The need to renew computers

Entropia Universe Discussion General Discussion
1

Didn’t want to mess up the “Storage in JC”-thread, so I’ll write here.

The storage got moved, and now people moan about it. Some said “The bigger cities are so lagged”. Yeah, they are, and more for people with older hardware. But this is an mmo, massive multiplayer online game. It’s supposed to be people here and there. And with the space-resort sale we all know more people comes. As of today, the engine that runs PE isn’t big enough to handle all those people at ones, especially for older computers, and implementing a new engine ain’t a piece of cake for MA.

If they did, we would expect: Server downtime (more than now), more bugs, possibly more exploits as things need to be rewritten, older hardware will be incompatible, forcing players to upgrade. And this will come one day. So why bitch and moan today, when a lot of you actually are sitting on old hardware? Yes it’s expencive, but don’t you like to get the best entertainment for your money? I bet it will even releave some stress for a lot of players who get aggitated when the lags occur. Remember, MA does not have all the blame for the lag.

To compare with some other games that are out there, here is a list of minimum requirements as listed on their respective websites, and recommended reqs from the sites.

Project Entropia:

Windows 2000 or Windows XP
Minimum 512 MB RAM
Minimum 1 GHz Intel / AMD CPU
Minimum NVIDIA GeForce or ATI Radeon graphics card
NVIDIA driver 7772 get it here or the latest ATI driver get it here
Minimum screen resolution 1024x768 (16 bit or higher)
DirectX compatible sound device
3 GB free hard drive space
DirectX version 9.0b, get it here
Broadband Internet connection (ADSL or better)*

World Of Warcraft:

Windows® System 98/ME/2000/XP OS:
800 MHz or higher CPU.
256 MB or more of RAM.
32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware Transform and Lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better.
4 GB or more of available hard drive space.
DirectX® 9.0c or above.
A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection.

EVE Online:

Minimal hardware:
CPU: PIII - 450 MHZ or higher
RAM Memory: 128MB (256MB for 2000/XP)
Hard Drive Capacity: 1 GB
Connection: 56k modem or faster
Operating System: Win98 SE, Windows 2000, Millennium, WinXP
Please note that Windows 95 and NT are not supported.
DirectX 9.0 or later
GeForce 2 or better, ATI Radeon 7200 or better, Matrox Parhelia.

StarWars Galaxies:

100% DirectX 9.0 compatible computer
Windows 98 SE, Millennium, 2000, and XP
Required: Intel PIII 933 MHz or AMD Athlon 900 MHz
Recommended: Intel P4 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+
Required: 256 MB RAM
Recommended: 512 MB RAM
Required: 32 MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L) Capability
Recommended: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability
PCI, USB or Onboard Audio Device
Quad Speed CD-ROM drive
Keyboard and mouse
56K modem or faster Internet connection
Microsoft DirectX 9.0
2.0 GB of free hard drive space. It is recommended that you have at least an additional 500 MB of free space available after installing the game for the Windows swap/page file and additional patch downloads.
ATI Radeon 7200/7500
ATI Radeon 8500/9000
ATI Radeon 9500/9700
Matrox Parhelia
NVIDIA GeForce 256
NVIDIA GeForce 2 family
NVIDIA GeForce 3 family
NVIDIA GeForce 4 family
NVIDIA GeForceFX family

Everquest 2:

-Operating System: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
-Processor: 1GHz or greater
-RAM: 512 MB
-Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible. Pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 64 MB of texture memory
-Sound Card: DirectSound compatible audio hardware

Recommended:

  • Operating System: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
  • Processor: 2 GHz or greater
  • RAM: 1 GB
  • Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 128 MB or more of texture memory
  • Sound Card: DirectSound compatible audio hardware

So, do you have the hardware to run these games? If not, do you feel MA should have old hardware in mind when developing PE?

2

Hmmm MA is poor :stuck_out_tongue:

Lazy programmers dont want to support old hardware…too much work…who pays ?

I agree PEs graphics are beyond todays standard… but not the gameplay…

Well, I agree for your coment on “more ppl, more lag, more exploits”…and noone might work on it…

sigh

3

I think they should. Im running on a AMD 2800 with 1gig and a 9800pro. Still having major lage due to grafics sometimes. Would be nice to be able to downscale it a bit ( in game ).

I can understand that eve online has less requirement, just look at the pictures. I looks fantastic, but they dont have to render a complete landscape. Only a few mobs with spheres are planets and loads of special effects. Others might have some special features turned of although i don’t think MA uses alot of special stuff that required such a system.

I believe it does use the same engine as Morrowind did and that game was very heavy too for my computer. But it is a great engine for RPG’s.

4

[QUOTE=Squee]
I think they should. Im running on a AMD 2800 with 1gig and a 9800pro. Still having major lage due to grafics sometimes. Would be nice to be able to downscale it a bit ( in game ).

I can understand that eve online has less requirement, just look at the pictures. I looks fantastic, but they dont have to render a complete landscape. Only a few mobs with spheres are planets and loads of special effects. Others might have some special features turned of although i don’t think MA uses alot of special stuff that required such a system.

I believe it does use the same engine as Morrowind did and that game was very heavy too for my computer. But it is a great engine for RPG’s.
[/QUOTE]

it is, the gamebryo-engine (which now is in version 2)

5

Btw, gamebryo and emergent just joined together

http://www.emergentgametech.com/

…and their “server-tool” sounds “good” to reduce lag :

http://www.emergentgametech.com/index.php?source=server-engine

6

I’m not used to getting lag in online, but I have been getting alot with this game. Also the graphics are nothing to write home about… so I don’t see why the specs are higher than most of the others (I guess that has to do with there being less programmers).

7

I’ve was playing EVE-Online for over 2 years before I came here - I could easily run 2 clients at the same time (a miner and a hauler), with no lag of any description.
Within a week of playing this I had to buy another 512Mb Ram to cope with PA and Twin.

I think it seems very computer intensive.

8

[QUOTE=Alcazar]
I’ve was playing EVE-Online for over 2 years before I came here - I could easily run 2 clients at the same time (a miner and a hauler), with no lag of any description.
Within a week of playing this I had to buy another 512Mb Ram to cope with PA and Twin.

I think it seems very computer intensive.
[/QUOTE]

Strange, I run two clients of pe at once, wit very little lag. Just run it as the thing you look out from in your house.

9

Ok, it’s all well saying these are the requirements of games, but we all know that games tend to need at least double the resources to run effectively.

What we should be talking about here is what sort of stuff people are running. Are they running firewalls and virus software direct on there pc or running the pc through a softwall on another pc, so it frees there pc up for all the resources and no harddrive thrashing etc.

I know for one, I will be rebuilding my pc and testing it on PE from time to time when i get a free moment, but it would be good if those people that don’t get any lag during the major attacks, would let us know what sort of systems they are running and firewall/virus configs. This could help us all improve our overall PE gaming and performance.

10

[QUOTE=Squee]
I think they should. Im running on a AMD 2800 with 1gig and a 9800pro. Still having major lage due to grafics sometimes. Would be nice to be able to downscale it a bit ( in game ).
[/QUOTE]

An AMD 2800, with 1Gig and a 9800 Pro is still a decent PC. Thats actually aroun 2.2Ghz, but comparable to a 2.8Ghz, so its not like your running on a hamster wheel or anything.

A 9800 Pro is still a very good vid card. I’ve been running a 9800 XT, which granted is slightly more expensive, but still in the same family. It just blew up, so while I’m waiting on the repair, I picked up an ATI X800 XT All in Wonder. We’ll see how that handles.

Regardless, with those specs, your PC should be no slouch. Perhaps you’ve got some spyware running thats taking up system resources? I dunno. If you’ve got Norton Firewall and all that extra stuff running in the background, close it all down. If your behind a router, then software firewalls are kinda redundant.

I don’t think MA should need to worry about the little guy. Microsoft doesn’t. Microsoft is about to bring about the demise of the CD-Rom. Wanna know how? The new Microsoft platform, Vista, is ONLY coming on DVD. They know they have a strangle hold on the PC market and they use that control. MA is a smaller company, but their idea is ingenious. They’ve gotta stay ahead and that means no compromises. People will find a way to upgrade their systems.

I think MA should test on some older systems, but they can only cut things back so far. Half Life 2 was rather uncompromising. It would run on lower end systems, but it looked like crap. It was designed to be the cutting edge of gaming. MA has created a MMO that breaks the mold in that most other MMO’s aren’t an FPS as well.

11

I think it’s hard to compare with other MMO-games, due to they often have several
servers, and a limit at 3k people/server or so.
PE must handle ALL accounts on same system, so with a intensive night, there might be
25k-30k people online, or even way more.