Lol unsync FPS ftw. I can go long and deep about conversations about FPS, what people can recognize, etc. I deal with stuff like that all the time at work. Reality is while most people fall into the range of 60-80fps, some people can detect solid images up to 130-145fps. It's creepy, it's reality. No big deal - not arguing about that.

Man, I can't believe people would hang on to CRTs. Which one are you using to run at 120hz? The noise from the tube would drive me battier than running at 85hz (or spending the bonus cash for a 120hz LCD - 1920 ones are pretty pricy, tho 1680 ones are cheap). That was actually the bigger driver getting me away from CRTs to LCDs. Something about the noise from CRTs goes right through me - even if the kids leave one of the TVs on in their room which is on the other side of the house and upstairs.. I'll get up and go shut it off lol =)

The Cry3 engine has lower BASELINE requirements than Cry2, but remains one of the best engines for Eye Candy. The reality is that MWO is a late 2012 game. By then quad-core chips will have been in the market for 3+ years, nVidia GE5x and ATI 69x will have been out for over 2 years.. so expecting people to have machines to keep up with it isn't asking too much (especially since the "lifespan" of a gaming rig is about 3 years). The 280 (like my other machine with a 260) is now celebrating .. what.. birthday #4?

This means if the game does WELL - and keeps producing into 2013/2014 - you'll be working on machines that are 2011/2012 birthdates. I'll tell you on a "nothing special" machine at work (i5, 8gb, 560TI 1GB) the game performs really smooth at a 1280x1024 resolution (not ideal, not the aspect I play in) and I haven't seen the FPS drop below 60 other than when targeted by 2-3 people with missiles and flames at the same time.

That's not "horrible" by any means. I guess I'm gonna pick on you a little bit for having a great monitor, but an outdated videocard (based on your signature). You're a FPS junkie and you're not a console gamer.. so you should be willing to Sad Panda and agree with me.. it's time for a new Rig in your life and you should stop letting that ol' girl hold you back! =)

--Micah

I've led the pack here at BBF for many years and am not interested in bleeding edge. 280 SLI is far from outdated and should handle any game just fine and Quads shouldn't be the baseline for a while yet. I still get 120fps easy, just in not the turd called Crytek. What you're referring to is enthusiasts which according to the game dev companies are the minority of PC gamers. While that sad fact is annoying it's also true. Average gamers will have a laptop or a single 8800 card and dual core if lucky. I remember when the best rigs around could only run Cry 2 @ 60 fps without overclocking and they thought it was great lol. Drops below 60?? Anything below 80 is lousy and won't get my $$$.

You aren't the only guy on the forums that works with computers a lot...

I've had many a tube TV and CRT and know what you're referring to but not a whisper from my CRT and that 120Mhz you refer to has false frames to double the Mhz but isn't truly going to sync that high. No sync = tears regardless of frames and that isn't quality I'll accept. Also note the dot pitch matrix in the very high end LCD's might compete with my screen. I also do artwork and need it to have constant true colors that don't change/fade at viewing angles. The tech is almost there but it takes a very large widescreen to get the vertical area I have in this flat CRT. Nothing I need there either. My eyes, old as I am, are sharp and can pick up the haze called 'ghosting' and flicker found in LCD and it gives me a headache. I will admit that I like the expanse of Skaxis new monitor but it's actually a TV. Trust me, I want a visual upgrade because you guessed it, I'm a visual snob but sadly the true performance and visual quality of the LCD I want isn't available for under 800 bucks. Yet.

Full system build solely for 'Eye candy' from a engine that's notoriously a resource hog and still holds this title isn't enough for me to change a thing. POINT of the comment I made about them choosing Cry 3 engine was for this sole reason. The engine caters to high end machines and has never impressed me. It was never aimed at the average gamer so 'expecting quads and 5xx cards or higher' is nowhere near par for average gaming. My rig is far from outdated or average. Oh and btw, I don't just play games, I also work in level editing and design, actually using engines for rendering games. They could've... should've picked a better one for the average gamers out there.

You're barking up the wrong tree. No Pandas here

[quote="[BBF"]7yph0on]280 SLI is far from outdated and should handle any game just fine and Quads shouldn't be the baseline for a while yet.[/quote]

I'm simply pointing out ::

-- Quads have been out for a while (2006?).
-- They have become more commonplace since Sandybridge got running so over the last 12-18 months, most new machines are Quad-based. Chipmakers are invested in helping developers utilize the cores and this should improve processor utilization.
-- The average life of a gaming PC is about 3 years (whether bleeding edge or middle of the pack)
-- Agreeing with you that > 60FPS is ideal, and avoiding spikes is key
-- on Entry i5 boxes with 8GB & 560ti, MWO performs pretty solid for ~$1000 machines
-- Crytek (I believe) involved Intel in a lot of their design efforts specifically to leverage multicore processing. I may be mistaken on this. I know for certain that many other games have leveraged Intel and AMD to improve things.

Cry 3 runs a little slimmer than Cry 2, but has a ton of bells and whistles and is designed to be used for a long wihle. It's taken a while for hardware and drivers to catch up to it.

The engine catered to high end machines years ago - but not necessarily the high end machines of today.

I'm not saying you need ZOMG BLEEDING EDGE SLI WITH INSANE OC to run the Cry3 engine - I'm saying even with a real mid-line system as mentioned above, it sure runs pretty good.

It's too early in MWO's development to try to bother with benchmarking on it, but like I said - if a ~$1000 rig can run it well (which we both should be able to agree is far from bleeding edge) its worth re-evaluating how it runs on modern equipment.

Coincidentally, I agreed with you on the CRT/LCD front - but I have seen prices on good mid-range LCDs @ 120hz (Samsung 23A700D looks like a solid cheapie) around $400-600 that I'm hoping to get a good look at (though, reviews have seemed pretty solid). The noise from CRTs is something that I'm stuck with (I blew an eardrum when I was very young) - but I know other people also tend to go batty with high refresh CRT noise.

For what it's worth, You're not the only person who deals with producing video games, art, rendering, etc. It isn't relevant and taking this to a personal level benefits no one.

--Micah

[quote="[BBF"] Akkim]
That's not "horrible" by any means. I guess I'm gonna pick on you a little bit for having an outdated videocard (based on your signature). so you should be willing to Sad Panda and agree with me.. it's time for a new Rig in your life and you should stop letting that ol' girl hold you back! =)

--Micah
[/quote]

Then don't make it personal.

A thousand dollars (for MID of the latest rigs isn't true mid Gamer/end user) NOT including a UBERFTW LCD to get < 60fps... ends this discussion on a silly note proving my points.

Moving forward, I'll still be trying this game and expect to see many BBF on the battlefield. For one, I'm still glad to see Mech Warrior alive and well. Hopefully it's done right. I still have high hopes for this game and even mentioned early on for those that apparently didn't read the thread that I may get a nice quad. Got a lot going on this summer so we'll see.

Till then I can't wait to see more clips of actual in game mechanics/renders/action! Anyone find anything new?

There were some GREAT leaked videos on youtube about a week ago.. but they were NDA so bound to get pulled and I didn't bother linking them here.

The visuals are awesome. I'm thrilled to see Battletech going, I'd hoped we'd be able to get the IP for it (downside of our parent company is they're picky about going for IPs they don't own) to produce a game with bigger depth.

The real concern I have comes from how heavily Piranha tries to balance things out (since the original Canon didn't really let people explore just how big the speed differences make in a twitch-based game) =)

--Micah

Like I said hopefully the new cryengine runs more efficiently than the last one and my dual core comrades will be able to play it at a decent framerate.

"Frozen City" Map revealed this week btw - not sure if you've seen this ::

--Micah

Cool clip Akkim. I'm watching everything, hoping I can get in on the beta. With my dual core and previous beta testing experience I think I'm a good candidate! They did announce they wanted machines like mine so they could test/tune for good play at my tier. THAT would be great.

Yeah, the problem is they have a VERY large fanbase and very thin Beta hardware. I'm used to building environments for MMOs and FPS "matches".. so I'm a bit nervous if all they have for beta hardware justifies only having sent 10-12,000 beta invites to this point.

At the least, it's a F2P game with the ability to prepay for the founders packs (which I might do simply to contribute to development).. there's a bunch of vids out there, and it looks damn good. I like knowing that they're really taking advantage of water in maps for an insta-cool (and huge steam display) along with cold weather maps, etc..

Saw some news about larger maps where scouts & skills will be important along with being able to power down your mechs temporarily to go "off the grid" and such.. it's just got me excited about a high quality battletech experience.

--Micah

Are they serious with the $120 founders package? Would definitely do the $30 one or maybe debate on getting the $60 one but $120 with no lifetime benefit? Screw that. For that much money everything that ever comes out for that game should be free.