Halo... no fsaa

akumulatorakumulator
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I just got Halo and have been messing with the settings trying to get rid of strange pixel anamolies. Finally I went to macsoft's support page and here's what it says:





Quote:

Does Halo support Full Screen Anti-Aliasing?



This feature is not currently enabled due to rendering issues. We hope to enable this feature when driver updates from video card manufacturers resolve the problem.



This sucks. I just got a new display and Radeon 9800 and now one of the games I've been waiting for doesn't work all that well. Oh well... Other than that it seems pretty good. I'll get back to it.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    ensign pulverensign pulver Posts: 1,193member
    What do you mean "pretty good". Please give more details.



    Anyone out there running Halo on a 15" or 17" AlBook?
  • Reply 2 of 23
    akumulatorakumulator Posts: 1,111member
    I haven't figured out yet how to display the fps so I don't know the exact fps I'm getting... but, generally it feels around 30 most of the time (I have it set to cap at 30fps)... but during the first part before you get on the Halo planet, there were times when it slowed down during fighting with aliens. I have everything (except fsaa) maxed out.... 1280 x 1024.



    I have a 1.47 G4 quicksilver (2mb L3 cache), 1.12 GB Ram, Radeon 9800 pro, OSX 10.3.1



    So I'd say with lower settings and no shaders it'll run very well on machines less equipped than mine.



    Edit: I only played Multiplayer once briefly.... maybe it was just the map, but I didn't think it looked quite as good.
  • Reply 3 of 23
    slackulaslackula Posts: 262member
    Quick, stupid question from a newbie....What is anti-aliasing (in layperson terms). I have seen that term around AI here and there, but have no idea what it means....Thanks!
  • Reply 4 of 23
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    Anti-aliasing is the name given to processes that remove the "jaggies" from the edge of polygons. Normally, each pixel is taken from one "sample", given by the texture of polygon that occcupies the most space on that pixel. Anti-aliasing methods involve taking more samples, so you get a better estimate of the true value of that pixel. More samples means more rendering power is required.





    AA can also remove discontinuities between pixels in polygons' interiors but these are less obvious and are usually dealt with by other methods, like texture filtering.
  • Reply 5 of 23
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Here's an explanation of image antialiasing with pictures to explain.

    http://www.lunaloca.com/tutorials/antialiasing/



    (ahem. Google is your friend. First result from "what is antialising".)



    An aliased image:







    The same image anti-aliased:



  • Reply 6 of 23
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Halo = crappy console port of an already crappy console game.



    $$$$ MS.
  • Reply 7 of 23
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    A friend of mine tried running Halo on his PC today. He had it for a while and I had been bugging him since I learned about it to install it and try it out. Well, he finally got around to it today. And neither of us were impressed. He has a 1.8 GHz AMD machine with a GeForce 4 Titanium 4200, which is a pretty nice system. It was pathetic to watch his very fast PC running a two year old console game at 20-30 frames per second with no antialiasing. I know some people hate the console game because it's made by Microsoft and they're bitter about how it was going to be out on Mac a long time ago and stuff, but I liked the game on the XBox. However, the port is extremely sucky. It reminds me of a port of a PC game to the Mac. It seriously looked kind of like he was playing Duke Nukem, that's how terrible it was. I will not be buying the Mac version, although I'll certainly try a demo if one comes out. Or just download it.
  • Reply 8 of 23
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Luca Rescigno, I have an Athlon 1800+ and a Radeon 9500 (softmodded to a 9700). My experience is the same. I have to turn the textures down to medium and the res down to 800x600 for it even to be usable.



    And then you get to the actual game.











    And of course in the PC version the control system isn't properly ported. EVERYTHING the joystick does is now done by the mouse, so you have to use the mouse to steer the vehicles. Suckage.



    Barto
  • Reply 9 of 23
    zapchudzapchud Posts: 844member
    Bah, Halo performance sucks.



    I'm on a dual gig G4, with 1280MB RAM, RADEON 9000Pro 64MB. Running Halo at 800x600, medium details, vertex shaders - something that resembles the graphics of Quake 3, and RTCW. Performance is terrible, I'm pretty sure it is down in the 5-FPS-range pretty often, and it's never quite smooth.



    I hope for a performance patch someday. That's really needed. One shouldn't need a top-of-the-line machine to get acceptable performance out of this game, even on ugly-looking settings.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    Hmph, I have pretty much the same system except with a GeForce 4 Ti. I also have a single 1.25Ghz G4 with Radeon 9000 pro.



    When I get the game I'll fully test it out, hopefully it won't be too bad. It is a very bad port, from a very badly made console. No wonder on the Pc side it take an athlon 2800 with a Radeon 9800 pro to run it smoothly (and boy it does, way over 30fps).
  • Reply 11 of 23
    zapchudzapchud Posts: 844member
    I'll experiment more with settings, and run a couple of timedemos for comparison later.



    Expect the game to perform terrible.
  • Reply 12 of 23
    akumulatorakumulator Posts: 1,111member
    There are times where it slows down when there are many aliens on screen, but it's very playable. Sure it is repetative and some of the little aliens are annoying but it's a decent game so far. The first level before the planet was lame, but I like the rest so far. Like I said my settings are maxed and I'm getting smooth fps except for certain times but it's no big deal. It does kind of seem dated and the graphics generally aren't all that exciting compared to some other games, but I'm enjoying playing it......... for now. I've never been all that much of a gamer and have never played an xbox... so, it's new to me.
  • Reply 13 of 23
    flick justiceflick justice Posts: 632member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Akumulator

    There are times where it slows down when there are many aliens on screen, but it's very playable. Sure it is repetative and some of the little aliens are annoying but it's a decent game so far. The first level before the planet was lame, but I like the rest so far. Like I said my settings are maxed and I'm getting smooth fps except for certain times but it's no big deal. It does kind of seem dated and the graphics generally aren't all that exciting compared to some other games, but I'm enjoying playing it......... for now. I've never been all that much of a gamer and have never played an xbox... so, it's new to me.



    Yep, I'm happy with it.. I have only played the first level and Just got to the planet.. but it will be a nice break from playing Age of Mythology..



    oh wait.. I have to study..

    later.

    flick.
  • Reply 14 of 23
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    So ya'll think I can run Halo on my Cube? It's wicked fast, 450mhz G4, 384mb of ram, a huge 16mb of VRAM. It would be okay, right? I could get like 25 FPS I bet! I'm so excited, I'm gonna go buy it right now!!!







    (It seems that many people don't know that when someone winks it can indicate sarcasm. Note: The above smiley is winking, indicating sarcasm.)
  • Reply 15 of 23
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    funny...



    just started Halo up on an "ancient" rig



    G4 733MHz, 1.2GB ram, OSX 10.3.1, and a GeForce MX 32MB.



    I cranked up everything to max and 1024x768 and its still playable.



    The effects suck and the intensive things cant even be SELECTED... but it lets me play pretty well.
  • Reply 16 of 23
    msanttimsantti Posts: 1,377member
    From the looks of it, my Dual G5 with 9600 Pro would play this game like crap.



    And that is just sad.
  • Reply 17 of 23
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    I wouldn't say that.
  • Reply 18 of 23
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    funny...



    just started Halo up on an "ancient" rig



    G4 733MHz, 1.2GB ram, OSX 10.3.1, and a GeForce MX 32MB.



    I cranked up everything to max and 1024x768 and its still playable.



    The effects suck and the intensive things cant even be SELECTED... but it lets me play pretty well.



    That's because it has a "GeForce MX." Whether it's a GeForcd 2MX or a GeForce 4MX, it'll be bad either way. I think a Radeon 8500, Radeon 9600, Radeon 9800, or GeForce 4Ti would be the only Mac graphics cards that could play Halo well. Anything below those isn't really good enough for all the effects, although I was able to play a choppy-rific version with my dual 450 and Radeon.
  • Reply 19 of 23
    rampancyrampancy Posts: 363member
    Some more tidbits about Mac Halo performance at Accerate Your Mac:



    http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/stories/S16690.html#storytop



    There's also a link on their main page to some screenshots of someone who was able to enable FSAA.



    From what I've read this doesn't look good at all. If a Dual 2.0 G5 with a Radeon 9800 can't run this game well - even on the first level - I don't know what will.
  • Reply 20 of 23
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rampancy

    even on the first level



    Halo's first level has issues. It has worse performance than any other level in the game, even those with more stuff in it. Go figure.



    BTW, the first and last levels are the only fun parts to the game.
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