City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Ultra for Mac Q&A - Now Testing with I17 Open Beta

CuppaManga

By CuppaManga,
Posted on: 2010-04-15 09:57 in Mac Users

 

Posted

Issue 17 Open Beta has begun! If you have any questions about Ultra Mode on the Mac, please post them here and I'll do my best to answer them.

To start though:

- Yes, the Mac client supports ALL Ultra Mode features, and for a bonus, it now supports FSAA.

- Since the new Ultra features are rather power-hungry, experiment with them a bit and find a good balance between appearance and performance. For instance, the Medium setting on Shadow Maps is almost as good as High, the Reflection Effects don't really vary much from Low to Ultra, Water Effects probably looks better on High unless you have World Detail set above 100%, and FSAA doesn't seem to make much difference on small screens.

- Water reflections of characters being upside down, Vertical Sync not working, reversed-RGB cursors, certain zones being laggy are all known issues.

- Combining Ambient Occlusion with either FSAA or Shadow Map causes a severe performance drop.

- There is also currently an issue being worked on where the Mac client may start up with corrupted graphics or a black screen.

If you're currently using the Mac client, please visit the Training Room and try out the Ultra settings if you can. If there are any major problems that haven't been noticed, now's the time to find them.

EDIT: Added update - the "black screen" when using Cmd-Tab or Cmd-Return on the ATI-based iMacs seems to have been fixed on the Training Room. Feel free to test that more if you can.

Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination

 

Posted

i've found that running shadow maps on medium, reflections on medium and water on ultra, with FSAA off and AO on performance yields about 20 FPS which isn't bad for me. anything higher than this drops me to 10 which is too low for me.

also this is only in paragon, in the RI, the same settings gets me about 14 FPS so im still working on finding something that gives a better fps without sacrificing too much pretty.

Positron's i13 letter: We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP'ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we're putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn't working out, we'll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

 

Posted

PC_Guy

What are your Mac specs and what resolution do you run at?

I'm curious what resolution different people use. I have the 17 inch MacBook Pro and I prefer the wide screen resolutions but when I turn all the way up it slows things down as well.

 

Posted

The current graphics make my iMac bleed and beg for mercy, so Ultra Mode is something I'll get to experience maybe in the next 4 or 5 years when I upgrade to a new computer. If CoH is still around then. But I am enjoying the screenshots I've seen other people post. And I'm looking forward to a host of new high-res CoH videos. =)

"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.

 

Posted

Here's what I use for Ultra settings:

FSAA: Off (until 2x becomes less processor intensive)

Shadows: Shadow Map - High

Environmental Reflections: Low (there isn't a spectacular difference between Low and Ultra)

Water Effects: High (my World Detail is 100% - this setting is an ideal match)

Ambient Occlusion: Off (don't like the "dirty walls" effect it gives)

Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination

 

Posted

For those whose ATI cards necessitate Water Effects turned off, does Ultra Mode fix that issue?

"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.

 

Posted

Yes.

@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hirsh View Post
PC_Guy

What are your Mac specs and what resolution do you run at?

I'm curious what resolution different people use. I have the 17 inch MacBook Pro and I prefer the wide screen resolutions but when I turn all the way up it slows things down as well.
1344 x 840

running on a 15 inch macbook pro

2.66 dual core

4 gb ram

320 hard drive

the Nvidia 9600gt is all that can do UM, the 9400 isn't worth trying, and the 9600 runs meh.

Positron's i13 letter: We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP'ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we're putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn't working out, we'll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

 

Posted

Coolness. Thanks for the answer Mac. I know a few people who will enjoy that!

"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.

 

Posted

It also fixes the cursor jump bug while at the enhancements screen, which I am really looking forward to.

@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."