Sensory Overload!

I just managed to waste a whole day reading up on Spore. Man it looks cool. I found myself designing creatures already, heh. One thing that bothers me though is how much computer power is it going to take? I'm currently running on so-so specs, P4 2.4Ghz, nvida GF4 Mx440, and by the looks of the sreen shots, I think that I'll be one of the people who spend ten minutes wating for the game to create the anamations for the creatures.

Well I'm off to go watch the GDC movie again.

[Mr.Heat]

I found myself designing creatures already

That reminds me before the sims 2 hit the shelves.


Your Specs seems ok, i guess it'd be better if you buy a better Video Card..


Heat

[Nightshade]

I use a 9600XT, its cheap and still pretty good.

Wright was running it on a laptop at the GDC and it was running under silky smooth framerates. The only time there was any slowdown was when he used the volcano beam on a nearby moon. It wasn't the particles (The "Genesis Device" didn't cause slowdown, and it had waay more particles), I think it was the dynamic altering of the terrain. I think the required hardware specs should be pretty mild.

[Kazatan]

The laptop wasnt running the game afaik, it was remotely connected to a decent computer.

from what ive gathered from around the place specs are likely to include the need for pixel shaders

so the minimum gfx card will be geforce 4 Ti. it wouldnt run on a gf4 mx.
if they decide to go with the latest pixel shaders then it wont run on less than a geforce 5 series card.

unfortunately i dont know which ati cards are the equivelents, cos i dont really look into ati much.

id imagine from past experience that min specs will be something like 2ghz p4 or amd equivalent, geforce 4 ti or higher, 256mb ram

[strillor]

are you saying that a laptop may not be able to run the game? :( :confused: :indifferent:

[Azkar]

are you saying that a laptop may not be able to run the game? :( :confused: :indifferent:

Generally speaking, laptops aren't usually the best machines for gaming at the best of times ..

[Kazatan]

are you saying that a laptop may not be able to run the game? :( :confused: :indifferent:

im sure there will be some laptops that can run the game, but as the person above just said, they're not normally the best for running them.

[K.Kraden]

well, the game is almost completely procedural, which should make the requirements for memory extremely low. Also, is it just me, or does it look like that game isn't running on polygons? Look at the buildings, the creatures, etc. They all look like they're built out of curves to me.

[strillor]

are you saying that a laptop may not be able to run the game? :( :confused: :indifferent:

im sure there will be some laptops that can run the game, but as the person above just said, they're not normally the best for running them.

so do you think a fairly new and "big" model could handle it, without making the game jumping and stuff??? :grumpy:

[Kazatan]

so do you think a fairly new and "big" model could handle it, without making the game jumping and stuff??? :grumpy:


if it runs Sims 2, and they don't introduce the latest pixel shaders, then id say it would run on anything that sims 2 runs on.

If they do decide to introduce pixel shaders... then id doubt it unless it was built with gaming very much in mind. if it has a mobile geforce 5 series or better, or a mobile ati 98xx series or better then you'd be alright.

But then although i know stuff about technology and these cards, i dont know much about the technology in spore. so im only guessing, dont take my word for gospel!!

[Azkar]

Spore's still over a year away, so it's reasonable to assume it's going to be using the newest available technology. It's requirements are probably going to be higher than the requirements for Sims 2. The procedural way everything is generated is likely going to make it a little more processor heavy. It's hard to say, though. We'll know more as the release date approaches.

[Kazatan]

Spore's still over a year away, so it's reasonable to assume it's going to be using the newest available technology. It's requirements are probably going to be higher than the requirements for Sims 2. The procedural way everything is generated is likely going to make it a little more processor heavy. It's hard to say, though. We'll know more as the release date approaches.


but will wright said the creatures compress to 1kb, and take up 5mb of ram.

5mb isnt a lot so there cant be all that much info there, the procedural part of the code i expect to be very well condensed and optimised. He's not going to cut down his audience by only allowing the newest technology of the time to run his game.

id stick a 2ghz p4 or amd equiv badge on it as minimum specs, thats still high for minimum system requirements, and processors arent getting any faster any more. There are just getting more of them in each computer!!

[OverlordBill]

Processors are getting tiny bits faster. But you're right. Moore's law is slowing down. We'll all just have to wait ten years for quantum computing to get cheap, and then we'll see a new boom. Of course who knows what the average user will need to do with terrabytes of memory and the processing speeds of a number of today's supercomputers combined, but that's neither here nor there.

[strillor]

I've never been good to that technology thing :indifferent: but I guess there'll be that "spec test for spore" like they did for sims2 :bouncy: then I'll survive!