Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Hap on September 23, 2006, 03:29:51 PM
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Well I went and bought a Mac. Never owned one before and the hardware specs appear sufficient to run Aces High. Will keep any interested parties posted on how the game works.
in a couple to a few days, I'll give it a whir. Will use Boot Camp. Discovered I needed an XP disk that contains SP2. That should arrive soon.
So far, I love it. But haven't had it long enough for any sort of objective evaluation. Got the 24" screen, 2.33 ghz chip/600+ mhz, 2 gigs memory, Nvidia 256 mb card/500 gig hd. Certainly could have used the same dollars and built/bought more PC. Just tired of Windows and bulk. This computer is about as deep as the distance from your index finger's middle knuckle to its tip. 20" wide. 18" tall.
Will report how the game goes. I anticipate "average" game performance. Nothing to hoot about but certainly playable.
Will appreciate any tips ahead of time from those who have experience or heard stories. If all goes well, will be back in the air mid-week or sooner.
hap
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Definately post your results Hap. I'd love to replace my PC with an iMac but I can't "live" without AH.
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Well... what's up? :D
Waiting to hear your report!! I'm debating building a new Conroe box this winter, or getting the same 24" iMac. I'd only have AH installed on XP and I have all USB CH gear.
Is this your first OSX Mac? If so, any USB 2 button mouse will work. Just plug it in; no driver necessary and all right-button functions work. Learning and using some of the tricks of the OS will spoil you, like having multiple apps up on your desktop. Just hit F9 and click on the one you want to bring to the front. Astonishingly intuitive and fast. When in doubt about how to do something, just think simple and it will probably work.
I'm hoping AH runs better than you're expecting. I think it will.
Let us know!
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Rolex, looking for a workable driver for the GeForce 7600GT. Skuzzy looked at the DxDiag and said nothing looked too out of wack. Right now, I'm downloading the 61.77 drivers.
It has 9.something and no bueno. Tried an 8421 based on a post by a pilot who tried the 9xxx drivers. 8421 didn't improve things. Also, 61.77 no dice. Will try something inbetween.
I can get the game up offline. Online, its freeze land.
Will keep you posted. I love the iMac. Whether I can find the right driver so things will run is another matter.
Boot Camp worked fine. Disk partitioned, formatted, and XP loaded up eaisly.
Will keep you informed.
hap
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Looks like finding a workable driver will be a tedious process. 61.77 is incompatible. 81.98 and 91.47 are a no go. Compatible, but wierd. Off line only sort of wierd. Online and I'm one of the frozen chosen.
81.95 is incompatible. 83.40 also brought no joy online and some wierdness offline.
What I mean by "wierd" is the clipboard's cover will rotate (sort of) and stop (sort of). But 91.47, 84.21, and 81.98 will get me to offline with a 60 fps view out of the tower.
So that's where it sits for now. Think I'll give it a rest until I hear from some gurus.
Regards,
hap1
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Is it a multi-core bug? (spinning clipboard) I thought that was AMD specific only.
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It may not be related to video, but to your network configuration. Online and freezing, but ok offline seems to point to the network connection more than anything else.
What type of network/Internet connection setup do you have?
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Very true, Skuzzy. OSX internal firewall is fairly restrictive and Hap may not have disabled it if he's behind a router.
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Skuzzy et. al., am connected via a DSL modem. As far as the firewall goes, yes; it's enabled. I can select it to an "on position" and in addition, under "advanced" settings, I can select block UDP traffic, enable firewall logging, and enable stealth mode (where uninvited traffic recieves no response.)
I have everything checked right now. Maybe turn it off and see what's what?
hap
p.s. on the Windows side of the disk, I've the firewall enabled as well.
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Sheesh. What the heck am I thinking... Duh. You're on Windows, so forget the OSX firewall comment.
Don't disable firewall since you don't have a router. Obviously you can connect in Windows since you had to download so many updates. Hmmm. Thinking...
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In the hopes of another pilot reading this and recognizing the symptoms and a fix, let me lay out what I'm seeing on my end.
When the game loads, it isn't quite right. Colors of initial clipboard a little off, gren-grey, and the clipboard seems as if it had a page or cover attached at the upper left corner by a ring that allows a single page or cover to rotate as the main portion of the clipboard remains stationary as it should.
Offline, the game opened and I could see out of the tower and look about. And things generally looked as they should. Frame rates showing 60 which is as fast as the Apple 24" display will allow I gather since in Windows > settings > monitor > advanced only 60 mhtz is selectable.
Offline, I'm frozen solid as glacier. I'll call the DSL techs come Monday and see if all is good as it should be in Windows as far as what I should be seeing on my end under the network menus.
The IRQ that holds the Vcard, looks pretty busy. Don't have it front of me, but it looked like 2 if not 3 items at the same location. Don't know what can be done about that if those who know recognize it as "oh yes, that's the prob." Can call Apple techs and see if things can be moved in the bios.
I'll also hunt the Nvidia driver archives for an improved driver for my GeForce 7600GT.
If anyone recognizes these separate (or perhaps related) probs. Fell free to weigh in or speculate. I'm in no big rush to get it right. Haste makes waste.
Regards,
hap
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The latest Nvidia SLI driver 9147 has a set of vertical lines on the left side of screen and SLI printed in lage letters in upper left corner. I got up to 167 fps, thats right ..167, but much less when tracers from ground in view.
I had to go back to the driver in the CD, 8421. Works great I did not like the new control panel anyway.
How 9147 records FPS in excess of my refresh rate (100) is beyond me.
8421 shows a steady 100FPS, dropping to 80's momentarily when bomber flames or a very low high speed pass over the airfield.
Amd 3500 64
Nvidia 7600GTXXX SLI x 2
Asus AN8 SLI Deluxe:aok
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Originally posted by Hap
Skuzzy et. al., am connected via a DSL modem. As far as the firewall goes, yes; it's enabled. I can select it to an "on position" and in addition, under "advanced" settings, I can select block UDP traffic, enable firewall logging, and enable stealth mode (where uninvited traffic recieves no response.)
I have everything checked right now. Maybe turn it off and see what's what?
hap
p.s. on the Windows side of the disk, I've the firewall enabled as well.
Hap,
Did you say "Block UDP Traffic" is checked? Does the term "lost UDP-switching to TCP" sound familiar?
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DJ, I also tried with it unchecked along with the other boxes unchecked and Mac firewall off and as well the firewall off in Windows too, with no knowledge that turning them off would accomplish anything.
The last time I tried to load the game, had the spinning clipboard page offline, but could get into the tower. Online, I froze.
Regards,
hap
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Hap,
You could not have done a better job of preventing AH from working.
You need to trash your firewall settings. UDP is how AH does it's best work and you had that blocked also.
If you had no idea these things would interfere, you may have other options enabled also that may interfere.
Off line, these settings should have no impact.
The spinning clipboard sounds like other peoples problems with video drivers.
Good luck.:)
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Originally posted by Hap
DJ, I also tried with it unchecked along with the other boxes unchecked and Mac firewall off and as well the firewall off in Windows too, with no knowledge that turning them off would accomplish anything.
The last time I tried to load the game, had the spinning clipboard page offline, but could get into the tower. Online, I froze.
Regards,
hap
Davenrino,
How does that HDTV work as a monitor? The idea has been on my mind for awhile. The veiw must be great.
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If you have a spinning clipboard with an Intel CPU, then the company who designed the motherboard screwed up the high resolution clock implementation.
A work-around would be to right-click on the Aces High II startup ICON, then select "Properties", select the "Compatibility" tab, then select Windows 98/ME compatible mode.
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Originally posted by maque1
Davenrino,
How does that HDTV work as a monitor? The idea has been on my mind for awhile. The veiw must be great.
Absolutely Spectacular!! :D
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I just checked and there are no issues with the high resolution clock when in OSX. All benchmarks show it in applications where it should be evident.
The game should run very well since iMac RAM is DDR2 and the HHD has 2MB of cache.
Apple can't give you any help about Windows, and that's what we need to consider here. It is a Windows machine if Boot Camp is installed correctly.
That is where I think the problem may lie. If it were my machine, I'd be looking at the Boot Camp installation carefully again. Making sure the updates were installed first from the Apple site, that the CD of drivers you burned was complete, and all Windows updates completed.
The monitor is limited to 60 Hz because there is no Windows .inf file for the monitor to show alternate settings. I'd bet someone has made one and you should try a search.
Don't turn those firewalls off since you don't have a router!
The issues have nothing to do with Mac settings anywhere. When in Windows, it is a standard Windows box.
One important question... you did install Windows XP SP2 and not try to install 98 or other flavor of Windows?
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Sorry Hap, didn't look again at original post about having XP SP2. My bad.
I'm going to scour some boards on the net to find out more about this. I'm as interesed as you are to see about getting it working.
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
If you have a spinning clipboard with an Intel CPU, then the company who designed the motherboard screwed up the high resolution clock implementation.
A work-around would be to right-click on the Aces High II startup ICON, then select "Properties", select the "Compatibility" tab, then select Windows 98/ME compatible mode.
Thank-you Skuzzy. I'll try it!!
Regards,
hap
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Originally posted by Rolex
One important question... you did install Windows XP SP2 and not try to install 98 or other flavor of Windows?
Correct Rolex. I bought a Windows XP disk with SP2 on it from NewEgg. All the stuff on Mac boards and w/in Boot Camps install guides says, Windows disk must be XP and it must have SP2 on the disk. That what I did.
I will try Skuzzy's advice as a possible fix. Nothing to lose. In short the boot camp install is quite easy. You start the "assistant" and it prompts you to burn a Mac driver CD. Pick a partition size and format method (NTFS or Fat 32 -- I chose Fat 32). 38 gigs is partitioned. Load windows just like one would on a PC. And it boots.
There were some semi-minor video anomalies upon Windows boot. Nothing major. Just some unusual stuff that settles down. I gather the designers of Boot Camp aren't finished with it yet. I will probably take another run at it on Wednesday my next day off. I'll haul the PC out of the closet and see if I can just plug the ethernet cable attaced to the DSL modem into it and get online. If not, I'll call the DSL guys and ask them to help me with my ipconfig etc.
Or, I bet I can get that info off my iMac?
So by Wednesday, I'll be up in the air either on the PC or the iMac.
Rolex, here's my reading of your points: leave iMac firewall stuff alone. Once into Windows, it's a Windows OS, & it's as if OSX doesn't exist.
Take care as I reinstall Boot Camp to follow instructions scrupulously.
Will let you know how it goes.
If any of you know how to speak computer-ese -- GeekSpeek --, the Mac Owners Support Group is where I've been getting much help transitioning to Mac. Smart fellers just like there's smart fellers here. There's a Boot-Camp forum within their forum. If you think you've got a possible fix, feel free to run it by them. No problem with me mentioning me and game etc.
Thank you all for your input very much :aok
hap
p.s. Rolex, thanks for the tip about the refresh rate!
p.s.s. I'll paste the address of this thread or the thread in its entirety there. Maybe it'll help.
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Hap,
Firewall, yes but don't block UDP traffic.
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Is it working yet? Did you ever try any other games than Aces High on this thing?
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Not yet Sancho. I've played the past 2 days on my PC. As it sits I've 2 separate or 2 related problems. I figure time will bring a fix.
I've a couple of days off mid-week might give it a fiddle then. Mac just updated their OSX. I downloaded it and will probably give it a go.
I've got a router problem. "Problem" is overstating it. I've a D-link router that seems to be seeing the internet connection (internet light blinks some -- yes, I pretty ignorant. And where my ignorance ends, I then am upon the shores of my incompetence.) but neither the PC or iMac can go online. I'll phone the DSL guys (my phone company) and probably they can tell me what I'm doing wrong.
I think I should at least have no problem going from DSL > router > PC. But I've got something snafued no doubt.
Thanks for asking,
hap
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Wow!! Max Resolution. Max Sliders. FPS stays pegged at 60 -- monitors max refresh rate. 24" of incredible Aces High!
The fix was to select "compatibility" with Windows 95.
Thanks guys for all the suggestions and help.
hap