anybody else beta testing blue mars

I recently went through this exercise for a friend of my kid. I was able to spec desktops that are perfectly capable of running SL with decent performance from mainstream big-name computer companies for around $400. I could easily strip off 50-100 by building myself. And no netbook junk: AMD Athlon dual-core, recent nVidia separate GPU, Crucial RAM, Hitachi hard drives, ...

We're in a recession. Expecting someone to spend a grand to play Second Life is unreasonable. Hell, for $800 you can get a Mac: . Or even get the entry level Mac Mini BTO with 2GB RAM for $650 if you don't mind making do with a 120GB hard drive, and for SL that would be perfectly adequate.

What I spent on Newegg:

* 4/23/2009
* $353.52

o 1 x OCZ Gift - Mousepad - Retail
o 1 x GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
o 1 x AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail
o 2 x OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2F10664GK - Retail

Already had new hard drives, power supply, etc.

The previous month or so I had upgraded to the Nvidia GTX 275, so toss in another $240.

I might swap out the RAM later as my motherboard supports up to 16 GB. Maybe add a Terrabyte hard drive or two (I can support up to 6 hard drives), maybe go with another GTX 275 in SLI or just go with 1 GTX 295. So many options!!!!

I run Cryengine stuff JUST FINE!!!

There we have it, no one has to go broke to play SL or BM. Thanks for the input.

at least that...

Well, SL anyway. You haven't established that you can play BM on a Mac-mini-class computer.

Without building one yourself though it is difficult to find one that cheap that will run SL well at all.

Even a 2 yr old machine that was not cheap by any means, regularly stalled. A laptop I got that more than met the specs and the salesman assured me would run SL just fine, would not even launch it.

That's for "average computer buyer" though, not "computer savvy home builder/genius"

Just to get a definitive answer:

There will be no non-human avatars in Blue Mars?

One cannot make a child avatar in Blue Mars?

What did you find out when you looked it up?

When I looked what up?

It won't run on a Mac Mini unless you spend another hundred bucks for Vista.

Based on the developer's comments quoted in another thread, it needs an Nvidia 9800GT or ATI HD4830 class video card to run well. They were a little vague saying something like a "hundred dollar" or better video card would be good.

Pretty good reason for not saying something like a "$100 video card or better". You can find a $100 9800 GT card for a $100 or less.........but you also can find a 9800 GT card for more than a $100.

Besides, there has been no official minimum system requirements stated as of yet. So, I'm not sure where you got that fact. I'm betting someone with a "lower" spec'd card can and has successfully run BM.

One way to test a system is by downloading a game demo based on the cryengine, such as Far Cry. For those of you who are not part of the beta testing, playing a demo will give an idea of what BM cities can look like. Not everyone likes that graphics rendering style, but it is pretty cool.

Without going through the whole thread post by post I'm thinking post #191 dated 4/23/09 is what you were referring me to

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This question was answered by Avatar Reality recently:

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3. What will be the hardware requirements for Blue Mars?

JS: We recently put together a US$400 home PC the other day, and Blue Mars ran fine on it. I would say that the most important requirement is that the PC should have a dedicated graphics card, as opposed to an integrated graphics chip. Most cards on the market today over 100$ are fine. Blue Mars will run on Vista or XP, and will use DirectX. Of course, the better the graphics card and the more memory you have, the better the experience will be. There are no plans right now to launch either a Mac or Linux version.

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Most cards over $100 dollar is not saying that a $100 dollar is required. All I take from that is a card that is at least mid range would be fine. There are lots of card in that range. I also take, by implimentation, that the higher the range the better experience. What I cannot find (again I did not scour the whole thread) is any statement mentioning an nVidia 9800 GT or ATI HD4830 video card or better to run BM. You said that.........and I'm wondering where you got that fact.

No, that is not what I said.

I said "to run well" which is more or less what they said ("Most cards on the market today over 100$ are fine". That suggests that lesser cards would not be "fine".

I listed model names of graphics adapters gamers would buy at the quoted price point.

Okay.

"Based on the developer's comments quoted in another thread, it needs an Nvidia 9800GT or ATI HD4830 class video card to run well."

But the above statement says that an nVidia 9800GT or ATI HD4830 are two cards quoted by a developer in BM. But, it's your statement of a requirement.........not BM's. More than a little decieving.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Did you leave the second sentence I wrote out on purpose?

"They were a little vague saying something like a "hundred dollar" or better video card would be good."

There is nothing deceptive in what I wrote.

How many avatars can be in a city before it needs to be sharded?

No definitive answers, I guess.

Yes I did leave the second sentence out on purpose. I was questioning the 9800GT and HD 4830 part of your statement. Not the $100 card part where you thought that was a little vague......which it was, since with shopping around one can find a quite high end card for that amount of money.......and pay much more for a lessor card.

Your statement was deceptive........the type of statements that lead to completely incorrect information. What you said is that base on a developers comments a computer needs an nVidia 9800GT or ATI HD4830 card to run BM well........that is telling me and everyone who reads your statement that the developer told you that information. The developer did not tell you that at all. But, you said he did in that statement (verbatum above). It doesn't matter what you meant to say or attempted to say........you said what you said. And it was deceptive and incorrect.

However you did clear it up. But don't tell me you did not say that. I questioned it and got my answer.

Yes Dakota, there WILL be non-human avatars in Blue Mars. I am creating some myself for my City.

The use of non-human avatars, and avatars that are not of the standard size do come with a standard disclaimer though, that many animations are created for the standard size, and the same with clothing, but I guess for the niche markets there will be creators who will make ranges for different sizes, and different shapes.

Rock

Incidently, the Blue Mars open beta launches today, Sep 2, 12pm HST (midnight, 2/3 Sep, CET).

Several new features to be tested, including avatar names, friends list, camera functions, chat history (and it looks like bubble chat can be switched off), and it appears another city has been added.

All the original beta testers can invite 3 friends to join Blue Mars with immediate access. All the others who preregistered will be processed in date order.

Now, who has been nice to me lately?

Rock

Will they work in anyone else's City? Will non-human avatars created for anyone else's City work in yours?

Can someone pass me an invite? [email]Omwill422@gmail.com[/email]

Wanna test your system to see if it'd run Crysis?

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/crysis/download_6181835.html


Crysis System Requirements:

http://www.crysisdemo.com/crysis-system-requirements.htm


There. That should give you an idea if you can handle the Cryengine.