OS X play and threadedness - If I'm gonna have two processors ...

[ElRay]

{Sorry PeeCee folks, maybe you can help with the second question.}

I'm looking at buying a new (to me) Mac and before I get too far into it, how does M2 play under OS X vs. OS 9? The middle era MDD G4's and all the G5's won't boot into OS 9.

Second, is M2 multi-threaded? I'm kind of on the edge of seeing an advantage using a slower MHz, but dual processor, machine and Myth being able to run on both processors would be appealing. I know that games based on the last two Carmak engines (Doom and games that license it's 3D engine), and (IIRC) the last Unreal engine are also multi-threaded.

Ray

[CIK]

Myth isn't really written to be multithreaded, but under OS X the input loop does run in a 2nd thread. Myth does work better under OS X, esp since all development work for the last year has been done under OS X.

Though in the end other then seeing a higher FPS # a higher end machine won't really do much for you. In my opinion the OpenGL renderer looks better then the RAVE(OS 9 hardware renderer), it looks very close if not better then the Voodoo renderer.

BTW: if your into FPS #s you will like what 1.5.1 will do for you on high end hardware.

[haravikk]

Myth 2 runs great on old g3 machines, on a dual processor g4 it should run without lagging at all (except if you play a game with a poor host).

Dual processor macs are great for image processing if you're into that, and people who I know who have them say they are much more competitive than single processor machines which may feel sluggish quite a bit quicker.

[ElRay]

BTW: if your into FPS #s you will like what 1.5.1 will do for you on high end hardware.

And High-End hardware is defined as? Any DP machine? Any machine with a semi-recent video card that likely has more processing power than an entire desktop from the days when Myth started shipping? Anything with a 64-bit CPU?

Ray

[ElRay]

OH, on a related note, does running Myth in a window help, or hurt? I've seen games go both ways.

Ray

[CIK]

MacOS wise Myth2 always runs in a window(ever since 1.0). They actually display 2 windows(the back one being the size of the screen and all black). In window mode we don't display the back window and also don't hide the menubar & dock. So outside the fact you may have other graphic updates taking place behind Myth performace should be the same. Though most people probably run window mode at a lower rez which would boast FPS greatly.

[Archer]

You were able to see this in earlier versions of 1.5 if you hit command-tilde while you were in the game. You'd get a black screen and if you didn't figure it out somehow your only recourse would be quitting.

~J