Renault on 14/4/2016 at 20:55
I've been testing out some FMs on a few different old computers I have lying around, trying to figure out what runs on what, and maybe come up with a baseline hardware spec that will run most Thief FMs. My main test unit (which is not my primary PC, thank god) is a Dell Core 2 Duo machine from around 2008, with integrated graphics and 4 GB of RAM. Here's a few missions that gave me trouble on that machine:
Death's Turbid Veil - The Mother. This laptop runs about 95% of FMs fine, but this one clocks in around 2 fps. Completely unplayable.
Keeper of Infinity part 1 - Same machine, I get around 10 fps. Barely playable.
King' Story, mission 2 - Depends where you are, but I get around 8-12 fps in the main courtyard areas.
Breaking The Stone - In the city areas, I get about 10-15 fps, depending on the view. Sorta playable.
The Farm - OK, except for where the corn stalks are, when they're in view, I get about 10 fps.
Forgotten Tomb - Slow in the intro area, about 10-12 fps. OK after getting down underground.
Any others you can think of that might cause some slowdown, stuttering, or be just plain old not playable?
Azaran on 14/4/2016 at 21:15
Eclipsed would kill my previous 4 GB ram PC, then the author graciously remade a lighter version because it was a problem for many people
Renault on 14/4/2016 at 21:37
Yeah, but that was last year. I'm asking again.
ZylonBane on 15/4/2016 at 00:35
Well that makes it okay then.
yxlplig on 15/4/2016 at 02:43
I played Endless Rain on an older PC (a Q6600 with 4GB of RAM) and I remember there was one time where the framerate dropped sharply for about a second. I think from looking up while I was down at street level. Probably any of the enormously tall NewDark city missions would be good for testing. Endless Rain, Between These Dark Walls, Being Thief 2 - I think those three are the most extreme examples.
nicked on 15/4/2016 at 06:06
Do I win a prize?
Also, sorry.
Unkillable Cat on 16/4/2016 at 19:25
One FM from yonks ago that fits this is "Durant" - before NewDark I couldn't run this FM at all due to something (located in the mansion) lagging the seven bells out of my computer.
With NewDark I can play it, but there's a notable lag in and around the mansion - similar to what I find in 'modern' FMs like "Death's Turbid Veil", "The Farm" and "Keeper of Infinity".
Thinking Robot on 17/4/2016 at 18:35
Heartcliff Island (the outside area) is completely unplayable on my laptop with only 5 fps (AMD Radeon 6600M, 8 GB RAM). Luckily the author added a light version, which runs better.
bjack on 20/4/2016 at 00:19
Unkillable Cat, funny how Durant kills your machine, or at least is slow. I used to run that one years ago on an old P3 733 mHz box with only 512 MB of RAM and a terrible video card and it ran just fine. The Farm’s corn field kills every single box I have. Many of the “fully exploited” new dark missions from the last 1 or 2 years are pretty tough on my i7 and Xeon boxes. I have to reduce resolution to 1300 X whatever... (Sorry, I don’t remember the exact res.) It seems that nVidia cards, at least for me, do not do so well with new dark. I may replace the older vid card in my workstation/server Xeon box and see how things go. Having 8 GB of mem, 4 GB of video, 4 cores, etc. seems like it should be able to play a simple game. It is a crap shoot of mismatched drivers, incompatible whatnots, and lack of voodoo trinkets surrounding the display. ;)
