SL for Intel Mac's

I'm also on the 2GHz MacBook Pro. I've had both an iBook and a PowerBook... and this is by far the fastest, but I think you'll be fine with anything except the Mini.

The alpha seems to run extremely well on my 2GB MacBook Pro (the high end 2.0 model.)

I am running in a maximized window and it seems to run nearly as fast in a quiet area as my PowerMac G5 dual 2.3 with a Radeon 9800 pro card and 3.5GB of RAM. Not quite as fast, but close, which is quite an achievement.

I haven't tested it in a busy area yet, but I am seeing similar speeds at my in game home as I did with the dual G5.

It is a HUGE improvement over Rosetta.

I noticed:

1) It eats battery life up like there's no tomorrow. Expect no more than an hour of gameplay out of your battery on your MacBook (ok, through WiFi).

2) It uses only one CPU still

3) Can't turn on rippled water or vertex avitar programs

4) Can't "control click" on a Macbook... you need a two button mouse to play.

No other wierdness noticed so far... for an Alpha it is in very good shape! Thanks Linden!

Great Job, Lindens! This it totally fantastic. I have a 20" iMac Intel with 2 Gigs of RAM and te 256 MB VRAM. I can run it maximized to fill the whole screen in a window and it is just an unbelievable experience. I'll make a note of any bugs I see.

Thank you again. Great job!

- TvDz

thats true, but you dont need a mouse button.. Seems some lindens are stuck in the past, along with other game makers, where right lcicking was done with Command + Click... its really stupid as they should just make it the normal ctrl+click...

if you Command+click it will do a right click in game though...

Ditto with a 2.0 Ghz MacBook Pro.

I agree that requiring Command-click to do a right click is an error. It must be Control-Click. I suppose they could leave Command-Click as an alternate, but Control-click must be added.

Things are working very nicely on my Intel iMac and MacBook Pro..

Thanks for the tip!
=)

I wonder if the alpha will continue to work or be updated for 1.9? It is working very very well for me now using the current grid... I'd almost say it is releasable.

The Alpha won't work in its present form for 1.9, but we are hoping to be able to release a 1.9 Alpha *soon*. You might have to muddle through with the Rosetta PPC version, though, so just be prepared!

BTW, we have only received one bug report on the Universal Binary! Either it's that good or ya'll aren't reporting bugs . If you do report a bug please tell us which computer you are on (Intel Mac or PPC Mac) and provide a detailed repro (thats "the steps to reproduce the bug" in bughunter-ese). Thanks!

I've been using the Universal client on my iMac and honestly I haven't seen any bugs.

My similar experience. Except for the lack of some rendering features on my MacBook Pro (like rippled water), I have had no issues. That's even with some heavy use.

Upgrad your 512MB - that's too little!

Thanks for the warning, but that is gonna be a real bummer Brent. Performance using Rosetta was pretty horrible before the Alpha. I hate the thought of returning there after enjoying the universal binary for a week. This will be a major "downgrade" for Mac Intel users.

I'm using it on my Intel iMac and 2.0GHz MacBook Pro and haven't seen any bugs. Sorry! I was hoping for rippled water though..

the only bug ive encountered is the known one about the arrows hiding behind things trying to move objects.. and its majorly annoying...

guess if i cant use the current universal with the 1.9 update, i guess i just cant do anything at all til its out, or if i get Windows back onto one of my desktops... i guess ill just not do anything until its out.. kinda dissapointing

That was with the PPC version of SL, the new Universal Binary runs ~25 FPS and I did now upgrade to another 512MB for a total of 1GB.

*going though withdrawl*

Won't play SL w/o te Universal Binary, no UB ..... going though withdrawl....... must SL... must SL .... mu...sss...tt

its bloody typical! I just get my Shiny new iMac Intel duo, and before I get a chance te try the new UB, its upgraded. >

To any linden's listening "When can we expect to see the 1.9 version?"

We are still working on it! The data here:

/276/cc/93327/1.html

is still current. I will update y'all by the end of Friday, March 17th if not sooner.

Well take your time and make sure its right.. I'll suffer along using this stupid Windows machine...

Wow that was quick! Will try later tonight. Thanks Linden.

Congratulations, Linden Lab!

I think that finally I'll be thinking seriously of buying one of the new Intel Mac minis (which is sadly the only thing my budget allows me to buy). Every day I dread now that my old PowerBook G4 dies on me, and the guarantee has expired a few months ago (you cannot buy those lovely 'guarantee extensions' outside the US).

With so dramatic improvements reported here (40+ fps on the laptop version?! Wow...) I guess that even the lowly Mac mini will be able to squeeze a few fps using the UB... has anyone tried that out with SL yet?

just be careful with the mini... it has an extremely low end video processor. Depending how old your powerbook is, it may even have a better one than the new mac mini. I'm sure it can run SL, but it wont be super

Thanks for the tip, Missy. I found this interesting article comparing performance, and if it's true, you're right — the Intel GMA950 graphics card seems to be extremely low-end for these days.

Hmm. So I won't be a Mac mini owner soon

yep, id save up for a iMac, or wait to see if they put a decent gaphics chip in the iBook replacements