 1 2005, 03:06 AM, said:

Yeah, the minimum requirements seem a bit low. I have a 17" 1Ghz G4 (GeForce 4 MX for graphics card) and my computer can barely play Darwinia (to the point that I don't even bother, I just wait until after my dad goes to bed so I can play on his nice dual-2Ghz G5 work machine :D)
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I have the same computer, and it plays fine on mine (although I added memory). I just have to turn the options to medium. On my laptop (900 mhz G3, 384 mbs memory, radeon 7500 mobility) its a little shaky though, I have to turn the grahpics to low.

Yourhead, on Apr 1 2005, 07:30 PM, said:

I have the same computer, and it plays fine on mine (although I added memory). I just have to turn the options to medium. On my laptop (900 mhz G3, 384 mbs memory, radeon 7500 mobility) its a little shaky though, I have to turn the grahpics to low.
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Really? I tried turning everything to low, and Garden was playable but Containment was like 2fps, which, to me, is not playable. I suppose it could be a RAM issue (I'm currently at stock RAM, because AppleCare told me my third-party RAM was bad - and yes, I know now that apparently that's a new standard practice, or something like that), but it seemed to me to be more likely a graphics card issue.

My specs are below. I set everything to low... even 640x480 16-bit (looks s**t) with lowest graphics and sound options all over. Running almost no other apps (a couple of background ones I couldn't be bothered to kill from Terminal).

Averaged 10-12 FPS on Containment when doing nothing, with (I'd guess) 2-4 FPS when I started grenading the spider. I also had some random spinning/moving of the camera during battle - not sure what triggered that. Maybe I was too close to being directly overhead.

Sadly, this lack of speed is what prevents me from registering. That and not knowing how much more I'd get for my money...? but that's off topic for this thread

Of course I'd love to buy a newer Mac... but not an option at the moment, sadly.

@Aranor: look up what RAM works on www.crucial.com

This post has been edited by Michael B : 02 April 2005 - 07:46 AM

On the other hand... I am really tempted to register.

Can anyone tell me: in terms of complexity, are the later levels worse or better than Containment? i.e. will they run any slower for me?

Cheers,

Michael B

Unfortunatly, the later levels are increasingly complex, and therefore, more taxing.

Yourhead, on Apr 2 2005, 07:00 PM, said:

Unfortunatly, the later levels are increasingly complex, and therefore, more taxing.
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Thought that might be the case. But I caved in and registered anyway. Just completed "Generator" on lowest quality settings, without too much trouble. When I eventually upgrade, I can enjoy it all over again with luscious graphics and sound!