Tales of Monkey Island running on Windows 7
Hello,
I have a new iMac 24'inch with the following specs:
Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 6MB shared L2 cache
Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory.
Naturally, games aren't too friendly with the Mac operating system, so an alternative such as Windows is required for a larger selection of games to play.
For those that don't know, Mac's have a program called "Bootcamp," which allows the harddrive to be split into a separate partition to install and run Windows. Not being a huge fan of Windows, but wanting to play the new Monkey Island, I decided to install the free Windows 7 Release Candidate 32-Bit version. I was told that the 32-bit version was recommended over the 64-bit version.
Once Windows 7 was installed, I downloaded Tales of Monkey Island and booted it up. It opened up in the incorrect resolution for my screen, so I did some tweaking to get it in full-screen mode. Once the resolution was set I started a new file and was met with a very laggy experience with a choppy framerate. To get the game to run smoothly I needed to change the quality to "1".
Considering that my system passes the requirements to run this game, I'm confused as to why I can only run this game smoothly on the lowest quality setting. Is it something to do with Windows 7? Is there any known problems about this game running slowly?
Does anyone have any solutions?
Thanks.
I have a new iMac 24'inch with the following specs:
Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 6MB shared L2 cache
Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory.
Naturally, games aren't too friendly with the Mac operating system, so an alternative such as Windows is required for a larger selection of games to play.
For those that don't know, Mac's have a program called "Bootcamp," which allows the harddrive to be split into a separate partition to install and run Windows. Not being a huge fan of Windows, but wanting to play the new Monkey Island, I decided to install the free Windows 7 Release Candidate 32-Bit version. I was told that the 32-bit version was recommended over the 64-bit version.
Once Windows 7 was installed, I downloaded Tales of Monkey Island and booted it up. It opened up in the incorrect resolution for my screen, so I did some tweaking to get it in full-screen mode. Once the resolution was set I started a new file and was met with a very laggy experience with a choppy framerate. To get the game to run smoothly I needed to change the quality to "1".
Considering that my system passes the requirements to run this game, I'm confused as to why I can only run this game smoothly on the lowest quality setting. Is it something to do with Windows 7? Is there any known problems about this game running slowly?
Does anyone have any solutions?
Thanks.
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Other then that, my only guess is that since Windows 7 isn't officially out yet, Telltale couldn't have really created the game for it, which might be the main problem.
Also, have you ran other games through Bootcamp? Do you experience the same problems with other less graphically intensive games, or even more graphically intensive games for that matter?
I'd suggest you double check your video drivers and ask around to see if anyone else has gotten it working with bootcamp.
I've only had the Mac for about a week, so Tales of Monkey Island was the first game I tried via Bootcamp. I'm guessing the issue might have something to do with Windows 7. I do have the original Windows XP disc, but apparently bootcamp requires the SP2 edition or later.
In the mean time I might try some other games and post their performance results.
By the way, I run TMI on my PC (Win7) on the highest setting with no problem whatsoever.
Emulating takes up a lot of resources and isn't nearly as optimized as running the operating system directly. So you lose out on a lot of resources ofcourse.
I think you're mixing up Boot Camp and Parallels. Boot Camp helps you set up your machine to dual boot; when you boot to Windows, it runs natively on the hardware; not emulated.
Also: My laptop has an nvidia 8600M; a full generation earlier than Dyne's. Though mine has its own memory (not pooled) so maybe that makes the difference?
Bootcamp is not emulating, it is 'pure' native goodness. Therefore if it runs on a normal PC with Windows 7, it should work fine on your Macbook, provided the specs match, so I assume it is indeed your integrated chip.
I have a late 2006 black Macbook with both VmWare Fusion (virtualization) with XP SP2 as well as Bootcamp with XP SP2. My Macbook has an integrated Intel GMA 950 64MB graphics set (shared). ToMI runs 'okay' in Bootcamp, not so much in Fusion (as expected)
You say your graphics card has 256MB shared with main memory. Sometimes graphics cards that share with main memory can be configured to use more/less of it. Is it possible to tell it to use more main memory? Maybe that might help?
Just Like you the game is very choppy if quality is set over 3...
Disapointing but I think we should have bought the iMac with atleast a Geforce GT120 or even better ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB....
Might be worth checking you've got the latest video drivers from nVidia's site, if you haven't already done that.
No, you're not going to get ToMI running at playable speeds, especially as that chipset doesn't have it's own video memory but has to share your main RAM, which kills any hope of 3D performance right then and there.
Why do people buy crappy, non-upgradeable Apple products again?
np: Underworld - Moaner (Underworld 1992-2002 (Disc 2))
Good luck to you in getting the game running well...
Btw, while the 9400 might be an integrated graphics card, it is still quite fast. Just look up some benchmarks. If it can run Doom 3 at 80 fps or more, TOMI with its simple graphics (no offense) should not be a problem.
Like jamesds said, make sure you have the right drivers installed. I don't know about the Bootcamp drivers that come with current iMacs, but I know that I took me some time to get Windows 7 running, since there's no official Bootcamp driver package as long as W7 isn't available at retail.
Did you try to install the Bootcamp drivers? Try to download the most recent graphics driver from the nVidia website.
Or you could take your XP disc and integrate SP2 (very easy to do with a tool called nLite, use Google to find it). XP is fully supported by Bootcamp.
Here's the recommended specs for Tales of Monkey Island (from [url] http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,689757/Tales-of-Monkey-Island-System-requirements-graphics-comparison-and-screenshots/Practice/[/url])
Here's the system requirement for Doom 3 (from http://pc.ign.com/articles/532/532023p1.html)
Is Tales any simpler than Doom 3 (a few year old game)? I doubt so.
I think players really need to shake off the mentality that adventure games will be forever compatible with slow machines. That is just not the case these days!
Because people like OS X, and can have the option of choosing windows? I know you could install OS X illegally, but that doesn't count. Besides, Apple tried licensing their OS a while ago, and it turned out their OS became more manageable and less buggy under their control, hence the non-upgradability.
True, I hate the non-upgradability, but given a choice between upgradability and ease of use, I'd choose ease of use.
I installed the drivers from the Mac OSX disc and they installed correctly. I also downloaded updated drivers from nVidia's site, although I think there is a compatibility issue with Windows 7. I got the following message:
"This is a response from a pre-release version of Windows 7. If you have feedback about this response, please use the survey at the bottom of the page.
Compatibility issue between a chipset in your computer and Windows
This problem was caused by a compatibility issue between this version of Windows and a chipset in your computer. The chipset was created by NVIDIA Corporation.
The model name of the chipset is NVIDIA nForce."
Not too sure what to make of that, but I did try to follow the steps provided but nothing happend.
Oh, and thanks for the info on nLite, I might try it out.
If the game running slowly has nothing to do with Windows 7, then would it be recommended to try out the 64-bit version instead of the 32-bit version? Apparently 64-bit uses your ram more effectively, but has less compatibility than 32-bit. If anyone could explain the two more in depth, I would be much obliged.
Here is a picture of my specs in depth, and according to Microsoft, I pass the recommended requirements to run Tales of Monkey Island.
The reason I purchased the cheaper option of the available iMac's was because I'm not a huge fan of having to update your hardware just so you can play the latest games. And considering that "Cloud Gaming" is supposedly coming later this year, and supposedly 100% compatible with MacOSX I figured that I wouldn't need to spend more money on better hardware if Cloud Gaming will work on any machine that can stream video. For more information, search "OnLive" and "GaiKai" in google.
Again, thanks everyone.
About Win7: At Q5 I get perfect framerate and at Q9 it's still acceptable with a GeForce GO 7950 with WQ index of 4.6 (5.9/5.2 for graphics)
I've still got my skepticism on the technology, but the demonstration videos seam to work very well.
Sorry, didn't think about a non-Sony gamer not being familiar with RemotePlay. The PS3 can be used as what usually be the provider and stream games to the PSP that way. It's not actually called cloud-gaming and the infrastructure is a little different since you control the host as well, but from a purely technical POV it's the same: Server hosts game, client sends input from client to server, server sends result back. This happens via a standard internet or a direct Wifi connection
Maybe TOMI is not simpler than Doom 3, but the graphics are far from being as complex as in many other current games. All I wanted to say is that the 9400M is not as bad as some people said in this thread. If it can run Doom 3 at 80 fps, it should be able to run TOMI without major problems.
Like I said, I put TOMI onto an old laptop with Intel GMA X3100 (and a Celeron 1,7 GHz), and it runs fine on quality setting 3. The 9400M is far more powerful (about 5 times faster than the GMA), so do your math.
Whatever the problem is, it's not the graphics chip in this case.
agreed.
ahem... watch this video, plz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz5Fc8k4M50
That guy reminds me of my maths teacher...