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Game requirements?
I been playing this game for just over a year now. I seen a lot of other high rated MMO games and most of them have way higher requirements compared to POTCO especially in the disk space requirements. I'm no computer genius but but if this was increased it would make sense that they could add more new stuff to POTCO without removing anything else and the game itself could have better graphics. Correct me if i'm wrong and please share your opinion.
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WARNING: Long post...read it if you're into technical stuff as well as had just perked a pot of coffee and are ready to read a novel...:laughks2:
I voted yes because I believe it's time they updated the Panda 3D engine...Disney's VR Studio developed the open source engine back in 2002...the engine was first used for Toontown Online...and then they used it for POTCO, keeping in line with the easy requirements, family atmosphere MMORPG...the requirements for this game are: CPU: 800Mhz RAM: 512Mb (recommended 1gig) 700Mb Disk Space Graphics: 32Mb (recommended 64Mb) Direct X9 or better Now, tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure most people by now have at least a dual-core cpu, be it AMD or Intel...even if someone had a single core I'm sure it's at least a 1.5Ghz or better...and with the way prices have dropped on systems you can buy in a store, many have a quad-core system... The RAM looks as if it was DDR...we're up to DDR3...at minimum most systems run 2gigs of RAM, those into gaming running at least 4gigs RAM thanks to Vista...I myself run 8gigs DDR3 1600Mhz on a Win 7 Ult 64bit OS... Disk Space...you can buy a 1Tb drive for $80-$100 nowadays... As for graphics, the last time I ran a 32Mb card was my ATI Rage Fury...there are graphics cards with 512Mb or even 1gig DDR3 or DDR5 memory that you can buy for under a $100...and those desktop systems I talked about, most come with 1Gb intergrated graphics, but many also have stand alone cards... Now to look at the other side of the coin in terms of MMORPG's...let's look at one of the most popular...World of Warcraft (WoW)...their min requirements are... Windows® System XP/XP64/Vista/Vista64/7** OS (with the latest Service Packs or updates): - Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ - 1 GB or more of RAM - NVIDIA® GeForce® FX or ATI Radeon™ 9500 video card or better - 25.0 GB available HD space Their recommended specs are... Windows® System Vista64/Windows 7 OS: - Dual-core processor, such as the Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 - 2 GB RAM - 256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600 or ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 or better First let's look at their recommended specs...while great in the day they've been surpassed already...as I said before, most parts for a PC are better and faster while still very cheap...heck when I added another 4gigs of DDR3 to make my system 8gigs, that 4gigs only cost me $50... But what's even more important to look at is their Minimum requirements...they're a bit more modern, if you could call it that by today standards...but they're still at pretty much the low end of the desktop spectrum...while POTCO is almost a decade behind the times... What Disney should really do is take a hint from Valve, the developers of the infamous Half-Life series, as well as Portal, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, etc...what Valve did when they made the original Half-Life was to make a game that could be played on ANY system...be it low end, mid-range, or high end...obviously you got to see more details and bells & whistles if you had a high end machine, yet it still played equally well on a low end system... Now here's the kicker...especially for those that played the original HL...the requirements back then were this: Minimum Pentium 133 MHz 24 MB RAM Windows 95/98/NT4 SVGA video card Windows-compatible sound card 2x CD-ROM drive 400 MB hard-disk space. Recommended Pentium 166 MHz 32 MB RAM OpenGL- or DirectX-compatible 3D accelerator. It still had better graphics then POTCO...now if you jump to Half-Life 2... Official Half-Life 2 Box minimum specs: Processor: 1.2 GHz Processor OS: Windows, 2000/XP/Me/98 Graphic card: DirectX 7 level graphics card Hard Drive: 4.5 GB Memory: 256 MB RAM Other: Internet Connection, DVD-ROM Drive BUT...because Valve uses a "SCALING SYSTEM", this is as low as you could go: 700mhz Processor 128 mb of RAM 64 mb Video Card See what I'm talking about now? These are both Game of the Year award winners with over 80 or more awards each...now look at how low their specs were, yet notice the total difference in graphics...even with other MMO's like say Guild Wars: Minimum system specification Windows Vista/XP/2000/ME/98 Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz or equivalent 512 MB RAM DVD-ROM drive1 3 GB available HDD space ATI Radeon 8500 or NVIDIA GeForce 3 series video card with 64 MB of VRAM 16-bit sound card Recommended: Windows Vista/XP/2000 Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or equivalent 1 GB RAM DVD-ROM drive1 4 GB available HDD space ATI Radeon 9600 or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 series video card or above 16-bit sound card What does all of this tell us? It tells us that the engine used for POTCO is far outdated...I don't know of too many people these days that still run a Pentium III system other then myself (I have one as well as a Pentium 4 that I kept to play my OLD games)... I highly think it's time for them to update their open source engine...they can still have the family atmosphere which they're famous for, just with far better graphics...not saying that they need graphics like in F.E.A.R. or CoD, Crysis, Fallout, etc...but they really do need to step up into modern times... And for all of you that made it to the bottom of this post...Cheers! :beer::beer::beer: :SkullBullet1: |
Sure, why not. If you are running on Windows 98 or 2000, you honestly should just get a new computer anyway. The majority of players probably use at least XP, which is a pretty good computer from my experience. I don't think that we should be punished for a few people using computers from the stone age. If they just up it a bit, then it could have better graphics (cough holes in sails cough), more crisp effects, and whatever else.
I'm all for them increasing their requirements. Just a bit. |
I say yes as well because POTCO is stying far behind from other games. Especially in the disk space requirement because if that is to be increased they could update the game more easily and get rid of bugs, etc. Also for a Massive Multilayer Online game that most pay to play, POTCO should be increased maybe by 10 % at least which isn't that high. Even if you look into statistics of other MMO games they show you that with higher requirements they get more players. Disney should update POTCO requirements as said above by just a little at least so everyone is still able to play and game looks even better and has more stuff in it to do.
Good points Above as well From Captain Wolf! |
If the requirements are increased, it would definately give the developers more freedom to add more intricate content that they would, beforehand, be afraid to implement because of issues with the weak, rather aged engines that some players still own.
If the requirements are increased, then there would be more availability for improved types of content, bug fixes, lag reduction, and improved graphics. If the engine used for POTCO is outdated, then that DEFINATELY helps explain the lag, if my amateur tech-logic is correct. If the requirements are increased, we could be looking at less lag. Also, I'm sure that Disney can in fact have improved graphics and still remain family-friendly. If the requirements are increased, we should have some very happy pirates in the Caribbean. :piratear: |
Savvy, your tech-logic on lag is right...to a degree...
As PC gamers, we actually face 2 types of lag in games...that being "game lag" or just good old "lagging" aka 'latency'... In terms of game lag, that usually occurs for one of two reasons...either the graphics are intense which means you have to scale back some of the bells & whistles...by that I mean turn off anti-alaising, anisitrophic filtering, shadows, etc...or as easy as setting graphics to med or low...or in some games they allow you to choose between appearance or performance...only really high end systems can run mostly everything on high or ultra high...heck I run a nice rig with Crossfire cards and on some games I still have to scale back... The other reason of game lag, funny as it may be...is that our current systems are 'too fast' for the older games or games using older engines...modern cpu's breakdown the data so fast that one minute you're seeing one thing then it jumps to something else making the person think they lagged whne they didn't because the data is processed so fast...at times it'll even skip things... The bigger issue we face, since the requirements to run POTCO are so low, is lagging/latency...this issue has nothing to do with the game graphics, nor it's engine just as it has nothing to do with your pc system...this is solely an internet issue...the only internal cause could be your network adapter isn't configured correctly...or if using a router that might need updating...otherwise it's a multitude of reasons for latency... Using a FPS game as an example...here's a millisecond-by-millisecond breakdown, ie Server 101, of what happens when you say pull the trigger... 1> enemy spotted...you pull the trigger 2> your pc sends a data packet to the server saying you in fact pulled the trigger 3> the game server receives and verifies your packet, registering it as a click 4> the server examines it's current knowledge on the position of all players, and compares that against your weapon being fired...the server sends this info to all players on the server, incl you 5> opponent's pc receives a signal informing them that the person standing before them has shot at them 6> a hit! player's pc render's in all the fun visuals, ie particle effects, muzzle flash, etc 7> your opponent's pc reports to the server that his/her HP is equal to or less than 0...the server sends a message to all players that the enemy's character should activate ragdoll physics...aka you got 'em! Now, as for latency... 1> your pc sends a signal to the server telling it you clicked...this signal is delayed by numerous factors such as distance, slow internet connection, a bottleneck at the local or interstate POP, etc... 2> the server looks at the currrent position of all players and your player shooting, and sends a signal containing this info to everyone on the server, incl yourself...their positions however have changed since you clicked, due to the time it took for your click signal to be received by the server... 3> Opponent's pc receives a signal telling him/her that you fired, but he/she had already moved and now knows who fired which in turn means they most likely have you now in their sights... 4> Oops!...you're gone! Latency is also why, say for example everyone grinding on a Boss enemy, we all experience that horrendous lag...you could have 10 people or more with pings of around 45ms-55ms and all is well since they're all even...but now in walks Mr. High Ping with a 130ms ping...things start to get laggy but just a little...in walks cousin Super High Ping with 200ms, neighbor LagAlot with 150ms, the sudden rush of the Latency family, all of them in the high 100's to low 200's ping...now we have a real lag party... So basically, what we really need besides better graphics is most likely updated servers that can handle the flow of data packets it receives...and yes there is the rare occasion where you might have a player that is experiencing both types of lag which makes it even harder on the player...regardless the issue is most times easily delt with by making sure you update your drivers on everything, incl the router if using one...if having latency issues you can even try a different DNS server to see if that helps... Or simply go to a quiter server...the more you have on a server the better chance of experiencing lag... |
Nice pointers Captain. I think our next step could be to send this as a suggestion to Disney although it's going to be a challenge to convince them but sending them this as a suggestion with some of Captain's pointers that it can improve game would be a good idea.
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Potco does not use layering. Most multi-player games of note do. You should not see every player on a server...its dumb. Especially at bosses and invasions. Btw...removing the panda from my files cut out the run time errors that had mysteriously appeared ...and decreased lag for a while...but lag is back somewhat with all the updates. Game runs fine however. I tried talking to live chat about the panda engine once...before i removed most of its stuff....lol...Java seems to be picking up the job well for me.
I don't recommend anyone do what I did...but I wish someone could explain how it produces the run time errors in the first place...was it a conflict with Java ? |
More then likely yes...probably a conflict between the two...
Here's a good link that describes what can cause run time errors as well as various types of them... http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000380.htm |
After I removed panda (cause i dont know how to use it) the game has been running smoothly no more run time errors and stuff thank god i did that.
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Now it seems its being loaded(the panda 3d platform) each time I launch game...grrrrr...and you can't seem to remove it while game is running. Trying to figure out how to block it being loaded at all, but I don't want game files/updates blocked....
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i dont really care, thought i suggest they should do a new art style... like a cartoony artsy-style that doesnt look as blocky... like, smooth the curves, create better shadows...
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if they did expand it then they would have the room for new updates but as i play LOTRO it took me 4 hours to download that game and it has alot of requirements and such and don't get me wrong its a great game but its got a little too much in it so i think a little would be ok :D
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it probably wouldn't hurt to raise them just a little bit it may not help anything or even change anything but it certainly won't hurt.
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