*DAMN R6 Forum

Well, as many of you may have seen, evill was hosting the first RvS game on GR today. I was wondering if any of you have it yet, and what're your reviews?

great game i love it, but its no better or worse than halo. A weee bit better than AA!

Does anyone know if RvS supports the use of in-game Armpatches like RS did?

Sure does, Nomad. I'll write a short review of it as soon as I get back from dinner.

Nice!! ok thanks Typhy, but is it the same as RS, using the RSB converter, or is it different?

I still can't believe there is an HBS in RvS,  >:(

     Armpatches in RvS are much better than in RS. RS used the custom RSB format for its armpatches, whereas RvS uses the longstanding Targa format. Specifically, 64x64 pixel, 72x72 ppi, 16.7 million color, uncompressed Targa files.

ahem, I had a host up all yesterday.  But I was also in Evill's game this morning.

fun game, runs smooth on m y g5. between 30-60 (peaks at over 100).
The game also has great netcode, when playing with 6 people the game was using 1.3K out and in (you can type stat net in your console to see those stats).

There is no dedicated servers for us however, which blows (Ubisoft's slogan should be "we care about nothing"). However i haven't done any work to see if we can just leave a computer in spectate mode and allow others to admin the server.

Acuracy isn't that bad, and there are a few new fun things, such as tear gas, and thermal vision. plus you can actually see animated heartbeats through walls in 3d with the hb sensors now, rather than blips on the map.

very fun game.

the downside is that the interface for multiplayer is slow, and hard to use, as well as hosting a game.

 I'm with Jeb on all those things. Hosting is a real pain in the ass, as is not being able to create dedicated servers.

Runs great on my machine ( 40-60 FPS in multiplayer ).

I think it's got a very bright future in this community. Aspyr did a hell of a job with the port, so it'll run on lower end machines ( 700-800Mhz iMacs, namely ).

An impressive port, and good people to play with make for a fun game.

Just beat single player for the first time on Mac. Not real impressive, but, it's a multiplayer game, so the MP is what counts.

I left the game running in while I was in spectate mode, seemed to run fine for people.  You just need to try to get into the admin and see if it lets you (you may have to use the console commands).

Yeah, this is running much better than AA does on my machines, and not much worse (while looking much better) frame rates than GhR.  I'm getting 30-50FPS on average instead of 40-60.  Also, I must say that I'd never guess my frame rates were lower, because the game is that much smoother than GhR.

What is your Mac and Specs?

I just got and installed the game, so I'll be writing a small review when I have some good experience down, I'll also be listing my specs for my computer so that people with the same or similar specs will know what to expect.

1GHZ G4, 1GB RAM, 64MB ATI 9000, Nomad.

so itll hopefully run well on a new 933mhz g4 iBook?

Anybody know if the game is optimized for Dual-Processor G5's?

it is ghost.

not really ghost,
The ut2k3 engine isn't "optimized" for two processors. You wouldn't see any differences between one or two processors, except maybe a little boost (under 1%).

     733 G4 (graphite model), 768 MB RAM, 64 MB GeForce 4 MX. After turning everything to low and doing the standard low-end .ini tweaks, I average 20-30 FPS, which is plenty smooth enough to play. However, I experience view jumping while making quick adjustments to my aim. I'm continuing the tweaks to see if I can eliminate that, since being unable to put my crosshairs on an enemy before they shoot me is definitely inhibiting my enjoyment of the game. After an evening of play, RvS looks like a worthy successor to RS, and is an infinitely better game and port than GhR. I sincerely hope that GhR rots in the same pit of filth that its developers spawned from.

wrong jeb, I'll quote i5works for you:


So ti does give a greater than 1% advantage to a dual processor computer.

I am on the 800 Mhz iMac 17" flatscreen, 768 RAM, and a Ge-Force MX 2 32 MB VRAM. I have to say, it runs damn well, I tried it all settings on low, but then i tried bumping the settings up. I did that and i still could play the game very well, although a bit buggy (can be fixed) I would rate this game a 9.2 out of 10, definitely worth the purchase.

A new level of Excellence in hiring, and continuing to employ the worst software engineers, software testers who wear helmets for their own safety, and other various idiots, and rapists.

Playing multiplayer (running a server) is more painful than miscarrying Satan's child. It includes the WORST interface i've ever seen.

Seeing as most people like to change the map every few rounds, you'd expect them to build in a easy to use system for that. At Ubisoft they are committed, and understand this, so they work hard on figuring out new, abstract ways so this isn't clear at all and/or doesn't work.

Now say you want to change your gun in between matches, it should be easy as hell, but not when the options screen pulls an astounding 7fps when you move the cursor around (on a G5!).

The engineers at ubisoft also made the decision that all people run their monitors at 800x600, so they still design their menus and interface accordingly. So if you want to change a gun with your resolution at a unheard of, NOT INDUSTRY STANDARD resolution of 1024x768, you can enjoy trying to navigate through a hard to see menu, that only lists a few items at a time because the size is limited. Also the painful screen resizing pisses me off and shifts all the windows on my screen to the middle of my two monitors (more of a mac port problem).

Now, if the gun store is closed, you might be lucky enough to be alive for our next stage in horrid design and quality. So you figure out how to put another map on the list of active maps, and hit ok in the server setup window. You think you've done it when you see a notice telling you that the admin has made a change and the server will restart. In your mind you think, "yes, i've outsmarted ubisoft's crack team of pedophile software engineers." The screen darkens, people rejoin the game, you see the team select menu pop up. But ALAS, the engineers at ubi where smart enough to known you could have figured out how to change a map, and therefore prevent this from happening, by not changing the map. The same with map rotation, after a round ends on my server, nothing happens and the clients crash out.

Now, if you aren't currently sitting inside a running car in a closed garage, you may be thinking, "wouldn't it be cool if i could run a dedicated server." So you go online and find instructions from UBI on setting it up for linux. OH THEY GOT YOU AGAIN! They announced they would put out the files needed to launch a linux dedicated server via command line, put the instructions online, but never released any file for it.

At this point in my rant i'd like to plead that Microsoft buys ubisoft. Because Microsoft has such a higher level of quality in their products. Despite the fact that Microsoft sucks for quality, ubi products could be infinitely better.

</rant>

Myst, i agree with what you pasted there, your just reading it wrong. The ut2k3 engine will use the other cpu for processing sound (since the os creates the processes its not a problem to have them run on a different cpu). Its not that large of a processor hit to be running sound on the same cpu unless its on high. The main load from the UT2k3 engine isn't multithreaded & split between two processors like your thinking of, hence the reason i said its not optimized for two processors.

closest to what I have, just 100 mhz faster, and 128 mb more ram. (Although Loth is 33 mhz faster, he has a 64 mb card, so that changes everything)

Crypt, what kind of framerates were you getting (#?)

Also, good to hear all of the positive reviews other than hosting issues.

ok.... in maps like peaks (outdoor snowy map) i get great framerates of anywhere from 15 -30 or 40, on indoor maps with a lot of sound like island resort (GAAAAAYYYY opera music) i get like 10-35 or so. More soon...... I'll also post which exact settings i have.

I like the Opera music, it gives it that mafia feel.

the opera music is "Ave Maria" you noobs =)

i think some good opera music would fit better for the mafia feeling, such as some Andrea Bocceli now we're talkin'  8)

Well maybe if these fuc*in people would get this game in the stores, then people like me could actually play the damn game. How hard is it to get the game to stores before xmas? My wife ordered it for me from amazon, and these tards give me a estimated ship date of Jan 6th. Now I know it's only 2 weeks away but shit, Im gonna need to start making up ground on all you peeps already playin. Even both apple retailers I know of in my state have no idea when it will be on their shelves, or when it's even coming.

*Rants some more to self*

kilz

Order it from www.gamestop.com I ordered it from there Sunday and it's coming today before 3 P.M.

Does anyone know if it runs on my G4 550mhz dual with Radeon 64 or 128?

coz AA runs like shit on it....

Possibly, Absalon, If you have a good vid card, lots of RAM, it might, because the game is a great port. (much better than AA's port)

This game is very very sexy, well worth the cash.  Us RS3 Xbox players have a head start on most people though thanks to the fact that we know most of the maps.

Anyone else have a problem at the beginning of a round where your teammates freeze in place and are not moving and then 10 seconds later you are either dead or warped to a new location?

Another problem I've noticed is that sometimes when you switch from the primary weapon to a secondary weapon, it can get stuck, and you can't switch weapons at all. Anyone else have this?

     Viper, I've had that happen once, and Spets, it hasn't happened to me, but I've heard many reports of it. They seem to be just straight bugs, so hopefully they'll be fixed soonish.

Viper, had that happen just once.  It was on Rebel's server earlier, and I was laggy (but with a decent ping) all 10 games I stayed for.

Actually, the maps are quite different, so far the only maps that i see the exact same as the xbox version are Warehouse and CSL (Which many people already know).

Also the shooting in the game is much different, you could have dead on accuracy on the run on the xbox version, unlike the mac version.

Yeah! I can load up the intro movies to RvS, but after that when I go to menu all the graphics are all blocky =-(.  Oh well, that goes to show RvS can't run on an iMac DV 400mhz G3 w/ 8mb video card.  The intro movies looked nice though =-).

You should get playing some more of the maps.  Most of them are the same but with some differences.

Well, maps that i can think of that are different......

Garage......when compared to the xbox version, there are some similar rooms, and a few doors taken out and added here and there.
Import/Export.....I see nothing similar b/w the two.
Carnival/parade/w/e it's called.......new xbox map, mostly different on mac.

Maps that are almost if not exactly the same......

CSL........Pretty true to it's origins.
Warehouse.
Presidio.
Peaks......hell, it's all snow anyway, not much different.

And there are several maps for Co-Op on xbox that are now availble for Mac in team games.

These are only a handful of maps that I can think of off the top of my head.

k, couple issues here...first off, how can I make a armpatch? Or what do i use to convert it to a .tga file?

Secondly, I am running a 1.25Ghz, 512 Ram, ATI 9000, settings on medium..and I get a lot of things turning red. i.e: doors, stairs, barrels, railings, etc...almost anything will turn red then change back to normal. Any ideas why?

And..I want this fp view of my gun to go away, I uncheck the box in the HUD options, but it still remains? wtf...

"K][LZ[]"

it?s explained good here: http://www.agr-s.com/html_reports/fieldreport0125.htm


this depends on the server if "force first person weapon" is turned on.

z][t-Civic

IF i ran my 667 powerbook g4 with 512mb who knows what video card at lowest settings in rvs , think it will be good enough?

Don't know if it's my card (9600) or my G5 that's causing it, but there are some really weird graphics problems including bad lighting errors, and even more anoying texture problems. I hope there's a patch soon. But besides the graphics problems good game.

very interesting game. things that i can think of, just in general. first of all, it seems a lot more relalistic. i like the flashbangs, and the ability to carry more than four things. the leaning is a lot more relalistic, and i like how you loose all hearing when dead, which makes sense
seems laggy when played online, but i think that also may be me playing it without a mouse extension. really, whoever decided to put the usb plugs on the left is a dipshit. i need to buy a usb extension cord now. meh, we will see

     Armpatch Creation 101: The format of armpatches is Targa. Raven Shield expects them to be 64x64 pixels in size, 72x72 dpi in resolution, and millions of colors. Download GraphicConverter from VersionTracker.com. Create your armpatch using GC or PS or whatever your graphics tool of choice is. If you're creating it with an app other than GraphicConverter, save it in TIFF or another lossless format. Open it in GC, resize it (if necessary) to 64x64 pixels in size and 72x72 dpi in resolution. Then save it as an uncompressed Targa (.tga) file, making sure that the "Save without a resource fork" option is checked (I actually don't know whether that's required, but it seems safer and it works fine). Bam, armpatch.

Anyone run RvS on a machine with these specs, or similar?

Dual 800 G4, 1.25 gigs o RAM, GeForce 4, 80 gig, Apple 17" ... not much else to tell. This is a pre-silver G4.

I can run GhR well.

I am hesitant to grab RvS since I've only heard extreme opinions - eitehr wonderful or crap. Most of the reviews hinge on the performance of the game, so I want to see if anyone else has a similar setup and has played RvS.

thoughts?

While my machine isn't similar to that, I know that Bucc has a Dual 867 G4, 1.5GB RAM, 32MB NVIDIA, and he's getting great framerates.

Mmk, I'd like to run Raven Shield in 16-bit color since my CPU is quite slow, but for some reason there doesn't seem to be an option for it...?!  That's strange.  Must I alter some .ini file to run in 16-bit color mode?  Or am I missing something obvious, here?

Thanks in advance  :)

I got RvS yesterday and played it for several hours.  I am sad to say I was not impressed.  Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but I think I like AA better.....seems more realistic to me.

By the way, I was playing it on a Power Mac G5, 1.8GHz Single Processor, 2.5GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Video Card with 64MB DDR RAM.

ghost, we all know that you have a g5, and that you could run just about anything.
i've sort of given up on rvs. its kind of sad what a new comp will do to you. rvs is too laggy for me to play(on average like 15-20 fps, and at worst like 4-5 fps) and ghr is not my thing, and i cant play rs. so all thats left is HALO. which really is pretty sweet, and runs better than rvs

Hahahaha, you guys are nuts..RvS is sweeter than a southern virgin. Maybe it's cuz you don't give it a chance and get pwned that it sucks ;D

is it a prequisite to AK membership that everything you say has to involve talking shit?

     Spike, saying that Halo runs better than RvS is setting off all kinds of BS alarms in my head. Did you try fiddling with RvS's settings, or did you just run everything at high, or what?

Yes.

Kilzo, wether you like RvS or not is a matter of opinion. What do you like? I enjoy RvS, it's not a great game, but it can be a lot of fun if people don't camp. If I got shitty framerates, I'd probably hate it. It depends on what you like. Counter Strike is the most played game in the world. That shows that even shitty games can be popular.

Loth, I don't think that Halo running better than RvS is far-fetched at all. If I run RvS at all low settings, and Halo at all low settings, Halo gets better framerates; RvS just does better on higher settings compared to Halo. ( I dunno, rereading that, it makes very little sense, but I'm tired so I'll leave it ).

Well, both of the games are completely dumbed down. Also, I'm usually playing RvS online, opposed to more single player action with HALO, and I'm sure that makes a difference. I dunno, maybe its that I just like HALO better, more interesting story line, you get to ride in cool tanks and fly. Also, RvS is so dark. RS was always light, I guess it's just a subconcious thing.