With 3.6.10 around the corner, it may be time to update FS2_Open's system requirements.
I'm making this a OSX-only thread because it always felt that performance on OSX was really different from what I would get on Windows. Correct me if I'm wrong. As for Linux, I simply have no clue.
I'm using a 2007 2.2GHz MacBook Pro (128MB 8600M) and I've found that the latest graphical improvement put such a strain on my computer I have to remove a huge lot of stuff to get good performance.
This made me think.. It could be interesting to define system requirements for limited "profiles" such as:
- High End : everything ON (advanced vps, normal maps, 16x anisotropic filtering, 1440+ resolution, spec, glow, env, mipmap)
- Quality : advanced vps, normal maps, 8x anisotropic filterting, 1024+ resolution, spec, glow, env, mipmap
- Performance : advanced vps, normal maps, 2x anisotropic filtering, 800+ resolution, spec, glow, env, mipmap
- Classic : vanilla
Such information could be relevant in 3.6.10 release notes / FAQ for OSX. A lot of folks will probably come in with high expectations for graphical improvements and realize their computer can't handle most of them.
Maybe four profiles is too much. Maybe someone with a more acute sense of FS2_Open features' performance cost can define more relevant profiles.
My laptop is only able to run (barely) the performance profile, hence this WIP system requirements chart:
- High End : ?
- Quality : ?
- Performance : 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 2.5 GB RAM, 128MB NVIDIA 8600M
- Classic : ?
One last thing. There were last time I checked some specific ATI/NVIDIA issues with FS2_Open. Maybe I'm a few years late on this but if there are still some, it would be worth mentioning.