We’ve been testing our client on several different machines, and I wanted to report our findings, so you can have some idea whether it’s likely to be playable on your machine.
First, let me just say a little bit about how we chose machines to test on. We wanted to make sure Mage Faire is playable for the vast majority of gamers. How do we do that? How do we even know what kind of machines the vast majority of gamers have?
It turns out that statistics are available on the computers of a large population of gamers! Steam, the game web-site/community run by Valve, collects data about what kinds of computer hardware their customers are using. And they’ve made the statistics publicly available. We chose machines to maximize player coverage using those statistics.
There’s a compelling reason for focusing on Windows before Mac: almost 95% of players reported playing on some version of Windows. So, we have tested on the following Windows operating systems:
- XP Service Pack 3
- Vista 32-bit
- Vista 64-bit
- 7 64-bit
- 8 64-bit
It works on them all. We didn’t test on 32-bit Windows 7 or 8 only because we didn’t have any handy. We will when we get a chance, and we expect them to behave similarly to their 64-bit counterparts.
What if you have an older OS than Windows XP? I’ll try to say this gently. I know you have a history with this computer. You’ve been through a lot together and have made so many memories. But, if you want to play in a 3D virtual world, I’m afraid your old friend will not keep up.
Interestingly, the statistics from our alpha questionnaire differ significantly from Steam. Only 75% of our respondents play games on Windows; 18% play on Mac. That’s motivating us to port to Mac as soon as possible after getting our very first alpha test off the ground.
In the Steam survey, 96% had 2 or more CPUs. We’ve tested on machines with 2, 4, 6, and 8 cores. Our client works fine on all of them. We were hoping to score an old machine with processor speed between 2.0 GHz and 2.29 GHz, because about 92% of Steam respondents had that speed or better. When we went to our local used computer shop, they had a handful of used computers to choose from. The closest we could get was 2.3 GHz, which we thought was close enough. Our client runs great on that machine.
Almost 99% of Steam players reported having 256 MB or more of video RAM. When we bought that used machine, in order to hit as many parameters as we could, we got them to install a video card with 256 MB of video RAM, and Windows XP. We decided that this one machine can be our benchmark. We’ll make sure that everything runs great on this machine, and that will define our minimum system requirements.
At first, when we ran around our alpha areas on this older machine, we weren’t getting the frame rates we wanted. It was sluggish in some places, and not so fun. So the art department reorganized the world to improve that. (That’s the power of magic for ya!) Now, you can run all around the alpha areas and get 30 frames per second (fps) or better everywhere.
We were so excited by how well everything did on the benchmark machine, we decided to try some machines that were even lower-end, just to see what would happen.
We tried a new-ish (bought this past Christmas) non-gaming laptop. What do I mean by non-gaming? Well, it only cost $300, so you know it’s not the highest-end machine. The dual 2.10 GHz processor and 4 GB of RAM are pretty modest by today’s standards. Perhaps even more important, it has on-board graphics, rather than a separate graphics card. It also only has 32 MB of dedicated video RAM. Recall that our benchmark machine has 256 MB. Our development machines have 1024 MB.
We ran around in all the same alpha areas on this laptop, and were seeing 24 fps or better. For anyone who may not be aware of this, 24 fps is how fast a movie plays in a movie theater. For some people, 24 fps is playable. For others, especially hard-core gamers, 24 fps is a joke. So, this system is in sort of a gray area. It would not be the best Mage Faire experience.
Then we got crazy. We tried an ancient (from 2007!) non-gaming laptop with 32-bit Windows Vista, dual-core 1.80 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, and 128 MB of video RAM in an on-board graphics processor. On that machine, we got as low as 10 fps in some areas. That is pretty darned unplayable. We cannot recommend it.
We suspect that the real problem with these laptops we tried is the underpowered on-board graphics with insufficient dedicated video RAM. We’re trying to render a 3D world here, and so a graphics processor with little or no 3D acceleration just limps along. Because of that, it’s not feasible to support low-end laptops or netbooks that were not designed with gaming in mind. It might be playable, but we can’t promise it. You probably need a real graphics card. Not a very hefty one, but an actual graphics card nonetheless.
We declare our benchmark machine to be the minimum we support:
- 2.3 GHz dual-core processor
- 2 GB RAM
- graphics card with 256 MB dedicated video RAM
- Windows XP Service Pack 3, or later Windows operating systems
If you skipped to the bottom line and didn’t read anything above, let me just say here, again, that this really is a low-end gamer machine. We chose it because 90+% of gamers already have a computer that equals or exceeds these specs. We hope (we hope, we hope!) this is good news for most Mages.
Good news that you’ll be looking at Mac soon!
While a bit confusing to me (a very much not computer person), it seems like you’re on the right track 🙂
Yay seems I have all thats needed…
Huzzah!
Can’t wait for this to be released c:
Yeah! I can’t wait for the test!
w00t!! Ready for the test! Thanks for the update : )
The fact that so many of your alphas run Mac might be a clue that the Steam numbers might not be as relevant to your potential audience as you might have thought at first. Thank you for noticing this, and for bringing your game to Macs ASAP… I think you are poised to take advantage of a huge number of people who are not typical game players, but creative, intelligent, and looking for something different. I don’t know the numbers on the hardcore Glitchens, but I’ll bet their Mac numbers were even higher than what you’ve seen in your alpha. We are ready to play… give us a game! Giantus Gratitudio!
Woot! My computer qualifies. I thought it would since I could play Glitch very handily. Now things should be even better since I now have cable Internet. I think Lilith speaks words of wisdom and truth.
Thanks for the detailed information. I think most game devs do this testing but I have never been told much about it. Seems like my new laptop is ready for the test!
Oh getting excited can’t wait to test the game.
The first game I ever played was Glitch, and I’m psyched that my fancy new laptop will handle this one without a problem. Yay! Can’t wait.
This is all quite interesting, even to a non-techie like me! I am glad to see I meet the minimum needs because I WANT TO PLAY! Thanks for the post.
This sounds like great news! I am excited to check out this game. If you put as much thought into the Actual Game as you have into the above specs FOR the game, then we should all be in good shape. Thanks for letting us know.
Luckily, Glitch+Flash killed my “old” laptop, so my new one will be perfect for Magefaire.
My Windows and I cannot wait!
I’m excited, and like the idea of pitching to low specs as it broadens the gameplay to more users and also encourages you the wonderful dev team to focus on what makes a spectacular game and not just on pretty but intensive padding.
It’s not that we won’t upgrade our computers… just some of us don’t have the money to do so. With regards to that, some of us have very nifty work arounds to cope with our dinosaurs so we are just as savvy as the folks with Alienware coming outta their ears lol
Hurrah new lap in time wds 7 home premium.should take anything in 3D. Ty for the uddate
I am excited and ty all for all your hardwork.
As another Mac Glitchen, I’m looking forward to the Mac testing!!!!!
Yes – please push forward with Mac – many of us have “switched” and are quite happy with our Macs. I can run things on Parallels but find the PC world annoying now. Thanks and I can’t wait.
Thanks for keeping us up to date on what is going on! I know you all are working hard, and I can’t wait to see the world you have created for us to run crazy in! 🙂
Yahoo….game on!
Finally, something to do with my life! 😀
My ‘puter passes with flying colors and I’m ready and raring to go. I cannot wait to see what you have in store for us. Thanks so much for keeping us in the loop!
No linux… *sniff* But hope everyone else has a good time 🙂
All good news…thank you!
Thank you for that information!
My machine is a bit older, but should run well within thse parameters
I am surprised that only 5% of your potential players use Macs. Everyone I know has a Mac. Please don’t delay us too long!
++ on the Mac support. I think historically there have been more gamers on Windows, but my understanding is that Mac use has been on the rise for many years, and those users tend to spend more on software. Just like others here, everyone I know uses Macs. I only use a PC when absolutely necessary, and I do so by dual-booting my MacBook Pro.
Also, I work in the game industry, and almost all of us in my studio are on Macs (although we’re mobile, Android/iOS, developers). Cross-platform code FTW! 🙂
Sounds good to me!
Sounds like my laptop will do fine. Bring on the Alpha!!!
Will be lagging for me? I’ve got an Intel Pentium b960 which means that i have 2cores 2.2GHz by core. I have 6GB of RAM and an integrated but great (1GB graphics card). Only my CPU is under the borderline of the minimum system requirements.
vargaszmarton, it looks like your system will handle it. Your specs are better than the laptop that was 24 fps or better.
I’m still waiting…..I had almost forgot about Mage F. Haven’t hear from anyone in a long time!
I’ll check back every so often to check for a Mac version. Farewell until then and I hope to see you soon!
Consider adding this to the FAQ? I had to search around for a while before I found it. 🙂
BTW – if you only checked to see how beautiful graphics look on new big iMacs it would be hard to go back. So awaiting and will try under parallels but PC is so limited for me. Yes we Mac users tend to spend more time gaming and also spend more on the game. That demographic should be recognized.
So as I have posted before waiting a bit less patiently than before. MA
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